General Assembly is in full swing and it’s time to report
back to the home front what exactly has been going on at this event. Thanks so
much to the family of Estevan Alliance Church for sending us as your delegates
to this, the 17th General Assembly of the Christian and Missionary
Alliance in Canada. Lots of great things have been happening and a lot of
important business is being transacted for our family of churches.
Pastor Waylon, Jean Morris, Joanne Greenwood and I left
Estevan bright and early on Monday morning – in the midst of the storm to drive
to Winnipeg where Waylon and I had meetings to attend on Monday afternoon. Jean
and Joanne (who you have graciously and wisely sent as intercessors to pray
over the proceedings) attended the missions reception on Monday evening and we
all got some good sleep – grateful for the air conditioning in our hotel rooms
in a very muggy Winnipeg.
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| Dr. Franklin Pyles and his wife Gay |
On Tuesday Jean and Joanne attended a widely praised,
day-long seminar on discipleship while Waylon had more meetings with the youth
pastors hosted by the national youth team and I began the long task of
committee work, serving on the committee for strategic plan. That afternoon Dan
Jensen and Lorne Geil rolled into town to join the crew and General Assembly
began in earnest with a special celebration banquet for the ministry and work
of our outgoing president Dr. Franklin Pyles.
Wednesday morning was the first business session of the
Assembly as we heard and received the first reading of the president’s report (Which
you can access here along with all other pre-assembly reports) and the preliminary
reading of the report of the committee on nominations which revealed the
candidates for the position of the next president of the Christian and
Missionary Alliance in Canada. The nominees presented were Rev. David Hearn
(the official nominee put forward by the committee) who currently serves as the
District Superintendent of the Pacific District (B.C.), Rev. Dr. Ken Driedger
who recently completed serving for twelve years as the District Superintendent
in Alberta, Rev. Dr. Ric Gilbertson who has spent most of his career as an
International Worker and is currently the Co-Director of Converge (the program
for mobilization and development of new international workers), and Rev. Gerald
Hogenbirk who currently serves as a regional developer for the Silk Road region
in the Global Ministries department of the C&MA. You can find out more about
the candidates and read
their profiles here.
On Wednesday afternoon while I went back to the woodshed of
committee work, our delegates participated in round table discussions about the
future of missions funding and the role and definition of ordination in the
Christian and Missionary Alliance. The results of those discussions were
forwarded to the committee on General Legislation as they worked on crafting
legislation to respond to the questions put to Assembly by the Board of
Directors and the constituency. The
major issue for discussion this year at General Assembly is Ordination. The
Board of Directors has put together a very helpful and informative website to
explain the issue here
and I’d encourage you to explore it if you are interested in knowing more about
how this issue got to the floor of Assembly. I’d especially encourage you to
take the time to watch the videos because they say things very plainly and
directly.
Wednesday evening was a worship service featuring what was
Dr. Franklin Pyles’ last message as President of the movement, and eschewing
his notorious (and subject of much loving-ridicule the previous night) suit and
tie for a t-shirt and jeans, Dr. Pyles gave us both barrels in a deeply
challenging message on Justice and Compassion issues – challenging the
congregation and our churches to repent of our Christian narcissism and to live
up to the identity that we have in Christ to be a movement that reaches the
world with the whole Gospel.
That is Assembly to the end of Wednesday night. I’ll update
this blog a little later with the events of Thursday and beyond – but please
continue to pray for us as we seek to be a Spirit-led body that does the Lord’s
work here this week and as we wrestle with contentious but important issues of
theology, leadership and direction for the future of our movement.
Blessings on your day,
Chris
Thanks for this update. It's helpful.
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