March 27thDoug Klassen Returns to MCEC to Speak at Annual Church Gathering
MCEC is pleased that Doug Klassen, MC Canada Executive Minister, will be speaking at this year’s Annual Church Gathering in April. Doug will guide us in reflecting on how we are inspired by the hope we find in Jesus, leaning into 1 Thessalonians 1.
Oh, How You’ve Grown: A Testimony to Trusting in Jesus is the title of Doug’s Friday sermon. This sermon will look back into MCEC history through Doug’s own experience as a child, youth and early years of his pastoral ministry.
Doug grew up in Ontario in both the Russian Mennonite and the Amish Mennonite traditions. “I have memories of sitting in a white shirt and gray wool pants in the Blake Mennonite Church west of Zurich - the first Amish Mennonite Church building in Canada,” says Doug. Tracing MCEC’s history, Doug will reflect on who MCEC was, is and is becoming: a diverse, multi-voiced, intercultural community.
“If we are inspired by the hope we have in Jesus Christ,” says Doug, “what is the response of the Church in the face of suffering the world over?”
Saturday’s reflection is entitled A Deeper Calling: Living our Hope in Jesus Christ. While the Church could join or be co-opted into a myriad of causes, Doug will help us to reflect on what it is that makes us unique. “If we are inspired by the hope we have in Jesus Christ,” says Doug, “what is the response of the Church in the face of suffering the world over?”
Born near Vineland, Ontario, Doug began his pastoral ministry in 1992 at St. Catharines United Mennonite Church. He then moved to Winnipeg in 1995 and served with MC Manitoba, pastored at Sterling Mennonite Fellowship and taught at Canadian Mennonite University. In 1998, Doug answered a call to Foothills Mennonite Church in Calgary, AB and ministered there until he became executive minister at MC Canada in 2019.
Doug is a preacher and a teacher and has a deep love for the Church. He and his wife, Rose, live in Manitoba. “I’m excited to be returning home to speak at this year’s Annual Church Gathering,” says Doug. “It was my experiences in the congregations of MCEC that instilled in me a deep love for Christ and the Church and prepared my heart to hear a call to ministry… and I am so incredibly grateful.”