Prayers of gratitude and intercession

Power in Church Leadership: Exploring our shared commitment to doing church together

As a global communion of Anabaptist-related churches, we share a common commitment to doing church together. We also acknowledge that the church needs leaders who take responsibility for guiding and shepherding the flock. Yet we know that in our diverse contexts of church leadership, power gets exercised in many different ways. In this issue of Courier/Correo/Courrier, writers from across our fellowship discuss the different ways in which Anabaptists approach issues of power in church leadership – the struggles and challenges, as well as the blessings and benefits.

Beyond Domination and Control

Periodically, my shoulder is tapped to provide insight for local leaders, churches and Christian organizations about how to be more faithful in becoming a diverse and reconciled body as God intends. A few years ago, I would have responded by focusing my energies on reaffirming the scriptural vision of the New Testament Christian community, in which every barrier has been broken down, first among Jews and Gentiles, and therefore among every social barrier that exists, including our current racial divisions. I might have started by pointing out how Paul confronted Peter on this issue, or how Scripture portrays the radical implications of the Church as an ethnically diverse new society in which the old relational identities and networks are reconfigured because of the work of Jesus, and that the wall that divided us has been torn down, in and through God in Jesus Christ.

Theologically, I still believe this to be the case. Yet that application seems to miss some of the specific historical and current forces at work in most American Churches – and these forces are very rarely addressed.

Is it possible that our primary problem isn’t merely about cultural and ethnic division and difference in the United States? Is it possible that the real issue revolves around how power has been deployed historically among Christians in the church and within the larger society?

In North America, the church has never thoroughly repented of (or turned away from) the racial domination that formed its practices and theology since the seventeenth century. Certainly slavery has been formally abolished, and as a practice thereafter has received a devastating stigma and a negative response from mainstream society at the very mention of the word. It takes no courage to look back at American (Christian) slave history from 1619-1865 A.D., while denouncing it as inconsistent with the way of Jesus.

However, within most Christian communities, it continues to take significant conviction for those that gather under the Lordship of Jesus in the United States to speak patiently and truthfully in vulnerable conversation concerning the practices of white dominance. To the present day these practices have continued to be employed in and by the church, scandalizing its witness in the world. Slavery is gone, but the logics of racial reasoning that produced white dominance and control within Christian gatherings (and beyond its walls) have remained intact.

We must ask why the North American church – including Anabaptism – has lacked the ability to understand the fact that racism is significantly a theology and discipleship concern, troubled by its deployment of power in the church and unconsciously justified through a racial gaze.

Many Christian gatherings would love to have “diverse” communities, manifesting the reconciliation that God has accomplished in Jesus Christ. However, few churches have been willing to let go of the protected and concentrated power and control that run their communities. Essentially, when “diverse” people enter into these “welcoming” communities, they must convert theologically, culturally and socially to the set standards. As is often said, “The White way is the right way.” These standards are not pure Christian values untouched by societal and cultural norms. Nonetheless, they are often utilized and justified as such.

Instead of practicing kenosis (Philemon 2:5-11), a self-emptying of power and entering into mutual vulnerability with racialized and oppressed Christians, in which an intimate encounter of mutual transformation can occur, the dominating and controlling group postures over others in dominance. The temptation has always been to error on holding the necessary power and control over racial minorities, which negates the possibility of the authentic reconciliation so often desired. Reconciliation is more than diverse bodies sharing space every Sunday morning. Where domination and “lording over” continues, no reconciliation has happened. When racial minorities that have historically been crushed and excluded by the practices of power within the church are not given a seat at the table, and when decision-making power is not vulnerably shared, no authentic reconciliation can happen. When the voice of the least powerful is not given priority, and the local body’s ears are not attuned to privileging their voice, the Kingdom of God is not reigning fully amongst us.

To not account for the power dynamics at work in the racialization of our American Anabaptist communities is to misdiagnose why we fail to move beyond a gridlocked pattern of racial conformity in our society, with no witness to our yielding to God’s power in the midst of our human weakness in this area. In our American Anabaptist communities, we need to move beyond domination and control toward self-emptying solidarity and mutuality.

The time has come to recalibrate our theology and practices so that we can more faithfully embody the way of Jesus in a racialized society. Our Anabaptist congregations are probably more prone than most to understand that we should not dominate or “lord over” others. Yet we need to actualize this theology in response to our white-dominated and -controlled churches and denominations.

What would be the result of Anabaptist bookshelves and pulpits not being dominated by white authors and speakers, but fully embracing and wrestling with the entire gifting of the church, especially those that have been historically dominated and excluded? How might our churches make visible God’s reign before a watching world if it were to creatively follow the lead of non-white prophetic Christian movements comprised of the vulnerable and defenseless of our day?

Could it be that our communal worship might be enriched by our daily solidarity and life together with people that have been systematically excluded racially? How might contemporary Anabaptism, which began in the sixteenth century as a visible gathering of disciples committed to following Jesus concretely as a predominately economically oppressed group, get renewed through a renouncing of white dominance, control and “lording over” others? How might it enter into vulnerable solidarity and mutuality with racially oppressed people? How might it seek the shalom and well being of those within and beyond our Christian communities?

Drew G. I. Hart (drewgihart.com/) is a self-identified black Anabaptist, MennoNerds blogger and former pastor at Harrisburg Brethren in Christ Church (Pennsylvania, USA). He is also a doctoral student whose research focuses on black theology and Anabaptism.

 

Exploring our shared commitment to doing church together

As a global communion of Anabaptist-related churches, we share a common commitment to doing church together. We also acknowledge that the church needs leaders who take responsibility for guiding and shepherding the flock. Yet we know that in our diverse contexts of church leadership, power gets exercised in many different ways. 

 

Not So With Us (Kyong-Jung Kim, South Korea)

Some may ask: why did these like-minded individuals have to leave their home churches and start a new church movement? While many issues caused the separation, one of the key issues – perhaps the most crucial factor – was their understanding of the very nature of church. For them, the church was not an institutionalized denomination which itself creates an inevitably unequal power structure. Instead, they envisioned the church as the body of Christ, in which power is equitably shared among sisters and brothers.

 

A Blessing or a Curse? (Doris Dube, Zimbabwe)

For this reason I have experienced as many leadership styles as the number of leaders who have ministered to me. From where I stand as a lay person, all leaders have power, and that power in leadership can either be positive or negative. The leaders – all of whom are fallible human beings – set the tone among those they lead by the way they wield their power.

 

Beyond Domination and Control (Drew G. I. Hart, USA)

We must ask why the North American church – including Anabaptism – has lacked the ability to understand the fact that racism is significantly a theology and discipleship concern, troubled by its deployment of power in the church and unconsciously justified through a racial gaze.

 

 

Like the Mennonites (and other Anabaptists) of every country around the world, Canadian Mennonites are rooted in their nation and affected by its history. In global terms Canada is a very large country, spreading 7,000 kilometers from the Atlantic to the Pacific to the Arctic. It is also one of the wealthiest nations in the world, with a strong public education and health support system. It is mostly English speaking, with a strong historical link to Great Britain, although it has a strong French-speaking section in Quebec. As a historic settler society – with farmer immigrants especially in Ontario and in western Canada – it also has a long history of encountering Aboriginal peoples, sometimes violently.

Given its bilingual base, Canada has historically tolerated minority cultures and, especially in the last third of the twentieth century, welcomed large numbers of immigrant newcomers from the Global South. Today, only two thirds of Canada’s 35 million people still identify as Christian (almost twice as many Catholics as Protestants). Eight million Canadians claim no religion at all; about a million identify as Muslim; another million with India-based faiths (as Hindus and Sikhs); and 300,000 each as Buddhists and Jews. 

The Mennonites – who are variously counted as between 127,000 (members of Mennonite churches in 2010) and 175,000 (self-identifying in Canada’s 2011 census) – constitute a small minority within Canada. They are also a very diverse group, with more than 20 denominations using the name “Mennonite.”

The Mennonite Church and the Mennonite Brethren

The largest two of these groups are the Mennonite Brethren (MB) and Mennonite Church (MC), with approximately 38,000 and 32,000 members respectively. These two are also among the most urbanized of Canadian Mennonites, noted in particular for attracting large groups of non-Mennonite Canadians, as well as Chinese and Hispanic Latin American immigrants.

The history of the MB congregations stems from 1860 in Russia, when they broke from the mainline Mennonites, emphasizing a personal faith and distinguished by immersion baptism. The first MB congregation in Canada was established in1888 as a mission outpost, but a Canadian MB conference remained small until 1923 when immigrants fleeing Communism in the Soviet Union began arriving in Canada. 

The history of the MC congregations is more complex, and consists of the 1999 amalgamation of two denominations popularly referred to as the “General Conference” (GC) and “(Old) Mennonite” (OM) denominations. The OMs formed after the arrival of Mennonites in Upper Canada (later Ontario) from Pennsylvania, first in 1786 but in much larger numbers after 1800.

Although the start of the North American GC in 1860 included an Ontario congregation, a permanent GC presence in Canada began with the founding of the Conference of Mennonites in Canada in 1903, and was further boosted with the immigration of Mennonites from the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1940s. Given their diversity, the MC congregations emphasize unity and fellowship within diversity, as well as social justice programs, especially linked to Mennonite Central Committee (MCC).

Other Anabaptist-Mennonite groups in Canada

Several medium-sized denominations, with between 4,000 and 6,000 members, emphasize an amalgam of Anabaptism and evangelical Protestantism. The Brethren in Christ Church stems from the late eighteenth-century migrations of Swiss-South German Mennonites from the United States to Upper Canada. The Evangelical Mennonite Conference (EMC) and Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference (EMMC) are both descendant groups of the Dutch-Russian migration of the 1870s, and both shaped by mid-twentieth-century evangelicalism. These groups are noted for both their overseas missions and their support for MCC.

Perhaps surprisingly, 17 Mennonite denominations in Canada – constituting more than 30,000 members – represent “plain” or “old order” groups. These groups rarely seek membership with Mennonite World Conference. They are typically distinguished by simple living, non-conformity and social separation, most apparent in plain clothing, including head coverings for women and long-sleeved, button-up shirts for men. About 20 percent of the most traditionalist of these “plain” people consist of so-called “Horse and Buggy” Mennonites.

Canada is also home to two evangelical conferences (formerly Mennonite Brethren in Christ and Evangelical Mennonite Brethren, now Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada and Fellowship of Evangelical Bible Churches respectively) that have dropped the name Mennonite. Canada also serves as a home for near-Mennonite groups such as the Hutterites and a small number of Amish. 

Mennonite institutions in Canada

As for Mennonites elsewhere, the Canadian community is strengthened by a wide range of institutions. In fact, it is quite possible to live in largely Mennonite contexts – especially in rural areas and in cities such as Kitchener-Waterloo (Ontario), Winnipeg (Manitoba), Saskatoon (Saskatchewan) and Abbotsford (British Columbia). Many Mennonite children attend private elementary or high schools. Youth find religious and general university education in numerous Anabaptist-Mennonite post-secondary institutions, most notably Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg, Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford and Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo. Young families can readily obtain loans from a dozen credit unions with significant Mennonite roots: the largest, with four billion dollars in assets, is the Steinbach Credit Union in Manitoba. Fire insurance is offered by several Mennonite-run companies; Mennonite Aid Union, in operation from 1866 to 2002, has been the most historical. Mennonites have even relied on tour packages, such as the Mennonite Heritage Cruise in past years, to organize their vacations, although “Mennoniting your way” has also been popular. 

In several cities, Mennonites can seek genealogical grounding at Mennonite archives or remember old times in one of several museums. Wills and bequests are often made through Mennonite Foundation of Canada. In addition, the elderly can find “Mennonite” seniors homes in numerous communities; in Abbotsford, Menno Terrace East, for example, consists of 95 suites on six floors, complete with a wellness center. Several communities feature funeral co-operative or private funeral homes owned by Mennonites.

Mennonites in Canada have increasingly focused on national institutions to support their mission. Ironically, as Canadian Mennonites have become more open to a wider world, they have also become more nation-centric, decoupling themselves from North American institutions. In 1963, for example, MCC Canada was established, distinct from MCC headquarters in Akron, Pennsylvania, USA, thus more able to provide a “unified voice for Canadian Mennonites.” In 1967, the Mennonite Historical Society of Canada was organized to cultivate a unified historical identity, especially with the three-volume Mennonites in Canada history series begun by Frank H. Epp. The 1999 continental amalgamation of the OM and GC bodies to form a unified Mennonite Church denomination carried within its very founding a new division, one along the Canada-USA border, thus birthing MC Canada alongside its United States counterpart. Similar developments describe the MB, EMC, Brethren in Christ and other conferences.

The creation of MCC Canada also allowed for the development of a surprisingly close relationship with provincial and federal governments. In 1975, for example, MCC Canada opened an advocacy office in Ottawa, seeking not only privileges from government but also an opportunity to shape public policy. Indeed, Canadian Mennonites became known for their openness to working with government agencies. The Canadian Foodgrains Bank, founded by MCC, took off in part because of matching funds from the federal government. Then, too, in Canada, an increasing number of Mennonite men and women served in the federal parliament and provincial legislatures.

Themes in Canadian Mennonitism

Over time a number of themes have come to characterize Canadian Mennonite identity. For instance, Canadian Mennonites have created links with Mennonites in other parts of the globe to build a strong global community. They have embraced binational organizations, such as MCC after 1920, Mennonite Disaster Service after 1951 and Mennonite Economic Development Associates after 1952. Historically, MB and MC churches have had close ties to North American overseas missions, especially directed to places in Congo, India and Central America.

Canadian missionaries of particular note include Susanna Plett, who inspired a generation of EMC missionaries when she left for Brazil without church support in 1942. Jacob Loewen of Abbotsford is perhaps the most recognized globally, an MB missiologist noted for ideas of critical self-analysis and indigenous leadership. Christian Peacemaker Teams have transformed the way Canadian Mennonite youth have considered issues of pacifism and nonviolence. Canadian churches have been strong supporters of Mennonite World Conference.

Canadian Mennonites also have learned to express themselves in new ways. Historically they have been singers, with Benjamin Eby producing the first Canadian hymnal in the 1830s and musicians such as Ben Horch of Winnipeg raising music to the level of community choirs and orchestras. They have also been writers, and their ranks include a number of nationally acclaimed authors; Rudy Wiebe’s 1962 Peace Shall Destroy Many is still heralded as a pioneering work. Then, too, “Mennonite” films have become popular: for example, And When They Shall Ask, recounting suffering in the Soviet Union, has attracted thousands of viewers. Finally, numerous web-based resources have arisen, including the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopaedia Online (GAMEO), begun as a project of the Mennonite Historical Society of Canada.

Perhaps the most distinctive feature of Canadian Mennonite history has been the story of migration. Seven specific stories of migration are key. The first three recount arrivals in the 1800s, with each group aiming to build exclusive frontier farm communities, all under the protection of the British monarch. These groups included Swiss-American Mennonites arriving in Upper Canada within a generation of the American Revolutionary War; Amish newcomers from Europe in the 1820s; and 8,000 Mennonites of Dutch descent arriving in Manitoba in the 1870s after Russia changed its military exemption laws.

The next two groups came in the twentieth century from war-torn Ukraine and Russia: 20,000 in the 1920s to take advantage of Canada’s relative openness to immigrants, and 8,000 mostly women-headed households after 1948.

The sixth and seventh groups are newcomers from the Global South. Many are Low German-speaking Latin Americans, the descendants of Mennonites who left Canada in the 1920s to avoid English assimilation. Most significant for changing old images of Euro-Canadian Mennonites are newcomers from the Global South who joined Mennonite churches upon arrival in Canada: they include Chin (Burmese), Chinese, Hmong, Korean, Hmong (Loatian), Punjabi (Indian and Pakistani), Spanish (Latin American) and Vietnamese newcomers, among others. Oftentimes these newcomers are refugees from civil war or poverty.    

Recent developments

In recent decades Canadian Mennonites have also become open to new forms of worship and church life. Although Janet Douglas Hall was much ahead of her time when she pastored a Mennonite Brethren in Christ church in Dornoch, Ontario, in 1886, she was a forerunner to women who have increasingly served as senior pastors, first in MC churches in the 1970s, and more recently in MB, EMC and Brethren in Christ congregations.

Some churches have embraced informal leadership, including multi-site house churches such as Pembina Fellowship in Morden, Manitoba, or those without a paid pastor, such as Fort Garry Mennonite Fellowship in Winnipeg. The Meeting House, a large Brethren in Christ congregation at Oakville, Ontario, is a “church for people who aren’t into church” and meets in movie theatres located in multiple locations that are linked by video connections. Other congregations, such as the Toronto United Mennonite Church, part of the MC denomination, are noted for “welcoming” members of the LGBT community.

Church planting has also been part of the recent story. The MB denomination in particular has experimented with different forms of robust church planting, notably establishing the Églises des frères Mennonites in Quebec. In past decades the GCs in Manitoba sought to reach out to and worship with Aboriginal communities, increasingly in ways that embraced the idea of Creator God.

Finally, many churches have dropped traditional hymnody for more upbeat choruses, aided with PowerPoint projection and live bands. Numerous churches, such as Bakerview MB Church in Abbotsford, however, have at the same time introduced liturgical services, reflecting a growing attraction among Mennonite youth for high-church traditions. 

Royden Loewen is chair in Mennonite studies and professor of history at the University of Winnipeg (Manitoba, Canada). He wishes to acknowledge the input of Marlene Epp, Bruce Guenther, Mary Ann Loewen and Hans Werner in the writing of this article.

Ministers and leaders attending a 1917 gathering of Mennonite Brethren in Christ in Kitchener, Ontario. Today, after several mergers and name changes, this group is known as the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada. Courtesy of Mennonite Archives of Ontario

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leaders of Hmong Mennonite Church (Kitchener, Ontario) in 1991, from left to right: Ge Yang, Toua Jang, Lee Xong, Tou Vang. Increased ethnic diversity has been one of several recent developements in the history of Canadian Anabaptists. Photo by Larry Boshart/Courtesy of Mennonite Archives of Ontario

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As part of the work of Mennonite Central Committee’s relief program, which provided food and material aid for disaster-stricken areas, Alice Snyder labels Christmas bundles for international distribution in 1954. Photo by David Hunsberger/Courtesy of Mennonite Archives of Ontario

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Updated 9 March 2022: photo removed.

Global Communion and Why It Matters: Exploring our shared commitment to being a worldwide family

As Mennonite World Conference, we share a commitment to being a worldwide communion (koinonia) of faith and life. Together, we seek to be a fellowship that transcends boundaries of nationality, race, class, gender and language. Yet because of our diversity, each MWC member church brings a distinct understanding of the importance of global communion to its participation and investment in MWC.

The April 2015 issue of Courier / Correo / Courrier seeks to discern the variety of reasons why Anabaptist communities from around the world come together to form MWC. In the articles that follow, writers reflect on the question: Why does my local or regional fellowship need a global communion?

A Glimpse of the Universal Church

I pastor the Mennonite congregation in the town of Enkenbach, near the city of Kaiserslautern in the Palatinate area in southwest Germany. Our church has 260 members and an average attendance of about 100 persons at a regular Sunday service.

The congregation was founded after World War II by Mennonite refugees from east and west Prussia (now Poland) who had to leave their homelands because of the war. (By contrast, other Mennonite congregations in the Palatinate area date their origin back to the 17th century, when Mennonite refugees seeking refuge from persecution migrated from Switzerland.) In Enkenbach, non-German young men serving in Europe through Mennonite Central Committee’s PAX program, a post-war relief effort, erected houses for Mennonite refugees here as a settlement, allowing our congregation to flourish. Today’s members are either refugees who came here at a young age or first generation “Palatinate” Germans.

Our congregation is one of the larger ones in Germany, much larger than the average Mennonite congregation in the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Mennonitischer Gemeinden conference (not counting the larger congregations from Russian-German background).

The local congregation plays a very important role in our German Mennonite tradition. Early Anabaptists emphasized the centrality of the local congregation, and this emphasis helped the movement survive in times of persecution. Throughout the years, though, this congregationalism has led to weaknesses, including a sometimes-too-strong sense of self-sufficiency. For example, many members of our congregation think of themselves not only Mennonites, but “Enkenbach Mennonites“ who are not so much interested in other Mennonite traditions. In the years of its origin our congregation had around 500 members and over the decades that large membership sustained many programs, making the congregation quite independent from other Mennonite groups. This has changed over the decades, due to declining membership numbers. Still, a real danger exists: the possibility that congregations will lose sight of one another, developing a mentality of “we are we and others do their own business.” 

Fortunately, many people in Germany – including many people in our congregation – have a vision for ecumenism. (This probably developed as a result of German history, which includes the major Protestant-Catholic split of the 16th- century Reformation era.) We value close cooperation with other denominations for a better witness to the world. In our town, which has Catholic and other Protestant (United Church) congregations, we have good fellowship. We have a sense of the unity of the Christian church.

At the same time, our congregation needs to realize that our Anabaptist-Mennonite family is larger that our local congregation. That expanded worldview comes through our involvement with Mennonite World Conference.

Involvement with MWC offers several tangible benefits. First, it helps to strengthen our common identity as Anabaptist-Mennonites. In our local congregation, we organized two small groups that read and studied the shared convictions of MWC, using Alfred Neufeld’s book What We Believe Together, a book from the Global Anabaptist-Mennonite Shelf of Literature, recommended by MWC. Currently, another small group reads another book from MWC’s bookshelf: Bernhard Ott’s God’s Shalom Project. Both books help us to “stay in conversation” with each other about our faith and practice as well as with the thinking and believing of the wider Anabaptist tradition. We read them not as prescriptive documents; instead, we desire to be part of a wider process of thinking and believing. We find these recommended books helpful.

In addition, involvement in MWC offers a reminder that the Anabaptist-Mennonite family has grown way beyond the ethnic German (Swiss or Prussian) cultures in which Anabaptism was first nurtured. For instance, we observe the annual World Fellowship Sunday (WFS) in our congregation, and as a result we regularly receive interesting information on the life of MWC brothers and sisters. Moreover, at every WFS observance we collect a special offering for MWC in addition to what we give through our conference for the MWC Fair Share. In 2012, when the MWC General Council met in Europe, we invited two guest speakers – women theologians/pastors from Japan and Democratic Republic of Congo – into our worship services. This was unique and gave us an important glimpse into the growth of the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition into a global, multicultural phenomenon. A year before, in 2011, we were fortunate to have MWC General Secretary César García visit our church to give a presentation on the work of MWC. His time with us also helped to show our people the reality of global Anabaptist faith.

Furthermore, we have been fortunate to host individuals from North America through the Intermenno Trainee Program, an exchange initiative that invites young people to live in Europe and gain firsthand experience with European culture and languages. Moreover, we have hosted Paraguayan volunteers who have served in our midst. Some have even stayed and got married here.

Beyond these ventures in the local congregation, a considerable number of our members who can afford to travel have attended MWC Assemblies over the decades, including the gatherings in India (1997), Zimbabwe (2003) and Paraguay (2009). In each instance our people have come back enriched and impressed, and have given reports on their experiences.

Surely the biblical understanding of the Church is more than just the local congregation. Christians from many tribes and nations are bound together by more than just local identity. From a biblical perspective, the Church is a communion of believers who transcend labels of nation, ethnicity and race. It is a universal (or catholic, in the truest sense of the word) body. To make this known and to help experience its truth at the local congregational level, we need MWC. Ultimately, MWC offers us a glimpse of the universal, even ecumenical, identity of the People of God.

Rainer W. Burkart is pastor of the Enkenbach Mennonite Church in Enkenbach, Germany. Beyond his local congregation, he has served on the MWC Executive Committee and Faith and Life Commission, and co-chaired the Lutheran World Federation/Mennonite World Conference International Study Commission (2005-2008), which laid the groundwork for an of reconciliation between Lutherans and Anabaptists.

 

 

Global Communion and Why It Matters: Exploring our shared commitment to being a worldwide family

As Mennonite World Conference, we share a commitment to being a worldwide communion (koinonia) of faith and life. Together, we seek to be a fellowship that transcends boundaries of nationality, race, class, gender and language. Yet because of our diversity, each MWC member church brings a distinct understanding of the importance of global communion to its participation and investment in MWC.

The April 2015 issue of Courier / Correo / Courrier seeks to discern the variety of reasons why Anabaptist communities from around the world come together to form MWC. In the articles that follow, writers reflect on the question: Why does my local or regional fellowship need a global communion?

The Interdependent Existence

Growing up, my late mother had a grass-thatched kitchen with an orundu – a small garden containing all sorts of vegetables – located behind the kitchen. Orundu would also serve as a “testing ground” where any new seed could be planted to verify its ability to germinate and mature. Having been tested, the new crop could then be planted in the larger puodho, or farm.

A well-maintained orundu is not sufficient for the family; yet puodho draws from orundu in many ways. During my childhood, the family was fed from orundu as we waited for crops to mature in puodho. Orundu was easier to tend as it was within proximity than puodho that was larger but not close to the homesteads and required greater effort to tend yet gave greater yields.

When thinking about the connection between the local congregation and the global church family, orudnu and puodho offer compelling symbols, offering clearly not only the necessity but also the essence of the global in relation to the local. Most importantly, the imagery speaks to the ways in which the global depends on the local, and vice versa – what I call the interdependent existence.

The terms “global” and “local” are inherently interdependent, particularly within the church as a community of believers brought together by faith in God. As a pastor and Mennonite World Conference regional representative, my spheres of orundu are twofold: the Eastleigh Fellowship Centre (EFC), a small Mennonite congregation in the eastern part of Nairobi, Kenya, and the Eastern African Mennonite community. My tasks are challenging, taking into account that both are voluntary roles. However, the beauty of fellowship in Jesus Christ and the interdependence of local and global fellowships supersedes all the challenges therein.

At the EFC congregation, for example, we worship through songs of praise, fellowship, visitations, teachings and Sunday school classes in a setting where the majority of people are predominantly Muslims of Somali origin. This context is not only challenging but, at times, heart-breaking. Although we appreciate the composition of our region, recognizing that all people are God’s creation, in faith issues we need the fellowship of the larger community – a global community that transcends our local area in which we are religious minorities, a community in which we connect with brothers and sisters in Christ from around the world. Our orundu stands to run dry unless we constantly draw courage, strength and comfort from God through the existence and strength of and encouragement from the larger community.

Our regional affiliations with the Eastern African Mennonite community facilitate our global connections. We share at the regional level so that we can better identify with the global community and participate effectively in it. Without the global community, the regional caucuses would have no meaning. They provide effective intermediaries between the local and the global. They are the glues that hold the global and the local firmly together. The Keyna Mennonite Church and Kanisa la Mennonite Tanzania (Mennonite Church of Tanzania) bishops, executive offices and various departments at national levels play pivotal roles in shepherding believers towards a common goal – being one body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27).

What are some of the benefits yielded by the connections between the local and the global?    

One benefit is harmony. Sociologists have identified the concept of “other” or “otherness” as a force that divides people. This otherness is not innate but constructed. People decide what is “different” and exclude them. This can be very destructive in the body of Christ. As believers, we share a oneness in Jesus Christ, and that should be our focus regardless of differences in geography, culture and race, or at times of economic imbalances and political crises. We should embark on deliberate efforts to deconstruct any forces of “otherness” within the church so that the “oppressed other” can find space among us Christians as being the “gracious other.” For example, EFC’s existence in harmony with the predominantly non-Christian community should not go unnoticed.

As a global church, let us stand with the struggling minorities in areas where the gospel is threatened. It is time that we re-examine the relationship between theology and economics. The global church should steer its objectives towards the well being of its members. This is definitely a huge responsibility but Jesus made it clear that it is not easy to enter the Kingdom of God (Matthew 18:3-4; Mark 9:47; Luke 18:24-25), yet we can do all things through Christ who enables us (Philemon 4:3).

Another benefit is identity. Having attended and participated in a number of MWC forums, I can attest that great effort is being put into cultivating a common identity. Formulation of theologies and theological terminologies that will instill unity rather than homogeneity is of paramount importance.

By participating in the global church fora, we are enabled and subsequently find the need to re-shape our social categories in order to enhance a common identity as the body of Christ. A common identity does not compel us to strive for homogeneity. Instead, it gives us room to rise above our comfort zones to a meaningful and worthy fellowship. We can meaningfully identify and attempt to positively reshape our social categories when we participate together as a global community.

Agreements, disagreements and negotiations are all healthy components in re-shaping our identity. We should not keep away from the fellowship in fear of these healthy conflicts, for doing so would be tantamount to closing doors to the very fellowship with God that we desire to cultivate. Ultimately, we adjust our behaviours and self-image based upon our interactions and our self-reflections about these interactions.

In conclusion, as we approach and continue to prepare for the next Mennonite World Conference Assembly this year, neither liberal, conservative nor middle-ground perspectives should linger in our minds. Instead, our watchword should be “fellowship of the Body of Christ.” We need both orundu and puodho, local and global. We need one another.

Rebecca Osiro is a pastor-theologian and the first woman ordained to ministry in the Kenya Mennonite Church. She is the MWC Eastern Africa regional representative and a member of the MWC Faith and Life Commission. In addition, she has represented MWC in the trilateral dialogue between Mennonites, Catholics and Lutherans.

 

Exploring our shared commitment to being a worldwide family

As Mennonite World Conference, we share a commitment to being a worldwide communion (koinonia) of faith and life. Together, we seek to be a fellowship that transcends boundaries of nationality, race, class, gender and language. Yet because of our diversity, each MWC member church brings a distinct understanding of the importance of global communion to its participation and investment in MWC.

 

Jesus with Skin On 

(Darrell Winger, Canada)

For Brethren in Christ (BIC) congregations in Canada, the Mennonite World Conference provides this embodiment of the important truth that we belong to a church family that spreads around the world. We know that followers of Jesus everywhere are made one through faith in him; however, we can experience this precious truth in a practical way since MWC puts “skin” on it for us. As MWC embodies the reality of our global fellowship in Christ, our BIC Canada congregations are strengthened in important ways.

 

A Glimpse of the Universal Church 

(Rainer W. Burkart, Germany)

At the same time, our congregation needs to realize that our Anabaptist-Mennonite family is larger that our local congregation. That expanded worldview comes through our involvement with Mennonite World Conference.

 

The Interdependent Existence 

(Rebecca Osiro, Kenya)

When thinking about the connection between the local congregation and the global church family, orudnu and puodho offer compelling symbols, offering clearly not only the necessity but also the essence of the global in relation to the local. Most importantly, the imagery speaks to the ways in which the global depends on the local, and vice versa – what I call the interdependent existence.

 

Strength in the Gathered 

(Cynthia Peacock, India)

Another goal – and perhaps the most important one – was to help each conference understand our global connectedness. We wanted them to understand that, through MWC, we are linked as brothers and sisters in Christ.

 

A context for Anabaptist witness

The United States was formed, in 1776, as the first modern republic. Its founders believed they were engaging in a pioneering political experiment and granted relatively generous freedom of conscience to diverse Christian groups. It was also a nation in which, until 1865, at least 12 of every 100 people were enslaved men and women of African descent. The USA is also shaped by a history of immigration so that today people from all parts of the globe call the United States home. It has a highly complex economy, renowned research universities, a tradition of civil liberties and an extraordinarily large and globally active military. All of these factors provide a context in which U.S. Christians – including Mennonites and other Anabaptists – live.

Like other countries, the USA is also a nation of national myths. There is, for example, the myth of the “melting pot,” by which many U.S. Americans believe that assimilation is inevitable or benign or both. Perhaps more important has been the myth of “individual transcendence,” a promise that people can leave all tradition behind and start over anew, that the future is better than the past and that new equals improved. Americans in the USA are much more apt to deal with discontent by leaving a product, group or situation behind and starting over again rather than sticking with something old and working to improve or adapt it. This faith has animated U.S. society, influencing even its churches. The United States has birthed an unrivaled number of denominations and “independent churches” across the theological spectrum.

Two broad groupings

One way to think about Anabaptists in the USA, in very broad strokes, is to consider two groupings: those Anabaptists who are fairly integrated into mainstream economic and education patterns, and those Anabaptists whose daily routines clearly set them apart from their neighbors. The first group would include most members of Mennonite Church USA, the U.S. Conference of Mennonite Brethren, the Brethren in Christ (BIC) in the U.S., the Conservative Mennonite Conference and others. (All those listed above are Mennonite World Conference member churches.) While these sisters and brothers generally strive to live their faith in ways that make a difference in their local contexts, those contexts are very often professional, middle class and urban or suburban. These Mennonites and BIC typically get their news from conventional media sources, own private automobiles, believe that doing well in school is central to their children’s economic future and assume that health care should be better than it was for their grandparents.

In contrast, the Old Order Amish – the largest Anabaptist group in the United States with almost 12,000 baptized members – as well as Old Order Mennonites and a collection of related groups generally do not share these assumptions and values. From how they get dressed in the morning to the way they get to work and what they hope for their children, these Anabaptist are purposefully out of step with what the vast majority of U.S. citizens think is central to the good life. Tens of thousands travel with horses, reject higher education and refuse to put their trust in commercial insurance plans.

There are, of course, exceptions and variations in this broad pattern. Members of acculturated groups are likely to say that they go against the grain as pacifists and as people who champion high moral standards. And some Old Order Anabaptists are becoming more integrated into the national economy. Still, some of the first things observers from afar may recognize are differences between those who have adjusted to the basic contours of U.S. society – or, in the case of new immigrants and communities of color, are trying  to gain greater access to those basic contours – and the so-called “plain” groups who resist in striking ways the national myths of assimilation and individual transcendence.

Stories of immigration and renewal

Mennonites first came to what would become the United States in small numbers in the 1600s. Larger waves of Mennonites and Amish emigrated from Western Europe in the 1700s and early 1800s, and Mennonites and Hutterites from the Russian Empire arrived in the 1870s. Slowly – sometimes very slowly – these Germanic churches opened themselves up to people from other backgrounds, including Native Americans on whose land Mennonite settlement had depended. Strict immigration laws locked out most newcomers in the mid-1900s, but since 1970 the USA has again received millions of immigrants each decade, including Mennonites from Asia, Africa and Latin America. Some Anabaptist immigrants have brought their church conferences with them. For example, the Sinode Jemaat Kristen Indonesia now has eight congregations on the West Coast of the USA; the Honduras-base Amor Viviente has churches in several Southern U.S. states. Similarly, when Mexican members of the Canada-based Evangelical Mennonite Mission Church (EMMC) immigrated to the USA, they started EMMC churches here (now known as Active Mission Conference).

The USA has also been a place in which spiritual renewal movements have spawned dozens of new Anabaptist church bodies. The Brethren in Christ emerged in the 1780s in Pennsylvania among Mennonites who warmed to Pietism and to a Wesleyan understanding of sanctification. In the mid-1800s, the Old Order renewal movement emphasized the practices of humility and contentment, along with a communal approach to faith and a belief that church discipline strengthened rather than hindered an individual’s relationship with God. In the twentieth century, the Conservative Mennonite Conference found renewal as the mission-activism of American evangelicalism leavened CMC’s Amish heritage. Pentecostalism has been a source of spiritual empowerment for segments of the U.S. Anabaptist world, too.

Paradoxes of growth

Today the U.S. Anabaptist world is simultaneously becoming more urbanized and ethnically and racial diverse and becoming increasingly rural and white. On the one hand, the growing edges of many Anabaptist bodies are congregations such as Casa del Dios Viviente BIC in Pompano Beach, Florida, or Hmong Mennonite Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. Half of Mennonite Brethren churches nationwide have a clear Latino, Asian-American, Slavic or African-American character. Calvary Community Church in Hampton, Virginia, with more than 2,200 mostly-African-American members, is the largest congregation in Mennonite Church USA.

At the same time, the largest numeric growth in the U.S. Anabaptist world is among Amish and Old Order Mennonite groups. Evangelically-oriented Mennonites and BIC often dismiss these groups’ growth since it virtually all comes from the ranks of their own offspring. Nevertheless, culturally conservative Anabaptist churches do a remarkable job of attracting and retaining their youth. The size and increase of these churches – although generally off the radar of most mainline Mennonite and BIC members – means that the U.S. Anabaptist population, as a whole, is slightly whiter and more rural, in percentage terms, than it was 30 years ago.

Contemporary realities and arenas of witness

1. U.S. Anabaptists are a very small part of a very large country. The United States positions itself as a global superpower and its economic and military choices affect the lives of people around the globe. U.S. Anabaptists are part of this superpower complex. But they do not command as much cultural attention as, for example, in Canada. Nor have they had much economic or political influence as, for example, in Paraguay. Being a tiny minority in the heart of a latter-day empire has often left Mennonites uneasy about their relationship with the state.

For some, including Old Orders, the major concern has been the state’s coercive powers of assimilation. They not only resist patriotic display and military participation, but also (in most cases) public education and public health programs. For other Mennonites, the oversized role the USA plays in world affairs and its frequent military adventures abroad make them deeply uneasy and, for some, call forth regular public protest. Either way, the size of the Anabaptist community vis-√†-vis the nation has often resulted in a defensive or prophetic stance on public matters rather than, say, seeking to partner with government agencies to advance an Anabaptist vision of the world. 

2. Anabaptists in the USA live in the midst of material abundance. Regardless of how comfortable they feel wearing the label of U.S. citizens, many Mennonites and BIC are, generally speaking, well off financially. The abundance that characterizes most Mennonite lives expresses itself in positive ways through charitable giving to church and civic causes, Mennonite and otherwise. Indeed, studies of philanthropy tend to rank Mennonites as generous givers compared with many other U.S. Christians. In addition to giving to global causes, acculturated Mennonites and BIC are also spending more money on themselves, building or renovated church structures often at a cost of a million dollars or more for a single project.

3. Predictable legal and financial systems in the U.S. have allowed Anabaptists here to create a host of institutions, from mission agencies and retreat centers to investment funds and retirement homes. The work of these large, professionally-staffed institutions receives a good deal of coverage in the Mennonite press, but it should not obscure the many, many ministries that operate with volunteers and limited resources – and make a tremendous difference in the people they touch. For example, hundreds of Mennonite and BIC congregations host preschools and childcare centers, ministries run by women that benefit thousands of families each year but receive none of the attention that Mennonite colleges and universities do.

4. Anabaptists in the USA live in a pluralistic society that shapes their worship and witness. Many Anabaptist churches sing hymns and contemporary songs written by Protestant and Roman Catholic musicians. Meanwhile, the style and spirituality of the charismatic movement has flavored worship in sizable numbers of congregations. Other congregations have adopted the ecumenical Revised Common Lectionary and the calendar of the Church Year to order their life together. Some Mennonite and BIC peacemakers work with Catholics and evangelicals to end the death penalty or support unwed mothers. Still others have joined with interfaith groups to address environmental concerns.

5. Anabaptists in the USA are connected to the world in many ways. Some links are through business or the work of Mennonite Central Committee, Mennonite Economic Development Associates or Christian Aid Ministries. Other connections come through travel, adoption, marriage or hosting international students. Some congregations have formed sister-church relationships with Mennonite or BIC congregations in other parts of the world. U.S. Anabaptists have much to learn from the world family of faith. May the next Assembly, Pennsylvania 2015, allow even more connections to form and flourish!

Steven M. Nolt is professor of history at Goshen College (Goshen, Indiana, USA), and the co-author (with Canadian Royden Loewen) of Seeking Places of Peace—North America, the fifth and final entry in the Global Mennonite History series.

 

 

 

 

A “brush-arbor tabernacle” constructed for Brethren in Christ evangelistic meetings in Leedy, Oklahoma, in 1919. The BIC represent one U.S. Anabaptist community shaped by numerous spiritual renewal movements. Photo courtesy of the Brethren in Christ Historical Library and Archives

 

 

 

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) service worker Michael Sharp visits with Elizabeth Namavu and her children as part of his work in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Many Mennonites and BIC from the U.S. have developed global connections, sometimes through service with MCC. Photo by Jana Asenbrennerova

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During World War I, many Mennonite and BIC men were imprisoned for refusing, because of their commitment to the gospel of peace, to enlist in the military. Here, several Mennonites sing hymns while in prison. Photo courtesy of Mennonite Church USA Archives

 

 

 

 

 

In the early 1950s, women from the First Mennonite Church in Bluffton, Ohio, USA, can meat for Mennonite Central Committee relief programs to distribute worldwide. Photo courtesy of Bluffton University Archives

 

 

 

Overflow, a worship band comprised of young adults from Latino/a Brethren in Christ congregations in and around Miami, Florida, perform at a 2014 church conference. One third of all BIC in the USA speak Spanish. Photo by Will Teodori/BIC U.S. Communications

 

 

I was 17 years old when an army captain asked me, “What would you do if our battalion was attacked tonight? What would you do if someone came and shot you?”

“I would pray,” I responded.

At that instant, I felt a sharp pain on my head. The captain had hit me with a lyre striker. A lyre is a musical instrument made of metal that produces sounds with a fiberglass striker. The pain was very intense.

The captain asked me again, “What will you do if someone attacks you?” I said, “I am not going to defend myself.”

He hit me again and asked, “Why do you want to be a Christian? Aren’t you going to defend your country?” My answer was: “I follow Christ because I have found life in Him.”

Why was I responding like that? I was just 17, and at that time, I was full of doubts. In fact, I was experiencing a spiritual crisis to the point of almost losing my faith. I had left my church, I did not have Anabaptist convictions. Military service was compulsory in Colombia, and my Christian convictions weren’t strong enough that I was willing to go to jail for them.

Walking a path of learning

I think the reason I had the courage to respond that way can be found in Luke 24, where a story is told of two disciples who are on the road to Emmaus after the death and resurrection of Christ. “Walking” in the Gospel of Luke has a very special meaning: it is about a way of life or conduct. In this Gospel, walking is related to discipleship.

In Luke, many lessons are learned while walking. Here, the two disciples are talking and they don’t agree. Jesus comes up in the middle of the discussion and asks them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?” In the original language, verse 15 conveys the idea that there was a strong difference of opinion between the two disciples.

Walking despite disagreement

Is walking together possible if we are in disagreement? Is it possible to live in a community as diverse as ours?

When we observe the map of the Mennonite World Conference, we immediately realize that the Anabaptist movement is scattered around the world. Is walking together possible within our global community when we have so many cultural, theological and ecclesiological differences?

In Luke, the two disciples that had left Jerusalem were in strong disagreement. They had likely reached the point of asking themselves whether it was worth continuing together. But that was not the way that Jesus wanted his disciples to leave Jerusalem.

Leaving Jerusalem, facing our mission and our call, cannot be carried out if we are divided. Jesus wanted his disciples to leave Jerusalem filled with the Spirit to give testimony. This is probably why the two disciples had to return to Jerusalem.

“If you want to get there quickly, walk alone; if you want to go far, walk with others,” states a well-known African saying. This is what the disciples discovered on their way to Emmaus. It is at the end of the journey in community, after walking together despite their differences, in the moment of celebrating communion that the disciples’ eyes were opened and their understanding of Christ was clarified (Luke 24:30–31). As a result, they returned to Jerusalem in unity.

Walking in different ways

The theme of our assembly, “Walking with God,” reflects various lessons we can learn from this passage. In each language, a different idea is expressed in reference to what it means to walk with God.

In English, walking refers to a constant action. It is a continuous, endless process, and thus calls for our whole life. When walking with God, we need to constantly ask ourselves, “What are we leaving behind? What do we need to take along on this journey?”

In Spanish, caminemos is an invitation. It is an invitation to abandon our fears, to open our hearts to become vulnerable. This journey requires patience: we need to wait for those who aren’t as fast and are tired. If we act with individualism and independence and consider that we don’t need any help, we will be strongly tempted to go separate ways. However, the invitation to walk together is still open.

In French, en marche, implies becoming completely involved in walking. There certainly will be tensions with other walkers that will cause many mixed feelings. But, if we walk totally committed to God and others, the tensions or problems that may arise will lead us to be transformed. If we don’t walk totally committed, those same tensions or problems will lead us to fragmentation.

The next part of the phrase, “with God/con Dios/avec Dieu,” refers to communion with God. It is impossible to walk together if we aren’t walking with God.

Those disciples on the road to Emmaus were walking together despite their differences because God was at the centre of their walk. They discovered that unity wasn’t something that was miraculously achieved in the end; it is something that is built along the way. This unity leads to a transformation that can only be found in community.

Every day during this Assembly, we will reflect on the various moments we experience as we walk with God.

As the disciples surely experienced on the road to Emmaus, there will be moments of doubt and moments when we are sure we are on the right track.

There will be moments of conflict and of reconciliation.

There will be moments when we want to walk alone in autonomy, but there will be times when we recognize our need to walk in community.

There will be moments when we need help and moments when we are ready to help.

This is the life of discipleship. We are in the midst of a process; we haven’t reached our goal yet, but are moving forward.

This passage helps me to understand why I responded to the captain the way I did. Beside me, there were four other soldiers who were also Christians. They weren’t Mennonites or Anabaptists. But when the captain asked them the same questions, they responded that they were just obeying Jesus and weren’t willing to kill to defend themselves.

Some of these friends were on the floor in pain because of the blows. Therefore, I was able to respond the way I did because I had found a new community there. Four friends with whom I was ready to walk amid suffering, violence and persecution. Four friends to whom I could say, “Let’s walk with God” despite our differences. And tonight I would like to say to you, “Let’s walk with God,” let’s walk during this week and during the years to come.

César García spoke on Tuesday evening, 21 July 2015, at Assembly 16. He is general secretary of Mennonite World Conference. He lives in Bogotá, Colombia. 

 

The Holy Spirit’s mercy irons us in our trials

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Peter 1:3). Peter begins this letter with praise to God. This praising to God is a celebration of worship. This expression of blessing to God is found very often as doxologies, especially in psalms. So probably, the early churches in Asia Minor must have easily understood that Peter started this letter with worship.

But this sounds a little strange to me. Thinking of the background of this letter, the Christians of the churches in Asia Minor were in the midst of a risky situation. They had a severe possibility of losing their lives under their circumstance of worldwide persecution. Peter wrote this letter to Christians in such cruel situations. But simply, I have a question: how can we praise the Lord in a painful situation? How could Peter do that? How could the early church people understand this letter?

When circumstances threaten

It is sure that Peter wrote this letter to Christians. Peter definitely trusted these churches and greatly respected these church people. He must have known well about their deep predicament with tears and crying. Probably his letter must have reminded themselves as God’s chosen people “to be sprinkled with his blood” (1:2).

So Peter must have known that his readers knew the meaning of blood in the imminent reality, because there were so many people dying. And still, even now, we know so many people dying.

When we face an unchangeable reality and are defeated under the circumstance, we have a struggle. We hold our faith tightly, but still struggle. This struggle causes an uneasy feeling, anxiety or fear. We are depressed and our hearts shrivel. We shrink with fear.

This happen to all of us, especially when we spend unstable time in a severe circumstance. This time is very painful because the reality challenges us. Questions make us feel doubt and doubt makes us lose conviction. Then, we get depressed and self-pity covers us with a sense of wretchedness. We flinch and blanche with fear.

Ironing shrunken hearts

However, the Bible says “by his great mercy.” The Japanese Kanji character for mercy (originally from a pictograph of the Chinese character), shows that someone irons a shrunk heart with an antique style of the iron, not the modern electric iron we use now. Using the antique iron, someone irons our shrunk heart with a moderate temperature. It has neither a high temperature nor a low temperature, but exactly the right temperature.

This is the work of Holy Spirit. This Comforter irons our shrunk heart with exactly the right temperature again and again for our healing and for our regeneration.

God has done this to us and is doing this even now. And this God raised Jesus from the dead. 

There were so many people dying behind this passage in 1 Peter. And now, we still have so many people dying in this world. But this God raised Jesus from the dead in the midst of people’s dying. Jesus died like any other person but his dying has swallowed death in his victory (1 Corinthians 15:54–55).

This is the work of the God’s great power. And God works this power for all of us to shield our faith from the danger and restore our conviction in God’s great mercy. 

Sometimes, we say we have faith. But faith is not something we have had within us from the beginning, nor something born inside of ourselves. Rather, faith is something to bring into the midst of our lives from outside of ourselves.

God definitely makes us grasp the conviction that we all have been regenerated by believing that Christ Jesus was raised. In God’s ultimate power, we can stand up again in a living hope through the resurrection. And in this living hope, there is a life which gives a true life. 

The light of our living hope

Peter wants to tell people about this joy so they can be saved in the light of this living hope. He knows well how wretched he used to be. Through Christ’s blood, Peter found what he had never known before. Through the resurrection, Peter found himself regenerated in the light of the living hope. He found this; the only thing to do is to live in the light of this living hope. This is our Christian hope in the salvation to be revealed in the last time. 

So Peter could praise God. We seem to hear his strong, praising voice, singing with tears. Even if God challenges us, we praise God.

Of course, we may stumble over many trials and sometimes may fall. But our faith never disappears because of the God’s shield. Nothing can conquer God’s shield. Our God wipes away every tear from our eyes (Revelation 7:17).

Again, we seem to hear joyful voices from this letter. And now, we also lift our voices together. Praising and singing, we follow our Lord Jesus Christ.

Heavenly Father, O Lord,
Have mercy on this world,
With your steadfast love and your abundant mercy.
Restore to us the joy of your salvation and sustain in us a willing spirit.
Let us walk again in your living hope from here to follow as a disciple of Jesus our Lord.
Amen.

Yukari Kaga of Japan spoke on Wednesday evening, 22 July 2015, at Assembly 16. Yukari pastors several small Mennonite congregations in Hokkaido. She is chief director of the Peace Mission Center and serves at the Mennonite Education and Research Center in Japan. 

 

Light and hope for those in darkness

Today, world security is threatened by international, intertribal and even interreligious conflicts. Sometimes, security forces have conflicts with the very people they are supposed to protect. Terrorism has created a climate of insecurity on the international level. Countries are torn apart by wars. Political-religious movements such as Al-Qaeda, Islamic State and Boko Haram spill blood in the name of religion. Opinions and philosophies divide people and create divided households.

Conflict undermines the basic social units of a strong and balanced society. It can cause divorce. It sends children into the street. It creates enemies within families and dissolves businesses, sending staff into unemployment.

Since its very beginning, the church has not been spared conflict, internally or externally. At the external level, the church has been and continues to be the victim of persecution. Internally, the church has always had to confront controversies and hierarchical conflicts. For example, the Anabaptists left the Protestant reform movement in the 16th century due to a conflict.

Our world, no matter how peaceful it may seem, is dominated by conflicts. How can the church in general and Christians in particular walk toward reconciliation in this contentious world? Is it possible for us to promote reconciliation in a world where conflict is gaining ground?

Analysis of 1 Samuel 25:1–35

The story in 1 Samuel 25:1–35 provides a model for walking toward conflict and from conflict to reconciliation. In analyzing this text, we can draw out practical implications that help us to grasp God’s thoughts about conflict and reconciliation.

Walking toward conflict (v. 1–13)

In verses 2–13 of the account in 1 Samuel 25, we meet Nabal, Abigail, David and messengers. Their encounters lead to a moment of opposition which turns into a conflict.

Nabal is a very wealthy man who lacks spiritual values and strength of character (v. 2–3). Nabal’s hard-heartedness is accompanied by spitefulness.

When David learns that Nabal’s sheep are being shorn, he sends some of his servants to ask Nabal for help for his group who is in the wilderness.

In his message to Nabal, David shows kindness, gentleness and humility. Militarily, he is higher than Nabal, but he uses a peaceful voice, appealing to Nabal’s sense of gratitude at a time of joy and festivities. He reminds Nabal that David’s group protected Nabal’s sheep in the wilderness.

In spite of David’s effort to approach Nabal with an attitude to promote peace, Nabal responds to David’s kindness with harshness, to his courtesy with contempt, to his confidence with disdain and hatred (v. 10–11). Nabal’s malice in the face of David’s kindness leads to conflict (v. 13) because David becomes angry and returns Nabal’s violence with violence.

We learn from these first 13 verses what are the primary factors promoting conflict in this story:

• Nabal’s harshness and malice are in opposition to the good faith and culture of peace shown by David (v.6–8). They incite the two sides to walk into conflict.
• Nabal’s selfishness leads him not only to refuse to share what he has with those in need, but also to refuse to recognize and thank those who have helped to protect his property. This is what makes David so angry that he decides to teach this man a lesson with violence.
• The contact between David and Nabal is handled by messengers who also play an active role in this conflict. The way in which they give information also contributes to the explosion of conflict.

The factors promoting conflict in this passage are the same today. How can the church promote peace in such circumstances?

From conflict to reconciliation (v. 14–35)

The second section of our story begins another sequence of events. The principal actors are Nabal’s servant, Abigail and David.

Nabal’s reaction does not leave his team indifferent. Nabal’s servants disapprove of the way he acts and expect reprisals from David and his servants. A prudent man, who sees danger and hides (Proverbs 22:3; 27:12), one servant helps his mistress to understand the situation. He proposes a way to get around their master, whose character could not allow him to accept reconciliation that brings peace (v. 17).

Abigail listens well. Her approach to the situation demonstrates courage, tact and humility (v. 18–20). Her peaceful strategy is built around a team working for peace (v. 19). She faces up to conflict with a peaceful plan (v. 20), all the while managing obstacles to peace (v. 19). She asks for forgiveness without embarrassment, and offers to meet needs and calm spirits.

What lesson can we learn from the way in which this woman models conflict resolution, and from the process she uses to achieve reconciliation?

Reconciliation, the path to conflict resolution

God does not want his children to participate in conflicts, but wants them to work for peace (Ephesians 4:1–3) as Abigail does. She follows a path of reconciliation which gives up hostility and re-establishes civility and communion between formerly hostile parties.

Reconciliation is an urgent need in our world. We need to re-establish communion between God and humanity (Romans 5:8–11; 2 Corinthians 5:18–19; Colossians 1:19–22); between human beings (Ephesians 2:11–22) and to reestablish harmony in the entire creation (Romans 8:18-22).

Hope for our reconciliation is rooted in the work of Christ on the cross, which wiped out God’s anger and judgment of humanity. The cross of Christ provides for reconciliation. On the cross, Christ erased the act which condemned us and triumphed over the hostility and all the cultural barriers which separated us (Colossians 2:14–15).

The work of the cross gives us peace and justice – not just for the church, but for the entire world. We are called not only to believe in peace and justice, but to apply them to all without distinction or discrimination, and to promote them to the entire world through the proclamation of the good news of salvation.

Following the example of Christ, the church must work for love, peace and justice in spite of the price which must be paid (Isaiah 11:1–5; 61:1–3; Luke 4:13, 19). The church must demonstrate compassion by its ability to see and to hear the cry of the oppressed and to identify with just causes. It is only God who reconciles us with himself by sacrificing Jesus on the cross, the pivot point of reconciliation.

Reconciliation between humans is rooted in Christ who is the peace of the world (Ephesians 2:14–17) and the source of unity for all humanity (John 17:11, 22, 23).

Reconciliation passes through the resolution of conflicts, not only on the personal level, but also at the ethnic and tribal level, and at the level of the church. 

Conflict resolution at the personal level

The Word of God teaches us that the best way to resolve conflicts is on the personal level. This involves confession before God of all sins we are aware of (1 John 1:9–10; Psalm 139:23–24) and commitment to asking for forgiveness and deciding not to repeat the same fault (Ephesians 4:32; James 5:16).

The Gospels propose this process for us:

• Pray sincerely to God and ask for forgiveness;
• Speak alone with the other person;
• Speak with the other person in the presence of two or three people;
• Speak with the other person before the church (Matthew 18:15–17).

A desire to honour God and love for the other person are necessary for conflicts to be resolved (Psalm 34:15). We must always seek divine help and ask for wisdom, self-control and appropriate speech (Proverbs 16:32; James 1:5).

In addition, we must use the rules for good communication: listen to the other person, state the truth, speak in a fair way with love, express ideas clearly and speak with integrity for the glory of God and the well-being of the other person. The objectives for this good communication are to resolve the problems which led to the conflicts. End meeting times with prayer and with words of fraternity or kindness (James 3:13–18).

Conflict resolution at the ethnic, tribal and racial level

Ethnic, tribal and racial conflicts are often the shame of the church. Our silence seems to be a form of complicity to such an extent that today, wise thinkers accuse the church of creating or participating in this kind of conflict, such as the history and heritage of racism and the slave trade, the Holocaust, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, discrimination against native populations, interreligious/political/ethnic violence, the suffering of the Palestinians, caste oppression and tribal genocide.

In the face of this situation, I call on pastors, church leaders and all readers to teach the biblical truth about ethnic diversity, but also to acknowledge the concept of sin in these ethnic groups. In Christ, all our ethnic identities are subordinated to our identity as assets purchased at the cross. In practical terms, the church must:

• Prioritize healing and reconciliation: In case of aggression, self-defense is permitted, but not the use of violence. Following the example of Jesus, who did not use weapons when threatened, the church must walk in the steps of the master. The church must demonstrate the attitude of caring for its enemies as illustrated in the parable of the good Samaritan, and practice nonviolence as the door to reconciliation.
• Promoting justice is an important way to reduce ethnic and religious conflicts in the world. To do this, the church must become deeply involved in standing up to injustice, to ethnocentrism, to racism and to oppression. It must get involved in reconciliation and identify itself with the oppressed, working for justice for them.
• Develop an inclusive church: The church cannot be a site for ethnic divisions and racial discrimination; rather it must be a setting where all are invited and taken into fellowship. Leaders must not be selected on criteria that favour ethnicity or race over spirituality. The church must not have an ethnic agenda. It is an entity of ‚Äúunity in diversity‚Äù where all members are one in Christ as taught in Galatians 3:28. The church is a new ethnic group in which there is mutual protection and security for everyone.
• Guide our approach to politics and to management of public property with Christian principles: Political opinions must not be molded by ethnic, tribal or racial prejudices but by Christian principles. Christians who are politicians must deal correctly with everyone without prejudice based on political or religious ideology. Politicians must avoid ethnic favouritism and religious fanaticism, which often encourage hatred.
• Practice love and forgive enemies: Praying for enemies is one of the signs of obedience and submission to Jesus Christ. We must love other people because they are created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 9:6; James 3:9). Forgiveness is often very difficult to give, especially when we are victims of injustice, hatred and oppression. But we must be willing to obey the Word of God.

Conflict resolution in the church

The walk toward reconciliation requires the church to obey scriptural principles and to defend them to the world through the way it lives. It must display transparence by relying on biblical teachings. The church must continue to count on God’s help so that it can resolve conflicts more effectively. It must avoid lack of respect for its own legal and juridical texts.

The church must avoid favouritism. In its prophetic role, it must be watchful and active to

• Always pull itself back to God’s will, commandments and precepts, and tell the world about those things.
• Discover the true nature of the problems in the church and in the world by deeply studying the causes, motives, sources and origins both near and far, in order to propose solutions without taking sides.
• Look for peaceful solutions and stand up to the sinful politics of exclusion and marginalization. The church must prioritize political systems which promote unity and reconciliation.

The reconciliation of people with creation

We must be people who take care of creation, because reconciliation also includes creation. Human life and creation are linked together because the earth takes care of us (Genesis 1:29–30); the earth suffers with us because of humanity’s sins which have caused heavy consequences (Hosea 4:1–3); God’s redemption includes creation (Psalm 96:10–13); everything was reconciled at the cross (Colossians 1:15–23); and the good news includes all of creation.

In light of this state of affairs, the church in general and Christians in particular must be on the frontlines of the efforts to protect creation. We must have a great desire to live on a green planet by avoiding the waste of energy, by reducing our use of carbons, by recycling our environment and by avoiding pollution.

In the same vein, we must support political and economic initiatives which protect the environment from all kinds of destruction. So we must support those among us who are called and sent by God with a special mission to protect the environment, and to do scientific research in the fields of ecology and nature conservation.

Conclusion

Violence has been used in many different ways to resolve the incessant conflicts throughout the world. But history proves that has not succeeded in bringing solutions to the problems of the world. The way of violence promises hatred, anger and vengeance instead of peaceful resolution for conflict.

Indeed, nonviolence is the ultimate solution to conflicts. Christ was nonviolent when confronted by conflicts. He outlines for us the model which we should use when resolving conflicts.

The nonviolent model for resolving conflicts, as we have discovered in the story about Abigail, is not synonymous with passively accepting injustice and aggression without protecting ourselves. It means we do not use force as a means of resolving conflicts.

The church must actively resist religious and ethnic conflicts. Only love for the enemy and the determination not to use force or violence can withstand conflicts and peacefully engage the enemy. This eliminates the structures of injustice and replaces them with good structures that have God at the centre.

Ethnic diversity is the gift and the plan of God in creation. It has been dirtied and deformed by human sin and pride which produce confusion, quarrels, violence and wars between nations.

However, this diversity will be preserved in the new creation when people from all nations, from all tribes, from all the people groups and all the languages will be reunited because they make up the people whom God has redeemed.

Because of the gospel, I ask the body of Christ collectively and individually to repent and to ask forgiveness in all places where they have participated in violence, injustice and ethnic oppression.

Today, the church must embrace the great power of reconciliation found in the gospel, and really learn about it, because Christ did not carry our sins on the cross only so that we would be reconciled with God, but also to destroy our animosities and so that we can be reconciled with each other.

Let us adopt a reconciliation style of life by forgiving those who persecute us and having the courage to expose the injustice they cause to others. Let us provide aid and offer hospitality to those on the other side of a conflict by taking the initiative to cross barriers to achieve reconciliation. Let us continue to witness about Christ in violent contexts, always ready to suffer or even die, rather than participate in acts of destruction or vengeance. Let us get involved in the long process of healing wounds, making the church a safe place of healing for all, including old enemies.

We must be a bright light and a source of hope. We must share this witness: “God in Christ, reconciling all people to himself.” The cross and the resurrection of Christ grant us the authority to confront the demonic powers of evil which exacerbate human conflicts.

Nzuzi Mukawa of the Democratic Republic of Congo spoke on Thursday evening, 23 July 2015 at Assembly 16. Nzuzi is the team leader for MB Mission in sub-Saharan Africa. He is both a professor of missions and an associate pastor of a Mennonite Brethren congregation in DR Congo.

 

Author advisory (below)

“Rock on”: Fulfilling the bidirectional royal law

We are a peace church because we are first and foremost a Jesus church and Jesus leads us in the way of peace. We care about justice because we care about Jesus and he cares about justice. We care about reconciliation and we care about the Word of God in print because we want to get to know the Word of God in person.

Jesus is at the centre of who we are. And as we continue to keep Jesus central and steward the clear and simple message of Jesus, we give that back to the rest of the body of Christ as a gift and make us all healthier.

Love is the fruit of the Spirit

I want to talk to you about love as reflected in the fruit of the Spirit and other passages of the New Testament. The Spirit’s work in us is the work of love. To the extent that we work against love, we are working against the work of the Spirit in us, and to the extent that we recognize and identify love, we are moving in partnership with the Holy Spirit.

Most scholars agree that when Galatians 5 lists the fruit of the Spirit, it doesn’t just start with love. Love is the fruit of the Spirit and what follows are eight descriptions of what love is like. Similar to 1 Corinthians 13, this is a representative list. The fruit of the Spirit is love, and you’ll begin to recognize it when you see joy, peace, patience, kindness and goodness, gentleness and self-control.

I have over the years become increasingly convinced of love’s centrality in our worship of God and how he calls us to worship him by loving others around us. It has become increasingly import to me to identify that and to call myself to that kind of love as a form of worship.

It seemed to me, growing up, that my priority was to get my relationship with God right. I would do that by spending increased time focusing on my vertical relationship. When I finally got that right, there would be overflow on the people around me. I would learn to love others well, but I needed to first come back and make sure I studied Scripture privately, prayed privately, meditated privately. It became my emphasis.

The second commandment

As we grow, we are encouraged to have those times of private spiritual expression, but Jesus was the first to begin to challenge me to go beyond this. It was the way he joined the two great commandments together into one when he was asked by a religious leader what is the greatest commandment. The greatest commandment – singular. Jesus said it’s to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. I picture the religious leaders who asked the question saying, thank you very much, and going to leave. Then Jesus says, and the second is like it.

The second? What second commandment? He didn’t ask for the top two, he only asked for one. But Jesus wouldn’t just give him one and leave it alone. What’s the one great commandment? “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind…and the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’” (Matthew 22:37–39).

And then Jesus says, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:40). He ties them together with a kind of bidirectional spirituality reaches up and reaches out. If we forget to reach out, we are not authentically reaching up.

As the apostle John writes, “Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars” (1 John 4:20). John doesn’t say you’re unbalanced. He doesn’t say you need to grow in your love of your brother and not just love God. No, he says if you say, I love God, but you are not loving your brother or your sister, you are a liar. The two need to come together. Don’t say you love God and not love those around you who are reflecting God’s image, his likeness.

It is as though Jesus knew the religious impulse would be to so prioritize God that we could use religion as an excuse not to love others around us.

Jesus said to love the Lord your God with everything you’ve got. That’s your one mission on the planet. But without a bidirectional focus, we could use that love of God to excuse everything from blowing up ourselves and others, to torturing people, to burning heretics at the stake, to launching into wars not only against other religions but other tribes within our own religion.

There’s so much anti-Christ behaviour we can participate in in the name of the love of God if that’s all we focus on.

And not just violent behaviour. We could focus on God so much that we ignore those around us.

How could you argue with more time with God? More time in meditation, more time in prayer, more time in personal study; it just seems so holy. But Jesus says, I won’t let you get away with that. You’re going to love God and you’re going to love your neighbour as yourself and if you don’t do the one, you’re a liar about the other.

Beyond the ethic of a rock

My daughters attended a day camp that included children with mental disabilities. As I dropped off my girls in the morning and picked them up in the afternoon, I used this summer camp experience to reinforce what it means to love in the way Jesus says to love.

I told my daughters, “I want you to go there and initiative love. Love is not just not doing bad things, love takes the initiative to do good things to others.”

I tried to explain this to in a way they could understand it. They said, “Oh yeah, we’re polite.”

It’s more than being polite, I told them. It’s not just about being nice. Love goes beyond that.

They said, “Well, we won’t say anything bad.”

It’s not about not being bad, it’s about doing good. It’s about seeing the person sitting on the outside by themselves and initiating kindness to them. It’s agape, a Greek word meaning the choice to relate to someone as valuable.

I think that’s why kindness is in the fruit of the Spirit, not niceness. Niceness is not doing rude things, but kindness initiates.

I gave them an illustration. When we got out of the car, there was a big rock. “Is that rock loving anyone?” I asked them. “No, rocks don’t love,” they answered. “But is it doing anything wrong to anyone?” I persisted.

They got it. The rock isn’t being rude or unkind, it’s not hurting anyone’s feelings, it’s just sitting there. Rocks don’t do anything bad; they just don’t do anything good.

That summer we decided on our Cavey family motto: “Rock on.” Go beyond the ethic of a rock. This is the love we see in the fruit of the Spirit.

This is what Anabaptists has been teaching me in the last few years.

A new commandment

It’s not enough to just not be bad; to love is to prioritize the care of those around us. This becomes our worship to God so much so that in the New Testament, we find the apostles do a fascinating thing. Remember that bidirectional spirituality?

Just before Galatians 5 lists the fruit of the Spirit, the apostle Paul writes: “For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment” (5:14). A single commandment. And then he lists the second commandment: love your neighbour as yourself.

Didn’t Jesus say the law and the prophets hang on these two commands? Paul goes straight for the second. He does the same thing in Romans 13:8: “For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” Peter does the same it in 1 Peter 4:8: “Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.” James, the brother of Jesus, calls it “the royal law” (James 2:8).  

We find no instance in the rest of the New Testament of the apostles quoting the bidirectional law. What makes them think they had the right to edit Jesus? When Jesus said these words, he was speaking to one who was not yet a disciple, someone who needed the challenge to come to God first.

But to his disciples, to those who have said, “I love God and I am willing to give up whatever it takes to follow him,” Jesus says, Now here’s how you will do that. Your life will be about loving others as you love yourself. For the rest of the New Testament, that becomes the command that fulfills the law for us.

That’s what Jesus says to his disciples in John 13. “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.” Not new as in the first time I said it, but new as in the first time it stands alone. He says to his disciples, don’t work out your love for God as a separate thing. You will work out your love for God by obeying this new command: love one another. Jesus says the same thing in John 15:12: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

The resurrected Jesus says to Peter, do you love me, Peter? Do you really? Well, if so, feed my sheep (John 21:17). This becomes the renewed emphasis of Christ.

Worship flows

The parable Jesus told of the sheep and the goats can be summarized by saying the way we love and worship and serve Jesus is by loving and serving those people around us in need. So, we do not parse out “this is worship and this is service,” “this is worship and this is evangelism.”

It’s all worship. We worship when we sing, we worship when we pray, we worship when we leave this place and this conference is long over.

The worship just continues and flows and flows and flows as we relate to others around us. Our religion is not a thing we contain within a holy place and a holy space with a holy priesthood. Our religion is relationship. It’s worked out in how we love those around us.

And so, my brothers and sisters, I would like to leave you with a final thought.

The church becomes a laboratory for us to experiment with what it means to love God by loving each other with likeminded people. Because when we leave the church and we try to love people outside the church, sometimes people understand and sometimes they won’t. Sometimes they receive it as a gift from God and sometimes they won’t. Sometimes they cheer for us and sometimes they mock. But the church can be a safe place where we can develop our skills at loving.

“Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received” (1 Peter 4 10).

We are stewarding God’s grace to one another. He trusts us with his grace apportioning it out to one another. What a privilege. What a responsibility.

As a Western evangelical, I knew of the priesthood of all believers. I interpreted it to mean as a priest, I don’t need anyone else, it’s just me and God. I could be the priest of my own relationship with God.

But I think, for a Hebrew, to talk about the priesthood of all believers would not be as individuals connected to God, but as priests to one another. We confess our sins one to another. We steward God grace to one another. God has given you someone else’s grace – and given them your grace. God wants to reveal truth to you and encourage you and nourish you with his grace. He could just do it individually but that would separate us.

Instead God gives it some else and says, now go find it. And he gives her grace to you and he says, come together. Be stewards of my grace to one another so that as we come together and learn to love and serve one another.

We’re experiencing more and more of the grace of God in our lives. What a privilege this is just to be the church.

So I encourage you to go get your grace. And go and give your grace. Through this giving and receiving of grace, we will develop our ability to love and to love well.

And so with these words, I close: rock on.

Bruxy Cavey of Canada spoke on Saturday evening, 25 July 2015 at Assembly 16. Bruxy is the teaching pastor of The Meeting House, one of Canada’s largest and most innovative churches. A member of the Brethren in Christ, Bruxy is an author and speaks extensively around the world.

Author advisory PA 2015 plenary speaker Bruxy Cavey resigned 3 March 2022 from The Meeting House, Oakville, Ontario, Canada, a member of Be In Christ Church of Canada, MWC member church. The congregation’s Board of Overseers requested his resignation after a third-party investigation determined he had a sexual relationship that “constituted an abuse of Bruxy’s power and authority.” Cavey’s ministerial credentials have been removed by the Be In Christ denomination.  Learn more: Pastor resigns, admits sexual misconduct | Anabaptist World

 

Read the full text of the evening sermons from PA 2015, by César García, Yukari Kaga, Nzuzi Mukwa, Wieteke van der Molen and Bruxy Cavey. These can also be a helpful resource as you prepare to celebrate World Fellowship Sunday with your congregation.

Evening Sermons from PA 2015

Walking with God (César García, Colombia)

They discovered that unity wasn’t something that was miraculously achieved in the end; it is something that is built along the way. This unity leads to a transformation that can only be found in community. 

Walking in Doubt and Conviction (Yukari Kaga, Japan)

This is the work of the God’s great power. And God works this power for all of us to shield our faith from the danger and restore our conviction in God’s great mercy.

Walking in Conflict and Reconciliation (Nzuzi Mukwa, DR.Congo)

 We must be a bright light and a source of hope. We must share this witness: “God in Christ, reconciling all people to himself.” The cross and the resurrection of Christ grant us the authority to confront the demonic powers of evil which exacerbate human conflicts.

Walking in Autonomy and Community (Wieteke van der Molen, The Netherlands)

Within a community, we cannot stand alone. The interest of the group will collide with that of the individual. And that will cause friction and pain and frustration. But we have no other way. To be human is to be part of a community. We cannot survive on our own. 

Walking in Receiving and Giving (Bruxy Cavey, Canada)

We are a peace church because we are first and foremost a Jesus church and Jesus leads us in the way of peace. We care about justice because we care about Jesus and he cares about justice.