While it devoted a few minutes each day to recalling historic events and faithful heroes, the Mennonite Church USA convention mostly looked forward, continuing the denomination’s pivot toward a future that its members hope will be more stable and unified.
The biennial assembly, “Follow Jesus 25,” drew 1,640 registrants — up from 1,471 two years ago — to the Joseph F. Koury Convention Center in Greensboro, N.C., July 8-12. About one-third were high school youth.
To keep history in view, each of the five worship services featured a video with a story from one of the five centuries of Anabaptism — the Reformation movement that birthed the Mennonites and related faith traditions 500 years ago.
To chart a path forward, executive director Glen Guyton announced a two-year process of “reimagining the church,” with goals to become more collaborative, follow Jesus, witness to God’s peace and experience transformation.
To start reimagining, denominational leaders invited the convention’s 385 delegates to consider: “If Mennonite Church USA were starting from scratch today — no buildings, no agencies, no budget — how would we equip a movement of Jesus-followers to live out Anabaptist witness in a fractured world?”
At least one table group looked toward the past to guide the future.
“We talked about how the early Anabaptists did not have institutions and grew rapidly,” said Laura Kraybill, a delegate from Reba Place Church in Evanston, Ill. “How do we revitalize that sense of urgency to gather around scripture and be empowered by the Holy Spirit?”
Concern about anti-immigrant policies and actions in the United States prompted delegates to pass a resolution urging members to build diverse worshiping communities and treat immigrants and asylum seekers with dignity and respect.
Another resolution focused attention on safety for children and vulnerable adults by requiring consistent practices for abuse prevention and accountability in cases of misconduct by credentialed leaders.
These and other actions passed by overwhelming margins. Conventiongoers noted the contrast to past assemblies that faced contentious issues.
Those conflicts, particularly over LGBTQ+ inclusion, spurred losses that have reduced MC USA’s membership by more than half — to 46,329 today, compared to 113,000 at its founding 23 years ago in a merger of two Mennonite denominations.
Yet, Guyton said, “We have a lot to offer the world — just like the sons of Issachar, who, the Bible says in 1 Chronicles 12:32, understood the times and what Israel should do.”
The week’s theme scripture was Luke 4, in which Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah, saying the Spirit of the Lord has anointed him to proclaim good news to the poor, freedom for prisoners and sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free and declare the year of the Lord’s favor.
Worship speakers applied this list of Jesus-following mandates to current concerns — like welcoming immigrants and including people with disabilities — because, as opening night speaker Rachel Ringenberg Miller said, “the good news of Jesus is that God’s love is relentlessly expansive.”
And, as closing worship speaker Lesley Francisco McClendon said: “Proclaiming is not just what you say, it’s what you live.”
Seminars extended the conversations about how to follow Jesus. One provided an opportunity to talk about inclusion three years after delegates passed an LGBTQ-affirming Repentance and Transformation Resolution. One participant remembered when the Pink Menno advocacy group held protests in the hallways, but now LGBTQ+ inclusion “is an established thing.”
Several people said more change needed to happen. Christina Falcone Manero, pastor of Bethany Mennonite Church in Bridgewater Corners, Vt., said she lamented the denomination’s “silence around violence that queer people are facing today, particularly trans people.” Another said “Mennonite trans children and their parents are scared” in the current political climate and suggested conferences could offer support because “connection is so vital right now.”
In a seminar on Christian nationalism, whose adherents seek Christian dominance in U.S. culture and government, Drew Strait, a professor at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, warned that right-wing Christian movements are drawing Mennonites into their ranks.
“Immunity from Christian nationalism cannot be assumed; it must be nurtured,” Strait said. “There’s a kind of militant predatory evangelism, and some Mennonites are leaving their congregations and joining these [Christian nationalist] churches.”
Dianne Garcia, pastor of Iglesia Cristiana Roca de Refugio (Rock of Refuge Christian Church) in San Antonio, Texas, led a seminar on supporting immigrants. She said her congregation is “a place of belonging for immigrant families” who “come full of strength and full of hope and knowledge about how to create community.”
But “a lot has changed in the last six months,” she said, “and I want to bear witness to the suffering in my community. . . . We are concerned that ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] might come into the congregation while worshiping and take people. I am learning to work through fear.”
She encouraged getting connected with an immigrant community where “you are not doing something for them but just being a fellow brother or sister in Christ.”
“If I have nothing to give, we relate to each other as equals,” she said. “We have to step out of that transactional mindset and step into that real relationship.”
Activities after evening worship services included a celebration of Anabaptism at 500, with a trivia contest and an attempt by the crowd to read the entire Bible out loud in 15 minutes. (At 16 minutes and 15 seconds, the readers came close.)
The “Follow Jesus” theme extended to the delegate assembly, where Bible study leader Isaac S. Villegas, a former Mennonite pastor in Chapel Hill, N.C., emphasized Jesus’ invitation to keep following even when we stumble.
“The promise of the gospel is that even though we deny Jesus like Peter does, even when we fail at discipleship, Jesus invites us again and again to follow him,” Villegas said. “It’s always the right time to follow Jesus. He’s always there at every turn.”
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