Canadian Mennonite
Volume 13, No. 15
Jul. 27, 2009


Viewpoints

Readers Write

We welcome your comments and publish most letters sent by subscribers intended for publication. Respecting our theology of the priesthood of all believers and of the importance of the faith community discernment process, this section is a largely open forum for the sharing of views. Letters are the opinion of the writer only—publication does not mean endorsement by the magazine or the church. Letters should be brief and address issues rather than individuals.

Please send letters to be considered for publication to letters@canadianmennonite.org or by postal mail or fax, marked “Attn: Readers Write” (our address is on page 3). Letters should include the author’s contact information and mailing address. Letters are edited for length, style and adherence to editorial guidelines.

Church needs to also examine generosity to First Nations

It was with a feeling that the prophetic voice has finally been listened to that I read the editorial “Unexamined Generosity” in the latest issue of Canadian Mennonite (July 6). Not only has this problem exerted itself to other countries, but as Native North Americans, we have also been trying to tell the church for what seems like ages that it needs to listen to our community people, not just those who claim to be Christian, but the community as a whole, to work with us on what programs, finances, and “generosities” need to be shared.

The church has often come with a paternalistic approach to working with our communities that has diminished the power of the community by taking leadership in helping to outline needed programs. In most cases this overwhelming sense to be “generous” by the church has really disempowered our people. Where we need to see generosity many times is in advocating for our rights, access to our lands and resources. We see only bits and pieces of that. I believe maybe because it doesn’t fit into the context of conversion.

I am glad countries are finally starting to speak out about the methods and means by which the church holds the purse strings and “shares” its wealth, often with little regard for what is really needed in our communities. There is a way to work with communities that creates equality and commitment to the work and then there is a way to work that often satisfies the work of the church only. All too often we have had to accept the latter. Things do need to change.

—Sakoieta’ Widrick, Mohawk Nation, Six Nations, Ont.

Two questions for every ‘vacationary’

Responding to Robert Lupton’s article on “vacationaries,” (July 6), let me suggest two questions every “vacationary” should ask before going. One, how will my visit encourage, empower and energize the local workers? If my visit is going to tire them out for no good purpose, I need to find something else to do. Two, what am I bringing that will equip the local workers to minister more effectively? This might be a new and needed skill or hard-to-get supplies or the willingness to complete a mundane but necessary project that just isn’t getting done

Last fall, I went as a “vacationary” to Romania. It was my fourth trip; I went to visit friends and to “run” a one-week afterschool program for children in a village close to Bucharest. I don’t speak Romanian so I arranged to share leadership with one of my friends, a young village pastor who has experience working with children and youth. He recruited his wife and a few other friends to help.  I provided the impetus and 2.5 suitcases full of curriculum, craft supplies, school supplies, sports equipment, etc. (for both immediate and long-term use). The week went very well, with 35 village children attending our host church on Sunday to sing for the congregation.

At the end of the week, we had a meeting with the youth and young adults in the church. They had watched our program (which we purposefully kept quite simple) and realized that they had the skills and the willingness to continue it.  After I left, the Sunday School in that church was re-started and there is now a Children’s Program running every Saturday as well.  What was my contribution?  Very simple: encouragement and equipping.

—Cheryl Enns, Vancouver, BC

From Our Leaders

Confessions of a former pastor

Willard Metzger

After twenty years of pastoral leadership, I began working for the broader church in an international ministry capacity. Having experienced church life from a different perspective, my understanding of congregational well-being has been influenced. Now that I know what I know, perhaps a little confession is in order.

When I was a pastor, I considered it critical to have people engaged during worship services. Sometimes I would visit other congregations and piously lament the lack of participation from the people in the pews. But now that I join many others in an hour-and-a-half commute to work, and stumble into a weekend wearied of thinking and processing, I have a new appreciation for the merits of sitting quietly in church and allowing the vocal praises of others to draw my heart into worship. It feels good to rest and listen and allow the words to soak into my weary spirit. I confess that I did not fully appreciate the needs of those who invited me to serve as their pastoral leader.

In like manner, when I was a pastor I considered it important to have people active in congregational life. But now that I finish a commute that often does not have me finish dinner until many meetings begin, my appetite for evening committee meetings has been lost. Now that weekends really are necessary for renewal, I have little energy to spend Saturday at a church function. Rest is critical to well-being.

Now I am one of those folks who go to church and look forward to being quietly renewed.

It could be said that a job or ministry that negatively impacts your ability to function as a ready church volunteer should be replaced with something that offers more flexibility. However for many people these options are not available. In fact, for most people, evenings and weekends are important recouping times.

As I reflected on my twenty years of pastoral ministry, I recognized that the drive for active church life had as much to do with my sense of accomplishment as it did with God’s mandate for the church. I now realize more fully, that serving the church is helping people discern healthy activity and guiding them to find appropriate ways to acknowledge God as Lord of their lives. This is not to suggest that church life is secondary to individual pursuit, not at all. But it can be said, that not all church activity is in the best interest of God’s people nor the glory of God’s name.

My confession is not one of over-activity as much as it is of misguided activity. I confess that I have not fully appreciated the spiritual worship of revitalization in the company of God’s people. Now I am one of those folks who go to church and look forward to being quietly renewed and restored by joining the worshipping community. The words soak into my weary being and I feel revived. I sit back and I breathe deeply, hoping that my pastor has a fuller understanding of the weekly context I have joined than I did when I served as a pastor.

Willard Metzger is the chair of Mennonite Church Canada Witness Council.

Family Ties

Naming and Claiming Beauty

Melissa Miller

Waiting at the restaurant for my order, I noted my hunger and looked forward to satisfying it. As the food arrived at my table, I murmured appreciatively, “Beautiful.”

“Thank you,” replied the young waitress cheekily. I quickly glanced at her, as she feigned surprise, “Oh! I thought you were talking about me.” By then a hint of blush was spreading across her round cheeks, I’m sure, an unconscious reaction to her forthrightness. We both smiled at the unusual exchange, and returned to our activities—my tackling my dinner and she tending her customers.

I kept thinking about her. There was nothing special about her looks that I could see, but…the ease with which she co-opted the compliment I’d paid the food made her special. Someone who felt good enough about herself to grab the word beautiful and bestow it on to herself. I agreed with her. To have that kind of chutzpah and confidence, to inject sparkle into a commonplace transaction between customer and wait person—that was beautiful.

My husband regularly tells me I’m beautiful. Fortunately this happens when we’re alone. Each time he speaks the word, I inwardly protest, wanting to reel off for him the hundred ways—inside and out—that I’m not beautiful. But I bite my tongue, not wanting to spoil the moment. I discipline myself to accept his praise because I know he is a honest man who means what he says. I don’t want to reject his gift. And I also know that he speaks as a lover, and lovers see beauty where others do not.

Is it too much to imagine that God still sees goodness as he looks upon us today?

Secretly I revel in his affirmation. It’s likely one of the reasons I married him. I’ve had my share of “the uglies”—negative impressions of my self, my attributes, my shortcomings. I can ride that train for a long time. But when he says, “You’re beautiful,” it stops the train, halts it right in its track. At least temporarily. I make a choice about whether to restart the train, or to join the whimsical waitress in saying, “I AM beautiful.”

In the opening pages of our Bible, we read of God’s delight in creation. Repeatedly God looked at the world—the sun and moon, fish and birds, land animals and human beings—and God pronounced it good, indeed very good. Maybe God even murmured, “Beautiful!” as he gazed at the creation he loved. Is it too much to imagine that God still sees goodness as he looks upon us today?

As God’s children, we participate in this naming. We can give voice to the beauty that we see, naming the goodness and loveliness around us. To our lover or parent or child or sibling or friend we can say, “You are beautiful. I love you.” When we hear such a treasure offered to us, we can say, “Thank you” and smile with all the pleasure we can muster.

A grandmother told me this story. One day, as she was holding her young granddaughter, she was surprised when the child grabbed the fold of skin below her chin (what the woman calls her “wattle”). Pulling her grandmother’s face close to hers, the child exclaimed, “Oh, Grandma, you’re so beautiful!” A glimmer of happy tears shone in the woman’s eyes as she recalled the memory, allowing herself to claim the beauty her grandchild named.

Melissa Miller (familyties@mts.net) lives in Winnipeg, where she ponders family relationships as a pastor, counsellor and author.

God, Money and Me

Just Say Charge It

By Harold Penner

Charge your cell phone; charge your burger. A new credit payment method is being introduced in Toronto with plans for expansion across the country. The Globe and Mail reported on Visa Canada chief executive, Tim Wilson’s introduction of this new payment method—none other than the ubiquitous cell phone. The chip technology that is being introduced into all credit cards over the next few years to improve security will be inserted in all new cell phones to allow them to be used in place of a credit card. The technology is already in use in places like Australia, France and Hong Kong.

Some of the advantages of chip-enabled cell phones being touted by Mr. Wilson are that the chip will also be able to store loyalty card information eliminating the need to carry loyalty cards, users will be able to pay for public transportation with a wave of their cell phones, and event passes may be purchased online then the phone scanned at the turnstile when entering the event. Retailers will be able to forward coupons to your cell phone based on your spending habits and proximity to their store so you can take advantage of the coupon for additional savings (or be tempted to make an unplanned purchase).

When using credit cards, average consumers spend 12-18% more than if they use cash.

Nathan Dungan of Share Save Spend™ predicted that this new technology would soon be introduced to North America when he addressed the Mennonite Foundation of Canada annual meeting in April, 2009. It appears it may be arriving even earlier than he had anticipated. Along with comments on the new technology, Nathan shared how spending habits are being impacted by the new technology. When using credit cards, average consumers spend 12-18% more than if they use cash. Where the new technology is already in use, consumers using chip-enabled cell phones spend another 10-20% more than if they use traditional credit cards. Clearly there is a significant incentive to the retail and credit industries to encourage the transition to the use of cell phones for making purchases.

Whether using credit cards or eventually moving to a new payment method like the cell phone, we at Mennonite Foundation encourage you to stick to the basics: prepare a budget reflective on your income level; regularly review your spending to ensure you are within your budget; if using a credit card, determine beforehand how you will use it (type of purchases and maximum dollar amount per purchase); pay the credit card invoice in full each month.

A word of caution, should this new technology take hold it will give a whole new meaning to an old credit card commercial tagline “just say charge it.” After all a dead phone would leave you stranded in more ways than one.

Harold Penner is a stewardship consultant at the Winnipeg, Man., office of Mennonite Foundation of Canada.

Young Prophets

Are you the Prodigal Son’s brother?

By Paul Loewen

Special to Canadian Mennonite

I was in the second last row of Winnipeg’s MTS Centre recently, watching an AHL playoff hockey game. Behind me sat five young men, who were perhaps more obnoxious and rude than you’d like your seatmates to be. Displaying a disregard for cleaning up their talk, they discussed their various drunken exploits. Partway through the conversation, they dove into talking about the brother of one of these men.

“Your brother’s a nut, man,” one of them said.

“He is,” the brother agreed.

“You’re the only disciplined one in the family,” another friend observed.

My jaw dropped. Thankfully they were behind me. He was the disciplined one in the family? What about the three or four disappeared hours during partying he had bragged about?

Before long, I was thinking I’m glad I’m not like that. And it’s true: I am glad I’m not like that. My Friday nights in summer are spent playing ultimate Frisbee with my wife and friends. The only drinking that’s done is straight out of a water bottle and the only trash-talking is the friendly ribbing that goes on between teams.

The story of the Prodigal Son tells of unhindered love from God for his children. It reminds us that, no matter what we do, God is willing to open his arms and welcome us home—if we will only return. And that’s a great message. But for some reason the story ends there for most people. Or maybe it doesn’t. Maybe they do read the next section, but they seem to forget to apply it.

I’m not saying I’m perfect, but most of the time I’m not the Prodigal Son. I’m not lost, partying away my inheritance and living foolishly. I’m not returning home after blatant disobedience, afraid of what God will do with that disobedience. No, I’m usually the Prodigal’s Brother.

And anyone who’s ever thought, I’m glad I’m not like that, is right there with me. Do you remember the Prodigal’s Brother? The brother that didn’t ask his father for his inheritance? The one who stayed at home and worked? He’s the one who becomes angry when he finds out a party is being thrown for his rebellious brother. He’s the one who turns on his father and says, “Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.”

Now, I’m not asking for a goat to go out and barbecue. But when I catch myself thanking God with pride in my voice that I am not like the men behind me at the MTS Centre, I have to remind myself of this story.

I am also like the worker hired first thing in the morning (Matthew 20:1-16), working hard all day, then eagerly anticipating my reward at the end. When those who arrive at the end of the work day receive the same reward that I do, there’s a part of me that grumbles, “These men who were hired last worked only one hour and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.”

In that story, Jesus tells me that I agreed to do the work for the established reward. He’s allowed to be as generous as he wants to be with the rewards he hands out to those who join the party at the last minute. It’s his upside-down way of paying wages, of doing economics. And in the parable of the Prodigal’s Brother, Jesus—through the narrative voice of the father—says, “My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours” (Luke 15:31).

I can’t help but be a little envious because of Jesus’ generosity, but when those moments come, I can rejoice and thank God that I have had the incredible opportunity to get to know him now already. Everything I have is yours, says God. The Prodigal Son is a story that reminds us that we can be saved no matter what we do. The end of the story reminds all those already saved, that jealousy and envy are useless—because the reward is already ours.

Paul Loewen and his wife Jeanette are youth pastors at Douglas Mennonite Church, Winnipeg.


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