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Brief letters that include the writer’s name and address are welcome. We will not publish letters sent anonymously, though we may withhold names at our discretion. Letters may be edited for purposes of length or clarity. Send by regular mail to:
Letters, MB Herald
3-169 Riverton Ave.
Winnipeg, Man. R2L 2E5 |
or by e-mail to mbherald@mbconf.ca.
Please ensure that your mailing address is included in your e-mail correspondence. |
Love MBH
I absolutely love the MB Herald. In my 16 years associated with the MB church, I have looked forward to my copy and read each issue through and through. I was away from the MB church for a while, attending Baptist and Lutheran churches, so let my subscription lapse. Now I’m back and getting the Herald is quite a thrill.
Katherine Morgan,
Winnipeg, Man.
Editors have influence
We always look forward to getting the Herald. The report of the North American MB convention (Aug. 6) caused me to have some concerns and mixed feelings. I wish I could have been there.
Reading the editorial, I recalled an editorial in the May 7, 1965 issue by Harold Jantz which changed the direction of my life: “Mothers Stay at Home” (probably in the 90s you couldn’t publish these sentiments). It came at a time when I wanted to go back to teaching, which I loved, even though our children were young. I prayed about the matter and stayed home. Today our children tell me that I did the right thing. So, yes, editors have power – the power to help keep the church motivated and on the right track.
Lena Friesen,
Waterloo, Ont.
Correction
Thanks for your ongoing reporting for the MB Conference.
A brief correction to a statistic about the German MB conference (“Europe Night” Aug. 6, p. 17): it should read 1397 members for the central German churches and 225 for the Bavarian churches.
Also, re “Have you tried Alpha”? (Aug. 6) I have been missing from you a more critical analysis of the program (that article is more or less an advertisement). Here is the reason we have not adopted the program, although it has been translated into German: For a course that is seeking to introduce Christianity to seekers, why would “healing” and especially “speaking in tongues” be included, as though especially the latter topic were central to a personal relationship with Christ? Has it become “politically incorrect” among evangelical Christians to critique even the most popular fads, in this case a teaching resource?
Walter Fast,
Lemgo, Germany
Why do we overeat?
I respond to David I. Bergen (Letters, Sept. 24) re the Weigh Down program. He states that there are “multiple factors in a person’s weight problem” including “metabolism.” However, no matter how slow a person’s metabolism is, if a person is overweight he/she is still eating more food than required. If your body has a slow metabolism, it burns less fuel because it needs less. (This concept is addressed in the program.) We live in a society where there is a great emphasis on food. (How many church meetings do you know of where food is not a key part?) What the program teaches is the key to why we overeat. Is it stress, depression, anxiety, societal pressure? Then why are we not going to the source of all comfort and healing – God our Father? Why are we going to the “pantry” when we are tired, sad or depressed? The majority of overeaters suffer from one or more of these problems. Ms. Shamblin’s goal is to direct us back to the Father. The Weigh Down program deals with more than being overweight. It does not equate your body size to your love for God. Rather, it gets to the heart of the problems that keep you from becoming all that God intended you to be.
Kathy Regehr,
Winnipeg, Man.
Great Web site
Very nicely designed site. Combine this with timely updates and you have a real winner here.
Don Willems,
Yukon
Compliments
My compliments on your revamped Web site. It’s excellent.
Lyndon Vix,
Wichita, Kan.
New site a bonus
So impressed with the new look of the MB Herald Web site. I stopped checking into the site months ago because it was rather dull and wasn’t updated on a regular basis. As a former MB, I only have the opportunity to catch up on Conference news when I’m at my folks during vacation, so having the site on my “favourites” has been a bonus.
Charlotte Schroeder,
Calgary, Alta.
Senior pastors unscriptural
We agree with the Conference’s position that prohibits women from being senior pastors – we believe that it is unscriptural for a woman to hold that position. However, we also believe that it is unscriptural for a man to hold that position – senior pastors are not mentioned in Scripture, and certainly not in the role we have assigned them. In fact, the word poimeen (shepherd or pastor) is rarely mentioned in the New Testament, except in reference to Jesus; church leaders are interchangeably (see Acts 20:17,28) referred to as presbuteros (elders) or episcopus (overseers or bishops), and in virtually every case they are referred to in the plural. We never in the New Testament find a phrase like “the pastor of the church in Ephesus.”
The role of senior pastor, as it exists in many evangelical churches today, is a cultural hangover from the hierarchical structure of Catholicism. Ray Stedman writes: “We Protestants criticize the Catholics for having a Pope in Rome; why is it then that we want one in every church”?
Our Mennonite Brethren tradition is rich with the heritage of shared leadership; in wandering from that tradition, we may also have departed from Scripture. Jesus said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave.”
Hal Toews,
Abbotsford, B.C.
Doug Chaffee,
Langley, B.C.
Desert Wondering a blessing
Don Ratzlaff’s “Desert Wondering,” (Sept. 10) was such a blessing. It will minister peace to those that beat themselves with guilt through their dry times. The “wilderness” as blessing rather than punishment is a reality that needs to be asserted emphatically in the post-modern world. The desert is not merely a bad place where it’s okay to be. The desert is a good place where we sometimes need to be.
Graham Cooke has said that the Christian journey normally cycles through both the meadow (or mountaintop) and the desert. In the meadows, we experience God blessing our souls with joy and fruitfulness. We feel His presence and hear His voice vividly.
In the desert, we experience the painful dying of our flesh. We miss God’s voice and feel virtually nothing. Yet in the desert God is building something permanent in our spirit and our character. The revelation we finally get in the desert is fire-tested gold, an inheritance that cannot be lost or stolen, forever accessible to our inner being.
St. John of the Cross called this “the dark night of the soul” and embraced it as glorious. This dark night purges the “bless me” sensuality from our souls and ultimately brings our spirits into love union with Christ. He saw it as a Spirit-led journey, distinct from the deserts where either sin or melancholy can bring us.
Our response to the desert won’t necessarily be joy, and mustn’t be condemnation. Neither should it be struggling to escape a bad situation. By faith, we need to persevere to lay hold of that which Christ would build into us. Isn’t it ironic that David’s cry, “Why do You hide Your face from me”? was given under the inspiration of the Spirit! The God he could not hear was filling his heart and mouth with His very Word.
Thanks for the reminder.
Brad Jersak,
Abbotsford, B.C.
What does the Bible say?
The Sept. 10 issue had a lot of good reading in it. I respond to the letter by “Name withheld” about divorce and separation. The Bible clearly states, “What God has joined together let no man put asunder,” and the Ten Commandments state it is a sin to commit adultery. Some will say Jesus forgave the woman at the well. Does that say we can remarry? The Bible does not contradict itself.
E.H. Thompson,
St. Catharines, Ont.
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© 1999 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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