Editorial: ‘Lord, help my unbelief!’
My skepticism was triggered immediately; it felt like an uncontrollable reflex. That was my reaction when reading this testimony from Jeremy and Adrienne Penner’s October newsletter: “My health was slowly deteriorating, and so I went to the hospital. The doctor found a large tumor in my abdomen and told me they would need to operate.… I didn't know a lot about Jesus yet, but I began to pray that he would heal my illness.… When I went back to the doctor for my scheduled operation, there was absolutely no sign of the tumor!”
Editorial: MCC association doesn't mean we discount allegations
♪ In this issue, we are including an investigative article covering allegations made by former Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) staff about unjust terminations by MCC. It is unlike anything we normally print, and this may raise questions about our reason for including it.
Editorial: From innovation to discipleship: EMC churches are flourishing!
♪ Written reports from four of EMC’s nine regions were easily available online but, since they didn’t figure in the meeting’s agenda, I had not taken time to read them.
Editorial: Rethinking well-behaved churches and embracing God’s transformative power
♪ A FEW YEARS ago, after an Abundant Springs* weekend, we heard back from Briercrest about how respectful and well-mannered EMC students were compared to some of their other groups. Naturally, we congratulated ourselves because that spoke so well of the students, families and ministry leaders in EMC churches.
What We Teach Our Children Matters
I remember how it felt, if little else. Wow, I must be really bad. Whenever I sin, God can’t be with me. This is the message I internalized as a result of the teaching on sin I received at an early age: “God cannot be in the presence of sin.” With an object lesson to illustrate the point if we were lucky.
Editorial: If 71 percent of us are introverts, how do fulfill our mission to love others? One hundred little things.
On the one hand, there is this great need—so many heartbreaking situations and so many lonely people. On the other hand, according to a 2019 Angus Reid poll, (A Portrait of Social Isolation and Loneliness in Canada today - Angus Reid Institute), 71 percent of Canadians are introverts, meaning most of us find it difficult to reach out to other people. That’s a tall hurdle, but let’s break it down a bit.
Editorial: Out of the Waters, Deliverance!
Dustin Burlet’s feature article (starting page 6) draws some interesting parallels between the Noah’s flood and the advent of Christ, asserting that both are acts of divine deliverance.
Troubling Times—A Call to Pray
The news we are reading and seeing has many of us sad, disturbed, and praying for peace. The conflict that has developed in Israel is concerning. The headlines are relentless and horrific. A brutal attack, followed by retaliation and now a humanitarian crisis. As this story unfolds, we hope that the narrative will shift to resolution and peace. That lives can be spared.
Editorial: When Christians Behave Rightly
In Joshua Coutts’s article, “Good news in a secular age,” he points out how Christians behaving badly is an obstacle, even for Christians themselves, to believe in the good news of the gospel. This is not a new problem.
At EMC gatherings, celebration mingles with concern
You may find some aspects of this issue of The Messenger ironic. There are a lot of pictures in this issue of great worship, laughter, hilarious games, meaningful conversations, prayer times and messages and presentations. But you will see that while we celebrate so much that is great, we’re also concerned.
Is community hermeneutics still possible?
Anabaptists had their challenges with peculiar and dangerous interpretations, but they agreed that all believers had the privilege of reading Scripture, and the safeguard against heresy (and silliness) would be the believing community who discussed and interpreted the Bible together. But that’s history.
Can ChatGPT write about suffering?
With the breakthrough in AI technology that came through ChatGPT, people have been asking it to respond to all sorts of queries. Out of curiosity, I asked it to write an editorial on Christian suffering.
A tale of two Trudys
Trudy wasn’t hired as a cross-cultural trainer to explain work orders and million-dollar test equipment to people who don’t understand English, but she’s good at it. It cuts into her own productivity, but she is endlessly patient—well, nearly.
What would Jesus’ Ancestry.ca look like?
Because of our modern understanding of genetics and heredity, it may be difficult to reconcile the idea that Jesus may not have been genetically a descendant (or “son”) of David at all.
I didn’t expect that!
I’m ashamed to admit it but even after decades of being stretched, I’m often caught off guard when I find out there are Christians in this or that place, or that a form of Christianity I assumed to be an empty shell of religion is filled with believers who have a deep and vibrant faith in Christ Jesus and are living it out among their neighbours.
Does the EMC have a recruitment crisis?
In the next ten years, 21 missionary units will reach retirement age (or have already). Yet, in the last ten years, 18 missionary units have been accepted by the BOM. According to these numbers, recruitment will not keep pace with existing personnel, let alone allow for expansion.
Our fight for freedom
Before we’ve even learned to walk, we humans begin fighting for freedom; first, in play but then more seriously as we object to authority, consequences, expectations, guilt, pain, doubt, anxiety, and death—the freedom wish list is very long.
God as Refugee and Refuge
God, in Christ, knows the experience of the refugee. “An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up,’ he said, ‘take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay here until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.’ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘Out of Egypt I called my son’” (Matthew 2:13–15).
What if We Measure Interdependence?
In her article on singleness, Stephanie Fast raises the issue of reciprocity. One of the challenges of being single, she says, can be asking others for help with practical matters, knowing the favour isn’t able to be returned. This requires a certain degree of vulnerability, making it easier at times to hire needed help rather than ask.
THE SPIDER WEB OF SCRIPTURE AND POLITICS
A cartoon of years ago pictured a man seated in a pastor’s office. The pastor looked at him and said, “Give up your life of crime. Quit politics.” The Bible is the inspired Word of God; it is also a library of books written across many years in varied cultures, countries, and political contexts—which affects what political lessons we can take from it today.