Archive for category BFL SC 2011

—Laura Kalmar

This morning we heard the “sin talk.” I admit, most sermons on this subject leave me feeling pretty good about myself – I don’t steal music off the internet, cheat on my taxes, or abuse my children. But Paul Cumin’s address brought the reality of sin uncomfortably close (can you say “conviction”?). Pretty important at a conference about the mystery of the cross!

Paul challenged us to listen closely as he unpacked a dense subject – in the end, he gave us some new language to describe the fundamental problem of sin. (Isn’t language great? I love the fact that God has given us such rich and diverse vocabulary to dance around his majesty!)

Sin is the desire to be more like God than he created us to be. It’s a grasping at godhood, but godhood misconceived. Basically, sin drives us away from community. The problem is this: community is fundamentally who God is (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit living in relationship) and how he created us to live.

So, sin is me curving in on myself – stubbornly turning away from openness toward others (God and neighbour) on whom my being depends. Now that’s a pretty Anabaptist idea!

I sin when I turn faith into religion (which happens when I grasp at the knowledge of God and claim success – he’s so much bigger than my little mind can conceive!). I sin when I lust after others (which happens when I use relationships for my own personal gain – I take and take and take!). I sin when I’m cowardly and refuse to listen to the tough questions that might lead to my transformation (which happens when I listen only to people I agree with).

“Me. Me. Me.” OK. I’m convicted. I’ve heard those words from my own mouth too many times! My Catholic roots tell me to find a confessional booth. Maybe I’ll just grab a friend and ask for some prayer. Isn’t that the beauty of community?

—Barrie McMaster

At least one pastor offers to be part of a team to go from MB church to church in the Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren churches to tell them they need to carry their weight of conference support. Fraserview MB pastor Dan Unrau of Richmond, B.C., made the offer after hearing that funding for the work of the conference has ‘flat-lined’ over the past few years at about $1.4-million. (There was a very slight increase in the past fiscal year.)

Delegates at the annual general meeting, held in conjunction with the CCMBC study conference in Kitchener, Ont., were told all the 2010–11 expenses of the conference (including church planting and the 2010 Celebration event) totalled $4.7-million dollars, of which only $1.45-million came from member churches. Grants and donations were above budget, and earnings on Stewardship funds were above budget. The conference ended its year’s operations with a modest surplus.

Delegates wanted to know what is being done to encourage churches to support the ministries of their conference. “This is a family issue, here,” Unrau said. “We need to tell some churches what people tell their kids: You live here, you help with the dishes.”

Andrew Dyck said churches need to be encouraged to step up to the plate and realize their ministry support is needed nationally to help bring the gospel to Canadians.

John Unger said, “We tithe on our income. And if we get an inheritance, it does not mean we don’t tithe from the inheritance, instead. It means we have just been given an opportunity to do so much more. Somehow our forebears arranged that we have a trust from God, an inheritance.”

Executive director Willy Reimer said studies are currently taking place in the hope that operational changes can be proposed to the 2012 Gathering. One of the issues under study is the ratio of conference ministry financed by church allotments compared to investment income.

The meeting, meanwhile, approved a new budget similar to the previous year’s. But there are two additions. A $200,000 grant is being provided to MB Biblical Seminary – Canada as it progresses through start-up phases. And $200,000 will go to ICOMB, the International Community of Mennonite Brethren.

—Laura Kalmar

I’ve been to several BFL study conferences in my time. I expect to be inspired theologically, biblically, academically.. But tonight’s session took me by surprise, inspiring my emotions and tugging on my heartstrings. The words and stories from our Francophone brothers and sisters were powerful. Yup, the longer I stick around, the more I’m grateful for the province of Quebec and all it offers us.

The evening began with a tribute to Éric Wingender, professor at ETEM, who died suddenly at the beginning of October. “Those who knew Éric discovered an intriguing God,” said David Wiebe, interim ICOMB executive secretary. “He was a gift. A teacher, theologian, artist, friend.”

After hearing about Éric’s legacy (Ginette Bastien said his death has left a gaping hole in the province) – about the way he drew people to Jesus through his wit, intelligence, kindness, and passion – I figured I could go home right then and there. Éric embodied the type of kingdom witness we’re here to talk about – contagious!

Keynote speaker Pierre Gilbert, professor at CMU and MBBS Canada, (the only person I know who can talk about Ancient Near East mythology and poutine in the same sentence!) dedicated his address to Wingender, entitling it “He never meant for us to die.”

Pierre provided a detailed account from Genesis about the problem of evil & death:

“It’s rarely noted that the ‘knowledge’ of good and evil is more than an abstract notion. When Adam ‘knew’ Eve, he obtained more than just her phone number (and I’ll leave the rest to your imagination)…. The fall was unavoidable – sooner or later, someone would eat of the sacred fruit. An infinite moral offense occurred. It was an ontological catastrophe that forever locked humanity into the sphere of ‘the curse.’”

It was a structural problem that required a structural solution. Enter Jesus: life, death, resurrection. God’s perfect love follows through. Incomplete people are made complete. Wow! Some big stuff. Some mind-boggling stuff. Some emotionally inspiring stuff.

—Karla Braun

“The Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches exists to reach Canada with the good news of Christ.”

In his first national appearance, new CCMBC executive director Willy Reimer drove it home.

“Our core is Christology; it’s incredibly important,” he said. Application is tangential to the source: “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3).

Like a father speaking to his children, Willy spoke from his experience, boldly exhorting, encouraging, and chastising the family. In closing, speaking as a pastor, he called us to repentance.

As a father of young-adult sons, Willy feels a personal urgency to pass on the faith to his children, who need to embrace it on their own. As national executive director, he is stirred to communicate the gospel to Canadians, whom he diagnoses as afflicted by a serious case of niceness, an obsession with an ironic vision of tolerance, and middle-class pride and self-sufficiency.

Willy presented a variety images he’s encountered on his journey of understanding of Christ’s saving work: conviction of sin, encounter with the love of God, and living victoriously in Jesus. However, on the basis of observation, he concludes that we “all affirm penal substitutionary atonement as core.”

Yet, here we are at a national study conference on Christology for the second time in two years, following last year’s pastor study day in B.C., specifically on atonement. Is it possible that we’re not all agreed? We heard clearly both from Willy, and from table reporters at the Bible study which followed, that we have no ambiguity on Jesus as Saviour. I didn’t hear anyone denying the apostle Peter’s declaration to the Sanhedrin: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

I wonder what we’ll explore together these next few days to help us boldly and uncompromisingly share that glorious gospel hope with our fellow Canadians?

A posture of repentance is fitting to begin a study conference. Willy called us to repent of failing to speak to each other, and when we speak, failing to listen; to repent of disunity in the body of Christ (John 17); to repent of hesitance, selfishness, even cowardice instead of boldly proclaiming the gospel to our friends and neighbours. Might we need to repent of debating “I thinks” instead of humbly exploring “Scripture says.” I wonder if there are times we might need to repent for thinking we have God all figured out?

May it not be so this weekend.

The Mystery of the Cross Study conference starts today.

As we study, discuss, and pray together, “may our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in [us] so that [we] get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we’ll be a choir—not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus!’—Romans 15:5–6, The Message

Check back daily for posts on the sessions and workshops.

Spending the weekend in Kitchener-Waterloo?Fellowship with one of our churches in the area Sunday morning:

Glencairn MB Church
Meets at: 725 Erinbrook Drive, Kitchener, Ont.
Pastor: Bill Stubbs
519-579-8741
www.glencairn.ca
service time: 9:30 a.m.

Grace MB Church
Meets at 140 Westmount Road North, Conrad Grebel College, Waterloo, Ont.
Pastor: Tom Warner
519-390-1001
www.gracemb.org
service time: 10:30 a.m.
How to get there.

Kitchener MB Church
19 Ottawa Street North, Kitchener, Ont.
Pastor: Vidya Narimalla
519-745-5144
www.kitchenermb.com
Service time: 10:30 a.m.
How to get there.

The Dwelling Place
10 Chopin Drive, Kitchener, Ont.
Pastor: Ingrid Reichard
519-841-3935
www.thedwellingplace.ca
Service time: 10:30 a.m.
How to get there.

Waterloo MB Church
Meets at 245 Lexington Road, Waterloo, Ont.
Pastor: Paul McIlwraith
519-885-5330
www.waterloomb.org
Service times: 9:00 a.m., 10:45 a.m.

The Prodigal God: Recovering the heart of the Christian Faith
Timothy Keller

Guest review by Scott Koop

I’ve read my fair share of books. Some I’ve really enjoyed, others not. Some were entertaining, some useful in teaching and nurturing spiritual growth. I would deem several standouts – books which by their profound nature or their utter simplicity truly get a hold of me. Tim Keller’s The Prodigal God is such a book.

The title of the book was what first got my attention. We would somehow think it wrong to attach the label “prodigal” to God, but it turns out Keller is right to do so. The title by which this parable in Luke 15 often goes, and our preoccupation with the wildness of the younger of the two sons, creates an impression that the word prodigal means “wayward.” I’ve even used the term to describe a wild and out-of-control person. The term prodigal, however, actually means having spent until you have nothing left. It therefore describes not only the younger son, but also the father in this parable.

Perhaps another reason a book really grips me stems from my own state of mind at the time of reading it. Keller states in his introduction that “one of the signs that you may not grasp the unique, radical nature of the gospel is that you are certain that you do.” That statement was a wake-up call for me, as I often fit into that category. I suppose many long-time believers fit there, and for that reason alone the book is a valuable read.

I’ve often been confused by the response of the father to the older brother in this parable. It made sense to me that the older brother was upset and angry – I would be too! However, when Keller talks of this parable in light of the two that precede it, then cites the story of Cain and Abel from Genesis 4, we realize that the older brother, while not disobeying the father, had also not done his duty – namely attempt to steer his younger brother back onto the correct path. Cain was called, this older brother called, and we are called to be “our brothers’ keeper” (vs. 9).

The most startling point comes in Chapter 5 when Keller suggests that forgiveness comes at a great cost – not to the recipient of the forgiveness but rather to the one offering forgiveness. The father in the parable reinstates his younger son quite literally at the expense of his first-born son, the older brother. The father has given away all he has, and now all that’s left belongs to the older brother. The older brother, however, has not accepted either his younger brother, the authority of his father, nor the cost to himself of forgiveness, because any wage earned by the younger brother, any sustenance of this family will now come directly from the “account” of the older brother. The older brother in this parable is not “a true older brother” because he shirks his responsibility to his family and focuses his attention solely on himself.

Jesus is “a true older brother.” He has accepted us and has happily joined the many parties the Father throws upon the return of many lost children. Atonement, satisfaction, reparation, expiation: all these words convey that Jesus – the true older brother – has paid for all of us “younger brothers” to come home.

Scott Koop is pastor at Selkirk (Man.) Community Church (MB).

Outline for plenary session *open to the public* Friday, Oct. 28, 2011
“Christ Died: Love, Grace and the Reconciling Work of God”
(Philippians 2:1–18)
Speaker: Dr. Erwin Penner

Introduction

The story of two worlds: the fallen world ———— the new creation
What will bridge the gap between the two worlds? the cross?

Discussion

I. Christ died: What was God doing on the cross?

A. The cross reveals the nature of God (Philippians 2:6–8)
B. The cross unveils the suffering of God (Philippians 2:6–8)
C. The cross displays the victory of God (Philippians 2:9–11)

II. Christ died: How does God’s action on the cross coalesce with atonement theories?

A. The moral influence theory
B. The penal substitution/representation theory
C. The Christus Victor (Christ-as-victor) theory

III. Christ died: What does God want to achieve in the CCMBC?

A. Form the mind of Christ in us
B. Summon us to worship Jesus, the true Lord
C. Move us to implement the achievement of the cross in our world in anticipation of God’s
new creation

Dr. Erwin Penner is professor emeritus of religious studies, Tyndale University College and Seminary, Toronto. With a PhD in New Testament (Fuller Theological Seminary, 1983), his special teaching focus is letters of Paul, New Testament theology, and Greek text. He is a member of the Kitchener MB Church and serves on the Ontario board of faith and life. He currently resides in Waterloo, Ont.