Status
The churches of the Evangelical Mennonite Conference are located in five west-central Canadian provinces from British Columbia to Ontario. In 2010 there were over 7,200 members in 61 churches, with roughly 150 ministers serving the churches. The congregations are organized into nine regions. Mission work is established in 25 countries, often working in formal mission partnerships with evangelical interdenominational or Anabaptist organizations.
The EMC has five national boards with wide ranging responsibilities. It, however, is ultimately governed by its churches together, whose delegates are to attend conference council meetings twice a year and whose ministerial members are to meet nationally twice a year (including on retreat).
The EMC archives, offices, Steinbach Christian High School and Steinbach Bible College are located in Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada. The EMC is also linked to the graduate-level Winnipeg Centre for Ministry Studies in conjunction with Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg, Man., and MBBS and AMBS (WCMS's two overseeing Anabaptist seminaries whose headquarters are in the U.S.).
The Messenger, an official publication of the conference, is printed 12 times per year and available on-line. Theodidaktos, Journal for EMC theology and education is published twice a year and available on-line. It also occasionally publishes a Christian Education Update. In 2006 it published Follow Me, a Sunday School resource on biblical social justice.
In the 1940s an evangelical revival in the EMC was led by Rev. Ben D. Reimer and others. The defining mark of the EMC in recent years has been its missions emphasis. Currently, over 70 per cent of the Conference's national budget goes to missions activity. More recently, much emphasis has been placed on church planting within Canada.
There is a growing emphasis on holistic ministry, not simply on multiplying churches, but on churches reflecting more of Jesus' calling Christians to "obey everything that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:20). This is seen as, in part, a return to the holistic emphasis of Menno Simons, the early Dutch leader, that "true evangelical faith...cannot lie dormant, but manifests itself in all righteousness and works of love" (The Complete Writings of Menno Simons, 307).
The Evangelical Mennonite Conference is a member of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, Mennonite Central Committee, the Mennonite World Conference, and other organizations.
Read more about this topic: Evangelical Mennonite Conference
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