Every year on this day I go into a sentimental repose. I
remember October 5, 1980 as though it was yesterday, a worship service in a
rented facility in the northeast quadrant of Edmonton, Alberta. It was a Sunday
afternoon, a special service with Conference Minister Rev David Braun (Rest in
Peace) and dignitaries from Conference of Mennonites in Alberta (now Mennonite
Church Alberta), guest speaker Rev Menno Epp (R.I.P.), Calgary, and send-off
blessing by Rev Gary Harder (R.I.P.), pastor of the sponsoring congregation.
The auditorium of Parkdale Elementary Junior High was filled with friends and
relatives. Thirty-five persons signed on that day as charter members of Faith
Mennonite Church, 25 by transfer from our mothering congregation, First
Mennonite of Edmonton, and 10 by transfer from several other churches where
they originated from. It was a day of celebration after a year of meetings and
prayers and task groups. A “Committee for Church Extension” had been appointed
by First Mennonite alongside my call to come to Edmonton to assist in an
identified task, the birthing of a new congregation.
What memories. The spirit of that birth day
cannot be contained by that one Sunday afternoon. My memory bank continues on
immediately into the first weeks and months of life in that new church made up
of young families, some older faith-filled cheerleaders, and a group of young
adults somewhat self-directed making their presence known in so many ways,
including the church fastball team (won a city-wide church league championship one year). [1982?]
One early problem still brings a smile to my face. We had committed to an organizational structure as required in
order to become a registered assembly. A decision-making council was needed,
and we agreed it would have six identified tasks. We asked for six volunteers;
we got seven! So we cheerfully rebranded it a Council of Seven, with one member
assigned “minister without portfolio.” Needless to say the forthcoming Council
meetings and subsequent congregational meetings were full of laughter, some
very capable members putting their energy to very productive church life.
Was it all fun and games? Not at all. It was
also fun and work. Sunday morning worship services included a slate of rotating
worship leaders, some already experienced in previous church life and others
brand new at so noble a task, and of course I was the preacher most of the
time! Every week I would meet in-person with the designated worship leader
(none of this online email stuff) to plan upcoming Sunday service. It was
considered a holy time, that preparatory teamwork always evident come Sunday
morning.
Another special blessing was the
congregation’s provision of volunteer secretarial help. Secretary work was not
a job; it was a volunteer opportunity. What a pleasure it was over the course
of ten years to work with skilled persons who took pleasure providing
communication which excelled in detail and spirit. For several years this
secretary position also double-dutied as a call center to facilitate our
church’s participation in a new Edmonton Food Bank getting started at that
time.
Another fun work project comes to mind. We
liked to think of ourselves as “the church that could” so one time we built a
“House in a Weekend.” Five years into the life of this church we had purchased
a building from another church. Rather than endless mortgage morsels it was
decided to pay it off in one fell swoop! Us being blessed with several
contractors, a building plan was laid out in bite-sized pieces and together
with connections of our congregational chair who happened to be a land
developer, everybody got busy securing donations for publicity, materials,
services, etc. etc. lining up volunteers to help with successive stages of the
build. Businesses, neighbors, and supporters from far and wide helped us to do
it. I still remember Rev Braun, our beloved Conference Minister, coming
up from Lethbridge for opening prayer 5:00 a.m. that Friday.
At the heart of the fun-work was the gift of
our deacons. This being a church with young adults, some with interesting
non-church connections, we had some interesting weddings. I still give thanks
in the depth of my heart for the help of these deacons, mature Christians
recognized and chosen for their important role as per Acts 6 and 1 Timothy 3.
All marriage requests were met with my proviso that I would check with the
deacons. I would explain that my service was on behalf of this congregation,
and the deacons’ participation was needed in order for it to be properly
announced and also the invite for them to continue in the church’s life. The
deacons also understood my request that they be invited to the wedding even if
they were not well known to the other wedding guests.
Then there were a few Silent Retreats. Thanks
to the vision of one of our deacons who had become acquainted with the ministry
of Church of the Savior in Washington, DC, [i] we became interested in the
inner journey, especially important if our busyness was to continue in a
meaningful manner. Urban life can become so hectic that it made sense to find
some quiet especially for those in leadership. What a gift it was to me as
pastor to receive this ministry from the deacons. I attended several retreats,
learning a gift of listening and silence along with several other leaders in our otherwise lively bouncy congregation. Here I learned to relax among the
pressures and sometimes 'inner obligations' of different preferences and
personalities in the congregation. If leaders cannot “be still and know”
(Psalm 46:10) how else can a God-anointed message be learned? Sermons
can come out of silence much easier than slavish study and analysis, often
enabling good Holy Spirit connection with the people, including
some old fashioned gospel prods, rather than too much academia. I was helped to walk my spiritual journey along with the congregation and
they with me.
The journey, the journey. Many years have
elapsed. Now in retirement, in these last several years I have become involved with an Interfaith
Council in this city of Calgary (yes quite worldly, a council which includes people of many differing faith traditions); and very recently also an ironic opportunity
to become acquainted with some of my people from way back there well before the 1980's (definitely
anti-worldly). Old Colony Mennonites, always opponents of new-fangled ideas and education
and even historic opposition to comforts like rubber tires on their farm
equipment 😞. Many of them recently have arrived back in Canada, landing in the welcoming province of Alberta, probably because of their enterprising hard-work reputation. So with large families they now contribute to the robust economy of this province. Meanwhile many of them are also encountering new understandings in their faith journey, meaning there are at least six denominational groupings among these 60,000 or so immigrants. [ii] Mennonites historically also not immune to denominational splits, a common feature of all faith traditions!
This provides considerable reflective material for me (my thinker again)! Although my parents were Old Colony, they did not participate in their church's opposition to public education. They encouraged it! The message to us kids was "if we were interested, then we should go to
school." Like most large families, there were different responses to this among my siblings. As a typical oldest child, I grabbed it, off to high school and then chased my dreams in Bible School (also found my wife there 😏), then University and Seminary. So outwardly this might suggest a parting of the ways. Not at all. I have always been a theological thinker, probably why I got called into pastoral ministry at too young an age. The conversations, the non-conversations, and some disagreements are still in our large family of teachers, truckers, farmers, social workers, activists, business owners, mechanics, and one preacher! Now in retirement I have suddenly been provided with opportunities for good conversations and friendship among many others of this background, people also on
their continuing journey. The children and grandchildren of those early resistors are back in Canada, making a considerable contribution to my spiritual
growth, especially after most of my adult lifetime spent in the cities. Interfaith and my dear Old Colony, two ends of my faith continuum. Interfaith is new, very
refreshing and essential in today's world; and the Old Colony pilgrims, very tested and also
important in these days of mental and physical diaspora.
My latest blogpost [iii] about coronavirus and lingering issues is more philosophical than these sentimental memories. It concludes, however, with a sentence which is a truth for all times and seasons - and writing styles. Last sentence of that post, “Bring it back to
the Savior who was there before Covid, and still is.” That Savior has been with us, very present there
in the beginnings of that church in the 1980s, and very present among the old and the new right here in
2024. Good reminder: when offering wise sayings and opinions on all things, I
must make sure the tongue moves only after the appropriate silence.
[i] Elizabeth
O’Connor, Journey Inward, Journey Outward (New York: Harper
and Row, 1968).
[ii] Estimate
provided by Abe Janzen, Alberta Representative for the Canadian Foodgrains
Bank. He identifies six church groups among the Low German immigrants: Old
Colony, Sommerfelder; Bergthaler, Reinlander, EMMC, and Kleine Gemeinde.
[iii] Jacob
Froese, “Seeing and Looking,” https://jcfroomthoughts.blogspot.com.
September 22, 2024.
