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On Friday night, after worship led by a six-member worship team, host pastor David Dyck thanked the Conference for a history of "going to the frontiers of mission". He explained that an Alberta convention 40 years ago had decided to send a pastor to Edmonton to head up a house church that became Lendrum MB Church. He introduced the convention theme, "Beyond the Boundaries", from Mark 16:15: "Go into the world. Go everywhere and announce the message of God's good news to one and all" (The Message). Giving substance to the convention theme, a roll call was taken of Alberta missionary-sending churches, and a world map indicated where the missionaries are serving.
Dressed in matching brightly patterned outfits, the choir provided vibrant music backed up by bongos, guitars and a variety of percussion instruments. Many of the songs were in French or Lingala. Those who spoke between songs spoke either in English or French, translated by Janzen.
One choir member greeted the delegation by saying, "We want to give you a greeting that comes from your brothers and sisters in Zaire. If you agree to accept this greeting please lift up both of your hands and say, `Imbote.'" This was enthusiastically done.
The choir's joy proved to be infectious as many delegates took up the invitation to become involved in the actions to the songs, amidst much laughter.
Ens said the mass migration of people to huge cities such as Mexico City is an unprecedented opportunity for MBs. Ens urged delegates to follow Jesus' example of going to where the people are, which in today's world is the city. Jesus had compassion on the crowds because they were harassed, helpless and hopeless, said Ens, adding that crowds have the same characteristics today. Across the developing world, thousands migrate to the city only to find that jobs are scarce, housing unattainable and food expensive. "They are longing for hope. Jesus had compassion. Dare we do less?"
Her father beat her mother while pregnant, resulting in a miscarriage of twins. He left the family with no money; returned to the family after they had moved to Montreal; beat her mother during a subsequent pregnancy, resulting in a premature birth; then left the family of eight for a 19-year-old woman. Her 17-year-old brother found a job at Syncrude in Alberta and took care of the family.
After a failed three-year relationship, Martens became pregnant by a subsequent boyfriend who initially didn't want to marry her. She felt a need to look into religion for the sake of her child, so attended Mill Woods MB Church. The congregation's kindness overcame her cynicism about Christianity, and she received Christ through marriage counselling at the church. Commission workshops followed on Saturday morning, and missions and evangelism workshops were held after lunch. Topics included "Local churches connecting with missions", "Sharing your faith with Muslims" and "Church growth strategies".
The first of the two was a recommendation from the Camping Commission that Camp Evergreen borrow $120,000 from the Canadian MB Conference to upgrade staff housing and the washroom and laundry facilities and to build a heated maintenance garage. Board chair John Thiessen acknowledged that it is sometimes harder to raise money to cover a deficit than it is to raise money before a project begins. Nonetheless, delegates approved the motion almost unanimously.
Assistant moderator Don Petker lightened the mood by joking that since the other provinces had rejected the assets of Concord, "we have a unique opportunity here. We could, perhaps, finance our camp expansion."
Moderator Mark Jantzen summarized the rationale for the first part of the motion, to "respectfully decline accepting the assets of Concord College", by saying that both the Canadian Conference and the College would like sole ownership to reside with Manitoba. He also pointed out the declining participation of Alberta churches and students in Concord College, citing a total of 16 Alberta students over the past five years, with only two students currently attending. Less than half (nine) of Alberta's 21 churches donated money to Concord last year. He added that 70% of Concord's financial support and students come from Manitoba.
Delegates voiced several observations on Concord's enrollment: that student enrollment, by nature, is cyclical; that the current low enrollment from Alberta may be part of a falling youth demographic; a caution that the Alberta enrollment figure of two students does not include part-time students; a concern that Alberta churches aren't doing enough to encourage youth to attend Bible college; and a reminder that no Concord representatives had visited Alberta churches in the past year.
The first motion to decline the assets was passed overwhelmingly.
Jantzen said that the changes were made in order to avoid ambiguity and to "say what we can about our relationship" with Concord. The Executive-initiated revision also circumvented the possibility of similar sentiments being brought forward as an amendment to the original motion which may have been deemed unfriendly and therefore ruled out of order. (An unfriendly amendment is one which significantly changes the original motion.) It may have also been an attempt to avoid a repeat of the Concord counter-motion situation at the Ontario convention (see MBH, March 21).
Concord board member David Dyck said Concord's move toward federation addresses concerns about low enrollment since "we believe that a larger school will, in fact, attract more students."
Ron Toews of Dalhousie MB Community Church in Calgary observed that declining support may be a response to the perception that Concord produces fewer graduates who go into pastoral ministry.
After hearing a majority of statements in favour of the recommendation, Phil Reimer of Dalhousie declared, "I am getting tired of discussing Concord stuff for most of the conventions. Why don't we hear from the other side . . . Otherwise, let's pass this thing and go home."
The ballot vote passed with slight opposition.
Among the Executive's six recommendations, a 2.2 percent salary grid increase was approved.
This year's budget saw an increase to $171,000 from last year's $163,000. Last year's actual spending amounted to $137,226. While the Church Extension Commission's budget dropped, due largely to a decreased subsidy to Sunwest Christian Fellowship, the Church Planting Fund, labelled a discretionary item, added $20,000 to the total budget. The per-member norm was set at $79, unchanged from last year.
Treasurer Rudy Kornelson reported a beginning surplus of $25,437, $20,000 of which is an operating reserve to make up for any shortfall at year-end. He expressed concern over figures indicating that while membership has steadily increased since 1986, per-member giving to Alberta ministries has dropped 22%.
Another innovative project is the development of a Christian education resource library and database. It would allow churches to access resources through a central information network instead of unnecessarily buying, for example, a youth video series already owned by a nearby church. Project coordinators plan to catalogue resources from Alberta churches, church agencies and Bethany Bible Institute in Hepburn, Sask.
Several types of resources would be included in the database, such as Sunday school materials, sheet music, books, people resources, pamphlets, videos, CDs and cassettes. Once completed, a catalogue binder or computer disk would be sent to each participating church. Users would also be able to access the database by modem. Meanwhile, BBI is planning to purchase a computerized library system within six months, and is hiring an additional resource person to assist with the project.
The CE commission won approval for a recommendation to continue development of the project in cooperation with BBI.
The Board also reported that it is exploring the possibility of a Spanish church plant headed by Carlos Vera, an experienced church planter. The delegates approved a recommendation to allocate $2,500 to cover some expenses for Jake Balzer (who is responsible for ethnic church planting under the Canadian Conference Board of Evangelism) to mentor Vera this year, with the goal of having his church plant join the Alberta MB Conference next year; and that the Conference allocate $12,000 to the Church Planting Fund for future needs. The Faith and Life Commission reported that it has been unable to fill the third position on the conference ministry team introduced at last year's convention. Current conference ministers Abe Konrad and Abe Quiring will share duties in the southern region.
Camp Evergreen director Paul Isaak explained that despite the controversy regarding an Allergy and Asthma Association of Alberta camp run at Camp Evergreen (see Nov. 8, 1996 MB Herald), 15-17 children accepted Christ at the camp that week. The Camp Evergreen budget, calculated separately, had a good year financially, starting out with a deficit of about $15,000 and ending the year with a $10,000 surplus.
After singing an Arabic version of "Amazing Grace", and apologizing for his broken English, Youssef gave an energetic presentation of his Arabic ministry. The gospel of God's love is truly good news to Arabic people, he said, because while there are 99 Arabic names for God, none of them describe God as love. Youssef encouraged people to take advantage of religious freedom to reach out to the thousands of Arabic-speaking people in Canada.
"If you want to reach people in the Mid-East, you would be very worried because the government put you in jail, maybe. But here, freedom," he said. "I'm not afraid of Jean Chretien," he added, to a roaring audience.
He also shared briefly about his church's outreach to a variety of nationalities, and his TV preaching program broadcast weekly.
Steve Klassen followed with a dramatic telling of the early ministry of Jesus as recorded in Mark chapter 1, which Klassen had memorized. Pacing the stage, Klassen acted out the scenes as he spoke.
"Jesus Christ was a man who went beyond the boundaries," he said. "He is calling us beyond the boundaries." Giving several examples of answered prayers as told to him by missionaries, he reminded delegates that prayer is effective and that it is much needed.
Harold Ens rounded out the convention weekend with a sermon titled "Investing for Century 21" based on Matthew 16:24-28. He listed four obstacles to investing wisely for Jesus:
* our need for financial security;
* our need for geographic security;
* our desire for status;
* the threat of insignificance.
He concluded with a challenge to give sacrificially; to send youth into training and education, then into missions; and to spend more time in prayer.
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