Leadership

For most of the 20th century we Mennonites have described our posture vis-à-vis the culture as “nonconformity.” Sometimes this was expressed in terms of total obedience to the teachings and example of Jesus Christ. Many did not vote or pay taxes. Others endured great suffering and privation as they resisted going to war.

At other times, this nonconformity meant separation from the culture. This bore fruit in positive and unfortunate ways. During most of the 20th century, Mennonite contribution to global mission was disproportionate with our size. We sent workers to many countries around the globe. The strength of Mennonite World Conference today is a fruit of that investment. In North America, however, this call to separation went against engaging our neighbors with the gospel. Through sending witnesses to the good news of Jesus we were transformed from an essentially north-Atlantic Mennonite peoplehood into a global family representing many nations. But our record of engaging our North American neighbors was less spectacular. The congregations that generously sent witnesses to so many places failed to see themselves as sent. The sent ones were limited to the heroic few we commissioned and sent to other lands.

The journey toward becoming a missional people is an invitation to move from preservation and separation to engaging our culture to share the good news of the kingdom. This journey requires us to renounce a growing slide into accommodation with the culture. To become a missional people we must prepare and commit ourselves for deliberate transforming encounters with our neighbors and the world beyond our communities.

The Mennonite community has had a strength of family bonds. Tracing family lineages and making connections of blood have played a disproportionate role in shaping Mennonite identity. Some claim Mennonite identity even when they are not members of a church or make any confession of following Jesus. This preoccupation with a cultural Mennonite identity flies in the face of our confession of a faith not defined by allegiances of ethnicity or race, of flag or nation. On many occasions when I have introduced myself, fellow Mennonite believers say: “So, you’re not Mennonite. Or was your mother a Mennonite?”

Mennonites who see their identity defined by choice and conviction too often sense there is a level of belonging for which Christ is not enough. This elusive boundary remains a major barrier to Mennonite Church USA becoming a missional peoplehood, defined by the purposes of God rather than the biological agency of human beings.

If we take seriously the demographic trends in Mennonite Church USA that show the growing edge being among new immigrant communities from Africa, Asia and Central and South America, then we must think differently about our identity. If we pay attention to these trends, reported by Conrad Kanagy in Roadsigns for the Journey, then we must embrace an expansive understanding of Mennonite identity. We must move from seeing particular names as identifiers of Mennonite identity to seeing Mennonites in the way we were identified in the Anabaptist movement. Mennists, as our forebears were called, were those eager to make bold witness to Jesus Christ.

These early Mennonites were marginal communities, like many new Mennonites from immigrant communities. Their primary identity was their common yearning and commitment to share their allegiance to Jesus Christ, whatever the cost. An unwarranted humility that prevents us from a bold proclamation of Jesus as Savior and Lord is a failure of understanding the nature of Christ’s kingdom and a distortion of God’s missional purposes. This is one of our greatest challenges.

I am thrilled that Mennonite Church USA is forming a relationship with Pentecostals. Every local congregation in Mennonite Church USA should develop a relationship with a Pentecostal church in its community. We may learn something about an openness and anticipation of the Spirit’s work in our lives and communities to empower us for our witness in the world. It is no accident that the Pentecostals continue to be the fastest growing church movement in the world today.

The missional energy of the New Testament church was directly related to the Spirit’s empowerment of the early disciples for their witness. It will be no different for us. We can measure our progress toward becoming a missional people by the extent to which we welcome and open ourselves to the work of the Spirit in our lives and our congregations.