In Praise of Missional Living and Spirituality

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Admin

[Reposted with permission from Marty Troyer's blog, The Peace Pastor.]

Anthony Bradley of The World magazine thinks that missional and radical forms of Christianity are to blame for an increase in young adult shame and guilt. He says in his post “The New Legalism”

I continue to be amazed by the number of youth and young adults who are stressed and burnt out from the regular shaming and feelings of inadequacy if they happen to not be doing something unique and special.

Given a conversation I had yesterday, this is a valid concern. After worship a friend asked me about the guilt some Christians seem to feel associated with our inability to live up to every single value our complex modern world and our progressive faith invites us to.

Are we asking too much? Demanding too high a commitment? Expecting an increasingly nuanced and hard to live out faith when what we really need to be about is forming Christians who are living a quiet and faithful existence as good citizens? Continue reading →

Posted in Empire, Jesus, Mission, Peace, Radical Discipleship | Leave a comment

Wasteful Worship?

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Aaron Kauffman

For many people today, particularly folks in their twenties and thirties, church seems like a waste of time.

Of all the things we could do on a Sunday morning, why get together with people you rarely meet during the week, to sing songs to Someone you can’t see, read a book a few thousand years old, and listen to someone attempt to explain how stories from that book have anything to do with our world of genetically modified food, hybrid cars, and iPhones?

Last week, Mennonite World Review published a blog post by Kate Baer, a twenty-something freelance writer and mother who blogs regularly at motleymama.com. In her post, Kate fields a question about her and her husband’s lack of church attendance:

Whenever someone asks me why we’re not going to church, my default answer is that it’s too far (45 minutes) and that Austin has to study (he does). I say this knowing it’s only half true, because even when we lived five minutes away and Austin didn’t have to study, we did not go to church. We slept in and made blueberry pancakes and watched Hulu because that’s what our generation does.

Kate goes on to outline the three main things that keep her and her husband away from the Mennonite church they grew up in: boring services, hypocritical leaders, and tiresome culture wars.

While I find Kate’s story troubling, I deeply appreciate her honesty. And in many ways she’s right. Let’s face it; church can be boring. Not only that. Many of us leaders, not to mention those of us in the pews, do pretend as if we have it all together, when we really don’t. And too often we have let the polarized politics of our culture shape our priorities in the church. No wonder many young adults think church is a waste of time.

What would happen if our worship looked a little more like the story we read in John 12:1-8?

Image by Wayne Forte

Continue reading →

Posted in Worship, Young Adults | 2 Comments

Embrace the Space

Posted on August 18, 2012 by Patrick

My wife recently baptized our computer keyboard with a glass of water.  Though this sacrament was unintended, unrequested, and generally unappreciated by all parties involved, there is a deeper meaning that can be found by those with ‘ears to hear’.

As with any baptism, there were some concrete realities that changed in the life of our keyboard.  The number pad, for example, is all but worthless…and the apostrophe key has ceased to function.

Those aren’t exactly deal-breakers.  In our house, if something breaks we’ll try to fix it.  If it can’t be fixed, we’ll make do with it if at all possible.  We’ve been known to hobble along with less-than-perfect goods for quite some time before taking action (in other words, until the problem gets annoying or dangerous enough that we can no longer avoid either fixing or replacing the item in question).

In this case, the numbers along the top still worked fine, and the apostrophe doesn’t make or break the majority of what we write.  The space bar, on the other hand, is a lot more difficult to do without.

Every word you type requires at least one space to be intelligible.  Most words require two (at the beginning and the end) if they’re to be understood easily.  It’s easy to take the space for granted.  I tried composing one email by using the “Enter” key instead of the space bar between words.  It worked as far as composing distinct words…but the effect wasn’t as much a readable sentence as I’d hoped for.

It was more like a list.

And therein lies at least one lesson to take from this experience. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Philly AMP Conference Focuses on Multiculturalism and Identity

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Andrew Mashas

Leonard Dow challenges the group to move toward the vision of the multicultural multitude in Revelation 7.

On the weekend of June 29 – July 1, 45 people from around the country gathered at Oxford Circle Mennonite Church in Philadelphia for the Anabaptist Missional Project (AMP) conference. Attendees experienced a time of worship, discussion, and fellowship centered on the growing and expanding diversity among Anabaptists in America, specifically within MCUSA. Throughout the weekend, attendees discussed the difficulty of embracing other cultures while maintaining an Anabaptist identity.

The conference, titled “The Spirit’s Work in Mission: Prophesying about Many Peoples,” focused on a vision of the Kingdom of God in the book of Revelation, which explains that every nation, tribe, and tongue will come together to worship the one true Lord and King, Jesus Christ.

Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Deep Longings, Deep Hopes from Younger Adults

Posted on July 7, 2012 by Nicholas Detweiler-Stoddard

[The following post is a compilation of feedback from younger Anabaptist adults in Virginia. A version first appeared in the July edition of Connections, a monthly joint publication of Virginia Mennonite Conference and Missions (VMC & VMM)]

Eight million missing young people. Graduates walking out the door and never returning. Recent studies show that more than 50% of youth who were active in church during their high school years are not returning after graduation. Many churches, including many Virginia Mennonite Conference (VMC) congregations have noticed this dramatic disappearance of younger participants and scrambled to figure out the reasons: Where are all the young adults? A slew of books, articles (and blogs and YouTube videos) have emerged attempting to name why such large proportions of those in early adulthood have left church. Some exhibit sky-is-falling alarmism. Others are calmer but highly critical of the departing generations, wider society or the church itself.

Continue reading →

Posted in Church, Mission, Young Adults | Leave a comment

Belonging Comes First?

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Brett Klingenberg

James and his wife Jeanette (not their real names) live in our rural Mennonite neighborhood.  For the past year, church members have been picking up their three kids and bringing them to Sunday worship and Wednesday night activities, but James and Jeanette have mostly stayed away from the church.  The first time I met James I was a little unnerved – he had a long pony tail, thick black beard, rough face, and reeked of smoke.  I tried to be friendly but we didn’t talk too much.  To say the least,  he didn’t look at all like anyone from our church.

In October I was finishing up a new fence I was building for my cattle and I needed help.  I had heard that James was only part time with a local farmer and needed some work.  I decided to call him up and he agreed to help that day.  For the next four hours, James told me his entire life story, and it literally took four hours.  Among the things I learned was that he was from Quebec, grew up Catholic, played semi-pro hockey, and used to be a French-Canadian country singer – his music played on the radio for a number of years.  I was intrigued, especially when he revealed that he could play guitar and sing.  So I asked him if he would be interested in singing and playing with me in a couple of Sundays, as I was scheduled to do special music.  He agreed, though he was a bit nervous that people wouldn’t be ready for his bar-style approach to singing.  I told him not to worry. Continue reading →

Posted in Church, Church Membership, Mission | 4 Comments

Can We Really Dance like David? Pnuema and Polity

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Lane Miller

During the final worship session of the youth convention at Pittsburgh 2011, the band played a popular worship song—Dance Like David. The song is unique in mainstream Christian music. It uses Latin beats and is sung in both Spanish and English. It was written by a Christian band called Salvador, which, based in Austin Texas, specializes in Latin funk music.

Its musical style bears little resemblance to Mennonite hymnody. Its syncopation does not lend itself to our typically stoic church posture positioned toward the pulpit. In the same way that the medieval chants invite contemplation and the Sankey’s hymns encourage boisterous choruses of tight harmony, Latin funk demands dance.

The lyrics even say as much:
“When the Spirit of the Lord moves upon my heart, I will dance like David danced.”
That is the entirety of the song. It is not difficult. Add bongos, claves, and timbales, and the rhythm becomes infectious. That is why I found that final worship session strange. With the synergy of the music and lyrics, not to mention thousands of excited young people, no one was dancing.

Well there were actually a few dancers. They were children. Childcare was closed by the final evening so all the youth sponsors, often young married couples, had to bring their children to worship. In the aisle, there were a number of little children jumping, bouncing, spinning, twirling, and driving themselves into an emotional tizzy as they became absorbed into the music. Of course such behavior was all rather inappropriate for a worship session, so their parents tried to corral them back to their seats. Continue reading →

Posted in Holy Spirit, Polity, Worship | 1 Comment

What is the Church called to be?

Posted on April 22, 2012 by SaeJin Lee

What is the Church called to be?

The final interaction between Jesus and his disciples, in Acts 1, I believe, is a likely blueprint of what the Church is called to be.

After Jesus rose from the dead, he reappeared among his disciples and fellowshipped with them as before—breaking bread, eating fish, and discussing the kingdom of God. The disciples were excited (I mean, who wouldn’t be?). Their teacher, whom they thought was dead, came and was eating fish with them!  In their excitement, the disciples asked Jesus:

“Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6 b)

However, Jesus, as always, answered them in a quizzical way:

“It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 2:7-8)

This contrast between the disciples’ question and Jesus’ response is quite striking. Reading the two parties’ response side-by-side helps to provide a picture of what the Church is called to be. Continue reading →

Posted in Christian Identity, Church, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Mennonite Church USA | 6 Comments

Anatomy of a mini-conference

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Brian R. Gumm

Peter Dula and Chris Haw field questions from participants.

This past weekend, seven months of shared work between my friend, Aaron Kauffman, and me came to fruition. #Occupy Empire: Anabaptism in God’s Mission was by most anecdotal accounts a great success. Around 60 people converged on the Discipleship Center, perched atop the campus of Eastern Mennonite University, for 24 hours of worship, academic presentations and responses, discussion, food, and fellowship. Aaron and I started working at 8:30am on Friday and didn’t stop until 7:45pm on Saturday. Having never organized a conference before, I was simply floored (almost literally) by the amount of details entailed in conducting even a small conference like this.

So despite being exhausted from end-of-semester demands for my wife and me both, which resulted in me being unable to fully engage my intellectual faculties during the conference, I still sensed that things were going quite well throughout. Logistically, things flowed smoothly, and all the intentional ways in which Aaron and I structured the conference seemed to bear the kind of fruit we had hoped and prayed for. So this post is intended to be a post mortem of sorts, assessing how well our design held up.

Continue reading →

Posted in Christian Practices, Empire, Footwashing, Mission, Worship | Leave a comment

An Encounter Worth Talking About

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Joel Shenk

It’s Easter Sunday.  Christ is Risen! 

As followers of the Risen Lord we live our entire lives in light of this reality.  But it is important to have this holy day on the church calendar to highlight the centrality of the empty tomb for our faith.

Easter Sunday serves as our liturgical equivalent of the Apostle Paul’s reminder in 1 Corinthians 15:1 –  “Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which you also stand (NRSV).”  Yes, we have received the good news of Christ’s resurrection.  Yes, we continue to stand in that.  But it’s good to have reminders.

It’s also good to remind ourselves of the close link between the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus and the response of proclamation by those who witnessed it.   Mary and the other women who were first to see the empty tomb responded by telling the other disciples (John 20:18, Luke 24:9).  We see the same response from the two who spoke with Jesus on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:33-34).  Additionally, the disciples tell of their encounter with the Risen Christ to Thomas since he was absent the first time (John 20:24-25), and we see this of Paul himself in his response to his experience on the road to Damascus (1 Corinthians 15:8-11).  And ultimately, between his post-resurrection appearances and the ascension, Jesus himself instructs his disciples to share this news with all people (Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15).

In this way, Easter provides us the opportunity to consider two questions that go hand in hand.  Where have we encountered the Risen Lord?  And, how do we share that with others?  Continue reading →

Posted in Global Anabaptism, Good News, Resurrection, Sister-Churches | 2 Comments