Canadian Mennonite
Volume 11, No. 02
January 22, 2007
Would Jesus drive…or ride?
If Jesus drove a car, what kind would he drive? For Chris Huebner, the answer is that he wouldn’t drive a car at all; he’d ride a bike. The assistant professor of theology and ethics at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) is one of the driving forces behind Sanctoral Cycle, the university’s new bike co-op.
“American theologian Stanley Hauerwas once said that if you teach children to play baseball early on in their lives, you’ll raise good children,” says Huebner. “I would say it’s the same thing with riding a bike. It’s more of a skill than driving is, and it’s a training of the body.”
The co-op takes its name from the liturgical cycle of feast days in honour of the saints. And just as feast days serve to nourish and sustain the body, by enabling people to form habits that contribute to virtuous character, the co-op seeks to cultivate good habits of physical health and environmental stewardship, Huebner says.
The idea for the bike co-op originated in the spring, prompting Huebner to do some research about co-ops at other universities. Other staff at CMU began to take interest in the idea, and various Student Council committees became interested in helping the co-op get started. It officially opened in September.
Cost of joining the co-op is $10 a year for students, and $20 a year for faculty, staff and alumni. So far, more than 30 memberships have been sold. Benefits include free access to tools and workspace; access to affordable shop rates, parts and accessories; and a 15 percent discount at a local bike shop.
Lucas Redekop, a fourth-year theology major from Floradale, Ont., was the first student to purchase a membership. “I support the bike as a form of transportation, and not just a leisure activity. The co-op is a great service to students who commute by bike, and hopefully it will show students who don’t bike how accessible it is.”
Adam Beriault, a fourth-year history major from Calgary, is the co-op’s resident mechanic. He agrees with Redekop, saying that the co-op is “a good place to learn how a bike works, and how to fix a bike.”
But in addition to the practical benefits, the co-op exists to promote other good reasons for bike riding.
For CMU admissions counsellor Karin Kliewer, riding her bike to work is “part of a conscious slowing down of life…. Any decision to slow down can make space for reflection, which is something we often neglect.”
Huebner adds that bike riding is also a political act. “There’s a big war happening in the Middle East right now, and it’s about oil,” he says, noting that while bike riding won’t alter North American reliance on oil, it is a way of “doing something on a small scale that is nonetheless significant.”
Understanding the law as ‘sword’ and ‘shield’
Lowell Ewert’s presentation at the 2006 Benjamin Eby Lectures at Conrad Grebel University College was full of images. “The law is like driving your car forward while looking only in the rearview mirror,” he suggested. “It is best done slowly, on a stretch of road with few surprises and with no children in the car.”
Ewert was referring to the medieval convention of naming collections of guiding principles and laws as “mirrors” (such as the Martyr’s Mirror). His point was that law is based on a people’s history and aspirations—driving forward while looking back.
The Eby Lectures provide an opportunity for professors at Grebel to delve into their research and present it to their peers and students as well as the public.
A lawyer, conciliator and teacher, Ewert made the point over and over that without law there is no peace. Law lays down the minimum agreement of a society for behaviour, he said, adding, though, that the law is limited. “The law is like a house,” Ewert said. “It provides people with shelter, warmth and security, but it cannot make the residents into a community or family.”
Using a gripping story to bookend his presentation, Ewert told of the final lecture he listened to at law school: “Our professor told us, you came here for idealistic reasons, wanting to make a better world, but as you leave here your families and friends are saying, you’re going to be SOBs just like all the other lawyers. The professor continued, ‘And I expect you to be SOBs. You will be called on to evict an elderly widow from her apartment on Christmas Eve and you will do it. And there she’ll be, standing on the street in the snow with all her worldly possessions around her.’”
He then described how law creates situations for peaceful ends to conflicts between people, groups and, with the advent of both the UN’s Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the International Court, nations.
In conclusion, he finished the story of his last class. “But our professor didn’t end there. He said, ‘And when the law has done what it should—end a conflict between people peacefully—you will go and find that elderly widow a place to stay, or you will make agencies aware of her need.’”
In other words, the law is necessary to make peace and to act as a shield, but it cannot bring people and nations all the way to righteousness and justice.
Adventures with Jesus in downtown Vancouver
“Are there a lot of people with guns down there?” “Does the hotel where we’re staying have a pool?” “What do you do when someone asks you for money?” “Why should we bother with those lazy bums and drug addicts anyway?”
Those are some of the questions I have been asked by students as they prepare to venture into the downtown east side of Vancouver, one of the poorest communities in all of Canada.
For the past six years, all first-year students at Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford, B.C., have participated in a four-day urban mission adventure into Vancouver. The primary purposes of this event are to encourage students to learn about urban life and ministry, and to serve in practical ways. We hear stories from urban missionaries and local residents, we walk the streets and marvel over the contrast between rich and poor, we eat foreign foods, clean houses and serve meals. Oftentimes we also see and hear about the serious challenges and deep pain common to urban life.
Our students come from diverse backgrounds, so naturally some are very apprehensive about the whole idea of staying in a section of the city notorious for crime and substance abuse. On the other hand, some who have grown up in urban settings seem to think that there is little for them to learn. But it is amazing what can take place in a few short days. Countless students testify to being challenged both by the Christians who have chosen to live in this setting and those who see no hope of escaping their painful experiences.
Students are also surprised at how God can use even little things to break down stereotypes. In March, one of our teams came back both excited and reflective after spending an afternoon cleaning up a rundown rooming house. On their way back to the hotel they had passed through a park well known for its flourishing drug trade. The group had been praying that Jesus would give them an opportunity to connect with some of the people living on the street. As they walked by the park they saw some young men throwing a football around and one of our students felt God encouraging him to ask if they wanted a game.
The young men in the park immediately agreed and they quickly split into two teams with an even number of members from each group on the teams. Even though some of the men where slightly high, our students all spoke of how these men just wanted to be treated as people. Our guys played with them for an hour, joked with them and heard a little about their lives.
At the end, one of our students asked if they could pray together. All the men agreed. “We need prayer,” said one of them. “So do we!” replied our students.
It was just a game, but the students returned thankful for the opportunity to see the humanity of these men and challenged to love others even as God has loved us.
African Christianity predates recent missionary efforts
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Citing statistics that the Christian Church in Africa in 1900 was outnumbered nearly four to one by Muslims and 100 years later comprises almost half of the continent’s population, Jonathan J. Bonk sketched a map of the worldwide Christian Church for Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary students and faculty last fall.
The executive director of the Overseas Ministries Study Center in New Haven, Conn., pointed out how the growth and activity of the Christian Church in Africa has been misrepresented, under-represented and ignored by most historians and scholars. In spite of the growth of the church in Africa, even recent attempts by Christian historians to document what is going on in the church “take scarcely any note of Christianity in Africa,” Bonk said.
To counter the perception that the Christian faith emerged in Africa only as a result of mission efforts in the last few centuries, the Dictionary of African Christian Biography, an Internet-based bank of stories of Christian people and ministries, includes more than 300 names of Christians prior to the fourth century in its database. Currently, there are more than 1,000 stories on the website, and it is continually growing as African Christian colleges and seminaries require students to collect and write biographies as part of their masters degree curricula.
To broaden the picture of the worldwide church, Bonk presented another lecture showing the scope of the church through the world. The world’s population is estimated to be 6.6 billion, he reported, with more than two billion of them Christians. Of these, 56 percent are non-white believers. Eleven countries send out more than 10,000 missionaries each year and 11 receive more than 10,000 missionaries annually, with the U.S. at the top of the list of countries receiving mission workers.
Bonk explained, “We don’t feel ourselves to be a mission field, but we are.” Then he added, “These numbers point to a relatively healthy international sharing of mission personnel.”
When asked about the increase in the number of mission workers in the last generation, Bonk said, “Wherever you find an emerging church, you will find a missionary church. The first-generation Christians really want to share their faith.”
Born in Canada, Bonk grew up in Ethiopia and then returned to Canada as a young adult. In his role at the Overseas Ministries Study Center, he edits the International Bulletin of Missionary Research. He has published five books, including Missions and Money: Affluence as a Western Missionary Problem.
Tuition rebate plan both good and bad
Students recently heard good news from the Manitoba government on its commitment to address student debt. Manitoba recently announced a new tuition fee income tax rebate. Under this plan, 60 percent of eligible tuition fees paid after Jan. 1, 2004, may be refunded to Manitoba taxpayers who graduate after Jan. 1 this year from a post-secondary institution recognized by the Canada Revenue Agency. Recognized institutions include private colleges and institutions located outside of Manitoba or Canada. This new policy is an attempt to attract and keep young people in the province.
“This can be a really good thing,” says Dave Bergen, executive secretary for Christian Formation at Mennonite Church Canada. “Out-migration of all sorts is a constant challenge in the Prairies. Our area conference ministers work very hard to keep pastors within their own area if at all possible. Mennonite Church Manitoba tries to place Manitoba divinity grads in Manitoba churches.”
On the other hand, Bergen admits the rebate plan does have its drawbacks for students. “It does appear to put vocations like pastoral ministry in somewhat of a bind,” he says, pointing out that the pool of opportunities for employment is smaller in the Prairies. “Students are not necessarily finding placements in the province and this puts them at a disadvantage.”
And not all students are excited about the announcement.
Stacy Senkbeil, Manitoba chair of the Canadian Federation of Students, says, “It’s a back-end measure that makes students and Manitoba families wait for assistance…. For students in Manitoba, reducing fees up front is much more effective than remitting them through the tax system.”