Prayers of gratitude and intercession

Kitchener, Ontario, Canada – “What can you do for your part of the world?” That’s the question the International Brethren in Christ Association (IBICA) has been asking Brethren in Christ church leaders across the globe, during a series of national summits.

Launched in 2011, these national summits have drawn together a diverse mix of Brethren in Christ church leaders for intentional conversations about identity, theology and ministry.

The first summit was held in Biratnagar, Nepal, in 2011, drawing together Brethren in Christ leaders from India and Nepal. For the second summit, held in June 2013 in Pretoria, South Africa, leaders gathered from six countries across the African continent. And the most recent gathering—which took place in San José, Costa Rica, in December 2013—brought together many leaders from eight countries. It was the first gathering of its kind among Latin American Brethren in Christ.

The summits’ sponsoring agency, IBICA, is an associate member of Mennonite World Conference. Many of the participants in each summit are leaders in MWC member churches.

Developing a ‘mutually beneficial vision’

At each summit, coordinators asked the participants to think more intentionally about ways to share and to cooperate with sister churches in their continental region.

“Our goal for each of these summits has been to ignite conversation about a mutually beneficial vision for these leaders’ areas of the world,” says Don McNiven, executive director of IBICA.

And to do that, McNiven adds, leaders must first build relationships with one another. As a result, each summit set aside considerable time for fellowship and conversation.

McNiven reports that during the sessions “leaders prayed for each other, shared with each other what the Lord was doing and what kinds of things each church was struggling with.” He said that many participants were surprised to find out that churches in neighbouring countries were experiencing the same struggles—and the same blessings.

“With that recognition,” McNiven says, “the question then becomes: what do we do about this as Brethren in Christ? Not as Zambians or as South Africans or as Kenyans, but as brothers and sisters in Christ?”

Fellowship and unity across dividing lines

At each summit, participants experienced warm fellowship and an increased sense of unity as a global Brethren in Christ family—a positive outcome, notes McNiven, given the different cultural contexts in the various continental regions.

Furthermore, the summits were a “first” for participants in Africa and Latin America. No such event had ever gathered together church leaders and pastors in such a way. Yet those in attendance expressed excitement about the opportunity to connect and to begin building relationships across differences.

Danisa Ndlovu, bishop of the Ibandla Labazalwane Kukristu e-Zimbabwe (Brethren in Christ Church in Zimbabwe) and president of MWC, participated in the African summit. He notes, “We discovered that while we might be coming from different countries and different cultural contexts, different political and socio-economic experiences, yet we can all be Brethren in Christ in our beliefs and practice.”

Ndlovu adds, “The meeting strengthened our unity and resolve to live out our faith and convictions in the light of the Word. And we all agreed on the need to guard jealously our Brethren in Christ identity as expressed in our core values.”

Alex Alvarado, pastor of Ciudad de Dios (San José, Costa Rica) and regional coordinator to Central America for Brethren in Christ (U.S.) World Missions (BICWM), reports that the Latin American summit was an “historic event” for the pastors in this region.

“There was a void in the identity, communication and relationship with the Brethren in Christ, and it was discouraging some pastors,” he noted in a report filed after the event. “For some, the Summit was their first contact with the Brethren in Christ’s DNA. They discovered aspects of the Brethren in Christ [identity] that were unknown to them. They took back to their countries teachings, materials and connections that will be like a seed that will bear fruit in due season. It was amazing to see the joy, the unity and the goals that resulted” from the gathering, he concluded.

He adds that as a result of the summit, Brethren in Christ church leaders in Central America have committed to meeting yearly.

Moving beyond parent/child relationships

In addition to facilitating cross-cultural connections and casting vision for future ministry, these summits also focused on the crucial issue of self-sustainability. Many of these national Brethren in Christ conferences have existed for well over a century; others are still in their infancy. Yet conversations at each summit centred on ways that all conferences can work toward strengthening their ministries without relying on support from the Global North.

“One of the lessons we learned was that it was our responsibility as church leaders to teach and stir away our members from the dependency syndrome,” says Ndlovu. “We encouraged each other to help our churches develop home-grown initiatives that will result in greater self-reliance.”

Chris Sharp, executive director of BICWM, took part in each of the summits and was encouraged by these conversations. “BICWM began investing in these regions over 100 years ago,” she says. “Now, many of the countries are established as their own national conferences, and are becoming their own mission senders. BICWM desires to see these churches grow to full-fledged conferences, come to a place of self-sustainability and then thrive by investing in global outreach.”

IBICA has similar aims, notes McNiven. “Our goal is to help churches move away from the parent/child relationships of an earlier era. IBICA seeks to do this by facilitating corporate association – the very purpose these summits served.”

Yet self-reliance does not mean rugged individualism, Ndlovu asserts. “As leaders there is a need to share notes from time to time so that we may grow together. Our young conferences such as Mozambique, Kenya and South Africa need the support of the older conferences as they are finding their feet through their young leadership.”

Ndlovu recalls a powerful parable shared at the African summit about a cow brought to a village by a well-meaning missionary: “The cow was everything to the village, in that it provided milk and other necessities. This was true for very long time until a missionary and his assistant came to village and pushed the useful cow over the cliff, killing it! Painful as the experience might have been, it provided the village with an opportunity to think of other means of supporting themselves besides the cow. The village was amazed at the ideas that emerged and how for a long time, had been imprisoned themselves by viewing the cow as the only hope of sustenance.

“The message of the story was clear to all as participants,” he concludes. “The dependency syndrome can be a killer of initiatives. Our conferences must shy away from it, realizing that it is possible to be self-supporting and self-sustaining. We should not always think of churches in the Global North as the only cow that will forever provide us with milk. We must believe in God and in ourselves recognizing the many resources that we have among ourselves.”

– Devin Manzullo-Thomas

Seoul, South Korea – A new conference of Anabaptist congregations has emerged in South Korea.

The Korea Anabaptist Fellowship (KAF), formed in 2010, became an official conference of eight congregations and an associate member church of Mennonite World Conference earlier this year. The decision was finalized at the fellowship’s May 2014 meeting, held at the Peace and Joy Church in Nonsan, South Korea. At that meeting, Namshik Chon and Sang-Uk Nham were elected as the president and the contact person for the new conference, respectively.

According to Nham, the formation of this new conference follows several years of church growth among South Korean Anabaptists. The oldest Anabaptist community in South Korea, Jesus Village Church, began in 1996. Since then, it has planted three new congregations. At the same time, numerous South Korean pastors and seminary students discovered Anabaptism through their studies and through books published by Korea Anabaptist Center and Daejang-gan Publishing Co., two initiatives of South Korean Anabaptists, and as a result established churches in the country. More recently, in 2013, two Anabaptist congregations took root through church planting partnerships with the Pacific Southwest Conference of Mennonite Church USA.

Amid this growing interest in Anabaptism, reports Nham, KAF was founded “to promote Anabaptist church planting in Korea [and] to help and facilitate the practice of Anabaptist perspectives in members’ Christian faith.” The growth of the fellowship ultimately led to its establishment as a conference.

“Forming a conference is a small step,” adds Nham. “But this step will lead us a higher stage, where we can work together with many churches interested in Anabaptism, and where we can promote new church planting and mutual caring among members with a proper level of protection and accountability. In this stage, we will be a light of hope, full of joy, to minister to others.”

Article by Devin Manzullo-Thomas

 

Elkhart, Indiana, USA / Burkina Faso – Recent baptisms have swelled the membership of Eglise Evangélique Mennonite du Burkina Faso (Evangelical Mennonite Church of Burkina Faso) by 34 percent, according to recent reports by Mennonite Mission Network and Siaka Traoré, national president of the Burkina Faso church.

“I cannot explain [this wave of interest, other than to say] that I believe God wants to grow the church,” Traoré said.

In July 2013, the church reported a membership of 420. By the end of April 2014, the total membership was 563. Of the new members, 44 were baptized in the weeks around Christmas. And in the three Sundays surrounding Easter, 63 were baptized in five different congregations.

“I’m blown away by this explosion of baptisms,” said Rod Hollinger-Janzen, executive coordinator of Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission, which works with the Evangelical Mennonite Church of Burkina Faso through a multi-member partnership council. “I feel great joy because these baptisms testify to the faithfulness of Mennonites in Burkina Faso, who, day after day, act with kindness toward their neighbors and bear witness in a compelling way, so that people say, ‘I want what they have.’”

According to Burkina Faso’s most recent government census (2006), more than 60 percent of the population practices Islam. Only four percent belong to a Protestant denomination.

In a context where Muslims make up the majority of the population, the decision to be baptized is not to be taken lightly, as it may result in derision and even persecution. Traoré said that he rejoices when people count the cost and still want to be baptized into the Mennonite Church.

Preparation for baptism usually takes place over a three-month period and includes basic Bible knowledge; an understanding of church life; and instruction in evangelism, ethics, practical aspects of Christian living, and Mennonite history. The church is in the process of standardizing a curriculum for baptismal candidates.

Adapted from a news release by Mennonite Mission Network, with additional reporting by Siaka Traoré

 

Changi Cove, Singapore — President Nelson Okanya and others from Eastern Mennonite Missions (EMM) found themselves celebrating the growth of and learning from Global South mission partners at the annual meeting of the International Missions Association (IMA), a group of 22 Anabaptist mission groups, held 26 August to 2 September in Singapore.

Asia Pacific Mission (APM), based in Singapore, hosted this year’s week-long IMA gathering. “APM’s level of sacrificial commitment to spread the gospel was inspiring,” said Antonio Ulloa, EMM’s church revitalization coach. “Dr. Tan Kok Beng [chief executive officer of APM and chair of Mennonite Church Singapore] has a single-minded focus to provide missionaries for the 10/40 window [a geographical area extending from West Africa to East Asia, between 10 and 40 degrees north of the Equator].”

“He teaches that the Great Commission doesn’t end with conversion. It includes discipling people to be actual followers of Christ who observe everything He taught, including making more disciples.”

EMM Human Resources Director Darrel Hostetter interviewed 12 partners from the IMA during the week about how they care for the missionaries they send out. “Some partners have incorporated member care deep into their DNA. They have been good at connecting workers with the local churches,” Hostetter said. “Amor Viviente [of Honduras], for example, requires that a member from the sending church visit the worker on the field during their first term.”

“I felt very encouraged by some groups’ willingness to do things differently than we do,” Hostetter said. “There is less emphasis on money and more of a focus on what God is asking them to do. If God asks them, they’re going to do it! It was a deep joy to learn from those who came to faith through EMM’s work in the past.”

Highlights shared by Global South IMA members included Amor Viviente reporting that they have three missionaries working alongside EMM workers in Asia and have started five churches in Costa Rica and Spain, with plans to enter Italy. They also plan to send a worker to Kenya in collaboration with EMM.

One of the Mennonite groups from Indonesia shared about their growing vision to engage their Muslim neighbors. Last year a new believer in their circle of churches was killed for his faith. Since then, many young people are praying and following Jesus more seriously.

Henry Mulandi of African Christian Mission International in Kenya reported that a member of his Kenyan network planted a church in Reading, England.

The EMM ministry in Phnom Penh, Cambodia provides dormitories as a place of Christian witness for rural students studying in the city.  Sokly Chin, a new believer at the dormitory who is studying fish farming, plans to return to his home in the countryside when he finishes his studies. Since there is no church in Chin’s village, Stoltzfus plans to connect him with Steve Hyde of Asia for Jesus, whom Stoltzfus met at the IMA meeting.

“Hyde has trained hundreds of disciple makers and has a holistic and integrated model of ministry,” Stoltzfus said. “We plan to connect with him and learn from him. Synergy is created when we work together. Instead of me alone, you alone, we partner and are stronger for it.”

“We rejoice that God includes all of us in His work to cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations,” said Okanya. “Working together in mission is a foretaste of feasting together in God’s new creation.”

The IMA was founded by EMM, Amor Viviente of Honduras, Meserete Kristos Church of Ethiopia, and PIPKA of Indonesia in 1997. Members partner through prayer, mutual support, and international mission teams.

Of the 22 mission groups now part of IMA, seven are from Africa, six from Asia, five from North America and four from Latin America. Some are from member-churches of Mennonite World Conference. Others are not.

Eastern Mennonite Mission release by Linda Moffett

 

The Philippines – Like the news, the winds and rain that came with Super Typhoon Haiyan have let up. But the damage from the storm that slammed regions of the Philippines on 8 November 2013 remains on the mental and emotional front page for survivors.

One of the most intense tropical storms on record, Haiyan was 300 miles across when it hit land. Winds were recorded at up to 195 mph and water rose to 30 feet above sea level along coasts. According to published reports, the death toll is at least 6,000 and more than 11 million people are estimated to have been affected by the storm.

According to Regina Mondez, the congregations of the Integrated Mennonite Church of the Philippines (IMC) are sending donations and volunteers to Peacebuilders Community Inc. (PCBI), which is working closely with the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches.

“We strongly believe this unity among the evangelical churches across the country is a more effective way in witnessing to our neighbors in the disaster-affected areas,” wrote Mondez, national coordinator of the IMC, a Mennonite World Conference member church. PCBI is led by Dann and Joji Pantoja, Mennonite Church Canada workers.

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is partnering with PBCI to send relief to the city of Ormoc on Leyte Island. Ormoc is a neighbouring city to Tacloban in the hardest hit region. Food packages and non-food items, such as bath soap, detergent, towels, and pails for carrying water to improve sanitation and hygiene will be distributed in communities south of Tacloban.

MCC is also partnering with Church World Service (CWS) to build shelters for the many people living in tents or with family members.

CWS’s partners will work closely with community leaders to choose the recipients who are particularly vulnerable, such as families that have single parents, a family member with a disability or many children.

Construction will be done, in part, as a cash-for-work project by community people who are not receiving shelters but have no stable income. The work will be directed by skilled workers trained in disaster-resistant construction.

MCC donors gave more than $4.2 million (Canadian) in response to the disaster. Although MCC has not had long-term staff in the Philippines since 2005, one worker will be placed there for the next year to oversee MCC’s response.

MWC release, with releases from Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite Central Committee

Dann Pantoja, second from left, and his team pray for the pastor of a local church. “His house was totally destroyed. His wife and children were hungry when we arrived. Many of his neighbors died. He cannot locate the families belonging to his congregation.” Photo by Daniel Byron ‘Bee’ Pantoja, from Peacebuilders Community Inc. web site.

 

 

 

 

 

A man is dwarfed by the scale of the disaster created by Super Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. Photo by John Chau, used by permission.

 

 

Soacha, Colombia – Tears flowed freely as a Mennonite World Conference delegation of international visitors exchanged stories and blessings with members of Iglesia Menonita de la resurrección (Mennonite Church of the Resurrection) in Soacha, Colombia on 18 May 2014.

The delegation, with persons from around 18 countries, was enroute to Bogotá from a Catholic retreat centre in Fusagasugá, where they had met for five days. The meetings included the Executive Committee, the YABs (Young Anabaptists) Committee, a representative from each commission and some MWC staff.

Members of the Soacha congregation shared stories about their ministry with persons displaced by violence in their communities. They sang. They danced. They shared food with the delegation in their street level facility called Comedor pan y vida (literally, dining room or cafeteria for bread and life).

They extended their hands in blessing to the international visitors who responded with their own stories that resonated with those they had heard. Rainer Burkhart of Germany asked delegation members to extend their hands in a return blessing as he prayed in German, which was translated into English and then into Spanish.

“Thank you so much for coming,” exclaimed Adaia Bernal, leader of the Soacha congregation. “Don’t lose contact with the umbilical cord to the base communities that make up the church.”

Networking challenge

The ongoing challenge of helping to connect Anabaptist-related communities around the world was high on the agenda during the Executive Committee meeting. To increase its own capacity to build relationships globally, the committee began its meetings with a training session on intercultural competence.

The committee accepted into MWC membership two national churches, the Brethren in Christ Church in South Africa and the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Mennonitischer Brüdergemeinden in Deutschland (Association of Mennonite Brethren Churches in Germany).

Upon affirmation of this decision by the MWC General Council, the total MWC membership will be 103 national churches in 57 countries with about 1.3 million baptized members.

Excitement about the 2015 global Assembly permeated the meetings. Staff reported that plans for the 21-26 July Assembly in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania are well underway, with anticipated attendance of 7,000 to 10,000. Registration will begin mid August 2014.

MWC General Secretary, César García, reflected his enthusiasm for the 2015 Assembly theme “walking with God” (Spanish: caminemos con Dios; French: en marche avec Dieu) by announcing that this theme, together with the Emmaus road story in Luke 24, would serve as the overall framework for MWC program planning for the six years following the Assembly.

The theme, said García, emphasizes that the Christian walk is a journey. “We have not arrived at the goal. We are in process. We have not yet completed our knowledge about God. We need to be transformed continually.”

García also emphasized, “We walk in community. We need each other to discover the truth. We resist the tendency to walk away from each other when we do not agree.”

World Fellowship Sunday and the one lunch offering

To help fund its networking ministry, MWC requests a “fair share” contribution from member churches on each continent.  Every member church contribution is linked to its capacity to give, based on its relative wealth and relative size, and all contributions are valued.

To help member churches reach their Fair Share targets, MWC leadership is promoting the idea of inviting congregational members to annually donate the equivalent of what one lunch would cost in their context.

MWC already promotes World Fellowship Sunday each January, an invitation for Anabaptist churches all over the world to celebrate the global Anabaptist communion. Some congregations already hold an offering for MWC on World Fellowship Sunday.

Whether fasting together, eating together, or offering together, the gift of the local value of one lunch per member on World Fellowship Sunday is an easy way for the global community to take shared responsibility for its life together.

MWC release by Ron Rempel

 

Kinshasa, DR Congo – In July 2012, Sidonie Swana Falanga heard news that she thought was too good to be true. The 100-year-old Communauté Mennonite au Congo (Mennonite Church of Congo, or CMCo) had approved the ordination of women.

“I asked myself, is it an invention, a lie, a dream, or a wish?” she said in a recent interview.

As one report after another confirmed that the church’s leaders had indeed decided at their biennial assembly to offer the sacrament of ordination to women, Swana said her doubts shifted into “a small joy and a small sadness because the thing took too long.”

By the count of one leader, the question had come to a vote before seven assemblies before passing.

Finally, at the celebration of her own ordination just over a year later, Swana said that her joy became “large and complete.”

The sentiment was echoed by many in the crowd of more than 1,000 Congolese Mennonites who gathered in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, on 22 September, 2013, to celebrate as Swana and Fabienne Ngombe Kidinda became the first women to be ordained to ministry in the CMCo.

Two men were also ordained on that occasion.

“This is a very special day for the Mennonite Church,” CMCo President Adolphe Komuesa Kalunga proclaimed in his address.

“The door is wide open to you,” he said to the women in the assembly. “The barrier is broken.”

Eric Mukambu N’yamwisi, a Kinshasa pastor, said the ordinations were “an immense joy. I began advocating for women’s ordination at age 25 and I am now 52. It took time for us to explain that to the church.”

A third woman of the denomination, Bercy Mundedi, was ordained in Kalonda, Western Kasai Province, on 6 October, along with four men.

The five-hour services in Kinshasa and Kalonda included multiple choral performances, instructions to the candidates and their congregations and jubilant dancing and gift giving. Sermons and comments from witnesses focused on the biblical and social bases for women’s leadership.

Responses to women’s ordination

Leaders in the CMCo and beyond have voiced both strong support and concern about the church’s decision to ordain women.

“We have been practicing sexual discrimination. That is not good for the church,” said Paul Kadima, a Kinshasa pastor. “Now we have put in practice Galatians 3:28. In the church we are equal.”

Robert Irundu, CMCo’s national youth president, said he believed it took time for the church to approve women’s ordination “because CMCo wanted to study the declaration of Paul requiring women to be silent in the assembly. But the Bible also says there is no distinction between men and women.”

Others were more blunt. “Many of our pastors had a very conservative spirit,” said Rev. François Shopo at the Kinshasa gathering.

Anastasie Tshimbila, an instructor at Kalonda Bible Institute, said the 2012 decision had stirred controversy in the Kasai region, where CMCo has its headquarters, because “some tribal traditions are very oppressive toward women.” She added, “Some radio call-in programs aired a lot of opposition. But many supported the decision as well. Women welcomed it.”

Hon. Madeleine Musaga, a Mennonite woman who is a national deputy representing Gungu in Bandundu Province, said, at the Kinshasa ceremony, “This is a holy day for me, to see women honored. Women should hold their heads high and men should support them. We women are fighting for decision-making posts in politics, and we must also do that in the church.”

Charlotte Djimbo Ndjoko, a Mennonite Brethren woman who lives in Kinshasa, said that the newly ordained women “have struggled along with men for years and years for this ordination. Men have resented them. Thanks be to God that these men have now recognized that women have a place in the church in pastoral ministry and evangelization. We are very happy. We will support them as Mennonite sisters. And we invite other women and girls to join them.”

Journey toward women’s ordination

CMCo is the last of the three Mennonite communities in Congo to ordain women. Communauté des Églises de Frères Mennonites au Congo (Mennonite Brethren Church of Congo) has been ordaining women since 2000. Communauté Évangélique Mennonite (Evangelical Mennonite Church of Congo) ordained a woman for the first time in July 2012, during celebrations of the church’s fiftieth anniversary.

Swana, 59, received a degree in theology in 1995 and has long served in a pastoral role alongside her husband, Rev. Léonard Falanga. She has been a leader in organizing women who have studied theology, in teaching on the issue and in attempting to persuade church leaders and pastors that women’s ordination is based on biblically sound principles.

Ngombe, 63, received a degree in theology in 1998 and has served as an assistant pastor in several Kinshasa churches since 2005.

All three women studied at the Protestant University of Kinshasa, now known as Christian University of Kinshasa. Mundedi, 47, graduated in 1996.

Mundedi said women in her native Mennonite congregation in Nyanga, Western Kasai, urged her to study theology. “I began preaching in school when I was 14,” she said. After completing theological studies she returned to Nyanga to teach and serve as a school chaplain, “in gratitude to those who first called me.”

In 2005 she began teaching at Kalonda Bible Institute, where she and Anastasie Tshimbila are on the faculty, along with five men. Four women are currently enrolled as students at Kalonda, a three-year post-secondary school that has trained many CMCo pastors.

Six North American Mennonites, including three ordained women—Sandy Miller and Paula Killough of Mennonite Mission Network in Elkhart, Indiana, USA; and Amanda Rempel of Newton, Kansas, USA—attended the ordinations in Kinshasa and Kalonda at the invitation of Congolese church leaders.

“The presence of this delegation is a sign of the love that exists between Mennonites,” Swana said.

The three American women were invited to join CMCo pastors in laying hands on, and praying for, the women and men who were being ordained.

While the struggle for women’s ordination was long and exhausting at times, Swana said, “We recognize that everything has its time, as written in Ecclesiastes 3.”

In November, two more CMCo women, identified by church leaders as Mubi Mutemba and Mundombila, will be ordained in Kananga, Western Kasai.

Article by Nancy Myers, a freelance writer on assignment for Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission and Charlie Malembe, a Mennonite journalist in Kinshasa.

 

Bercy Mundedi pronounces the benediction after her ordination in Kalonda. Photo by Charlie Malembe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fablienne Ngombe Kidinda receives a clerical collar from CMCo president Adolphe Komuesa at her ordination in Kinshasa. Photo by Nancy Myers

 

 

 

 

 

The following is the sermon shared by MWC Vice President, Janet Plenert (Canada), at the Joint Anabaptist Worship Service in Bogotá, Colombia on 18 May, 2014. This united service involved people from all three Anabaptist national churches in Colombia: Iglesia Cristiana Menonita (Mennonite), Iglesia Hermandad en Cristo (Brethren in Christ), and Iglesias Hermanos Menonitas (Mennonite Brethren). It was a wonderful time of fellowship and communion together. Click here to see more photos from the Worship Service.

 

Focus Statement:  The church must stand united for a cohesive witness if it is to confront the injustice of the world, and transform it into communities of grace, joy and peace, (i.e. not empty the cross of its power)

Today you are to be congratulated!  Why?  Because you are here, together, united, willing and delighted to worship together, to stand together, to be one body, one unified voice unencumbered by your differences, focused on what unites you.  So on behalf of Mennonite World Conference, I congratulate you, and I invite you, right now to congratulate and welcome someone near you who you don’t know very well.  Stand up and greet someone near you! 

There are many things that could divide us in this room, yet we are here together.  Here YOU are, as Colombian Mennonites, Mennonite Brethren and Brethren in Christ – together.  Here WE are, as Colombians, Canadians, Indonesians, Costa Ricans, Zambians, Dutch, and more – together.  And yet our communities and our world are neither united nor peaceful places.  As we stand together:

• A Palestinian home is bulldozed because it is on land claimed as an Israeli settlement
• Sang-Min, a young Mennonite in South Korea sits in jail where he will spend 18 months because of his refusal to serve his term in the military.
• A mother in Vietnam comforts her child who suffers from cancer – the lingering result of Agent Orange from the Vietnam war
• Aboriginal people in Canada weep as they tell their stories of physical and sexual abuse in church-run residential schools during the 100 years that Canadian law forcibly tried to eradicate their traditional culture and language
• Women in many countries, desperate to support their families, are caught in human trafficking and the sex industry
• Syrian refuges wait, and wonder, as war and terror define their future

We live in a harsh and often painful world.  You know that only too well here in Colombia.  Yet we live in a world where hope also exists, where tiny lights of justice shine brightly.  It was a Colombian, speaking at a Colombian ecumenical Peace Summit in San Andres, who said ‘the church is the only institution in the world that exists in every ‘rincon’ (corner) of the country.’  Because that is true, there is hope!  There IS hope, because the church of Jesus Christ IS, and because the church of Jesus Christ exists throughout the world. 

The fact of standing together in unified worship and witness is significant as we think about our world, and as we study our scripture passage today.  In 1 Corinthians 1:10 – 25.   Paul was speaking into a context where divisions existed within the church, where people were not coming together as one body.  People within the church were appealing either to Paul’s teaching or to Apollos’ teaching, or that of Cephas.  They were using the distinction’s they had learned from their spiritual teachers as a means of quarrelling and division.  They were focused on being right, on promoting and validating the authority of their pastor (or their church) rather than on the meaning of the cross for the city and world around them.  And word of these arguments was spreading.

Paul writes to the Corinthians and he pleads with them in the name of Jesus Christ to “say the same thing”, to be in agreement, to have the same judgement.  Why?  Why can’t they focus on their differences as Paul’s followers and Apollos followers, as Mennonite Brethren and Brethren in Christ, or as Congolese and Canadians?  After all they are all following Jesus!  Because, Paul says in verse 17, Christ sent us to proclaim the gospel, not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.  Paul calls the church, which is already experiencing divisions, to heal itself – to restore itself to completeness and wholeness.  The witness of the cross seems to depend on it.  The proclaiming of the gospel seems to depend on it.  The transformation of the world seems to depend on it.  

The proclaiming of the gospel may seem foolish to the world.  It is not a message of worldly power, of worldly kingdom.  It is not a message of achieving peace or freedom through the use of military might.  It is not a message of wealth and power leading to order and control.  It is a message of death bringing life.  It is a message of the fools shaming the wise, the weak shaming the strong, the lowly and the marginalized bringing down the respected, the Jews and the Gentiles together being saved.  It is a message of the marginalized being brought into citizenship.  It is a message that requires those who believe, to stand together – in spite of their difference – to have the ‘same judgement’, to not be quarreling and in public disagreement.  To be divided weakens the proclaiming of the gospel and empties the cross of its power.

I am reminded of a poster that MCC produced a number of years ago.  It was very simple.  It said “Let the Christian’s of the world agree to not kill each other.”   For hundreds of years, wars have been fought where people calling themselves Christians fought against one another, and killed one another.   Political divisions and allegiances were stronger than spiritual ones, and brothers in the faith killed one another.  What kind of witness is that in the world?  Where is the power of the cross?  There is no redemptive or salvific power of a cross that is carried for the purpose of conquering the world.  This is what Paul wanted to avoid – a cross emptied of power.  Where would the world be today if Christians had always refused to kill each other?  Where would the world be today is Christians had always refused to kill anyone?

A few years ago, MCC arranged a dinner with Iranian President Ahmadinejad as a way for church leaders to dialogue with him about his positions and views.  The President is a bold global figure well known for inflammatory remarks against Israel.  The dinner was met with significant protest, primarily by other Christians who protested outside the hotel venue.  Christian brothers and sisters held signs saying:

• why are peace churches so anxious to talk with a man who wants to destroy Israel and the United States?
• The Christians who eat with this man do not represent the Christians;
• don’t make peace with the devil;

Jack Suderman who represented Mennonite Church Canada at the gathering said afterwards, “The assumption is made by the protesters that talking to each other means being allies in common causes. They seem to forget that peace ultimately needs to be brokered between enemies. It’s not necessary to do so between friends.” 

I am sad to think of the witness of disunity, anger, and struggle within the church that is caused by such public protest of Christians against Christians.  It demonstrates a cross emptied of its power.

And so it is all the more important that we are here, together, today.  It is all the more important that as Mennonites around the world we strive to resolve and heal the divisions among the body.  It is all the more important that Mennonite World Conference exists, as a cohesive, unifying presence of our people around the world.

As we think about Paul’s encouragement to heal and to be in agreement, we need to remember that heal divisions, we need to understand one another, and thus we need to face one another.  While this may be obvious, it is often the case that those who hear of diverse and disagreeable opinions in one part of the church, turn their backs.  Instead of going for coffee or drinking mate together, we more often chose to not talk to the other. When a church in one part of the country disagrees with a church in another part of the country, it is easy to just ignore it, because we are busy enough with our own agenda.  And the disagreement grows to division.  At the very least, and as a starting point, we must look one another in the face if we are to understand each other and begin to heal divisions.

We must also be committed to one another.   Like ties that bind a family together, the church must also be bound together with an unwavering commitment to one another.  Strong opinions can be – respectfully – expressed, debates can happen, questions and concerns can be appropriately raised.  But at the root of all of this, commitment to the common witness, the foolishness of the cross, is what we need to focus on.  The witness of the gospel is weakened and I believe the cross is emptied of its power if we are not committed to one another.  This is essential to being a community of God’s people.  And it requires patience with one another, longsuffering, hope, and gentleness. 

These processes require time.  Sometimes, a great deal of time!  MWC and the Lutheran World Federation actively met for 5 years to work at healing profound divisions between our faith communities that began almost 500 years earlier!  Writing our MWC Shared Convictions – that which we as 101 members churches in 58 countries declare together to be our core convictions – was a process that took more than 10 years!  We don’t live the convictions in with the same emphasis, nor focus, nor in the same way.  But the slow and careful process eventually resulted in our global family of faith being able to stand together, believing these statements are faithful to our best understanding of foolishness of the cross lived out through our global family.

If we as a global community of Anabaptist followers of Jesus can heal any differences among us, if we can come together in worship and witness, then we will be an example in the world of the power of the cross, no matter how foolish it appears.  If we can stand united as Anabaptist followers of Jesus, then we can begin to more actively participate in the healing of the larger divisions in the  Christian church.  And I believe, the more we can stand together and say the same thing, the brighter the light of the gospel will shine into our world.  What if all the Koreans in both Koreas stood together in refusing to take up military might?  What if the Americans Christians had refused to kill and use chemicals in Vietnam?  What if Canadian churches would stand united, and give the same message about reconciling with our Aboriginal brothers and sisters?  What if ALL the Christians homes and church buildings in Latin America were peace sanctuaries where everyone was treated with dignity and respect?  What if Christians searching for land 500 years ago had refused to steal land rape the earth of its resources?   What if?  The foolishness of this sounds ridiculous in this complex world of today.  Foolish.  We have been called to proclaim the gospel‚Ķ Christ crucified‚Ķ.. God chose what is foolish to shame the wise, to bring healing and salvation and justice.  God chose things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that ARE.

May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that we may never be tempted to empty the cross of its power.

May God bless us with anger at divisions, injustice, and oppression, so that we may be midwives of unity, justice, and peace.

And may God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that together we can make a difference in this world, transforming it into a world which is ruled by the power of the cross:  justice, mercy and the love of God.

Amen.

 

Our brothers and sisters of College Community Church Mennonite Brethren, in Clovis, California, USA have found a creative way to use the MWC Shared Convictions in their congregation on the Sundays following Easter 2014.

Pastor Bill Braun, adapted the Shared Convictions, along with other resources, to create a responsive reading to use in their worship series for Eastertide. Their series is drawn from I Peter, the church in times of challenge/persecution.

Bill shares, “At the practical level, I’ve been blessed as we’ve read these together each week. Hearing and seeing us share these convictions together has made a strong impact on me, more than when I read them alone. Some years ago, we used the shared convictions as the organizing principle for Eastertide worship and this reminded us of that again, though our organizing principle this time was I Peter.”

 How has your congregation shared the MWC Shared Convictions?