“Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord.
Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.” Habbakuk 3:2

May we be found in awe of our glorious and gracious God and praying for a renewal of His mighty deeds. May we be found waiting in faith filled joyfulness and able to sing along with Habakuk that the Lord is our strength, enabling us to walk on high places. As our Province refocuses on Kingdom growth, it is our prayer that the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.

There has been much discussion about our need to become more purposeful in our pursuit of renewal in our churches and evangelism in our communities.  Pastors and church leaders have expressed their hopes for the future of growing MB Churches and the transformative work of the Gospel of Jesus needed in our neighbourhoods. Collectively, support was given to clarify our focus on how to effectively carry out the Great Commission. This required making essential changes to our staff and resource allocations.

We are grateful for God’s guidance over this past year during our comprehensive search for an Executive Director of BCMB and are pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Reg Toews to this position beginning May 13th.

Reg has an authentic love and passion for Jesus along with a deep commitment to reaching the lost and he is eager to contribute to our shared values, vision and goals.  Both personally and professionally, Reg’s life exemplifies the essence of living out the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.  We believe Reg’s leadership will contribute significantly to strengthening our family of churches. 

Reg’s mandate as Executive Director differs from the Conference Minister role in that he will have a directed focus on equipping and empowering pastors and church leaders toward a renewed Great Commission focus.

Our Conference Minister, Rob Thiessen, has held high the call for our BC churches to pray, experience renewal and holistic disciple making. Rob will be retiring in August and we are trusting the sovereign will and timing of the Almighty to lead in filling this role.  We have greatly benefited from Rob’s grace filled leadership and heart of love for God’s people and each one of our churches. We are thankful for Rob’s pastoral care and support of our leaders and churches and for the way he has continued to uphold our doctrinal beliefs and common understandings. The humility with which Rob continues to serve during this transitional time is a testament to his godly character.

We saw transition at the staff level this past year in the Director of Resource Ministries position.  It is with heartfelt thanks that we extend appreciation to Denis Federau for his years of service in that role.

The position of Director of Resource Ministries was renamed Director of Operations to better fit the various roles and duties entailed and we are grateful Wanda Froese was hired to fill this position.  She is a great asset bringing knowledge, insight and resources for our churches.

As we gathered together at Convention in April, there was much to celebrate in our churches and communities as renewal, evangelism and outreach opportunities are evident. Our province has churches planting churches as well as different churches partnering together to be support and offer resources to other churches and/or their ministries. Congregations are engaging in discipleship through various methods and also are making a concerted effort to reach their neighbourhoods with practical helps and community service.  We praise God for the unified pursuit of actively fulfilling the Great Commission while living out our love for God and others.

In his new position as National Director, Cam Stuart has been utilizing office space in our BCMB offices and BC is looking forward to working together with CCMBC over this year ahead with the desire to help cultivate healthy disciple making churches. The strategic plan (CUSP) defines priorities we all value for our churches regarding missional living, spiritual and organizational health and leadership development within a disciple making framework.  We are grateful for The National Faith and Life team and the huge amount of work they have engaged in. They are a valuable resource for spiritual direction in matters of ethics, theology, faith and Christian living.

BCMB wants to see the empowering, equipping and multiplication of Christ-centred churches to bring the life transforming power of the Gospel of Jesus to everyone in BC and beyond.  More than ever we are focused on the commandment to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind and to love our neighbours as ourselves and then to go and make disciples of all nations.  We know that God’s purposes will prevail and we are excited that He invites us into many opportunities to do Kingdom work.

May we be found working together, rejoicing in the Sovereign Lord who is our strength, that the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.