September 28th, 2020

Meet our Table Talk guest speakers: Sheila Klassen-Wiebe

Get to know the folks who will be leading discussion at our study conference in October

Sheila Klassen-Wiebe will lead a Bible study during Table Talk 2020: Does the Church still have legs?, Mennonite Church Canada's study conference on Oct. 24. Klassen-Wiebe is associate professor of New Testament at Canadian Mennonite University.

Briefly describe your academic journey and interests.

I fell in love with teaching the Bible to young adults when my husband and I shared an interim teaching position at Elim Bible Institute in Altona, Man., many years ago. I had attended Canadian Mennonite Bible College and the University of Manitoba before that but then continued my education at Associated (now Anabaptist) Mennonite Biblical Seminary (M.Div.) and Union Theological Seminary in Virginia (Ph.D.). I have been teaching students the Bible at Canadian Mennonite University since 1993. My primary areas of study and teaching have been Jesus and the Gospels, but I have recently enjoyed expanding my research interests with my work on the Believers Church Bible Commentary on the letter of James.

'I interact daily with students who are passionate about the church, who are unchurched, who are bored or impatient with the church, who want to set the church on fire and who love the church. They are “the life of the church” present and future.'

What is most compelling to you about how your work intersects with the life of the church at this moment in time?

I interact daily with students who are passionate about the church, who are unchurched, who are bored or impatient with the church, who want to set the church on fire and who love the church. They are “the life of the church” present and future. How can we together discern what the Bible has to say to the church in this place and time? My work on the commentary on James challenges the church to live out its faith and to embody in new ways the teachings of Jesus reflected in the letter.

In your specific topic for this conference ( the "Parable of the Feast" in the New Testament), what is the most challenging truth or theme for churches to wrestle with? What is the most hopeful or encouraging?

The most hopeful and encouraging thing is that God is giving a fantastic party and we’re invited! The most challenging things are that we need to expand the table to include people not like us and that we need to be very, very careful not to let our preoccupation with material well-being distract us from heeding Jesus’ invitation.

Do you think the church still has legs?

Yes, I definitely think the church still has legs. It has legs because it is the body of Christ, and Jesus has given us legs. But I think those legs might need to learn how to dance in some new ways. Or maybe the church just needs to hold still for a bit and pay attention to the feast that’s on the table. Or maybe we need to pay closer attention to Jesus saying, “get up and walk.”

Register for Table Talk 2020 at mennonitechurch.ca/tabletalk2020.