Loving your Neighbour

The MessengerFall 2014

Recent Transitions:

Chris Wiens from Interim Pastor, Nelson ECC

Blair Lewis to Nelson ECC as Youth Pastor

Upcoming Transitions:

Julia Sandstrom from ECCC staff to maternityleave. February 2015

Content:

Mark your Calendars & Transitions p. 2Loving Your Neighbour-The Next Door KindBy Julia Sandstrom p.3From Jeff’s Desk p.4Israel/Palestine Trip details p.5Interview with the Keeners p.6-7CovKids Congo p.7Trellis Foundation p. 8Loving your Neighbour Well p. 10-11By Joel BraunWho is my Neighbour? p. 12-13By Myrna ZinkiewAnnual Appeal Letter p. 14-15

Mark your calendars:

2015

January 26-30 ~ MidWinter, Denver, CO

Feb. 24-March 6 ~ Ecuador Mission Trip

March 1 ~ Feedback Deadline Trellis GrantsMarch 15 ~ Trellis Grants Deadline

May 28-31 ~ 111th AGM, Strathmore, AB

June 1-13 ~ Israel/Palestine Study Tour

July 12-17 ~ CHIC, Knoxville, TN

Loving your Neighbour—The Next Door KindBy: Julia Sandstrom

“Good fences make good neighbours” - or so goes the often quoted line from Robert Frost’s poem, Mending Walls. When my hus-band and I moved into our first house two years ago we decided to get a couple of dogs to share our little home. Living in the citymeant we had no real backyard and the front yard had no fence. Bryan got to work building a great fence to keep our little puppiessafe from wandering out onto the street. Unfortunately this project rather upset our neighbour who thought the placement of onefence post might kill off her tree. This led to some difficult exchanges that eventually died down as we all could see over time that thetree was going to be fine. The particular fence situation challenged our call to love our neighbour—the kind that is actually, physi-cally next door.

All kinds of things challenge our abilities to love our neighbours. There is a couple across the street who will not look up at us whenthey go to get in their car which is parked in front of our house. We try to say hi and engage them, but they don’t seem interested.There are two other couples we have started friendships with, but those friendships seem to go into hibernation over the cold wintermonths.

In this edition of The Messenger you will read about what it looks like to love your neighbour in the context of church planting (page7), a church merger (page 10-11), and community (page 12-13). You will also read about how the ECCC has loved our globalneighbours in Congo (page 8) and an opportunity to learn from our global neighbours in Israel and Palestine (page 5). Love ofneighbour is central to the message Christ brings. Remember the commandment that comes after love the Lord your God with allyour heart, mind, and strength? It’s love your neighbour as yourself (Mark 12:31). I’m grateful that many in our conference are livinginto that call.

I have personally found the call to love my neighbours-the right next door kind-to be a particular challenge. It’s something we talk alot about at Holy Community Covenant Church. Bryan and I have spent the past two years getting to know some neighbours, boththe kind that we like to spend time with and those that are more challenging (fence-lady). After a recent sermon series on the Bookof Jonah, I have felt God prompting me to move beyond the friendly stage and into a stage that actually invites our neighbours tochurch. The trepidation that I am filled with in writing that previous sentence is not one I’m very proud of. I’m a pastor after all! Isn’tit part of my job to invite people to church?

I am convinced that if we take Jesus’ command to love our neighbours as ourselves seriously, this means we share with them whatwe find most meaningful in our lives. If the Gospel has had a real impact on me and the way I see the world and I don’t share thatwith those Jesus has put me in closest contact with, what impact has there really been? If I only love my neighbour in ways that areeasy for me, what growth will there be in my Christian journey?

These are questions that challenge me. In these pages you will find stories that I hope challenge you. I hope these articles and storieschallenge you to love your neighbour—the right next door kind—and the kind down the street, on the other side of town, in anotherprovince, or perhaps on the other side of the world.

Julia Sandstrom is the Director of Ministry Support for the ECCC and Editor of The Messenger. She is also a pastor in residence at Holy Community Covenant Churchin Winnipeg, MB.

Image: Wooden Fence Photo, © Zestmarina |Dreamstime.com

The focus of this edition of The Messenger is the call to love your neighbour. One key to this call is the ques-tion: “Who is my neighbour?” It’s a question that we see in the Luke 10 account of the Good Samaritan. Butthere is a more basic issue to us in our society today, time.

Darlene and I moved from our home of over 20 years into a small community outside of Winnipeg. On ourcul du sac in the city we knew basically all of our neighbours. It was a neighbourly street with the annualChristmas gathering and lots of waves as you drove out to the main road. Now we find ourselves in a newplace with fewer homes and no familiar faces. Before I even thought about loving my neighbour it struck methat I needed to decide whether or not I was ready to make the time commitment to figure out who my newneighbours were. What are their names would be a good place to start.

It takes time. Hosting a community gathering and clearing our calendar to make sure we could attend aneighbourhood BBQ took time. We probably haven’t invested as much as we could or should but some of thesame dynamics of our Winnipeg street are starting to happen; now we can really think more about what itmeans to love our neighbours!

From Jeff’s DeskSuperintendent

Israel/Palestine Study Tour ~ www.covchurch.ca ~ office@covchurch.ca

June 1-13, 2015 | $2,000 plus airfare/person | $300 off with $300 deposit by Dec. 31

OUR EXPERIENCE IS BASED AROUND 2 THINGS:

1. The "sacred stones"-the geography, architecture and sacred spaces that gives us a new take on the biblical story

2. The "living stones" - these are our brothers and sisters in Christ who will invite us into sharing their story. Thestory of the Palestinian Christians is difficult, moving and motivating. This is a unique aspect of our experience thatyou will not find on almost any other tour.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT TO FEEL AND SEE:

The Sea of Galilee and its gorgeous country side, wilderness, waterfalls and everything in between. You will feel

the buzz of old city Jerusalem and the emotion that can come from the significant sites marking the birth, life,

death and resurrection of Jesus!

WHOM YOU WILL MEET:

Our greatest hope is that you will meet again with the person of Jesus as he continues to live amongst his people.This is not a trip to a grace site but an opportunity to experience Jesus who lives! We will also meet with numerousPalestinian Christian leaders who are indigenous to the area and are a vibrant remnant in the land we call holy.

The newest ECCC church project is in Montreal, QC. The Messenger asked Tim andDi Keener, Montreal missionaries, to answer a few questions about this new venture.

Messenger: What about Montreal excites you for this project?Tim and Di: Probably the most exciting part of ministering in Montreal has been redeeming our use ofFrench for ministry. Building relationships with Francophones has been such a big part of our ministry since2004 when we first moved to France. In 2012, we returned to the US and took a two-year hiatus of usingFrench regularly. Now we are back in an environment where we can use it nearly every day.

Our four boys are either in full French immersion or bi-lingual programs and have taken wonderfully to newschools here. It is a joy to hear them re-learning and using the language. Di has already made a number offriends in our community and Tim teaches and preaches in French twice a month at a local partner church.

With access to English speaking churches being nearly ten times greater than access to French churches, wefeel we are ministering in a very under-reached language category in North America. There are approxi-mately six million Francophones in Quebec and another one million plus outside of Quebec (for example inNew Brunswick where Acadian French is spoken quite frequently). That means that nearly a quarter of Cana-dians speak French at home and although many of them can also speak English, overall 70% of Canadianscannot speak French to converse with them in their heart-language.

Messenger: What challenges do you see in Montreal in regards to loving your neighbour?Tim and Di: Attitudes toward religion, particularly organized churches, range from disinterested to very nega-tive in Montreal. Rapid secularization following the “Quiet Revolution” in Quebec, left a large distrust of thereligious establishment. Sometimes what often starts as a warm and friendly conversation changes tone whenpeople find out that we work with the church.

Ministry, and church-planting in particular, is very slow here. Several new church plants have attested to verydifficult journeys. Many have not focused on reaching Francophones at all. Although we are functionally flu-ent, we recognize that our own French is still foreign (i.e. our second language) and non-native (we are newto Quebec and Canada overall).

That said, our efforts to speak French here and learn the communal history and values seem greatly appreci-ated by our neighbours.

Messenger: What stories could you share with us about loving your neighbour have already occurred in yourshort time there?Tim and Di: Ironically, some of our first friends have been French families (from France) who also recentlyarrived in Montreal. We have had an opportunity to be their neighbour by journeying with these families andespecially helping them with English (which is one of their main goals).

We also have a dear friend who is the director of an outreach called Partageons l’Espoir or Share theWarmth in English. This ministry is in a very socio-economically challenged neighbourhood five minutes eastof us. Whether it is helping with their food bank or organizing donated clothes, Di has been able to offer herpresence nearly every week there.

Overall, Montreal has many of the difficulties of any large city and yet many churches are small and under-resourced. Elsewhere in Quebec many moderately large cities have even fewer churches to share Christ withtheir neighbours. Pray that we would have wisdom and insight in how the Evangelical Covenant Churchmight contribute to building the Kingdom in this unique area of Canada.

Tim and Di Keener minister in Montreal on behalf of the Kingdom of God and the ECCC. If you would like to help financially sup-port this growing ministry, please visit www.covchurch.ca/giving and click on the CanadaHelps logo.

Image: Montreal City, © Isabel Poulin | Dreamstime.com

In 2012 the Evangelical Covenant Church launched Covenant Kids Congo, Powered by World Vision. Theunprecedented need of the Congo, combined with the unprecedented partnership between World Vision andan entire denomination was huge. In Canada, we were not sure if this was a project we could participate indue to the regulations of the Canada Revenue Agency. It was a long process that saw several organizationscome together to make Covenant Kids Congo a reality in Canada.

The ECCC Leadership Board made a goal of 200 sponsorships and the ECCC constituency responded! TheECCC has sponsored over 200 kids through Covenant Kids Congo. 80% of our churches hosted a Hope Sun-day event to help kids find sponsors. We are grateful for the response of so many ECCC churches and congre-gants.

You can still sponsor a child by contacting the ECCC office.

ECCC Meets CovKids Congo Goal!

ECCC CHIC Liaison: Corinne Stotercorinne.stoter@covenantevents.org

2014 Granting CompletedThe Trellis Foundation board met in early November to disperse the final$12,250 in grant money available in 2014. The board had to makemany difficult decisions as the total amount requested from 8 differentapplications was $33,186.

After much discussion and prayer the following grants were approved:

ECCC Scholarship Funding : $5,000 was allocated to the ongoing CBCscholarship fund. This fund is owned by Trellis Foundation, but is admin-istered by the ECCC.

Kensington Commons : $1,500 to provide the first two months of support for a part time children’s ministry di-rector. The new church merger has seen a rapid influx of people including children. The children’s ministry staffmember will help coordinate volunteers and make sure the kids of Kensington Commons are growing in theirwalk with Jesus.

Two additional grants were approved totaling the remaining $5,750. We will report on these grants in theECCC Annual Report as the funding is dependent on the ministries meeting certain registration and budgetgoals.

2015 Grant InformationThe board set two deadlines for the next cycle of grant applications. The first deadline is a “feedback” deadline.We have found that grant applications sometimes miss an important component. In order to help applicants putthe best grant proposal forward we offer feedback for those who turn in the grant application by the FeedbackDeadline of March 1, 2015. We highly recommend taking advantage of the Feedback Deadline as grants arehighly competitive.

The second deadline is a Final Deadline. Any application turned in after March 1 will be considered a final ap-plication and will not receive feedback. The Final Deadline is March 15, 2015.

Feedback Deadline: March 1, 2015Final Deadline: March 15, 2015

Trellisfoundation.ca

Kensington Commons launched in September 2014 as a merger between a church adoption called Un-edited Spirituality and Kensington Road Covenant Church. The journey of bringing two churches togetherhas led this new church to consider how do you love your neighbour well?

How do you love your neighbour well? For Kensington Commons, it comes from allowing ourselves tobe a representation of Christ’s heart for others. Christ’s heart is to reveal the true nature of the Father;every decision, story, miracle and interaction that Christ had on earth was to that end. We exist to tell thestory of God, and in doing so, our outcomes, with accountability and intentionality, should reflect us lov-ing our neighbours. As a Christian community that strives to live, play and help inthe urban neighbourhoods of Calgary, we have chosen the name Commons Church to indicate ourcommitment to making the Kingdom of God tangible in our space. We believe God is invested in therenewal of all things therefore we want to live the "Good News" by being part of the rhythms of our city asgood neighbours, good friends, and good citizens in the common life of our neighbourhood.

We believe our start as a new church might tell God’s story in a way - we were two churches, each withstrengths and each with weaknesses, who happened upon some redeeming work that God was doing,and allowed ourselves to be actively involved in that redemption, setting aside pride and control, andgiving in to the work that we believe God was hoping for in this neighbourhood. One new church wasformed, and we are excited to share in the ongoing work of the Kingdom. Kensington Commons ashared space for the community - we don’t lie about or make excuses as to why we are here (we are achurch) but we also open our doors to the community (AA, Fitness Classes, Art & Music events, health &wellness, hosting conversations on serious issues) to truly become a common space where God contin-ues to work and redeem through all things. We are fortunate to be a part of that redemption - it requires

Loving your Neighbour WellBy Joel Braun

attention to God’s voice and awareness of the needs around us.

Rather than growing and becoming larger and larger in our one location, we hope to grow and plantCommons “Parishes” throughout the neighbourhoods surrounding the downtown core of Calgary. Thisparish model allows us to expand into other neighbourhoods to exist elsewhere in the same ways as wedo now, with one location. The strategy and conversation is ongoing, but once we reach capacity for asustainable amount of time, we would seek to move to the next highest represented neighbourhood thatour attendance makes up, and continue to seek God and serve our neighbours in that location.

We recognize a need to rediscover the beautiful, dangerous, compelling idea that a group of people sur-rendered to Christ as Lord, and living in community together, really can transform society. God does notwant to save us from the world, but rather calls us into his world where the lonely are invited into familyand the isolated brought into community.

If we want to do those things well, we must take the same approach: our first goal should be to revealthe true nature of the Father, and all of our actions should flow out of that. So, then, everything we do -every hospitable act, every conversation, every kindness we show, every good thing we hope to be a partof - flows not out of an attempt to gain notoriety for ourselves, or even to be a great church - but hap-pens for the sake of our part in revealing the Father to those neighbours that would seek an encounterwith Him.

Joel Braun is the Community and Care Pastor at Kensington Commons Church. Joel has served in various capacities as a

pastor in the ECCC for over 15 years.Image: Calgary At Night, © Imeagecom | Dreamstime.com

Who is my neighbour ?A reflection by Myrna Zinkiew

According to the dictionary a neighbour is a fellow human being, one to be friendly with, or a person who isnear by.

When I consider the question: Who is my neighbour, the first thought that comes to mind is lending a help-ing hand to one in need.

When I was growing up, my family lived near three neighbouring families. Each family was very considerate ofthe other. If one family was going to town they would take the grocery order and do the shopping and pick upthe mail and deliver it for the other families. Town was eight miles away so there were no unnecessary trips.Loving your neighbour is being sensitive to his or her feelings. A phone call, a compliment a friendly visit,food, baby sitting, car pooling, or just accepting him as he is regardless of culture, race, or faith. Loving yourneighbour means no criticizing, envying, or gossip.

It is very easy for some to be a giving neighbour. It is also hard for some to be a gracious receivingneighbour. Until one has walked in another's shoes, be it depression, financial struggles, marital issues,sickness, loneliness, or fear, it is not fair to say I know how you feel. This is not encouraging to the hurtingperson.

The best example of loving your neighbour is found in Luke 10:30-37.The Parable of the Good Samaritantells of the one who had mercy on a man who had fallen into the hands of robbers. The lovingneighbour not only bandaged the injured man’s wounds, but let him ride on his donkey while he walked.Besides that he paid the inn keeper for the man’s room and board. There was no prejudice shown.

We can also be like the little boy who shared his five loaves and two fish. We also have a five and a two toshare with our neighbours. Two hands to be helpful and two feet to run errands. Little things that we mayview as meaningless could be the most uplifting acts of love to the one in need. I have experienced my-self the fulfilling gratitude of a good friend and neighbour. For four months I needed the use of a wheel-chair and walker. That really was an experience of relying on assistance. A neighbour and friend calledup saying “I am coming over with lunch.” She came in with a suitcase and upon opening it proceeded toshow me how to bake a pie in the microwave for ten minutes and then in the oven to brown for anotherten minutes, and presto fresh apple pie. She quickly did several other chores and was gone. I was verytouched by the fact she would minister to me. Another time I had eye lid surgery which prevented severalmovements. Various times the door bell rang and in came food, fresh homemade soup, chicken pie des-sert, flowers, and visits. This all was very touching. In our church a young couple had a medical problemwith their small child. This meant a trip four hours one way for several weeks to get treatment. Our churchstepped in with some financial help. and the community put on a brunch and an afternoon program. Ap-proximately 500 people attended, and $11,000.00 was raised. It was great to see church and communitypull together to help. Just recently a young man from our church had his house burn down; he lost every-thing. There of course will be a special event for him as well.

Who is my neighbour? Anyone who needs love and support.

Myrna Zinkiew attends Valley Evangelical Covenant Church in Durban, MB.Painting: The Good Samaritan by Paula Modersohn-Becker, 1907, public domain, wikiart.org.

The Lenten Reader will be outagain in time for Ash Wednesday. If

you or your church would likecopies, please send your request to

office@covchurch.ca.

The ECCC Annual Appeal Letter is reprinted for The Messenger because it contains great updates on the

mission and ministry of the Canada Covenant Church. Donations for the Annual Appeal may be sent to PO Box23117, RPO McGillivray, Winnipeg, MB R3T5S3 or can be made online at www.covchurch.ca/giving/

Oh how my soul praises the Lord. How my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour!For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, And from now on all generations will call me blessed.

For the Mighty One is holy, And he has done great things for me.He shows mercy from generation to generation, to all who fear him.

Luke 1:45b-50

Advent 2014

As we approach the season of Advent it has struck me again that God often chooses to use the small to accomplishHis big purposes. Mary had a clear awareness that she was but a “lowly servant girl” who because she joined withGod’s purposes will be called “blessed” by all generations. Phenomenal!

The ECCC, like Mary is small and frankly lowly by the standards of many of our sister church communities. We too,like Mary, have been given a call to join in the Kingdom purposes of the Lord. We have organized our ministriesaround the following:

Starting and Strengthening Church Develop LeadersMaking and Deepening Disciples Love Mercy and Do JusticeEngaging Globally

You can find more information on our website (www.covchurch.ca) but I want to give you a thumbnail sketch of howwe are pursuing these priorities.

Starting Churches: We are in a season of God’s mercy toward us and as such we are seeing doors of opportunityopen that have previously not been a possibility for us. Along with the three congregations on a Covenant Fundingand Support Agreement (Avenue, Toronto, ON; Lake Ridge, Chestermere, AB; Holy Community, Winnipeg, MB) wenow have a missional presence in Montreal (Tim and Di Keener and Family) and our church in Calgary (KensingtonCommons) has returned to a church plant format following a merger with a predominately young adult congregationwhose goal is to have a second plant in the Calgary area within the next 24 months! Glenn Peterson is providingsolid leadership to this ministry area.

Strengthening Churches: This is a time of recalibration. We were led well by Gerald Froese but with his move to theLead Pastor position in Sarnia he needed to be released from his responsibilities. In the past year six congregationswere assisted in one way or another with specific resources related to their journey to deeper health. The ECCC Lead-ership Board has just approved a one-year Task Force charged with re-envisioning Congregational Vitality in theECCC.

Develop Leaders: Most of the focus has been on developing pastoral leadership. We have provided funding for re-

quired coursework and developed a partnership with Providence Seminary to host a core course required of pastorswithout permanent credentials. The goal of the board is to balance out the development of leaders by offeringcourses and networking to lay leadership within our community of churches. We are planning to gather church chairsin the next year for a two-day time of resourcing and fellowship.

Make and Deepen Disciples: The past year saw a number of event-based opportunities offered to various ages withinthe constituency. Whether it was Adventures in Leadership for High School Youth or ALIVE for adults of all ages, theseevents scored high in terms of feedback by participants. One addition this year is a new partnership with ChristianStewardship Services. This partnership will allow us to provide individuals and congregations with resources related togenerosity and stewardship. Beyond this, tools such as the Lenten Reader (written by ECCC members) encourage indi-viduals in their daily walk with Jesus. Julia Sandstrom has given good leadership to this ministry focus along with otherresponsibilities of her multi-faceted position.

Love Mercy and Do Justice: The centre-point of this has been Kernels of Hope, led not by a staff person but by Ray(the Grain Guy) Baloun who is a member of the Minnedosa Covenant Church. Each year, after adding in matchingfunding, this program that links rural farmers with “virtual farmers” gathers in some $400,000 in aid that is targetedat under resourced regions in our world. We also continue to provide resourcing to AVA (Advocates for Victims ofAbuse) and other ministries that deal with social issues that directly affect our communities.

Engage Globally: This past year saw new hope in renewing a long-time partnership with Haiti as we have supporteda local feeding program (for the elderly) in partnership with the Baptist Church in Haut Limbe, another feeding pro-gram (for children) in partnership with Food For The Poor Canada, and diabetic care for the region around Limbe.We are receiving good reports on each of these and are encouraged by the accountability of each of these partners.Our engagement with Christians in Israel and Palestine continues to be focused on partnerships with the Arab/IsraeliBible Society, World Vision and Galilee and Bethlehem Bible College. Educational scholarships, support for localwomen’s shelter and direct development work in areas of financial need have happened during 2014. This particularpartnership has benefitted as individuals have gone on the Israel/Palestine Study tour. The next tour is taking placeJune 1-13, 2015; scholarships are available and information is on the website. In this past year we continued to en-gage with Congo through our partnership with World Vision Canada and World Hope. Much has happened in thepast year to provide development assistance to local communities in the Northeast region of Congo. Finally, we areexcited about a new partnership just signed between the ECCC and the Evangelical Covenant Church of Ecuador.We will be contributing $30,000 over the next three years toward the health care needs of a group of children whoare living in orphanages overseen by the Ecuadorian church and Kim and Joel Delp, ECC missionaries to Ecuador.Groups that come from the ECCC will also have the opportunity to develop ongoing relationships with churches inthe region where Joel and Kim are serving. Engagement globally is not merely sending money; it is providing directopportunities for relationships with churches and members of the ECCC.

Yes, the ECCC is a really small group but ours is an amazingly big God and He has provided opportunities we wouldnot have seen coming without eyes of faith. This year-end letter is written for two reasons. First, we want you to cele-brate with us what God has been up to in this last year. Second, I want to invite you to contribute toward our end ofyear appeal. Many of the funds we receive are for targeted ministries. This appeal goes to our general fund and al-lows us to have the people and structures in place to help these ministries move forward. I realize that you will havemany opportunities to give at this time of the year and I ask that you include the ECCC in the outworking of generos-ity that we are called to as followers of Christ.

Thank you for your time and attention to this letter!

Sincerely,

Jeffrey AndersonSuperintendent/Presidentjeff@covchurch.ca

Staff:Jeff Anderson, Superintendent/President

Julia Sandstrom, Director of Ministry SupportGlenn Peterson, Director of Church Planting

Sally Carlson, Financial OfficerMonica Doerksen, Bookkeeper

Cover Image: Stained Glass Village, © Dawn Hudson | Dreamstime.com

PO BOX 23117RPO McGillivray

WINNIPEG, MB R3T 5S3

Ph: 204-269-3437Fx: 204-269-3584

office@covchurch.cawww.covchurch.ca

The Messenger is a publication of the Evangelical Covenant Church of Canada.Editor: Julia Sandstrom