In these last few years that I’ve been involved with Mennonite World Conference and particularly the Young AnaBaptists (or YABs) it has been awesome to connect with people from around the world and be enriched by their perspectives and ways of living their faith. This has opened my eyes and shown me Jesus in a way I hadn’t seen him before.
Today I want to share with you a testimony of how I’ve seen God move in a special way.
In Uruguay, we have beautiful beaches, and most Uruguayans love to take time off during the summer to go to the beach.
This is a time to unplug and rest, but also a time to party for most of the young people. And in church it is also a great time to do something cool with our youth because the pressure to go partying is huge.
So, we organize summer camps – one for the teenagers and one for the young adults of our Mennonite conference. Every year, around 40 teens and almost 100 young adults attend our camps which happen at a campsite right next to the beach! (This is awesome, as we can go to the beach at least twice a day.)
This is now the second year that I’ve led these camps with a friend, and it’s been a huge blessing.
Deep and nourishing chats
During the camp, I had several very deep and nourishing chats with some of the participants, which were often a great blessing to both of us.
One conversation in particular stood out for me. A girl came up to me one afternoon and asked if she could speak with me. I agreed and we sat in the grass in the shadow of one of the trees. She shared with me part of the story of her life and how she’d lately been very hesitant to accept Jesus as her Saviour because she didn’t feel ready. After hearing the messages at the camp, talking to our guest speaker and some others she had concluded that the gospel is much simpler than she thought, and she wanted to make the step to accept Jesus into her life.
I had the huge privilege of helping her make that prayer! And around a month later I received an invitation to attend her baptism. It was such an honour to be a part of it.
Another amazing experience was in our youth camp. On the first day the guest speaker conveyed the importance of sharing what we’re going through with others. Through an interactive activity he showed that everyone is being challenged, that it’s ok not to be ok, and to share this with others for support. This was super nourishing for everyone.
Sharing with others for support
In particular, I was amazed by how a small group of boys of around 13-14 years old immediately took action. All participants had to get up at 7:15 in the morning for morning sport. But from that day on till the end of camp, they got up at 6:00 a.m. They prepared their maté, talked about their challenges, and then discussed ways to build each other up and achieve their goals.
Seeing the fruits of all the previous work is amazing because before the camps, the entire team felt opposition. I faced a lot of challenges, struggling again with things I thought I had already won. But thanks to Jesus who kept inviting us to see all that he was about to do!
I think a verse that reflects pretty well what we experienced during this time is John 10:10: “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life” (NLT).
Through this challenging time, I was able to see a glimpse of the rich and satisfying life that God has prepared for our youth and young adults and also even for myself.
—Valentina Kunze is the Young AnaBaptists (YABs) representative for Latin America. She is a member of Konferenz der Mennonitengemeinden in Uruguay.
This article is adapted from the speech she presented at Renewal 2024, “Transformed, together we live Jesus” 6 April 2024 in Brazil.
ELKHART, Indiana (Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary) — A collaboration formalized in 2020 between Mennonite World Conference (MWC) and Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) in Elkhart, Indiana, USA, is opening doors for people across the world to gain Anabaptist pastoral and leadership education.
Through existing programs and new initiatives, pastors and church leaders are taking both for-credit and noncredit AMBS courses in biblical and theological studies, ministry and church history in their home countries.
MWC General Secretary César García, PhD, described the collaboration as a response to a 2003 call for “sharing of gifts” among MWC member churches. AMBS is owned by Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite Church USA — two of MWC’s 108 member churches.
Through AMBS’s connection with MWC, the seminary has been receiving a growing number of invitations from national church leaders to support the formation of Anabaptist leaders in their contexts. This has led to increased sharing of gifts as MWC member churches and other Anabaptist organizations have joined with AMBS in response. The seminary’s Forming Leaders Together campaign has been helping fund these collaborative efforts as well.
For example, in October 2023, Andi Santoso (MA 2022), Regional Director for Asia and the Middle East for Mennonite Mission Network (MMN); Joe Sawatzky, PhD (MDiv 2005), AMBS Global Leadership Collaborative Project Specialist, also of MMN; and David Boshart, PhD, AMBS President, were invited to teach a three-day course on leadership for about 30 students from five Anabaptist conferences in India. Each conference sent two women, two men and at least one youth to be trained to teach the material in their area going forward.
“We tested the materials with the leaders in advance and then revised them for contextual relevance, providing spaces in the curriculum for trainers to include case material from their local context,” Boshart said. “This material now belongs to these churches to use and adapt in ways that are most helpful in their settings.”
A partnership formalized in 2019 between AMBS and Meserete Kristos Seminary (MKS: Ethiopian Mennonite Seminary) in Bishoftu/Debre Zeit, Ethiopia, also has been strengthened through AMBS’s relationship with MWC. Together, MKS and AMBS leaders created a customized version of AMBS’s Master of Arts: Theology and Global Anabaptism to educate leaders for the Meserete Kristos Church. The students take a combination of semester-long online courses and short-term intensive courses adapted for the Ethiopian context and taught in person at MKS by AMBS professors. The program has 29 students; the first seven students graduated in 2023.
“Engaging with churches and emerging leaders in context strengthens our Teaching Faculty members because they are gaining broader exposure and appreciation for the global Anabaptist community, especially in the Global South,” Boshart noted.
—Annette Brill Bergstresser is Communications manager at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS), a learning community located in Elkhart, Indiana, USA, on ancestral land of the Potawatomi and Miami peoples. AMBS offers theological education for learners both on campus and at a distance and a wide array of lifelong learning programs — all with the goal of educating followers of Jesus Christ to be leaders for God’s reconciling mission in the world. ambs.edu
About the Faith & Life Commission
Anabaptist churches around the world live their faith diversely, addressing local challenges and opportunities while adhering to Shared Convictions.
The Faith & Life Commission enables MWC member churches to receive and provide counsel on Christian faith and practice, as well as on Anabaptist witness in the world today. This Commission encourages MWC member churches to develop relationships of mutual accountability regarding the convictions they hold and in the lives they live – locally, internationally and cross-culturally.
“The Faith & Life Commission is one nerve centre among many by which we do not ‘build the koinonia’ but tend, nurture and maintain the unity the Spirit creates. We thus hope in our small way not to impede, but to speed the signals the life-giving Spirit is sending along to the various parts of the body, or mosaic, to mix metaphors,” says Thomas R Yoder Neufeld, Faith and Life Commission chair.
What does the Faith & Life Commission do?
Members of Faith & Life and some other MWC representatives have engaged in dialogue with World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC). After years of planning, this process got underway in March 2023 in Canada.
Dialogue members have collaborated on a statement for the Zurich 2025 ecumenical worship service in Zurich, Switzerland. It will include remembering the past, lament for division and persecution, gratitude for steps toward reconciliation, desire to live in unity and commitment to common witness and engagement in justice and peace.
In the past year, Faith & Life has been sharing stories about entry into the global Anabaptist tradition and what the challenges are to unity in our various regions. These stories nurture initiatives to support member churches in living out unity in an increasingly polarized world.
In 2023, the Global Anabaptist Education Networks (GAEN) entered a relationship with the Faith & Life Commission, with two of its members becoming part of the Commission, pending General Council approval in 2025.
“Education networks are key to transmitting Faith & Life Commission resources to GAEN member schools, and supporting its goal of strengthening the church through Christ-centred faith formation,” says Anicka Fast.
Plans for the next year
Leading up to the commemoration of 500 years of Anabaptism in 2025, Faith & Life is envisioning some workshops for the General Council meetings in Germany in May 2025. The workshop materials will be made available to all churches after the meetings.
A major focus of the workshops will be on baptism, both because it’s the 500th anniversary of the first “believers baptism” in Zurich, and because Faith & Life has been centrally involved in helping MWC member churches engage the materials coming out of the Trilateral Dialogue on baptism.
“Most importantly, we want to encourage our churches to take this as an opportunity to strengthen and deepen our understanding and practice of baptism, especially its relationship to grounding our discipleship,” says Thomas R. Yoder Neufeld.
Other than baptism, two increasingly urgent topics will be on the Commission’s scope:
Unity in diversity – continuing to work at helping our communion of churches deal with the real challenges of being one in the face of great diversity.
Creation care – in the urgent pressure that the climate crisis brings, Faith & Life sees an urgency to extend beyond human relationships. Sustainable ways of living are an issue of faith and life.
“We are seeking ways to help our church family to engage with creation, as per God’s mandate for people to work it and take care of it in Genesis 2:15. We will be publishing a brief document on this topic this year,” says Anicka Fast.
“We have also been listening to Commission members emphasizing the importance of producing theological resources for the global church that respond to felt needs especially in the Global South. Within this are some passionate discussions about how to connect these theological resources with today’s youth and young adults. We hope to work at this in collaboration with GAEN and the Creation Care Task Force,” says Anicka Fast.
“In essence, we are helping churches to be faithful in discipleship and to learn to live with diversity. Since the church is God’s peacebuilding project, everything we do to assist the church to be more faithful is peacebuilding. In this way, Faith & Life lives the MWC tagline Following Jesus, Living Out Unity, and Building Peace,” says Thomas R. Yoder Neufeld.
“Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind so that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2 (NRSVUE).
Renewal is the name that Mennonite World Conference has given to a decade of regional events around the memory of the five centuries of our existence as a community of faith.
We are approaching these 10 years of commemorations by focusing on our history from a global, ecumenical and transcultural perspective.
These words from the apostle Paul help us to remember the past and look toward the future.
We express gratitude to God for inheritance of the faith we have received.
But we also come before the Lord in a spirit of repentance and renewal, committed to learning from the past to grow in our relationship with God both here and now and in the years to come.
Transformation
We explore how our Anabaptist tradition has understood discipleship as an ongoing process of transformation.
First: transformation is a journey where we leave things behind and take other new things along the way.
It implies continuous movement. We constantly abandon a place and move forward. We move against the religious spirit that affirms absolute certainty of doctrines, dogmas and ethics, we affirm the need to renew our minds, therefore being open to challenging beliefs and ethics as our spiritual ancestors did in the 16th century.
Second: transformation in the Bible is never an individualistic experience.
It is always communal. We do it together because it requires dialogue and interdependency.
Our community’s diversity of positions allows us to correct the direction we are taking in the transformation process.
Focussed on Jesus
Our brothers and sisters help us discover those things we need to change, leave or incorporate to become like Jesus.
And that takes us to the third biblical comment or component of transformation: the person of Jesus.
Not all change is valid.
As followers of Jesus, we cannot support transformation in any direction. To be faithful disciples, changes in our beliefs and ethics must be made to make us similar to the character and person of Jesus.
As Paul says, “until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).
Transformation in unity is a challenge historically faced in the Anabaptist world. Too often renewal movements have faced rejection which has produced divisions. Transformation has not always been toward Jesus’ character.
So today we need to recover the vision of Mennonite World Conference:
We want to be a global church where we follow Jesus, live out unity and build peace.
We are a body of more than 10,000 local congregations in distributed in 110* national churches distributed around the world, with more than 1.5 million baptized believers. We need each other to be transformed to the image of Jesus.
As we thank God for opportunities to be transformed, let us also maintain an attitude of repentance for our divisions.
Let us ask for forgiveness for our hesitance to change.
Let us repent from our pride and the attitude of judging the transformation process of others instead of participating in it with love and patience.
Let’s seek the renewal from a contrite heart that recognizes its need for continuous transformation.
May we be transformed together into Jesus’ image.
—César García is general secretary of Mennonite World Conference. Originally from Colombia, he lives in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.
*Number of MWC member churches after Executive Committee meetings in Brazil, April 2024.
Netherlands
We live in a society – in Western Europe – that does not speak our language anymore. We have been the dominant culture for ages and ages…be it Roman Catholic, Protestant or Mennonite. The Christian language, Christian imagery, Christian norms and values were absolutely dominant within the Dutch culture. And within a generation that all disappeared.
Oh, of course, we had secularization before. It has been going on for a few decades. And we lived with it.
Our churches have always been small, our congregations too. We like that. We like to know each other.
But there was a turning point, apparently. And we reached it without actually noticing it. Some of us don’t even recognize it still.
It is not only about secularization. It is about a whole culture with all its references that disappears, in the blink of an eye.
But there it is: the people around us don’t understand us or our story anymore. It is like Pentecost in reverse. We speak and tell our story, using the same language as the people around us. But no one understands what we say. The words we use have no meaning – or even have another meaning to our listeners.
We are waking up in a strange, strange reality. Incomprehensible.
This is different than decline. This is a new world.
And I like it.
We are beyond trying to salvage what was. We are beyond trying to turn the tide. We are on the brink of re-inventing ourselves, our churches, our storytelling. We are on a route of discovery.
There is no fallback position. Not even our money can save us now. That is very, very scary.
And I like it.
Exile in our own land
This strips everything down to the bone. Even the gospel. We need to read it, study it, find it again. What is of worth? What is truth? What is tradition? What story? What are ancient answers to even older questions? And what still speaks to us, to our hearts, our souls now? We have to search ourselves, our motives, our confessions. There is no easy way out.
And that is the thing. Our growth must be measured spiritually for now. Not in numbers, but in gentle wisdom. In humanity. In community.
We need to delve deep. We need to sit with the loss of our being at home in this land, this world, this language and mourn that loss.
And the Bible will tell us how.
We have done this before. Different time, place, situation; same problem. We are in exile within our own land and continent: “Rivers of Babylon,” even if we are the only ones left that understand that reference (and we don’t mean the Boney M song).
And here we find new ways.
We don’t tell people about our faith. We live it.
A different world
A lot of our younger people have met the church through AKC – our summer camps. Not a word of gospel is uttered during these camps. But in these camps, we create a world that is utterly different from what these children and young adults know at home or at school. A healing space, without pressure or judgment. A space where they learn that the ways of this world around us may not be the final answer.
We don’t push, we don’t lecture. We have fun, we hold the space for them…and we wait.
At one point, they become curious. They start asking questions: what is so different here? And why?
In the broederschapshuis where I work, all sorts of people come and stay. We don’t share our faith unless asked. But we ask everybody to meet, to work together, to be part of our community while they stay.
In doing dishes together, we encounter God – or at least questions about God. In each question we try to find something that we can learn.
We don’t have answers any longer. But questions of people that don’t know about God or faith show us our way.
It touches me when a young volunteer at our broederschapshuis visits our church for the first time, finds the courage to stand up and testify: ‘There is something here. I don’t have the words for it yet, but it lives in my heart now.’
In our situation, that is a testimony of faith. Because it is true: we don’t have the words. Yet.
Our growth will not focus on numbers, but on being human-with-God. Our mission is our own finding of the Way. And in doing so, we try and live it out.
People notice. People ask questions. We try and answer them and we fail. And that is the beauty of it. That’s what keeps the conversation, the learning process going.
We will grow in not knowing at all. And being hesitantly fine with that.
Thanks be to God.
—Wieteke van der Molen is a pastor and spiritual director within the Algemene Doopsgezinde Sociëteit (Dutch Mennonite church). She is co-director of Dopersduin, a Mennonite Broederschapshuis (fellowship house) and retreat centre in Schoorl, Netherlands.
Why is the Meserete Kristos Church the fastest-growing Mennonite church?
Ethiopia is a multiethnic, multireligious and multilingual nation with more than 120 million people, the second most populated country in Africa. Located in northeast Africa, Ethiopia is a landlocked country.
European powers did not colonize Ethiopia. However, internal conflicts tore the country apart and broke it up along ethnic, religious and geographical lines. The civil wars crushed the economy of the country. Ethnic and religious conflicts damaged the social ties among diverse people groups and increased fear; intolerance and revenge are part of the life of the people. Some people think of poverty, war and family as the symbols of Ethiopia.
Yet people who lost hope get a sense of meaning and direction for their lives when they turn to the Creator of Heaven and Earth. When people believe in Jesus Christ, they not only receive the hope of eternal life but also a new lens of looking at their difficult circumstances to devise better coping mechanisms.
Our understanding of church growth
The Meserete Kristos Church (MKC) understands church growth in two dimensions.
First, church growth is a numerical increase of church members. Congregations are expected to add new believers every year as was practiced in the early church (Acts 2:47).
The second aspect is that the church’s growth is seen in the maturity of the spiritual life of believers. Believers who bear the fruit of the Spirit in their lives and follow the foosteps of Christ bring about positive influence in society. When people share the gospel with others through their practices in life, the possibility of people responding positively to the message increases.
The spiritual growth of individual believers and the growth of the church correlate.
Strategies for church growth
In the following pages, we will describe the 10 strategies/principles that helped MKC to grow fast in the post-Communist era (1991-2024).
1. Fervent prayers
MKC has used prayer as a spiritual weapon to overcome the power of the devil and free people from the bondage of sins. In prayers, we speak to God and listen as God speaks to us.
In all MKC congregations, prayer teams are praying for the church’s ministry, according to the topics they are given. The teams pray for the church to overcome the power of evil that holds people from hearing and believing in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
There are night-long prayer meetings of all members at the local church level. Full-time ministers spend significant time in prayers. Church leaders pray before business meetings. Believers pray believing that God is listening to them and responding to their prayers according to his will.
At MKC Head Office, a national prayer team meets every month for a day to pray for God to help the church reach out to the unreached people with the good news of Jesus Christ.
Many congregations pray for the salvation of people through the gospel of Jesus Christ using different approaches.
Some local congregations pray for unreached people groups during Sunday services. For instance, Tabour MKC in Hawassa city in the southern part of Ethiopia prepared posters of several ethnic groups, and each week, the poster of one of the ethnic groups is posted on the front stage of the church. The whole congregation prays for that ethnic group for 5-10 minutes.
2. Calling new people to believe in Jesus
“Dear preacher, when you finish your sermon, don’t forget to invite new people to accept the Lord.”
In every local MKC congregation, following the sermon of the Sunday service, the preacher calls new people to accept Christ as their Saviour and Lord. MKC believes that the Holy Spirit touches the hearts of people and convicts of their sins to repent and believe in Jesus. Therefore, preachers are vessels for the Holy Spirit to work.
Many new people believe in Jesus every Sunday. The congregation takes these new believers to the prayer room to pray for them. The evangelists take their physical address and telephone number to follow up. Then, they join the new believers’ class to learn basic Christian doctrines. When baptized, the evangelism department hands them to the pastoral department to provide appropriate pastoral ministry services.
It should be noted that calling people from the pulpit without having nonbelievers in the church is meaningless. Congregations remind members to invite and bring their friends, family members or colleagues to the Sunday service.
Pastor Deneke Hussein, General Secretary of Southern Ethiopia MKC Region, cites a recent encounter: after Sunday service, he went outside and saw a sad woman. He sensed the guidance of the Holy Spirit to talk to the woman. He greeted her and asked, “ You look unhappy, what happened?” The woman replied, “I was desperate about life and came to the church to hear God’s Word. I heard the message and was encouraged. However, no one talked to me.”
Pastor Deneke realized that the preacher did not invite people to come forward to accept Christ as their personal Saviour and Lord. He took her to the prayer room and formally asked her to accept Christ. The woman accepted Christ, was prayed for and connected to the evangelist of the congregation for further follow up.
One pastor from western Ethiopia says: “After a preacher has preached the gospel in a place where many people have gathered, not calling people who want to believe in the Lord Jesus is like planting a seed and refusing to harvest the fruit after it has ripened.”
3. Remaining small and growing
Photo: Liesa Unger
MKC’s policy states that a congregation with more than 1 000 members should be divided into two small congregations.1 From a practical point of view, small churches (with members below 1 000) can provide effective services to their members. Church members also know each other and can have a meaningful fellowship.
A mother church nurtures the new offspring church to become a full-fledged congregation. Then both the mother church and the offspring church continue to grow to bear other new congregations.
Pastor Sebrela Kedir, the MKC’s pastoral ministry department director says that when congregations have large membership, they cannot provide appropriate pastoral services to the members and mobilize all members towards a shared goal. “A pastor can feed and protect the flock well when the number is reasonable. If the church’s size is big, some members are astrayed.
“By keeping the size reasonable, MKC grows in quality and quantity. Disciples of Christ share the gospel with others faithfully,” he says.
4. The responsibility to share the gospel
Anyone who tasted Jesus is good should tell others what he/she tasted.
MKC states clearly that the church exists to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to all people and make them Christ’s disciples. MKC’s Constitution mentions the participation of church members in the holistic ministry of the church by serving the church in the spiritual gifts given to him/ her, prayers, professional advice/consulting, labour, wisdom and financial contributions.2
Before they become church members through water baptism, new believers are given lessons on what the church expects from them once they become full members.
One of the topics discussed is the concept of bringing other people to believe in Christ. The new believers are expected to lead others to Christ as someone led them to Christ. The church encourages them to share the goodness of Jesus they experienced in their lives with other people. Telling what Jesus has done for them to other people does not require having theological training.
5. Implementing a contextually relevant strategic plan
Across all MKC, now people speak the same language: Agenda 2819 is our priority.
In the strategic plan MKC prepared and implemented in 2022, the church laid out the roadmap to sustain the growth of the church. The mission of the church was revised to indicate MKC as a missional/ evangelistic church. It says, “MKC exists to preach the gospel to all people and make them disciples of Jesus Christ.”3
hurch members, the church prepared presentations on Matthew 28:19 ‚Äì Agenda 2819, and awareness creation sessions were conducted in all MKC regions. This reignited the church leaders and members to focus on preaching the gospel and bringing people to believe in Jesus Christ. MKC’s president devoted substantial time to getting this message to all MKC congregations to achieve the goals.
The strategic plan also set specific indicators to track the progress of the church toward achieving 10% annual growth of members. The strategic plan has made the church mobilize resources to achieve the set goals. Above all, the church’s leaders realized they exist to preach the gospel and make those who believe the disciples of Christ.
Pastor Dessu Abebe, the General Secretary of Nekemte MKC Region, said the direction set by the strategic plan is very relevant. He read the strategic plan repeatedly to internalize it because if it is not implemented, the region will fail.
“I called the lead pastors and the elders’ council chairperson of all local churches in my region for three days of training on the strategic plan. I tried my best to help them understand.” He stressed the training alone was not enough to understand fully.
When he meets with the lead pastors during quarterly review sessions, he refreshes the strategic plan and listens to understand their challenges, concerns and successes. Pastor Dessu admitted that the strategic plan is tough and demands a lot of work. Two of the lead pastors in his region resigned because they recognized that they did not have the competence to implement the strategic plan.
The Nekemte MKC Region was able to identify districts where there were no MKC congregations. “We planted churches in three of those districts. We have not thought that way before. The strategic plan guided us where we should focus.”
“The strategic plan helped us to see the bigger picture of where MKC is heading and our specific role as a local church,” said Pastor Shambel Genene, the lead pastor of Asella MKC. The church was engaged in Muslim evangelism even before the strategic plan was introduced. Now, “We aligned our evangelistic activities with the strategic plan of the church to contribute our shares to achieve the common goals.”
6. Ordaining evangelists in congregations
Every MKC local church must have at least one evangelist devoted to preaching God’s Word and leading people to faith in Jesus Christ.
Two decades ago, evangelists engaged in the work of a pastor. MKC revised the ministry guideline to release the pastoral work from the evangelist and focus on evangelism. An evangelist in a congregation shares the good news of Jesus Christ with people to be a model. He/she is also responsible for motivating and equipping church members to participate actively in evangelism and planting new churches. He/she reports his/her evangelistic ministry accomplishments to the lead pastor and the elders’ council quarterly.
Ayalew Balcha is a graduate of Meserete Kristos Seminary and an ordained evangelist at Akaki MKC. He stated that congregations need evangelists to proclaim the gospel to non-believers. He coordinates the evangelistic ministry of the local church and mobilizes the congregation for evangelism.
He has an evangelistic team – an action group – that goes every month on the streets and goes village to village and shares the good news of Jesus Christ with anyone they meet.
Last year, 19 new believers who came to the faith in this manner were baptized and became church members. “We are praying and working hard to win more souls for Christ this year,” he said.
7. Mobilizing resources locally
“Our resources are the people we have in the church.”
Most of the MKC members are not rich people. We have several congregations in rural areas where they engage in subsistence farming. Due to climate change, conflicts, traditional farming style, inadequate access to improved seeds and fertilizers, and other factors, they cannot improve their income.
Most of them are hardworking peasants who contribute to the services of the church through tithes, offerings, special gifts and love gifts. They are poor but generous enough to support the ministry of the church.
Employees and business people who have regular income pay their tithes monthly.
Local churches also collect offerings for evangelism and the mission of the church. In some congregations, Bible study groups organized by the church contribute money to the Mission Funds of MKC.
Birru Robele, one of the prominent leaders of MKC, collects monthly contributions of his Bible study group members and gives them to Misrak Addis Ababa congregation. It supports more than 130 church planters in different parts of the country on a monthly salary of about US$50.00.
Some people cannot continue their jobs after believing in Jesus Christ because those jobs are incompatible with the teachings of the Bible. These people include women who engage in prostitution and engage in the production and sale of local alcoholic drinks. Rehabilitating and changing their incomegenerating means demands money.
Pastor Bekele Bajira, the lead pastor of Bordi Nekemte MKC, said that three commercial sex workers came to the Lord through the evangelistic campaign. They completed the basic Christian teaching and were baptized. Later, the women told him that they did not have food because they stopped their former work. When Pastor Bekele shared their stories with the congregation, members contributed money that was enough to help them start other small businesses.
If we present genuinely the needs to be addressed to advance the cause of the gospel, believers are willing to give what they have,” said Pastor Bekele.
8. Using the language of the people
Photo: Liesa Unger
MKC’s policy states that the gospel should be preached and taught in the people’s language. Since the purpose of the church is to help people hear the gospel, believe in Christ, and become his disciples, it preaches and teaches the word of God in the language people prefer. People usually open their hearts when they hear the gospel in their language.
In a society where the issue of language is sensitive, letting people learn the gospel in their language helps them not associate church ministries with politics.
MKC prepares and avails evangelistic and discipleship materials in various languages. We encourages believers who have a sense of call for ministry to be multilingual. Knowing several languages opens the door for ministry and church planting in various cultures.
Pastor Firew Lemma, education and training department of MKC Head Office, recently travelled to Tigray, northern Ethiopia, to teach church leaders. Having learned the language from his family, he greeted the participants in Tigriegna and observed their warm, welcoming facial expressions. They were surprised that he spoke their language.
Speaking the language of the people we serve is essential to communicate the gospel clearly and to develop good relationships, said Pasor Firew.
9. Placing church planters in unchurched communities
“Till the land with the oxen from that area.”
MKC recruits, trains and places church planters within their own culture. Since the church planters recognize the culture and have already established connections, they can easily share the gospel of Jesus Christ with people. MKC assigns church planters in several contexts: strongly Orthodox, Muslim and traditional beliefs. Wendimu W/Mariam, the mission coordinator at MKC Head Office, said that the church planters in the context where traditional beliefs and practices are predominant plant more churches than those in other contexts. In communities practicing traditional beliefs, if the prominent leader comes to Christ, many of the community members follow and believe in Christ.
In that context, “Our church planters pray and work to lead the community gatekeepers to Christ. Once they come to Jesus, leading others to Christ is easy,” said Wendimu.
10. Following the lead of the Holy Spirit
MKC teaches about the Holy Spirit and that believers should be empowered to live a victorious Christian life and witness for Christ. The church encourages believers to listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit to discern God’s will in their lives. The full-time ministers and church leaders pray for believers to be empowered by the Holy Spirit.
In the mission field, the dependence of the church planters on following the guidance of the Holy Spirit makes a difference in their efforts.
Church planters who pray for the sick and share God’s Word as per the guidance of the Spirit lead more people to Christ than those who do not practice these things. When the gospel is preached/ shared with power (demonstrated by the healing of the sick, recovery of mental health, release from the fear of the evil spirits, and the feeling of God’s presence), people tend to believe in the gospel.
This is different from some TV miracle workers. MKC does not organize healing conferences but events to preach the word of God. There, the Holy Spirit does things according to God’s will.
Church planters do not focus on the miracles, but on helping people understand the gospel. The miracles occur when they pray for the needs of the people. God confirms the power of the gospel by liberating people from whatever bondage hinders them from experiencing what God plans for their lives.
In conclusion, God is uniquely drawing people into God’s kingdom amid intense political, social and economic upheaval in the nation.
The growth of the Meserete Kristos Church is a good indication that the conditions on earth do not prevent the expansion of God’s kingdom. The scale and depth of the problem in our context could have destroyed the church. The evil forces trying to create obstacles to the gospel on earth have not succeeded. The wise God used the multifaced sufferings to lead multitudes to his kingdom.
God is doing his work. We, the children of God, must take the gospel to people. We can participate in the Great Commission of Jesus Christ by contributing our money, labour, knowledge, time, talents and whatever we have as our number one agenda.
The main reason for the growth of MKC is that we made the Great Commission our top priority and give what we have for the cause.
Footnotes
1. MKC Constitution Part II, Article 11(2), 2022
2. MKC Constitution Part II, Article 10(1), 2022, page 8.
3. MKC Strategic Plan 2022-2026.
“100 years of evangelism in Congo.” From 4-11 August 2024, Communauté des Églises des Frères Mennonites au Congo celebrated the 100th anniversary of their national church. The celebration in Kikwit – delayed by two years due to the pandemic – included preaching, singing, choir performances, a pastor’s conference and evangelism rally and ecumenical and international guests.
The MWC national member church began in 1922 when American Aaron Janzen started a mission for the Mennonite Brethren in the Kikwit area in 1922. In 2024, the church reports 638 congregations with 98 519 baptized members.
The main languages of church members are French, Kikongo, Lingala and Swahili.
Rev Londa Charly (first ordained woman CEFMC) speaks at the pastors conference.
General secretary and Legal Representative Antoine Kimbala speaks at the pastors conference.
Guests from other MWC national member churches participate in the event: Rev. Siaka Traoré, (MWC regional representative Central West Africa); Rev George Kaputu Nzila, CEFMC evangelist CEFMC; Rev. Jean Felix Cimbalanga, president of CEM (Communauté Evangelique Mennonite, DR Congo); Robert Irundu Mutundu, general secretary of finance and administration, CMCo (Communauté Mennonite au Congo); Henk Stenvers, MWC president; Rev. Daniel Nelson Canganguela, leader of the IAIMA (Mennonite Brethren in Angola); Shadreck Kwendanyama, leader of the Mennonite Brethren church in Malawi.
MWC president Henk Stenvers addresses a session at the two-day pastor’s conference with Nzuzi Mukawa as interpreter.
The celebration in Kikwit included preaching, singing, choir performances, a pastor’s conference and evangelism rally and ecumenical and international guests.
Choirs
Mennonite World Conference lives out unity through relationships. There have been some changes to the faces that help develop these relationships, through regional representatives and communications.
Regional representative coordinator
Janet Plenert has taken on the half-time role of regional representative coordinator beginning in July 2024. An experienced global leader, Janet Plenert was part of the coordinating committee of MWC’s Global Mission Fellowship (GMF) from 2003-2009, GMF chair from 2006-2009, MWC vice-president from 2009-2015, and since 2020 has been part of a team of volunteer development consultants for MWC.
Serving with Mennonite Central Committee and Mennonite Church, she has lived in DR Congo, Brazil and Bolivia.
“I find joy in learning to know people cross culturally and finding ways to connect people together who otherwise wouldn’t find common ground,” says Janet Plenert. “In today’s divided and suspicious world, serving the global church gives me hope that the church will rise up and be the unifying, peace-inducing presence that God desires. As Anabaptists, we need to lead the way in living in unity and building peace while we each (and together) follow Jesus.”
After 12 years of working with Mennonite World Conference, Arli Klassen has retired. In July 2015, she began providing leadership for MWC’s regional representatives as their coordinator, which she continued until June 2024. She also served as MWC chief development officer from October 2012 until January 2020.
“It is only when we have that exposure to each other as Anabaptist brothers and sisters around the world that we can experience and grow in our own understanding and experience of the love of God,” says Arli Klassen. “That is what I wish for and hope for all of our member churches around the world.”
“We are extremely thankful for Arli’s work with MWC over the years. She has laid a strong foundation for the ministry of our regional representatives. Now, Janet will bring her expertise and experiences to the role. We believe the regional representatives’ will advance their service to the global church,” says César García MWC general secretary.
Communications team
Also, in July 2024 MWC welcomed back Kristina Toews in her role as chief communications officer, after her maternity leave. Elina Ciptadi, who served as interim chief communications officer, moved into a temporary role as project coordinator, on the Communications team. She is coordinating special projects for the General Council meeting in 2025.
“I am encouraged to see all of the ongoing work of the MWC Communications team to help us live out unity together. I’m thankful for the leadership Elina has provided for the Communications team this past year and that she continues to bless our work with her experience in project coordination,” says Kristina Toews.
Anabaptist Christians in a predominantly Muslim neighbourhood of 137 000 residents in Nairobi practice “The Courage to Love”on a daily basis. “Our modest Anabaptist congregation faces acceptance, evangelism and cultural fusion difficulties,” says George Ochieng, director of Eastleigh Fellowship Centre (EFC) Mennonite Church Choir. “Even so, we have been summoned to exhibit courage through loving in this environment.”
The EFC choir from a Mennonite church in Nairobi is one of five musical ensembles selected to represent music in Anabaptist churches around the world at the 500th anniversary event in Zurich 2025. “Our choir eagerly anticipates leveraging our musical gifts to share the love of Christ through a blend of diverse cultural elements,” he says.
At the one-day event 29 May 2025, each choir will perform two times: one indoor concert at the Predigerkirche or Friedenskirche and an outdoor concert at the Zwingli Platz in front of the Grossmünster without any amplification. The choirs will also participate in the final worship service at the Grossmünster cathedral which will be livestreamed.
The EFC choir calls its style afrofusion “because it invokes various musical cultures drawn from different countries in Africa,” says George Ochieng. The choir members themselves represent different cultures from around Kenya. They travel throughout Kenya to perform in churches and at music festivals.
“Heartfelt prayers ascend that our ensemble obtains the required visas for 2025,” says George Ochieng. Only 7 of their 36 members received visa to travel to the USA to perform at the MWC Assembly in Pennsylvania in 2015. “The privilege [of attending an MWC event] provides us with the opportunity to learn much more about the community of Anabaptist believers,” says George Ochieng.
The five ensembles will perform in a local congregation on Sunday, 1 June 2025.
“Music transcends barriers, serving as a testament to God’s Kingdom and fostering unity across racial, linguistic and national lines,” says George Ochieng. “We pray for peace in the world at a time when the world needs this the most since World War II.”
Other ensembles:
Latin America:
Ágape Bandfrom Asunción, Paraguay. Varied musical styles mixing pop, rock, Latin, funk and folk. Seven musicians and a sound technician. Several are members of Iglesia Hermanos Menonitas Concordia and graduates of CEMTA (Centro Evangélico Menonita de Teología Asunción).
“Our band name is the kind of love described in 1 Corinthians 13. Many of our songs talk about this self-giving love of God. We know that real love is for the ones with courage. We can only feel fulfilled when our relationship with our God defines our values and identity,” says Carlos Arce Penner, band leader.
At age 22, he directed a band that led worship at the 2009 Global Youth Summit in Paraguay and played with different delegations during the Assembly.
North America
Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) Chamber Singers from Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA. A mixed voice, mainly acapella choir that mostly sings sacred music from a variety of styles, time periods and cultures. The auditioned 20 members are students from different majors.
“Much of our music also centres on themes that are important to Anabaptism, including peace, justice, discipleship and care for creation and all people,” says director Benjamin Bergey. “One of the most foundational ways to be agents of peace in this world is by loving. We are very excited to connect with this wonderful and timely theme – and with the other music groups from around the world.”
Benjamin Bergey was the music coordinator for the 2022 MWC Assembly in Indonesia. The EMU choir sang at the 1967 MWC Assembly in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Eastern Mennonite University Chamber Singers
Europe
Songs of Peace began as new music project at the Bildungszentrum Bienenberg in Liestal, Switzerland. Today, it is an independent association led by married couple Dennis Thielmann and Karin Franz along with musicians from local Mennonite congregations.
“We value natural and reduced sounds combined with electronic elements in our music (mostly sung in German),” says Dennis Thielmann. Musical influences include world music, monastic traditions and sound therapy “We also try to use the musical form and staging to shape kingdom-of-God values such as simplicity, gratitude, authenticity, inclusion, patience, sustainability and global awareness.”
Dennis Thielmann participated in the music team at the MWC Assembly in Paraguay in 2009. “As we share our music with MWC guests in Zurich, we will call our listeners to slow down and look for the resonance of God’s presence in everything that surrounds us,” he says.
Songs of Peace
Asia
TIARA (The Indonesian Anabaptist peRforming Art) is an 8-member band from the GKMI Anugerah church in Jakarta, Indonesia. The members who sing, play traditional instruments (angklung) and dance, come from several locations in Central Java are regularly involved in worship music at their local congregations.
“We want to share God’s love for and mighty works in our country through performances that contain beauty, diversity, and wisdom,” says band coordinator Eliezer Pranawa (Prana) Setiawan. “We hope that every single piece we present in Zurich 2025 could be a gift of love for the global Anabaptist churches and community.”
“It was a privilege to be involved in the MWC Assembly in Indonesia in 2022,” he says. “At that fascinating event, we realized that we have global family and community through Anabaptist church.”
TIARA (The Indonesian Anabaptist peRforming Art)
MWC general secretary César García joined more than 200 global Christian leaders to sign a letter calling “with heartfelt insistence, for a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire, for the return of hostages, and the release of Palestinian prisoners held without due process.”
The letter acknowledges the loss of Israeli lives on 7 October 2023 and the tens of thousands of Gazan lives lost since, in addition to destruction of two-thirds of the infrastructure (houses, schools, hospitals, roads, water and energy utilities) and support for livelihoods in Gaza.
It expresses concern that the possibility for dialogue is closing and the possibility of regional war increases. It expresses fear for the loss of the 2 000-year-old Christian presence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
“We speak out as Christian leaders with a deep concern for the common good for all affected by war and conflict without exception. We speak with urgency. We speak in a spirit of peace,” the letter reads.
“We speak because we are deeply inspired by the courageous and selfless commitment of our Palestinian Christian brothers and sisters in the Holy Land, who suffer alongside their Muslim and Jewish neighbors and remain resolutely determined to help bring about a just and dignified future for all inhabitants of these lands,” the letter closes.
“As an Anabaptist from Colombia, I am familiar with protracted internal violence within a region, and as a member of a historic peace church, I unite my voice with Christian leaders from around the world to denounce violence and suffering and to call for constructive dialogue to put hostile factions on a path to peace,” says César García.
“Creation care” is taking on ever-increasing urgency.
The news reminds us daily of alarming changes in our climate. As the Creation Care Task Force’s survey shows, our sisters and brothers in our global family of faith suffer drought, floods, destructive storms, fire, famine and the devastation brought by war. Wildlife Diverse species are endangered or even going extinct.
We are witnessing terrible violence against God’s beloved creation. And we are increasingly aware of how much we share in the harm, both as sinners and as sinned-against.
How do we respond?
Our answers will surely vary depending on where we live, on our resources, the depth of our faith, our theology and on our willingness to respond to the call of the moment. However, respond we must, whether we live in the Global North, which bears a disproportionate share of responsibility for the crisis, or in the Global South, which bears a disproportionate share of its impact.
We live in a world that has borne the effects of human sinfulness since Eden. It has broken our relationship with God, with each other, and with creation in all its diversity. But we also live in a world in which the gracious and liberating Spirit of God is bringing about “new creation” in and through Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).
What is that Spirit saying to us at this time?
The Shared Convictions and Creation Care
One way the Spirit speaks to us is by reminding us of our MWC Shared Convictions. With all our many differences, they remind us that we already share a basis for us to respond as a family of faith to the environmental crisis.
Here are some implications of the convictions we share:
Shared Conviction #1: God is known to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Creator who seeks to restore fallen humanity by calling a people to be faithful in fellowship, worship, service and witness.
The Bible invites us to extend Conviction #1 beyond God seeking to “restore fallen humanity” to include “all things in heaven and on earth” (Ephesians 1:10), including ecosystems that are suffering from the effects of our fallenness.
Indeed, God desires to save us from our callous and violent abuse of God’s beloved creation, so we can join God in truly caring for creation in distress. We will not be saved by our work as stewards of creation; but we are “saved by grace” for the good work that includes care of creation (Ephesians 2:8-10).
Shared Conviction #2: Jesus is the Son of God. Through his life and teachings, his cross and resurrection, he showed us how to be faithful disciples, redeemed the world, and offers eternal life.
When Conviction #2 speaks of Jesus Christ “redeeming the world,” it is a “world” that includes all of creation. It is because God loves the cosmos (John 3:16) that God is in Christ “gathering up all things” in heaven and on earth (Ephesians 1:10). It is this cosmos-loving Jesus who teaches us how to be cosmos-loving disciples.
Shared Conviction #3: As a church, we are a community of those whom God’s Spirit calls to turn from sin, acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, receive baptism upon confession of faith, and follow Christ in life.
We hear the Spirit calling us to respond to the suffering of creation by repenting, by turning from greed and selfish ambition. To acknowledge the lordship of Christ is a rock-solid basis for our missionary calling to care for creation.
Because Christ is Lord, the entire cosmos is the field of God’s mission to reclaim, redeem and recreate. To follow Christ in life is to join in on that mission, living simply, reducing the impact of our consumerism on our environment, advocating for those most vulnerable, and responding practically to their suffering.
Shared Conviction #4: As a faith community, we accept the Bible as our authority for faith and life, interpreting it together under Holy Spirit guidance, in the light of Jesus Christ to discern God’s will for our obedience.
The Jesus Christ we meet in the Bible is the one through whom all things are created – everything, not just people (John 1:3 and Colossians 1:16). He is indeed the “light of the cosmos” (John 9:12). That profound mystery must shape our discipleship (John 3:21).
Shared Conviction #5: The Spirit of Jesus empowers us to trust God in all areas of life so we become peacemakers who renounce violence, love our enemies, seek justice, and share our possessions with those in need.
We recognize that violence is an implicit part of the exploitation of natural resources, where the powerful lay claim to land and resources, seeking to silence voices raised in opposition. Those who protect and defend the environment are being persecuted and killed in unprecedented numbers all around the world.
Care for creation in our day calls for us as the body of Christ to call out injustice and violence in solidarity with the vulnerable. Creation care and seeking justice are inseparable.
Shared Conviction #7: As a worldwide community of faith and life we transcend boundaries of nationality, race, class, gender and language. We seek to live in the world without conforming to the powers of evil, witnessing to God’s grace by serving others, caring for creation, and inviting all people to know Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.
In this conviction we together clearly state that creation care is at the very heart of the church’s mission to “witness to God’s grace.” Moreover, as a “worldwide community of faith and life,” transcending boundaries of geography, politics, and economic resources, we are presented with countless opportunities to collaborate in responding to the critical need for creation care.
We give thanks for the collaboration already taking place.
The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it. Psalm 24:1
Thomas R Yoder Neufeld, chair of the Faith and Life Commission, is a member of First Mennonite Church, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada;
Anicka Fast, secretary of the Faith & Life Commission, is a member of Doopsgezind Gemeente Bussum-Naarden, Netherlands;
Doug Graber Neufeld, chair of the Creation Care Task Force, is a member of Community Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA;
Kintsukuroi, a traditional Japanese technique, involves repairing ceramics with lacquer and gold, embracing damage as part of an object’s history instead of concealing or discarding it.
This process entails identifying broken areas and delicately mending them with precious gold, resulting in unique pieces that blend brokenness with magnificence, elevating its value and beauty.
In the realm of international relations, unfairness and injustice can escalate into conflicts and wars, fracturing families due to lack of respect and consideration. By engaging in dialogue akin to a potter assessing broken angles, and addressing wounds with love, understanding, tolerance, and compassion, relationships can be restored, and peace can prevail.
The transformation of brokenness into glory signifies a shift where imperfections no longer denote flaws but rather symbolize growth and resilience. The incorporation of gold highlights the beauty within brokenness, enhancing its value and significance.
During Peace Sunday, a symbolic act involving a paper tree was carried out, where individuals identified their “potters” whom they would turn to for support during challenging times. This fostered a culture of love and kindness among participants.
Despite the existence of conflicts, divisions and injustices globally, there remains a pathway toward peace and healing by embodying the role of the potter in the hands of the Father, treating others with love and compassion akin to gold filling cracks to enhance beauty and wholeness.
Individuals can contribute to a more harmonious and interconnected world.
Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father,
Through your gentle touch, we can experience your precious healing. Our imperfections are treated with special honour.
Father, please help us to be sensitive to people’s wounds. Through your grace and gifts, may we embody your love, empathy and compassion.
We are willing to meet the needs of others.
Grant us the courage to embrace our brokenness, receive healing and reveal your glory through our wounds.
Thank you, Father. You are Jehovah Rapha. Your healing brings us unity and peace.
In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
—Wincy Wan is a member of the Peace Commission. She is a pastor of a Mennonite church in Hong Kong.
Kintsukuroi, the practice of creating or recreating from broken pottery led my thoughts toward Jeremiah who was sent by the Lord to go to a potter’s house.
When Jeremiah got there, he noticed that “Whenever the object of clay which he was making turned out badly in his hand, he tried again, making of the clay another object of whatever sort he pleased.”
Then the message of God was: “Can I not do to you, house of Israel, as this potter has done? says the LORD. Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.” (Jeremiah 18:4,6 NAB)
The Lord’s message to Jeremiah is that God does whatever God wants, sometimes according to a human’s attitude.
Unfortunately, because of our stubbornness, we often invert roles, considering ourselves God and God the clay.
That’s what we can understand in Isaiah 29:15-17: “Your perversity is as though the potter were taken to be the clay: As though what is made should say of its maker, “He made me not!” Or the vessel should say of the potter, “He does not understand.”
Somehow the apostle Paul shared this idea when he said: “Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for a noble purpose and another for an ignoble one? What if God, wishing to show his wrath and make known his power, has endured with much patience the vessels of wrath made for destruction?” (Romans 9:21-22).
Let’s give to the Lord the direction of our lives.
Prayer
Oh Lord, break in me what is not yours and rebuild me according to what you want me to be, in order to glorify your name!
—Kari Traoré is a member of the Peace Commission. He is a pastor of a Mennonite church in Burkina Faso.
