Hi Everyone!

Welcome to my site! I hope you find something here that draws you into the happy mystery of Christ and opens your imagination to what life as a pilgrim can be.

Layton Friesen

My Latest

Who Wants a Sweaty God? (Part 1)

(The 2026 Crop of Timothy Seed at Sugar Creek, MB) When I was a teenager, I broke a girl’s leg. At a fun Sunday ball game, she was the pitcher, I the batter, and I drove the ball into her shin. Not proud of that. But what I remember most is what happened several days later. In our youth baptism class. our pastor, Andrew Plett, suggested we all gather round and pray for her. I have the vivid memory of her running out of the church healed, and I was greatly relieved. That w

Layton Friesen

If the Early Church was 'Non-Denom' we'd have no Bible

(A bridge at St. John's Abbey, Minnesota, 2026) Has "church" has been reduced to "congregation" for us? The New Testament does not know about any congregation that is self-sufficient, making its own doctrinal decisions, authorizing its own leaders, and setting its own mission and vision. That congregation did not exist in the first century. This is why we have the New Testament. These books were not just assorted writings published by various authors hoping people would

Layton Friesen

The Fun of Words and the Curse of Acronyms

A responsible person would launch a blog like this here Sugar Creek Theology by tackling a real catastrophe like AI-driven human extinction. But I begin by admitting I’m a one-man society for the abolition of acronyms. Yes, those little blights like GPA, EMMC, GDP, USA, SBC, EFC, CCCC, MCC, BLO, ABHE, CHEC and DGR littering our language that stand in when we no longer have patience for the names. Who has time to keep saying Canadian Council of Christian Charities all day long

Layton Friesen

"This is what I see and what troubles me… Nature presents to me nothing which is not matter of doubt and concern. If I saw nothing there which revealed a Divinity, I would come to a negative conclusion; if I saw everywhere the signs of a Creator, I would remain peacefully in faith. But, seeing too much to deny and too little to be sure, I am in a state to be pitied; wherefore I have a hundred time wished that if a God maintains nature, she should testify to Him unequivocally… that she should say everything or nothing, that I might see which cause I ought to follow…"
Blaise Pascal, PENSÉES #229

About Me

I am Layton Friesen and I work as academic dean and professor of theology, ethics and history at Steinbach Bible College. In my former life, I pastored for 19 years in the Evangelical Mennonite Conference in Canada. I am wonderfully married to Glenda, and have two adult children and one daughter-in-law. I live in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

In my former former life I was raised on a remote peat moss and mosquito farm called Sugar Creek, on the northern edge of farmable land in Manitoba, past Riverton. My parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and a whole church (the Mennville EMC) were rugged Christians who took no bull and loved me into faith.

SUGAR CREEK THEOLOGY

EVANGELICAL. MENNONITE. CATHOLIC.

Hi Everyone!

My Latest

Who Wants a Sweaty God? (Part 1)

If the Early Church was 'Non-Denom' we'd have no Bible

The Fun of Words and the Curse of Acronyms

A QUOTE FROM MY READING...

About Me

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