By Karla Hein
I’ll admit that I have blissfully floated through life catching rides on other people’s checklists.
Leaving for college? I received my family’s hand-me-down list of dorm room essentials. Unfortunately, the list didn’t suggest a packing order. My Cheerios had a floral taste suspiciously similar to the fabric softener sheets squished next to them in my suitcase. Continue reading Lists to Live By
By Layton Friesen
Something happened in Mennonite churches in the last one hundred years. As Mennonites embraced global missions, as they moved to cities and planted churches beyond traditional Mennonite communities, they began having identity issues. What is a Mennonite now? Continue reading Who Really Wants to See a Naked Anabaptist?
Faithful in Small Things: How to Serve the Needy When You’re One of Them, Kevin Wiebe (Herald Press, 2021). 224 pp. $22.09. (paperback) ISBN 9781513807744. Reviewed by Stephanie Unger, a resource pastor at Many Rooms Community Church in Winnipeg Man.
In Faithful in Small Things, author and pastor Kevin Wiebe explains that he is “writing this book to ordinary people who may not be able to afford to take trips overseas but who read the words of the Bible and feel compelled by God to do something to make this world a better place.” His goal is to add to the conversation about this important topic rather than to present a final word on the subject. I believe that Wiebe has accomplished exactly what he set out to do; I highly recommend this book to the ordinary people in our ordinary churches. Continue reading Review: Faithful in Small Things: How to Serve the Needy When You’re One of Them
By Stephanie Unger
Fifteen years after buying an 11-bedroom rooming house in Winnipeg’s beautiful but hurting Spence neighbourhood for the experiment of living out faith in community, Stephanie, her husband Travis and their kids, Shadrach and Rachel, embarked on a sabbatical. Continue reading In the Ocean of His Love
by Karla Hein
I’ve been thinking about earthworms lately.
Particularly, I’ve wondered about the shock experienced by the earthworm that was stretched end to end by the inquisitive fingers of my five-year-old in our garden a few weeks ago. Or the one that was scooped from the familiarity of the strawberry patch by a red plastic shovel and abruptly expelled from the garden. Would it ever find its way back? Or did it even care, simply grateful that the sharp beak of a hungry robin hadn’t carried it away?
By Kevin Wiebe
Often in life the things that we focus on are not the most helpful things. In the midst of conflict this happens frequently and is extremely difficult to avoid.
There are three notable things that are helpful to differentiate when we are seeking to make peace with someone. The first is the words or actions that are the source of the conflict. The second are the motives behind those words or actions, and the third is the impact of those words/actions. Continue reading How Dare You Break My Mug!
Transcript: Do Safety Measures Keep us Safe?
GT: I’m Erica Fehr; I’m EMC communications coordinator and I’m talking today with the Mount Salem leadership team. Albert Loewen is Lead Pastor, Patrick Stanat is Youth and Young Adult Pastor and Jennifer Loewen is Children’s Pastor. We’re going to be talking today about safety and a core question is on whether our culture’s increasing focus on safety has actually created greater safety, created a sense of safety, or has it actually done the opposite and created a sense of risk and danger and fear—and how does that affect church ministry? Continue reading Do Safety Measures Keep Us Safe?
by Layton Friesen
Safety has been a divisive question during this pandemic. We have also heard much about clergy sexual abuse recently—again. The grim recurrence of these headlines confirms again what the church should have known: loving and protecting the vulnerable is part of the essence of biblical faith. Is this possibly the harshest thing Jesus ever said? “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6). No one can read that without sensing that Jesus had a gut-level, mama-bear instinct to protect the vulnerable rooted in the ancient Israelite concern for the orphan, widow and alien. Continue reading Love is More than Safety
by Loreena Thiessen
Green is the colour of summer. Look around. You will see green everywhere. Look up into the trees, a canopy, or cover of leaves shades you from the hot sun. Look down at the green grass soft and cool under your feet. Look at the garden filled with growing green vegetables, and each growing flower that has lush green leaves accompanying it. Plants and flowers need green leaves in order to live.
By Gerald Reimer
Our conference is engaged in numerous Canadian church planting initiatives among recent immigrants. For many of us, we are already fourth or fifth generation immigrants, pointing back to the late 19th century when our ancestors arrived. Continue reading The Great and Creative Commission
