• English

Prayers of gratitude and intercession

  • Lawrence Yoder
    AAM Meeting
    EMS 12/8/00

    “Methods and curriculum for teaching missions from an Anabaptist perspective”

    As look at the issues of teaching Christian mission, a very basic challenge is to invite students to discover God’s mission, and to get on board with what God is doing and wants to do in the world. The basic prayer Jesus taught his disciples was in fact a call, an imperative, which might be expressed thus: “Father in heaven, make your name to be honored. Come here on earth to reign; make your will happen here as in heaven.” These words are echoed in the last words of Revelation: “Maranatha, come, Lord Jesus!”

    The New Testament is peppered with lively visions of God arriving to reign in grace, peace, Justice and healing, and the call to participate with God in this dawning reign. Jesus himself, according to the Gospel of John, has a lively sense of collaborating with his Father. He says things like, *These works of power that you see me do, they are not my works; I only do what I see my father doing.” “And these authoritative words you hear me speak, they are not my words; I only say what I hear my father saying.”1

    Then Jesus goes on to explain his oneness with his Father: “Don’t you believe that I am one with the Father and that the Father is one with me? What I say isn’t said on my own. The father who lives in me does these things (John 14:10). And then he immediately proceeds with “I tell you for certain that if you have faith in me, you will do the same things that I am doing. You will do even greater things, now that I am going back to the Father” (verse 12).

    This is the background for the remarkable words of Jesus in chapter 15: “I am the true vine, and my father is the gardener. He cuts away every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit. Nut he trims clean every branch that does produce fruit., so that it will produce even more fruit…. Stay joined to me and I will stay joined to you. Just as a branch cannot product fruit unless it stays joined to the vine, you cannot produce fruit unless you stay joined to me. I am the vine and you are the branches. if you stay joined to me and I stay joined to you, then you will produce lots of fruit. but you cannot do anything without me…. “Stay joined to me and let my teachings become part of you. Then you can pray for whatever you want, and your prayer will be answered” (parts of verses 1 to 7).

    Jesus expects his disciples to carry on his ministry after he departs from them. He expects that his disciples will be doing the very kinds of things, and speaking with the same kind of authority after he departs. The key for them will be similar to Jesus’ own key, to stay connected to Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, which he will send them. In this way they too will be doing things that are not simply their own deeds. They will be speaking things that are not just their own words. They will be doing the very work of God and speaking the very words of God.

    An alert reading of Acts and the letters reveals to us just how conscious the apostles and others were of operating in the presence and power of God as they carried on their ministry. In so doing they were carrying on Jesus’ own work in the world.

    When I consider what happened in the Anabaptist movement of the sixteenth century, I believe that they too had a lively sense of participating in God’s action, his arriving reign in the world. The fact that clusters of Anabaptists were discovered by authorities in upwards of 500 locations within four years of the formation of the first cell of the movement in 1525 seems incredible if they did not have a lively sense that they were collaborating in something much greater than they themselves were able to accomplish. Surely they strategized, as Linford states, but the realities accomplished went beyond their strategies.

    Perhaps the clearest glimpse of their sense of the presence and action of Jesus among them is in the accounts of their martyr deaths in which they came to know for certain that Jesus was present with them in their suffering and dying, a witness that had powerful impact on many people.

    How does this bear on how we teach mission today? To me a crucial element is for students to begin to experience things in which they have a sense of participation with God, of collaborating with God in what God is doing. I want to mention briefly three areas in which I try to create opportunities for students to experiment with the kind of discipleship in which they experience a sense of collaboration with God. These are in teaching evangelism as initial spiritual guidance, participant observation transcending frontiers, and in healing ministry.

    A. Disciplemaking Evangelism

    The concept of evangelism as initial spiritual guidance, as Ben Campbell Johnson speaks of it is that God is already at work in the life of every person, whether they know it or not, whether they like it or not, whether they understand it or not, whether they are reconciled to it or not. In fact most people in this culture, at least, have some sense of God being at work in their lives, but they may not like it, they may be fearful of it, they misunderstand it, they resist it, or they try to ignore it. The work of the evangelist as initial spiritual guide, borrowing from the classic model of Christian spiritual direction, is to connect with people in terms of God’s presence and action in their lives, to help people to understand the truth about God’s presence and action in their lives, and to become reconciled to it. Indeed it is to help them become yielded collaborators with God in their own lives and in the world around them.

    In my Disciplemaking Evangelism class, and to a lessor extent in my Church in Mission class (which is an M.Div. requirement) I ask the students to experiment with seeking to connect with persons they suspect to be disconnected from the church. Their basic assignment is to try to connect with them on a personal, human level, showing interest and care for who they are. Conversations might even develop to the point of discussing with them how God is at work in their lives. But the main point is experiment with expecting the presence of Jesus to facilitate these kinds of encounters. r further underline that making disciples is an impossible thing for us to do alone. “Without me you can do nothing,” says Jesus. We can only do it in collaboration with God, with the Spirit of Jesus. But we can expect that presence and guidance of Jesus as we seek to transcend barriers and frontiers with people and love and care for them first of all as humans.

    My experience is that this assignment is one of the most challenging I give. It also received the most resistance. But it is also one of the most rewarding, in the sense that numbers of students come through it with a sense of having seen God at work, indeed having collaborated with God in God’s plan to be reconciled to all humankind. This would be a time for some stories. But an important part of our class work is to spend time in small groups sharing with one another about what we have experienced. In this way the plusses and minuses of the experience benefit everyone.

    B. Participant Observation/Ethnography:

    In preparing people for Cross-Cultural Church experience I try to teach my students the basic skills of the classical Anthropological discipline of participant observation. In its current academic form this discipline often has a profound impact on the lives of its practitioners. As prepare students to experiment with this discipline, I go to great lengths in trying to help students to sense the kinship between the work of the ethnographer and the work of Jestß people. The ethnographer’s job is to find her way into strange and different communities, to build relationships there and become a student of those people and those communities, valuing their uniqueness as humans, and treasuring the uniqueness of their way of life together. The task of the ethnographer is also to empathize with the people and the culture they are studying, seeking to get in touch with the special values, convictions, beliefs, knowledge, aesthetics and joys of a culture, as well as the strains, pains and traumas of life in the community concerned.

    For followers of Jesus much in this picture is the same. In fact we could readily depict the life and ministry of Jesus as a whole series of steps or initiatives that Jesus takes to reach across one chasm after another, to transcend some frontier after another, both within the Jewish community and beyond it. Often these boundaries and frontiers were painful markers of exclusion for groups of people–sick people, the “people of the land,” poor people whose work rendered “unclean,” people of mixed blood, and foreigners. Not only is Jesus constantly reaching across such frontiers to humanize persons who have been dehumanized by exclusion and misunderstanding of who God is, he makes manifest Gods grace in amazing and powerful ways.

    When I send people out on a Cross-Cultural Church Experience assignment, I tell them to expect to sense in their efforts the presence and power of the Spirit of Jesus as they seek to find connections with the community they want to study. Jesus by the presence and power of his Spirit enables us to love these people, to build bridges, and make connections in ways that go beyond our normal inclinations and perceived abilities. I teach them to pray for, look for and expect the openings the Spirit provides as they seek to build relationships. further encourage them to expect to find signs of God’s presence and action in the community they are studying.

    A part of the ethnographic assignment is to study a church in the community and to observe how it interacts with its surroundings, engaging (or not) the realities of everyday life there. In addition I always ask my students to keep a personal journal, separate from their field notes. Regular entries in this personal journal provide a place to reflect on personal dynamics of cross-cultural experience, as well as the spiritual dynamics.

    But the key element of these assignments is to provide opportunities and encouragement to experiment, without determining what the outcome should be. The idea is that God is at work with every person and in every community. Jesus wants to work through his disciples to build bridges, make connections, transcend barriers, treasure strangers and aliens, and make peace.

    C, Healing/GestaIt Pastoral Care:

    It took some very painful family struggle with illness for me to realize that no instruction to his disciples was more prominent than Jesus’ instruction in the synoptic proto-commissions to heal the sick as they announced the arrival of God’s reign. I teach a course called Healing Ministry in Christian Mission. It is premised on my conviction that we must not allow dispensationalism of any sort to drive a wedge between things which in Jesus’ ministry were inseparable. There are many things I could say about this course. I will point to one thing. If Anabaptists are people who obey Jesus, even when the instruction is bizarre or impossible, then we cannot ignore Jesus command to heal the sick. For me personally it has been my struggle with this instruction, impossible as it is, that has driven me to focus so strongly on the idea of a spirituality of collaboration with Jesus in all areas of mission and ministry.

    This course is a hands-on course. We try to minister healing to sick people–to students themselves or to others they or I bring for ministry. r know of no kind of learning experience that has the potential for dramatic change in people’s lives than to be encouraged to place your hands on someone who is sick, or to anoint them with oil, in the expectation that what we do will be part of what God is doing.

    I have also facilitated a special course, not an official seminary course, taught by Tilda Norberg, which she now calls Gestalt Pastoral Care (formerly Gestalt Psychotherapy and Healing Prayer). A major focus of that course is to teach students to get on board with what is going on in the life of the person receiving ministry and at the same time seek to help them get in the flow of what God wants to do in their lives.

    There could be some stories here. Suffice it to say that my hope is that through the experiences of these classes students develop a hunger and thirst for continuing partnership with God in God’s mission in the world.

    1 The Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing: for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise (John 5:19). Then Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine but his who sent me (John 7:16). “So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me. And the one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him” (John 8:28-29). “For I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak” (John. 12:49).

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  • The Global Anabaptist Peace Network (GAPN) is a network that seeks to connect and support peace organizations (agencies, schools, training programs, research projects, think-tanks, activist-focused initiatives, activists, scholars) that have emerged from and serve our global Anabaptist-Mennonite church communion. Our hope is to provide a supportive community as we work together at making our world a better and more just place. We want to help one another in embodying and witnessing to justice, peace, and reconciliation. 

    In our pursuit of these goals, the GAPN seeks to: 

    • Connect the “fruit” of our Mennonite World Conference related churches and walk in solidarity with, and support, one another.
    • Strengthen the church and communities of peace and justice in our world and for the world.
    • Create opportunities to explore what it means to be dedicated to Jesus’ way of peace. 
    • Nourish our Anabaptist-Mennonite Christian identity and our peace consciousness.

    In seeking the above goals, the GAPN provides the following in our ongoing communal effort in being agents of peace and justice: 

    1. Sharing news and resources: we share and provide information, prayer requests, and resources (such as training and educational material) among member organizations.
    2. Connect: we want to connect and learn from one another. In order to foster this connection, we help to provide and map organizational presence and activity and share that with member organizations. 
    3. Create spaces: we create spaces whereby member organizations can connect, learn, and be transformed through gatherings and opportunities to come together. The GAPN supports and facilitates spaces for members to meet, share, learn from one another, and connect, both incarnationally (i.e., in face-to-face gatherings) as well as virtually. 

    We welcome your involvement in the GAPN! Please fill out this form and return it as indicated.

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  • During the past two years, MWC asked member conferences for accounts of experiences in peacemaking. MWC’s Peace Council considered these stories during two days of meeting in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, in August 2003. The following summary was developed out of that discussion.

    1. Continuum of peacemaking activities:

    All Christians are called to be peacemakers, but this can happen on a variety of levels. The Peace Council discussion identified the following levels, acknowledging that this is not an exhaustive list:

    a. Peace with God: individual con-version creates a new person who can live at peace. This is the base for all the other levels of peacemaking.

    b. Peace within one’s self: self-esteem and integrity are important components of peacemaking.

    c. Peace within the family: churches work with family life and relationships and with issues of domestic violence.

    d. Peacemaking within congregations and conferences: churches have dealt with internal conflicts.

    e. Peacemaking with neighbours: churches have worked at solving conflicts with others and among groups in their communities.

    f. Peacemaking with other Christians: conversation and witness reaches across historical divisions.

    g. Peacemaking with members of other faiths: churches struggle with questions of how to relate with respect and witness with integrity.

    h. Peacemaking within nations and between nations: churches have worked for peace on national and international levels.

    i. Peacemaking with the environment: churches strive to live in ways that care for the earth.

    j. Peacemaking with enemies: at all levels of relationship, this is a spiritual challenge.

    2. Biblical virtues that undergird peacemaking:

    The peacemaking activities of churches grow out of their reading of the Bible. A number of biblical virtues serve as a basis for peacemaking:  

    • liberty
    • self-esteem
    • love
    • repentance
    • corporate-ness
    • suffering (including patience, forbearance, and endurance)
    • reconciliation (which includes restoration)
    • justice and peace held together
    • confrontation of injustice
    • joy
    • courage
    • humility
    • forgiveness
    • witnessing

    3. Practices that form Christians as peacemakers:

    Peace Council participants noted these practices that instill peacemaking as a habitual practice for Christians:

    a. Catechizing and discipling: the Christians’ identity as peacemakers is imparted in the way churches teach and receive new members.

    b. Worship: peacemaking identity and habits are instilled in the way congregations worship God.

    c. Prayer: peacemaking habits are engendered by prayer and the spiritual disciplines. Witness to the powers can also be considered as prayer.

    d. Christian education: this shapes peacemakers; Christian education should include specific training for all ages, including church leadership, in peacemaking skills.

    e. Voluntary service: these activities can help young Christians learn peacemaking as they do it.

    f. Global awareness: this expands understanding of those beyond our boundaries; global awareness should include awareness of inter-ethnic and inter-faith differences.

    g. Non-violent action: advocacy to those in power and actions that confront injustice help Christians develop peacemaking skills.

    4. Recommendations to MWC:

    The Peace Council participants encouraged MWC to continue making peace a central part of conversation between member churches. To help this happen, the council made these recommendations:

    a. MWC should encourage all member churches to find ways to cooperate with other Christian churches and groups in their contexts in peacemaking efforts, with special attention to activities of churches in the United Nations’ Decade to Overcome Violence.

    b. MWC should designate one Sunday each year as a global peace Sunday, encouraging member churches to hold special worship services around, similar to what is now done for the World Fellowship Sunday. Suggested worship materials should be provided for this day.

    c. The next MWC world assembly should have one day or one worship service with a theme of peace. This could include sharing stories from around the world of ways in which churches are working for peace.

    Courier, Volume 19, volume 3, 2004

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  • Strengths of Consensus (“becoming of one mind”) Decision-Making

    Consensus, a way of making decisions without voting, can enhance the participation of all members in General Council meetings, provide a collaborative and harmonious context for making decisions, and enable representatives to discern together the will of God (Eph. 5:17) for the church and for MWC.

    • Coming to agreement through honest, respectful discussion is a widely understood and accepted procedure.
    • It encourages consultation, exploration, questioning and prayerful reflection (not adversarial).
    • It values and seeks to utilize the experience and perspective of all members.
    • It seeks to hear, understand and respect all concerns and points of view.
    • It encourages participation by all churches in shaping the decision.
    • It facilitates churches learning from each other and deepening their communion with one another.

    Steps in Coming to Consensus

    These guidelines describe typical steps that are used in making decisions by consensus. Not every step may be appropriate for every meeting or decision but it will be helpful to follow these guidelines as closely as possible. Often one step merges with the next without a clear break in the flow of the meeting. Nonetheless, each step is part of the progression towards reaching consensus.

    1. Information

    1.1  Presenting an issue: Background information on why an issue is being raised, information that will help understand the issue, information that shows the range of possible perspectives and a proposed course of action are provided to GC members and are generally sent prior to the meeting.

    1.2  Clarification of the issue: When an issue is introduced at a meeting, members of the Council are free to seek clarification, to ask questions on the issue and to seek information from differing viewpoints.

    2. Deliberation

    2.1  Open discussion, deliberation: Discussion of the various viewpoints and vigorous debate around different opinions are encouraged. At the conclusion of a speech or a period of discussion, those in general agreement will display orange cards while those in general disagreement display blue cards. If cards are not easily visible to all present, the chairperson advises the Council on the proportion of each being shown. As an indication of opinion that the Council should move on to the next step in the business procedures, members may display their orange and blue cards crossed, so the chairperson can see both together. This indication may be given both during and after speeches. These indications help avoid repetitious speeches, enable the chairperson to gauge the strength of feeling for various ideas, or indicate whether consensus is emerging.

    2.2 Developing proposals: As open discussion proceeds, several specific proposals may emerge or general agreement with the initial proposal may be expressed. Small group work, either formally structured or through brief buzz groups with immediate neighbors, is often a fruitful way of drawing on individual insights to resolve the issue. Small group work enables participation of all members in the deliberations. If the issue is straightforward and the number of ideas for its possible resolution is small, the chairperson or any other member of the Council may summarize a firm proposal for discussion. However, it may be necessary to refer all the ideas to a Facilitation Group to draw together responses and to negotiate a firm proposal for the Council to consider.

    3. Decision

    3.1  Discussion of a specific proposal: In this step, various speakers speak to the benefits and disadvantages of the proposal. It is important to hear from those with enthusiasm for the proposal as well as from those indicating disquiet or disapproval. Members are encouraged to indicate their agreement or disagreement by use of the colored cards. Minor changes of wording may be agreed by the Council from time to time as viewpoints are heard and considered.

    From time to time, the chairperson may check whether the Council is nearing consensus by summing up where it seems the Council is heading and asking: ÒWhat is your response to this proposal?Ó Colored card response will indicate whether more discussion is desired by the Council.

    3.2  Checking for consensus: When the chairperson believes that consensus has been reached (to support or to not support), the Council is asked to affirm this. The chairperson states an understanding of the position reached and asks for an indication of agreement or disagreement (raised cards, voices or show of hands). Typical questions could be:

    • “Do you believe we have consensus in support of this proposal?” or
    • “Do you believe we have consensus to not support this proposal?”

    If there is no strong response to this checking for consensus, discussion may continue to enable doubts and questions to be raised and further viewpoints to be shared. If there is unanimity to support or to not support the proposal, then consensus has been reached and the Council proceeds to the declaration of the consensus result (see paragraph 3.3).

    However, there is a third possibility. After vigorous sharing of ideas, there may be strong but not unanimous support for the proposal. In order to estimate the strength of opinion, the chairperson may ask questions such as:

    • “Who supports the proposal?”
    • “Who does not support the proposal as your first option, but is prepared to accept it?”
    • “Who is not prepared to accept the proposal?” If there is no response to this question, the chairperson may ask the Council:
    • “Is further discussion needed?”
    • “Are you prepared to have the issue declared resolved by consensus?”

    If all agree that consensus has been reached the Council moves to step 3.3.

    If some are still not able to accept the proposal the chairperson invites these people to share their misgivings directly with the whole Council and discussion can continue. Where a small number is unable to agree with the majority after a reasonable time, the Council may move on to the procedures outlined in paragraph 3.4. Skillful chairing is necessary here, to enable the Council to avoid undue delay.

    There may be some who are uneasy about a proposed way forward, yet not able to verbalize their concerns. The prompting of the Spirit may be expressed in disquiet as much as in creative suggestions for wording a proposal. All people are worthy of respect as they indicate their position, and no one should feel pressured into agreeing with a position against their better judgment.

    3.3  Declaration of consensus: On the affirmation of consensus, by whatever means is considered appropriate (cards, voices or show of hands), the chairperson declares the proposal resolved (either approved or disapproved) by consensus.

    3.4  If objections persist: Sharing misgivings about the proposal may clarify concerns or result in minor changes that bring support or acceptance of the proposal. The Council may express its support or disapproval for any minor wording changes, and the process can proceed towards a declaration of consensus. If concerns expressed indicate that further discussion is required the process proceeds as indicated in paragraph 3.1. If objections or disagreements surface that affect the wording of the proposal in a major way it may be possible for an amended proposal to be considered by the Council (see paragraph 2.2), or a Facilitation Group may need to rework the proposal and bring it back to the Council. In this case, the process returns to the steps outlined in paragraph 2.2.

    At this late stage in the process it is possible that a major consideration may be aired which was missed by everyone. Where the chairperson considers this to be the case, the process returns to the clarification of issues stage (paragraph 1.2), allowing development of the new point and appropriate discussion of the attendant issues.

    3.5  Agreement – not unanimity: If (after careful attempts to work towards consensus) there is a small number who are unable to support or accept the majority position, the chairperson may ask:

    • “Do those unable to support the proposal and not prepared to accept it, believe your point of view has been listened to, even though you don’t agree with the proposal and are not able to accept it?”
    • “Do those who support or who are prepared to accept this proposal believe you have heard what the others of our Council are saying?”

    If there is assurance that dissenting views have been both expressed and understood, the chairperson may ask for an indication of viewpoints on these two questions:

    • “Are those who are in the minority on this proposal prepared to live with the majority view and allow the Council to record an agreement?”
    • “Does the Council therefore wish to record agreement on this proposal?”?Ó

    If no person indicates against these two questions, then agreement is recorded. If one or more indicates against either of the two questions, then the Council proceeds to the next step (paragraph 3.6).

    3.6  Need for a decision now: If consensus on the issue is not reached the Council discusses by consensus procedures the need for a decision at this meeting. If there is no consensus after a reasonable length of time that a decision must be made at this meeting the chairperson implements the formal voting procedure (paragraph 3.7). If the Council does not agree that a decision is required at this meeting, there is opportunity for further work and the process may continue in accordance with the options in paragraph 3.8.

    3.7  Decision by formal majority: If there is consensus that a decision is necessary now, or the chairperson implements the formal voting procedure, the Council moves immediately to final discussion of the proposal and decides the matter by formal majority vote.

    3.8  Further possibilities: In any decision session where the Council has not reached consensus or agreement on a proposal, or where it has resolved that a final decision on a proposal is not needed at this meeting, options that may be considered include: a) referring the issue to the Executive Committee for determination; b) referring the issue back to the original party or to another special group for further consideration and later re-submission to the Council; or c) deciding that the matter be no longer considered.

    In one of these ways, the issue is dealt with and is not left pending. Even a decision that the matter be no longer considered must indicate the reason for its lapsing, perhaps leaving the door open for further research and presentation, or closing the door firmly and stating the reasons for so doing.

    In cases where consensus is difficult it is incumbent on those with concerns to work closely with those who initiate the issue to find creative ways of moving forward, not just exert veto power by refusing to cooperate.

     

    Based on “A Manuel for Meetings”, The United Church in Australia Assembly, 2001, Callingwood, Australia, pp. 25-30.

    MWC Reference Notebook 6.0 Guidelines / 6.2 Making Decisions by Consensus Guidelines
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  • A teaching resource from the Faith and Life Commission

    What does it mean for member churches of Mennonite World Conference to share an Anabaptist identity? What is the value of Anabaptist “tradition” – and what does that word mean in a global context? What are our Anabaptist understandings of mission and fellowship?

    In 2009, the newly appointed Faith and Life Commission was asked to produce three papers that could be used in helping MWC communities reflect on such questions:

    • “A Holistic Understanding of Fellowship, Worship, Service, and Witness from an Anabaptist Perspective” by Alfred Neufeld Friesen of Paraguay;
    • “The ‘Anabaptist Tradition’ – Reclaiming its Gifts, Heeding its Weaknesses” by Hanspeter Jecker of Switzerland; and
    • “Koinonia – The Gift We Hold Together” by Tom Yoder Neufeld of Canada.

    All three papers were approved as a teaching resource by the MWC General Council in May 2012.

    The word koinonia has rightly become a central term and concept for Mennonite World Conference. In addresses, publications and programmatic efforts, leaders have been nudging the global Anabaptist community to a deeper relationship with each other. Even when we don’t use the word koinonia itself, much of the terminology we use depends on it: meeting needs, mutual encouragement, gift giving and receiving, fellowship, interdependence, solidarity, consensus, communion, community, unity, being “together”…

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    Faith & Life Commission

  • A teaching resource from the Faith & Life commission

    Mennonite World Conference embarked on the first formal dialogue process with the Baptist World Alliance in 1989. Since then, MWC has entered into conversations with Lutheran World Federation, Seventh Day Adventists, Catholics, and, most recently, a five-year trilateral dialogue with Lutherans and Catholics. Seeing the value of these dialogues, the Faith and Life Commission developed this document to give MWC national churches and local congregations a better understanding of the theological basis for ecumenical hospitality and why we think such conversations are consistent with Anabaptist values.

    The document was approved as an MWC teaching resource by the General Council in Limuru, Kenya, April 2018.

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    Faith & Life Commission

  • Presented to the General Council of Mennonite World Conference Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA, July 2015
    By Alfred Neufeldof Paraguay

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  • *Revised

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  • Guide for study and reflection on

    Baptism and Incorporation into the Body of Christ, the Church: The Report of the Trilateral Conversations between Lutherans, Mennonites and Catholics 2012-2017

    by Thomas R Yoder Neufeld, on behalf of the Faith and Life Commission

    This study guide is an aid for member churches of the Mennonite World Conference to receive and process the “Report” (The Report of the Trilateral Conversations between Lutherans, Mennonites, and Catholics, 2012-2017) on the trilateral conversations on baptism. It has been prepared on behalf of the Mennonite World Conference (MWC) Faith and Life Commission (FLC) by Thomas Yoder Neufeld, Chair of the FLC, with the benefit of consultation with numerous persons in MWC, the FLC and participants in the Trilateral Conversations.

    This guide is not a replacement for the rich and carefully worded Report. By distilling the content and adhering to the structure of the Report the guide provides an outline or road map. Readers of the guide are thus directed to the numbered paragraphs in the Report itself (e.g. [§ 120]). Quotation marks identify when specific words or phrases are taken from the Report.

    The guide adheres to the structure of the Report:

    • Chapter One focuses on the relationship of baptism to sin and grace [§§ 7-54]
    • Chapter Two on communicating grace and faith in relation to baptism [§§ 55-83]
    • Chapter Three on baptism and discipleship [§§ 84-112].
    • The Conclusion identifies the convictions, gifts,challenges and considerations [§§ 113-164].

    Throughout the guide readers will find questions for reflection on and testing of the Report. In keeping with the intentions of the participants in the Trilateral Conversations, the questions are intended to lead to a deepening of commitment to baptism and discipleship. Readers are, of course, not limited to these questions.

    We give thanks to and for the MWC delegates to the Trilateral Conversations:

    • †Alfred Neufeld Friesen (Paraguay),
    • co-chair; Larry Miller (France/USA),
    • co-secretary; Fernando Enns (Germany);
    • Rebecca Osiro (Kenya); and
    • John D. Rempel (Canada).

    We give thanks also for the Catholic and Lutheran conversation partners who journeyed the path of unity in Christ together with them.

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  • A Statement of the MWC Mission Commission

    God is a missionary God. Jesus is a missionary Lord. The Holy Spirit is a missionary empowerer. The entire Bible is a missional book. The whole church is a missional people.

    Therefore, by the grace of God, as an Anabaptist faith community

    1. ORIGINS

    We lead people to know God as Father, the Creator who initiated in Christ a loving, comprehensive plan to restore peace to the universe.

    2. MEANS and MODEL

    We announce Jesus, the Son of God, as both the means and the incarnate model by which God restores peace. It is through Jesus’ life, teachings, death, and resurrection that the door opens to reconciliation, redemption, new creation, and eternal life. Incarnational witness and service is our model for mission.

    3. POWER

    We walk in the power of the Holy Spirit in word, deed, and being. We live and proclaim the kingdom of God, forgiving, teaching, healing, casting out evil spirits, and embodying suffering love.

    4. MESSAGE

    We invite all people to acknowledge Jesus as Lord, turn from sin, receive baptism upon confession of faith, and follow him in life as part of the worshiping, serving community of faith. This community is itself a sign to the world. We announce God’s kingdom by serving others with humility and gratitude, caring for creation, and seeking to live in the world without conforming to the powers of evil.

    5. SCOPE and TASK

    We go beyond our communities as witnesses, following Jesus’ instructions to make disciples of all peoples. We form new communities of believers, transcending boundaries of nationality, culture, class, gender, and language. Because we believe that God has created and blessed cultural variety, we expect new forms of the church to emerge as we go.

    6. RISK and SUFFERING

    We trust God in all areas of life, living as peacemakers who renounce violence, love our enemies, seek justice, and focus especially on serving and reaching out to the weak, poor, vulnerable, voiceless, and oppressed. Because Jesus Christ suffered for us, we also accept risk and suffering for his sake.

    7. TEXT

    We hold and share the Bible as our authority for faith, life, and mission. The Holy Spirit within and among us is the primary interpreter of the Word.

    8. WORSHIP

    We gather regularly to worship, celebrate the Lord’s Supper, and hear and respond to the Word of God in mutual accountability. Our worship is an integral part of equipping us to participate in God’s mission.

    9. UNITY and RESPECT

    We promote the unity of all Christians as part of our witness, and we respect the people of other faith traditions as we share the hope that is within us.

    10. FULFILLMENT

    We eagerly await Christ’s return and anticipate the final fulfillment of God’s kingdom when people of every tribe, tongue, and nation gather in worship around the throne of God and of the Lamb.

    21 March 2014, in session at Dopersduin, Schoorl, Holland

    Book: God’s People in Mission: An Anabaptist Perspective

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  • Biblical Foundations

    1. Throughout the whole Bible, we see God working in history to create a faithful people, a people comprising members “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.” (Genesis 15:5; 17:4-7; Revelation 7:9)
    2. When Jesus met with his disciples near the end of his earthly life, Jesus prayed that those who would follow him “might be one.” (John 17:20-23)
    3. In his ministry, the Apostle Paul worked ceaselessly for unit y, even in situations of serious division and among those whose doctrines he saw as misguided and wrong.
      (1 Corinthians 1:12-13; Romans 12:1-15; 13; Philippians 2)
    4. We see Christian unity, therefore, not as an option we might choose or as an outcome we could create, but as an urgent imperative to be obeyed.

    Our Situation

    1. As Mennonites and Brethren in Christ, we give thanks to God for brothers and sisters of other traditions around the globe who accept the claims of Scripture and seek to live as followers of our Lord.
    2. We confess that we have not done all we could have to follow God’s call to relate in love and mutual counsel with other brothers and sisters who confess the name of Jesus Christ as Lord and who seek to follow him.
    3. We have seen peacemaking and reconciliation as callings of all Christian disciples, but we confess that we have not done all we could have to overcome divisions within our circles and to work toward unit y with other brothers and sisters.
    4. We recognize that we find our identity and mission, not in isolation, but in interaction with others with whom God has placed us as fellow inhabitants of God’ s world in this time and place.
    5. As members of the Mennonite World Conference family, we recognize that God has given us some unique faith experiences and insights we can contribute to other Christians.
    6. We recognize that there is much we can learn from Christians of other traditions.
    7. We recognize that our relationships with others will be strengthened as we become more secure and more firmly grounded in our faith.
    8. Confessions of faith have been prepared by many of our conferences; we appreciate the opportunities they provide for sharing our understandings with one another and strengthening each other in our Christian faithfulness.

    Cooperative Efforts

    1. We should not refuse to witness and serve in some ways with others just because we cannot do everything with them. In such cooperative efforts, we should not go beyond the extent of the unity we have found and thereby depreciate the meaning of truth and unity.

    Present and Future Relationships

    1. We give thanks for the relationships many of our members and congregations have with Christian brothers and sisters in their local communities.
    2. We are grateful for the Mennonite and Brethren in Christ groups who actively participate in global, national, and local inter-confessional church fellowships and councils; we encourage consideration of such relationships where it is discerned that these can further unity and common witness.
    3. We seek to be sensitive to the ways our relationships with others are affected by the different contexts in which we find ourselves around the world, with differing memories of past experiences, experiences of present persecution, situations with respect to the relative sizes of conversation partners, power balance factors, etc.
    4. The Mennonite World Conference and national conference groups can help our churches by providing written materials and leadership to guide existing and new conversations and relationships with other traditions and movements, and to deepen our understanding of the faith we confess.
    5. Biblical studies and fresh accounts of our common history of Anabaptists who took the initiative in seeking to relate to others would help ground us for the initiatives we need to take today.

    Prayer for Renewal

    1. With other believers around the world, we pray for the leading and renewal of the Holy Spirit as we seek to be God’s faithful people in our time:

    “Renew your church, O Lord, and make us instruments of your peace! “

    Date Adopted: 22 July 1998
    Adopted By: MWC Executive Committee and MC-GC Interchurch Relations Committee
    Location Adopted: Goshen, Indiana, USA

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