![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/cmu_trust-building-exercise-e1330976311205-300x181.jpg\" "\\"Ministry")
March 5, 2012 \u2013 Sharing and hearing call stories in small groups became powerful experiences for a diverse group of 21 Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) students, gathered for CMU’s Fourth Ministry Quest Retreat on January 20 \u2013 22, 2012 at St. Benedict\u2019s Retreat and Conference Centre, just north of Winnipeg. <\/p>\n
Attending the weekend retreat were 10 students from Mennonite congregations and 11 from other denominations\u2014Baptist, United, Alliance, Presbyterian, Alliance, Pentecostal, and Non-Denominational congregations. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey quickly developed a level of trust with each other that allowed them to bare their souls and wrestle with life questions under the guidance of five wise and gifted resource persons,\u201d says Abram Bergen, CMU\u2019s Director of Church Relations.<\/p>\n
Joining in the Retreat were CMU faculty, Irma Fast Dueck and Dan Epp-Tiessen; Pastor Dan Unrau, Fraserview MB Church in BC; Jon Isaak, Director of the Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies; and Pastor Mary Anne Isaak, River East MB Church in Winnipeg. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe growing need in the church is for more dedicated and effective congregational and mission leaders,\u201d said Abram Bergen, CMU\u2019s Director of Church Relations. \u201cOne way CMU is meeting this need is through Ministry Quest, a weekend retreat designed to help students gain greater clarity and confidence as they determine whether and how God is calling them into ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow Christians hear God’s call has always been something I have struggled with,\u201d commented Lee Hiebert, from First Mennonite Church in Kelowna, BC. \u201cI’ve never been sure if it was supposed to be an audible voice in some kind of divinely inspired dream, or simply a direction that was inescapably apparent.<\/p>\n
\u201cHearing the call stories from Dan Unrau, Mary Anne Isaak, and Jon Isaak allowed me to see the differences in the way God calls people. There is no distinct formula, but there are places we can look to for understanding,\u201d said Hiebert. \u201cOne of the main themes that I came away with was that God calls us through the voices of His people. It is through listening to the faithful Body of Christ that we can begin to see the ways that God calls us.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the retreat, I have begun to put much more faith in the affirmations that have and do come from the people around me,\u201d he added. \u201cLooking back on my own story, there seems to be a distinct direction that God has been opening to me through the people He has placed in my life. While I do not have a full picture of God\u2019s will for my life, I do have a better understanding about how I can pay attention to the ways He is directing me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Danielle Bailey, from New Life Baptist Church, Stonewall, Manitoba, found herself eager to explore the idea of being called. \u201cI felt open to learn and seek revelation from God on this topic. While at the retreat, I didn\u2019t receive a lot of new information, but rather, a new way of thinking and speaking about previous \u2018calls\u2019 I have experienced,\u201d said Bailey. \u201cThis framework was helpful. Leaving the retreat, I found my \u2018call\u2019 to student leadership at CMU reaffirmed and plan on deepening my involvement on student council committees next year.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI had several questions going into the Ministry Quest Retreat,\u201d reflected Gabrielle Lemire from McIvor MB Church, Winnipeg. \u201cAm I called to vocational ministry? How do I understand being called? Am I \u2018allowed\u2019 to be interested in ministry? Am I \u2018allowed\u2019 to say I want to do vocational ministry? Do I even want to do vocational ministry? What wisdom do my peers and teachers have to offer me with regard to this topic? What were\/are their experiences?<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the retreat, I learned how to relate understandings of \u2018call\u2019 and \u2018recall\u2019 to my current life experience. I was reminded to look for where I am called right now, in this time and place. God\u2019s calling does not merely dictate future life choices, but also what I choose to invest in right now and what I have done so far. As a result, I feel at peace about my uncertain future because I know that God has guided me this far and is with me presently.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy plans as a result of this weekend are to invest with confidence in places\/things I feel called to,\u201d said Lemire. \u201cI would like to go into the future with confidence knowing ‘Emmanuel’ God is with me, regardless of where I go or what job I get.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students requested follow up conversations after they returned to campus. A few such conversations happened less than two weeks later with CMU\u2019s Pastor-in-Residence, Doug Klassen, from Foothills Mennonite in Calgary as he opened students to \u201cthe Practice of Ministry\u201d and \u201cWhat Does our Pastor do Anyways?\u201d <\/p>\n
During their debrief, the resource leaders reflected on how this had been a holy time for them, as well, as they too had learned much from each other and from the students, and consequently enlivened their own call and vocation.<\/p>\n
Article by Kim Penner and Abram Bergen<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" March 5, 2012 \u2013 Sharing and hearing call stories in small groups became powerful experiences for a diverse group of 21 Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) students, gathered for CMU’s Fourth Ministry Quest Retreat on January 20 \u2013 22, 2012 at St. Benedict\u2019s Retreat and Conference Centre, just north of Winnipeg. Attending the weekend retreat were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2408,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20,25,5],"tags":[198],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2407"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2407"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2463,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2407\/revisions\/2463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}