Adults hear calls to gather in God’s Spirit and be restored, empowered, centered and sent.

Meeting June 30-July 5 in Columbus, Ohio, under the theme “Breathe and Be Filled,” participants in Mennonite Church USA Convention 2009 heard calls to encounter God’s Spirit. A variety of speakers at worship sessions addressed convention-goers with messages about gathering in God’s Spirit and being restored, empowered, centered and sent out.

The opening worship on June 30 focused on the theme “Gathered in God’s Spirit.”

Juana Nuñez told the gathering that the Spirit that was present at creation and in Jesus’ life and ministry is the same Spirit present with us today.

Nuñez, a certified part-time chaplain with Marketplace Chaplains USA and moderator of Iglesia Menonita Hispana, presented her message in Spanish, while her daughter Alexandra Nuñez translated (pictured).

When Jesus came among the disciples after his resurrection (John 20:19b-21), his presence calmed their fears, and he breathed on them. Then at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-11), the Spirit came in fire and wind upon the newborn church. “The Spirit that initiated Jesus’ mission,” she said, “is the same Spirit that initiated the mission of the church.”

With the power of that same Spirit, the church today is called to practice mission, Nuñez said. “Mennonite Church USA has been greatly blessed, and we are to bless others,” she said. The method used by God to change the world has not changed, she said. The key is to spread the good news of Jesus.

Nuñez, the first woman to be elected as moderator of Iglesia Menonita Hispana, is also co-pastor of Iglesia Cristiana Ebenezer in Apopka, Fla., with her husband, Eligio. Nuñez was born in the Dominican Republic, while her daughter was born in the United States.

Worship leaders Regina Shands Stoltzfus and Joel Miller invited a representative from each of the 21 area conferences in Mennonite Church USA to bring a vessel of oil and pour some of it into a single vessel at the front, where an oil lamp burned. Miller called the lamp a reminder of the one Spirit in the church.

At the morning worship on July 1, outgoing Mennonite Church USA Executive Director Jim Schrag (pictured) offered a kind of farewell address by calling the church to unfurl its sails.

He told the story of missionary Hudson Taylor, who refused to pray for a wind to take a ship out of dangerous waters until the captain first unfurled the sails.

“Perhaps things are too calm in Mennonite Church USA and we’re drifting,” he said. “This is a time to unfurl our sails to catch the wind of God.”

Schrag asked if we’ve grown accustomed to our surroundings and “are unaware of the currents and compulsions of our society that push us in directions we may not have chosen.”
We Mennonites are better givers than receivers, he said. “We pride ourselves as generous and self-sufficient, but this is no formula for being filled with the breath of God.”

Referring to the story in John 20, he said the disciples huddled behind closed doors. But Jesus entered, and “when he leads, the doors open.”

We must be aware of the ways we have locked the doors to God’s Spirit, he said.
Steve Brown spoke about Churches Supporting Churches, which pairs Mennonite Church USA congregations with congregations that suffered loss from Hurricane Katrina.

The morning worship on July 2 focused on “Empowered by the Spirit” (Ephesians 4:11-16). Shane Claiborne, author of Jesus for President and founding partner of The Simple Way, a faith community in inner-city Philadelphia, called on his listeners to “ask what it means to be radical noncomformists to the ways of the world.”

Claiborne (pictured), who said, “I’m not a Mennonite, but it’s the best thing I’ve been mistaken for,” said many people are listening to the alternative values Mennonites have.

He looked at stories of Jesus in the Gospels and concluded, “The gospel spreads best through fascination.”

He noted that recent research from George Barna found that when non-Christians were asked about their images of Christians, number one was that they’re anti-gay. Second was “judgmental,” and third was “hypocrites.”

“We have a bit of an image problem,” he said.

Claiborne grew up in east Tennessee in a church where “people go to the altar just as I am and leave just as they were.” His own conversion to following Jesus occurred when he encountered the question, How can we worship a homeless man on Sunday and ignore one on Monday?

He and other students at Eastern University eventually formed The Simple Way and decided that “we’re going to stop complaining about the church we came from and work on becoming the church we dream of.”

As a nation and as Christians, we’ve become too comfortable, he said. “We compromise the cost of following Christ to get more people to the altar.”

Claiborne said he’s witnessed Christians around the world working at reconciliation. The key, he said, is that we disagree well. People can be right and still be mean, but “when you’re mean, no one wants to listen to you.”

We’re like the donkey that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. It’s not about us. “We’re just the asses Jesus rides on,” he said.

More than 6,500 Mennonites filled Nationwide Arena July 2 for a joint adult and youth worship to focus on “Centered in the Spirit.” Mother-daughter team June Alliman Yoder and Mandy Yoder Schrock used four images to talk about the relationship of the human spirit and the Holy Spirit.

A relief pitcher describes an emphasis on human ability. An Amish bench approach tries to leave everything up to the Holy Spirit.

The last two images—the EPR paradox (named for physicists Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen) and the GPS—reflect a kind of partnership that exists between humans and the Spirit.
“The way we relate to the Holy Spirit is a collaborative affair,” said Yoder Schrock.

Alliman Yoder asked, “What if the Spirit needs you?” She looked at the story in Matthew in which Jesus told his followers to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send workers into the harvest and Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians that he planted the seed and Apollos watered, but the Lord gives the increase. “The Spirit cannot do its help without our help,” she said.

Ultimately, they said, the goal is to be centered in the Spirit. Both speakers named examples of people who live centered in the Spirit.

About 180 children from the children’s convention performed several songs, and a youth and adult choir also performed two pieces.

An offering was taken to support the education of first-generation immigrant pastors.

The morning worship on July 3 focused on “Dwelling in the Spirit” and used the practice of Lectio Divina (divine reading). The worship leaders read Ephesians 3:14-21 (NLT) several times and asked participants to focus on a word or phrase, how this speaks to them today and what God is inviting them to from this.

The morning’s speakers then did the same.

Marvin Lorenzana, director of the Multicultural Services Office at Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Va., said, “I yearn for unlimited resources and inner strength.” He spoke of how he has experienced “sustenance in times of trial.”

Megan Ramer, pastor of Chicago Community Church, heard a clear summons to fall on her knees and pray. “To dwell in the Spirit means to make a dwelling place,” she said, “to create a home for the Spirit to dwell.”

John Powell, Ministry Development consultant and interim director for U.S. Ministries at Mennonite Mission Network, said that sometimes he has to be reminded that he is “not the center of the universe.” Christ is “an anyhow presence,” he said. Even if we ignore him, he’s with us anyhow.

Participants later shared in Communion.

At July 4’s evening worship, Sojourners editor-in-chief and co-founder Jim Wallis greeted Mennonites “a friend of the family” who has been enriched by the Anabaptist movement and Mennonites. “Your best stuff is the right stuff,” he said, and you need to share it.

The evening’s theme was “Sent by the Spirit” and focused on John 20:19-21 and Isaiah 61:1-3. Wallis (pictured) noted that right after Jesus said to his followers, “Peace be with you,” he sent them into a world of conflict.

Wallis said he grew up in an evangelical family that emphasized “getting saved” at a young age. But faith had no public element. Later, he learned that “God is personal but not private.”

Referring to the Isaiah text, which Jesus applied to himself in Luke 4:18-21, Wallis asked the audience, “Is Jesus’ mission statement the same as ours?” Jesus proclaimed good news to the poor, he said. “If our gospel is not good news to poor people, it is not the gospel of Jesus.”

Wallis commended young people, who “are less concerned about what you have to believe to be a Christian than what you have to do because you’re a Christian.”

We all are called to address poverty, he said. “God cares more about the 30,000 children who died today from preventable diseases than about gay marriage amendments in Ohio.”

Wallis looked at the story of Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000. In a recession, he said, we tend to hold on to our lunch, unlike the boy in the story. But in God’s economy, we share it.
Mennonites’ “best stuff is the right stuff,” he said. “As a friend of the family, I urge you to not be shy about sharing your best stuff.”

Following the message, worship leaders Regina Shands Stoltzfus and Joel Miller invited people to come to the front to receive anointing with oil from one of the ministers spread across the room. Hundreds came forward.