Dear Friends,
We thought it was important to introduce you to a significant and, we hope, meaningful way of building community together. We hope that this will occur in the new format of meeting annually instead of bi-annually as a family of churches. As you know, in the 1960s an American Baptist consultant by the name of Jansen, provided a consultation that moved us from an association-based network (geographic and regionally-based cluster of churches meeting together for fellowship and ministry together) to regionally-based networks that were simply aligned with provinces. A further evolution of this more geographically diffused fellowship and governance model saw us move from an annual assembly to a bi-annual one. Citing costs as a reason for this move, we have been meeting bi-annually for quite some time. Many regions have retained some semblance of meeting in their areas, most notably British Columbia (which is an independent legal entity). All regions have retained some form of regional advisory team or board. Whatever our past experience has been, new rules governing societies and organizations with charitable status are coming into effect. These new regulations require us to meet on an annual basis. This is no easy task because of our geography and because of the subsequent expense. In order to comply we were told by our legal counsel that we would need a minimum of 35 churches and 100 delegates to meet in some way, shape or form. We have chosen to meet on the web in a form familiar to some of you called the webinar.
Meeting face to face is not quite the same as meeting like we are proposing, but it’s a beginning. There has been some discussion as to whether churches can meet in groups or hubs. It has great appeal as they can benefit from some fellowship together in the midst of what is probably a fairly brief meeting. Please feel encouraged to do so. Many who have chosen to travel a fair distance will benefit greatly from meeting and spending time with friends at the end of a long journey. We thought it best to let people make their own arrangements so as not to have another level of ordering and bureaucracy. You know your neighbourhood and local always seems best.
The meeting will be held on April 10th, 2014 over 3 time zones:
5:30pm BC/Yukon
6:30pm Alberta/Saskatchewan
7:30pm Manitoba
If you still need to register your church and delegates, you are still able to do this. We have extended the deadline so that as many churches as possible can join in this important AGM.
Simply download the form attached and send it to Amber Baker at abaker@cbwc.ca
Warmly,
In Christ,
Jeremy