
Remembering Gil Reimer
GILBERT A. REIMER was born in Steinbach on March 31, 1938, to Benjamin L. and Elizabeth Reimer. After visiting his brother Cliff and Diana Reimer, missionaries in Panama under Gospel Missionary Union (now Avant), he applied to GMU to serve in Panama.

Spiritual Direction: The New Ancient Practice
Spiritual direction is a safe place to explore questions and concerns about life with God, including the practice of discernment regarding life’s decisions.

Car Seats, Gluten & Opinionated Bloggers
Never ha the law fallen so hard on me as in motherhood. Never was I more aware that my best wasn’t good enough. If parenting doesn’t drive you to your knees, you’re doing it wrong.

‘In Remembrance of, ME’
The bread and cup. The Lord’s Supper. Communion. It’s an invitation to pause and remember. As we hold the bread and cup in our hands, we remember your life, Jesus, coming to earth as a vulnerable baby who learned to feed himself, to walk, to talk, to cooperate with your parents out of obedience to your Heavenly Father.

Marketplace Ministry
Genesis 2:15 records work as it was meant to be—getting into the soil, dirt under the fingernails, and tending to the animals, all with satisfaction and joy. God, as part of his good and perfect plan for his creation, tasked Adam to “cultivate and tend” the Garden of Eden. Eve was given as a companion and partner in this calling. How glorious! But then comes Genesis 3—the fall—with its resultant “weeds and thistles” and “hard labour.” Work perfectly designed had become work pretty disfigured. Now it seems that creation itself militates against us in our calling to “tend.” And yet, the calling and blessing of work has not changed.
Conference Council: Delegates focus discussion on ‘Four White Pills’ for ministry
Conference Council delegates gathered on November 25, 2023, in a hybrid meeting. While 22 participated on Zoom from various locations across Canada, 92 met in person at Blumenort Community Church (BCC) in Blumenort, Man.

The Four White Pills — Discussion summary.
Discussion summary about “The Four White Pills” — Kid’s Ministry, Men’s Ministry, Biblical Integration, and Genuine Experience.

EMC Ministerial Discusses “WHO’S IN?”
“Who’s IN?” was the provocative title of the EMC Ministerial meeting held on November 24, 2023. The 79 ministerial members assembled at Pansy Chapel spent the day discussing four variations of that question.

Passing The Baton: How faith get passed to the next generation… or not.
I grew up in Winnipeg until I was sixteen years old. I begin with two brief stories of this formative period that are illustrative of the themes we will explore at the 2024 Leadership Conference to be held at Steinbach Bible College on March 15–16.

Cataclysms and Christmas Cheer
The salvation God provides in Jesus (whose name means Deliverer) is the fulfillment of the Scriptures, but it is not the final chapter of this great story nor is it the first. In Noah’s flood, much earlier in the biblical timeline, we see another powerful account of divine intervention to save.

When the future ain’t what it used to be
Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra once stated, “The future ain’t what it used to be.” When we are young, the world is before us, and the possibilities seem endless. Then, one day, we wake up on what seems to be a normal day, and we realize that most of life is now behind us and the future just ain’t what it used to be.

An unforgettable Christmas
The most unforgettable Christmas for me and my family was Christmas of 1972. Just two and a half months earlier, Hilda and I with our two young sons had made the 5,000-mile trip from Swift Current, Saskatchewan, to the fascinating Republic of Nicaragua, our new home and mission field. We had just settled into a unique house in Jinotepe and were trying hard to befriend our neighbours and learn to communicate in Spanish.

Good News In A Secular Age
Is the good news really good? Many of us believers are feeling less confident about our faith—perhaps even embarrassed by aspects of it.

Apocalypse Rises
Do you ever feel a burning pressure inside to sing the visions in the book of Revelation? Strange question.
Every now and then events in history come together in the power of the Spirit and the apocalypse of Jesus explodes in the church with stunning power, and the expectation of Christ’s return is stoked again.

Hope for the Next Generation Church
When I share with people about my new work as the EMC Director of Next Generation, many people respond with some comment that indicates they are glad someone is doing this. They often say that this generation is facing more challenges being a follower of Jesus than at any time in history. Well, maybe they don’t say it exactly like that, but I do find that often the conversation turns to the challenges young people face today that those of us who are a little older didn’t face.

Council approves church closure, amends Constitution
On June 3, 2023, Conference Council delegates gathered at Rosenort (Man.) EMC and online on Zoom to manage the business of the EMC. This included approving the closure of Good News Community Church in Steinbach, Man. and approving amendments to the EMC Constitution.

Ministerial approves Misconduct Policy and Ethics Commitment
During the June 2, 2023, Ministerial meeting, Cameron McKenzie, Board of Leadership and Outreach (BLO) chair reviewed several documents that have been in process for a few years. The Ministerial Misconduct Policy and the Ministerial Ethics Commitment were both approved by the ministerial and are offered as resources to churches and pastors.

Lorne Meisner addresses longevity in ministry
An occupational hazard of ministry is not finishing well, and this was the topic guest speaker Lorne Meisner was asked to address at the Ministerial meeting held on June 2, 2023.

Abundant Springs celebrates 40 years
We’re only about halfway through an eight-hour journey back to our homes. We are sweaty, tired, and wouldn’t be blamed for being a little grumpy. But that’s not the current mood; youth are singing along to music behind me right now. The reason is simple: we were just at Abundant Springs.

The state of the church: a Conference Pastor perspective
In spring 2022, Cardus, a Canadian non-partisan think tank, gathered data from nine surveys taken between 2017–2022 in order to get a snapshot of the religious landscape in Canada. In reading the report it is obvious that the events of the past three years have negatively affected the religious landscape in Canada.