This article was originally published by The Mennonite

Forbearance is a learned virtue

Elwood Yoder teaches history in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He is a regular blogger for TheMennonite.org. 

Forbearance is a learned virtue

I need to work at understanding and exercising forbearance towards those I love, meet and work with. I reread the Resolution on Forbearance in the Midst of Difference passed by Mennonite Church USA delegates in Kansas City recently, and rediscovered the genuine attempt by the writers to help MC USA find its way forward amidst great diversity.

Folks at church have practiced forbearance towards me. Our church recently had groups of eight members gather for three intense discussion times to hear each other out on topics related to human sexuality. Those in my group who differed from me offered forbearance, and I am grateful.

Forbearance is a learned virtue. We acquire the fruit of the Spirit which forbearance is a part of by practicing and living out its meaning. I don’t do very well sometimes, and I want to do better.

It’s been a little more difficult in recent times to speak up with a moderate to conservative voice in MC USA. Denominational demographics have changed, in my perception, and it feels to me like forbearance is a fragile and even missing element at times in our denominational life conversations, especially in online blog comments and in social media responses.

Forbearance, though, is a sturdy virtue to carry us forward, in Sunday school, a small group, a church meeting, or a conference assembly session. I’m committed to it.

The 18th century story of Bishop Henry Funk illustrates the meaning of forbearance. Henry immigrated to colonial Pennsylvania in 1719, and carved out a farm in the Franconia area northwest of Germantown, Philadelphia. He and his wife had a large family, with many descendants down to today, and one of their sons migrated to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, which is where I live.

Henry became an ordained minister and needed to defend the pouring mode of baptism because a new group, the Dunkers, were making inroads with the practice of immersion. Later the Dunkers would be known as Church of the Brethren. Henry wrote a book called A Mirror of Baptism. Originally in German, it was translated into English later.

On a visit earlier this year to a general store that caters to the plain people of Rockingham County, Virginia, I found a copy of Henry Funk’s book for sale, which had been reprinted for publication in the year 2000. With the small delights that historians sometimes enjoy, I bought the book.

Funk’s A Mirror of Baptism is a vigorous defense of the tri-fold baptism of the Spirit, water, and blood.  He defends baptism by pouring, and one could conclude from reading the book that he offered little forbearance towards those who disagreed with him. Later in his life, probably during the 1750s, Henry Funk wrote another book called Restitution, which I recently examined in an English translation.

In Funk’s preface to Restitution, he made a startling claim. Funk didn’t use the word forbearance, though he encouraged its implementation.

Funk wrote that while matters of theology and opinion will vary, “it is of minor importance if there is the nature and Spirit of Christ.” I won’t soon forget the place and time of day when I read this beautiful turn of the phrase.

The Forbearance resolution, I believe, is a fine resolution and can carry MC USA forward if we operate, as Henry Funk wrote, in the nature and Spirit of Christ. Funk’s assessment about differences of theology and opinion being carried forward in the nature and Spirit of Christ is apt and highly relevant for today’s differences.

In early July 2016, my wife and son and I were invited to a traditional Mennonite home located at the base of Mole Hill, Rockingham County, Virginia. We were treated with a wonderful meal and offered genuine southern hospitality. As we ate and talked, and looked at their collection of history books, I began to think that this family was probably descended from Henry and Anna Funk’s son who moved to Virginia. Confirming it later with research databases, I discovered that these ninth generation descendants of Henry and Anna Funk, now members of the Biblical Mennonite Alliance, showed my family the graciousness and care that reflects the nature and Spirit of Christ.

With Bishop Henry Funk’s call in mind to operate in “the nature and Spirit of Christ,” I hope that we in MC USA can practice the virtue of forbearance in our meetings, in online discussions, and in our homes.

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