Mennonite Church USA

In the 15th year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius. … Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. … and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.—excerpted from Luke 3:1-6

This Advent season, many Mennonite Church USA and Canada congregations will be using the churchwide resources for Advent and Christmas. I’m grateful to the team of writers from the Toronto area who created these resources on a theme that is so vital to our future as a church.

“I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me,” we read in Malachi 3:1. God is breaking in, not just in the cosmos but in our communities. Introducing these Advent resources, Leader magazine (Fall) invites us to have “bifocal vision”—to see the big picture of God’s purpose in the world and God’s action in our neighborhoods.

Southeast Mennonite Conference showed it understands this bifocal vision when it acted on the human trafficking resolution passed by delegates at the Mennonite Church USA Convention in Columbus this past summer. The resolution voices our opposition to all forms of human slavery in North America and around the world. Southeast Conference became a supporting organization for the National Farm Worker Ministry, an interfaith organization that supports farm workers with nonviolent, noncoercive educational programs that are fair to both worker and grower.

Another delegate statement in 2003 on immigration encourages Mennonite congregations “to act on behalf of our immigrant brothers and sisters regardless of their legal status.” For my congregation, Eighth Street Mennonite Church in Goshen, Ind., bifocal vision has meant increasing our day-care scholarships for immigrant families and actively participating in community organizations extending hospitality to the thousands of immigrants in the community.

The Advent texts reveal justice, peace and righteousness, says Houston Mennonite Church pastor Marty Troyer. These texts invite us to shift our thinking from the global to include the local. We live in the United States, but we also live in Philadelphia, Peoria, Parnell and Pasadena.

“Situating ourselves locally broadens and strengthens the gospel of peace,” says Troyer.
As a denomination, we have identified four missional church priorities: global connections, leadership development, antiracism and holistic witness. Each gives us an opportunity as a church to extend God’s breaking in and bursting out to our own community.

At the October Constituency Leaders Council for conference leaders, conferences identified 130 locations where congregations and congregations are identifying with new church initiatives or planting new churches. There appears to be new energy among us to prepare the way of the Lord.

The Advent resources encourage congregations to use the Advent candlelighting ritual to acknowledge God’s presence and action in the world. Lighting the “God” candle each Sunday reminds us that God is among us. As we light candles each Sunday, each congregation can also be reminded of one way God is acting in its own community.

As we light these candles, we affirm our hope in God and our confidence in God’s future for us.

May your congregation experience a breaking in and bursting out of God’s Spirit as you use these resources. This is a way to identify more fully with the more than 1,100 congregations in Mennonite Church USA and Canada as we discover how to join in what God is doing in the world “so that all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:6).

Ron Byler is acting executive director of Mennonite Church USA. Contact him at RonB@mennoniteusa.org.