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After many months of careful planning and much preparatory work, Mission Calgary is now ready to launch into the implementation phase of church planting. Mission Calgary has hired four church planters to begin working in planting three churches this summer.
Phil and Deb Wideman will be planting a church in northwest Calgary, in the Hidden Valley area, beginning July 1. From Vineland, Ont., Wideman has pastored 16 years in two Evangelical Missionary churches in Ontario. He has a B.Sc. from Liberty University, Lynchburg, Va., a B.Th. from Emmanuel Bible College, Kitchener, Ont., and is working towards an M.Div. from Tyndale College and Seminary, Toronto. Phil and Deb have four children, Luke, Jesse, Ben and Katie. Assisting Wideman will be Elroy and Lynn Senneker, who have been involved in laying much of the ground work for a church plant over the last few years. Privately sponsored, Elroy has been leading small groups and doing evangelism in Calgary. He has an M.Div. from Liberty University.
Dalhousie MB Community Church will act as an "informal resource" to the new church plant, said Ewald Unruh, executive director of the Canadian MB Board of Evangelism. It will have an informal relationship with the church plant and offer moral support, he said.
Mark Jantzen, associate pastor of Dalhousie MB Community Church, will serve as coach, and Wideman will work from an office in the church.
Curt and Sharon Snell of Gridley, Ill., will be planting a church in southeast Calgary, beginning August 1. He has been pastor of Salem Evangelical Mennonite Church for four years. Previously, he was a missionary in Germany for two years, executive pastor of Trinity Bible Church, Phoenix, Ariz., and assistant to the president of Dallas Theological Seminary. He as a B.Sc. from Taylor University, Upland, Ind., an M.A. from Ball State University, Muncie, Ind., and a Th.M. from Dallas Theological School. The Snells have three children, Lauren, Lindsey and Brian. Sunwest Christian Fellowship Church is partnering with the Snells on this task, and pastor Willy Reimer will serve as coach.
In addition, Brian and Becky Wiebe of Abbotsford, B.C., have been hired as associate church planters by Mission Calgary to assist the Snells. Wiebe has a B.R.E. from Columbia Bible College and an M.Div. from MB Biblical Seminary, Fresno, Calif. Previously, he was an church planting intern at Mountainview Community Church, Clovis, Calif., a music minister at Easton Southern Baptist Church in Fresno and a music minister at Cedar Valley Mennonite Church, Mission, B.C. The Wiebes are responsibile to raise part of the funds needed for their ministry. They have two children, Alexander and Stuart.
"As part of Wiebe's assessment as a church planter," explained Unruh, "it was recommended that he serve as an associate church planter with the expectation that he will plant a new church in one to two years."
Workneh and Masho Mogesse have been hired to work with the Ethiopian Evangelical Church in Calgary, beginning July 1. Originally from Ethiopia, Workneh has lived in Greece before moving to Canada. He has a B.Th. from Canada Christian College, Toronto. Previously, he has served as an elder in an Ethiopian church in Toronto. They have two children, Noah and Debra.
In March, Ethiopian Evangelical Church in Calgary was received into the Alberta MB Conference. The downtown church, which has been in existence since 1991, has 49 members.
The Ethiopian church will have an informal relationship with Highland MB Church, and pastor Harry Heidebrecht will serve as coach, said Unruh.
Mission Calgary is also in the process of finalizing plans for a Chinese Mandarin-speaking church plant. An apprentice church planter will be interviewed in July. Mountainview Grace Church, a Chinese Cantonese-speaking church, will supervise the church plant, and pastor Jack To will serve as coach.
"The bottleneck for church planting is finding qualified trained church planters," said Unruh. "Careful groundwork has been done, and now we are ready. We wanted to make sure that our homework had been done."
Future plans for the key cities initiative of Mission Calgary include Dalhousie MB Community Church planting a daughter church by 2002 and Sunwest Christian Fellowship also planting a daughter church in the near future.
Mission Calgary is a joint key cities initiative of the Canadian MB Conference Board of Evangelism and the Alberta MB Conference. Mission Calgary's goal is to plant 10 new churches by the year 2002.
PW
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