Growing Together
Growing Together is a newsletter supplement to The Messenger online but with a focus on what is happening in our culture and the issues that are challenging for the church.
As a small church conference, we cannot, and will not try to do what larger organizations do. What we will do, is discuss the issues that have an impact on us, with arguments and material to assist us to think through issues intelligently from several angles. As with everything we do, we are committed to the Bible as inspired by God and the truth by which we live.
Can We Trust the News?
Layton Friesen interview's John G. Stackhouse discussing how we as Christians read the news.
COVID Conflict in the Church
“We’re doing quite well” was the initial response we received most often from pastors, youth leaders and a school principal regarding conflict in their setting.
Vaccines and Christian Ethics
This pandemic never fails to give us the next dilemma. Just when we begin to sort out mask-wearing, distancing, and size-restrictions, vaccine mandates come along and give us what feels like a more profoundly dividing question.
How Should Christians Think About Old Testament Violence?
Stephanie Fast and James Driedger speak with Dr. Lissa Wray Beale about divine sanctioned violence in the Old Testament.
Why Zionism is Both Important and Contested
Dr. Layton Friesen and Dr. Don Lewis speak on the roots of Zionism and its importance in western society as well as the middle-east.
The Legacy of Supersessionism and Christian Theology Today
I am a student of historic Christian theologies of Israel and Judaism and the ways those theologies have informed and continue to inform views of the land of Israel, Jewish people, and the practices of Judaism in Christian thought.
Palestinians and Their History
Christian opinions about the Middle East tend to be polarized.
The Way We Give
It was mid-morning when I found Mamadou Traoré at his restaurant, a six-foot-square plywood kiosk painted baby blue, its shutters propped open with sticks, bar stools lined up at the window.
“YIIN–LAMPA MƆ́N KWƐŊL!” “Look - Five Lamps!”
A dozen children pressed their noses against the screen of our porch staring into the white people’s house.
Misunderstandings of Patron/Client Relationships
We had lived and worked in a particular country for several years and had learned and adjusted to much of the culture.
Working Among Ourselves
Kerry Saner-Harvey is coordinator for MCC Manitoba’s Indigenous Neighbours program and attends the Aberdeen EMC in Winnipeg, Man.
These Are Not Statistics - These Are My Friends
When the discovery of unmarked graves near the Kamloops residential school hit the news, I did not know what to feel, or think, or whether I wanted to process this at all.
When Loving Each Other is Complicated
My “group” spans the full spectrum on politics, science, social issues, COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccinations.
Do Safety Measures Keep Us Safe?
Erica Fehr, editor for Growing Together, interviews the Mount Salem leadership team regarding safety in the church.
Easter 2021: Skandalon
Layton Friesen, EMC Conference Pastor, looking behind Jesus actions to see the tactics He was using to face down the power of the devil and of death in this final stage of His walk to the cross.
My Mom is Dying
In truth, we are all on this particular journey, though it seems she is further along than my family and I anticipated. Or hoped.
Can We Be Thankful
This winter marks the two-year anniversary of Brenda’s initial bout with cancer.
We Are Right to Grieve
This weekend—this year—isn’t a time for emotional detachment. It’s been a year of death, of separation and profound misunderstandings. And now it’s the Easter weekend—a time of death, of separation and profound misunderstandings.