Mennonite Church Canada Witness
Missional Pastor Worker

Mennonite Church Canada Priorities

To engage the world with the reconciling gospel of Jesus Christ, with God’s help we will:

• Form a people of God;
• Become a global church;
• Grow leaders for the church..

Mennonite Church Canada Witness Mandate

To lead, mobilize and resource the church to participate in holistic witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ in a broken world.

To respond to this calling in Germany, Mennonite Church Canada Witness commits to continue international ministry in Germany, now in partnership with  the Verband deutscher Mennoniten-Gemeinden (VdM - http://www.mennonitisch.de/  and http://www.mennoniten.de/verband.html ), and the Deutsches Mennonitisches Missions-Komitee (DMMK - http://www.mission-mennoniten.de). The VdM is a German missional Mennonite body comprised of 27 congregations, primarily in southern Germany. They are a new MC Canada partner in Germany, emphasizing evangelism, community development, service and peacebuilding, and have responded positively to our search for a shared vision for missional congregation development in Europe/Germany. Through an inter-Mennonite legal body, the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Mennonitischer Gemeinden in Deutschland (AMG), the VdM participates in Mennonite World Conference. The DMMK is the German inter-Mennonite Mission Committee and one of our partners in our current German ministry, Christliche Glaubensgemeinschaft (CGG) in Niedergörsdorf  (http://www.mission-mennoniten.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20&Itemid=39).

By partnering together with a sister Church in Germany, MC Canada will also have the opportunity to learn important lessons from a post-Christendom context  that will be helpful to our Mennonite constituency in North America as our context becomes increasingly similar to that of Western Europe countries.

Assignment Objective: Missional Pastor(s)

Primary Duties:

• Learn the German language and be able to conduct all ministry activities in the German language (Previous knowledge of the language not required).
• Live in the city of Freiburg and serve the Freiburg Mennonite Church (Mennoniten Gemeinde Freiburg - http://www.mennonitisch.de/freiburg.html) as part of the pastoral ministry team.
• Demonstrate and embody Anabaptist convictions and values (e.g., authentic life of Christian discipleship, witness to Christian faith, peacemaking, engaging the state and society, worshiping in Christian community, social ministry, creation care, stewardship, etc.)
• Develop personal relationships with churches, individuals and institutions that have interest and connections to Anabaptist/Mennonite ministries. This includes giving and accepting hospitality.
• Provide leadership development at the congregational level in the area of outreach to families and students and congregational ministry.
• Work with the Freiburg Mennonite community at renewing and strengthening a missional peace congregation that is relevant and effective in post-modern, post-Christian, pluralist and multi-cultural contexts.
• Work integrally within the vision and structure of VdM leadership and the broader denomination.
• Facilitate placement of Canadian short term Witness Workers (interns and/or Special Assignments) in congregational and outreach settings within VdM.
• Facilitate missional relationship building and interaction between Freiburg (and other) and MC Canada congregations.

Assignment Description:

Witness Worker(s) will reside in the university city of Freiburg with dual roles:  minister at the Freiburg Mennonite Church; and serve in other capacities as assignment by VdM and DMMK after consultation with Witness office. The picturesque and historical context is also one that is post-modern, post-Christian, pluralist and multi-cultural contexts.

The church context is diverse with need for both renewal of historic congregations as well as creating new communities of faithfulness to the way of Christ. Witness Worker(s) will commit to serve in a way that promotes and encourages models of congregational ministry that are contextual, sustainable and replicable.

Witness Worker(s) will be asked to commit to long-term service (initially 3 years) in Germany, with the possibility of future assignments determined on the basis of invitation and partner support.

Qualifications: Necessary skills, experience and education

• Commitment to following Jesus Christ
• Passion for the church and its mission in an ecumenical context
• Solid understanding of what Anabaptist understandings have to offer the church
• Good communication skills, including the commitment to ongoing learning from the local context in order to enhance relationships and ministry
• Willingness to work in respect with people of different cultures
• Familiarity with the people and congregations of MC Canada in order to build connections
• Willingness to travel
• Flexibility and openness to a wide range of persons, churches and life experiences
• Respect for and interest in new cultures and cultural experiences
• Creativity in thinking about new ways to develop ministry
• Pastoral or church planting experience
• Willingness to live simply, and to share and receive hospitality

Desirable Qualifications include:

• Teaching ability
• Administrative ability
• Graduate level theological training in an Anabaptist perspective
• Urban ministry experience
• Cross-cultural/multi-cultural experience, including ability to speak other languages
• Willingness to work with marginalized persons

Lifestyle Expectations

All Mennonite Church Canada Witness Workers are expected to:

• Be members of Mennonite Church Canada or another Anabaptist church
• Uphold the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective in word and action.
• Live according to the Lifestyle Expectations as outlined in the Mennonite Church Canada International Ministries Policy Manual (Accountability, Spiritual Disciplines, Living in Community, Relating to Church and Culture, Personal Witness, Openness to Admonition and Reconciliation, Commitment to Assignment, Care for health and wellness).

Financial Arrangements

Financial support commensurate with experience and education. Comprehensive benefits are  provided.

Location factors

• Germany is a country of about 82 million people. A densely populated nation, Germany is also a culturally rich and diverse nation that maintains strong global economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence. Ethnic diversities vary across the country, with Berlin hosting the largest Turkish population outside Ankara, in Turkey.
• The country enjoys good health care, public education and public transportation systems.
• Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg. This city is located in the extreme south-west of Germany, on the western edge of the Black Forest and the Upper Rhine Plain. Freiburg has a relatively warm and sunny climate and it is situated in the heart of a major wine-growing region. Because of its location, the city of Freiburg serves as the primary tourist entry point to the scenic beauty of the Black Forest. Freiburg is known for its ancient university and its medieval minster, as well as for its high standard of living and advanced environmental practices.
• With its solar industries and low-energy building policy on municipal land, Freiburg is known as an eco-city.  The city has an extensive pedestrian zone in the city centre where no automobiles are allowed and an excellent public transit system, which is anchored by a web of tram routes and a feeder of buses, all operated by the city. The citizens of Freiburg are known in Germany for their love of cycling and recycling.
• Home of some of the greatest minds in the Western World, including such eminent figures as Johan Eckx, Max Weber, Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, and Friedrich Hayek, Freiburg also houses one of the oldest renowned German universities, the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg. Besides,  it plays host to various other educational and research institutes, such as the Freiburg University of Education, the Protestant University for Applied Sciences Freiburg, Freiburg Music Academy, the Catholic University of Applied Sciences Freiburg, the International University of Cooperative Education IUCE, three Max Planck Institutes, and five Fraunhofer Institutes.One out of five inhabitants in Freiburg is a student.
• Freiburg is situated on the Frankfurt - Basel main railway line, which serves several major city both German and Europe. Other train lines run east, through Freiburg, into the Black Forest and west to Breisach. Tourists and other travelers can access Freiburg through the Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg Euro-Airport, which is located in France, close to the borders of both Germany and Switzerland. This airport is now a base for the low-cost carrier EasyJet. A second airport, the Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden (Baden Airpark) is situated approximately 120 km north of Freiburg and is served by the low-cost carrier Ryanair, among others.
• Traditionally, a Christian country, Germany, as other West European countries, is significantly challenged by secularism. Active church participation has significantly declined during the last decade with only 2% of the population in Germany attending church services on any given Sunday. That includes the Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches.

Interested in Applying?

You can get started right away by filling out our General Expression of Interest form or you can contact:
Kirsten Schroeder
Director of Human Resources
email:
Phone: (204) 888-6781
Toll-free: 1 866-888-6785 ext. 110

Contacts

For more information; Hippolyto Tshimanga.
Email: htshimanga@mennonitechurch.ca
Or call at (204) 888-6781, toll free in Canada at 1-866-888-6785 ext: # 123