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Conrad Spoke About Front Kind of Gift That People God’S Gifts for the Church www.TheMennonite.org December 20, 2005 12 What child is this? 19 Four CPT members still missing in Iraq Page 8 20 MC USA facing major budget shortfalls 32 The angels’song GRACE AND TRUTH Using our gifts God has given gifts to each of you from his great vari- such wonderful gifts, my gifts seemed paltry, not ety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God’s good enough to offer. generosity can flow through you.—1 Peter 4:10 (NLT) I was wrong. God doesn’t give paltry gifts. Neither does God give gifts simply for the benefit onrad, my husband, carried the like-new mail- of the one gifted. No. God intends these gifts to be box into the church sanctuary. It had been a used in such a way that God’s generosity can flow C gift from a friend of mine some 15 years earli- through us into the world. It is easier for me to use er. My friend, a gifted artist, had nestled our name the gifts God has given me when I remember God’s into the display of lovely red flowers and green purposes. I am not being boastful or proud when I leaves painted across the black backdrop. Not want- use the gifts as God intends, for I am using them ing the weather to damage the artwork, we had not for my glory but for God’s. When I forget this never used the mailbox in its official capacity. truth and fall into my old patterns of hiding the However, we had carefully moved it with us from gifts God has given, I am guilty of withholding the Ohio to Virginia and then to Pennsylvania. blessing of God’s generosity intended for others. Now the mailbox was serving as a sermon illus- How has God gifted you? It may not be the up- tration as Conrad spoke about front kind of gift that people God’s gifts for the church. “Gifts experience in a Sunday morning are given to be used,” he pro- worship service. It may be a claimed. Does God’s face register more behind-the-scenes kind of It is true that my friend, when gift. That doesn’t make it any less visiting, looked around to see if important or needed. (Neither Donna Mast is disappointment when we co-pastor of we had put her gift into use yet. does a Sunday-morning-worship Scottdale (Pa.) And each time, her face regis- fail to put into use the kind of gift make that gift any Mennonite tered disappointment. “Don’t be more important or needed.) Each Church. so silly. Use it. I can always gifts so freely bestowed gift is needed and necessary for repaint it or paint you another the life of the church. If it were one,” she said. upon us? not needed, God would not give Does God’s face register dis- it. And if the gift, like our mail- appointment when we fail to put box, becomes a bit weather-worn into use the gifts so freely with use, that’s OK, too. God can bestowed upon us? Do we hear God saying, “Don’t and will “repaint it or paint you another one.” That’s be silly. Use that gift. There’s more where that the kind of generous God we serve. came from.” Our mailbox now occupies a place of honor out- I am as guilty as the next person about hiding side, near our front porch. Recently a small parish- the gifts God has given me. I remember full well ioner from our church was a visitor in our home. saying to Conrad during one chapel service some- As he walked up our sidewalk, we heard him say in time in the first month of our seminary years, his 4-year-old voice, “I remember that mailbox. It “Don’t tell anybody I can do anything.” I was enjoy- came to church.” Yes, it is becoming a bit weather- ing the contributions of others in our seminary worn, but it is doing the work it was intended to do, community but felt intimidated. In the midst of and that feels good. TM The Mennonite is the official publication of Mennonite Church USA. Our TheMennonite Vol. 8, No. 24, December 20, 2005 mission is to help readers glorify God, grow in faith and become agents of healing and hope in the world. The Mennonite (ISSN 1522-7766) is normal- Editor: Everett J. Thomas Offices: ly published on the first and third Tuesdays of each month by the board [email protected] 1700 S. Main St. for The Mennonite, Inc. Periodical postage paid at Scottdale, PA 15683- Associate Editor: Gordon Houser Goshen, IN 46526-4794 1999. Canada Post international publications mail sales agreement no. [email protected] phone: 800-790-2498 40033185, GST no. R122192453. Subscription rates: $41.95 (U.S.) per year. Advertising Coordinator: Kristene Miller fax: 574-535-6050 Group rates available. Scripture references are from the New Revised [email protected] Standard Version unless otherwise noted. The views expressed in this pub- Circulation Manager: Rebecca Helmuth 722 Main St., P.O. Box 347 lication do not necessarily represent the official positions of Mennonite Newton, KS 67114 Church USA, The Mennonite, or the board for The Mennonite, Inc. [email protected] phone: 866-866-2872 Editorial Assistant: Nora Miller fax: 316-283-0454 Postmaster Design: Dee Birkey Send form 3579 to: The Mennonite Web site Cover, page 8: Photo by Everett J. Thomas 1700 S. Main St. www.TheMennonite.org Goshen, IN 46526 2 TheMennonite December 20,2005 CONTENTS 16 7 8 Where should we put the baby? A Christmas meditation—Dorothy Nickel Friesen 12 What child is this? Lessons from a Christmas song—Kenneth L. Gibble 14 Africans and Americans model faith for each other Second in an eight-part series—Lynda Hollinger-Janzen 19 Four CPT members still missing in Iraq 12 Story spreads to mainstream media; some Muslims appeal for CPTers’ release.—Everett J. Thomas 20 MC USA facing major budget shortfalls Donors shift giving from denominational ministries to disaster relief programs.—Marathana Prothro 21 English teachers reach Koreans at center Relationships built through university classes challenge Confucian status quo.—Cheryl Woelk 22 Katrina destroyed 1969 home MDS built Halton family says of Mennonites, ‘The Christ in them, you could just feel that.’—Maria Pierson Lester 14 DEPARTMENTS 2 Grace and truth Using our gifts—Donna Mast 4 Readers say 6 News digest 18 Speaking out Hyattsville Mennonite Church follows Jesus—Melvin D.Schmidt 24 For the record 30 Mediaculture The elusive monster—Gordon Houser 32 Editorial The angels’ song—Everett J. Thomas December 20,2005 TheMennonite 3 READERS SAY Blessed by giving Keep in touch with young adults Thank you, Nancy Frey, for exposing extreme The Oct. l8 issue of The Mennonite featured the poverty—through no fault of those impoverished— article “How to Minister to Young Adults.” A part of in the article “The Face of Poverty” (Nov. 15). the solution should be keeping in touch while they Recently I was shopping for articles for relief are gone. Suppose they are students on a non- kits for Mennonite Central Committee. As I was church school campus. Our congregation now puts This publication wel- paying my bill, a member of my congregation re- its Sunday services on the Internet to reach mem- comes your letters, either about our con- minded me of the many requests we have received bers at a distance. I look forward to learning what tent or about issues lately. In the month of November we supplied Free- the new young adult network, organized at facing the Mennonite Church USA. Please dom Gate, a halfway house in Reading, Pa., with Charlotte 2005, can do to keep connections of keep your letters groceries for prisoners. In addition, a young couple young people to our church alive.—Areta Lehman, brief—one or two paragraphs—and from our church plans to go to Mexico with friends Goshen, Ind. about one subject and wants to take articles of clothing and small toys only. We reserve the right to edit for along for people living in poverty there. Conscientious objectors were martyrs length and clarity. We are so blessed to be able to give while living As part of my doctoral research, I have identified Publication is also subject to space limi- in a land of abundance. We can pray to the Lord to six young Mennonite men who died in Fort tations. Send to hasten the day when everyone will sit under his Leavenworth, Kan., after incarceration as conscien- Letters@TheMenno- nite.org or mail to own vine and fig tree and no one will make them tious objectors: Reuben J. Eash of Thomas, Okla., Readers Say, The afraid (Micah 4:4). Also, a time when men will beat October 1918; Henry E. Franz of Hooker, Okla., Mennonite, 1700 S. Main St., Goshen, IN their swords into plowshares and their spears into Dec. 1, 1918; Johannes M. Klassen of Clinton, 46526-4794. Please pruning hooks, and no one will train for war any- Okla.; Walter Sprunger of Berne, Ind., October include your name and address. We will more.—Ruth Stauffer, New Holland, Pa. 1918; Daniel Teuscher of Fisher, Ill., November not print letters sent 1918; Daniel S. Yoder of Applecreek, Okla., Jan. 26, anonymously, though we may withhold Hyattsville a blessing 1919. names at our discre- I had the blessing of worshiping with Hyattsville Two other young men died in the training tion.—Editors (Md.) Mennonite Church the morning after a camps: John G.
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