Editorial

Jim Coggins

Memory

It was Tuesday, October 29, 1996, just after 8 o'clock, and our home care group had barely begun a planned study of the Gospel of John. Suddenly, there was a loud pounding on the front door. Our host went to answer, and three big men in trench coats burst into the room. They demanded to know what we were doing. When we said that we were studying the Bible, they declared that that was no longer permitted, and they ordered us to hand over our Bibles. In only a few moments, they had collected all of the Bibles in the room and marched out.

In the stunned silence that followed, we decided to go underground--actually, to move the Bible study from the living room to the rec room in the basement. There, we decided to continue our study of John--but, since we had no Bibles, we could study only those portions of John which we already knew by heart.

We tried to reconstruct the Gospel. In an hour, we had put together about half of the first chapter of John, and at least something from each of the other 20 chapters. We knew that Jesus was the Word made flesh and that because God loved us He had sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross to save us. We knew that Jesus was the Good Shepherd, the Vine, the Way, the Truth and the Life--and quite a lot more.

When we were finished and it was time to go home, we found our Bibles waiting for us at the door--where the three men in trenchcoats (really three men from our Sunday school class at church) had left them. It is not yet illegal to study the Bible in Canada. The evening's events had been planned by our care group leaders as part of an emphasis on Bible memorization in our church. The evening served as a reminder that the Bibles sitting on our shelves do not have any effect on our lives. It is only the Bibles in our hearts and minds that are readily available when we need them, only those Bibles that can change the way we live.

Transformations

It is sometimes a strange feeling working on the staff of the MB Herald. We publish about 25,000 words every two weeks--and we can never tell which 5 will get us into trouble. Sometimes we publish a disturbing, thought-provoking article on a controversial topic and get little response. At other times, a routine item provokes a major outcry from readers.

It was one of those smaller items that tripped us up a few weeks ago, although so far people have been gracious and the response has been minimal. It was a simple wedding announcement, but in typesetting it we accidentally transposed a "daughter" into a "son". The error was not picked up at any of the proofreading stages--it is difficult to concentrate on the meaning when proofreading material with a lot of routine repetitions.

The result was embarrassing for the couple, their families and the Herald staff--and confusing for some other readers.

It made me pause to consider the power of the press. It seemed that with a single stroke of the word processor, we had not only changed the sex of an individual but also Conference policy on homosexual marriages.

We made a couple of other remarkable transformations this week as well--but fortunately caught these at the proofreading stage. For instance, we transformed a "Gail" into "Gall". We also transformed a man named "Holm" into someone who was "Holy". The second is probably more remarkable than the first. After all, it was a man (the first Adam) who achieved humanity's fall into bitterness (gall), but it required the Son of God (the second Adam) to raise humanity to holiness.

We know that the words we publish cannot transform either individuals or understandings of theology. However, we also pray daily that God will use the words we publish to accomplish such transformations. After all, God is in the transformation business. He sent His Son Jesus to translate us from death to life, from meaninglessness to purpose, from sin to holiness. That is truly a remarkable transformation, and it is what we celebrate at Easter.

Angry young pastors

Do you remember the controversy about the "young leaders' forums" two years ago at the last General MB Conference convention? They were the occasion for younger members of the Conference to state what they thought was wrong with the Conference. (I probably erred in using the catchy but inaccurate designation "angry young pastors" to describe them.)

In the last issue of the Herald, we carried the registration form for the next General Conference convention in Waterloo, Ont. in July. From what I have seen of the convention planning so far, it strikes me that the young leaders have been given a lot of what they asked for: longer coffee breaks, more networking sessions, more worship and celebration, more prayer, interactive business sessions, and even a proposal to abolish the General Conference, thus simplifying and streamlining Conference work. It appears that the Conference leaders have been listening. How will the young leaders respond? Will they come? Will they participate? Will they accept responsibility for carrying the important work of the MB Church into the future?

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