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Dear Pastors and friends of "Equipping":
Mennonite Church Canada Witness is the name given to all the programs and activities
under the Christian Witness Council of Mennonite Church Canada. A number of brochures
that show the different programs and activities are enclosed for your congregation.
Please call if you would like more or one for each of your members.
This is the organization that has been given responsibility in Canada for programs
previously offered by COM, MBM, and CHM (Commission on Overseas Mission; Mennonite
Board of Mission; Commission on Home Ministries). Under the new structures, these
former organizations no longer exist.
Mennonite Church Canada Witness offers to you, the congregations, multiple
ways of meaningful and effective involvement in God92s mission from "across the
street to around the world." We are set up to help you do your work.
Let me indicate some of the ways we hope to do this:
- We will send regular bulletin prayer requests through
Equipping. We consider prayer as the foundation of all
our work and want to invite you and your members into informed and regular prayer.
Please look for these.
- We want to invite you and thousands
of others into the Witness Prayer Net, an opportunity to become more intentionally
enga~ed in praying for the many activities of Mennonite Church.Canada Witness.
We have about 7,000 persons on the Network already, and invite many more to sign
in. Brochures are available, and a number are included in this mailing. We will
provide occasional opportunities in each Area Conference for Witness Prayer Net
members to get together for mutual encouragement and support. The first of these
took place on April 14 in Breslau, Ontario.
- We will send regular Witness
Notes through Equipping. These are especially designed to answer the often asked
question: "What do we get for the money we give to Mennonite Church Canada?" In
a crisp and precise way we will provide answers to that question that can be included
weekly your bulletin. We really encourage you to use these "notes" regularly because
it is important that our members understand how many lives are being changed and
communities are being transformed through the support for ministry made possible
by congregational support to Mennonite Church Canada Witness. We also think it
would be good to share a whole year92s worth of these notes at your congregational
annual meetings so that this question can be answered in a more substantial way.
- We are providing counsel and
connections for those congregations wishing to enter into intentional mission
partnerships either "across the street or around the world." We have staff available
to help your congregation define such partnerships.
- We are available to help your congregation understand
the implications of being a missional church in its context. We are willing
to help you with a process designed to sharpen your sense of purpose, define your
vision, set priorities, and think through implications for implementation.
We look forward to a dynamic future of Witness in Mennonite Church Canada.
Please feel free to contact anyone on our staff for further details.
Robert J. Suderman
Executive Secretary, Mennonite Church Canada Witness
P.S. Please feel free to copy this letter to your church council, mission
committee, adult education planners, and for posting on your bulletin board.
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