|  | |
Previous | Next
 |
Letters to the editor
Mennonite Brethren Herald welcomes your letters on issues relevant to the Mennonite Brethren Church, especially in response to material published in the Herald. Please keep your letters courteous, brief and about one subject only. We will edit letters for length and clarity. We will not publish letters sent anonymously, although we may withhold names from publication at the request of the letter writer and at our discretion. Publication is also subject to space limitations. Because the Letters column is a free forum for discussion, it should be understood that letters represent the position of the letter writer, not necessarily the position of the Herald or the Mennonite Brethren Church. Send letters to:
Letters, MB Herald
3-169 Riverton Ave.
Winnipeg, Man. R2L 2E5
|
or by e-mail to mbherald@mbconf.ca. (Please ensure that your postal address is included in your e-mail correspondence.) |
Generalizations hurtful
I would like to express concern regarding “Mexico Mennonites Hungering for Hope” (Aug. 11). The article, quoting evangelist Jacob Funk of Winnipeg, makes sweeping statements such as “Weak ethics result in widespread immorality and spiritual confusion,” and “The most common problems are drugs, alcohol and marital infidelity.”
I am sure members of the Mennonite Brethren Church in Canada would not appreciate having their entire communities characterized based on the anecdotal evidence of one individual who is paid to go to Mexico to find sinners and whose funding depends on a sufficiently negative report.
I personally have hundreds of relatives living in Mexico, and they are the finest Christians. I know many individuals in the Manitoba and Swift Plains colonies near Cuauhtemoc or originating there who are the most upstanding citizens you would wish to meet.
Misleading statements such as those made in the article play on the pre-existing prejudices of your readers. It would take 100 positive articles to rectify the damage to reputation the one in question has caused. I realize it is impossible for your staff to do background research on every article submitted. I hope that raising the issue can result in greater sensitivity.
Those who wish to read some history and theology of the Old Colony Church can find a series of articles in Preservings, Issues 14, 15 and 16, or check the Web site of the Hanover Steinbach Historical Society at www.hshs.mb.ca.
Let us embrace our brothers and sisters in Christ, not stereotype them because of the misdeeds of a few.
Delbert Plett,
Steinbach, Man.
Pastors because he loves people
I respond to “Tone of the letter disturbing” (Letters, Aug. 25) and “Workers need shepherding” (Letters, June 9). I appreciated the Halls’ letter as two pastors’ kids. I am blessed that they have grown to appreciate their fathers’ life’s calling. I have five children and trust the Lord will bless them for the sacrifices they have made being my children. A pastor may average 55 hours per week, but that is seldom in 7 1/2 consecutive hours of the day. That would be easy. Any pastor who loves his work and not His people should leave the ministry. I do not love my work. I enjoy it. But I love people. This means my job is 24/7. I cannot and do not want to find an effective way to stop loving persons after 50-60 hours a week. Their joys, concerns, laughter and pain are mine as well, at all times. If not, I will quit.
My concern for Mrs. Smith is not her lack of understanding of what a pastor’s life is like. I hear a cry for help. It is never a good plan for a husband and father to be that busy. May God grant them a change of lifestyle that will enable them as a married couple and as parents to enjoy the life and relationships He has given.
Tom Warner,
Boissevain, Man.
Shopping carts and pogo sticks
I am wondering if baptism and church membership will continue to be a hot item of discussion years from now in the Mennonite Brethren community of churches?
Mennonites join together baptism and church membership to ensure that people are committed to the local church and to their faith. Good. But considering the church hopping and shopping that is so commonplace, it appears that church membership in itself is not achieving this goal of commitment to the local church.
Michael Green’s response to the charge of sheep stealing was: “We don’t steal sheep, we just grow grass”. I see this “grass” as being a healthy church environment of mutual trust, love, and patience, an environment where everyone is valued, an environment filled with healthy biblical preaching and teaching, an environment where each person is encouraged to discover his or her gifts and ministry, and an environment where reconciliation is encouraged and demonstrated. Getting people to become members when they are baptized will not necessarily keep them in the local church. When church environments go bad with infighting, when the preaching is weak, when the teaching in Sunday school and other programs becomes weak, when churches forget or don’t bind up the broken, when Christians do not forgive one another from the heart, when able people are not allowed to serve in the church – we can expect to see people heading for their shopping carts or pogo sticks to hop from church to church. While this is going on, it is publicly declared that God has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, that the church is “God’s new society”. A dysfunctional church will not attract a dysfunctional society. Why be a part of more of the same? For Christians to be committed to the local church it will take more than being made a “member”. It will necessitate the maintaining of a healthy environment in the local church.
A friend says: “We all need a Paul to teach us, a Barnabas to encourage us and a Timothy to minister to.” We also need a Moses – to settle disputes among believers.
In Seattle a few years ago, water restrictions were in effect, and lawns turned brown. A young entrepreneur started a company that kept lawns looking healthy by painting them green. In the local church, are we growing healthy grass or is the brown grass being painted to look good?
When the local church behaves as the “new society” that God has made it to be, not only will God’s people stay, experience joy and progress in the faith, but this “new society” will also be a welcome sight to a dead, dysfunctional world.
Nils Langhjelm,
Yarrow, B.C.
Part of church without membership
Great practical reasons in your articles for supporting church membership (Sept. 8). I have taken up membership in the church I’ve attended in each town I’ve lived in since becoming a Christian. However your biblical arguments for attaching membership to baptism are weak. We must be careful not to confuse our human traditions with God’s ways. I have been part of four evangelical denominations, and this is the only one which makes this mandatory connection. The New Testament commands us to repent, turn to God through Christ and be baptized. When we are born again of the Spirit of God we are part of the church, the body of Christ, regardless of whether we take up formal membership in a particular local church. Let’s not keep born-again believers from quickly being baptized by attaching prerequisites (burdens?) which the Lord Himself did not demand.
I appreciated, “What happened when Menno Simons read his Bible”. May we encourage one another in this way.
Pam Robertson,
Yarrow, B.C.
Commitment encouraged
Thank you for the articles on baptism, church membership and the Lord’s Supper. Obedience to God in baptism is very important, and commitment to the local church through church membership needs special encouragement in today’s society. We are glad that, at least in our church, the sudden confusion of children and communion has been resolved. It is important that children feel included in our churches, which they are, but that communion be taken with understanding, after public confession of faith through baptism. Communion is a time of searching and reflection, as well as a joyous celebration, and cannot be taken lightly. Thank you for good information.
M. Harms,
Winkler, Man.
Good reporting
Thank you for your coverage of Amsterdam 2000 (Sept. 8). We were asked to serve at this event and found it an unbelievable experience. The evangelists from 200+ countries are men and women of incredible faith and dedication. The morning and evening plenary speakers provided plenty of “spiritual food”. Afternoon seminars and workshops were great times of interaction. Our duties included working in the clothing distribution area and helping to coordinate Samaritan’s Purse’s “Project Screening”. This was an incredible blessing to us.
Please pray that God would continue to use the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse.
Don & Jan Neufeld,
Saskatoon, Sask.
Previous | Next Last modified November 7, 2000.
© 2000 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
Masthead and usage information.
|
