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BC MB CONFERENCE CONVENTION
BC Conference aims for second 100


British Columbia MB Conference
Abbotsford, BC · May 5-6, 2000

Northside Community Church

Five churches joined the British Columbia Mennonite Brethren Conference at its annual convention May 5-6 in King Road MB Church, Abbotsford. That pushed the number of chartered churches in the Conference to 101. Rather than stopping there, the Conference’s Board of Church Extension announced a dream of adding another 100 churches in the next 10 years. The expectation is that the majority of these new churches would worship in a language other than English. Altogether, since the first B.C. MB congregation was founded in Yarrow in 1929, 128 churches have been started, but 23 have closed or withdrawn from the Conference, and four have not yet officially organized as congregations and joined the Conference. The growth has been accelerating. In the 1970s, 13 churches were planted (9 English and 4 in other languages), in the 1980s, 29 churches were planted (24 English and 5 in other languages), and in the 1990s, 49 churches were planted (23 English and 26 in other languages). B.C. MB churches now worship in 15 languages each week; the Board of Church Extension hopes to add one more language group each year for the next 10 years.

New churches

Churches joining the Conference this year were:

Forest Grove Church. This small congregation, near 100 Mile House, started in 1986 as an offshoot of 108 Chapel, a nondenominational church. The church has done some significant outreach into its community, but is struggling and has asked to join the MB Conference. Currently seeking its first full-time pastor, the church is led by moderator Pat Molanson. Vancouver Russian Church. Sergei and Vera Atchkassov arrived from Moscow just before Christmas 1998 to begin planting this church. They currently have an attendance of 20-25 at their Sunday worship services, but the potential is large: There are currently 40,000 immigrants from Russia in the Vancouver area, and 5-6 new families arrive each week. Maranatha Indonesia Church. This church, led by pastor couple Jusuf and Lucy Wijaya, has 40 members and meets in the facilities of Eagle Ridge Bible Fellowship in Coquitlam. Northside Community Church. This restart of Mission Christian Fellowship began meeting in October 1999 under the leadership of pastor couple Ron and Marcella Redekop. Attendance has grown to 150-200, and the church has already begun adding an enlarged foyer and Sunday school space to its building. Abbotsford Arabic Church. Reda and Tahanny Hanna, pastor couple of Arabic Evangelical Church in New Westminster, have begun planting this second congregation, in Abbotsford. It meets in the facilities of Clearbrook MB Church.

Each of these congregations was welcomed by a standing vote of the convention delegation and by prayer.

Church plants

Three church plants closed in 1999: Langley International Church in March, Abbotsford Korean Church in September, and The Gathering Place, Ladysmith, in August.

Six churches went off Board of Church Extension subsidy in 1999: North Shore Pacific Grace Chinese Church (North Vancouver), North Shore Bethel Chinese Church (North Vancouver), River of Life Community Church (Sorrento), Aennofield Community Church (Fort St. John), Arabic Evangelical Church (New Westminster) and Port Moody Pacific Grace Mandarin Church.

Of attenders at the 22 church plants on subsidy from the Board of Church Extension, one in five accepted Christ in 1999 (an improvement on the already impressive one in six in 1998), and one in 15 was baptized.

At a Board of Church Extension lunch on Saturday, three church planters were interviewed:

Seervan Dowlati, a Kurd from Iran, became a Christian after coming to Canada and has led North Vancouver Persian Christian Fellowship since 1990. He moved to being a full-time pastor March 15, has a radio program and last summer baptized eight people from a Muslim background. Jorge Cardoza began planting Surrey Hispanic Church seven years ago. His congregation, at first mainly women, has now begin to reach men as well, and some lay leaders are developing. Bob Granholm has recently begun an outreach to Kosovar Albanians in Surrey. On Sunday evenings, he and his wife Edith lead a multi-dimensional ministry geared to the 1000 nominally Muslim Kosovar refugees now living in B.C.’s Lower Mainland. They offer food, clothes and furniture; instruction on such topics as computer programs; and teaching on such subjects as prayer.

An offering of $4080 was received at the lunch for the work of BOCE.

At the closing banquet on Saturday evening, Church Extension director James Nikkel introduced Abraham Daip, who fled severe persecution in Sudan and arrived in Canada in February 1999. He has a job but is also leader of New Westminster Sudanese Fellowship, a nondenominational group. He is currently trying to acquire enough money to bring his wife and children to Canada; they are living as refugees in Uganda.

No growth

While the Conference is growing, the

Camp ministries presentation

Conference’s finances are not. For both 1998 and 1999, the Conference budget was set at $1,256,000, with a norm (the amount congregations are asked to contribute to the Conference) of $104 per member. However, the Conference received only $1,111,310 from the churches in 1998 and even less, $1,081,556, in 1999. The Conference managed to limit its deficits (to $150 in 1998 and $8,365 in 1999), mainly by reducing its allocation to the capital budget (spending on buildings) and by not filling an additional executive staff position which was approved a few years ago.

The Conference leadership has concluded that the current system of norms is not working. Only nine churches paid the full norm, and 19 contributed nothing.

Accordingly, the Board of Management is proposing a new system, which was outlined in the financial packet distributed to delegates and discussed in the Board of Management workshops. Under the new system, churches would be asked to pay a percentage of the contributions they themselves receive, on a sliding scale. Churches which receive less than $25,000 per year, would pay 1%, churches receiving $25,000 to $50,000 would pay 2%, etc. The top rate, for churches which receive over $400,000, is 7%. A cap would be put in place so that no one congregation would be asked to contribute more than 11% of the provincial budget (currently $138,160). The new system sets the expectation lower (under the old system, if every church paid its full norm, the Conference would get $1.6 million; under the new system, if every church paid its full norm, the Conference would get $1.3 million), but expects that more churches would pay their full dues. In order to ensure fuller participation, the Conference would implement a series of “incentives”. Some programs, such as the Pastoral Apprenticeship program, would only be available to churches which pay their full dues, and such churches could also get lower insurance deductibles and possibly lower fees at Conference institutions.

The new system will be discussed at Council of Church Leaders meetings (gatherings of the senior pastors and moderators of all the churches) over the next year and then processed at next year’s convention.

Business

Most of Saturday morning was devoted to Board workshops. Ministry training workshops were offered at the end of Saturday afternoon. The business was processed expeditiously, mainly in one session early Saturday afternoon.

A recommendation was approved to dissolve the Board of Family Ministries and make it a three-member commission of the Board of Church Ministries. Another recommendation was approved to increase the Columbia Bible Camp Board from “seven members” to “not less than seven members”. The Board of Pastoral Ministries reported that in the last year it had approved 7 people for ordination and 35 for licensing. Board chair Jake Balzer reported that some churches are now getting the Board involved earlier, during the candidating process (a good idea); that some new pastors have gained a significantly deeper appreciation of Mennonite Brethren doctrines through the licensing process; and that an in-depth, three-day pastors’ orientation will be held in B.C. next year. A recommendation was approved that the B.C. Conference apply to the Canadian MB Conference to have Vancouver considered for the Key Cities Initiative. Under this program, the Canadian Conference Board of Evangelism and a provincial Board of Church Extension cooperate to plant churches in a given city. Calgary was the first city chosen in 1998, and Toronto may be approved this year. Any Vancouver project would not begin for a few years. The Board of Church Extension also gained approval to extend Ed Goerzen’s Vision 2000 Projects position for another six months, from July 1, 2000 to Dec. 31, 2000. Goerzen is doing some fundraising and encouraging existing churches to get involved in supporting church plants and planting daughter churches. The Board of Camp Ministries reported that 521 of the 2213 campers at its three camps last year made decisions to accept Christ. Registration for this summer is already nearing last year’s attendance, and the camps are seeking ways to expand. The three camp directors related moving stories of kids who had come to Christ through their ministries. Columbia Bible College reported continued growth, in student numbers and in students’ hunger for God. The College had a record 402 students last year and could reach 500 next fall, with about 40 Northwest Baptist Theological College students coming to complete their degrees after Northwest decided to close down this summer. Columbia has also adopted Northwest’s one-year discipleship program called Quest, which will add another 34 students. MB Biblical Seminary announced that it would add a second full-time professor at its B.C. campus, and that the governance structure for the B.C. campus is in process of being revised. The B.C. Conference contributes $25,000 a year to MBBS-B.C. and has also contributed money for capital expenses. The Board of Church Ministries gave a box containing over $100 in free resources to the youth pastor/leader from each church. The Board also batted tennis balls into the congregation which could be redeemed for free books. The convention offered prayers of commission for 100 youth from 12 churches who will go to 12 smaller churches to present vacation Bible schools this summer; the youth were spending Saturday in training sessions. The budget for the 2001 calendar year was approved at the same level as the last two years, $1,256,000. Currently, 39% of the Conference budget goes to education and training (Columbia Bible College, MB Biblical Seminary-B.C., the Pastoral Apprenticeship program), 35% to evangelism (Board of Church Extension, Camp Ministries) and 26% to resourcing churches (conference minister, Board of Church Ministries, financial advice, etc.). Arnie Peters of Willow Park Church in Kelowna was elected moderator, replacing Bob Friesen. Herb Neufeld continues as assistant moderator and Peter Enns as secretary. Two new at-large members of the Executive Committee were elected: Scott Carpenter of Fraserview MB Church in Richmond and Christopher Douglas of Central Heights MB Church in Abbotsford. Four positions remained unfilled: two on the Board of Church Ministries, one on the Board of Management and one on the Nominations Committee.

Good words

Worship was led by Nelson Boschman of Fraser Heights Community Church and Andrew Dick of the host church. A male gospel quartet from Willingdon Church roused enthusiasm at the closing banquet Saturday evening.

The convention also heard moving testimonies from three people.

Dale Loewen told of growing up thinking that people don’t change. Then his wife’s sister invited him and his wife to some church events, and they began to attend regularly. In October 1995, while listening to a song by Lianna Klassen at Northview Community Church, “I saw God, He called me by name, He came into me, and I understood what Christ gave up for me.” Harriet Kent told of a life that was going nowhere – divorced and estranged from her family, she lived a quiet, isolated life full of hate. Then her brother invited her to an Alpha program at Maple Ridge Community Church. There she discovered a peaceful, loving, gratifying relationship with God through Jesus Christ. She has been healed of smoking, has lost her crabby attitude, is being reconciled with her family and has been baptized. Winnia Chan attended a Catholic school but never went to church. While in elementary school, she saw a vision of Jesus in the sky. After she immigrated to Canada 11 years ago, her younger sister began to witness to her. A neighbour also witnessed and invited her to church. She accepted Christ in October 1991, and her husband accepted Christ soon after. Since then she has experienced wonderful answers to prayer.

Understanding the times

Bruce Guenther, a faculty member at MB Biblical Seminary-B.C., was the main speaker for the convention, delivering two lectures on the importance of “understanding our times”.

In his first lecture Friday night, he outlined three qualities necessary for the church today. First, given the inevitability of change and the increasing speed of change, it is important for the church to learn to adapt and to respond to change more quickly.

Bruce Guenther

Second, the church needs to remember its history in order to escape from the limitations of the present and prepare for the future. Third, the church must be guided in its decisions for the future by a global understanding of the Kingdom of God; the Kingdom of God is bigger than the B.C. MB Conference.

In his second lecture, Saturday morning, Guenther addressed the challenge of ministering in a world that is postmodern (with no confidence in reason, science and language and a deep suspicion of all claims to truth) and post-Christian. He recommended two sets of resources to meet this challenge. First, the Gospel and Our Culture Network recommends that the North American church be “missional”, that is, that it deliberately seek to understand the culture around it and find ways to reach it, just as missionaries do when they go to a new land. In the postmodern world, truth must not only be proclaimed but also demonstrated through an alternative community (this is an emphasis that Mennonite Brethren had but are losing). Second, the church should demonstrate God’s truth through “ancient future worship”, as advocated by scholars such as Marva Dawn and Robert Webber. Such worship transcends the idolatry of “contemporary” and “traditional” cultural styles and instead seeks a genuine encounter with the living God.

The convention closed Saturday evening with a banquet and a message by Steve Berg, senior pastor of South Abbotsford MB Church. He recalled visiting a family on a farm who admitted, “We still live in the house, but we no longer work in the fields.” The church, Berg suggested, needs to return to the fields because it is time for a harvest. Facing the challenges of our times is not really that difficult, he said. The church simply needs to return to some basic things: 1. The church is not about education but about mission (the church needs to understand and deliberately reach out to the society around it). 2. The church needs to take risks, because being “nice” won’t impact culture. 3. The church must move its focus from programs to people. 4. The church must return to being counter-cultural rather than just existing as a subculture. 5. The church must shift from being a private club to being a public service centre.

 – JC

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Last modified June 17, 2000.

© 2000 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
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