By Jim Coggins

AS ONE of Canada’s prominent church leaders retires, he has released a devotional book that reflects his own spiritual life.

Vern Heidebrecht is now pastor emeritus of Northview Community Church in Abbotsford. About the time he stepped down as senior pastor of Northview in 2003, Heidebrecht began writing Hearing God’s Voice (David C. Cook, 2007, $10). In one sense, it is a book which has taken more than 25 years to write.

Heidebrecht recalled being struck by the impact martyred missionary Jim Elliot had at age 29,  because of something in his diary: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

“I was moved that someone could write such a profound statement,” Heidebrecht said.        

“I began noticing that people who made a difference journalled. They wrote things down, they reflected on things, they meditated. So I began that practice 26 years ago.”

After five years, he said, “I began to realize that God not only wants us to speak to him. He wants to speak to us.”

Heidebrecht began writing down “what I heard God saying to me. That was a whole new level of intimacy and delight, and knowing the Lord.  John chapter 10 says, ‘My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me. I call them by name, and they recognize my voice.’

“I asked myself: Did I recognize his voice? Did I respond? Did I know how to have a two-way conversation with God? This book basically is a reflection of how I got to where I am today, and an inspiration for other people to test it out for themselves.”

He said that, like the prophet Samuel, people often don’t realize at first that God is speaking to them; they need to be discipled to recognize the voice of God. The book explains seven keys to identifying God’s voice, and eight ways in which he speaks.

Heidebrecht has begun speaking in churches, presenting the message of the book. This is in spite of the fact that Parkinson’s disease, which forced him to cut back his pastoral ministry earlier than he would otherwise have intended, now afflicts him in a number of ways. In his case, it has attacked his mouth and throat. The pain often feels like he just had a root canal. He can also no longer stand for long periods, and preaches sitting on a stool. “I speak with certain limitations,” he observed, “but even those limitations become communicative assets if you remain vulnerable.”

Heidebrecht spent 25 years in the U.S. earning three degrees and pastoring three churches before returning to Abbotsford in 1988 to become senior pastor of Northview. The Mennonite Brethren (MB) congregation then had about 350 people. It grew to be the largest church in Canada at one point, with attendance of almost 4,000. Attendance is now about 3,000.

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Heidebrecht also served on the board of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) and was chair of the Pastors’ Council, a group of senior pastors of ‘megachurches’ across Canada, who would meet from time to time with Canadian political leaders.

Brian Stiller, president of Tyndale University College and Seminary, said Heidebrecht came back to Canada at a time when much of the Canadian church was torn “between a staid orthodoxy, and an emerging generation not enamoured with the old forms.”

This was the era when Bill Hybels’ Illinois-based Willow Creek Church was starting to influence the Canadian church in a big way.  Stiller said, “While some Willow Creek replicas floundered and others blew up, Vern was very wise. He was not taken up with the techniques of the new approach, but he understood the impulse. He indigenized the idea of seeker sensitivity . . . For Vern, it was not a matter of orthodoxy; that was not up for grabs. But it was centred in a pastoral heart that sought to speak into the hearts of people.”

Heidebrecht was offered leadership positions in a number of denominational and parachurch agencies over the years, but never accepted any of them. “The reason I said no is because I’m a pastor,” he said. “I love encouraging people. I love teaching the Word. I genuinely enjoy being a pastor. That’s my gift.”

Although he has pastored large churches, Heidebrecht has never seen himself as an administrator. “I enjoyed the front end, creating vision; but I always needed to have someone for the back end, to make sure that what we planned was actually carried out. I have had excellent executive pastors, administrative pastors who would make it happen.”

Although all of the ministries he has been involved in seem to have been very successful, Heidebrecht says, “I’ve had my share of crises.       If there aren’t crises, you’re not working with the issues.”

Asked what he has learned about ministry, he said: “You’ve got to have a call. If it’s just a job, the demands are too much.”

Second, he said, “You have to have joy. When I was a senior pastor, I could hardly wait until the next week, to prepare the next sermon.”

Third, Heidebrecht said, “You have to be vulnerable about your weaknesses. When I think of the greatest difficulties we have had as a church, coming through them with vulnerability actually caused a greater harmony in the final analysis.”

Ike Bergen was conference minister for both the Canadian and B.C. Conferences of MB Churches. He described Heidebrecht as “a man of the Word and a man of prayer” – and as “a team player, an equipper, and a cheerleader. When he’s with you, you’re his world. He takes an interest in you. Anybody who walks into his office gets prayed for.”

Bergen said Heidebrecht was loyal to the Mennonite Brethren denomination and its theology, “but his family was much bigger than that. He was as inclusive as God is. Great leaders are also great followers. Vern listens to God.”

September 2007