If you were to sum up Mennonite World Conference in three phrases, what would you say? MWC leadership has selected a new tag line to do just that: “following Jesus, living out unity, building peace”.
“After almost one year of consultative process with Anabaptist theologians and MWC staff, under the facilitation of and change management consultant Betty Pries, we agreed upon this tagline. It reinforces the three most important things about being an Anabaptist and summarizes the MWC Vision and Mission Statements in a way that is inspiring, compelling and calls people to action,” says César García, MWC general secretary.
These phrases are intended to help Anabaptists around the world answer some simple questions:
“What do you believe?”
“What do you stand for?”
“What are your priorities?”
“How are you different from / similar to other denominations?”
During the multiple rounds of dialogue, themes emerged again and again: following Jesus, making the world a better place, unity / unifying, transformation, peace, love, witnessing, community, shalom and supporting one another.
“There was consensus on that we want the tagline to call people to action, while focusing on the transformational love of Jesus, as well as continuing our commitment to build peace and unity. The new tagline achieved all these,” César García says.
Look for the tagline in the footer of MWC digital communications from letters, website stories, MWC Info e-newsletter, Courier magazine to social media posts.
More resources on what it means to be #followingJesus, #livingoutunity and #buildingpeace will be rolled out between now and 2025, when we celebrate 500 years of Anabaptism.
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MWC Vision: Mennonite World Conference is called to be a communion (Koinonia) of Anabaptist-related churches linked to one another in a worldwide community of faith for fellowship, worship, service, and witness.
MWC Mission: MWC exists to (1) be a global community of faith in the Anabaptist tradition, (2) facilitate relationships between Anabaptist-related churches worldwide, and (3) relate to other Christian world communions and organizations.
MWC Vision and Mission Statement in PDF can be downloaded here.