Making connections

Hello to everyone from the new Mennonite Church Alberta moderator.

I believe that who I am influences my approach to serving as moderator, so let me introduce myself. I am, first and foremost, a follower of Christ. Beyond that, I am son, husband, father, brother, uncle, engineer, manager and now, moderator.

I grew up on a farm in Rosemary, Alberta, and attended the Rosemary Mennonite Church, where I was baptized and first began to serve in the church. After high school I attended Columbia Bible College for two years and then went to the big city of Calgary to study engineering in university. There, I met my wife, Krista.

After graduation, I started my career with ATCO Gas and have just completed my 25th year of working there. My work has taken me across Alberta and beyond— from living in Lethbridge for five years to travelling to Indigenous communities near Peace River and into the territories.

Since taking on the role as MC Alberta moderator in March, I have attended several MC Alberta meetings, a Mennonite Church Canada Joint Council meeting in Waterloo, Ontario, and many online meetings. Common themes in these meetings have been how we all connect with each other, and how we tell the stories of why that matters.

Over the last few years, we have seen that connections to others are vital. We form connections in our congregations, each individual congregation comes together to form the regional church, and then the five regional churches come together to form the national church.

Our stories are one piece of the puzzle that helps to make and keep these connections. Reading the May issue of Canadian Mennonite, it struck me how the Mennonite story is often told more effectively by those who have come to the Mennonite church from elsewhere—whether churched or unchurched—than by those of us who have grown up in the Mennonite church.

How is it that those who come into the church recognize the value of the story so much better? Maybe when you have been part of something for an extended period, it is easier to concentrate on what isn’t working or to see the grass as greener on the other side. The stories in the April issue made me excited for the ways in which God is using the Mennonite church to impact people’s lives. It reminds me that we are part of something bigger—bigger than the local church, the regional church and even the national church.

Thank you to those who are telling their stories. They remind us of what is working and how we as the Mennonite church are impacting the world. I look forward to hearing and helping to tell these stories in my role as moderator.

The worship song Together by Nathan Grieser (#389 in Voices Together) prays that God would bring us together as the church. The words found in the second verse reflect my approach to being moderator: “My words will be imperfect, but I’ll try. Bringing my assumptions to the light, I’ll pray, God, I’ll surrender. Bring us together, bring us together.”

May God bring us together as congregations, regional churches, MC Canada and beyond.

Keith Retzlaff lives in Calgary and serves as moderator of Mennonite Church Alberta. He can be reached at moderator@mcab.ca.