The MessengerSummer 2013

Also Inside:Spiritual Direction,

JAM,AGM response,

and more...

From the Director of Ministry Support

I grew up in a church that my parents had partici-pated in starting. I thought it was pretty cool thatthe office had a framed document with the chartermembers’ signatures. My parents had signed thatdocument. I couldn’t help thinking about this duringone of our early launch team meetings of whatwould become Holy Community Covenant Churchin Winnipeg.

Gavin Jensen, the church planter, asked each of uswhy we decided to leave Faith Covenant, an estab-lished church, and join this new entity that didn’teven have a name yet. I had lots of “good answers”swimming around in my thoughts. The responsethat kept surfacing, however, was this: My parentshelped start the church that contributed to my disci-pleship for 18 years—and now it’s my turn.

Anyone intimately involved with the planting of achurch will tell you that it can be a terrifying en-deavor. There are challenges to a new church thatexisting churches haven’t had to worry about foryears or even decades. Questions about space, peo-ple, finances, identity, and governance all need to beanswered.

That same uncertainty also brings with it a lot of en-ergy. It’s the kind of energy that comes when youstep out of your comfort zone and into God’sagenda.

In this edition of The Messenger we bring you sto-ries of stepping into God’s agenda. Glenn Peterson,Director of Church Planting outlines the process ofplanting a church in the ECCC. Erik Anderson tellsus what it is like to be a parent to a new church. Na-tasha Westerhoud writes about her experience ofleaving one ministry to begin another. RandallFriesen shares how Spiritual Direction can help in-dividuals discern with another disciple the will Godhas for them.

I pray these stories will encourage and bless yourfaith.

Blessings,

Julia Sandstrom

Contents:

From the Dir. of Ministry Support p. 2Transitions p.2From Jeff’s Desk p.3CovKids Congo p.4Trellis Foundation p.5Old Life, New LifeBy Natasha Westerhoud p.6Starting ChurchesBy Glenn Peterson p.8Church is not Swimming Lessons p.10By Erik Anderson

JAM p. 12AGM Follow Up p. 14An Introduction to Spiritual DirectionBy Randall Friesen p.16

Recent Transitions:

Corinne Stoter from Hope Community CovenantChurch (Strathmore, AB)

Upcoming Transition:James Wheeler from Kensington Road CovenantChurch (Calgary, AB)

Glenn Peterson from Lighthouse CommunityChurch (Sarnia, ON) to Hope Community CovenantChurch (Strathmore, AB)

This edition of The Messenger is inmemory of Rev. Albert Josephson.

July 23, 1924-April 30, 2013

The Albert Josephson me-morial fund for the devel-opment of ECCC leaderswill accept donations inmemory of Albert at the

ECCC office via cheque oronline at: https://

www.canadahelps.org/dn/1115

Over the past twelve months I’ve been part of anniversary services at a number of our congregations: Black-strap (10 years), Faith/Winnipeg (20 years), Emmanuel (25 years), College Park (50 years), and Melfort (100years). In reading a bit about the history of College Park Covenant in Saskatoon I was struck by dedication of somany folks in the initiation and grounding of this congregation:

Of the goal to start five congregations during the 1960s, College Park (CPCC) was the only healthy church.Existing Congregations, Norquay, Hyas (merged with Norquay in 1980), Melfort and Durban all provided

loans or labour for CPCC in the early days.ECCC Covenant Women provided a fridge, range, and 50 stacking chairs for use by the new congregation in

the basement of the parsonage.The $70,000 in assistance given by the ECCC in the 1960’s and 1970’s would be equivalent in value to some

$400,000 today.The church has steadily supported the work of the Covenant including sending out Drs. Leo and Linea

Lanoi to Congo (then Zaire).

This is a partial story of just one congregation. Our church planting record is not remarkable in terms of thenumber, but many of the church plants since CPCC have a strong impact on our present ministries:

1970-1979: Green Timbers Covenant, Surrey, BC.1980-1989: Emmanuel Covenant Church, White Rock/Surrey, BC1990-1999: Faith Covenant Church, Winnipeg, MB and Hope Community Covenant Church, Strathmore, AB2000-2009: Blackstrap Covenant Church, Dundurn, SK and Lighthouse Community Church, Sarnia, ON2010-2013: Lake Ridge Community Church, Chestermere, ON, Avenue Community Church, Markham, ONand Holy Community Covenant Church, Winnipeg, MB.

The words of ECCC Historian Wendell Anderson as found in the history he wrote for the 90th Anniversary ofthe ECCC are telling: “The work in Canada has not been without results. The Church has called for sacrifice andservice has been rendered. The ministry has had results that defy statistics. And the future awaits our contin-ued efforts to faithful service. Be patient, be diligent, be faithful. The work of the Covenant is God’s work. Hewill bring all good things to pass.”

And then from a report by Keith Fullerton when he was pastor at College Park: “I refuse to let statistics be thesole criteria for effectiveness.”

We stand on the shoulders of others. The view from where we are today implies that we are responsible tomove farther and faster than in previous decades. Church planting reminds us well that this is God’s work andunless he builds the house we will labour in vain. Kingdom work is about so much more than statistics. At thesame time we are called to labour well and labour hard. Today we are stewards of many great gifts handeddown by our forefathers and foremothers. Sometimes it takes an anniversary or two to remind us of these facts!

From Jeff’s deskJeff Anderson, Superintendent

THANK YOU to all who sponsored a child through Covenant Kids Congo in the last year. We

have nearly reached our goal of 200 sponsorships throughout our 25 churches. So far 197 children have

been sponsored. If you do the math, this means that Canadian Covenanters have pledged $92,196 to

sponsor for one year. At $39 a month, 197 children in Congo are having their lives and community

changed. Praise God!

A well project is already under way in Ledia. It will provide clean water for the entire town of Gemena.

Training will also be provided in proper sanitation and hygiene. For updates on the projects in Congo,

visit the CovKids Congo blog: blogs.covchurch.org/covenantkidscongo/

If you would like to sponsor a child, please go to www.canadacovenantchurch.org/cov-kids-congo.

The ECCC is now working with World Vision Canada to extend our work in the Congo through a three

year project. Details will be available for churches in the coming months. Stay tuned!

Kirsten Waldschmidt, Chair of theCovenant Bible College TransitionBoard, stepped up to the micro-phone with a cumbersome easel andsheet covered poster at the AnnualGeneral Meeting this spring. Aftersetting her yet unveiled display upon the stage, she explained the pro-gress the CBC Board has made in thelast year.

Among many decisions the boardhas made, there are three that standout. First, they decided to appeal tothe Canadian Revenue Agency for re-

designation of CBC as a charitable institution to a foundation. This change will allow the foundationto make grants to qualified recipients (see inset for details) from assets of CBC. Those assets amountto approximately $1.9 million.

The second decision was how to invest these assets responsibly and for posterity. The CBC Board en-tered into several conversations with investment experts. After much research, the board decided topartner with a larger foundation called the Canadian Baptists of Western Canada Foundation. Thispartnership allows the smaller new foundation to gain access to investment managers that deal withmany millions of dollars. Kirsten noted that the assets of CBC will be kept in their own separate fundwhere the CBC Foundation board will have full control.

After explaining the details of each decision, Kirsten turned to the easel and unveiled the third majordecision the CBC Transition Board has made. The foundation will be named Trellis Foundation: ALegacy of Covenant Bible College. The delegates to the AGM applauded with enthusiasm for all thework that has been done to make this new ministry come to life out of a much loved Canadian Cove-nant institution.

Kirsten explained the idea behind using a Trellis to symbolize the foundation. A trellis supports thebranches and vines that grow on it. A trellis assists in the growth of a plant. CBC was often likened toa green house where plants begin to grow and are then transplanted. The metaphor continues asTrellis Foundation seeks to support ongoing discipleship growth in the ECCC.

At present, Trellis Foundation is awaiting approval from CRA.Logo designed by Steve Waldschmidt

Who qualifies to receive grants from Trellis?

Donations were made to CBC by many generous givers in Canada and the United States. CRA regu-lations require a foundation within Canada to make grants only to qualified donees. Qualified don-ees in this case include:

ECCC Affiliated Ministries within CanadaAdditional Criteria will be determined at a later date by the Trellis Board, but will include:

No grants to individualsGrants to be used in the area of discipleship

After leaving youth ministry at Malmo Mission Covenant Church, I was excited to find a society inAlberta that has a passion for caring for people. I joined a group of seven other Burden Bearers in Al-berta. We all have the same concept of helping individuals, no matter what it takes. Each Burden Bear-ers is run separately. In Wetaskiwin, we are run by a board of eight individuals who have a passion tosee people come to a healing place through Jesus Christ.

Our purpose is to provide professional counselling to the hurting and in need, regard-less of their ability to pay. Burden Bearers Counselling Society of Alberta was formed toprovide an accountable non-profit umbrella agency that could allow academicallyqualified Christian counsellors to practice their clinical skills as part of a like mindedand supportive network.

Starting a non-profit organization and setting up a board is a lot of work. However, God has set peoplein motion to come alongside my vision. He had people donate financially to start up the practice, and He

One woman’s journey from Pastor to Counsellor and Mother

By: Natasha Westerhoud

had people in place with office space to donate rent free─for a year. We have also hired an additional counsellor who will be working full time starting in September in our office in Wetaskiwin.

God had a big plan.

My vision was to see Wetaskiwin Burden Bearers Counselling Centre come into existence. I see the needand the hurt that is in our community and that many do not have a safe place to go and share what is ontheir hearts and minds. Most of my clients are teenagers and young adults—some from churches, somereferrals, but mostly people that know me or know of my work with youth. It was important for me to beable to continue to care for the people that God has put in my life and I knew that many could not affordthe fees that are associated with a counselling session. That is where Burden Bearers comes in to play.

People give donations to the organization so that all individuals can come and receive the care that theyneed. That is what resonated with my heart—we turn no one away. I feel what I am doing, walkingalong- side people individually, is an extension of what I was doing in the church—caring for people one-on-one.

Some days I miss working in a church setting; specifically, the community of people, and working withother pastors. When you are in a church you see people every week. You see change and sometimes youdon't, but you stay in their life. That is the part I think I find the hardest—being a counsellor in an office.Sometimes I will only see a client once and wonder how they are doing with the issues we discussed? Arethey are ok? Are things worked out?

I am also excited to add a new counsellor to our staff. There is a pressure that is being released now aswe can seek out new clients and we can refer them to the new counsellor. Being a full-time mom to anactive toddler has shifted my life drastically in the last year in regards to work and ministry. Going froma busy life of ministry to the busy life of a stay-at-home mom has opened my eyes to a whole new world.Children really make you want to be a better person.

My priorities are my children and I am excited to see how God will use me in this way. It does make for abit of complexity when I’m called in to work, but I have set my boundaries as a mom and that seems tobe working out great for me. It has been an interesting series of events—from God instilling BurdenBearers into my heart, starting the process, to two months later when we received a call from the adop-tion agency that we were to head to China to pick up our daughter, Hana. Things happened so fast! I amlearning from all of this is that I have to have my priorities and boundaries set up as a working mom.

It was a challenge at first. I felt that I could not let go of all the other things in my life, feeling that I maybe lost in all of this. God in His amazing wisdom was already slowly stripping all things away from me tomake room for this little amazing bundle of joy in my life. God knows who I am and what I can do. Hehad prepared me ahead of time. Now I know that being a mother is a wonderful gift to embrace, but Ialso know I am made up of many other things that I have a passion for and have a desire to do. It's aboutbalance and my husband, Mike, and I have found a good balance. This was the biggest adjustment of mylife and a year later I can say, it's a great thing. It's a really great thing. And I still am who I am, four inchheels and all. I still love what I do and still have a heart for ministry.

We are currently in the process of our second adoption, hoping that we can one day bring home a sisterfor Hana.

Life will get more complicated and messy and busy, and change will happen time and again. But it willbe rewarding. The one constant that never changes is that God is good, all the time.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Natasha can be reached through the Burden Bearers Website: www.burdenbearerscounselling.ca

STARTING

CHURCHESEvangelical Covenant Church of Canada

In June 2011, the Lead-ership Board of theECCC prayerfullycommitted to starting20 churches over 10years… How?

“I PLANTED THE SEED,APOLLOS WATERED IT,BUT GOD HAS BEEN MAKING IT GROW.” 1 CORINTHIANS 3:6God is at work planting a movement of new churches.How can we be involved?

ExpandingGod’s Kingdom

in Canada,one person…one churchat a time...

It was great to be together as a community ofchurches in Melfort at our ECCC annual meeting.Many people shared their excitement in how we areadvancing God’s Kingdom through our missionalpriorities. Knowing that we are developing leaders,serving globally, intentionally pursuing discipleshipand starting and strengthening churches is so en-couraging! As we’ve entered into a new season ofstarting churches as a community, many have askedthis critical question: how?

As shared during the Starting and StrengtheningChurches Seminar at the AGM, here are some of thekey elements in our plan to cooperate with God tosee churches started across Canada.

Prayer: Arguably, the most effective means of evan-gelism in North America is church planting. Morepeople meet Jesus through a church plant than anyother expression of evangelism. In Luke 10, as Jesussends out his followers, he invites them to “ask theLord of the harvest to send more workers into thefields…” Prayer, intentional asking and listening tothe voice of Jesus as we seek to start churches iscritical to all of our efforts. We don’t want to laborin vain.

Identify Missional Leaders: Jesus doesn’t en-courage his followers to ask for more churches… butfor more workers. Healthy Missional Churches re-quire Healthy Missional Leaders. As we seek to re-spond to God’s call on our lives, we are actively net-working and recruiting healthy missional leaderswho have the unique call of God on their hearts andlives to start churches. This is happening and needsto happen from both within and outside of our exist-ing ECCC churches.

Identify Projects, Partners and Opportuni-ties: Many people are asking, “where are we lookingto start churches?” The answer is simultaneously,“wherever God leads and wherever strategic oppor-tunities develop.” We are watching, listening, anddiscerning with our existing churches for ways tosupport, encourage, and partner in the work of start-ing churches. We are looking for existing churches toprovide the foundational resources of people, fi-nance, and prayer that help us discern where churchplants are most viable.

Assessment: Having prayerfully discerned andidentified leadership as well as potential locationsand partners, the ECCC joins with our denominationfor a formal assessment/discernment stage for po-

By: Glenn Peterson

tential church planters. All Evangelical Covenant Church Planterswho receive denominational financial support go through this as-sessment process.

Training: Starting Churches is hard work. People need all the helpthey can get. Each new church gets extensive training and support.Each Church Planter attends an intense, five day training experiencealong with Church Planters from across the Covenant exploringcritical spiritual, leadership, and organizational realities in starting anew church. This is vital training. Along with this, the ECCC workswith the local church planter to do a training event with their localcore group. This reminds the newly formed launch team that thework of starting a new church is not that of pastor/leaders alone, buta shared work of the whole Body.

Coaching: Along with the training experiences, each new churchand leader receives ongoing coaching and support from the Confer-ence Director of Church Planting. Beginning as weekly calls andlessening as time goes by, these coaching calls provide a safe placefor planters to explore and pursue critical questions, challenges, andfrustrations, as well as sharing successes, stories and reasons tocelebrate. Another form of support, started this past year, was amonthly online (“3rd Tuesday”) conversation between the ECCCchurch planters, the Director of Church Planting, and often a specialguest. This monthly cohort is a great expression of our connectionalvalue as a conference, as planters are reminded that they are notalone in this work and that many of the challenges they are facingare also not theirs alone.

Replication: Lastly, critical for our plan to start 20 churches in thenext 10 years is the reality that each new church that is started iscommitted to either planting or significantly partnering in the plant-ing of another new church within the first five years of its existence.Statistically, churches that do not replicate themselves within thefirst five years of their existence rarely do so at all.

Hopefully, this brief sketch of our church planting strategy gives youa window into how this work may take place. Ultimately, it’s God’swork… He makes the Church grow, but we are called to plant seedsand water the plants along the way. If you have further questions, orcomments about our vision for Starting Churches or our strategy forhelping this become a reality, please contact Glenn Peterson, ECCCDirector of Church Planting. (glennspeterson@gmail.com) Please Pray for…

- Evan and Christin Dewald(Lake Ridge Community)

- John and Tammy Cho (AvenueCommunity)

- Gavin and Liz Jensen (HolyCommunity)

- Glenn and Bekah Peterson- Our Future Planters and Lead-

ers...

Our church (Faith Covenant Church in Winnipeg)recently took a leap of faith and commissioned oneof our pastors and a group of about 30 people toplant another church on the other side of the riverin our city. I was asked to share about the processand behind the scenes story of how our littlechurch took the plunge into church planting

Why plant? Whose idea was this anyhow?

To be plain, we hope and believe this was, is, andwill continue to be God’s idea. As a church we havehad some successes, leanings, and, yes, failures inthis area before. We tried twice in the early to mid-2000s to start a new ministry and plant a secondchurch in another part of the city. Both previousattempts did not end as we would have liked.

Were these earlier attempts our idea and notGod’s? Do we now we somehow have it right? Ithink not. As I comb through the pages of Scrip-ture and re-read our history as a Christian Churchyou can not but see that church planting is the pri-mary way God grows God’s Church. It is my per-sonal conviction that church planting is alwaysgood and from God. The only real question is oneof timing: "When do we plant?”

Perhaps the timing was not right on our previousattempts. This is not to say that God wasn’t primedand ready for us to get planting. I think we weretrying to say "yes" and release people and re-sources, but as we held out our hands they werenot always open. I think we wanted it all withoutpaying the price. I think we wanted "heavy on theJesus" and all those great benefits, but wanted togo "light on the cross." This is not an uncommon

Church is notSwimming Lessons

By Erik Anderson

narrative to any of our churches or any of our lives.Still, Jesus calls and says, “Pick up your cross andcome, follow me…”

In 2006, by God’s grace, Faith Covenant Churchwas in a harvest season. The church was filling up.We bought an old facility in a small neighbour-hood, but we didn’t do so well in our attempts atbeginning multiple worship services. Peoplewanted to stay together at all costs.

By 2011 we had grown more and some weeks wewere certainly beyond the dreaded 80/20 rule.This is the rule that gives church leaders the go-ahead to move to an additional service or ministryso everyone still has a buffer seat between themand their neighbours in the pew. I can rememberweeks when there wasn’t a chair without a bum.We all knew we had a checkered past when it came

to any kind of dividing for the common good, butwe now had no option. We had to make a choice(and, yes, choosing to do nothing is always an op-tion, though not a really good one...).

In the spring the leadership group decided to flipthe orientation of our Sanctuary and create someadditional seating space. We had a large stagewhich would now become a “balcony” or overflowseating; we put a small stage in what was one ofthe back corners. We all thought this was a verycreative solution.

The pastoral staff had begun doing some planningfor the fall season, but we were mostly just scratch-ing our heads. It seemed as though we needed todo something bigger even though we had just donea facility change. As we thought about additionalprogramming ideas, we realized, with more clarity

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than ever, that church itself is God’s great pro-gram for helping us to love both God andneighbour.

I think—for far too many—church is looked at as ifit were swimming lessons. Okay, maybe we don’tsee it this way, but we often act this way. Churchbecomes something we can go to once a week, atleast seasonally. "Hey, it's good for the kids." Wecan learn some new techniques, and stay“balanced” and “in shape,” and—who knows?—some day it may even save my life. This may be alittle dark but I think it is pretty much how it is,more than we would care to admit, in your churchand mine. Church planting is a good antidote tothis sad picture.

What are the fears involved with planting? Whatdid the Leadership do?

Money + People = Security. I think these are al-ways the main fears when it comes to this venture.We like to be together and we like to have every-one chipping in. These aren’t bad things, but thereare more people who need God’s love and thereare always more dollars in pockets, even if we haveto dig a little deeper.

We brought up the idea of starting a new church ata church council meeting in the fall. We gave peo-ple time to think about it and circled back twomonths later to have a full evening conversation,expressing our fears and our excitements.

In the end, the leadership concluded that weneeded to open our hands as best we could in thisnew thing. We put forth a proposal to be voted onby the congregation for our AGM which includedcommissioning Pastor Gavin Jensen, 25 membersof our church, and $25,000 to seed a new churchin another part of Winnipeg. As one member putit, “we are Faith Covenant Church not Fear Cove-nant Church,” and so we put our best foot forwardand opened our hands.

The vote was passed overwhelmingly, even thoughwe all knew there would be a price to pay and across to bear beyond our calculations.

How are we a year later?

Grace abounds. In April of 2012 we commissionedPastor Gavin and his family and about 30 folksfrom the church family to become Holy Commu-nity Covenant Church.

We continue to miss many of our friends as we nolonger see them at our (FCC) Sunday morninggatherings. Part of the good news of sendingfriends out is that new people have now steppedinto opportunities to serve, attend and participatein ministry at FCC. Many of these folks wouldlikely never have done so if we didn’t make spacein our lives and church structures for them.

We continue on in life and ministry as two littlechurches who struggle to make budget, and seekto abandon our "swimming lessons" mentality ofchurch for the deep way of being that is life inChrist. I personally look forward to the churches'struggle and growth, and the opportunity to plantagain—this time with the resources of two estab-lished churches.

I believe we are moving into something beautifulthat continues to unfold in new and grace filledways for the ECCC. I encourage you and yourchurch to consider what you can do towards thisend.

Erik Anderson is Lead Pastor at Faith Covenant Church in Winni-peg, MB.

Jam 2013 was awesome according to the Jr.Highers in attendance. 25 students from Edmon-ton, Strathmore, Norquay, and Minnedosa cameto experience games, worship, hay rides, swim-ming, paint balloon throwing (water balloonsfilled with paint) and more.

Hanne Johnson and Chelsey Doerkson of Winni-peg ran the event with help from Gavin Jensenleading worship and Nate Severson from Kansasdoing the speaking.

The photos to the right provide a 4,000 wordsummary—assuming a picture really is worth athousand words. :)

Plans are already underway for next year. Markoff your calendar for May long weekend!

Special thanks to all the volunteers who made theweekend a success!

At the AGM in Melfort a question was raised regard-

ing the 34% percent administration costs of the

ECCC. While this percentage seems high there are a

number of reasons for this which show the ECCC is

using a large portion of those funds for ministry. The

primary reason for a 34% administrative cost is

travel and salaries.These are explained more fully

below. However, it is important to note that most

charitable organizations include salary and travel ex-

penses in their overall ministry budget and not under

administration. We have chosen not to do this. In

part this is because we have staff who do a number of

various tasks and splitting their salary into the differ-

ent ministry categories would be nearly impossible.

A large portion of the administrative budget is for

travel. When Glenn Peterson goes to Winnipeg to do

church plant training for the newest ECCC church

plant, his travel is under administrative costs. When

Jeff Anderson goes to a church to meet with leader-

ship in a time of crisis, the travel costs associated

with it are under administration. This is true for

Julia Sandstrom’s work in discipleship and Gerald

Froese’s work in church vitality. These trips come

with no cost to the church. Additionally, when the

leadership board gathers to make decisions and cast

vision for the conference, the cost of travel is allo-

cated to the administration budget.

Travel makes up 8% of the total budget. Travel is

part of our ministry reality in a geographically wide-

spread conference. The staff does their best to

budget flights and car travel well, but the increasing

costs of travel will mean a significant portion of the

budget will go to travel. Therefore, the administra-

tive costs will be high despite the fact that each trip is

a ministry function of the conference.

Salaries make up 20% of the overall budget. Two full

time staff and three part time staff make up a total

cost of $198,500. This number includes benefits for

the ministry staff. This is the highest administrative

cost to the conference. Churches spend a large por-

tion of their budget on salaries as well. A brief review

on CRA Charities listing found that ECCC churches

spend about 40-50% on salaries. In a comparison to

other denominations, the ECCC spent a higher per-

centage on salaries. The Canadian Baptists of West-

ern Canada spend 18% and the Mennonite Brethren

spend 14%.

Additional areas of administrative expenses include

rent ($5,400), banking fees ($4,000), memberships

($2,000), telephone, internet, office supplies, post-

age ($17,200), audit ($6,000), printing ($1,000), in-

surance ($2,750), legal ($1,000), staff development

($2,500) and discretionary ($1,000). The total is

$42,850 or 4.3% of the total budget. Removing travel

and salaries from the administrative picture shows a

very lean administrative budget.

It is difficult to determine the exact cost of ministry

and administration as they blur into one another.

Can you have an event without sending promotional

material? Can you do ministry without competent

staff? A charity that spends more on administration

can often be more effective because it is investing re-

sources into its people and structure.

With that said, the ECCC is committed to good stew-

ardship of all resources. We are always looking for

ways to save without compromising the quality of

ministry to churches and people. This is why much of

our communication has been moved online. We de-

sire to be transparent with the funds that are en-

trusted to us by individuals, churches, and The Trel-

lis Foundation. You may request a copy of the full

budget by contacting the ECCC office at 204-269-

3437 or CanadaECC@gmail.com.

What’s in that 34%?

ECCC Finance Committee: Sally Carlson, Colin McClure, andRich Drinovz

AGM Roundtable Discussion ThemesA brief synopsis from the Leadership Board

2013

August 15-18: Triennial XIVSan Diego, CA

October 7-9: Pastor/Spouse RetreatBanff, AB

October 18-20: ALIVECanmore, AB

2014

January 27-31: MidWinterChicago, IL

May 1-4: AGMErickson, BC and Winnipeg, MB

May 16-19: Jr. High JamSaskatoon, SK

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

Upcoming ECCC events

Heading into the AGM, the ECCC Leadership Board was excited to hear from the delegates during theround-table discussion. At their June meeting the Leadership Board reported back and discussed whatthey heard. A number of clear themes were articulated by the delegates. Below is a bullet list of thosethemes:

Church Planting and Congregational Vitality were important themes that were highly affirmed bythe body.

The need for more effective Communication was clearly communicated ;)The importance of significant Connections within the ECCC was mentioned numerous times.The importance of increased Competency levels within leadership of a growing group of churches

was noted.There were a number of comments affirming the place of a Challenge being made to the wider fel-

lowship (for instance the goal of 200 Covenant Kids Congo sponsorships).The observation that our Corporate health is good but can definitely be better.There were many observations that Zeal for ministry is noticed and is important to our future.There were comments that increased Clarity of mission and ministry is helpful as we seek to join to-

gether in common work.

The work is good, but there is more work to do. The November Leadership Board meeting focuses onfuture planning. They will be revisiting many of these issues and look forward to growing the ECCCdeeper in Christ and further in mission. Any comments or questions can be sent to the ECCC office atCanadaECC@gmail.com.

"To listen a soul into disclosure and discovery is thegreatest service one human being can do for an-other."—Quaker Saying

It was a regular Wednesday morning when I went tomeet with my Spiritual Director and I honestly did-n’t feel there was much to talk about that morning.That’s how it is sometimes, nothing profound oramazing to share, just life. However, the gift of hav-ing someone willing to listen with me, and to me foran hour is an amazing gift to any human being. So Icontinued on my way.

I arrived and my director opened our time togetherby creating a comfortable space for silence. Silencewas what I needed that morning; the comfort of an-other soul present with me—with no expectationthat I do or say anything.

Then, in that quiet place, God began to gently prodme forward, showing me a heavy place in my heart.I began to explore the darkness out loud, as a con-versation between myself and my Spiritual Director.It was about my relationship with one of my grownkids and how it had affected me.

As I talked there was sudden emotion as Godshowed me my heart in its broken state. The wordspoured out of me as I identified the pain and eventhe legitimacy of the pain. I was surprised that itwas there still, even after the years.

My director created space for it to unfold as thehour went on. Asking occasional questions whenshe saw I was perhaps missing or denying some-thing. Supporting me, identifying an emotion I wasfeeling but unable to name. Mostly just being a wit-ness of my conversation with God.

I continued for the next 45 minutes, in some amaze-ment, to review all the things God was showing meabout my relationship with my child. For me in thatholy place with God, there were new levels of heal-ing.

It was later that morning, while doing some home-work for a class that I was taking, that God showedhis masterful way of loving me. I was handed a pic-ture from an old calendar that I was to use as atheme to write a prayer about. A simple picture of akitchen door slightly ajar and on the mat insidewere two sets of rubber boots. One set for an adultand another set for a small child. I did a double takeas I saw that the child's boots were identical to theset my child had had when they were just threeyears old.

I was overwhelmed. I laughed quietly to myself. Godreally does love me the best.------------------------------------------------Spiritual Direction is a process through which anindividual becomes more aware of their relationshipwith God. Through conversation, prayer, and timespent with a Spiritual Director, an individual comesto a deeper awareness of the presence and activity ofGod in their own life.

As you meet together and share the ongoing story ofyour life, the Spiritual Director will help you to no-tice and respond to the activity of God in your life.The Director is a listening and supportive personwho creates an environment where you can taketime to honestly look at your relationship with God.He or she will walk alongside you as a soul friendand listen with you, for the work of the Holy Spiritin your life.

We understand that God acts in every area of ourlives. God is there in our doubt as well as our cer-tainty, in our weakness as well as our wholeness.That is why there is no need to focus solely on"religious" topics as if spirituality were a separatesection of our lives. The primary relationship will bebetween the directee and God, the director acts asan extra set of ears and eyes for the individual seek-ing to grow with God.————————————————————-Randall Friesen is a pastor at Malmo Mission Cove-nant Church. He would be happy to connect you to aSpiritual Director. Email him atrandallfriesen@gmail.com

Photo: © Kmitu | Dreamstime Stock Photos

An Introduction toSpiritual DirectionBy Randall Friesen

SCHEDULE

8:00am - Breakfast*

9:30am - Communion and Worship

Friday, Oct. 18th

2:00 pm—Early bird seminar

6:00pm - Registration

7:00pm - Worship & Teaching

Saturday, Oct. 19th

8:00am - Breakfast*

9:30am - ECCC Ministry Updates

10:30am - Coffee

11:00am - Worship

12:00pm - Lunch*

1:00pm - Free Time

5:30pm - Dinner (on your own)

7:00pm - Worship & Teaching

8:30pm - Auction

Sunday, Oct. 20th

* meal included in registration

Registration until Aug. 15th

□ Couple $330 □ Individual $275

Registration until Sept. 15th

□ Couple $380 □ Individual $325

Registration includes hotel and three meals(two breakfasts, one lunch)

Program only participation (no meals)□ Couple $100 □ Individual

A Vague Sense of Unease: New Answers to Old Questions

Come and learn new habits of the heart. Life is not a flat journey, it has ups and downs, peaksand valleys, successes and failures. We are called to walk by faith, but faith isn’t a recipe or a

program with step by step guidelines. Paul Lessard will help us explore what it means to fol-low Jesus on the journey when you find yourself somewhere in the middle of life’s road.

Register online atwww.canadacovenantchurch.org/alive

PO BOX 34025RPO FORT RICHMONDWINNIPEG, MB R3T 5T5

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

CanadaECC@gmail.com

www.canadacovenantchurch.org

The Messenger is a publication of the Evangelical Covenant Church of Canada.Editors: Julia Sandstrom and Rob Horsley

Staff:Jeff Anderson, Superintendent/PresidentJulia Sandstrom, Director of Ministry SupportGerald Froese, Director of Congregational VitalityGlenn Peterson, Director of Church PlantingMargaret Aikenhead, Bookkeeper