Missional alert: Aligning ourselves with God's intentions

Used with permission from Canadian Mennonite.

How can congregations be more involved in what God is doing in the world? This is the first in a series on the missional vision of the new Mennonite Church Canada. The writers are Maurice Martin, Robert J. Suderman and Dan Dyck.

What is God doing?" is the theme of Abbotsford 2001, the annual assembly of Mennonite Church Canada. It is also the question that underlies our understanding of a "missional church."

A "missional church" discerns what God is doing in the world and seeks to participate in that work. Our "Healing and Hope" statement sets the stage: it envisions every congregation fully engaged in God's mission, from across the street to around the world.

We in North America have been a "sending" church, sending mission workers to many places. We now understand in a fresh way Jesus' words that we are all "sent" into the world in which we live (John 17:18). We can no longer divide "mission" churches from other congregations. Whether here in Canada, or across the world, the role of congregations is the same-to be more fully involved in what God is doing in the world.

The global nature of the Mennonite Church is also demonstrated here at home. On any Sunday morning, Mennonite congregations in Canada worship in 10 or more languages; the nations have come to us. At Abbotsford 2001, we will accept Micah's invitation to "people from all nations" to "go up to the mountain of the Lord" (Micah 4:2). There we trust that "God will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths."

In our partnership in the Gospel, the work of the church is a seamless garment in which Christian witness (the mission of observation, proclamation and service) and Christian formation (discipling, education and nurture), enabled by Support services, remain one undivided whole. (See March 26, page 12 on new church structures.)

We are reminded of this holistic gospel mandate each time we recite the Vision Healing and Hope statement: "God calls us to be followers of Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit, to grow as communities of grace, joy and peace so that God's healing and hope flow through us to the world."

As Mennonites in Canada, we are taking a new look at what mission means at home and around the world. Our culture, the changing secular and church cultures around the world, and the interconnectivity with new technologies are calling us to re-discover what it means to be a missional people.

The following stories help us understand the changes affecting Mennonite Church Canada. The cases are real; names have been changed. Proposals for shaping our healing and hope vision will be presented at the annual assembly in Abbotsford (July 11-15). Five affirmations guide our ministries of Christian witness and formation.

1. God's redemptive reign sets the agenda for our life together. God's mission is to set things right with a broken, sinful world, to redeem it and restore it to its intended purpose. This mission is the church's reason for being.

Carla and Carlos get a boost

Carla and Carlos Fernandez are refugees from El Salvador. For a number of years they lived in subsidized housing. When Carlos was able to return to work after surgery, their rent subsidy was removed. Now they paid more for rent than many in their congregation paid on their mortgages.

"Many people get a leg up to own a house through the assistance of their family," someone said. "But Carla and Carlos have no family here, so why can't we be their family?" The congregation raised money for a down payment on a house. The Fernandez family is now well on the way to getting off the poverty treadmill. In this small way, the congregation helped to set things right in a world of great inequities.

Alert: What is right with this picture? The body of Christ breaks biological family boundaries by saying that "your family is my family." The church is both a witness in the community and a help in the Christian formation of this refugee family.

Senior regrets never doing mission

Mrs. Friesen, widowed as a young woman, raised a blended family on her own. She succeeded in seeing her children committed in their Christian walk. She also visited the sick, invited the lonely to her church, and became a counsellor to the dispossessed folks in her neighbourhood. She prayed for missionaries, supported her pastor, and quilted for Mennonite Central Committee.

She was a role model in the formation of her children and a witness to friends and neighbours. On her eighty-fifth birthday, she said her only regret was that she had never been able to work in missions.

Alert: What is wrong with this picture? Mrs. Friesen's experience illustrates that we have separated Christian faithfulness from mission; we have separated what it means to be the church from what it means to be in mission.

Our hope: We must look again at the nature of the church and the church's mission. The concept of a "missional church" is a helpful way of bringing the two together.

2. The church is an invitational, worshipping people, living under God's rule as a contrast people. The church is a sign of God's redemptive reign. It is sent to invite all people into that reign by announcing salvation, proclaiming and demonstrating peace, and serving a needy world in the spirit of Jesus.

Robert dodges a choice

Robert, a Roman Catholic, came to Canada from the United States during the 1960s, not as a draft dodger but, as he said, "dodging the issue of having to choose." He was not ready to be a nonconformist. Then he read a letter to the editor on Remembrance Day, written by Chris, a young Mennonite, passionately proclaiming his testimony for peace.

Robert was impressed with Chris' counter-cultural Christian stance. After a year of conversations with Chris and his church, Robert was baptized as an adult to seal his commitment to Christ, the Prince of Peace. He has since become part of a Christian Peacemaker Team.

Alert: What is right with this picture? Chris met the challenge of proclamation in his own community, never guessing that his simple act would so influence Robert. Chris' witness contributed to the formation of Robert, now a participant in God's mission in the world.

Para-church missions

A Mennonite congregation supports one denominational mission activity and MCC, but the majority of its funds go to para-church organizations that "are really active in missions."

Alert: What is wrong with this picture? While para-church agencies do good things, they believe that "getting Christian work done" is so urgent that they cannot be fettered by the church and its politics. The focus is on action, not on being. However, this focus separates mission from church-accountability for strategy and theological discernment are not the responsibility of any particular church. We are tempted to do the work of God's people by taking it out of the hands of God's church.

Our hope: Being a more intentionally missional people unites the being and the doing of church. Our Anabaptist understanding sees the church as inseparable from the nature of mission. Imagine the impact if all Mennonite Church Canada congregations and members would covenant together to "do" mission by being the church and to "be" the church by doing mission.

3. The church is a gifted, covenanted people of God. Whether in our congregation, across the street or around the world, the church is people who are committed to walk with God and each other in a covenant of grace. Such communities bring seekers to initial commitment to Christ and the church, and disciple all believers in loving accountability to live out the practices of God's reign.

Church on the basketball court

Tom and Judy, recently married Mennonites, were not connecting with any congregation. Tom joined a community basketball league and rode with one of his team mates to the games. In conversations about church, Tom's friend spoke enthusiastically about his Mennonite congregation, reciting its mission statement and relating attempts to live up to its vision.

Tom had never met a young adult who was energized by the mission statement of his congregation. He and Judy checked it out. They discovered a congregation enthusiastic and clear about its purpose in the community and the world, and they became involved. In a recent conversation, Tom was looking forward to a three-hour congregational meeting to review their mission statement.

Alert: What is right with this picture? Tom's friend was a witness and the church followed up in Tom and Judy's Christian formation. Such clarity of purpose is inspiring. Programs and structures should be servants of vision, not its masters. As we consider how to re-attract young people, we need to ask if our congregation is clear about why we are the church.

Mentors lead 12-year-old to ministry

Dale knew at age 12 that he was called to ministry, even before he had made his Christian commitment known through baptism. The deacon encouraged him throughout high school, paying Dale for occasional work on his farm. Dale's pastor invited him to help plan Sunday evening services as a way to test his call. In college, a student chaplain became his mentor.

Alert: What is right with this picture? Dale's church was aware that the formation of pastoral leaders begins long before they set foot in a seminary. Nurturing and growing leaders is as missional a task as any other, and plays a vital role in the ongoing task of Christian formation.

Our hope: Since Mennonite Church-General Conference integration discussions began in 1990, many individuals have looked carefully at what it means to be the church in Canada. We are inspired by a vision. Program and structure are to serve this vision so that we can become bet-ter team players. The church is indeed a gifted, covenanted people of God!

4. The gospel is reconciling, holistic and transforming. By word and deed, the church announces the good news that people and communities can be reconciled to God and to one another, be transformed into Christ's image, and can experience the healing of God's grace and peace. As we learn love of neighbour within, we also learn to love the enemy without, believing that no person is beyond God's love and forgiveness.

Solidarity ministry

A pastor became aware of a Canadian delegation to Colombia through the MC Canada web site. Her congregation also followed Christian Peacemaker Team reports from Colombia and want to support the ministry there. They want to begin with a prayer campaign. Prayers from each member will be said in church and then sent to the Colombian church as evidence of solidarity and support.

Alert: What is right with this picture? This church is modelling Christian witness, thereby contributing to the Christian formation of others. One of the most important ingredients of partnering with persecuted churches is to communicate evidence of our solidarity with them. Such churches easily feel overwhelmed by their circumstances. This prayer campaign will make quite an impact in Colombia.

Our hope: Being an international body of Christ means being in solidarity with those who are persecuted for their faith. Prayer is one way of expressing solidarity; a visit by a congregational delegation is another. Other ways of showing solidarity are receiving members in our communities and supporting them when exile becomes necessary. This ministry is a "low cost," tangible way to become involved in ministry. We announce to the world that the gospel is reconciling, holistic and transforming!

5. Incarnational ministry takes context seriously. The mission of God is always incarnational, "the Word became flesh." The God of the gospel has already affected the culture in which we find ourselves. The church seeks to discover the activity of God already present in that context and makes this activity good news in a relevant, transforming way.

Are your needs our needs?

In a recent trip to another country, a Canadian delegation visited congregations and ministries of the church there. One ministry in particular struck the Canadians as a place to connect. In a meeting with national leaders, the delegation learned that this ministry would be shut down. The Canadians were incensed: how could these folks shut down the very ministry they had decided to support?

Alert: What is wrong with this picture? It's exciting that a Canadian congregation is so ready to partner with another church. But should ministry priorities in other countries be decided by visitors? International mission partnerships have moved well beyond such assumptions.

Our hope: We need to respect the knowledge and experience of partners in their own country. At a recent worldwide consultation on Mennonite missions, the message to North America was clear: Partnerships are highly desired and congregational initiatives eagerly awaited, but these must be culturally appropriate, have theological integrity, and be structurally coordinated.

Mennonite Church Canada proposals are clear about these preferred ways of becoming partners in the world. Incarnational ministry must take context seriously!

Two final illustrations help us articulate how mission and church can draw closer together.

Jacob and Nancy's mission work

The work of long-term missionaries Jacob and Nancy included listening, counselling, teaching, writing, church work and healing ministries. In a recent tribute, someone said that the word "missionary" was too limiting for Jacob and Nancy.

Alert: What is wrong with this picture? God's mission in the world is broad. Jacob and Nancy understood that this means participating fully in Christian witness and formation; it includes working at all those things that make our world less than it should be. "Missionary" is not a limiting word. What is limiting is our understanding of God's mission.

Our hope: "Christian mission" is often misrepresented. We could stop using the word. Or we could define it more carefully. Or we could engage in serious dialogue about how God acts in our world and how we are invited into God's work. In striving to become more missional, we need to engage all parts of the church to help define and learn about the width, height and depth of God's concern for creation.

"Us and them" or "we?"

Area conference mission leaders and staff met recently to report on their activities. Significant momentum is building for mission. MC Canada requested permission to compile the reports and promote them as "what Mennonite Church Canada is doing." Can we say that MC Canada is planting 24 new congregations (the total of all area conferences)?

What is MC Canada? Is it the structures in Winnipeg? Is it staff and programs? Is it everyone together-all the congregations and area conferences? In a move that joins Christian witness and formation, the leaders granted permission for MC Canada to speak on behalf of the whole.

Alert: What is right with this picture? When area people unite their experiences to create a national strategy, something significant has happened! The whole actually becomes greater than the sum of the parts. By seeing the whole as part of themselves, churches and regions see new possibilities.

This is a move from "energy" to "synergy." When several pots are boiling on a stove, a lot of energy is released. But it takes a cook to produce an enticing meal from separate pots. That is synergy.

Our hope: A missional people must become synergistic-a process in which church members, congregations, area conferences, and the national church become an enticing meal rather than separate dishes. The needs and gifts of conferences and congregations release the energy to organize a national strategy of mission. Together, we can build strong congregations, strong area conferences, and a strong national church, creating an organic system that works together in mission.

A recurring question about the missional concept is: What's really new here? Perhaps the answer has to do with rediscovery and renewal. Imagine if every person in every congregation rediscovered what God is doing in our culture, became fully involved in God's mission, and could tell personal stories such as those presented here. How might our church and world change?

We do not know all of what God wants to do through Mennonite Church Canada. We celebrate both the realized dreams and the hidden potential as we sing, "In the bulb there is a flower, in the seed, an apple tree; in cocoons, a hidden promise: butterflies will soon be free!...unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see" (Hymnal: A Worship Book, 614).

The articles in this section are by Maurice Martin and Robert J. Suderman, together with Dan Dyck. Martin, of New Hamburg, Ontario, leads the Mennonite Church Canada transition team creating the proposed Christian Formation Council. Suderman, of Winnipeg, leads the transition team forming the proposed Christian Witness Council. Dyck is MC Canada communications director.

Changing approaches to mission

1860-1950: The founding model of Mennonite mission in and from North America had congregations commissioning an agency to do the work. Congregations provided prayer, money, board direction and personnel. The church's primary relationship was with the agency and its workers.
Mission energy flows from congregations through agency to the field.

1950-2000: Mission activities overseas were increasingly pursued in cooperation with national churches or Christian organizations there. Mission agencies often acted in partnership with area conference mission committees. The North American congregation related primarily to the agency.
Mission performed by the agency with field partners supported by North American congregations.

2001 on: The emerging model answers the calls from churches, clusters of congregations and international partners to be full participants in mission. Partnership need not directly involve the mission agency.
Mission energy flows directly between partners, with the mission agency as one of the partners, and with the mission field at both ends of the relationship.