District Diaries August 2024 Edition
By Marvin Penner

     What are you afraid of? I have become convinced that this question is important for our spiritual maturity. The dispute that made me aware of how often competing fears cause conflict was this; am I more afraid of sickness and death or government overreach? After spending months seeking to remain unified when even I could not answer this question, I began to see how often competing fears lead to conflict. Fear of wasting money vs fear of missing mission opportunities. Fear of damaged reputation vs fear of moral compromise. Fear of losing young people vs fear of rapid change.

     Fear is not the best place from which to make decisions. In fact, fear is clearly not among the emotions that emanate from the presence of the Holy Spirit. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” (2 Tim. 1:7). When I think about fearlessness the Bible story that first comes to mind is the account of Shadrach, Mashach, Abednego, and the fiery furnace (Dan. 3:1-25). Thee three men are held up as heroes of faith. They prove to be wise in the ways of living faithfully in a hostile environment. They had a lot of good reason to be afraid:

• Nebuchadnezzar was powerful beyond imagination.
• The high officers, officials, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and provincial officials were all aligned with Nebuchadnezzar.
• Their disobedience was public.
• They were from a minority cultural group.
• The threatened punishment was severe.
• People from their own professional peer group told on them
• The king was in a rage.
• The punishment was made even more severe.

I don’t know about you, but I think I would excuse a fear reaction for any one of these threats. But this is not what happened. These men of faith responded with , “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if He doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up”. It is clear that they did not fear the king, but that they did fear the Lord, a demonstration that, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”. 

     What are you afraid of? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were able to avoid worshipping a political idol because they only had one fear. They feared the Lord their God and nothing else, not even King Nebuchadnezzar. We humans tend to bend a knee to what we are afraid of. Another way to say this is, “you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, ‘Abba, Father’”. (Rom 8:15). But, “The LORD delivers and vindicates me! I fear no one! The LORD protects my life! I am afraid of no one!” (Ps 27:1)

     So…what are you afraid of?

District Diaries June 2024 Edition
by Marvin Penner

              Luke 14:13 - Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.

Jesus said to Peter and Andrew, “Follow me…” and they took him up on the invitation. It feels good to be invited. I still remember the first birthday party I was invited to. I was in grade one and I was incredibly nervous to enter the house of strangers. I knew my friend from school, but not his parents or brothers and sisters. I overcame those fears because I was invited. There was real money in the cake. I would not have agreed to go if I was told to. The invitation was important in giving me the courage to do something new and scary. Invitations are tricky. You can’t predict who will respond or how long they will stay. They require you to be the kind of person that others will want to be around and follow.
No one will follow the inhospitable. The first picture we have of Jesus’ ministry is an invitation to follow Him. One of the last pictures we have is of Him standing at the door and knocking (Rev.3:20). Two expressions of the same way of being. An invitation to go with Him and the opportunity to invite Him. This is the way of faith. The absence of faith says we can’t trust God to add the right people to His church or give those people the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to make good choices, even though that is exactly what is promised. Without faith there will be no invitation, no hospitality, no following.

The only option then, is to lord it over others. I’d like to suggest that we open the door to the way of Jesus, invite any who will respond into the hospitality of our community of Jesus followers, and seek to live with the kind of integrity that will inspire many to come in.

   Hebrews 13:2 - Don't forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done                                           this have entertained angels without realizing it!

District Diaries April 2024 Edition
​​by Marvin Penner
 
I think I was 14 years old when I first encountered the Biblical story of David going crazy (1 Sam 21:10 -15). Sunday School had already familiarized me with the accounts of David’s ability to dodge spears while playing the harp, as well as his gracious sparing of King Saul’s life. I found these stories interesting, so I began reading 1st & 2nd Samuel for myself. I was fascinated by the idea of David feigning insanity to save his own life. I was thinking about this the other day while attending a National EFCC board meeting. I was thinking about how David had the ability to be a very different person as the context demanded.
              I found myself feeling and thinking about some important issues in very different ways. I’m not talking about changing my mind. It’s just that things can look very different depending on which room I am in. Let me explain.
              When I was in the pastor’s study I would often receive mail from the EFCC mission (Serve Canada now). When I saw that it is yet another appeal to support one project or another, I would carefully consider whether the project would fit well with our church. Often, I would just drop this mail in the garbage. We could barely meet our own church budget, let along finance missions efforts in our community.  I am sure each of these people and projects were well worth funding, but it was discouraging to our congregants to get asked over and over.
              Another room I’ve often sat in is the district board meeting room. From time to time the same mission opportunities have been discussed by the APD board. In this room the whole issue feels quite different. The district board is not asked to budget support for individual EFCC missionaries or projects, but they are aware that our churches often decide between supporting the national projects or the district initiatives. It can feel like a competition for the generosity of the district churches.
              As a board member in the EFCC national board room I recently found myself voting to approve some inspiring new missionary projects. I knew that approving these projects would require fund raising among our churches, but I could see clearly that God was at work and leading us in the EFCC to get behind these people. Somehow my priorities seem very different when I have access to different information, relationships, and responsibilities.
              I found myself paraphrasing 1 Cor 9:22-23, “When I was a local church pastor, I put the wellbeing of my local church first so that we could bring our neighbors to Christ”. I led my church to support the district and home office, as much as was possible, without weakening ourselves. When I was on the district board, I tried to balance the needs of the district with the vision of the EFCC home office. I understood that both have a role to play in supporting our churches and international missionaries. And when I sit on the national board, I do my best to support and provide kind accountability to the home office staff and Serve Beyond personnel. I know I have not always balanced these priorities correctly, but I only pray that in every context God will be glorified and Jesus Christ will be known in our EFCC churches, districts, and around the world.
              I guess what I am trying to say is, be cautious before judging the motives of those who sit in rooms you have not sat in. Even if you never gain the point of view of some of the other rooms within the EFCC, pray that Jesus Christ will be made known by all.

District Diaries February 2024 Edition
​by Marvin Penner

     As many of you know the Evangelical Free Church of Canada has a partnership with Prairie College in Three Hills Alberta to provide assistance to students from EFCC churches who enroll in the pastoral and missions' programs. In January Trevor Braudy, the Prairie District Superintendent, and I spent some time at the college to meet with and encourage the students who are participants in this program. We team taught a class of pastoral students and treated the students in the EFCC sponsorship program to a home cooked meal.  These students are training to become leaders in the future. Pray for these students. Pray that God will guide them and prepare them for a life of ministry.
     The prophet Jeremiah was lamenting the lack of good shepherds in his time when God promised that a time would come when, "I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding." (Jeremiah 3:15) I wonder if you have been praying that God would show you which young people in your church God has gifted to become good shepherds? I wonder if you have come alongside those young people and encouraged them to pursue the call of God on their future?

District Diaries October 2023 Edition
​​by Marvin Penner
 
              On September 20 I attended the 1 million march for Children. I don’t often go for this kind of thing, but my son and I were curious to see what was happening. I found that marching with such a large crowd was inspiring. I have only ever participated in one other public political demonstration because I think there are better ways to engage with culture and it always worries me that I might confuse a commitment to a current ideology with my commitment to Jesus.
A few days later I read a blog post where Carey Nieuwhof wrote, “More than a few churches have grown by becoming anti-woke rather than pro-grace.” This statement has been spawning a lot of thought and reflection. Are we known by what we are against or by what we are for? Do we even know what we are for or has everything become so politicized that we only know how to be on the defensive?
I’d like to offer a simple suggestion to help answer these kinds of questions on a day-to-day basis. You might have noticed that I sometimes close my emails with the phrase, Grace be with you. I have taken up this habit from the greeting that the Apostle Paul often began his letters with: “Grace and peace be upon you”.  “Be upon you” is not something that you or I generate. It’s like when the sun shines on us. We enjoy the warm presence of the sun but have no control over it. It comes from outside of ourselves. However, we can choose to stand in the sun or in the shade. If I apply this to normal living, I can gauge my actions and words by whether they cause me to stand in the presence of God’s grace and peace. Does my participation in the 1 million march for children fill me with anger and the temptation to see some people as outside of the reach of God’s grace or am I filled with love and a de-escalation of my disdain for those with ideas I disagree with? Do I stand in the light and love of the Son or am I drawn to the shade of fear and discord?
As Paul writes in 1 Cor. 13: 11-14, “Dear brothers and sisters, I close my letter with these last words: Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet each other with a sacred kiss. All of God’s people here send you their greetings. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.