Board of Christian Education Ministries

Board Members

Lorraine Dick (At large, 1998), Chair
Sharon Johnson (At large, 2000), Vice-Chair
Martha Wall (Quebec), Secretary
Peter Willms (B.C., 1998)
Vic Mensch (Alberta, 2000)
Florianne Nickel (Saskatchewan, 2000)
Brian Larmour (Manitoba, 2000)
Jane Peck (Ontario, 2000)
StaffDavid Wiebe, Director
Glennis Bowles, Administrative Assistant

Our Mission

To help MB churches strengthen their Christian education ministries to children, youth and adults.

Key Ministry Areas

1. Children's Ministry
2. Youth Ministry
3. Adult Ministry
4. Networking
5. Intercultural Ministries
6. Small Church Support

Y Net Point People:

Scott Lanigan--Richmond Bethel
Brad Hagkull--Broadway, Chilliwack
Randy Benson--Willow Park, Kelowna
Phil Reimer--Highland, Calgary
Paul Isaac--Camp Evergreen
Derrick Mueller--Bethany Bible Institute
Cam Rowland--Niverville
Dave Ens--McIvor Ave., Winnipeg
Myron Koop--Fort Garry, Winnipeg
Kevin Peters--Elm Creek
Tim Clark--Morden
Ted Goossen--Simonhouse Bible Camp
Frank Peters--Glencairn, Kitchener
Andrew Thiessen--Vineland
Mattieu Rolland--St-Jerome

CHILDREN'S MINISTRY

The Life Steps Plan is the core of our children's ministry. It helps workers and program coordinators assess the effectiveness of their ministry. It helps Chrisitan education workers answer the question: Are our children spiritually nourished?

Activity Last Biennium

  • Life Steps Plan Outline Booklet: This was distributed to the Christian education or children's ministry coordinator in every church.
  • Seminars: David Wiebe presented over 35 seminars, with more than 600 attending. About 75% of Canadian MB churches were represented at these seminars. People from more than 20 non-MB churches also attended. Most made a commitment to use Life Steps principles in their ministries.
  • Resource Binder: This contains ideas to help workers embellish and balance their ministry to children.
  • Video: A training video was released in January, 1998.

    Next Biennium

  • Life Steps for Parents: We have repeatedly been asked if Life Steps, designed for Sunday school teachers, club workers, etc., could be adapted for parents. A study guide for parents, suitable for study in adult Sunday school classes or small groups, is our first goal. Projected release date is January, 1999. Seminars for parents are also being planned.
  • Seminar Alumni Support: We send regular mailings and are available for consultation with all who have attended our seminars.
  • Resource Binder Additions: More ideas are being collected and will be added to the current Resource Binder.
  • Multiplication: Two people have been equipped with presentation kits and trained to present the Life Steps materials at seminars. We hope to have up to 10 people across Canada able to serve as trainers and consultants in their regions. Interest from leaders in other denominations means that the Life Steps Plan is being used much more widely than we ever anticipated!

    Our Children's Ministry Dream

    Our dream is to have the following:
  • Focussed workers: Christian education workers should provide a balanced ministry for spiritual nourishment.
  • A Full Network: We want to have resource people ready to train, consult with and assist local church workers, within a reasonable driving distance of every local MB church
  • Functuional Structures and Leadership: Each church should have a Christian education leadership that regularly assesses ministry quality and accountability.

    YOUTH MINISTRY

    We have a 5-point vision for effective youth ministries:
  • Trained Youth Leaders: All workers should have access to, and take advantage of, quality training.
  • Purpose-Driven Programs: Activities in programs should be consciously planned to balance three priorities: building youth faith, equipping leading youth for participation in ministry, and winning spiritually lost youth to Christ.
  • Prayer and Worship Empowered Ministries: This will involve not just "saying prayers" but deeply involving youth in these critical aspecrts of the Christian life.
  • Peer Evangelism: Youth should be trained, encouraged and involved in group efforts to win their spiritually lost peers to Christ.
  • Fully Devoted Followers of Christ: Each ministry should meet youth at their level of spiritual interest and help them advance toward spiritual maturity.

    Activity Last Biennium

  • Y Net: Y Net mobilizes key youth pastors (called "Point People") in each region to "adopt" a cluster of churches. Their role is to network with the youth leaders of each church in that cluster. This is a voluntary ministry of encouragement, idea sharing and prayer support. (See map for names of Y Net Point People.) Equipping and goal-setting clinics were held for Y Net Point People in Alberta in 1997, and again in 1998. A key hurdle is finding enough Point People in each region. We hope to have one Point Person for every 6-8 churches.

  • NYC'99: Banff '95 was wonderfully successful in its impact on students. Many youth were baptized and made significant changes in their lives because of decisions made at Banff. A weekly early morning prayer meeting led entirely by students was started in January, 1996 as a direct result of our prayer emphasis at Banff; it continues today! Planning began for our next National Youth Convention at the end of 1998. A change of name allows some flexibility for future events. We have increased capacity in order to be able to minister to more youth through NYC '99.

    Next Biennium

  • NYC '99. This major youth event will take place Dec. 30, 1998-Jan. 2, 1999 in Banff, Alta.
  • Y Net Expansion: We will continue to recruit Point People. Our goal is to make sure that all youth workers are trained and supported and that all youth ministries are purpose-driven. We are finetuning the purposes of Y Net phone calls and network meetings. We urge provincial conferences to budget $400-$500 per Point Person to cover the direct costs of their activities (phone, travel, hosting network meetings, and expenses for the Point Persons clinics).
  • Dialogue with Youth Mission International: We will forge links with SOAR, the YMI missions trip for high school youth. This will help us achieve our goals of encouraging peer evangelism and having prayer and worship empowered ministries.
  • Students Equipped to Minister to Peers (SEMP): We will promote SEMP events in order to help youth groups develop their peer evangelism efforts.

    ADULT MINISTRY

    This is an emerging, growth area in Christian Education Ministries. A key beginning step has been for us to define our goal for discipleship. It is called Description of a Discipled Person.

    Adult ministry is the most complex of the three age levels in Christian education. It has a longer age span than the others. There are more life changes and stresses between the ages of 18 and 88 than in the first 18 years of life. In addition, adults are more independent, so our ministries must be collegial, inspiring, challenging; they must not be insulting or ignore significant but unspoken issues that can undermine teaching.

    Moreover, adult Christian education ministries--which may include Sunday school, small groups and men's and women's ministries--dovetail with the preaching ministry and with volunteer involvement. Thus, boundaries are quite fuzzy between adult Christian education and other areas of church life.Still, we feel up to the challenge. It has just taken us a while to get going in this area, with all the effort we put out for the other age levels.

    Last Biennium

  • DDP: Our Description of a Discipled Person outlines six key characteristics of an adult disciple of Jesus Christ. These line up with the Canadian MB Conference Core Values. They represent the goal of our Christian education efforts, and are an adult version of the Life Steps Plan for children. Description of a Discipled Person is distributed free to all churches, and bulk copies have been picked up by many churches. Some pastors have done sermon series based on them. Description of a Discipled Person is now in its second printing.
  • Board Meeting on Adult Key Issues: At a special Board meeting, we read materials, heard summaries of important resources in adult ministry planning, and discussed key issues related to adult ministries. This has set out a foundation on which to build a nati onal adult ministry strategy.
  • Focus Groups: Meetings have been held in Manitoba and British Columbia to dialogue with adult ministry pastors, interested educational institution faculty and others.Next Biennium
  • More Focus Groups: Further discussions are needed.
  • Strategy Outline: This may be similar to the Life Steps Plan outline. It will assist adult Sunday school coordinators, small group coordinators and other ministry coordinators to assess their ministries from a practical and ideal point of view.

    INTER CULTURAL MINISTRIES

    Our aim is to assist our churches from a variety of cultural backgrounds in relevant ways unique to them.

    Last Biennium

  • French Curriculum: We gave a grant of $5000 each year to assist in the production of new curricula for children's ministries in Quebec. Martha Wall coordinates this project. Unique materials are developed through adapting and borrowing ideas from English and French publications. These materials are cutting edge, activity-based learning tools that kids really enjoy! In fact, people are saying we should translate these materials into English.
  • Quebec Youth Ministries: The Board of Christian Education Ministries funded Projet Jeunesse on a decreasing formula. However, the project was not affordable to the Quebec churches (who were to provide the rest of the funding), so it ceased functioning in its original format. We did not distribute our funding in the final year.
  • Chinese Churches and Life Steps: Almost 75 people from Chinese churches attended Life Steps seminars.

    Next Biennium

  • French Curriculum: We will provide continued support at $5000 per year. A Sunday School Giving Project will be launched to raise money for this.
  • Quebec Youth Ministries: We have budgeted $2000 per year to support the development of youth ministry activities on a per-project basis.

    NETWORKING

    The Board of Christian Education Ministries has been given a new responsibility: liaison with our higher educational institutions. Last biennium, Dave Wiebe chaired a meeting involving Columbia Bible College, TREK (a year-long Youth Mission International program), the B.C. Centre of MB Biblical Seminary, and Bethany Bible Institute. Missing were Concord College and Institut biblique Laval. The timing for this meeting was not good for some; we will host the next inter-institutional meeting immediately following the Canadian Conference convention in July. A wide range of issues, from promotion to theology, find their way onto the agenda. In July, Richard Kriegbaum will be our presenter and facilitator.

    OTHER MINISTRIES

    Christian Education Ministries will continue our other ministries, including:
  • Ideabank: We received the following comment on our quarterly newsletter: "Your CE Forum article came at just the right time. God must have led you because it fit my need at the moment exactly."
  • Nexus: This is a quarterly newsletter for members of provincial Christian education or church ministries committees.
  • ReFocusing Networks: Last biennium, Dave Wiebe led two Focusing Leaders Networks in the Winnipeg area. This was in conjunction with the Canadian MB Conference project led by Reuben Pauls. While Wiebe won't continue to lead specific networks, ideas gained from this experience will be used in such initiatives as Y Net.

    SMALL CHURCH MINISTRIES

    The Life Steps Plan has become a key source of assistance to small churches. It enables a church to plan a more balanced ministry without adding programs. This is key in small churches, where volunteers already have multiple responsibilities.

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