 Church Matters hosts Janet Plenert and Dan Dyck explore why the church matters in the world today. Each episode features a guest or guests who tell stories from their own experiences about why the church matters in the world today.Primary Format :
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Episode 60: Does the church still matter? This episode is Part 2 of a series that celebrates the 5th birthday of Church Matters. In Part 2, we re-visit the question of if and why the church matters in the world today. In Part 2, we ask the same questions of Willard Metzger, the Executive Director of Mennonite Church Canada, that we asked Robert J. Suderman, General Secretary of Mennonite Church Canada, in 2005. Willard believes the church is compelled to move in some new directions, such as more boldy proclaiming our Christian resp ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 59: Does the church still matter?This episode is Part 1 of a two part series that will celebrate the 5th birthday of Church Matters. For this series we re-visit the question of if and why the church matters in the world today. In Part 1, we re-play an interview with the then General Secretary of Mennonite Church Canada, Robert J. Suderman. In Part 2, we'll ask the same questions of Willard Metzger, the present General Secretary of Mennonite Church Canada (now re-named "Executive Director").Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 58: Remembering God's Future: This is Not the EndDuring Advent, the church re-tells the story of Jesus birth. Indeed, the word Advent means "coming." In the book of Revelation, we read about Jesus "coming again." When God's people first heard about Christ's birth, many were anticipating a new future and relief from oppression. Christians today anticipate God's new future in Jesus' coming - again. Today, some Christians envision Jesus' return as a destructive, apocalyptic event. Others understand Jesus' return as the revelation of a new cr ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 57: Remembering God's Future: This is Our Story, Part 2Nelson Kraybill is a speaker, pastor, author, and former President of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary. This episode is Part 2 of a sermon heard by participants at the Mennonite Church Canada Assembly 2011 in Waterloo, Ontario. The theme of the Assembly was "Remembering God's Future" and was based on Revelation 21 and 22. Kraybill's take on Revelation offers an alternative to popular interpretations of the Revelation in which the focus is often the apocalyptic destruction of creation.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 56: Remembering God's Future: This is Our Story, Part 1Nelson Kraybill is a speaker, pastor, author, and former President of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary. This episode is Part 1 of a sermon heard by participants at the Mennonite Church Canada Assembly 2011 in Waterloo, Ontario. The theme of the Assembly was "Remembering God's Future" and was based on Revelation 21 and 22. Kraybill's take on Revelation offers an alternative to popular interpretations of the Revelation in which the focus is often the apocalyptic destruction of creation.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 55: Mike Neufeld: What Now?In What Now? Mike Neufeld shares how the Nicene Creed has shaped Christendom and the church for centuries afterword, highlighting the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus - but brushing off the life of Christ and what it means for believers. Mike pushes listeners to ask what they will do in response to what we know about Jesus' life.
A husband and father of four, Mike teaches Church History at Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He and his family have lived i ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 54: Lynda Loewen: Hard Core ChristianIn Hard Core Christian, Lynda Loewen delivers a compelling story and challenge to congregants of Home Street Mennonite Church in Winnipeg, Manitoba, based on the story of Jesus healing the blind man from John 9. Her presentation was recorded during Lent, on April 3, 2011. "The mystery of faith is that we have to have it in order to see things," says Loewen. Tune it for this wonderful, insightful, and accessible presentation. Join host Dan Dyck and guest Lynda Loewen from Home Street Mennoni ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 53: Willard Metzger: Will our Compassion have Servants?Mennonite Church Canada has had to reduce its activities to more closely align with its revenue. Administrators in other Christian traditions have already had to make cuts, while others are in the process of doing so.
In a scenario where church members are aging and cradle rolls are not replenishing the pews at previous rates, will the church have to get used to doing less?
Join host Dan Dyck and guest Willard Metzger, General Secretary, as they look at the future of the church and all t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 52: Janet Plenert: Job or Vocation?The words are sometimes thrown around interchangeably, but there is a big difference: a job may earn a living, but a vocation is what you discern to be your personal calling. Choosing whether you have a job or a vocation can make a profound difference in your life. Janet Plenert has intentionally followed her vocational path for 25 years. Her work with Mennonite Church Canada has been both a job and a vocation. Although she has no intention of changing her vocation, her present ministry wit ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 51: Stuart Murray: The Anabaptist Has No ClothesStuart Murray has been intrigued by Anabaptist theology since he was first introduced to it. Born into the Plymouth Brethren tradition, he became involved with a mission team in a very multi-cultural part of London, England, as a young man. This work grew into a church plant in that neighbourhood, which he led for 12 years. During this time he sought out new resources on discipleship, poverty, justice, community, and violence, and found a number of helpful books written by Mennonites with a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 50: Terry LeBlanc: Will our Faith have Children?Terry is a Mi'kmaq /Acadian, ordained to ministry in 1983 but having served in full-time Native ministry since 1979. Terry is actively engaged in helping Native men and women embrace the person, work, teaching, life, death and resurrection of Jesus - as indigenous people. He is passionate about transmitting Christian faith from the older to the younger generation, as well as helping Canada's First Nations people and white Canadians understand their Christian faith in new ways. An inspiring ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 49: Willard Metzger: An IntroductionWillard Metzger is the new General Secretary of Mennonite Church Canada. In this interview, we ask why the church is important to him, what he has learned from his past experience as a Mennonite pastor, volunteer chair of Mennonite Church Canada's Witness Council, and Director of Church Relations for World Vision - and what he thinks makes a strong church leader.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 48: Let the Peace of Christ Rule in Your HeartsIn his last Mennonite Church Canada Assembly as General Secretary, Dr. Robert J. Suderman taught a series of Bible studies on the theme text of the assembly - Colossians 3: 12 - 17. The church is God's chosen vehicle of reconciliation and peace in the world. Yet today, the church has fallen out of favour in society at large. Church attendance, membership, and commitments continues to decline. A wide spread dislike of institutions permeates society. Has the church lost its sense of vocation? ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 47: Jesus, Gracious and Merciful, Pt. 2Daniel Pantoja and his wife Joji are Mennonite Church Canada Witness workers with a passion for building peace among Christians and Muslims in the Philippines. In an area that has suffered ongoing violence over land issues, the Pantojas share a clear desire to love and serve all people in the name of Jesus - and willingly enter into conflict zones without military escort. Through their ministry, Peacebuilders Community Inc., the Pantojas teach that God's Shalom is found through harmony with ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 46: Jesus, Gracious and Merciful, Pt. 1Daniel Pantoja and his wife Joji are Mennonite Church Canada Witness workers with a passion for building peace among Christians and Muslims in the Philippines. In an area that has suffered ongoing violence over land issues, the Pantojas share a clear desire to love and serve all people in the name of Jesus - and willingly enter into conflict zones without military escort. Through their ministry, Peacebuilders Community Inc., the Pantojas teach that God's Shalom is found through harmony with ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 45: Powerful Transformations in China, Pt 2Jeanette Hanson, a long-term international church worker in China with Mennonite Church Canada says that Christians in China have never experienced as much freedom as they have today, yet Christians comprise no more than 1-2% of China's population. In some areas of China, there may be only one trained church leader for every ten-thousand Christians. The church is challenged with finding its place in a society that permits religious freedom yet has laws that make it difficult for people to w ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 44: Powerful Transformations in ChinaJeanette Hanson, a long-term international church worker in China with Mennonite Church Canada says that Christians in China have never experienced as much freedom as they have today, yet Christians comprise no more than 1-2% of China's population. In some areas of China, there may be only one trained church leader for every ten-thousand Christians. The church is challenged with finding its place in a society that permits religious freedom yet has laws that make it difficult for people to w ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 43: Should the Church Advocate for a Federal Department for Peace?Bill C-447 – calling for the establishment of a government department of peace – is presently being processed through Canada’s parliamentary system. Should the church – a long time advocate for the separation of church and state – advocate for Bill C-447? Why or why not? Tune in to this episode of Church Matters and hear how one senior youth group and their pastor have responded to Bill C-447.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 42: Does Church Publishing Matter?Does denominational identity still matter? If so, who will preserve it, and how? Are leaders, lay leaders, and people in the pews becoming less selective in choosing resources used to teach Christian education? In a pick and choose world of widely (and freely) available religious resources on the internet, denominational publishers can no longer rely only on the historic loyalty of parishioners. But cutting through the mass of advertising, marketing, and promotion from large, mainstream pub ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 41: Treaties, Covenants and Promises: Where is the Conscience of the Church? - Part 2"They should get over it already... stop living in the past and start living into the future." These are words frequently uttered by non-Aboriginal, mainstream civilians in Canada. Is the church equally insensitive and ambivalent to a people who have experienced forced displacement and the resulting family breakdown, addictions, and high rates of suicide?Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 40: Treaties, Covenants and Promises: Where is the Conscience of the Church? - Part 1"They should get over it already... stop living in the past and start living into the future." These are words frequently uttered by non-Aboriginal, mainstream civilians in Canada. Is the church equally insensitive and ambivalent to a people who have experienced forced displacement and the resulting family breakdown, addictions, and high rates of suicide?Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 39: What is a Missional Church?What is a missional church? It's a lot of things, depending on the context. Jamie Arpin Ricci is leading one version of a missional church - the Little Flowers Community - in Winnipeg's downtown West End. The Little Flowers web site says, "...we seek to make the mission of God the organizing reality of everything that we are and everything that we do that makes us missional." Give a listen to this episode of Church Matters and find out how the Little Flowers Community does missional church ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 38: Can people of different faiths work together for the common good?Rev. Dr. Hamilton is leading the planning of the World Religions Summit 2010: Interfaith Leaders in the G8 Nations. Her hope is to mobilize Canadians to meet with every elected Member of Parliament in Canada and hold them to account to the promises they have already made, and to the promises the will make. In particular, leaders of the worlds' religions want assurances that the Millennium Development Goals made 10 years ago will be met by the pledged deadline of 2015. Can people of differen ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 37: I Was at a Church Meeting when a Fight Broke Out...About 20% of congregations experience, significant, long term conflict. The challenge is not the conflict, but whether it is turned into a growth experience or a divisive one, say our guests David Pankratz and Lois Edmund. David Pankratz is the Director of the Institute for Community Peacebuilding at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg. Lois Edmund is Assistant Professor of Conflict Resolution Studies at Menno Simons College in Winnipeg and a consulting Clinical Psychologist. Join the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 36: Risking Fortune, Finding FaithMacau easily topples Las Vegas as the world’s leading gambling centre. People from all over East Asia visit Macau to risk their fortunes and nest eggs – or to find better paying jobs in the lucrative gaming industry. Starting an outreach church in this setting comes with challenges and blessings. In this episode, Mennonite Church Canada Witness workers George and Tobia Veith tell how they share God’s stories of healing and hope with people from all walks of life in one of the most den ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 35: Becoming a Global ChurchAs communication technologies and international travel grow, the global village shrinks. So too with the church. Many Christians are struggling with economic oppression, conflict, poverty, and lack of healthcare and educations in their homelands. Can a church become a global church? How? Danisa Ndlovu, President of Mennonite World Conference, offers some stories and tips of how the international church stands with struggling churches around the world, including in his country of Zimbabwe.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 34: Being a Faithful ChurchThe ongoing health of the church requires that believers continue to strengthen their overall capacity to discern the word and the mind of God as the church wrestles with the critical agenda of our time. Robert J. Suderman, General Secretary of Mennonite Church Canada, has written a paper to guide the church in matters of being a faithful body in times of tumult and widespread disagreement on a variety of issues and biblical understandings. The paper is entitled Being a Faithful Church: Tes ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 33: Peace in the Public SquareGordon Allaby and his Mennonite congregation in Osler, Saskatchewan are passionate about non-violent peace building. Just as importantly, they have demonstrated considerable creativity in getting the peace message out into the public square in their part of the world. Gordon is the son of a Baptist minister, is both a Canadian and American citizen who himself was interrogated by USA military officials after applying to be a conscientious objector. In 2008, Osler Mennonite Church sponsored a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 32: The Church’s role in Government Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, Pt 2What can the church learn from the South African church’s experience with apartheid and its Truth and Reconciliation Commission? In Part 2 we ask Dr. Meiring what the church in Canada can learn from the South African church experience, and how we can apply this knowledge to the recently launched Aboriginal Truth and Reconciliation process in Canada. Dr. Piet Meiring is an ordained minister in the Dutch Reformed Church, a theology professor at the University of Pretoria, has authored or co ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 31: The Church’s role in Government Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, Pt 1What can the church learn from the South African church’s experience with apartheid and its Truth and Reconciliation Commission? Dr. Piet Meiring is an ordained minister in the Dutch Reformed Church, a theology professor at the University of Pretoria, has authored or co-authored thirty books, and has been deeply involved in apartheid issues in South Africa for over three decades. Most recently he served with South Africa’s truth and reconciliation commission, and has since been invited ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 30: The Anabaptist FactorDoug Gay lectures on Practical Theology at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, is an ordained minister, has been an inner-city pastor in London, England. He also has a special interest in Anabaptist theology. Doug talks about the influence of Anabaptist and Mennonite theology in the ecumenical church setting in the United KingdomListen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 29: The Church in CubaDaylins Rufin, active Baptist pastor and seminary professor in Cuba, dispels myths about the church in Cuba.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 28: Food Security and the ChurchWhat does it mean to have food security, what does the Bible have to say to us about food security, and what does the church have to do with food security? Join Church Matters and guest Stefan Epp, Food Policy Analyst with the Manitoba Food Charter, as we explore what food security and the church mean in both local and international contexts.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 27: Rebuilding Trust between the Church and Canada’s Indigenous PeoplesCanada’s indigenous peoples have had a rocky relationship with the Christian church. Can this relationship be healed, and if so, what can the ordinary person contribute to the healing? In this episode, we explore the topic with Anita Keith. Anita is a Christian of Mohawk, Algonquin and British descent. She is an Ordained Minister, an instructor of Aboriginal Education at Red River College in Winnipeg, and an Administrator for the North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 26: Broken Promise: A Conscientious Objector and his 60 Year-Old SecretGordon Toombs had the best intentions. He wanted to stay faithful to his belief that Jesus taught all his followers to be non-violent peacemakers. When the Canadian government conscripted him for World War in 1941, they promised he could serve as a medic by declaring himself a conscientious objector (CO). That promise was broken. Gordon felt he had betrayed his deeply held beliefs - and kept his failed CO declaration a secret for 60 years. This is his story.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 25: Church and State: How Do We Live Together?Church and state: How can we create space for meaningful interaction? How should the church call governing leaders to accountability, and how can we do this fruitfully? And how can the church be faithful in its relations with the state? This episode’s guest, Reverend Doctor Karen Hamilton, General Secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches, helps explore this topic as Canada prepares to host the G8 leaders as well as a G8 Religious Leaders Summit. What can the church do to hold leaders ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 24: Being the Church in Challenging Economic TimesWhen the news is full of stories about devalued pension plans and retirement savings, even God’s people can be tempted to make ethically questionable investments that promise temptingly high returns. What is the role of the church in tough economic times? Gary Hawton, CEO of Meritas, a socially responsible investment firm, has some words of wisdom for jittery Christians in times such as these.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 23: Jesus? Understanding how we know what we know, and what this means for the church - Part TwoThe many recent books on the market indicate a strong, renewed interest in Jesus. Some works tackle Jesus as a highly moral man with some good teachings, others interpret Jesus as a divine messenger from God. Authors use research from historical documents, scholarly works, and archaeological information. This episode explores how we know what we know about Jesus, and what this means for the church.
Guest: Tom Yoder Neufeld, associate professor of Religious Studies at Conrad Grebel Universi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 22: Jesus?: Understanding how we know what we know, and what this means for the church - Part OnePart 1 of a two part series
The many recent books on the market indicate a strong, renewed interest in Jesus. Some works tackle Jesus as a highly moral man with some good teachings, others interpret Jesus as a divine messenger from God. Authors use research from historical documents, scholarly works, and archaeological information. This episode explores how we know what we know about Jesus, and what this means for the church.
Guest: Tom Yoder Neufeld, associate professor of Religious Studie ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 21: The Church's Call to Generosity Part 2Guest: Don Rempel-Boschman. This episode is part 2 of a two part series on the Church's call to generosity. Don talks about how his congregation seeks to be faithful as they balance the vast need in the world with the passions of people in the congregation.
Aired on October 19, 2008Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 20: The Church's Call to Generosity Part 1Guest: Don Rempel-Boschman. This episode is part 1 of a two part series on the Church's call to generosity. Don talks about how his congregation seeks to be faithful as they balance the vast need in the world with the passions of people in the congregation.
Aired on September 21, 2008
Note: Episode 19 was a repeat broadcast of Episode 5Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 18: The decade to overcome violenceThe Decade to Overcome Violence will end in 2011. What progress has been made so far? Guest Fernando Enns, a Mennonite, first proposed this idea to the World Council of Churches.
Aired on July 20, 2008Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 17: The surviving Mennonite Church in UkraineRussian Mennonites have a lengthy ancestral history with Ukraine. As part of a long migration through Eastern Europe, many Mennonites of ethnic Germanic origin sojourned there for up to 150 years, with approximately 50,000 emigrating to Canada between 1870 and 1950 to escape disagreeable government policies, and Bolshevik Revolution during the 1920s. Today, Canadian Mennonites still relate to people in Ukraine, most often through church-based connections. Anna Alipova, is a Church Council m ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 16: Healing and Hope in the event of a pandemicHealing and Hope in the event of a pandemic
Guests representing public health practitioners, spiritual care specialists, emergency preparedness planners, and disaster recovery experts talk about the church's role in the event of a pandemic. Aired on May 17, 2008Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 15: Jesus the Way MakerJesus the Way Maker
Guest: Richard Twiss
Richard Twiss is a Rosebud Lakota theologian from Vancouver, Washington, the co-founder of Wiconi International, the author of One Church, Many Tribes (Regal Books, 2000), and a Doctor of Missiology candidate at Asbury Theological Seminary. His ministry encourages Indigenous people from North America and around the world to use appropriate aspects of their cultural traditions for expressing Christ-centred theology. Using the lense of biblical ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 14: Making your Church Matter in your NeighbourhoodMaking your Church Matter in your Neighbourhood
Guest: Rudy Dirks, Pastor
Heavy metal music at a funeral in a Mennonite Church? When an un-churched young man in Rudy's community died suddenly and tragically, the victim's family approached Rudy and his congregation to host the funeral. Since then, some amazing things have happened. Aired on March 16, 2008.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 13: Does the Church Matter Beyond the Congregational Level?Does the Church Matter Beyond the Congregational Level? Do Regional Churches, National Churches or Denominations Matter?
Guest: Pam Peters-Pries, Executive Secretary, Support Services, MC Canada
For a congregation to carry out God's work in the world, it is necessary to gather. The same is true for wider levels of the organized church - including the denomination (Acts 11: 25-26). Peters-Pries says, "We would never expect the local church to be effective in carrying out God's mission i ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 12: Week of Prayer for Christian UnityWeek of Prayer for Christian Unity: An ecumenical look at why this event is needed, and why and how the church matters in other Christian faith traditions.Guests: Bruce Faurschou, Executive Secretary of the Conference of Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario for the United Church of Canada; Tim Dyck, General Secretary of the Evangelical Mennonite Conference; Ruth Vince of the Evangelical Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada; Donald Phillips, Diocesan Bishop for the Anglican Dioces ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Episode 11: Global Gift Sharing, the Church and ChristmasHow can we share the gifts we have as a church with churches in other parts of the world? And what do churches in other parts of the world have to offer the church in Canada? Join Charles Mahlangu, Principal at the Evangelical Seminary of Southern Africa and his wife Dolores in conversation as we ask these and other questions about what churches can do for one another on a global level. Aired on December 16, 2007Listen | Listen in your iPhone | |