"In a good place now." Five years later, Artisan Church moderator Peter Mogan reflects on leaving the MB Conference

2026 is the 5th anniversary of when over 450 Canadian MBs from signed an open letter asking the Canadian Conference of MB Churches to discuss the issue of LGBTQ+ welcome and affirmation. The Conference said no. Since that time, seven MB congregations have left or been expelled from the Conference for becoming welcoming and affirming of LGBTQ+ people—as reported by this blog. I paused the blog in 2024, after my church at the time, River East, was expelled. Five years later, I decided to check in with those congregations to hear their reflections and see how things are going. 

Artisan Church in Vancouver was the first to leave the MB Conference, in 2021, which they did voluntarily. Peter Mogan was moderator of the church at the time. I talked to him recently to get his thoughts on that experience, and how the Church is doing now. 

When Artisan came out as taking what it called its “third way” posture regarding same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ inclusion through its Milestone Statement, the congregation did not divide and fall apart—as some had warned would happen. 

“We lost maybe five percent,” he said, noting most just quietly left. 

It happened during Covid, he said, adding that keeping track of who was there and who wasn’t was hard due to restrictions on gathering.

Since making that decision, the church “has prospered,” Mogan said. “We’ve substantially grown.” 

Today, attendance today is around 200-250 people with about 400 in total calling Artisan home, he says. 

That includes maybe a dozen same-sex couples, along with other members of the LGBTQ+ community. 

Along with them, the church attracted a group they hadn’t expected, Mogan says: Parents of LGBTQ+ and trans children looking for a home where they could be accepted and not judged. 

Although Artisan is known in MB circles for its pioneering work in the Conference on LGBTQ+ affirmation, Mogan says the church is about more than that—and always has been. 

“We don’t want to be defined by our posture on same sex relationships,” he says. “Our primary focus is ‘to join God in the renewal of all things’ which we do through community, healing and imagination. Our Milestone Statement has led us to lean into third way thinking and practice.” 

Today, Artisan is independent and a member of the Jesus Collective, a network of churches and ministry leaders that provides resources and other support for leaders and communities across North America who seek to be Jesus-centered. 

“I think we have found the right posture,” Mogan said, adding the Church has retained its Anabaptist roots and theology. 

Looking ahead, Mogan hopes that Artisan will host conversations on challenging topics that are often divisive in the Church. “We want to create safe places for that,” he says. 

Conversations like that were met with disapproval by the BCMB Conference before they left, he says. “They did not want us to do that.” 

The Church is "in a good place now . . . we are healthy in every way church health can be measured,” Mogan says. “We are sad about having to leave the MB Conference. That was never our goal.”

Nelson Boschman was pastor at Artisan, which he co-founded in 2009, when it left the MB Conference in 2021. Click here to read his thoughts, five years later.