Hundreds of congregations have left Mennonite Church USA in the last few years, making this summer’s convention a peculiar learning opportunity for a group of leaders from Tanzania Mennonite Church (Kanisa la Mennonite Tanzania, or KMT). They are tending a vision of exploding their denomination from 65,000 to 1 million members over the next 15 years to celebrate KMT’s 100th anniversary in 2034.
ORLANDO, Fla. — After 14 hours of talking about how to follow Jesus as Anabaptists in the 21st century, Mennonite Church USA delegates faced the question of how to describe what they had done. Had they set a direction for the denomination’s future or made a list of ideas that needed further discernment?