July 10th

Reflections from A National Church Gathering

To my dear TFMC family,

Last week, I was in Kitchener for the Mennonite Church Canada National Gathering.  Before leaving, someone asked me if I enjoyed going to such things.  The short answer is that, yes, I really do enjoy the MC Canada National Gatherings, for both personal, and professional reasons.  The long answer follows.

Personally, I enjoy it because it’s an opportunity to connect and visit with friends from across the country.  In previous years, it’s been described as one great family reunion, and in a way it is.  But for me, it’s an opportunity to connect with friends from previous pastorates, to see, hear, and celebrate the new ways that previous congregations have grown and thrived.  It also an excellent reminder that one pastor does not make or break a congregation, that we truly are there to care for the congregation for a particular season, and that the church lives, breathes, thrives, and grows, by God’s sustaining spirit.

Professionally, I enjoy the national gatherings because it’s an opportunity to learn so much about the national church.  As the national gathering travels across the country, we get to worship in ways that are familiar, and in a way showcase, the congregations that make up each region.  This year, our worship was lead by a variety of folk from our inter-cultural churches, and so we learned and worshipped in ways that reflected their congregations.

We get to listen to different schools of thought, opportunities which may not always come our way.  For example, this year, Derek Suderman, from Conrad Grebel University College, offered us some focused bible studies.  We heard speakers from our global church, Kelbessa Muleta Demena, Vice President of Meserete Kristos Church.  He shared about his unlikely call to serving God and God’s church.

And Joon Park and Carolina Gouveia Santana challenged the gathered church to think about how we’re welcoming, integrating, and becoming an intercultural church.  Asking us the question, in a church of Klassens, Friesens, Epps, Andres, Janzens and Neufelds, how will we make space for those who are not white, european, cradle born, Mennonites to belong.  

MCEC intercultural minister Fanosie Legesse, spoke passionately using the metaphor to describe the church as present and is ‘pregnant’ with the intercultural church, though later, I did ask him who our midwife would be who would help the church give birth to this new church..

Throughout the gathering we were challenged to notice, and name, the many gifts present in God’s church, and were encouraged to consider how we might develop a culture of call which identifies, names, and empowers these different gifts in God’s church.  These are only a small set of highlights from the gathering.  In three years time, we’re off to Manitoba for the next gathering.  And yes, I am looking forward to it.

Yours,

Craig Janzen Neufeld, Pastor