pastoral elder

​J Janzen has been a pastoral elder at Highland since January 2008. He helps to facilitate weekly worship, teaching, and caregiving.
He has worked as a radio producer, been the editor of two magazines, and served as an instructor at Columbia Bible College (www.columbiabc.edu) and Canadian Mennonite University’s Outtatown program (www.outtatown.ca).​

J earned undergraduate degrees from both the University of Winnipeg and Concord College. He holds a Master of Christian Studies degree from Regent College. His thesis, “A Complicated Peace: The Problem of Passivism in Canadian Anabaptist-Mennonite Peacemaking”, explored ways in which various perspectives on violence, force, pacifism, nonresistance, and love have undermined Canadian Mennonites’ efforts at peacemaking.
When J isn’t doing pastor stuff, he’s likely reading or exploring the great outdoors with his wife and four children.
To contact J, you can email him at j.janzen@highlandcommunitychurch.ca.

Board of elders

To contact the Elders, you can email them at elders@highlandcommunitychurch.ca.

• Stephanie
• Audrey
• Jim
• Steven

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Stephanie Jantzen

​I was born and raised in Montreal. We were anglophones who belonged to a very conservative Plymouth Brethren assembly. A younger me would tell you all the negative parts of that story. The 40-year-old me is grateful for the good parts: kneeling to invite Jesus to be my Saviour when I was about four, my grandpa baptizing me in a lake, learning the Bible backwards and forwards, the experience of deep and abiding fellowship, watching all kinds of lay leaders

(always men, of course) share in the teaching, preaching, and leadership of the church, which had no paid pastors or staff.

After a brief stint as a biochemist, I moved across Canada in 2001 to pursue grad studies at ACTS Seminaries in Langley. For the next four years, I worked my way through my Master of Divinity and interned at Uptown Church, a little congregation in White Rock. After I graduated, I stayed on as half-time associate pastor for nine rich years.

Then I met and married Michael, and became stepmom to his two young sons,  Caleb and Ben, who were 6 and 4 at the time. Shortly after that we moved to Abbotsford to be closer to them. Our family is now complete with four boys - Caleb (14), Ben (12), Isaac (7) and Matthew (4). There is much mayhem and very little pink at our house!

Weekdays now find me working full-time as Marketing & Communications Manager at Columbia Bible College, a role I love for the opportunity to use strategic thinking and creative storytelling to help young adults consider Christian higher education.
​
Michael and I found our way to Highland around four years ago. If my childhood church was a tight-knit circle of people huddled inward, Highland is to me a circle of people, shoulder to shoulder, facing outward with welcoming smiles. We’re far from perfect, of course. But there’s a holy balance here, of striving to be the body of Christ - both lovingly interdependent as a community and redemptively active in the world around us. I love how we all minister God’s grace and truth to each other - inspiring, supporting, seeking, spurring each other on to love and good deeds. It’s a privilege for me to serve as an elder, as we learn together how to follow the way of Jesus.

Audrey Hoehn

​I was raised in a General Conference Mennonite home by my parents, Reinhard and Gerry Epp. We moved around a lot when I was young because of my dad’s work. Our main stability, no matter where we lived was always our church community. This was very important to my parents, and as a result, became a very important part of my life. I am grateful for the good things that were instilled in me --- faith, simplicity, the importance of community --- just to name a few. These things are held fast by a deep respect for my Mennonite heritage and faith that enabled my grandparents to endure some very difficult circumstances.

My family consists of my wonderfully supportive husband, Art, of 37 years. We have two married daughters, a son, four grandsons and one granddaughter.  I love being a Gramma as well as reading, traveling, enjoying great coffee and food with family and friends.  Presently, along with my work for SoulStream, I offer spiritual direction on a part time basis.  I have called Highland my church since 2007.  The friends I have made here at Highland have taught me so much about acceptance, valuing one another, and I have been gifted by their vulnerability, listening ears, caring and so much grace. My hope for my life and particularly as part of Highland community, is to give back to this community who has so generously given to me.

You can often find me at Cafe Amarti sharing a cup of coffee with friends or family! Please join me sometime!

“To reveal someone’s beauty is to reveal their value by giving them time, attention, and tenderness.
To love is not just to do something for them but to reveal to them their own uniqueness,
to tell them that they are special and worthy of attention.” 
― Jean Vanier, Becoming Human

Jim Van Meer

"​Dee and I began to attend Highland early in 1985 with our year old son, Joel.  Now our daughter Claire (born in 1986), her husband Nick, and their two sons James and Max attend with us. At Highland I’ve taught Sunday School, been the treasurer, a member of the board of management and I was an elder previously.
 
I’m retired after a 38 year career as an elementary educator in the Abbotsford School District.  I enjoy being a Grandpa, officiating sports in the community (volleyball, basketball and baseball), reading, gardening and enjoying this community and this province." ~ Jim Van Meer

Steven Dueck

​Hello Highlanders! I grew up on a dairy farm in Greendale where I lived for the first half of my life. Many of my extended family lived close by and were a big part of my life. At the very least, I would see them every week at church where we attended Greendale MB. I started going to MEI for high school in grade 8 where I spent most of my after-school time playing basketball. I then pursued teaching as a career by first taking math and physics at UFV and finishing with my B Ed at UBC. After being a teacher on call for a few years I began teaching in the school at Matsqui Institution, a federal prison for men, where I am currently working. 
 
My wife, Kari, and I were in the same grade at MEI and began going steady in grade 11. We drifted apart for a few years after high school but when we reconnected as 23-year-olds, the engagement and wedding came quickly after. A couple years later, Ruthie was born soon to be followed by Olive and then Solomon. Our house often has someone listening to or playing music and you can always find someone willing to play a game. When we are not at home you can usually find us in the ferry lineup or on Mayne Island collecting sea glass and catching crabs.
 
Along with my family, we have felt loved and strongly connected to the community here at Highland since we began attending in late 2018. We are drawn to the way all voices are given a platform and that multiple modes of worship are used throughout the year. I am committed to the Anabaptist ideals of following what Jesus said, loving our enemies, having a high view of scripture, and that through the community is how we hear from the Holy Spirit. I feel that at Highland, these ideals are valued and seen as worth pursuing.