Our Story

​Our story, like the story of every group of Christians, begins with God's dream of a world of peace, justice, and joy. At some point, we rejected God's plans and chose our own way. That put us in a world of pain and hurt, sin and death. But then God sent Jesus to make things right. Since then we've been called along into Jesus' great redeeming work.

The more recent story of the Mennonite Conference Church in Warman starts not with this congregation but with a church organized in 1915. They met in a lumber yard office on North Railway Street, with a steady supply of visiting ministers leading services. But after 1922, this gathering of believers petered out.

Our congregation’s story begins later, in 1964, with an act of redemption. Redemption means making something good and useful out something broken and painful. Redemption is God’s business. Our lives are so often full of pain and broken pieces. God turns our hurt and mess and wrong into something holy, good, and growing.

In 1964 there was conflict in Osler Mennonite Church. They were hiring a professional pastor, breaking the long tradition of lay ministers. Some were upset by this. There was also a dispute in the Warman Mennonite Brethren Church regarding method of baptism. There were children growing up in churches they couldn’t understand because they no longer learned German at home. There were parents anxious that their kids know the love of Jesus. These were our broken, hurting pieces.

Our God is a redeeming God. So out of this frustration and pain, worry and even wrong, God made something good. God brought together fourteen men and women to form a new congregation, the Warman Mission Church.

The first meeting was in the home of John P. Doell in August 1964. Rev Jake Pauls of Osler agreed to guide this group of believers. At the same time, a Ladies Aid formed, quilting and sewing and baking for a sale to raise money to purchase the building and furnishings they believed a church needed.

Three months later, on November 8, 1964, about forty people attended the first worship service in the old Pembroke Schoolhouse they had moved to our present lot. On December 6 they celebrated their first communion. And by June 27, they held the first baptism service for eight new members.

Already they were running out of space, especially Sunday School space! In February 1965 they moved another old schoolhouse, this time from Rosthern, to add on to the existing building. This began a long series of additions, new buildings, and renovations that stretch up until at least 2001.

During the next six years many hands pitched in, doing what they could to keep the church thriving. Weddings and growing children kept the church active, with Sunday School classes, adult and children’s choirs, a slate of evening services, Christian Endeavor meetings, and Deeper Life meetings.

But there was also controversy about how young people should behave. The young people’s new studies and book groups and unfamiliar folk tunes caused a painful dispute in 1970. Yet somehow through this experience, WMC was marked with a longterm commitment to young people in our congregation and community.

In these months Rev Pauls resigned. By the end of 1971, Rev Ben Fast was called to carry on the pastoral work in the congregation. His term came to an end at the end of 1975.

Rev Dick Thiessen began his tenure quite early in 1976. His first mention in the church records describe him as a “simple, sincere, evangelical, and enthusiastic” man. 

During the next years, WMC felt increasingly cramped in our building. Eventually we decided it was time to build a new building. This project drew on the strengths of many in our church family as people gave generously of their finances, their time, and their skills. Rev Thiessen saw us through to the dedication of the new building in 1979 before he stepped down from ministry at WMC.

In 1980 we welcomed Pastor Norm Janzen into the pastor’s role. Pastor Norm’s early years marked the beginning of many of WMC’s most cherished programs. We hired Tim Ryan as our first youth minister and intern in 1982. Sunday School was running strong. We also reached out to our neighbors with marriage seminars and support for the MCC thrift store and the Mennonite care home.

But during these same years, division was growing in the church. A series of heated debates led to elders resigning and members leaving. Even while our youth ministry boomed under the leadership of Leighton Erickson and Ed and Ruth Koop, a church split was brewing among the adults.

Pastor Norm and other leaders gave time to many extra meetings. Still tensions sprang up over everything from changing the church’s name to whether women should be able to lead worship.

Still there were many points of light. WMC’s clubs program began the first of two strong decades. We bought a church bus. Happy Tots Preschool began to rent out our weekday basement space.

Finally, right at the beginning of 1988, things reached a tipping point. Pastor Norm submitted his resignation, and the church entered a time of mourning for the division that had grown within it.

In this mess of bitter and broken feelings God worked redemption. God is good.

Pastor Abe Regier came to Warman Mennonite Church as interim minister. Pastor Abe was a man with strength and tenderness. He led WMC in not only learning to forgive but also the more difficult work of asking for forgiveness. He gave us some clear goals that have helped us become a more forgiving congregation. God redeemed our division and brought full reconciliation.

During these years David Buhler and Rev Pauls served us as lay ministers. In 1993 we called Pastor Bob Jones, our first non-Mennonite-background minister.

We called Henry Block in the final months of 1994, and he was installed as minister in March 1995. Pastor Block and his wife Gladys had the longest term serving WMC so far: eleven years. In many ways, Warman Mennonite Church became the church it is today during these years.

Much energy continued to be given to children's and youth ministry. But WMC also began to recognize the needs of our aging members. A long conversation started in the early 1990s regarding making our building fully accessible. We decided to build an addition with an elevator in 2000. The new addition was dedicated in May 2001. This addition now houses the current pastor’s office, and the elevator keeps our doors open to everyone, whatever their mobility.

WMC became more engaged with MCC, MDS, and other groups. We sponsored a refugee family from Liberia in 1996 with MCC’s assistance, and people from our church volunteered with MDS in Idaho and in our local area after the 1996 plough wind.

During these years our denomination, General Conference, began its transition to its current bi-national structure (Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite Church USA). This change caused a lot of heartache in WMC as folks worried about what sort of theology and moral positions the new structure would represent. Members left, other resigned. Pastor Block, a morning prayer group, and the Board led WMC through this tricky passage. They honestly and directly confronted false rumor and presented truth. This was another moment of God’s active redemption of conflict.

WMC also benefited from the long youth ministries of Duane and Tanja Funk and, later, Jackie Epp. These leaders organized thriving youth programs.

In September 2005 Pastor Block retired. With the help of the MCSask conference minister, he led WMC through a purposeful search and introduction to our new minister. By September, Jay Hinds and his wife Colleen were prepared to take on the pastoral role.

This was a time of excitement as our town was growing and so was our congregation. It seemed young families couldn’t move to Warman fast enough. Our congregation began to hold young family potlucks once a month. We even bough a new computer, a projector, and drums for the worship service. 

Change seemed to be the theme of these years as our congregation sought new life. Leaders changed as well. Shane & Leila Edmonds came as youth leaders in 2006, and other new faces stepped into leadership. WMC was trying to connect with our changing town. We held community barbecues and even started a community garden.

In all this change, Pastor Jay and the congregation wrestled the questions, “Who are we? Who are we becoming? Who is Warman Mennonite Church?” At the end of 2010, Pastor Jay and WMC parted ways over different ways of answering these questions.

The following year homegrown congregational leaders did an incredible job looking after the church’s pastoral needs. This was another redemptive moment. God took the broken pieces of our difficulty and used them to help us grow more like Christ. We learned to trust God in new ways and to trust the gifts God’s given us.

At the end of 2011, Bernie Wiebe came on a six month term as interim pastor. He ended up staying ten. Pastor Bernie brought wisdom, kindness, and perspective. He gently healed many hurting hearts.

In May 2012, Josh Wallace came to candidate for the pastoral position at Warman Mennonite Church. The church extended a call to him in July, and he accepted that call. Josh received the gift of more than a month’s training with Pastor Bernie because of an overlap between his start and the end of Bernie’s term. Josh encouraged us to have a new outlook on what it means to be a missional church. In January 2020, after 6 1/2 years, God is lead them to church plant in Saskatoon in the University area.

Chris Friesen accepted a 6 month part-time interim pastor position in February 2020. 

In June 2021, Len Rempel came as pastor of both the Warman congregation and Pleasant Point Mennonite (south of Saskatoon).  He alternates Sundays between the two congregations.  On Sundays when Len is at Pleasant Point we either have lay speakers from within the congregation or guest speakers.

God is good. God’s love endures forever. God redeems us. 

This is our story. This is how we know God is good.


(adapted from 08 Nov 2014 50th Anniversary Presentation)