This article was originally published by The Mennonite

A prescription for Anabaptist renewal

The spiritual itinerary: from Satan to Christ

Sometimes I speculate what my life would have been like had I been born into an animistic West African family. For me, after living many years in West Africa, it doesn’t take much guesswork to know what it would have been like; nearly all my African Christian friends came through that kind of a family life and cultural setting.

The world view and values I would have been handed would look like this:
  • There is a supreme being, God, but he is distant and essentially uninvolved in our lives, however his name is occasionally invoked.
  • The chief spiritual power that helps us and is closely involved in our lives and destiny is Satan.
  • The satanic presences we are most concerned about are the spirit beings of our ancestors; our deceased family members. We are constantly vigilant about displeasing them because they can bring good or ill to our lives and control our well-being from the spirit world.
  • We are always ready to repay evil done against us by visiting a far greater and punitive evil upon those who harm us.
  • We devalue and aggressively marginalize women and children, people who are not of our ethnic group, and the sick and handicapped (because they are cursed).
  • We solicit and trust the intervention of sorcerers who have access to powerful demons. We diligently invoke their curses and their guidance.
  • We do not trust our spouse, children or other family members; they may be plotting evil against us.
  • We patronize people who are richer and more powerful than we are, with the expectation that they will help us in time of need.

This entire agenda is satanic from start to finish. It has but one objective: to mar and destroy the glory and beauty of God’s entire creation, including mankind.

The task of the missional disciple of Christ is to invite and facilitate movement out of that satanic agenda into the light, healing and wholeness of God’s reign. The process by which people in an animistic culture move from the satanic agenda into becoming disciples of Christ is described by missiologists as a “spiritual itinerary.” The Old Testament Exodus story is a perfect metaphor on this spiritual itinerary.

My task as a cross-cultural missionary is to model that ministry and equip Africans to become missional disciples to their cultures, which they are far more adept at dealing with than I am. It has been a particular blessing for me to see and be part of the unfolding and extension of God’s kingdom in this part of the world.

In West Africa, as we invite people to become disciples of Jesus, we make sure they understand that their decision to join God’s people starts them on a journey that will be transitioning the above satanic worldview into something radically different; one that will look like this:

1. We are a Christlike community. We are dedicated to reflecting Jesus’ character, Spirit, life, teachings, relationships, servanthood and dedication to the will of the Father. Jesus Christ is the acknowledged head of the community, and it is our purpose, both individually and collectively, to be growing up into our Head.

2. We are “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.” We regard the first-century community of Jesus and his apostles as an authoritative model for the faith and life of the church through the ages, made real within our own cultural context. We must challenge our own traditions and cultures and evaluate them in light of Christ and the apostolic witnesses.

3. We are a community of peacemakers, showing consideration, mercy, pardon and love toward everyone, even our enemies. We know that peacemakers are in opposition to the divisive, destructive tactics of the enemy, and we are prepared to suffer in the proclamation of the gospel of peace and righteousness.

4. We are in submission to our Head, Jesus Christ and to each other as we are filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit. We give and receive counsel within the brotherhood, enabling us to be in oneness with Christ and each other.

5. It is of primary importance for us to be fully engaged with God’s mission of salvation; bringing and doing God’s will on earth as it is in heaven and making known “the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth.”

6. We are a community of worship, declaring the righteousness and sovereignty of Christ both in our gathered times and by our daily conduct as we move among the general society.

7. We have a high sense of responsibility for each other. We share with those among us who have material needs, we mentor and admonish each other in our walk with Christ, we suffer with those who are suffering and we celebrate with those who rejoice and celebrate.

8. The leaders among us are those who emerge with Holy Spirit-empowered gifts of caring for the flock and equipping the saints for the work of ministry. Leaders may be appointed and credentialed, but they are in no way elevated above anyone else in the community. Leaders are first and foremost servants, not masters. The source of authority in the community is the gathered believers, who together discern the will of the Lord and provide direction for the community.

9. The church is a welcoming, inclusive community, accepting among us people at whatever faith level they come with. We welcome people to join us who are hungering and thirsting for righteousness and open to the transforming power of Christ, teachable and ready to find identity among us. We are a community of pardon, forgiveness, mercy and patience. Condemnation and judgment may be in order on rare occasions, but grace and hope freely abound among us.

10. We believe God’s salvation is for all peoples. Therefore we understand the community of faith as a place where former walls, divisions, hostilities and prejudices have been eradicated by the reconciling death and resurrection of Christ. We regard ourselves first of all as citizens together in God’s kingdom because the things that separated us, such as gender, race, tribe and social status, are no longer obstacles to our oneness in Christ.

11. We are a people of eschatological hope. In our life together under the Lordship of Christ, we are already realizing the fruits of the eternal reign of Christ, wherein we are set free from the powers that mar and destroy God’s good creation. At the same time, we live with the limitations of human mortality and fallenness with our eyes of faith fixed on the future culmination of God’s victory over Satan, where all evil, mortality and the enemies of God will be judged and forever and eternally banished.

Transitioning from the satanic into the Christlike worldview is a slow process; it may even need a couple of generations. But steady, firm growth into Christlikeness can happen in the context where there are self-giving disciplers, unfailing resources of grace and patience and the unflinching focus on the eschatological vision that one is about Jesus’ prayer—“Thy kingdom come and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

North America: the spiritual journey in reverse

I find myself experiencing what long-term missionaries call reverse culture shock when I catch up on North American news via the Internet or I return to the United States for a visit. Specifically, I am disturbed at the progress this same satanic agenda is making in the North American culture and church community where I grew up and spent most of my adult life. In North America, it seems the spiritual itinerary, the journey toward Christ, has gone into reverse, and the church is accommodating to the satanic agenda, becoming less and less Christlike.

When I compare the two worldviews above and see what is happening in the North American church, Mennonites included, I ask, What is going on here?

Here are some of the indications that the church in North America is moving away from Christ that are particularly disturbing to one who has largely a global South orientation:

1. Racism appears to be rampant in the hearts and minds of many Christians. The political right is determined to undo the presidency of the first nonwhite U.S. president. The opposition to Mr. Obama is far deeper than just a different political agenda; most American evangelicals can’t stand the fact that a person of color is now at the helm.

2. Many want an impenetrable wall on the U.S. borders where people from other ethnicities and races are not allowed in and where those who are there need to be deported.

3. Many Christians are determined to block the poor and marginalized from medical care.

4. With the support (patronage) of Christians, the wealthy are becoming increasingly rich and powerful.

5. Christians are being given the green light from their churches (including Mennonites) to devote most of their lives to laying up treasures on earth.

6. Some Christians are undoing God’s created order pertaining to gender relations and sexual orientation.

7. Many Christians have fallen hook, line and sinker for Satan’s third temptation of Christ: To make an adulterous, heretical alliance with worldly political powers as a means to bring about God’s kingdom.

8. “In God we trust” is a great slogan, but it is reality for few North American Christians. A far more honest slogan would say that our trust is in military might, economic dominance and political prowess.

Every one of these issues is clearly in opposition to God’s plan for the salvation of his creation and the mission and ministry of Messiah Jesus. Each of them belongs to the satanic side of the ledger. Each of them is contrary to the teachings of Christ and the apostles, and each is anathema according to the current Mennonite confession of faith and its historical precedents.

I’m not all that surprised when my Baptist friends buy into this anti-Christian agenda. They belong to the Constantinan/Augustinian corruption of the church; the right-wing agenda fits appropriately with their theology.

But I am really disturbed and disappointed by Anabaptist folks I assumed were firmly committed especially to points one and two of the Christian worldview above. We are supposed to be a radical church based on the teachings of Christ and the apostolic deposit. We are failing to critique North American culture, and we are not finding our way through the culture to faithfulness to Christ.

I have coined a term for this movement away from Christlikeness: “foxidation.” It’s a takeoff from the chemical process where iron is mixed with oxygen and the once solid iron is reduced to rust. It’s what happens to Mennonites who move off our foundation of Christ and the apostles in favor of Constantinism.

Far too many Mennonites are daily slurping the fear-mongering swill that can only be described as political pornography, amply provided at the Fox TV trough. Friends, when you feast on that garbage, beware that soon you are going to be looking like it. Any garbage, regardless of its source, that is un-Christlike and anti-Christ needs to be off limits for the disciple of Christ.

I am grateful that signs of hope are appearing, indicating that we are opening up to a new exodus. I am grateful to Lancaster (Pa.) Mennonite Conference leaders along with other Mennonite Church USA leaders who are willing to move the church forward in the direction of faithfulness we are calling Anabaptist renewal.

As we move forward, transitioning in our faithfulness to Christ, two realities must accompany this exodus:

• We are most certainly going to need a new organizational structure. Mennonite Church USA has acknowledged that our current structure is not equipped to take us through the exodus.
• The exodus, if it is for real, needs to go far beyond the single, red-herring, gender issue that has consumed our energies for the past decade.

Forrester,BerylBeryl Forrester works with Eastern Mennonite Missions in Senegal.

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