Dear MBchurch.ca:
I agree wholeheartedly with the tagline on the website of the Canadian MB Church: “Reaching Canada with the good news of Jesus Christ.” What is at issue, though, is defining what the good news of Jesus Christ actually is.
According to everything I have heard at MB conferences in the last few years, the only good news that we offer Canadians is that we will plant a church in your neighbourhood.
I think that’s a narrow definition of the good news that Jesus offers; I look around Edmonton and I don’t think more churches is the good news that this city needs most.
Looking back over the past 50 years, our local congregation has been instrumental in bringing good news in many ways to the city of Edmonton:
--good news for homeless people through helping to start Habitat for Humanity Edmonton
--good news for kids in trouble with the law through Youth Orientation Units, that gave them a fresh start and work experience
--good news for prisoners through visitation and developing programs
--good news for developmentally delayed people through creating employment programs
--good news for the environment by helping to establish one of the first curb side recycling programs in Canada
--good news for refugees by helping to start Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers.
People in our church devoted years of volunteer time to giving good news of all kinds to the city of Edmonton in the name of Jesus.
If our church 50 years ago had said, “The only thing we are going to do in Edmonton is plant churches”, none of these organizations would have given good news to thousands of hurting people.
Right now there are big problems facing Edmonton; poverty, tension filled relationships with aboriginal people, suspicion and mistrust between people of different religions. Planting a church is not going to be the solution for any of these problems.
Jesus didn’t just preach about a spiritual relationship with God, he preached about love--practical, hands-on love. He was concerned not only with people’s souls, but with their physical well-being. The message of salvation did not negate, but confirmed the age-old message of the Jewish prophets that God wants us to care for the poor, the widows, the prisoners, the people on the margins.
I think the MB Conference today is missing the mark by defining “good news” far too narrowly. Church planting is not the only mission of the church. Why is so much of our budget focused only in that direction?
Love, Carol Penner, Lendrum MB Church, Edmonton, AB
p.s. By the way, in 50 years our church grew so much we planted 3 churches. When you are doing the work of Christ, bringing love to a hurting world, people are drawn to join you.
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