May 15thIntoducing our new Moderator, Keith Retzlaff
Introducing our new Moderator
Keith Retzlaff, Foothills Mennonite
Hello from your new moderator. In this short article I hope to provide a little insight into who I am and what I have seen in MCA these last few weeks since the Gathering in March.
To start, I am, first and foremost, a follower of Christ. As part of my journey, I am also a son, husband, father, brother, uncle, engineer, manager, and others. In reflecting on writing this it occurred to me who I am depends on how I or my family have interacted with you. I am the son of John and Heidi Retzlaff and grew up on the farm in Rosemary, Alberta. The Rosemary Mennonite Church is where I grew up in Christ, was baptized, and first began to serve in the church.
After high school, I attended Columbia Bible College (CBC) for two years and then went to the big city of Calgary for University to study engineering. This is also how I met my wife, Krista, through a mutual friend. Shortly after, I started my career with ATCO Gas and have just completed my 25th year of working there. This has allowed many experiences across Alberta - from living in Lethbridge for 5 years to travelling to Indigenous communities near Peace River and into the Territories. We have two grown daughters, Anne and Liesel, who are both involved in the church and have also attended CBC.
Why do I tell you all of this? Well, who I am influences my approach to being moderator, which brings us to the second part of this article. Since the Annual Delegate Sessions in March, I have been part of several meetings both in Alberta, for the All Committee Meeting, and in Waterloo, for the Joint Council meeting of Mennonite Church Canada. There has been a common theme in these meetings related to how we all connect to each other. Through the last few years, we have seen how vital connection to each other is. We form connections in our congregations, and each individual congregation comes together to form the regional church (Mennonite Church Alberta). Then the 5 regional churches come together to form the national church (Mennonite Church Canada).
I was struggling how best to focus this idea into words for this article until this past Sunday, when the words of a well-chosen worship song said it better then I ever could. The song is Together, (Grieser, Voices Together, p. 389). The verses all focus on bringing us together but the words that struck the most are in the second verse so I will close with them. “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.”
May God bring us together as congregations, MCA, MC Canada and beyond.