It's been ten years since Dr. John Neufeld joined Back to the Bible Canada as the organization’s Bible teacher. This coming Saturday night, in celebration of the anniversary, the ministry will be hosting a special celebratory event at Winkler EMMC.
Neufeld says he now "sees God" in the opportunity to join the group ten years ago, but at the time it felt accidental. When the call came, he was teaching at a Bible college in Germany while taking a break after 35 years of pastoral ministry.
"In many ways, I was exhausted and I was trying to figure out what my next steps would be," shared Dr. Neufeld on how he came to be in Germany when Back to the Bible Canada's Ben Lowell called him about the opportunity. "He said, 'Look, I need an answer really quickly,' and the the Bible college in Germany had said, 'Look, do you want to stay here?' And I thought, well, maybe I do. So, connecting with my wife back in Canada, I said I just don't have a clear calling, and her advice to me at the time was why don't you take the Back to the Bible thing until you figure out what God wants you to do. That's really how I came."
Building on a decades long legacy of Bible teaching
Dr. Neufeld took on the role of Bible teacher for Back to the Bible Canada following Woodrow Kroll who was part of the radio ministry from 1990 to 2013. Back to the Bible was started in 1939 on a single radio station in Lincoln, Nebraska by Theodore Epp.
"It's a great legacy, and I don't know to what extent I really considered it," he said. "Again, speaking about my wife, as a little girl she would get Back to the Bible material to fill out for kids and mail that stuff in. She had very clear memories of that. I didn't have that kind of an interaction with it. For her it seemed (joining the ministry) like was a bigger deal than it seemed for me."
He also reflected on how the ministry was in the midst of a challenging time when he joined.
"I must also say that coming on at that time, Back to the Bible was kind of on its knees," he explained. "Everyone said to me, 'You know, my grandma used to listen to that,' and I thought, well, so I'm gonna speak to the remaining grandmas that are still alive. It didn't seem like it was that significant to me back then, of course I didn't know."
Traditional Bible teaching has remained central
Over the decades, the ministry has made it a point to stick with traditional Bible teaching, or expositional verse by verse teaching, according to Dr. Neufeld.
"We do know that from the very foundations of the Christian church, from the very beginning when Paul instructs Timothy 'Preach the Word', everything we know about the early church sermons were expositional. Expositional sermons continue to be the focus of the church for at least its first 300 years and probably longer. Eventually, because of the growth of Romanism and because of the growth of a liturgical style, eventually it began to lapse. With the Reformation, expositional preaching again was recovered. All of the Reformation preachers were expositional. It's been my philosophy of ministry. That's all I've ever done for the 35 years of pastoral ministry that I've done. So in that sense it wasn't a stretch for me to try and figure out how do I grab a hold of this? That's the only thing I've ever believed in."
Celebrating 10 years of Bible teaching June 7th in Winkler
Saturday night's free and open to all celebration will include a Bible teaching with Dr. John Neufeld, as well as a musical performance from special guests Shane and Angela Wiebe.
"Southern Manitoba is special," stated Dr. Neufeld. "In those days in which Back to the Bible was on its knees and really would it survive, I still think the only reason it did survive is because of the faithfulness of the giving that came primarily from Southern Manitoba. I've often spoken to people in your neck of the woods and said, 'What is it about Back to the Bible that you continue to give?' The more I've spent time in Southern Manitoba, I've come to realize there is a deep bedrock of faithfulness there, which is really quite astounding. If I look at the country as a whole, and I've traveled the entire nation, I just find there's something unique about what has occurred there, and what has been sustained there. I'm not sure I understand how it came to be, but it has come to be. For my part, every time we go to Southern Manitoba, I just feel like I owe this debt of gratefulness, not only because they sustained it, but because of the support I still feel there."
The 10th anniversary event is being held at Winkler EMMC starting at 7pm. It is free to attend and open to all.