| We are a country church! | |
| “The farmer sows the word.” (Mark 4:14) Cassel Mennonite Church is a rural church! Our church building sits at a rural crossroads amid farmers’ fields. Many of our members farm the surrounding countryside. A significant number of our families still reside on farms and draw at least part of their income from agriculture. Some are retired farmers. Some just love living in the country! Others make their living in farm-related work. We have been told that Cassel has the highest percentage of working farmers in Mennonite Church Eastern Canada. Cassel Mennonite Church is a rural church. We always have been and we always will be. Being rural is a big part of our self-identity. A move to any nearby town is out of the question. We will either be a rural church or we will cease to be a church at all. | |
| We like being a rural church! When we get together for worship or fellowship, the talk inevitably turns to farming and crops and weather. The pulse of the land and the change of the seasons is part of us. Our farm families like being farm families and want to continue farming. Cassel Mennonite Church is passionate about farming! We believe that God has called us to minister, to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, here in the country. We seek to worship, witness and serve our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in our rural setting. For us rural ministry is genuinely incarnational. Much of Jesus’ ministry took place in rural communities like ours. Jesus continually used rural images and farming metaphors in his teaching and preaching. He talked of farmers and farms, seeds and planting, sowing and harvesting. As witnesses and servants of God through Jesus Christ, we want to support and resource the people of our rural community. We believe that is what God has called us to be and to do. And God has given our congregation rich gifts and resources with which to do that: people who are passionate about farming, people who can think and work creatively, people with a wealth of experience farming, people who know how to struggle and overcome adverse circumstances. We strongly believe that God is calling us at Cassel Mennonite Church to this ministry. It can benefit the church and the community as it fulfills our ministry in Jesus’ name. | |
