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Ontario Edition October 2010 Volume 24 | Number 11 $3.50 (Complimentary copy)

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Helping Haiti through art

Lutherans form new denomination

Global Report: Pakistan

Focus on Seminary

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Celebrate Thanksgiving by thinking about the hungry

Online gambling “a recipe for disaster” Ontario becomes the third province to legalize Internet gaming

Designpics Image

Legalized online gambling may increase the likelihood of people developing gambling addictions.

Mags Storey Ontario Correspondent

hanksgiving is a time for celebrating with food. But in a hungry world, maybe it’s time to give our food some thought.

“We don’t believe humans are hardwired to destroy the planet,” says James Kornelsen, public engagement coordinator with Canadian Foodgrains Bank in Winnipeg. “With Fast for Change we’re inviting people in Canada to rethink some of our interactions with food and make small, but significant changes.”

Fast for Change is the Foodgrains Bank’s annual fall campaign to raise awareness and support for more than one billion people living in hunger today.

The campaign was started two years ago and coincides with World Food Day, established by the United Nations to commemorate the initiation of the Food and Agricultural Organization in 1979. With World Food Day falling on October 16 each year, the connection to Canadian

James Kornelson, Canadian Foodgrains Bank public engagement coordinator on the Right to Food Learning Tour in Bangladesh.

Thanksgiving made sense.

“Thanksgiving is a perfect time to focus on food, on what it means to have ‘enough,’ and to build solidarity with people who struggle to produce enough food for themselves and their families,” says Kornelsen.

“Food is an essential part of every Canadian Thanksgiving,” says Kristen DeRoo Vanderberg, communications

manager with Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, one of 15 church-based member organizations of the Foodgrains Bank. “As a Canadian Christian community, we reflect together on what we have and what we’re able to share. We can then respond together in a larger way.”

Please see Foodgrains Bank on page 12

Gala funds Yonge Street Mission youth’s education Mags Storey Ontario Correspondent

TORONTO,ON—Yonge Street Mission (YSM) is inviting people to dinner, dancing and the dream of post-secondary education.

The Bright Lights Gala is held in support of YSM’s Student Awards Program. Held October 27 at The Carlu, funds raised will help 30 young people attend university, college and trade school programs, which include engineering, education, arts, mathematics, sciences and medicine.

Students become eligible for the program through participation in one of YSM’s programs or outreaches—such as Evergreen mission for street involved

Ruth Petinga and YSA award recipient Chesarahmia Dojo Soeandy.

youth. They must also be referred by two YSM staff members.

Along with providing financial assistance and life-skills support, YSM part-

ners each student with a mentor.

“Our mentors will support their students throughout their educational journey,” says Ruth Pentinga, YSM’s director of volunteer resources, “from helping them make decisions to dealing with crises. It’s incredible really.”

Eighteen-year-old Chesarahmia Dojo Soeandy is entering her second year of health sciences and chemistry at the University of Toronto, thanks to receiving a student award grant last year.

Originally from Sri Lanka, her family moved to Canada in 2006, finding a home in the St. James Town apartment blocks, where she became involved with YSM’s St. James Town Youth Council.

Please see YSM on page 13

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Please see Gambling on page 6

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Mags Storey

GUELPH, ON—While the Ontario government has promised to bring safe and responsible online-gaming to the province in 2012, Christian support groups wonder if the government will make good on its claims to protect problem gamblers.

In a news conference announcing the decision, provincial finance minister Dwight Duncan said the government would be exploring a well regulated, “socially responsible and secure Internet gaming program.”

Paul Godfrey, chair of Ontario Lottery and Gaming (OLG), told the same news conference that measures would include age and identity verification software.

“In its current form, Internet gaming in Ontario does not return proceeds to this province,” said Godfrey. “It does not offer ways to protect minors or ensure they’re not gambling online. It doesn’t offer tools to support players to control and limit their play.”

But John Peterson, a member of the Celebration Recovery Team at Lakeside Bible Church, is worried legalizing online gambling may further increase the likelihood of people developing a gambling addiction.

“Gambling has always been online,” says Peterson, himself a recovering gambling addict. “It’s the legitimization of it that is really concerning to me.

Coming from an addiction side of things, the coupling of anonymity and compulsion is toxic.”

Courtesy Alicia Grubb

Stephanie Tombari Special to ChristianWeek

1st Sunday night of each month at 6:30 PM Ottawa Church of God (1820 Carling Ave. Ottawa) Phone: (613) 729-3172 | www.ottawaocg.org

Activist seeks to aid Haitian orphans through art VANCOUVER, BC—Just after January’s powerful earthquake devastated Haiti, a rapper DJ in Atlanta, Georgia, called up Vancouver artist and community activist Stephanie Forster.

“He says, ‘I heard you’re a lady that knows how to get things done. Can’t you do anything for Haiti? You got to set something up,’” Forster recalls him saying. “He’s like, ‘I can tell you’re a real Christian. You call this pastor in Tennessee. You can trust him.’”

In 2008, Forster founded the Nehemiah Foundation as a way to generate funding for arts and cultural initiatives as a way to break down barriers between the poor and the rest of society.

“Last year, we had the most momentum in regards to actually finishing stuff that I had envisioned,” she says. “As a young person, it’s been amazing just to see how God moves when the season is right, when you’re obedient.”

Forster felt led to take up this latest challenge and soon got involved

Courtesy Peter Blackaby

Frank Stirk Special to ChristianWeek

More than nine months after the earthquake, rebuilding in many Haitian communities is only beginning.

in various efforts to deliver aid to the Haitian people. One project was a partnership with a Tennessee-based charity

to build Joshua’s Village, an orphanage for disabled children outside Portau-Prince that provides medical care, advocacy, education and life skills.

In May, the foundation held a major fundraiser for the project that brought together 60 local artists. And in July, Forster herself went to Haiti to, as she says, “meet the locals and find out who’s legitimate” and also film a documentary on the tragedy.

With Joshua’s Village nearing completion, Forster is now working on

opening a Vancouver-based online art gallery that would generate an ongoing revenue stream for Haitian artists—so that they in turn could be freed up to come alongside the orphans.

“The orphanage is one component, but the community that surrounds it is another, because those people work there,” she says. “And we need those people to…actually come in and work with the children on an ongoing basis.”

Vancouver artist Ron Sombilon came up with the idea. The plan is for the gallery he owns to digitally scan images of the artwork and reproduce them for sale in various sizes. It would handle all the shipping, printing and framing and disperse the profits.

Sombilon has similar ongoing projects in support of finding cures for cancer and juvenile diabetes.

“We’re definitely going to get other artists from around the world involved,” he says. “It’ll essentially be a global gallery online that has a purpose—and the purpose is to help people, raise funds and unify communities through art.”

Forster hopes to have the online

store up and running by the end of November. But that depends on whether they can find the necessary corporate sponsorships. “We want the corporations to pay for these services, so that the charity doesn’t have to,” Sombilon says.

More than nine months after the quake, many Haitians remain in extremely dire straits, says Peter Blackaby, a leader with the Canadian National Baptist Convention, who took a ministry team to Haiti in late August.

“There are people still sleeping in tents outside their homes, because they’re scared to go back in. Any park, any field, any plaza is now a tent city. You see people trying to open up a shop basically outside their tent on the street,” he says. “It looks like the earthquake happened yesterday.

The rubble is still lying in the streets in piles.”

“It’s a terrible situation. I’ve never seen anything like it. It took me a while to decompress afterwards,” says Forster. “A couple of ... natural storms and some of those people are going to be gone.”

Long-time director leaves MissionFest Toronto Robert White ChristianWeek Staff

TORONTO, ON—Jude Hodgson is out as executive director and Sharon Ganesh is in as MissionFest Toronto changes leadership.

“I [took] the summer off to re-evaluate,” says Hodgson, who

headed up the annual missions conference since July 2004. She says she knew in December 2009 that the 2010 event would be her last.

Hodgson began working for MissionFest Toronto in 2003 as the event coordinator after a stint as a senior director for Mary Kay Cosmetics. Hodgson

used her skills as an organizer and marketer to raise the MissionFest’s profile.

“The biggest challenge was bringing the whole body of Christ together,” says Hodgson.

“And there were always challenges financially—but it gave us great opportunities to be creative.”

“Jude paved the way by implementing creative ideas to build up the momentum and importance of MissionFest to this city and beyond,” says Ganesh.

She first approached Hodgson in 2006 to include a Mission in the Arts, Culture and Media seminar in the schedule. Hired that year as managing director, Ganesh took over as executive director August 1.

She’s continuing with the organization’s plans to invite

ministries, churches and individuals to become Friends of the Fest partners. And new initiatives for MissionFest Toronto 2011, themed “We’re All in This Together,” include MissionFest Film Nights with partnering churches and a Men on a Mission plenary with Luis Palau.

“Jude’s departure is felt by all. We will miss her, but know that the Lord is leading her into an exciting new direction in her

life,” says Ganesh.

Hodgson sees her departure as a time of transition.

“I’ll be waiting with God for what’s next,” says Hodgson. “I sense His heartbeat for lost all the time—the widows, orphans.

“Whatever comes along will probably be missional.”

And whatever comes will also connect Hodgson with people—which is what she’ll miss the most in leaving MissionFest Toronto.

Matthew House Ottawa opens for refugees Carolyn Girard

Carolyn Girard Special to ChristianWeek

OTTAWA, ON—After several years of planning and waiting, Matthew House Ottawa opened its doors last month.

The newly-renovated, centuryold farmhouse that sits on property owned by Bethany Baptist Church is now one of six like it in Ontario. The Matthew Houses provide short-term housing for up to 10 refugee claimants under the management of a board and ministry team of people from five churches in the Ottawa area.

“When we heard about Matthew House Ottawa, we knew an opportunity like this doesn’t come along often,” says Keith Dow. “We wanted to be involved however we could.”

Dow, his wife Darcie and their two young children will live at Matthew House full time.

“It’s difficult with two young children for us both to be involved in something outside the home every day, so we thought to ourselves ‘Why not live there?’”

The ministry team will take turns helping the Dows provide services such as ESL training,

2 • October 2010 •

Darcie and Keith Dow work on renovations for Matthew House Ottawa.

counselling, cooking support, transportation to and from appointments and moving residents into new homes and fellowship.

“This gives me hope for the future that we are a model of ministry.”

Mark Wyatt, a member of Bromley Road Baptist Church, hopes community members will open up their homes as an extension of Matthew House.

“We could also provide the

same kind of support for someone who lives in an apartment home, as someone who lives at Matthew House,” says Wyatt.

Wyatt’s wife Kim says extra motivation comes from knowing that a large percentage of refugee claimants would otherwise fall through the cracks.

“This gives me hope for the future that we are a model of ministry. The end goal is to continue this model so that other refugee claimants that come can have a safe place to get started,” she says.

To find out more visit www. matthewhouseottawa.ca

Short-term missionary tests her mettle in Middle East “I’ve really felt God giving me a sense of love and care for these women.”

Lutherans seek renewal, form new denomination Mags Storey Ontario Correspondent

Rowena Chow (fourth from left) with her ESL class in Jordan.

Scott Cressman Special to ChristianWeek

TORONTO, ON—Instead of taking a vacation this summer, Rowena Chow traveled to Jordan to help Muslim women fit Jesus into their Middle East culture.

Chow, who attends Rexdale Alliance Church in Toronto, decided to go when every aspect fell into place: prayer, time off work and her interest in Middle Eastern lands.

“It wasn’t one big step, it was a series of small steps,” she says.

Starting in June, she spent one month teaching English

and making friends. She and her team, sent by Arab World Ministries, wanted to help people see Jesus while respecting Arab culture. What drew her to the country was its hospitality and love of family, she says.

Adjusting to the new culture was a challenge. Chow lived outside Jordan’s capital city, Amman, where she couldn’t walk alone at night and where misconceptions about foreigners are common. Team members from the U.S., U.K., Ireland and Canada learned to embrace new customs.

In Jordan, spending time with people became more

important than working to finish a job. Chow, who describes herself as task-oriented, had to learn to be more relational.

But she felt God also affirmed her gifts as a person who gets things done and supports the team behind the scenes.

“You can’t go to that culture and not come away changed,” she said. “It’s all about relationships.”

The Arab World Ministries team found it stretching to follow Jesus’ command from Luke 10, travelling in groups of two while relying on the hospitality of strangers.

“It’s just an incredibly hospitable culture,” says Chow. “We

were invited in for feasts, so much food that you could not eat [it all].

“There are no walls between people,” she says. “There’s an openness and trust.”

Chow still remains in contact with some of the Jordanian women she met. “I’ve really felt God giving me a sense of love and care for these women.”

Chow says the trip helped her become bolder in her faith, and she wants to stay involved with ministry to Muslim women.

“All you really need to do is be available. God provides the heart, desire, courage, the prayer. Everything is provided.”

Leave your comfort zone and cross the street Gary Cymbaluk Special to ChristianWeek

BURLINGTON, ON—Are you ready to step out of your comfort zone and walk across the street?

This is a question David Macfarlane, director of National Initiatives for the Billy Graham Association of Canada, has asked many times over the last five years at the annual Cross the Street evangelism conference.

He’s convinced this is the kind of conference pastors should encourage their congregations to attend so people get fired up about fulfilling the mission of the local church.

“The conference is held on a Saturday because this is a conference designed for laypeople,” says Macfarlane.

Eight different partner organizations have come together

to make this year’s conference a reality that includes keynote and plenary sessions. Speakers include Claude Houde, pastor of Nouvelle Vie Church in Montreal.

Nouvelle Vie feeds 8,000 people every month through a grocery “store” on its property. The endeavour looks and operates like a supermarket with aisles, deep-freezers and grocery carts.

The church raises $8 million each year to foot the bill, and gives excess food to other agencies and ministries in the area.

“I want to encourage everyone to put an end to this dichotomy of thinking that this is spiritual ministry here and social ministry there. When we express action as the body of Christ, God’s hand is upon us,” says Houde.

Another Canadian speaker at the event is Kevin Shepherd,

lead pastor of Glad Tidings Church, and host for the 2010 conference.

“This is an opportunity that allows us to come together with other compassionate believers and sharpen our effectiveness in demonstrating the love of Jesus to all people,” says Shepherd.

By inspiring people towards reaching out to their friends and neighbours, the

conference organizers hope to have a Kingdom impact.

“If people love their friends and neighbours, this conference will equip them with tools to reach out to them in fresh ways—and in a Canadian context,” says Macfarlane.

Cross the Street takes place October 16 at Glad Tidings Church in Burlington. For more information visit www.billygraham.ca.

EDMONTON, AB—Some Canadian Lutherans are looking south of the border as 18 American churches form a new denomination dedicated to upholding “confessional principles.”

The North American Lutheran Church (NALC) was founded at the annual convocation of the Lutheran CORE, a coalition of individuals, churches and groups dedicated to seeking the renewal of the church through upholding sound scriptural principles and the Lutheran Confession.

CORE director Mark Chavez says a number of congregations requested help in forming the new denomination, due in part to last year’s decision by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) to allow the ministry of gay and lesbian clergy.

Founding churches come from across the United States and an additional 200 American congregations have begun the process to join them.

A handful of Canadian churches are also expressing interest. While the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) twice defeated a similar motion on the issue of allowing gay and lesbian clergy, many believe the issue will be brought back to vote.

“A lot of us believe it’s time to move on,” says Karl Johnsen, pastor of Calvary Evangelical Lutheran Church in Edmonton.

“Hopefully we can do this in a spirit of Christian charity to one another.”

Calvary recently voted to leave the ELCIC and is currently an independent Lutheran church. They will vote on joining NALC in November.

“A number of us have been concerned about the direction that the ELCIC and the ELCA have been taking,” says Johnsen, who is also a member of the CORE steering committee. “It’s a revisionist direction, which is manifested most recently in the blessing of same-sex unions.

“The issue is a symptom of a larger disease,” he adds.

“The real issue is the authority of Scripture and its teaching of the Church.” Comparing it to heresies that affected the early church, Johnsen says the decision to condone homosexuality goes against “2,000 years of Christianity and 500 years of Lutheranism.”

He stresses that Martin Luther taught one must look to the external, unchanging word of God as the source of right and wrong, and not one’s internal convictions.

“Luther says the justification by grace through faith is the article by which the Church stands or falls,” Johnsen says. “There is a different gospel at work here, one that does not speak of justification, but speaks of wordly justice.

One that does not speak of salvation and redemption as it does of inclusion.”

In Canada, individual Lutheran congregations own their church properties. Therefore departing congregations will not face potential property battles similar to those which have plagued Anglican churches in recent years.

Chavez adds that the Lutheran CORE will also seek to help those who join NALC stay in fellowship and communion with like-minded Lutherans who have not currently chosen to leave the ELCA and ELCIC. “We want to make sure they have a way of connecting with other Lutherans who submit to the authority of God’s work over all matters of faith and life,” he says.

The new denomination also plans to include congregations in Mexico and the Caribbean.

“The real power comes from God. We often suffer but are never crushed. Even when we don’t know what to do, we never give up. God is always with us.”

2 Corinthians 4

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Great is the glory of the Lord!

• October 2010 • 3

On the Record

Provocations Rights and principles in a time of fear and anger

S

eptember 11 came and went with more than the usual rites of remembrance this year. A war of words and clash of symbols dominated the proceedings, despite the best efforts of many to remember the victims of the infamous 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. It was a time of over-heated rhetoric and vitriol even as most sought simply to honour those who died in rescue attempts and renew the solidarity of a nation in a time of testing.

Instead it was a season of provocation, where a small number of citizens in a free society belligerently asserted their rights of free speech and claimed the prerogatives of religious liberty. And the media took notice, making the controversies the primary story.

The building of a Muslim mosque near Ground Zero, the very site of attacks perpetrated in the name of Islam, is a provocation of sorts. This is not to say that the people involved in this project believe that Islam justifies the events of that day. They don’t, and the centre could conceivably help to allay religious tensions by modeling a better way.

But it is also insensitive to select that bit of land for an Islamic worship and community centre. The choice is legal, but it is also certain to stir emotions and elicit anger. The Cordoba project, as it’s been dubbed, will be seen throughout the world as a symbol of the Islamic conquest of Christian lands. Is it legal? Yes. Is it wise? Not if the goal involves peace and stability.

And then along came Terry Jones, an obscure pastor of a miniscule congregation with a plan to burn copies of the Qur’an. His YouTube video went viral and an eager media fanned the flames of his anger into a global image of Christian desecration of Islam’s holy book. His act was clearly provocative. Yet Jones too was within his rights. Was he wise? Hard to see how.

His provocations were met with near unanimous disapproval from every quarter—from the highest levels of government and military to virtually every prominent Christian leader, liberal and conservative, including those most critical of Islam, such as Franklin Graham. In a typical statement, the Canadian Network of Ministries to Muslims issued a press release saying “these actions are inconsistent with the teachings of the Bible and the spirit of Christian ministry. These proposed actions are an inappropriate way to show any solidarity or concern for victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.”

Rein in the renegades

The Christian stampede to rein in a renegade highlights an appalling double standard that contrasts the privileges of freedom in the West with more restrictive circumstances elsewhere in the world. As World Evangelical Alliance international director Geoff Tunnicliffe puts it, “Speaking out strongly against the proposed burning of Qur’ans was the right thing to do and we warmly welcome the unanimous condemnation from politicians, religious leaders and the global media in this case.

“As we consider the outcry against this one small, obscure group, we now plead that the world’s leaders and media demonstrate the same kind of outspoken condemnation when radical actions on an equal or larger scale are committed against Christians. The list of violent acts committed against Christians in recent years goes on and on—brutal killings in Orissa, the burning of New Testaments in Israel, the assassination of pastors in Sri Lanka,” says Tunnicliffe.

“It will be interesting to see how the world responds to such scenarios in the future. Will leaders react with the same kind of justifiable outrage as they have against the proposed burning of the Qur’an? If so, will they have the courage to speak up, not only out of some concern for reciprocity or a fear of repercussions, but simply because it is the right thing to do?”

Doing the right thing is the Christian thing to do. This means, among other things, that we will love our neighbours and behave towards others in the same way we would appreciate them treating us. It means loving our enemies and doing good to those who hate us. It means blessing those who curse us and praying for those who mistreat us. It means resisting the urge to provoke others to wrath, even when it is within our rights.

— Doug Koop

Worship Matters

How good is “good enough?”

Good intentions without the talent a hindrance to corporate worship Michael Krahn ChristianWeek Columnist Michael.krahn@gmail.com

E

very time a church music director receives a suggestion from a congregant about a new music team member, there’s a bit of a twist in our stomachs. I need to say this bluntly: non-musicians are not good judges of musical ability.

They typically underestimate the amount of skill and diligence required to play in the setting demanded by most churches. They also often assume that if someone is judged to be “not good enough” then the music director’s standards must be too high, the thinking being that anyone with some ability and a lot of good intentions should be given a spot on stage.

Newer musicians themselves often overestimate the state of their own development. Their actual musical ability is often far less than what they perceive it to be.

My response is usually this: There is no other aspect of corporate worship that is abandoned to people with good intentions alone—why music?

So when the situation arises, music directors are often set up for a bit of an awkward conversation.

Musical people generally fall into one of the four following categories: Beginner: This person has probably recently taken up an interest in singing or a musical instrument. At this stage there is a lot of excitement but very little self-awareness of competence.

Beginners often bail when the going gets tough, when the process of learning becomes more difficult than they

thought it would be.

Amateur: The amateur musician has persevered through the beginner stage and is becoming aware of their place in the spectrum of competence. This is still somewhat of a probationary stage, but this when they are probably ready to begin playing a small role in corporate worship. Pushed forward too soon however, it can shatter both confidence and the quality of the worship service itself.

Competent: A competent musician is a confident musician. At this stage they’re past having to look at their fingers at each chord change, for example. Having attained this level of competence, they are now ready to start playing a more prominent role in corporate worship, perhaps even to lead a team of their own.

Professional: If you live in a larger urban centre you may have access to musicians who make their living playing or singing in a professional band or recording studio in the area. These people can be a great blessing to a music director if they have a good attitude.

Sometimes however, professionals are prone to adopt the ways of the culture of idolization in which they spend the majority of their time. If this is the attitude of a professional you have access to, choose not to access their talent.

There is one more category that I won’t name but will draw attention to: the competent or professional level musician who is a congregation member and a musician in addition to being music snob. (I’ve spent my share of time playing this role.) They attend services and judge what’s happening on stage to be “okay,” but they could certainly do better. So much better in fact that they won’t embarrass everyone else by making themselves known. Until that attitude is set aside, this type of person is of no use to you.

When joining as a new musician, regardless of your level competence, making a first impression as someone who is humble will go a long way with your fellow team members. It also acts as a deterrent to the idolization that people in our culture seem more than willing engage in when they’re impressed by anyone on a stage.

Don’t give them opportunity to do so by appearing to bask in their adoration.

If you become the focus it means that someone more important—Jesus, the one you’re supposed to be leading them to worship—is not.

Our standards can indeed be too high, and they are too high when they impede competent musicians from serving God with their talents. If an occasional off note is all it takes to keep someone from worshiping God, the problem likely isn’t with the singer.

But our standards are too low when we allow incompetent musicians to deter others from worshiping God. When we do this we put the congregation in the unenviable position of attempting to engage in worship while being led by someone with a lack of training or ability. We also set the unqualified musician up for embarrassment. Better a truthful word in private than an obvious embarrassment in public.

Having said that, we should not seek to “professionalize” our corporate worship services. Anyone who has attained the level competence required to avoid being a distraction should be put to use.

And those who have not attained this level, and are willing to work toward that end, should receive the training they require.

Michael Krahn is a husband, father, pastor, writer and recording artist who enjoys books, theology, technology and the Ottawa Senators. Read more at www.michaelkrahn.com/blog.

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Canada Today

Lawyer-judge couple caught in bizarre affair Christian charity helps vulnerable recover from Pakistan floods

ChristianWeek Columnist

jeppbuck@hotmail.com

Q. When is your private life not private?

A. When it gets posted on the Internet.

T

Geoffery P. Johnston ChristianWeek Columnist

R

Courtesy cbm

elentless monsoon rains have caused the worst flooding in Pakistan’s history, affecting an estimated 20 million people in the south Asian country. As the human suffering in the Muslim-majority nation worsens, Christian charity cbm is providing humanitarian assistance to tens of thousands of the most vulnerable flood victims.

“Millions of people forced to flee their homes because of the flooding are now returning to find their homes destroyed or damaged, their cattle lost or dead, their crops destroyed and all their possessions lost,” says Brian Hatchell, cbm’s emergency communications coordinator.

The mission of the Christian non-governmental organization (NGO) is to help people in the developing world who find themselves ensnared in a cycle of poverty and disability. Assistance is offered regardless of religion, race, gender or age.

According to cbm Canada, the charity’s current humanitarian efforts in Pakistan are focused “on helping people with disabilities and people most at risk of being disabled as a result of this disaster.”

The scale of the disaster in Pakistan is unprecedented, says cbm’s man in the field.

“I have responded to some of the largest humanitarian crises, such as the Asian tsunami and the Haiti earthquake to name the most recent, and this is by far the worst disaster I have ever seen, simply because of the widespread damage, the number of people affected and the poten- A patient receives medical care from a cbm team. tially long-lasting impact on the national economy,” Hatchell writes in an e-mail sent from Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan. He is there meeting with representatives of cbm’s partner organization, Comprehensive Health and Education Forum (CHEF).

Together the NGOs are providing clean drinking water, food, shelter, medical services and medicines to more than 15,000 people with disabilities and their families in the communities of Cheena, Mizader and Shinkay.

Cbm and CHEF plan to assist in the rebuilding of 1,000 homes and three schools destroyed by the floods in those three communities. The construction of a new hospital is also a major priority.

“The regional government has also asked cbm/CHEF to expand our current programs to assist another 10,000 people in three other communities in the north—Muslimabad, Syedabad and Agra,” writes Hatchell.

Cbm is active in other communities in northern Pakistan, cooperating with local organizations, including the Diocese of Peshawar, which is distributing basic food items such as beans and rice, as well as cooking utensils and other essential non-food items.

The ongoing crisis is particularly hard on Pakistan’s children.

“You will not find one child in the flood affected areas of Pakistan that hasn’t been affected by the disaster,” says Hatchell.

“I have seen some children who are clearly dealing with emotional trauma from the flooding,” he writes. “I have seen others who have physical injuries both minor and more serious that will require rehabilitation and even assistive devices such as wheelchairs.”

The floods have brought an abrupt end to education for many children.

Many schools in the flood zones were destroyed or have been converted into temporary shelters for displaced persons, making it impossible for children in those areas to attend school.

“When they return home many children won’t have a chance to return to school,” Hatchell warns, “because they will be too busy helping their families rebuild their homes, plant, tend to and harvest a new crop so the family has some source of income and can get back on their feet.”

For the past 30 years, cbm has been actively helping the poor and persons with disabilities in Pakistan. And the Christian NGO remains committed to Pakistan.

The immediate goal of cbm, explains Hatchell, is to “continue to support 25,000 flood survivors with food, water, shelter, medical services while helping them rebuild their homes and plant crops over the next six months while they get their lives back on track.”

Geoffrey P. Johnston is an independent journalist backed in eastern Ontario.

Janet Epp Buckingham

his answer is obvious to most of us, but apparently not to the Associate Chief Justice (ACJ) of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Manitoba, Lori Douglas, and her lawyer husband, Jack King. Recently Douglas was granted a leave of absence from her post after a former client of her husband made public his complaint that King had solicited him as a sex partner for his wife.

The former client, Alexander Chapman, alleges that King showed him nude photos of his wife and told him about a website where more photos were posted, showing Douglas in compromising sexual poses. Douglas says the photos were posted without her knowledge.

The whole thing is completely sordid, fodder for the tabloids. Except that it is about lawyers and judges, people who advocate for and decide questions of people’s rights and responsibilities. While Canadians do not have a high regard for lawyers, they do for judges, which is a little strange considering that the main criteria to be a judge is to have been a lawyer for at least 10 years.

In this bizarre Douglas-King-Chapman affair (no pun intended), Chapman made a complaint to the Law Society of Manitoba and to the Canadian Judicial Council (CJC), the latter of which investigates judges in Canada for inappropriate behaviour.

When the story surfaced, commentators argued that Douglas should have included this information in her application to be a judge. One question on the 13-page application reads: “Is there anything in your past or present which could reflect negatively on yourself or the judiciary?” If there is, you are to provide a detailed explanation. Prior to becoming a judge, Douglas was also subject to her professional code of ethics and as virtually

every other professional, be it teacher, nurse, accountant or lawyer, you can be disciplined by your professional association for “conduct unbecoming” that profession.

We have seen some over-zealous application of professional codes. Take Chris Kempling, a teacher in Quesnel, B.C., who was disciplined by the B.C. College of Teachers for “conduct unbecoming ” after publishing letters in the local newspaper expressing concerns about how high schools were directing students to inappropriate gay organizations without parental knowledge or consent.

Saskatchewan practical nurse Bill Whatcott was disciplined by his professional body for handing out graphic pro-life materials under this same “conduct unbecoming” section. This was later overturned by a court.

Still, if the standard has become one where you can be disciplined for publishing letters to the editor or handing out flyers, why would posting inappropriate sexually explicit photos on a website be exempt? Your private life becomes public when it is posted on the Internet. Douglas would not the first person to have compromising photos posted without her consent.

It will be up to the Canadian Judicial Council, comprised of all the chief justices and associate chief justices from courts across Canada, to decide if Douglas should be removed as a judge. If the Judicial Council finds that Douglas did not complete her application for appointment to Canada’s judiciary in a manner that fully and frankly disclosed things that reflect negatively on herself or the judiciary, the judge faces an uncertain future. Moreover, any new applicants for judgeships will also have to take a deep look into their personal and professional lives before applying.

This complaint will no doubt wind its way through the appropriate official channels. Meanwhile, the Manitoba Bar Association, which represents lawyers in that province, has raised a complaint against the CBC, which broke the story, accusing them of tabloid journalism. Of course, the problem is the story itself. It is not every day that lawyers and judges expose themselves in such a provocative and titillating fashion.

Janet Epp Buckingham is the director of the Laurentian Leadership Centre, the Ottawa program of Trinity Western University.

Letter From the Editor

Milestones, gemstones, living stones

I

n the midst of a two-week vacation at the Doug Koop end of August, Editorial Director Margaret and I dkoop@christianweek.org celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. Thirty years is a milestone worth marking. Neither of us had been alive for that long when we first uttered our wedding vows, pledging enduring love and fidelity “as long as we both shall live.” While the words flowed easily from our lips back in 1980, life since then has been an ongoing discovery of what they actually mean.

Here’s a curious thing. When the topic of our anniversary arose, a wide variety of people—a neighbour, a friend, a relative, a storekeeper—all responded in the same way. “Thirty years,” they said. “That’s rare these days.” Now, I don’t for a minute think this accomplishment is particularly uncommon, but it’s true that many marriages do not last this long. Living intimately with another person can be—often is—very demanding.

Our life together has entailed its fair share of ups and downs, of struggles and successes. We flourish at times and flounder at others. We’re proud of our children, who are now fully independent. We live with disease and manage our uncertainties.

Thirty years. We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

We are often kind and sometimes cruel. By God’s grace we’ve remained grateful for each other and committed for the long haul.

For as long as we’ve been married we’ve marked our anniversary by re-reciting the vows we composed for our wedding day. The concepts become more firmly embedded as the decades roll by, although the words seem a little more elusive each year, flickering in and out of focus like the shadow of leaves in a sunny afternoon breeze.

Earlier this summer we noticed my wedding band is wearing out. It’s been getting really thin and misshapen in places (not entirely unlike its owner). So Margaret decided to get me a new one. We found it in a small jewelry store in Canmore. It’s a broad silver band featuring three ammolite stones, not a plain, narrow gold one like the original. In sunlight it sparkles varying degrees of green, red and amber. I like it very much. It symbolizes everything we have had in our relationship—and more.

I say more because this year we weren’t just content to remember and renew our existing vows. This milestone marks yet another stage in our lives, and we wanted to restate our mutual commitment to meet whatever demands might come our way; to embrace our future with a clear sense of direction and a firm set of priorities. Anniversary is not just a time to remember; it’s an opportunity to renew and refocus.

We haven’t fully written our renewed vows just yet, but we know they will be constructed on the foundation we’ve already established. We know we want this next stage of our relationship to be filled with joyful companionship distinguished by an ever-deepening contentment with our circumstances and each other. And increasingly we realize that our lives are not just about ourselves in the immediate here and now; that our choices at this stage leave lasting ripples throughout our circles of influence.

Among other things, Margaret and I have agreed and determined that worshiping and serving God must continue to be an important—even defining—feature of our lives. Some of this significance is symbolized in a new ring whose lightlively gemstones are an enduring reminder of a few words from the apostle Peter, who compares Christian believers to “living stones”—stones that need to let themselves “be built into a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:5).

— Doug Koop

• October 2010 • 5

Men’s organization keeps promises for 15 years MISSISSAUGA, ON—After a strong beginning, a near death experience and a resurrection, Promise Keepers Canada celebrates its 15th anniversary this year.

“We were the first international expansion of Promise Keepers based out of the States,” recalls Promise Keepers Canada president Kirk Giles.

At that time, Promise Keepers in the U.S. was filling stadiums with 80,000 men and gracing the cover of Time magazine.

Giles, a Promise Keepers Canada staff member for 14 years, says a group of Canadian men caught Promise Keepers’ vision. They launched a Canadian branch complete with its own staff, leadership and ministry model.

“We were on our own to make this fly in Canada.”

And fly it did as arenas filled with men wanting to learn what it was like to be a man of God. And then it crashed.

“Towards the late 1990s some things started to happen with the ministry in the States that caused some financial distress,” says Giles. “And the same thing happened here.

“We were, at one point, on our last

Robert White

Robert White ChristianWeek Staff

Robin Mark leads worship at a Promise Keepers Canada conference.

legs. We should have been considered bankrupt as an organization but God stepped in and provided us with funding to clear our debt and to move us forward.”

By 2000 Promise Keepers Canada

was back on its financial feet. And under the leadership of David Sweet, who took over as president in the late 1990s, the organization changed direction. Leadership began to ask, “How do we walk with men throughout the

year so men are making the best impact possible in the world?”

“We recognize events are a great experience for men,” says Giles, recalling the transition. “But we also recognize Monday morning happens.”

Modern students learn from ancient communities

“How can we learn from those who have gone before?”

Robert White ChristianWeek Staff

KITCHENER, ON—A tour through ancient communities may help Emmanuel Bible College (EBC) students create a modern community.

“I’m interested what parallels from monasticism we can use to strengthen and build up the community that’s part of our Christian learning communities today,” says EBC’s former dean of students Karen Cornies.

EBC staff, students and those simply interested in the monastic

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experience will visit three main areas in France between October 19 and 31. Avignon is the site of one of the oldest monasteries in France while Taizé is the most recognized contemporary expression of monasticism in the country. The group will also visit two of the region’s most popular cathedrals in Paris.

The idea for the trip began four years ago when EBC students and Cornies visited the Iona community in Scotland.

“They asked us where our next trip would be and if we’d consider going to Taizé,” says Cornies who has been a student life coordinator at four Canadian university colleges—most recently Redeemer University College in Ancaster.

Iona is only one of the many monasteries Cornies has visited.

Describing a “pull” or “calling” towards these places, Cornies has also visited monastic communities in England and Ireland.

“When we talk about Christian community we often talk about it in terms of Christian community today and we don’t have the historical grounding or the depth of understanding of what that means,” says Cornies. “The core of my role is to build up communities and the students that are part of that learning environment.

“My quest to learn more about monastics was to try and deepen my understanding of what do we mean when we say we’re a Christian community. How can we learn from those who have gone before?”

Some of the students are enrolled in EBC’s course Western Christian Monasticism Then and Now. Cornies says for their final project they’ll take their experiences from the tour, specifically in Taizé, and lead a Taizé worship service at the college.

For details on the trip visit www.emmanuelbiblecollege.ca/Tour.aspx

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6 • October 2010 •

Giles’ immediate predecessor, Ron Hannah, helped Promise Keepers Canada “go to that next level of establishing, even further across the country, this idea of walking with men.”

Now, through Discipleship Training Unleashed, the Wise Choices program, regional and national conferences and partnership with nearly 900 Canadian churches, Promise Keepers Canada provides the resources to “ignite, equip and help men make an impact,” says Giles.

And the ministry still holds stadium events. This year’s November 12 and 13 event builds on the theme “Legacy.”

Held at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, the conference will feature: retired NFL player and author of Do Something Miles McPherson; sex doctor Doug Weiss, Men are Like Waffles, Women are Like Spaghetti author Bill Farrel; pastor and naval chaplain Lennett Anderson (one of MacLean’s magazine’s “Heroes of the Cross”) and Urban Promise Founder and author (Beautiful Disappointment and Red Letter Revolution) Colin McCartney.

Coming back to help lead worship is perennial favourite Robin Mark.

For more information e-mail events@ promisekeepers.ca or call (888) 901-9700.

Gambling

At the time Peterson became addicted to gambling he was a leader in Continued from page 6 Celebration Recovery—a Christian support program which helps people address “hurts, habits and hang-ups” including addictions like pornography, alcohol, drugs and gambling.

He says while being in leadership exacerbated his drive to hide the addiction, having to physically drive to a local casino—a full hour off his normal route—helped provide some of the needed accountability to address it.

Online sports sites such as Ladbrokes allows gamblers to place bets from anywhere in the world.

“Making the effort to physically go to a casino building is a limiting factor,” he says. “You do have to actually wander around at a casino and make contact with people, which I can’t see happening online.

“There are people watching you. I had a few cashiers who were quite helpful to me (in overcoming the addiction). There were people who actually suggested to me that I go home. Whenever you win a large amount of money over a period of time you need security to validate who you are, so your driver’s licence comes out… There are all these layers of security and reminders that time has passed.”

Even so, Peterson says an estimated 10 per cent of gamblers suffer from gambling addiction, and he’s concerned that with the province’s legalization of gambling those numbers may rise.

“Online gambling lacks that human connection—similar to online pornography,” he says. “When there is the combination of total access and the privacy of your own home, it’s a recipe for disaster.

“But on the Celebration Recovery side—I want people to know there is hope for people wanting to recover from addictions and past hurts.”

Ontario is now the third province to announce the legalization of online gambling, following British Columbia and Quebec. Nova Scotia is expected to follow suit later this fall. It’s estimated online gaming could net about $100 million annually for the province.

Focus on Seminary

Inside

page 8 Who will teach the next

generation? page 9 Talking to presidents page 11 Seminary directory

Wrong time. Wrong place.

Wrong courses.

A professor of world Christianity discusses some dangers of the unconverted seminary.

Scott W. Sunquist Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

I

am caught in a dilemma. I am an active participant in the decline of Christianity in the West.

I teach in a seminary, preparing pastors, priests and preachers who leave our sacred halls and try (among other things) to reverse the trends of western Christendom.

Frankly, we are not doing very well.

What strikes me most about Protestant theological education is not that it follows the academy in terms of method, medium and mood. I am not overwhelmed even by those occasions when I encounter the lack of genuine faith, ignorance of basic Christian doctrine, or lack of honest submission to the text (all of which would be good to have).

No, what strikes me as odd here in the 21st century is that our seminaries are still teaching as if the Reformation were the pivotal point of all of Protestant Christianity.

It isn’t.

In fact, the Reformation was an in-house argument— Christians arguing with other Christians about what it means to be the true, or a truer church.

That was the context and

for 500 years we have been preparing people to defend why they and their church got the Reformation correct.

As one student asked in a history class: “Professor, you mean to tell me that churches were splitting over the exact words to use to describe what happens in communion?” I confidently responded, “Absolutely. People were dying and killing each other over these important matters.” And that was his point. “I can’t imagine that,” he told me. “That was a whole different world, and frankly, I have a much bigger vision of the Christian church today.”

Dramatic changes

The entire world is changing dramatically in many ways. But a key transformation we need to consider is that Christianity is actually a foreign religion to most North Americans today. Most people on our continent do not attend church. And what Please see Changes on page 10

• October 2010 • 7

Focus on Seminary

Who will pastor and teach the next generation of Christians?

Shelley Campagnola is deeply concerned about ministry training for the contemporary situation in Canada Designpics Image

Doug Koop ChristianWeek Staff

W

hen Shelley Campagnola was finishing high school she was uncertain about the next stage of her life.

Like many students with higher education ambitions, she was broke. And while she’d been praying about how she might serve God, she hadn’t told many people about her situation. The idea of Bible college wasn’t even on her radar screen.

However, at that very time the president of a Bible school visited her church to speak at a Sunday evening service.

Campagnola recalls that she’d been praying about her future, and “the next day in church the president was there.” She remembers trying to get past him, but “he grabbed me and said ‘I’ll see you at college this fall.’”

And indeed, she did go to that school. She earned a degree at London Bible College and then went on to further secular and ministry training.

Campagnola tells this story to highlight her passion—the need for Christians to transfer the faith to a new generation that is properly trained and nurtured, and then released to continue the task of mission.

Shelley Campagnola.

Many new leaders are unprepared for what awaits them in their congregations, says Shelley Campagnola.

While much of her expertise and experience is in children’s and women’s ministries, the mother of three teenagers has put together a wide-ranging career that involves working on staff at a church, running her own consulting business, teaching, writing, presenting seminars, conducting leadership studies and academic research.

She currently serves as adjunct professor of Church Ministries at Heritage College and Seminary in Cambridge, Ontario. And she chairs

the “Child in Church and Culture Partnership” in conjunction with the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC).

Leadership issues

Campagnola’s research is delivering some sobering results. She is deeply concerned that evangelically aligned churches in Canada will soon be facing a leadership dearth.

And a key factor is the indifference of churches and many leaders towards biblical training and vocational ministry.

She points to an Ipsos-

Reid survey conducted for the Christian Higher Education Canada (CHEC) in 2007.

Campagnola crunched the numbers. She reports that only 10 per cent of “dedicated evangelical youth” (youth who attend church weekly) are attending CHEC institutions (35 schools with a total of 17,100 students).

And only 12 per cent of the students at CHEC are training for ministry of any kind.

If roughly half of those 2,100 students are training specifically for church

ministry, that means just over 1,000 students are currently in the process of learning to equip people for mature Christian worship, service, community and witness.

What does this bode for the leadership of congregations in Canada? “If we only consider the 6,000 churches affiliated with the EFC, there is one student training for vocational ministry for every six of those churches. But, there are approximately 20,000 churches in Canada that are evangelically aligned, which means there is one student currently in training for every 20 churches.”

Campagnola is happy to see leaders being raised up within churches. “But if they’re not getting theological training—if that aspect stays entirely in house—it tends to get watered down. And if we’re not replacing educated leaders, we need better partnerships between the church and other training environments to renew a passion for training.”

What needs to change?

Several things need to change. One is the value that congregations attach to pastoral ministry. Many young people—including serious and dedicated Christians—are opting for the kind of education that leads to better jobs and better pay. “This doesn’t mean they’ve lost the desire for ministry,” says Campagnola.

“But church work often pays poorly. Kids want to minister, but they want better resources and they don’t see that happening by working in a church.” The antidote, she says, isn’t to pooh-pooh secular education but to promote the value of biblical training and to encourage young people to take gateway programs

8 • October 2010 •

at Christian institutions to provide solid biblical training before their professional training.

Some of the types of schooling also need to change. “Much training has become very academic,” says Campagnola. Ministry preparation needs to involve an increasing emphasis on relational development and spiritual formation. “Courses on spiritual disciplines and formation courses is one thing,” she says, “but we need them connected with a mentor for the entire time they’re here. There’s a new call for that.

“Leaders across the country are unprepared spiritually for what hits them in congregations.

We teach them to run programs and preach a message, but they don’t know how to deal with people.

How do we equip them to do the people work, not just the technical work?”

Campagnola also observes that few churches and ministry groups are handling leadership transitions very well. “We need to recognize that leaders don’t just show up on the scene; they’re people you’ve been investing in for some time, like the minor leagues of baseball.

Ideally we’ve been grooming them so they’re ready when it’s time to go.”

Alas, the church draft doesn’t have a minor league system to draw on. However, there are lots of potential leaders begging to be mentored, taken under wing.

But senior leaders are unequipped or don’t have the time. “Churches don’t give senior leaders time,” says Campagnola.

“The corporate approach to church has robbed us of this capacity.

“It has to be churches and schools together,” she continues. Which brings us back to Campagnola’s story of the Bible college president who came to her church and invited her to his school. “Many churches never have these kinds of people in, leaders who encourage people to go get some training; people who will ask pastors if they are sending anyone for us to train.”

Who will do this work?

Focus on Seminary Talking to presidents

ChristianWeek connected with several Canadian seminary presidents and asked them a single, straightforward question: What makes your seminary effective? Here’s what they had to say:

ACTS Seminaries

What makes ACTS effective? At the risk of sounding “preacher-esque,” at least three factors come to mind.

First, God has given us quality people. ACTS is blessed with gifted, competent, committed faculty and an excellent staff team. We are also privileged to work with keen, motivated, mature students who provide a rich peer learning environment.

A second key ingredient is partnership. ACTS is a consortium of seminaries that partner together in theological education. We value cooperation as a practical resource, and as a Christian virtue. This mindset has resulted in strong working relationships within TWU and with our denominations, churches and other ministry agencies.

Finally, it is impossible to talk about ministry effectiveness without reference to prayer—and all the dimensions of faith and obedience that prayer represents. This is not a cliché for us. We are conscious of our need for God’s transforming, enabling grace, and we appreciate the prayers of many who support us.

Ken Radant Principal and Academic Dean, ACTS Seminaries (Trinity Western University) Langley, B.C.

Briercrest Seminary

Briercrest Seminary is unique in the Canadian seminary landscape in that most of our courses for our Master’s programs are offered either in one-week modular classes or through independent distance learning.

This allows many people in ministry or professional positions to pursue an accredited, graduate-level theological education without having to leave their current employment.

It also ensures that most classes are made up of students who have seasoned experience.

In fact, many students testify to the richness of learning not only from their professors and course work, but also from their peers.

Finally, for those who do choose to come to Briercrest Seminary for full-time study, Caronport offers a family-friendly community with Christian education in walking distance for every member of the family, including Caronport Elementary School (K-8), Caronport High School (9-12) and Briercrest College (offering 11 BA degrees).

prepare not only effective evangelical leaders for the church but also Christian leaders who stand out within the academy of society.

Imagine the impact laypeople can have on the world around them, and within their work, as they develop biblical literacy and theological understanding. Or what about the impact well-trained evangelical scholars can have on thinking within the academy today?

What makes MacDiv so effective today is its intentional focus on training Christian leaders for the church, academy and society.

Stanley E. Porter President and Dean, McMaster Divinity College Hamilton, ON

Regent College

While institutional effectiveness can easily focus activities, at Regent College—an international graduate school of Christian studies—we prefer to see our strength as being related to whom God brings to us.

With only 35 per cent of our students coming from Canada, we are very blessed every year with a diverse and international student body. As a school that has taken the whole people of God seriously for over 40 years, we believe that no occupation is outside the realm of “ministry,” and thus every career requires biblical and theological training.

When students come to Regent, they join a competent collegium of faculty and a dedicated staff team, and together we form a community of faith. Ultimately, our effectiveness may have more to do with the equality of our students, staff and faculty than anything that any of us do.

Rod Wilson President, Regent College Vancouver, B.C.

Please see Presidents on page 11

Dwayne Uglem President, Briercrest Seminary Caronport, SK

Canadian Mennonite University

Canadian Mennonite University graduate programs in Theological Studies and Christian Ministry are church-related, broadly based and student-centred.

Faculty members bring extraordinary dedication, wisdom and experience to the classroom context. They are dedicated to scholarship, yet most have been involved in pastoral leadership or service assignments at home or overseas. They regularly serve in churches across Canada, engaging with conference leaders, pastors and congregations. An advisory council of church representatives ensures that the needs of the church are addressed.

Further breadth and depth is provided to the programs by offering them in collaboration with other universities and seminaries. Visiting professors from across Canada and the United States contribute from their own strengths to the program.

Our programs are flexible with student needs and challenges in mind. Students come with a variety of objectives, life situations and experiences. I think we do exceptionally well in keeping our programs student-centred.

Gerald Gerbrandt President, Canadian Mennonite University Winnipeg, MB Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary

We purpose to train God-called men and women for 21st century leadership in tough places. We strive to be both biblically accurate and relevant to our context. We equip students to go into difficult places, and to courageously face challenges that confront us there. We enable them to equip others for leadership in local churches.

Students learn in an intimate community, with instructors committed to experiencing the journey of life with them. Faculty members have significant ministry experience as international missionaries and as pastors leading churches in pioneer regions of North America. Their experience combines with their walk with God and zeal for His Word, which is a distinguishing mark on their teaching style.

Through on-site lectures and on-line classes we train students who will help people understand God’s Word and how to apply God’s Word in the midst of complex circumstances and issues of both local and global concern.

Robert D. Blackaby President, Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary and College Cochrane, AB

McMaster Divinity College

I believe that the most effective seminaries strive to have an impact in all areas of life.

Not long ago, seminaries focused primarily, and some even exclusively, on the preparation of pastors and church workers. At MacDiv, we are seeking intentionally to

COLOUR

• October 2010 • 9

Focus on Seminary they do know of Christians and Continued from page 7 Christianity is often based on misleading stereotypes.

Today’s seminary students must prepare more precisely to be effective within a culture that opposes Christianity.

This is more important than taking on the Baptists or the Catholics.

Alas, despite the massive changes most of our seminaries still use a curriculum that assumes most people are Christians living in a Christian culture. We are preparing priests and pastors for a church and a society that no longer exist: chaplains for vanishing Christendom. We assume that a pastor’s job is to preach, lead good worship for the people who come on Sundays and visit the sick.

This is just not enough. We need to prepare evangelists who can convert the people who will come to church. The fact is, many of the younger people who visit our churches don’t know any of the basic Bible stories. They arrive in our sanctuaries like a person who enters a Chinese restaurant and picks up a menu he cannot read.

So although our students go out to serve in a world where Christians are more and more a minority struggling against an increasingly pagan and hedonistic culture, most of the church history and theology we teach them prepares them to be a certain type of Christian in a Christian world.

Changes

Theological heroes

When I was in seminary, we each found our theological heroes and they were, generally speaking, people

10 • October 2010 •

we liked from our church tradition.

Being Reformed, I had friends who were fanatical about Calvin, Edwards, Niebuhr or Barth. Today’s students find their heroes in a wide range of places— the Cappadocian Fathers, Wesley, Wilberforce, Bonhoeffer, Matteo Ricci, St. Francis, Martin Luther King and Mother Teresa.

Why do they choose these people as their theological heroes? I suspect it is because most of them sense that these were people who as Christians resisted a largely unchristian movement or an overly contextualized church.

Seminary students accurately sense something that many faculty have not yet admitted: We need a theology of social and religious engagement more than a systematic and philosophical theology that comes out of Western Christendom. Students today need to bear the death of Christ to the world, the very world that crucified Him.

The problem for the next 15 or 20 years is that we still have professors (like myself) who were trained by Christendom scholars, but we are serving in a post-Christendom world.

Lesslie Newbigin predicted this situation upon his return from India in the 1970s. He understood that the pastoral approach needed in the West now was that of the missionary, challenging the minds, habits and structures of a postChristian society. Today we should admit that he was correct, and we have done very little about it. We need to do something quite drastic, and we need to start about 30 years ago. We need a conversion.

Here I offer some preliminary suggestions as to what needs to be done to begin to construct theological education that would be appropriate for our Western context.

1) Emphasize the Bible.

Seminaries should put away their preoccupation with higher critical questions about the text and focus more on the internal logic and message of the Christian’s Holy Book. We need to teach and learn the Bible, recognizing how we will be presenting it to our Western audience—as a foreign book that needs to be understood by outsiders. We need students who can preach with solid knowledge and basic confidence in the text.

2) Analyze and engage society.

It is not enough for a contemporary pastor to learn only “congregational analysis.” She or he needs to know how to read neighbourhoods, school systems and economics. Seminary students need to get out of the classroom.

Thinking as a missionary, we need to help students ask newer questions that speak to the community and to the society—not just “how can we get more people in church.” Pastors in the 21st century need to be prophetic in speaking about sinful structures and dehumanizing realities, but at the same time serve as evangelists with “local knowledge.” At present we do not teach our future pastors to be comfortable out in the world, on the streets, in the coffee shops, at sporting events, meeting people in the park and in the shopping malls. Pastors need to be engaging people in the world every week.

3) Evangelize. Many churches have left evangelism to a few more aggressive denominations. Let’s face the obvious: A young pastor leaving seminary to pastor a church with 80 members (actual attendance, 22; average age, 60) had better be either an evangelist or a thief (sheepstealer, that is). We suggest that seminaries send out students who have a great passion and a natural joy to tell people

about Jesus (not about their church) and bring the presence of Jesus into public places. Every student graduating from seminary should be leading people to Christ each year of their seminary training. You learn preaching by doing it.

You learn exegesis by doing it. And so we will learn evangelism. Let justice roll down, and let the word of God flow out.

4) Learn from the early Church.

Church history is valuable and necessary, but not all is equally valuable or relevant. Today we need much less emphasis on internal disputes and much more on the life of Christians in situations of persecution and conflict. Who is teaching about early Arabic and Persian Christianity today? Polite, respectable Christianity that blends into the world is a dying breed. It is of no value. Church leaders need to study how Christians were faithful, and faithfully serving the poor, when it was unpopular and even illegal to do so. Christianity that is so clear and confident brought the Roman Empire to its knees, wore down the Japanese occupiers in Korea and outlived the Maoists in China. By contrast our Christianity often looks pretty anemic. It can barely keep the church alive, forget bring life to others.

5) Make disciples. At present our seminaries assume that church leaders are developed environmentally. From what I can tell, the nicest people who stay around the longest and complain the least eventually end up as elders.

More needs to be done to intentionally disciple leaders. Faculty and pastors need to view their jobs not as teachers but as disciple makers. Disciple is a good biblical word. To this end, we need to teach our future pastors one simple ministry skill: How to lead a small group Bible study, which is one of the most basic ministry skills in a post-Christendom world. Raising up Christians is a matter of helping people pray, study the Bible and obey its precepts. Our Bible departments need to seize this responsibility and send out students who can lead young people in joyous inductive discovery of our sacred book.

6) Teach missional spirituality.

Finally, we need to teach spirituality not only as a religious habit, but also as the rhythm of our lives for the sake of others. Christian spirituality is seldom taught as equally a matter of missional obedience and Christian worship.

Yet mission and worship are the two strands of ecclesiology that make for a healthy church, and that will make for strong leaders for the church.

Here is the challenge: Can our seminaries take on a revolutionary change for the Kingdom’s sake? If not we will become more and more of a sideshow.

The first step is to simply recognize that we are training pastors for an era which is gone (wrong time), we are doing it too much in the academic setting (wrong place) and we are teaching a curriculum which is obsolete (wrong courses).

It may seem dangerous to take such drastic steps, but the far greater danger is to keep doing the same thing over and over even though it is bringing less and less results.

Scott W. Sunquist is professor of World Christianity at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. A longer version of this article was published in the Presbyterian Outlook. Reprinted here with permission from the author.

Focus on Seminary

Seminary Directory Canadian Mennonite University

CMU’s Graduate Theological and Ministry programs reflect the university’s mission to inspire and equip women and men for lives of service, leadership and reconciliation in church and society. With faculty members specializing in biblical, historical, theological and practical studies, the programs offer diversity, flexibility and interdisciplinary engagement in an Anabaptist, evangelical and ecumenical setting. CMU also offers programs in cooperative partnerships with several other theological schools. Students enrolled in the programs are able to deepen their capacity for biblical and theological reflection. Many seek to explore or strengthen their capacity for church ministries and mission; others prepare for doctoral programs and a teaching career.

Visit www.cmu.ca Heritage Seminary Heritage Seminary—your seminary for practical ministry. Do you desire to be equipped to engage your world? Heritage Seminary offers various academic programs in flexible formats intended to make seminary education accessible. It is a place for you to learn, participate, contribute, grow and develop the tools and skills that will further prepare you for ministry in the context God is calling—this is what you’ll discover at Heritage.

For more information, to book a tour, to request a package of information or to simply get started, we invite you to visit www.discoverheritage.ca or call 1-800-465-1961.

McMaster Divinity College

McMaster Divinity College is an accredited, graduate, professional school comprised of evangelical faculty dedicated to helping prepare people for Christian leadership. We believe

Presidents

Continued from page 7

Taylor Seminary and College

Taylor Seminary has invested considerable time and effort in the past five years to a process of listening—listening to pastors and churches describe the changing needs of ministry preparation. As a result we have adjusted our curriculum to meet these needs, but we have also preserved and re-tooled some of the best practices that have made our graduates so effective in long-term ministry.

For example, Taylor offers students training that: is integrative and holistic; ensures that practical ministry takes place alongside classroom learning; and emphasizes intercultural studies and cross-cultural ministry.

One significant change was in the length of our MDiv program, from 96 hours to 77.

We are now offering most of our classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays to accommodate working students, and are offering more online and modular courses. All of these changes will serve students as they seek to meet the ministry challenges of our day.

that ministry in the 21st century—whether pastoral ministry, chaplaincy, religious education, research or scholarship and any number of other ministries—has become increasingly complex and diverse, and will require that those called by God have the best preparation possible. This is accomplished through McMaster Divinity’s MTS, MDiv, Ma and PhD programs Contact us today at www.macdiv.ca or call 905-525-9410 x 24401 to discover what makes McMaster Divinity College your best choice for affordable, evangelical, university-based seminary education.

Regent College

Regent College is an empowering community of Christians committed to equipping people to live and work as mature followers of Christ in the vocations to which God has called them. Students representing a wide variety of nationalities, denominations, vocations and stages of life come to Regent to explore God’s call on their lives within a challenging and supportive community. With an exceptional faculty, and 35 visiting scholars every spring and summer, Regent College is an established international graduate school providing theological and interdisciplinary education for the whole people of God. Visit www.regent-college.edu Tyndale Seminary

Tyndale Seminary is offering new and innovative courses to equip people for the 21st Century church. This summer Bruxy Cavey taught Evangelism and the Missional Church at the Meeting House Oakville site and covered issues such as culture, contextualization and revitalization of the local church. This fall Rick Tobias is teaching Urban Ministry I—Understanding the City at Yonge Street Mission and will help students develop a biblical and practical approach to urban ministry. Also this fall, Wafik Wahba will teach a course called The Perspectives On Global Mission where students will virtually take part in the Lausanne Conference in Cape Town.

Visit www.tyndale.ca Tyndale University College and Seminary

Our students make us effective. Tyndale’s unique multicultural context and transdenominational framework create a greenhouse of creativity.

Effective pastoral and theological formation must engage our contemporary, postmodern society with the gospel. Our faculty are scholar-practitioners with a deep commitment to theological education, and they, themselves, are involved in frontline ministry.

In a time where the desire is to focus on spiritual formation as an individual activity, Tyndale has worked diligently to root spiritual formation in missional engagement. Our Gospel, Church and Culture course is a cornerstone to all degree programs because we want to produce disciples who will be culture-makers where they are.

Ultimately in the 21st century, however, everything is about access; we have had to learn to create multiple ways for people to study. Distance education, modular programs and intensive courses allow Tyndale students to shape their education, not only to fit their area of interest, but their needs as well.

Gary V. Nelson President, Tyndale University College and Seminary Toronto, ON

David Williams President, Taylor Seminary and College Edmonton, AB

1 800 263 6695 www.christianweek.org

• October 2010 • 11

Trip to Congo stirs the heart “A Christian life should be lived by treating all people as if they were Jesus.”

STOUFFVILLE, ON—Ed Epp, executive director of cbm Canada, recently returned to his African birthplace after 37 years.

“The first 15 years in the Congo shaped my life significantly. My parents assured me God loved me—and all the people around us. In God’s eyes we are all equal.”

In 1973 Epp’s family, missionaries to the Congo, returned to Winnipeg.

Transitioning from an international school of 70 nationalities to Grade 10 at a Mennonite school proved very difficult.

But Epp persevered and after earning his teaching degree, he and his wife Norilynn began their careers in international development as volunteers for Mennonite Central Committee. Epp served as MCC’s country director in Jordan and Lebanon; later as director of Middle East Programs. He joined cbm in May 2001.

“The primary purpose of the [most recent] trip was to look at how to deal with neglected tropical diseases, but I also wondered what I would find,” he says.

Since his boyhood, Epp’s hometown of Kinshasa has grown to eight million;

Courtesy cbm

Helena Smrcek Special to ChristianWeek

Ed Epp holds the hand of Oloke, a malnourished, three-year-old Congolese child.

most people live in slums without electricity or running water.

But the people “love their children

the same way we do,” he says. “They want them to succeed, but there are more than 1,000 untreated children

with cerebral palsy, children with untreated clubbed foot and cataracts.

“Those stories aren’t coming out in

the media. Just like the stories of the volunteers who give of themselves,” says Epp, who believes every Christian is a missionary or no one is.

Epp wondered how cbm’s Kinshasa partner organization could minister with just 21 staff and 400 volunteers.

“When I asked what would make their work with people with disabilities easier, not one of them asked for money,” he says.

People in the western world need to get involved.

“All of us have the obligation to share the gospel, to love our neighbour as ourselves,” says Epp. “I wish our country would open up the definition of neighbour—sometimes it’s difficult to think of people in Congo or North Korea as neighbours.”

Epp’s vision is that all children will dance.

“Our work is to find the right music, to crank up the volume and give them the chance to hope that when they get big they can dance, that they will have hope, community and God. “I can be a small part of creating the world where children with disabilities will have this hope. A Christian life should be lived by treating all people as if they were Jesus.”

Popular author tackles difficult challenge Max Lucado wants wealthy North Americans to extend more compassion Doug Koop ChristianWeek Staff

SAN ANTONIO, TX—Max Lucado preaches and writes. The Texasbased pastor has delivered a lot of sermons in his 55 years, and much of his teaching material has been turned into books— very popular books. In fact, in the past 25 years Lucado has published 60 books that have sold an astounding 65 million copies.

“A lot were originally lessons I prepared for the church I served,” explains the affable Bible teacher who until very recently focused his writing on providing encouragement.

But in a telephone interview he described his most recent book as “a departure in that it’s about roll-up-our-sleeves, while the others were about get-downon-our-knees.” In Outlive Your Life (Thomas Nelson, September 2010), Lucado turns his attention to the appalling injustice and economic disparity running rampant in our world.

He is now trumpeting a clarion call to Christian compassionate social action, and is putting his money where his words are.

All the proceeds from the book will be turned over to several humanitarian agencies, and he is aiming to help World Vision secure sponsorships for 25,000 children.

But what did it take for a successful pastor to make his primary message to comfortable North American Christians a summons to help people who are at risk, in need or overlooked? “I’m trying to get that part of my house in order,” he says.

“I was put back on my heels about four years ago when someone asked me what my grandchildren would think of my care and concern for the poor. That was a serious question, and I’ve been trying to respond. I knew I needed to give him a better reply; to give a better answer.”

Since then, he adds, “My wife and I have been doing more.” And he took his church through a teaching series examining compassion in the book of Acts. (Alert: those lessons are now appearing in print.)

“I won’t go to heaven based on good works, but they are part of our legacy even there. What we do on Earth will be remembered in heaven. I want to give my grandchild something to be proud of.”

Bully pulpit

The enormous reach of Lucado’s books to middle-class North Americans has now earned their author a bully pulpit for a less-welcome message than he’s accustomed to delivering. But beyond the enduring appeal of encouragement, straightforward preaching and simple, image-

INT CONGRESS OF CHURCHES & MINISTERS INTERNATIONAL RADIO EVANGELIST (CANADA) Bishop Vernal Mr. Jones D.D 395 Somerset St. W #606 Ottawa, Ontario Canada K2P 2G6

12 • October 2010 •

Phone (613) 787-4831 (613) 30402719 Cell (514) 550-5610 Fax (613) 241-5535

1 800 263 6695 www.christianweek.org

laden writing drive his popularity. He has a gift for metaphor and readily explains biblical concepts and situations in easily understood ways.

“I don’t know if I have a particular strength,” he demurs. “I don’t know how to write otherwise. It’s what comes naturally.”

Lucado says any church may have a sprinkling of PhDs and millionaires, but most congregations are “full of ordinary people with a lot of noise” in their lives.

“They are the ones I’m trying to communicate with,” he says.

“When I read C.S. Lewis or John Piper, I marvel at how smart they are. I couldn’t even understand their mail. Someone once told me I had a way of put-

Foodgrains Bank

Continued from page 1

Christians in countries like Canada and the United States, says Kornelsen, need to recognize how our choices can impact people living in less affluent countries of the Global South.

“The short version is that some of [hunger’s] root causes are linked with the lives we live in the developed world, where we take things for granted like cheap food that comes from far away, or perhaps the consumption of goods that have an environmental impact somewhere on the planet. So [the Foodgrains Bank] has tried to challenge Christians to fast,

ting the cookies on the bottom shelf where anyone can reach them. But I don’t think I even have a top shelf.”

In recent years, Lucado has

pray and act.”

The Fast for Change campaign features devotionals, video productions, bulletin covers and posters developed by the Foodgrains Bank, which help member organizations encourage their congregations fight hunger through community growing projects, donations and advocacy.

On November 28, 2007, 23 leaders of Foodgrains Bankrelated denominations and organizations united in a day of fasting to promote change to Canada’s aid and development policies. They also sent a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper asking for a stronger federal commitment to ending global hunger.

With the increasing voice of the Christian community call-

stepped back from the senior pastor role at Oak Hills Church in San Antonio. He currently serves as a preaching minister and is in the pulpit 20-25 Sundays a year.

This gives him more time to write, and to travel.

These days the needs of the world loom very large in his eyes, and he wants the Western world to wake up to its responsibilities and do something.

“There is an avalanche of need,” he insists. But when we focus on the reality that we can’t do everything, too many of us end up doing nothing, he says. “We can trust that our sovereign God will take all our offerings and do something good. We can make a difference.” ing on government for hunger action, the Foodgrains Bank has had a role in significant changes to aid policy, including the 2008 decision to “untie” Canada’s aid money so food can be directly purchased in the country where it was needed.

But living in solidarity with those who hunger doesn’t mean we have to toss out the Thanksgiving turkey.

“We’re going for a healthy balance,” says Kornelsen.

“Feasting and fasting are okay beside each other as long as we don’t use guilt or abuse sympathy when we talk about hungry people. Our partners in the South get that, and so do lots of Canadians. I feel hopeful.”

For more information visit www. fastforchange.ca.

Report card doesn’t provide full picture Family-Friendly Cities Information may be relevant, but approach with caution Designpics Image

Bruce Soderholm Special to ChristianWeek

T

hose who prioritize family considerations in their decision-making to relocate to another city now have a new resource to consult. “Canada’s Top Family-Friendly Cities,” a recent document released by the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada (IMFC), provides a report card on 33 Canadian cities. Top-ranked cities include Calgary, Edmonton, Guelph, Kitchener and Vancouver. Lowest ranked cities are Saguenay and Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, Saint John, New Brunswick, St. John’s, Newfoundland and Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Using 2006 Canadian census data and other sources, researchers Rebecca Walberg and Andrea Mrozek describe five main criteria they used to assess the cities. These included community feel, education choice, cost of living, economic strength and family independence.

Reports of this kind, particularly those with a cumulative grading structure, typically generate an “I already knew that” response from residents in favoured communities while those from the less favoured communities are quick to mount their defences and to highlight the obvious limits of such a study.

The report has its strengths, including its premise that if indices are being published to identify business-friendly or arts-friendly communities, then family-friendliness also deserves consideration. Some

Calgary was named as one of Canada’s best cities to live in by IMFC.

of the report’s main criteria are when they have two married entirely objective, such as the parents.” They also concede cost of living and that others a city’s economic Some of the report’s “ m a y v a l u e strength. precisely the main criteria are opposite of Commendably, the biases of the what [they] entirely objective, consider to be authors are stated up front. For such as the cost of good indicators” and that instance, they living and a city’s those who do assert, with refsimply erence to some economic strength. “should invert scores social science accordingly.” consensus, “that family structure matters for chil- This non-defensive stance and dren, and that children fare best transparency makes the report on a number of indicators… easier to put in context as part

of a dialogue on what is helpful to families.

On the other side of the conversation, the drawbacks must also be noted. To start with, as the researchers themselves note, no communities in PEI or the Territories met the criteria to be included in the study. Also, the five categories are somewhat arbitrary. Community feeling, which takes into account data such as green space, bike paths, neighbourhood stability and charitable donation trends, uses homicide rates as an indicator of overall community safety—a stat that can easily skew the scores.

Likewise, educational choice trumping quality of education as a criterion seems biased if the inference is that having access to a charter school or a private school is more important than what’s actually taught in the schools themselves.

Finally, government aid is also seen as unappealing and intrusive in contrast to the independence offered by a strong private sector economy.

In the end, there is lots of relevant material to reflect on in this report. Families and policy makers, however, need to consider the information cautiously before using it to make any long range decisions as it is far from exhaustive and does have its limits.

The report in its entirety may be viewed at the IMFC website www.imfcanada.org/article_ files/JUNE_2010_Final.pdf Bruce Soderholm is a freelance writer and educator who makes his home in southern Ontario.

Laughter helps marriages grow at Couples Night Out Carolyn Girard Special to ChristianWeek

OTTAWA, ON—Couples in the Ottawa Valley will have the chance to unwind, laugh and grow their relationships this fall.

Couples Night Out makes its Ottawa-area trial run October 1 to 6 in Kanata, Pembroke, Smith Falls and Cornwall. Organized

by FaithLife Financial and World Vision Canada, the event features Steve Geyer, an American pastor and former stand-up comic who has opened for notable comedians such as Sinbad, Billy Crystal and Ray Romano.

YSM

“A lot of it is stuff I’ve just put together over the years and stuff I wish somebody could have told me a long time ago,” says Geyer.

Geyer, married for 21 years, enjoys seeing how Couples Night Out can both be a place to make people laugh and help people grow. By the second half of the show, Geyer opens up about his own life—both the good and the bad—while sharing lessons learned.

Geyer has already given more than 20 presentations for Couples Night Out since it began in 2008. Raised in a home where

“At first I wasn’t sure if I actually needed a mentor,” Soeandy says. “But as the Continued from page 1 year progressed and my marks started dropping, my mentor really helped. She was there saying it was okay, and helping me through it. She also gave me great tips on what to expect, like how to buy my textbooks.

She basically helped me not to stress out.”

Soeandy adds that while her parents are deeply committed to making whatever sacrifices necessary for her to have a university education, receiving the YSM student award last year has enabled her to pursue that education without putting undo strain on her family.

Steve Geyer.

he saw firsthand the effects of a broken marriage, Geyer says he understands the urgency in helping couples succeed in their relationships—although

he didn’t realize, at first, that’s what would happen at Couples Night Out. “I really felt there was more to the comedy—it was a tool God wanted me to use,” says Geyer.

“It’s an opportunity for people to come out, have a laugh but be ministered to at the same time,” says World Vision Canada employee Helen Taliotis, who’s seen Geyer’s presentation. “Steve gets really honest in sharing about his life and marriage and I think that’s where the ministering side really comes in.”

For more information visit www. couplesnightout.org.

The YSM student awards program began in 2005, through a $1 million grant donated by supporter John Watson. Previous recipients have also received a laptop computer donated by Dell.

“We don’t want to just get students to post-secondary school,” Pentinga says. “We want to help them get through it and that’s what this program is all about.

“Education is the way out of poverty,” she adds. “These young people are so full of gifts and potential, and some of them would never be able to think they could even go to university or college if we didn’t make it possible. Sometimes people need that tiny seed of hope of knowing someone believes in them. Then they begin to believe in themselves, and the possibilities are endless.”

Top family-friendly cities

• Calgary, Alberta • Edmonton, Alberta • Guelph, Ontario • Kitchener, Ontario • Vancouver, British Columbia

Bottom family-friendly cities

• Saguenay, Quebec • Saint John, New Brunswick • St. John’s, Newfoundland • Trois-Rivières, Quebec • Thunder Bay, Ontario

(Institute of Marriage and Family Canada)

Career Forum tf: 1.866.229.6397 or william@christianweek.org

Lead Pastor Fairview MB Church is seeking a qualified pastor to provide spiritual oversight and visionary leadership to Fairview’s ministries and congregation. The successful candidate will be submitted to Christ, committed to equipping others to live in Christ and applying the truth of God’s Word in practical ways. Fairview is a mutigenerational church of 220 people that meet in a renovated facility in St Catharines, Ontario.

For more information, please review our website at www.fairviewmb.ca or email your resume to the Pastoral Search Team at admin@fairview.ca or call (905) 934-3398

Family Ministry Coordinator Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Winnipeg, Manitoba, is seeking a full-time Family Ministry Coordinator.

The position coordinates and leads programs with children and youth of all ages, as well as parents and young families. The successful applicant will work in close coordination with a staff team of clergy and laity to serve the needs of a downtown parish with multiple staff and programs. This position is available now, with programs beginning in September 2010.

For job description and application process contact office@holytrinity.mb.ca

For even more job postings and resources check out the Career Forum online at

www.christianweek.org

• October 2010 • 13

Quicktakes Thrifty shopping thrives ABBOTSFORD, BC—It’s good news for thrifty shoppers in B.C. Many people are upset about the province’s recent introduction of the HST—a sales tax that combines the GST and PST into one, raising the price of some items. However, that’s not the case in thrift shops such as those operated by Mennonite Central Committee.

Prior to the introduction of the HST, “non-profit thrift shops were required to charge PST on everything except clothing, shoes and a few other miscellaneous items. We did not have to charge GST,” says Doug Willms, MCC BC Provincial Thrift Shop Coordinator. “With the introduction of the HST, the PST is essentially eliminated and we no longer have to charge tax on anything. Essentially it means that our customers will save seven per cent on their purchases—that’s pretty huge.” (http://bc.mcc.org/getinvolved/thriftshops)

Outstanding alumni honoured WINNIPEG, MB—Sarah Buhler, Harold Jantz, Karen Heidebrecht Thiessen and A. James Reimer are the 2010 recipients of Canadian Mennonite University’s Alumni Blazer Awards.

Established in 2007, the awards honour alumni who embody CMU’s values and mission of service, leadership and reconciliation in church and society through all that they do.

Buhler has been heavily involved in the legal community, and was recently appointed Assistant Professor of Clinical Law at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Law. Jantz, founder of ChristianWeek, is a long-time editor, writer and churchman.

Heidebrecht Thiessen has been involved in pastoral ministry for 20 years, becoming the first female Mennonite Brethren lead pastor in North America. Reimer, a teacher, writer, and researcher, served at the University of Waterloo and Conrad Grebel University College, helping establish its graduate program in theology.

(The Blazer)

Beans, beans, beans FLORADALE, ON—For the past 25 years volunteers at Floradale Mennonite Church have picked corn and beans, grown on a nearby farm. They package and deliver the vegetables to House of Friendship, an organization that provides emergency food and shelter and other programs for low-income persons. This year, organizers planned to scale down, and planted fewer beans. However, a bumper crop put a kibosh on that plan—two pickings netted 51 bushels of yellow and green legumes. The beans are picked in the evening and cut and prepared for freezing the following morning at the church, where volunteers make use of a commercial vegetable steamer.

(Canadian Mennonite)

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Shoppers at B.C. thrift stores will not have to pay the new HST—a combination of GST and PST—and will essentially save seven per cent on their purchases.

Gideons slow down pace of change Controversial package of bylaw changes barely misses two-thirds approval Doug Koop ChristianWeek Staff

CALGARY, AB—At one of the most significant conventions in Canadian Gideon history, members voting at the Bible distribution ministry’s annual gathering narrowly defeated a wide-ranging set of changes to the agency’s general operating bylaws.

“We lost by 50 votes out of about 2,700,” laments national president Brad Kennedy. “Our members voted 64.5 per cent in favour, but we needed a two-thirds majority.”

If the vote had gone the other way, full membership in The Gideons International in Canada would no longer be restricted to business and professional men, and the agency would be able to distribute a wider variety of Bible versions. According to the existing bylaws, Gideon women can only participate as “auxiliary” members and people working in non-professional vocations are theoretically ineligible.

For at least the past year, Kennedy and the agency’s national cabinet have been pushing hard to bring Canadian Gideon bylaws in line with some of its current practices and a more culturally relevant model of ministry.

The Gideons face a serious demographic challenge: Nearly half of its members are older than 70, and another 25 per cent are over 60. Only three per cent of members are younger than 40.

The average age of a Canadian Gideon is just under 70 years old, compared with 41 back in 1961. The agency is trying to adapt to attract more youthful members.

Indeed, some of the proposed changes have already been incorporated at the local level. Women are serving alongside men in many distribution projects in ways not technically allowable by the existing bylaws. And many active members would not technically qualify as professionals. “We’re trying to correct something that’s lost its relevance in our culture today,” explains Kennedy.

Strong opposition

Yet the proposed changes are being strongly opposed by the leaders of the U.S.-based Gideons International, which operates in 191 countries. “Our core values represent our identity,” wrote International Gideons president Perrin T. Prescott in a letter to Canadian Gideons last March.

“Our values reflect the utilization of Christian business and professional men who along with their wives comprise a workforce, with specific gifts, talents and abilities that leverages opportunities that are not otherwise available to the church. Our values specify and ensure that we provide an accurate translation of God’s Word to enable the Holy Spirit working.”

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14 • October 2010 •

Kennedy agrees that “any organization needs a purpose and mission,” and insists that people who associate with The Gideons are well aware of “our desire to reach the unsaved using Bible distribution and personal witnessing as the mechanism.” They joined because they see what the Bible does when it connects with people, he adds.

“That’s what we want to do. That’s where we want to be. The Bible opens a witness opportunity. That’s our core mission. It’s not about being a group of men.”

Nevertheless, the international body’s understanding of core values is unbending. “A strong component of the Gideon brand is its recognition as a Christian business man’s organization. Unfortunately, if you change from that core value, while you may continue under the banner of Gideons, it will be in name only. It will not be reflective of the Gideon membership worldwide.”

Hotly debated

Throughout the past year the issues have been hotly debated in Gideon camps around the country. A group of former national leaders circulated a letter deploring the haste with which the proposed bylaw changes were being pursued. They highlighted the threat of expulsion from the International body and insisted that international distribution is a higher priority than finding “more ways to get Scriptures into the hands of Canadians.”

And earlier this year a small number of agitated members circulated petitions calling on members to oppose the proposed bylaws “that will divorce Gideons in Canada from all other Gideons around the world.”

According to Kennedy, that divisive spirit was remarkably absent at the convention, where the issues were roundly debated. “There were good times at the conference. Prior to the vote the entire group both for and against was on our knees,” he says. “For the most part, people were asking ‘what can we learn from this?’”

Although Kennedy is disappointed by the result, he is confident most of the changes are likely to be incorporated within the next few years. He notes that the same members who voted down the proposed bylaw changes also unanimously voted to retain the existing cabinet. “We were voted back in to continue our work.”

And, he observes, “the vote tells us that only slightly less than two-thirds of our membership is in favour of these changes and implementing them right now. Slightly more than one-third had concerns with timing and process. The national cabinet has heard those things. We know it’s important to continue with change.”

www.christianweek.org 1.800.263.6695

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money and treating you like part of the family— have ensured that travelers keep coming back on our various tours.

Traveling is learning, experiencing other cultures and opening the eyes and heart to other people.

There are also some other special cruises being planned for 2011, including a transatlantic crossing—a 20-day tour at a great rate from Copenhagen to New York with some exciting stops and a Christmas Cruise on the Danube.

And our France River Cruise offers some great insights into arts, wine culture and great cities like Avignon, city of Popes and Arles (of Vincent Van Gogh fame), amongst others.

Book Reviews

Ascension story “reworks the world” HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN: LEARN TO LIVE AN ASCENSION-SHAPED LIFE

BY TIM PERRY AND AARON PERRY BREWSTER: PARACLETE PRESS, 2010 CDN $15.99, xii+126 PAGES PAPERBACK ISBN 978-1-55725-631-7 REVIEWED BY ROY R. JEAL

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his bright, cheerful book calls Christians to think closely about a surprisingly neglected yet intriguingly central part of belief and confession: the ascension of Jesus. Brothers Tim and Aaron Perry draw our attention to the event and the idea of the ascension, and to its deep implications for faithful living.

In seven chapters (set out in two sections, “The Ascension and Jesus” and “The Ascension and the Christian Life,” plus an Appendix) the Perrys show how the ascension is a vital feature of gospel storytelling in the New Testament, right along with Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Yet many believers seem puzzled by it, if they think of ascension much at all. Where did Jesus go? Up in the sky? To heaven?

Where is that? Is it some real location?

What is He doing there? What did the disciples actually see when Jesus “was taken up”? Is a real ascension of Jesus even believable?

Careful reading of relevant New Testament passages, particularly the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles but also other texts in Hebrews, Ephesians and elsewhere, say the authors, show that the ascension completes and confirms the story of Jesus. He has been taken up, alive, bodily, physically, victoriously to sit at God’s right hand, reigning and giving gifts to

the Church. He is there now, calling the Church to live obediently in light of where He is, and to wait patiently for His eventual and inevitable return.

If Jesus is alive and well, exalted and reigning over all things, then there are implications for how the world—with all of its own power structures and attempts to get things right—is seen. The ascension “reworks the world” because it shows Christ Jesus exalted over all possible powers as the one who has made things right in the world and who continues to live for the good of all.

Particularly helpful is the chapter “Confession: the Ascension and the Powers.” Confessing that we believe in the ascension is a performative act.

Words do not merely make assertions, they form people, they do things to them. Things change when people say “I believe in…,” so when believers are committed to the ascension they are aware that the living, reigning Christ has a claim on them. They belong not to themselves but to the exalted Jesus.

He Ascended Into Heaven is theologically astute yet practical for every reader. This is a fine book for a group study. Each chapter ends with thoughtful discussion questions. The light touch to writing and explanation of ideas leads readers along helpfully. What we learn about the ascension can shape our Christian lives dramatically.

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Roy R. Jeal is Professor of Religion at Booth University College in Winnipeg.

• October 2010 • 15

Projections

Crusty character faces past head on in quest for redemption Bruce Soderholm ChristianWeek Columnist brucesoderholm@cogeco.ca

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he crude wooden sign says, No damn trespassers/Beware of mule. And while there is, in fact, a long-eared beast of burden in the stable, intruders would be better advised to beware of the ornery Felix Bush.

Bush (Robert Duvall) is the central figure in Aaron Schneider’s newly released period piece, Get Low, a film set in Tennessee’s Eastern Appalachians during the Great Depression. He’s a crusty, shotgun-toting curmudgeon who hunkers down on his 300 acres and chases off the boys who dare to taunt him. Why Bush disdains human company is one of several mysteries that surrounds him.

The film, which debuted at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, is loosely based on the true story of a bush man who arranged to throw a funeral party for himself while he was still alive. The notion of attending your own funeral is not entirely unheard of—Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer provides a classic chapter as a case in point. And as a motivational strategy, Steven Covey (Seven Habits of Highly Effective People) advocates imagining the eulogies you’d like to hear at your own send-off and living your life accordingly. Not bad advice for any of us.

While Bush contemplates a funeral party with an open mic, he’s under no illusion that he’ll receive glowing tributes. He’s reviled by the locals, but seems oblivious to the fact, or at the very least, eager to live down to their expectations. When the local minister refuses to climb on the living funeral bandwagon, Bush’s novel idea appears to be dead in the water. Enter

Robert Duvall and Bill Murray (right) in the movie Get Low.

Buddy (Lucas Black), an enterprising young associate at the local funeral parlour, who sees a chance to deliver customer satisfaction. With his boss’s eager support, the unlikely wake begins to take shape.

Veteran comic Bill Murray is hilarious as Frank Quinn, the funeral home director whose business is dying. He supplies a steady flow of witticisms delivered in his trademark deadpan style, though the humour is muted enough that his character never becomes a caricature.

As the story unfolds, corners of Bush’s life are peeled back. A woman from his past, Mattie Darrow (Sissy Spacek), resurfaces and through her unjaded eyes, the viewer is made aware that Bush wasn’t always a social misfit. A black preacher (Bill Cobbs) reveals something of

Bush’s past generosity. As the narrative moves towards the now highly anticipated social event, it’s clear that the story most in need of telling is Felix Bush’s own.

The pace of this film is slow at times—even more so in contrast to the steady diet of explosions and car chases typically fed to us by mainstream movies. The full story here, however, is recessed in subtext for those who choose to read it. It’s seen in the wistful glances and raw emotion of Spacek’s character. It’s noticeable in the change of Bush’s wardrobe as he migrates back towards civil discourse.

Most of all though, the story is told by Duvall’s face with its creases and folds, and its angry and haunted eyes; Bush’s character is brought to life in a way that makes most dialogue redundant.

There are few actors whose screen presence

can dominate a scene without the prop of dialogue—Duvall is one of them.

It is the weight that Bush so visibly carries on his shoulders that will ultimately resonate with viewers. This is a weight that involves coming to terms with your own past, facing your own mortality (to “get low” as the title suggests) and searching for redemption.

There’s no simplistic resolution to the storyline, but the film’s portrayal of the human condition is refreshing in its honesty. Great acting performances and a character-driven story make Get Low a welcome addition to the end of summer film line-up.

I’d rate this offering as three shotguns out of four. Get Low is rated PG in Canada.

Bruce Soderholm is a freelance writer and educator who makes his home in southern Ontario.

Good Counsel 1 800 263 6695 www.christianweek.org

Develop beliefs—not delusions Warwick Cooper ChristianWeek Columnist

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n 1959 a social psychologist by the name of Milton Rokeach wanted to test the strength of self-delusion. He gathered three patients, all of whom identified themselves as Jesus Christ, and had them live together at the same mental hospital in Michigan where he observed them for two years.

Rokeach hoped they would eventually give up their delusions when confronted with each other over time. All the experiment produced was the three exchanging punches rather than turning the other cheek. One believed, correctly, that the other two were mental patients. Another rationalized the presence of his companions by claiming they were dead people operated by machines.

At the end of the study each man believed he was the one and only Son of God. Rokeach believed each man was more firmly embedded than at the beginning of the experiment, so deep was their delusion.

We read such stories and wonder how someone can become deluded. The dictionary defines “delusion” as a “false opinion or conception.” Do you have any delusions? Is there something you believe that’s untrue or false?

Allow me to suggest some possibilities: • I have more money going out of my bank account and credit cards than I have coming in but that won’t be a problem. Everyone is up to their ears in debt. It will be okay in the long term.

• I know the Bible tells me I shouldn’t be unequally yoked but he is different. And besides he isn’t antagonistic towards my Christian faith. I’m sure he will become a Christian after we get married.

16 • October 2010 •

• I know she is 30 years younger and comes from a different cultural background but I love her and she needs someone to help her with her teenagers and I don’t want to have sex outside of marriage. So I think we should get married soon and overlook these apparent problems.

• I just gave that ministry $2,000. It completely wiped out my savings account but I believe God wanted me to give it as a “seed” that will result in God giving back to me a hundredfold by the end of the year.

These are just some of the delusions I’ve heard from people in the last month. I would put them on the same level as the three guys I first mentioned.

Society looks at most Christians and Christian churches as deluded since we believe God made man, Jesus was born of a virgin and that miracles—like the crossing of the Red Sea—take place. I believe these beliefs have stood the test of time and continue to influence the way we live our lives.

But that still doesn’t free us from other sorts of delusions. Beliefs matter and need to be constantly evaluated. But we need to also shed the things we believe that aren’t true. Spend time this week finding a friend who will walk with you through the agony of your life and give you the courage to face life as it really is.

Henri Nouwen once said, “The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.”

Warwick Cooper is the pastor for counselling and family ministries at Peoples Church in Toronto.