MJAC Conversations Moose Jaw Alliance Church

Guests Kirk Cowman and Brian Westnedge join us on the pod this week to tackle these questions about the future of our church!


What are you anticipating the church landscape will look like in Canada as we emerge from COVID?
How did the transition team arrive at the proposed merger document?
Is this a done deal?
What happens to MJAC Vision and Values statements?
What are Living Hope’s Vision and Core Behaviors?
Where might a creative ‘out of the church box’ experimenter find a fit in the LH vision statement?
What is LH’s practice with women in leadership?
How will Sunday services be put together post-merger? (Who will preach?)
Will LH staff oversee the MJ ministry areas such as worship ministry and children’s ministry?
What happens to our current staff?
What happens if we discern and vote NOT to merge? Is there a plan B?

Please circle your calendars and register for the upcoming Listening Gatherings on June 6 (in-person) and June 9 (via Zoom). Discernment Gatherings on June 14 (in-person) and June 22 (via Zoom). Here's the link to register!

https://mjac.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/88/responses/new

MJAC Conversations podcast is back with a series of candid conversations with your Board and Transition team members about the proposed merger between Living Hope Alliance and our church. Our next episode is called 'Releasing MJAC to merge with Living Hope--not everything that is buried is dead.' Thank you for sending your questions into the office! The questions we'll be tackling this upcoming week are:

-For those of us who are unfamiliar with Living Hope, can you give us a nutshell description of what they’re like? How are they different from MJAC or other churches in Moose Jaw? Are there similarities to us or other churches in Moose Jaw that you see?

-What specific aspects of Living Hope are we hoping to lean into through this merger?

-Will there be space for our local church culture to have its own flavour because we’re in a different geographic location and consist of different people? Or are we imagining we’ll become a satellite/replica of Living Hope?

-Has the Board discussed what specific aspects of MJAC we need to retain? Recognizing the merger agreement is still in discussion with the transition team, what are you imagining or hoping we’ll preserve through this merger?

-Over this last season at MJAC, we have talked a lot about something being birthed. Now we seem to be talking about MJAC needing to die to be reborn again. Can you unpack what that ‘death’ language means (or doesn’t mean)?

-What do we do with all those things that were birthed during this past season?

-Do you have suggestions for how we process this together? For example, some people in our church will need to grieve this merger as a loss, and others may be relieved or celebratory. Will there be events that bring closure to our shared MJAC experience before we move into a merger? "

Our podcast, MJAC Conversations, is back this week, with the first in a series of episodes exploring the future of our church. This week on the pod we'll talk about the backstory of the proposed merger between Living Hope Alliance in Regina, and MJAC. We've been gathering your questions and a member of your Board and a member of the merger Transition Team will candidly discuss the behind the scenes. Please continue to pray for our MJAC leadership community as they discern through this unprecedented time!

Some of the questions they'll be addressing are:


When did the idea of a merger first come up in your discussions?
What other proposals did the Board explore?
What’s the deadline like here? (Why can’t we just extend Kirk’s contract another year?)
What are the ongoing concerns that any proposal for the future of MJAC needs to address?
When did the board of Living Hope become part of this discernment process?
What were some of the words or images from the Spirit that the two Boards received and discerned through?

It's the last episode of 2020, so settle in for a good long chat about coping with COVID Christmas, Mark's cooking secrets, entering into grief as a practice that makes us more human, and where Jesus is in our seasons of darkness.

How you're marking this COVID Advent season.

What's different this year? What are you missing? 

Cooking winter dishes to cope, and the secret of Mark's delicious food. 

Let's talk about Sunday! Grief & disappointment in the story about the death of Lazarus.

Mark & Steph's personal grief journey.

Practicing being human by allowing yourself to grieve the small things.

Links and resources:

Advent: The Jesse Tree

https://www.seriouseats.com/

Finding good things in the midst of the ordinary, dealing with shame, and trusting friends with your crap. Sometimes literally. Anthony Skepple shares his journey with Crohns disease over the past year.

Picking up the phone to get through this COVID winter, playing 'Among Us' with all the MJAC friends we miss, and healing past wounds.