Mission FOCUS Contents Annual Review Editorial ...... 3 Tribute ...... 7 2012 Volume 20 MENNONITE MISSIOLOGIES IN TRANSITION Editor Mennonite Central Committee: Missiological Shifts Walter Sawatsky and Continuities, 1988-2012 - Alain Epp Book Review Editor Weaver ...... 8 Titus Guenther Mennonite Mission Network – Shifts in Mission - Stanley W. Green ...... 23 Consulting Editors What Changed at Eastern Mennonite Missions Since Lois Barrett 1988? - Nelson Okanya ...... 31 Hippolyto Tshimanga Rosedale Mennonite Missions’ Thinking, Praxis, Alain Epp Weaver Structure and Priorities - Joe Showalter . 38 James R. Krabill Mennonite Brethren Mission: A Brief Assessment of Alan Kreider its Mission Theology and Praxis - Ray Harms-Wiebe ...... 42 Address correspondence to: LEARNING THROUGH MISSION SERVICE Mission Focus: AND REFLECTION Annual Review Testimonials: CIM Member Agencies Transformed 3003 Benham Ave...... 52 Elkhart, Indiana The Marcus Mission - Gerlof Homan ...... 73 46517-1999 USA Short Term Mission to Mennonite Churches in North [email protected] India - Jai Prakash Masih ...... 85 Congolese Church and CIM/AIMM Centennial - Send Reviews to: Richard Hirschler ...... 92 [email protected] My Pilgrimage in Mission - Byrdalene Wyse Horst ...... 104 Subscription rate: Accompaniment An Alternative Missionary Practice $10.00 per year - Willis G. Horst ...... 120 [email protected] Glimpses into a Rereading of God’s Mission - Willis www.ambs.edu/mission-focus G. Horst ...... 129 Serious Mission Partners in Eastern Europe: Mission Focus: Reflections on 20 Years of Post-communism - Annual Review is Walter Sawatsky ...... 144 published annually Henry Martyn’s Short Stint in India and Persia - Dorothy Yoder Nyce ...... 169 BOOK REVIEWS ...... 188-202 Seeking Places of Peace: A Global Mennonite History Series – North America, by Royden Loewen and Steven Nolt. Intercourse PA: Good Books, 2012, pp 400, 6 appendices with statistics. (Juan Francisco Martínez) The Jesus Tribe: Grace Stories from Congo’s Mennonites 1912-2012, ed. by Rod Hollinger-Janzen, Nancy J. Myers, and Jim Bertsche. Elkhart, IN: Institute of Mennonite Studies, 2012; 273 pages. (James Juhnke) History and Mission in Europe: Continuing the Conversation. Edited by Mary Raber and Peter F. Penner. Neufeld Verlag, Schwarzenfeld, Germany, 2011. (Peter H. Rempel) The Ethics of Evangelism: A Philosophical Defense of Proselytizing and Persuasion by Elmer John Thiessen. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2011, 285 pages. (Ted Koontz) Winds of the Spirit: A Profile of Anabaptist Churches in the Global South, by Conrad L. Kanagy, Tilahun Beyene, & Richard Showalter. Harrisonburg, VA: Herald Press, 2012. 260pp. Biblio. (Walter Sawatsky) A Light to the Nations: The Missional Church and the Biblical Story, by Michael W. Goheen. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic. 2011. Pp. 242. (Daryl Climenhaga)
BOOK NOTES ...... 203-207 Worship and Mission for the Global Church: An Ethnodoxology Handbook. ed. By Frank Fortunato, Robin P. Harris, Brian Schrag; gen. editor James R. Krabill. Pasadena CA: William Carey Library, 2013. 580pp, with DVD. www.ethnodoxologyhandbook.com. Creating Local Arts Together: A Manual to Help Communities Reach their Kingdom Goals, by Brian Schrag; James R. Krabill, general editor. Pasadena CA: William Carey Library, 2013, 282pp (wirebound). www.ethnodoxologyhandbook.com. Going Global with God: Reconciling Mission in a World of Difference, by Titus L Presler. Morehouse Publishing, Harrisburg PA, 2010. Health, Healing and the Church’s Mission: Biblical Perspectives and Moral Priorities, by Willard M. Swartley. Downers Grove IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012. 2 appendices, bibliography, name and scripture index. 268pp. pb. Called to Mission, by Mirjam Rahel Scarborough. AIMM, 2012. Intersections: MCC Theory & Practice Quarterly. Winter 2013, Volume 1, Number 1, Compiled by Krista Johnson.
IN MEMORIAM ...... 208-211 Editorial My work as director of the Mission Studies Center of AMBS, that started officially in the fall of 1996, included editing Mission Focus: Annual Review. It appears that the 2012 issue will be my last, although I anticipate that the journal, or something like it, will continue. My apologies for the lateness of its appearance, due in part to agreeing following my retirement, to edit another issue, but also due to several developments requiring more work or more waiting on other’s work, in order to present what may well turn out to be an important point of reference beyond the present moment. It had been my privilege to attend the annual sessions of the Council of International Ministries (CIM) in Chicago (since 1978) as part of program planning trips to north America, and I had come to view the CIM gathering as the best manifestation of Mennonite ecumenicity and of theoretical engagement with missiology from a broad range of scholarly disciplines. For the sake of serious thinking together, Wilbert Shenk in his capacity as CIM executive secretary, established sessions for major thematic presentations on issues that none of the Mennonite service and mission agencies could put together alone, and the joint exercise made clear to participants how much we shared in common. As a result, mission administrators learned to share what they were trying to do, what challenges they encountered and solutions they were seeking, in an atmosphere of collegiality and increasing mutual trust. I suspect my most worthwhile contribution while director of mission studies, was to bring a few student to the CIM consultation, where they were watching and being mentored by those leaders. The rest of the world might expect that the small ‘tribe’ of Mennonites or Anabaptists worked well together (especially given their peace commitments) so differences among them were minor. Not so. The formation of the Council of Mission Board Secretaries (COMBS in 1950) had been a deliberate structural attempt to cooperate where possible, and to set clear boundaries, particularly between denominational Mennonite mission boards and Mennonite Central Committee which as inter-Mennonite relief and service agency was expanding rapidly and also understood its work as holistic ministry, as did the mission boards. A reconfiguration of COMBS took place in 1967 when MCC board members no longer attended, instead general secretaries and area secretaries of the agencies met, preceded by sub- committees on continents where practical cooperation with partners in those areas were worked out. During Shenk’s tenure, he presented two historical/missiological pamphlets for discussion, which showed the progression of issues that dominated thinking and practice, cited major broad consultations where 4 Editorial common affirmations or findings statements had been adopted.1 So these enabled participant members, in the absence of common historical and missiological volumes on Mennonites in mission, to note phases of growth and development in Mennonite mission. Between 1988 and 1990 under the guidance of Ron Yoder as CIM executive secretary, member agencies (17 of them) prepared and presented statements of their mission thinking and practice, usually attaching a formal resolution from the Mennonite conference that gave the agency its mandate. These were published in 1990, together with an analysis and critique of all the materials by five missiologists, the entire volume edited by Calvin Shenk. The title claimed A Relevant Anabaptist Missiology for the 1990s, marking the increased use of the “Anabaptist” label as modern descriptor. So for this 2012 issue, I sent the following request to most of the 17 agencies: Would you please write a short (4-6 pages) statement conveying what has changed between 1988 and 2012 in your 1) mission thinking, 2) praxis, 3) structure and 4) priorities. On the latter, that includes partnership and relational priorities within your own global structures, toward MWC, and toward other inter-church relations. With the request I sent a page of background, with deliberatively provocative questions whether the mutuality in mission we claimed to seek (as early as a mission consultation in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1975) had increased, or the progressions were in a different direction. Since so many of the leading staff did not help write the 1988 statements, I also noted in background that in 1992-93 the CIM member agencies went through another round in which up-dated board approved mission statements were presented, analysed (by me in that case), and Ron Yoder lead us, together with a findings committee, to affirm a renewed commitment of cooperation. That was the background to the first GAMCO meeting in Guatemala in 2000, and therefore to the formation of the Mission/Service Commission of Mennonite World conference in Asuncion in 2009. In what follows you will see an opening section under the rubric: Mennonite Missiologies in Transition. There are only five essays, but they do represent major agencies who took the trouble to address the questions seriously. Given only a month’s notice, this required them to pull together what they had recently been formulating, and to do so in a mode that will permit comparative reflection. Readers are invited to offer their missiological assessments, in the expectation that there will surely be a bigger, necessarily more global venue for deeper conversations. There are commonalities, the
1 See Wilbert R. Shenk, An Experiment in Interagency Cooperation. Elkhart: Council of International Ministries, 1986; God's New Economy: Interdependence and Mission. Elkhart, IN: Mission Focus Pamphlet, 1988. Editorial 5 points of variance or even difference are couched in ways to enable us to distinguish style of thinking and talking within a particular denomination, as well as to account for priorities that do not quite line up with each other. It is a way of helping us assume, that as such conversations proceed seriously at a global level, the embeddedness of each in traditions, cultures, and unique social/political settings will result in a greater diversity of what we nevertheless recognize as the marks of the Holy Spirit at work. Our human role in the Missio Dei is much greater than Mennonites or Anabaptists in mission, careful readers will detect how well that humbling awareness comes through. The second major section of this issue brings such variety together under the rubric: Learning through Mission Service and Reflection. The first and longest essay is titled “Testimonials...” and is a transcription by the editor (with editing and reformulating for print) of two sessions during the 2013 meeting of the CIM. My introduction to the essay gives more detail, so it may suffice to say here that the CIM leaders had chosen a personal, story telling mode, to convey the changing landscape of mission thinking and praxis. Virtually all of the 17 agencies referred to above, offered some stories of transformation, doing so in a more vulnerable style that is surely a fruit of the many decades of meeting to talk, even to disciple each other. That is, there is a fuller CIM representative voice in these testimonials, that needs to be included when comparing the afore mentioned missiologies. Periodically between about 1980 and 2005, representatives from European Mennonite mission, service and peace agencies attended CIM meetings, frequently also speakers from other continents changed the nature of the conversations. It seemed fitting to include eight further papers, all of which tell stories of witness, all convey the highs and lows of mission in quite different places, and all convey some of the passion of ministry, not unlike the testimonials. Because they are more extended discussion of mission issues, especially the inter-Christian dynamics of mission, they probably deserve to be seen as an alternative mirror on the Mennonite mission story of the past century. Following this editorial is a short tribute to my work written by the AMBS dean and a close colleague from the Association of Anabaptist Missiologists, that I promised to include. I was to write a paper to reflect on my work, a missiological statement. It turned out that I chose to present a slightly revised paper presented at the 2011 gathering of the CIM, which had as theme ministry in Eastern Europe. Given the full agenda for Mission Focus in 2011, I regret that other presentations did not get published. Although book review editor Titus Guenther retired a year ahead of me, he nevertheless agreed to bring some book reviews together before he and Karen left for a semester of teaching in Chile this winter. Other reviews and a 6 Editorial longer section of “book notes” (several really short reviews) written by me, are another way of making some missiological statements. Finally, we also include several short obituaries that include lines about the life and work of missionaries, rich lives in a spiritual sense that enriched others, and may enrich your reading enough to give thanks. I give thanks to God for the opportunity to participate in such a community of called out persons, to a sharing with other people of God in profound moments, often in unexpected places, yet discovering ties that bind, and will keep me bound fraternally in whatever ministries yet come my way. My thanks also to the consulting editors listed on the inside cover. Yet the consultative community has always been larger. Some persons have regularly sent me commentary when an issue of this journal appeared, many drew my attention to potential writers or to a conference whose papers should be circulated in print. That is probably where I sensed mutuality in mission most fully. Walter Sawatsky Tribute 7
With Gratitude to Walter Sawatsky
With this issue, Walter Sawatsky concludes more than fifteen years of editorial oversight of Mission Focus: Annual Review. Through his tireless pursuit of stories of God’s people, he has rendered extraordinary service to students, mission workers, missiologists, church historians, and theologians. Over the years of Walter’s editorship, Mission Focus has documented the story lines of Mennonite communities: their faithful disciples, their leaders, and their collegial partnerships, sometimes amid conflict but still bearing witness to God’s ongoing work of salvation. Walter’s experience, scholarship, and skill in astute observation and analyses have given Mission Focus a critical edge and made its readers better thinkers and practitioners. His deep love for God’s people and his loyalty to the church undergird his insightful and incisive comments. Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Mennonite Mission Network, Mennonite Church Canada and several other consultants are working collaboratively to explore how the legacy of quality and the scope of missiological reflection that Walter has sustained in Mission Focus will continue into the future. Our goal is to offer to the whole Christian church — but especially to those committed to Anabaptist-Mennonite perspectives — resources for intellectual, spiritual, and practical renewal of our shared ministry as ambassadors of Christ. Walter, we thank God for the self-giving love you have poured into Mission Focus over the last fifteen years. May the release of your editorial responsibilities allow you to focus your creative energies in new avenues of scholarly writing. You have been a faithful servant of God and of the church. We are all grateful for your witness.
Rebecca Slough, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary James R. Krabill, Mennonite Mission Network MENNONITE CENTRAL COMMITTEE: MISSIOLOGICAL SHIFTS AND CONTINUITIES, 1988-2012 Alain Epp Weaver
In response to the 1988 call to member organizations of the Council of International Ministries (CIM) to submit a brief summary of their “theological and missiological foundational understandings upon which they develop programs and projects,” Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) put forward, without additional commentary, a document then entitled “MCC Program: Foundations-Approaches-Priorities,” a statement that had been adopted at MCC Binational’s Annual Meeting in January 1988.1 This statement, itself a revised version of MCC guidelines first adopted at the January 1976 MCC Annual Meeting, would undergo further updates at the January 1991 and February 1999 MCC Annual Meetings.2 Thus, when responding to the Mission Focus call a quarter century later to MCC to reflect on what has changed over the past 25 years in MCC’s “mission thinking,” praxis, priorities, and structure, the natural place to begin is at the level of official institutional statements. It is therefore appropriate to include in this response, as a fitting counterpoint to MCC’s response in 1988 to CIM’s call to present its missiology, the text of identity, purposes, vision, priorities, approaches, values, and convictions statements adopted by all MCC boards of directors and approved by MCC’s sponsoring denominations in the fall of 2009. These statements, gathered together and published under the title, “Principles and Practices,” represent the official, consensus articulation of the missiological commitments and vision underpinning and guiding MCCs work today: the text of these statements can be found at the end of this brief essay.3 Comparing and
1 The missiological statements submitted by CIM agencies were gathered together in A Relevant Anabaptist Missiology for the 1990s, ed. Calvin E. Shenk (Elkhart, IN: Council of International Ministries, 1990). The CIM call for member agency statements was articulated by CIM Secretary Ronald E. Yoder in his Introduction to the volume (1). For the MCC statement, see pp. 164-167. 2 The statement was published by MCC in 1991 and then again in updated form in 1999 under the title Principles that Guide Our Mission (Akron, PA: MCC, 1999). The 1999 publication was referred to in MCC circles as the “rusty nail” document, thanks to the burnt orange border on the brochure’s left-hand side. 3 Principles and Practices (Akron, PA and Winnipeg, MB: Mennonite Central Committee, 2012). MCC’s sponsoring denominations assisted in the formulation and approved the bold text of Principles and Practices, and the non-bolded commentary text was shaped by input and critique from representatives of those denominations.
Alain Epp Weaver, Director of MCC’s Planning, Learning, and Disaster Response Department, editor most recently of A Table of Sharing: Mennonite Central Committee and the Expanding Networks of Mennonite Identity, 2011.
Mission Focus: Annual Review © 2012 Volume 20 Alain Epp Weaver 9 contrasting today’s “Principles and Practices” with the “Foundations- Approaches-Priorities” of 1988 thus offers one way of reflecting on missiological continuities and shifts within MCC. Before examining these continuities and shifts, however, one should emphasize that beginning at the level of official statements should not be taken as a denial of the reality that official statements only capture and reflect some of the missiological richness of an inter-Mennonite agency as complex as MCC. Stanley Green and James Krabill are surely correct in discerning that multiple missiologies are embedded within and shape MCC practice.4 Such multiplicity should come as no surprise, given how MCC functions as a big tent within which “Anabaptists” of various backgrounds gather together to serve “in the name of Christ,” including groups that do not typically embrace the “Anabaptist” label. More analysis of the implications of this internal diversity within MCC and among its supporters and of the missiological implications of structural and other managerial shifts can be found below in the sections on structure and challenges. At the same time, however, recognition of MCC’s significant internal diversity makes moments of consensus on identity, vision, and purpose all the more striking. Highlighting the continuities and changes between the 1988 and 2009 official identity statements is therefore a key way to understand what missiological shifts have happened within MCC over the past quarter century.
Continuities: A side-by-side reading of the 1988 “Foundations-Approaches- Priorities” statement with the 2009 “Principles and Practices” document reveals a striking degree of continuity. While some differences, as will be discussed below, can be discerned between the two documents, the overarching impression the two statements leave is one of marked constancy. Key points of continuity include: ! An emphasis on service and ministry “in the name of Christ”: Both statements underscore that the diversity of MCC’s ministries emerge from a commitment to follow Jesus and from the reconciliation of fallen humanity to God through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. MCC shares the gospel of God’s love, both statements agree, through practical actions such as feeding the hungry and welcoming the stranger: these practical actions, meanwhile, flow from the conviction that Jesus is the “fullest revelation of God” (1988), with God’s plan for a reconciled creation “most fully and definitively expressed in the
4 See Green and Krabill, “The Missiology of MCC: A Framework for Assessing Multiple Voices within the MCC Family,” in A Table of Sharing: Mennonite Central Committee and the Expanding Networks of Mennonite Identity, ed. Alain Epp Weaver (Telford, PA: Cascadia, 2011), 192- 212. 10 MCC Missiological Shifts
teachings and life of Jesus” (2009).
! MCC, the church, and God’s new creation: Both documents in turn present MCC as an “agency” (1988) or “arm” (2009) of the church, and as such MCC is called to embody and bear witness to the “new creation” (1988, 2009) of God’s region. In both documents, bearing witness to God’s “new creation” involves work on “ecological concerns” (1988) or “caring for creation” (2009). [While MCC has at least paid lip service to “ecological” or “creation care” concerns for the past 25 years, it has only been within the past five years or so that MCC has made implementing programmatic and management procedures that enhance environmental stewardship an increased priority.]
! Commitment to nonviolence: As part of the church, MCC joins in and is sustained by the church’s witness to “the nonresistant, peacemaking example of Christ.” MCC workers, in the words of the 1988 statement, should be “nonviolent missioners of peace and reconciliation.” This commitment to “nonviolent action for justice and peace,” the 2009 statement explains, is “rooted above all in God’s plan of shalom (peace) for all of creation.”
! Accompaniment: Both statements reflect MCC’s conviction that effective development is not about an outside agency such as MCC bringing solutions, but is rather a “participatory, transforming process” (1988), a process that requires that MCC “accompany” (2009), rather than stand above or dictate to, partners.
! Mutual transformation: Just as the 1988 statement stresses the need for MCC and its workers “to be taught by the people with whom we interact,” so does the 2009 document in multiple places emphasize “mutuality” and “mutual transformation.”
! Connecting peoples: Whether the language is of “expanding the exchange dimensions of program” (1988) or of “building bridges to connect people” (2009), both statements highlight the importance of breaking down barriers that divide along cultural, political, and economic lines.
! Focus on root causes: The 1988 statement notes the importance of working for “social justice” in order to alleviate “human suffering,” Alain Epp Weaver 11
thus connecting MCC’s relief mandate with an analysis of unjust structures. Similarly, the 2009 document explains that MCC is concerned with the “systemic causes” of poverty and with “structural forms of oppression.” This emphasis on root causes has in turn led to increased attention over the past two decades to advocacy to government, borne out of recognition that much food insecurity, poor health, and economic marginalization stem from the policies and practices of Canada and the U.S. Meanwhile, the concern with addressing root causes of oppression and injustice through MCC programming globally has gone hand-in-hand with a conviction that MCC’s witness against injustice outside of Canada and the U.S. will only have integrity if MCC is committed to addressing injustice and oppression at home. In the U.S. this internal focus has especially manifested itself in persistent attention to anti-racism, whereas MCCs in Canada have sought to tackle justice issues related to Canada’s treatment of First Nations peoples within its borders.
! Broad programmatic reach: At first blush, the 2009 statement seems to present an organization with greater programmatic focus than the 1988 document, with “Principles and Practices” highlighting three program priorities (“disaster relief, sustainable community development and justice and peacebuilding”) whereas “Foundations-Approaches- Priorities” includes a list of over eight “broadly defined functions.” This difference, however, is superficial. The three priorities from the 2009 statement are simply more abstract and comprehensive, and have in turn been fleshed out further by seven “program themes” affirmed by the MCC boards of directors. Unlike many humanitarian organizations its size that specialize in a particular program sector, MCC continues to have remarkably diverse programming, supporting projects in education, food security and sustainable livelihoods, health, humanitarian relief and disaster recovery, migration and resettlement, restorative justice, and peacebuilding.
Shifts in Emphasis: Amidst the significant continuity over the two decades between the 1988 and 2009 statements one can also discern some shifts in emphasis. These include: ! Greater stress on accountability: Granted, the 1988 statement noted that MCC aimed “to be responsible in the use of resources.” Yet the 2009 document noticeably emphasizes “accountability,” alongside “transparency and integrity,” emphases absent from the 1988 statement. To be sure, “accountability” is at points paired with 12 MCC Missiological Shifts
“mutuality” and “relationship”—but now the emphasis on MCC learning from and being transformed by partners is counter-balanced with a stress on “accountability,” even if that accountability is mutual accountability. MCC faces greater expectations of accountability to its donors (both individual donors and institutional and governmental donors), and in turn expects more rigorous accountability from its program partners.
! The scope of “inter-Mennonite”: The 1988 Board document describes MCC as “an agency of the Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches of North America for domestic and overseas ministries.” While MCC’s recent restructuring certainly affirmed and reinforced that MCC is an agency of and owned by Mennonite and BIC churches in Canada and the United States, the 2009 “Principles and Practices” statement also places MCC in a more global inter-Mennonite context, calling MCC “a worldwide ministry of Anabaptist churches.” The affirmation by all MCC Boards of the Mennonite World Conference Shared Convictions is presented in 2009 as stemming from MCC’s identity as “part of the larger mission of the church.” In brief, MCC in 2009, while still clearly an agency of churches in Canada and the U.S., has taken pains rhetorically to position itself in a global context.
Structural changes: MCC has just emerged from a multi-year revisioning and restructuring process (New Wine/New Wineskins). On the revisioning end, the process yielded the identity statements that have been gathered under the title of “Principles and Practices”: the affirmation by MCC boards of these statements in fall 2009 represented the first time that all MCCs adopted identical foundational statements. [The 1988 “Foundations-Approaches- Priorities” document and its 1991/1999 successors, the iterations of “Principles that Guide Our Mission,” were only endorsed by MCC Binational, although input was solicited and given by MCC national, provincial, and regional entities.] The New Wineskins restructuring process resulted in the following changes relevant to MCC’s mission: ! Greater ownership by and accountability to Mennonite/BIC churches in Canada and the U.S.: New Wineskins affirmed and strengthened the role of Mennonite, BIC, and other “Anabaptist” churches in Canada and the U.S. on MCC Boards. This represents a widespread conviction on the part of Mennonites in Canada and the U.S. that MCC should not become a “parachurch” organization but should instead have a thoroughly “ecclesial” identity. Alain Epp Weaver 13
! New forms of collaboration across the Canada-U.S. border: MCC Binational was one way through which MCCs in Canada sought to collaborate with MCCs in the U.S. on international work. The restructuring process led to the dissolution of MCC Binational in March 2012. The binational structure has been replaced by covenants expressing the commitment of MCCs in Canada and MCCs in the U.S. to collaborate together in the implementation of a shared international program.
! Greater movement to commonality and shared tools and processes: Prior to the restructuring process there were 12 separate MCCs (most of them legally separate entities) which did not share common identity, purpose, and vision statements. After the restructuring process, there continue to be a multiplicity of MCCs (11 instead of 12, after the dissolution of MCC Binational), but those 11 MCCs now share common statements outlining fundamental theological and missiological convictions. And even as these eleven MCCs in Canada and the U.S. retain their own distinctive programmatic (and legal) identities, covenants among them signed in 2012 have not only fostered new forms of collaboration but also the adoption of shared tools and procedures, including common fiscal procedures and a shared system for planning, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting.
! MCC and MWC: The global church clearly communicated to MCC through the restructuring process that MCC should affirm its identity as an agency of churches in Canada and the United States, with MCC then free to enter into partnerships with Mennonite churches and church agencies from around the world in which each church or agency retained its own distinctive identity. MCC is committed to relationships with MWC and with Mennonite churches in the countries in which MCC serves and to working as an equal partner alongside other Anabaptist service agencies: this commitment includes taking part in conversations around the emerging Global Anabaptist Service Network to be coordinated by MWC.
! While not part of the New Wineskins restructuring process, some additional structural shifts have taken place within MCC over the past quarter century that have missiological implications. Specifically, MCC, which over its 90 year history has helped to “birth” several inter-Mennonite organizations, reorganized its relationship with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) and Ten Thousand Villages 14 MCC Missiological Shifts
(formerly SELFHELP Crafts), with MDS becoming legally separate from MCC in the early 1990s and with Villages U.S. following suit in 2012 (Villages Canada retains a legal connection to MCC Canada at present).
! Enduring and New Missiological Challenges: In addition to the continuities and shifts noted above, some enduring and new missiological challenges have helped to shape MCC and its ministries over the past quarter century.
! Maintaining a big Anabaptist/Mennonite tent: For over 90 years, MCC has been a catalyst for inter-Mennonite cooperation and an engine for fostering and expanding networks of Mennonite identity. MCC’s history, furthermore, has been bound up with that of Mennonite World Conference, with the two organizations together doing more to promote a shared sense of global Mennonite identity than any others.5 At the same time, MCC’s network of partnerships and engagements with churches within the Anabaptist-Mennonite historical stream extends even beyond churches belonging to MWC: in Canada and the U.S., for example, MCC is supported by non-MWC churches such as the Beachy Amish, the Fellowship of Evangelical Churches, the Chortitzer Mennonite Conference, and more, while in countries such as Mexico and Bolivia MCC partners with German-speaking Mennonite churches that do not belong to MWC. Not surprisingly, alongside denominational diversity within MCC’s network of Anabaptist/Mennonite partnerships one finds a remarkable diversity of theological and missiological (not to mention political, social, and economic) viewpoints. For decades, MCC has been able to sustain a “big tent” approach to Anabaptist/Mennonite identity. Continuing to do so, as different groups push for the tent walls to be drawn in tighter, has always been and will continue to be a challenge. On the one hand, the adoption by MCC of the MWC Shared Convictions should help to sustain this big-tent approach: after all, churches of a wide variety of theological orientations come together in communion through MWC. On the other hand, however, the MWC Shared Convictions alone cannot maintain the big tent: for example, the withdrawal in 2012 of the Sommerfelder Mennonite Church from the
5 See, for example, Ronald J.R. Mathies, “Synergies in Mission: MCC and Mennonite World Conference,” in A Table of Sharing: Mennonite Central Committee and the Expanding Networks of Mennonite Identity, ed. Alain Epp Weaver (Telford, PA: Cascadia, 2011), 84-102. Alain Epp Weaver 15
MCC Canada Board was precipitated in part by the Sommerfelder perception that the Shared Convictions statement was insufficiently orthodox in its Trinitarian confession.
! Priority to Anabaptist/Mennonite partnerships? The 1988 statement indicated forthrightly that MCC would “give priority to program with Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches and missions.” In contrast, the “Principles and Practices” statement of 2009, while affirming the importance of accompanying the church, does not explicitly state such a priority. However, at the same time MCC’s current strategic plan for international program calls for an increase in church partnerships, including Anabaptist/Mennonite church partnerships. Whether or not MCC should give priority to programmatic partnerships with Anabaptist/Mennonite churches and church agencies is the subject of lively and vigorous conversation within MCC. MCC workers and Boards ask questions such as: Should MCC expect Mennonite church partners to meet the same planning, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting (narrative and financial) expectations as other partners? What if the programmatic priorities of those churches do not mesh with MCC’s broad strategic directions? Should partnerships with Mennonite churches take priority over ecumenical or interfaith partnerships that present a strong fit with MCC’s strategic directions? MCC, after all, has developed strong partnerships with free church, mainline Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox churches in various contexts, as well as with various ecumenical bodies: what weight should MCC give to such partnerships with churches whose values align well with those of MCC? Or what about MCC’s network of interfaith partnerships and of partnerships with secular organizations: might these not represent significant missiological ventures grounded in the conviction that God’s Spirit is active not only within the church but beyond its walls as well? And doesn’t the humanitarian imperative to offer assistance to persons without respect to nationality, ethnicity, or religion dovetail well—and arguably emerge from—the Christian conviction that when one feeds the hungry and clothes the naked (whoever they are) one is doing so to Christ? These are representative questions that arise as MCC grapples with the larger question of what priority to give to partnerships with Anabaptist/Mennonite churches. One strategy that some within MCC advocate to manage the tensions related to this question is to make a distinction between maintaining relationships with Mennonite churches in countries where MCC operates, on the one hand, and entering into 16 MCC Missiological Shifts
programmatic partnerships with those churches, on the other: MCC should be unequivocally committed to maintaining relationships for Mennonite churches in the countries in which MCC operates, the argument goes, but such relationships need not involve programmatic partnerships.
! Field-driven? Who shapes MCC program direction? For several decades a strong internal narrative has shaped MCC, a narrative that describes MCC program as being “field-driven.” The 1988 “Foundations- Approaches-Priorities” articulates this narrative when it talks about “learning from the people with whom we work” and especially when it commits MCC to incorporating “the vision, concern and participation of the poor in planning and implementing program.” This emphasis on participation endures, as MCC insists that effective relief, development, and peacebuilding efforts require the active participation of program participants (the persons who will, one hopes, benefit from these efforts) in articulating the project outcomes, the changes they would like to see come about through the project. MCC’s fundraising has also been and continues to be “field-driven,” with grassroots support through thrift stores and relief sales and farmer donations of crop equity to MCC through the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB) and the Foods Resource Bank (FRB) representing a significant portion of MCC’s funding. Two related trends complicate any simple sense of MCC program being “field- driven.” First, MCC Boards have increasingly over the past decade insisted on their role in setting out broad strategic directions for program (e.g. increasing food security efforts, or intensifying work in Africa, while making corresponding cuts to other program sectors or geographic locations). Second, donors (especially those under 60) increasingly want to designate their giving to specific program sectors (e.g. education, health, food security) or even to specific projects. These two trends combine to make the Canada/U.S. role in shaping MCC program direction more explicit and increasingly pronounced.
! How to be accountable to partners?: As MCC has increasingly emphasized the importance of “accountability,” “integrity,” and “transparency,” it has stressed that such accountability should be “mutual,” with MCC accountable to its partners (churches, community-based organizations, etc.), not only vice-versa. In the paragraphs above we have noted ways in which MCC has taken steps to increase its accountability to the churches in Canada and the U.S. Alain Epp Weaver 17
that own it and to its donors: through restructured representation of MCC Boards and through greater say of those Boards on MCC’s programmatic directions. How can MCC’s desire to be accountable to partners as well be concretized? Over the past decade MCC country programs have begun organizing advisory committees consisting of church and civil society leaders who offer points of counsel and informal accountability for MCC program leaders. While these advisory committees do not have governance functions, they are often involved in country program reviews, offering counsel on strategic plans, and in the performance appraisal reviews of MCC Representatives. Another way that MCC has sought to be accountable to partners has been through participation in the Keystone Accountability project, in which partner agencies of European and U.S.-based aid agencies are surveyed regarding how their European or U.S.-based partner agencies perform as partners. How to ensure that “mutual accountability” is a reality instead of simply a mantra represents an enduring missiological challenge for MCC.
! Planning for outcomes? From the 1970s well into the 1990s, one often heard variations on the following claim made within MCC: “We measure program impact by the number of cups of tea we drink.” The message behind this claim was that strong relationships are vital to strong relief, development, and peacebuilding work. The past decade, meanwhile, has witnessed an increased emphasis within MCC on outcomes-based management, that is, working with partners to identify the changes they hope MCC-supported work will bring about or at least contribute to and to think through how progress towards those desired changes might be monitored. This movement has been accompanied by the introduction of standardized reporting requirements along with greater scrutiny on financial reporting. The push for greater attention to program outcomes emerges from a variety of sources, including: MCC Boards asking about the difference that MCC program makes; interest from individual donors about the impact of their financial contributions to MCC; MCC’s participation in inter-agency coalitions such as CFGB, FRB, the Canadian Council for International Cooperation, and the U.S.-based InterAction which promote common standards for humanitarian work; and the reporting expectations of institutional “back donors” to MCC such as CFGB , FRB, and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Yet MCC is not concerned with outcomes solely because of pressures from Canada and the U.S., but also because MCC and its partners care 18 MCC Missiological Shifts
that their joint efforts make concrete differences in the lives of marginalized peoples. MCC insists that strong relationships are critical to effective outcomes-based approaches, because participants in relief, development, and peacebuilding initiatives need to be actively involved at all stages of planning, monitoring, and evaluation if those initiatives are to bring about the changes they want to see. Yet such participatory development is extremely time-intensive and, coupled with more rigorous reporting requirements, can significantly stretch MCC staff capacity. The demand for planning for and reporting on outcomes is one that will not go away: MCC and its partners will thus for the foreseeable future grapple with the task of planning for and reporting on outcomes while maintaining and even deepening strong relationships of mutual accountability.
On the occasion of MCC’s ninetieth anniversary in 2010, Robert Kreider described MCC (its workers, supporters, and partners) as “pilgrims seeking to serve the hungry, hurting, and fallen in a global community—this with the mind and spirit of Christ.”6 While the past 25 years have certainly seen notable shifts, they have also borne witness to significant continuities, including the spirit of pilgrim discipleship and commitment to serve with the mind and spirit of Christ that Kreider highlights. Whatever shifts the next quarter century might bring, may this thread of continuity abide.
MENNONITE CENTRAL COMMITTEE - PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), a worldwide ministry of Anabaptist churches, shares God’s love and compassion for all in the name of Christ by responding to basic human needs and working for peace and justice. MCC envisions communities worldwide in right relationship with God, one another and creation. The following principles and practices guide the mission of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in the name of Christ.7
6 Robert Kreider, “Introduction,” in A Table of Sharing: Mennonite Central Committee and the Expanding Networks of Mennonite Identity, ed. Alain Epp Weaver (Telford, PA: Cascadia, 2011), 12. 7 Bold-faced statements (and the entirety of the text of the MWC Shared Convictions) were approved by the 12 MCC boards of directors, September through November 2009. Commentary was approved by the executive directors and board chairs of MCC, MCC Canada and MCC U.S., January 2011. Biblical references are from The Holy Bible: New International Version. Alain Epp Weaver 19
IDENTITY Mennonite Central Committee is a worldwide ministry of Anabaptist churches. Mennonite Central Committee is a place where Anabaptist churches come together in service ministry. Rooted in the Anabaptist heritage and as part of the Anabaptist churches across the globe, we believe that God wills the well-being of all people and the healing of creation; and that the first fruits of the new creation, the Kingdom of God, are manifest in the peoplehood called the church. MCC is a ministry of the church. In this ministry, we serve in the name of Christ, who is the head of the church and through whom God’s work of reconciliation, “whether things on earth or things in heaven,” takes place. Colossians 1:18-20
PURPOSE MCC shares God’s love and compassion for all in the name of Christ by responding to basic human needs and working for peace and justice. We embrace God’s requirement of us “to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” We are Christ-centered in our disaster relief, sustainable community development and justice and peacebuilding responses. We follow Jesus as Jesus proclaims good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind; and sets the oppressed free. We serve in Christ’s name because, as a worldwide ministry of Anabaptist churches, we are connected as a branch to the true vine of Jesus Christ and dependent upon God the gardener. Through Jesus we claim our interdependence. We celebrate being part of the rich diversity of the body of Christ. With the assurance that God is working out God’s purposes, born out of God’s triumph over the power of sin and death through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we are freed to till the soil through our work with others, waiting upon God to bring good fruit from these efforts. Micah 6:8; Luke 4:18; John 15:1-8
VISION MCC envisions communities worldwide in right relationship with God, one another and creation. While recognizing that the creation God pronounced good has fallen away from its created purposes, we joyfully confess that through Jesus Christ, humanity and the world has been reconciled to God. As an arm of the church, we have been given the ministry of 20 MCC Missiological Shifts reconciliation, proclaiming through word and deed the Good News that in Christ there is a new creation. Amid human brokenness; violence along ethnic, political and religious divisions; and environmental degradation; by God’s grace, we are called in our ministry to embody a foretaste of a restored creation and a reconciled humanity. Genesis 1; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
PRIORITIES MCC’s priorities in carrying out its purpose are disaster relief sustainable community development and justice and peacebuilding
Inspired by the Sermon on the Mount, we seek to follow Jesus in accompanying the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers and those who are persecuted because of righteousness. By sharing food with the hungry, extending a cup of cold water to the thirsty, and welcoming the stranger, we join Jesus in participating in the lives of those who suffer. We show our love for others by looking out for their interests and not just our own. Matthew 5:3-10; Matthew 25:31-46; Philippians 2:4
APPROACHES MCC approaches its mission by addressing poverty, oppression and injustice – and their systemic causes; accompanying partners and the church in a process of mutual transformation, accountability and capacity building; building bridges to connect people and ideas across cultural, political and economic divides; and caring for creation. In the spirit of Revelation 7, where there is a great multitude standing before the throne from every nation, tribe, people and language, we seek to be guided and transformed by God’s Spirit, who breaks down barriers of racism, sexism and other structural forms of oppression. Because Jesus Christ reigns over all of history and creation, we expect to encounter Jesus not only within familiar walls, but also in the stranger and in our apparent enemies. Empowered by the Spirit, we are committed to addressing root causes of poverty, oppression and injustice; to being faithful stewards of God’s creation; to reaching across divides of enmity; and to allowing God to mold us into a new humanity as the potter molds clay. Alain Epp Weaver 21
Revelation 7; Matthew 25:40; Isaiah 64:8
VALUES MCC values peace and justice. MCC seeks to live and serve nonviolently in response to the biblical call to peace and justice. MCC values just relationships. MCC seeks to live and serve justly and peacefully in each relationship, incorporating listening and learning, accountability and mutuality, transparency and integrity. Our commitment to nonviolent action for justice and peace is rooted above all in God’s plan of shalom (peace) for all of creation, a peace most fully and definitively expressed in the teachings and life of Jesus. The justice and peace God desires for the world are reflected in the Ten Commandments, in which God sets forth expectations for how peoples must live in relationship with one another. We commit ourselves to working toward justice and peace, dedicating ourselves to accompanying and serving with persons of less privilege. We believe Kingdom values call us as individuals and as an institution to allow the fruit of the Spirit to shape how we relate with one another. Deuteronomy 5; Exodus 20; Galatians 5:22-23
CONVICTIONS MCC is part of the larger mission of the church and embraces the “Shared Convictions” of global Anabaptists,8 inspired by Anabaptists of the 16th century who modeled radical discipleship to Jesus Christ. By the grace of God, we seek to live and proclaim the good news of reconciliation in Jesus Christ. As part of the one body of Christ at all times and places, we hold the following to be central to our belief and practice: 1. God is known to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Creator who seeks to restore fallen humanity by calling a people to be faithful in fellowship, worship, service and witness. 2. Jesus is the Son of God. Through his life and teachings, his cross and resurrection, he showed us how to be faithful disciples, redeemed the world, and offers eternal life. 3. As a church, we are a community of those whom God's Spirit calls to turn from sin, acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, receive baptism upon confession of faith, and follow Christ in life. 4. As a faith community, we accept the Bible as our authority for faith and life, interpreting it together under Holy Spirit guidance, in the light of Jesus Christ to discern God's will for our obedience.
8 As adopted by Mennonite World Conference General Council, March 2006. 22 MCC Missiological Shifts
5. The Spirit of Jesus empowers us to trust God in all areas of life so we become peacemakers who renounce violence, love our enemies, seek justice, and share our possessions with those in need. 6. We gather regularly to worship, to celebrate the Lord's Supper, and to hear the Word of God in a spirit of mutual accountability. 7. As a world-wide community of faith and life we transcend boundaries of nationality, race, class, gender and language. We seek to live in the world without conforming to the powers of evil, witnessing to God's grace by serving others, caring for creation, and inviting all people to know Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. In these convictions we draw inspiration from Anabaptist forebears of the 16th century, who modeled radical discipleship to Jesus Christ. We seek to walk in his name by the power of the Holy Spirit, as we confidently await Christ's return and the final fulfillment of God's kingdom. MENNONITE MISSION NETWORK – SHIFTS IN MISSION Stanley W. Green
Since the 1988 formulations of the missiological statements by CIM member-agencies that became a part of the 1990 text “A Relevant Missiology for the 1990’s edited by Calvin Shenk, Mennonite Mission Network was birthed as a merger of the mission agencies of the Mennonite Church, the General Conference Mennonite Church. The former GC Commission of Home Ministries and Commission on Overseas Mission, and the MC Mennonite Board of Mission were merged into Mennonite Mission Network (MMN). During the transformation-merger process, the attempt to reimagine mission for the 21st century produced a number of important advances. Some were fresh and new. Some built on impulses which were nascent and formative of trends that began to take shape in the last decades of the 20th century. Those reconceptualizations which were fresh and innovative came in the arena of praxis and structure. Those related to biblical and missiological foundations, understandably, were updated and refined by nuance, rather than substantially revised. The renovated missiological convictions detailed in the document Vision, Core Ministries and Strategic Priorities for the Mission Agency of Mennonite Church USA, are stated thus: 1. God's redemptive reign sets the agenda for our mission. God's mission is to set things right with a broken, sinful world, to redeem it and to restore it to its intended purpose. This mission of God is the church's reason for being. By participating in God's mission, the church is a living sign of God's intended future for the world. 2. Mission is rooted in God's love, focused on Jesus and empowered by the Holy Spirit. The mission is God's. We are involved in mission because we are recipients of God's grace and have been invited by God to share the same love for the world that God demonstrated in sending Jesus. Jesus, who went about preaching, teaching, healing the sick and delivering people from evil spirits, who was crucified and resurrected, is the means (the way), the message (the truth) and the model (the life) for all mission. After Jesus' ascension, the Holy Spirit was poured out to move, transform, inspire and empower the church in mission. The church nurtures its life in the Spirit through Bible study, prayer and other spiritual disciplines. 3. The church is an invitational, worshiping people, living under God's rule as a contrast community. The church is a sign of God's redemptive reign. It is called and sent into the world to invite all people into that reign
Stanley W. Green is Executive Director of Mennonite Mission Network, mission agency of Mennonite Church USA.
Mission Focus: Annual Review © 2012 Volume 20 24 MMN - Shifts in Mission
and to demonstrate the living presence and power of God through announcing salvation, proclaiming and demonstrating peace, and serving a needy world in the spirit of Jesus. The church demonstrates its faithfulness to God's purposes by being a responsible steward of God's creation and living as a prophetic community and a holy nation in relation to the powers of the world. The church is an alternative society, on pilgrimage in the world, giving its allegiance to God over any human government. 4. Faithful congregations will act to extend and reproduce themselves. Every congregation is called into faithfulness, health and vitality and to engage collectively in activities that give birth to new congregations and ministries. Such communities disciple all believers in loving accountability, as well as bring seekers to the point of initial commitment to Christ and the church. They live out the practices of the reign of God. 5. The gospel is reconciling, holistic and transforming. By word and deed, the church announces the good news to the world that people and communities can be reconciled to God and to one another, be transformed into Christ's image and can experience the healing of God's grace and peace. In Christ, we are empowered to love enemies, believing that no person is beyond God's love and forgiveness, that the gospel is to be proclaimed and demonstrated to all, that only love can overcome evil. 6. Incarnational ministry takes context seriously. Whenever the gospel of Jesus Christ encounters a new culture, we can be sure that the God of the gospel has already affected that culture. The mission of God is always incarnational, best demonstrated by "the Word becoming flesh." This means that the church pays close attention to discover the activity of God already present in that context and to make the mission of God good news in a relevant and transforming manner. 7. The church expects opposition and is willing to suffer. In the midst of a fallen world, the church expects that opposition and hostility will often be present. The church chooses to risk its life to represent the love and presence of Jesus, even when this may result in misunderstanding and suffering because of the many authorities and powers in the world that oppose the values of God's reign. The church stands in solidarity with poor and oppressed people, trusts in God for its defense and places its hope in God's future. 8. The final victory already belongs to God through Christ. The church around the world prefigures for the world the "great multitude" written in the Book of Revelation. There, people from every nation, tribe and language stand before the throne of the Lamb praising God. Continuity was the guiding precept in the renovation of biblical-missiological foundations. The number of commitments aspiring to fresh innovation and Stanley W. Green 25 adjustment were, as noted, related to structure and praxis. Due to the brevity of this piece, a careful reflection on some of the key shifts is not possible. Instead, the best course might be to attempt a reflective chronicling of some of the key modifications, and then to list an expanded register of some of the shifts we have experienced.1 The key modifications can be described as a privileging of three categories: i) the congregation, ii) our partners and iii) creation. In the discernment of a preferred future for mission in the Mennonite Church, observation of historical precedent noted2 that the mission agency was well almost universally regarded as the entity to which congregations looked to “do” missions for the church. In this construal congregations were restricted to the role of supporters of mission. By contrast, agencies came to be seen as the primary “owners” and agents of mission. The shift that was embraced in the transformation-merger process imagined a different point of view. From this perspective, ownership and initiative for mission are located with the local congregation. The final report on the Vision, Core Ministries and Strategic Priorities for the Mission Agency of Mennonite Church USA spoke in terms of the following commitment: We will work closely with members of Mennonite Church USA, together pursuing ministries around the world. The church’s outreach throughout most of the 20th century was structured around mission agencies. The agencies took initiative in planting churches, in establishing partnerships with national churches overseas, and in relating to area conferences in North America. As we move into the 21st century, however, the whole missional church — including individuals, families and households, congregations, area conferences, racial-ethnic groups, national organizations and program boards — is seeking to be involved more directly in responding to God’s mission in the world. We believe that the most seasoned and sustainable initiatives in mission happen when they emerge from people inspired by and committed to a common vision of seeing God at work.3 This privileging of the local congregation as the primary agent of mission was confirmed in the vision that was adopted for the new mission agency: Every congregation and all parts of the church will be fully engaged in God's mission, reaching from across the street to around the world.4
1 Various Mennonite Mission Network administrators and regional directors were polled on the key shifts that were being experienced in their region of work or area of responsibility. 2 Vision, Core Ministries and Strategic Priorities for the Mission Agency of Mennonite Church USA 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid. 26 MMN - Shifts in Mission
This repositioning signaled a radical shift in the identity of the mission agency. The agency’s role would be transformed to become a supporter of the local congregation in mission rather than as the primary agent of mission. This represents a profound missiological-ecclesiological shift and would have significant consequence for our praxis. Secondly, the transformation-merger process privileged the new Mennonite Church USA’s partners in mission. This shift was based on a conversion in the perception among church and mission leaders that the half- century-long regard for the places where mission-workers went as “mission fields.” The nomenclature of “mission fields” suggested an objectification of the people who were being evangelized. The recognition in the early 1970’s that churches in the South were also “subjects” of mission, inspired a commitment to engage these churches as partners in mission, rather than as merely “objects” of mission. The commitment emerging from the transformation-merger was articulated thus: We will cultivate increased partnerships-in-ministry with the global Mennonite Church mission community. We are committed to facilitating and participating in mission initiatives “from all six continents to all six continents” around the globe. Although we work with brothers and sisters from many parts of the Christian family, we will give special attention and energy to those initiatives that emerge from Mennonite Church USA and our international partners within the global Anabaptist/Mennonite community of churches. The newly formed Global Mission Fellowship of Mennonite World Conference will serve as an important forum for generating and testing new ministry possibilities with partners worldwide.5 As a consequence of this commitment, which was also described in the language of “mutual interdependence,” Mennonite Mission Network, as part of Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission, worked within the context of that entity’s transformation to create a structuring of mission in much of Africa that recognized the equality of the partners from Africa and North America. The vision of that restructuring sought, through the structure of newly created “Partnership Councils,” to ”create space to worship and fellowship together, forge vision and ministry with full participation of all partners, and receive inspiration and fresh understanding for the mission task.”6 The elevation of the local congregation and our partners everywhere has transformed the way in which we evaluate and discern the desirability of a mission assignment. In the past the primary consideration had been agency priority and the availability of resources. With congregations and our partners
5 Ibid. 6 Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission website, (http://www.aimmintl.org/What-We- Do.html),accessed 1/18/2013. Stanley W. Green 27 in mind, we now pay attention to four stakeholder “voices”: i) the agency’s mission priorities, ii) the priorities of our partners, iii) the interest of our US congregational and conference constituents and, iv) the individual callings of those volunteer to be sent. This expanded register of consideration is significantly transforming our operations. Thirdly, the transformation-merger intentionally built on prior antecedents to privilege and elevate the entirety of creation as the scope of God’s redemptive purposes. In the years leading up to the transformation- merger process, a key antecedent was a strong commitment to mission that is holistic. Mission, it was believed, must involve preaching the word as well as “healing the sick, making peace, building communities of grace, and helping the poor achieve stability and dignity.” The Vision statement reaffirmed the belief “that God’s good news in Jesus Christ brings salvation, healing and hope to a person’s mind, body and soul; to human relationships in conflict at all levels of society…” This commitment came to be included in the merged mission agency’s (Mennonite Mission Network) tagline in these words, “….sharing all of Christ…” In addition, evolving missiological understandings, along with a growing awareness of our integratedness within our physical environment, led to an embrace of the whole of creation as the scope of God’s redemptive purposes and our calling. This fresh insight was expressed in the following way: We will work as responsible stewards of the world God has created, loved and redeemed. God’s reconciling project is as big as the world in which we live. We believe, with the apostle Paul, that God’s plan is to “bring all creation together, everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as head” (Eph. 1:10). Though we may not understand the full scope of God’s deepest desires, we know that participating in God’s mission means loving what God loves and caring for the world he has so graciously created for our good. This commitment also shaped the agency’s tagline which ends thus (italics): “…sharing all of Christ…with all of creation.”7 The implications of this commitment are still being worked out in our praxis. Not unrelated to the transformation-merger process, but resulting from broader socio-cultural impacts, other important shifts in praxis and structure were necessitated. Other than to reference a quite substantial list of shifts that we have embraced or responded to, I will provide some commentary on one particularly significant adjustment that was required. Specifically, I want to reflect on a change in the way in which we resource mission today. This adjustment was necessitated by shifts in trends in how mission is resourced,
7 “Together in Mission: Core Beliefs, Values and Commitments of Mennonite Mission Network”, Missio Dei #10. 28 MMN - Shifts in Mission along with the previously mentioned renovated missiological/ecclesiological convictions and the changing perception of the place of the local congregation in mission. In 1996 James Engel8 addressed the challenge of changing paradigms in mission. Reflecting on various trends, Engel offered that mission agencies face great danger to their future financial health if they ignore the trend of churches directly sending missionaries. Engel opined that congregational interest in hands-on involvement leads all other requests and suggested that where congregations are engaged in direct participation in mission their missional commitments thrive. This interest, paired with the observation in John and Sylvia Ronsvalle’s book, The State of Church Giving through 1992. They noted in their report that giving for programs beyond the congregation has, in mainline Protestant and evangelical churches, declined by 33% as a percentage of income between 1968 and 1992. In similar vein, over three decades ago, Richard G. Hutcheson, Jr. a senior fellow at the Center on Religion and Society in New York, addressed the issue of declining funding for churchwide programs beyond the congregation He noted that the real income of national church agencies is less than half of what it was ten years ago (i.e. than in 1967) and attributed this to the effect of inflation, the larger share kept by the local church, and the larger share sent to regional units.9 After an extended grappling with the roots of the problem, Hutcheson proposed that the solution to this crisis will be dependent on a recognition that in voluntary organizations, missional activity must reflect the missional will of the members. In the absence of the shared commitment which might result from denomination-wide consensus, a voluntary organization needs smaller consensus groups -- internal groupings of people with, what he identified as, a shared commitment. He proposed that such groupings must form the base for voluntary mission activity. These groups, he posited, should be decentralized and highly voluntaristic, although denominational identification and relationship could be retained. Another related development that responds to the challenges in resourcing mission has been the increasing acceptance afforded to the practice of “Business as Mission” which has been accorded greater theological and moral defensibility. These impulses, and a growing awareness of the aforementioned trends in funding, led Mennonite Mission Network to expand our funding mechanisms to embrace the creation of congregationally-based focused,
8 A Clouded Future: Advancing North American World Missions, Milwaukee, WI: Christian Stewardship Association, 1996. 9 “Pluralism and Consensus: Why Mainline Church Mission Budgets Are in Trouble”, Christian Century July 6-13, 1977, p. 618ff. Stanley W. Green 29 voluntary and committed groups called Ministry Support Teams. The object of these teams, among other purposes are to generate designated funding for specific ministry assignments. This adjustment in funding modality has effected profound shifts in mission agency operations, and has allowed Mennonite Church USA congregations to increase direct engagement in mission even while undesignated contributions to the mission agency declined. Among other shifts which we have noted, each important in their own way are the following: 1. The incorporation of anti-racism as an essential category in mission praxis. 2. A redefinition of how mission in the North American context is conceived. This rethink issued in the shift from mission agency funding of various affinity groups in U.S. and revision of the traditional definition of mission ”fields/targets” which formerly included Native American, Hispanic and African American groups. 3. With regard to our wider ecclesial reality we find ourselves engaging mission as part of a missional church, working with the denomination and all its parts (other agencies, area conferences and congregations rather than on behalf of these entities. 4. Connected to the privileging of partners, partnership development and capacity-building are progressively becoming a primary mode of mission engagement (through Global Mission Partnerships, Ministry Support Teams and various other Consortiums). 5. A lessening emphasis on the professional preparation/orientation of missionworkers for their assignments and the correlative laicization of mission engagement. The former trend has led to the diminishing, if not, dissolution of mission training programs in Mennonite seminaries. 6. Growing difficulty in acquiring visas not just in countries that have been traditionally designated restricted countries but increasingly in places like Holland, Germany and the UK. 7. A greater dispersion of administrative staff along with a shift from North American locations as administrative centers to locations of ministry (Radical Journey, Partnership Councils, etc.). This trend is matched by an almost complete break-down historical geographical regions of ministry that are associated with particular agencies. 8. A growing embrace of “Culturally Appropriate” mission strategy. Insider Movements, Indigenous church support, local structural and theological empowerment are all receiving interested attention and exploration. 9. The shift in the direction and preference for short term mission has 30 MMN - Shifts in Mission
impacted every mission organization (including ours) as well almost every local congregation. Not only is a greater percentage of mission money being spent so that there are fewer career mission workers with less professional training (as shorter terms do not allow for the extended time required for specific training). In addition, this trend has led to the development of the expansion of worker categories. 10. A shift toward more intentionally Anabaptist and ecumenical engagements in contrast to a narrowly-defined denominational focus. We have seen a substantial growth of Anabaptist Networks and participation in ecumenical international consortia and engagement with other parts of the Mennonite and Brethren-in-Christ family in mission discernment and partnership through the Global Mission Fellowship and the Mission Commission of Mennonite World Conference. 11. The expansion of missiological bibliographic references through the creation of a bibliography with 5,500 entries, and the birth of AAM (a people network/gathering for mission reflection and exchange). The impact of these various trends are having a profound influence on the convictions and praxis of Mennonite Mission Network. We find ourselves increasingly needing to function more as a network to connect people and resources, rather than as a centralized organization which exists by and for its own mandate and does mission on behalf of others. WHAT CHANGED AT EASTERN MENNONITE MISSIONS SINCE 1988? Nelson Okanya
1) Mission Thinking: From about 1960 to1985 EMM’s primary focus was on funding and resourcing relationships with international church partners. There were exceptions, such as the new ventures in Guatemala and the Philippines. But this was the age of independence and the breakdown of the shackles of colonialism. A popular expression was “missionary, go home.” This emerging independence from Western rule had implications in the church. Churches that had been planted by EMM in Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Honduras began to transition from missionary leadership to autonomous local leadership. Paul Kraybill guided EMM through this period of great change wisely. He had a passion for healthy transitions from foreign leadership. Perhaps it is no accident that he later moved from EMM to the Mennonite World Conference as general Secretary (1973-1990) to help build international relationships on a global scale. There are sentiments that the downside of this focus on building healthy relationships with daughter churches simultaneously led EMM to lose some of its earlier vision (1933-1960) of reaching those who had not yet been reached by the gospel. By 1988, however, the classic EMM vision for a mission society dedicated fundamentally to holistic evangelism and church planting (“fellowship formation,” in Don Jacobs’ terms) was beginning to be reclaimed. Raymond Charles, Don Jacobs, Paul Landis, David Shenk, and Galen Burkholder gave leadership to uncovering and beginning to rebuild on these old foundations. From 1994 to 2011, president Richard Showalter reaffirmed and built on that classic EMM vision by identifying three broad arenas for EMM engagement in order of priority.
! Mission-to-world: taking the good news in all its dimensions to peoples and places where the church is weak or nonexistent; sowing seed; and wherever possible, catalyzing new movements to Jesus. Here EMM continued to take a leading role while also reaffirmed mission- to-world’s place at the core of EMM’s vision.
! Mission-with-church: acknowledging and building on the apostolic
Nelson Okanya is President of Eastern Mennonite Missions, agency of Lancaster Mennonite Conference, PA.
Mission Focus: Annual Review © 2012 Volume 20 32 What Changed at EMM?
bond, which exists between a mother church (Lancaster Mennonite Conference, Franklin Conference, for example) and a daughter church (Tanzania Mennonite Church [KMT] or the K’ekchi’ Mennonite Church, for example). EMM took a supportive role both in relation to LMC and to the international and domestic partner churches. EMM contributed to the vitality of the partner churches at home and abroad, focusing especially on evangelism, leadership development, and compassion ministries, but LMC and other constituent groups were to take the lead in creating a new generation of church-with-church relationships.
! Mission-with-mission: encouraging the development of intercultural mission arms among its partner churches; partnering as a peer with these new mission arms. Here EMM would undertake the delicate dance of both leading and serving as appropriate in different contexts.
Consequently, the newest development for EMM in 1988-2011 was the concept of “mission-with-mission,” as contrasted with “church-with-church.” Prior to 1995, relations with partner churches were conceptualized as “mission/church-with-church” (for example, EMM/LMC with KMT [Tanzania]). But in this traditional paradigm, to use the illustration of Tanzania, its relationships with LMC were most frequently mediated by EMM. EMM leaders saw some serious negative side effects of that traditional paradigm; it created a tendency for non-Western church leaders to think of “mission” as belonging solely to North America and only local evangelism as belonging to them. Another negative side effect was the tendency for LMC church leaders to rely too much on EMM leaders to attend to its international church-with-church relationships. In a new paradigm, EMM began to encourage its international partners to identify mission leaders, just as LMC had identified mission leaders by asking them to serve at EMM. The way was opened to encourage both well- defined church-with-church relationships (e.g., KMT bishops and staff with LMC bishops and staff) and well-defined mission-with mission relationships (e.g., KMT mission leaders with LMC mission leaders via EMM). This worked well for EMM in the rapid development of the International Missions Association (IMA) beginning in 1997 with its focus on peer relationships between LMC’s mission leaders (i.e., EMM staff) and mission leaders of partner churches. It also worked well for LMC when, in 2010, a groundbreaking church-with-church meeting (LMC church leaders with those of its international partner churches) took place in Kenya. This was a broad gathering of church leaders without the mediation of EMM, perhaps for the Nelson Okanaya 33 first time in LMC’s history.1 In 2012, the Kenya and Tanzania Mennonite churches created their own mission board. This is a very exciting move and is in full alignment with EMM’s vision. In addition to these changes, at EMM there was a discernible impact of the missional church movement sparked by Lesslie Newbigin and his call for the re-evangelization of the West. Some voices within this movement see the classic Western Mission agencies as a relic of the colonial era in missions, and therefore needing to be abandoned or radically altered to assist churches in local outreach. Others see a continuing role for the mission agency as representing an ongoing commitment to global as well as local mission. These issues continue to create lively debates at the EMM Board, and with LMC churches and other supporting constituencies.
2) Praxis A few significant adjustments in praxis have resulted from the reaffirmation of the classic EMM vision for new church development.
! EMM has given greater priority to sending workers to regions of the world where the church is weak or nonexistent. Examples: the Quechua of Peru, the Isaan of Thailand, and other “sensitive” regions in Asia.
! EMM’s partner churches have seen a greater emphasis on resourcing for evangelism and missions coming from North America. Example: growth of international World Mission Institutes jointly sponsored by EMM and partner churches.
! As a result of the “mission-with-mission” emphasis, intercultural mission partnerships with international partner churches’ new mission arms have grown significantly. Examples: EMM/Amor Viviente missions in Latin America and Asia, EMM/MKC missions in Ethiopia and beyond, EMM/Philippines missions in Asia.
! As LMC church leaders have taken greater responsibility for local evangelism and new church development in North America, along with a growing embrace of missional church theology, EMM’s focus
1 This observation is made only in the context of LMC and its numerous daughter churches around the world. MWC was a context in which triennial Anabaptist church-with- church gatherings took place long before 2010. However, by virtue of MWC organization, LMC church leaders were normally not a part of those MWC meetings, since LMC is a mid-level judicatory and not eligible for direct representation on the MWC General Council. 34 What Changed at EMM?
on mission to North America has tended to diminish. LMC church leaders have taken increasing responsibility for local church planting and resourcing for evangelistic outreach. In some people’s opinion, by 2011 EMM’s traditional “home ministries” had largely evolved to a grant-giving mechanism. Today, LMC and EMM, as well as other supporting churches, are assessing EMM’s role in resourcing, equipping, and supporting local congregations while at the same time EMM’s continuing to send workers globally.
! Discipleship Ministries has shifted more short-term youth/young adult teams toward engagement in pioneer mission locations. YES teams now do their training on the field, interspersed with outreach and with the support of continuous mentoring.
3) Structure: Several structural changes occurred during this period.
12. EMM shifted from using general funds to support EMM workers, to funding workers individually via Missionary Support Teams (MSTs). The traditional EMM structure intended to support all workers from general funds. Up until 1985 the average LMC congregation gave 50% of its offering-plate giving to mission through EMM. This strong congregational support enabled EMM to become quite large in proportion to the size of its constituency and to send many long-term workers from a common pool of funds. However, after the mid-1980s this percentage of congregational giving diminished rapidly. EMM responded to this challenge by developing the Missionary Support Team (MST), a group of 7-12 persons who committed to raise prayer, encouragement/counsel, and financial support for individual workers/family units. MSTs covenanted to raise approximately 80% of the support needed for a worker or a family unit, with the remaining 20% coming from general funds. The first steps in the development of the MST began in 1989, and by about 2007 all EMM workers were funded in this way. This enabled EMM to maintain a strong sending program despite decreases in undesignated giving. (Part of this decrease stemmed from the shift in LMC from bivocational pastors to salaried leaders -- and the consequent reduction of percentage of offering-plate giving to mission through EMM.) Further, MST funding has allowed EMM to send an increasing number of missionaries who have approached EMM from outside LMC. Nelson Okanaya 35
! The traditional “joint board” meetings ended in 1999. Until then, the LMC Board of Bishops met jointly with the EMM Board in all meetings of the EMM Board. These joint board meetings symbolized the unusual synergy between EMM and LMC and the ownership of EMM by LMC. By 1999, however, attendance by the bishops was lagging, and EMM and LMC agreed to discontinue the practice.
! The traditional Overseas Ministries Department combined with the Home Ministries Department to create a new Global Ministries Department in 2000. Along with this, EMM formed a Human Resources Department and a Communications Department to serve the whole organization. The directors of these new departments were accountable to the president.
! In 2009, the EMM Board restructured, moving from more than fifty members to 12 to 14 members. Simultaneously, the new board adopted Policy Governance as its governing model. LMC bishop districts largely selected the old board; the new board members are appointed through a process led by the board’s governance committee. Nominations occur via representative council members (congregational representatives), after which the governance committee of the board selects and interviews prospective candidates. The governance committee recommends those selected persons to the Conference Executive Council for final approval to become board members.
! In 2011, EMM restructured -- including by creating more highly empowered field positions known as Regional Representatives (RRs). These twelve regional leaders oversee personnel and projects in their regions with continued support from EMM staff in program development, personnel training, well-being care, communication, and other administrative functions. Also as part of the restructuring, EMM centralized budgetary control and policy in the president’s office under the direction of the chief operating officer.
! EMM has incorporated business people into its mission for some time, but in more recent years, EMM has also given special focus to Business for Transformation. This program recruits, equips, sends, and supports business people to engage in mission in the context of business. Teams go equipped to both start businesses and form churches strong on 36 What Changed at EMM?
discipleship.
! Most recently EMM created a new appointment category called marketplace workers. These missionaries are not employed by EMM, but they are appointed by and joined in relationship to EMM through a covenant of understanding. Marketplace workers intentionally seek to make disciples of Jesus where they are living and working, and they seek a relationship with EMM for the purpose of training, resourcing, coaching, member care, and connection with a larger team. Because they are funded through a job or other outside source, marketplace workers may not need to raise significant amounts of support (although they may raise some funds to cover the resourcing and services EMM provides them). These workers’ identities in their place of service is associated with their job rather than as "professional religious workers." Marketplace workers see their work as an opportunity to earn a living exercising their God-given skills and talents, as they also intentionally work to make disciples of Jesus where the church may have little or no presence. They especially leverage the opportunities and relationships created by their jobs to sow the gospel and make disciples.
4) Priorities (This includes partnership and relational priorities within our own global structures, toward MWC, and toward other inter-church relations.) EMM has been a strong supporter of MWC for as long as both have existed, especially since the days of Orie Miller. This is symbolized by the extent to which major EMM leaders have been involved in MWC structures, beginning with Paul Kraybill becoming general secretary of MWC (1973-1990). More recently former EMM President Richard Showalter became the chair of the Global Mission Fellowship as well as the first chair of MWC’s Mission Commission (2009-). EMM, along with other CIM and international partners, also helped play a catalytic role in the beginning of the Global Mission Fellowship (GMF) via the Global Anabaptist Mission Consultation in Guatemala (2000) and its birth in Zimbabwe in 2003. One key element in the formation of the GMF was “mission-with-mission” thinking at EMM. More recently, this same approach to recognizing and promoting specializations in the larger church helped lead to the formation of the Global Anabaptist Service Network (GASN) in 2012. Both these associations are part of the Mennonite World Conference.
In 2012 under the new President Nelson Okanya, EMM’s priorities now include a threefold focus: pioneering mission work in places where the Nelson Okanaya 37 church is weak or nonexistent, to raise up vibrant communities of Christ- followers; developing leaders in those new fellowships, helping to train, encourage, and walk alongside them as they mature in Christ; and then partnering/collaborating with the church both local and international to reach out in new ways and new areas as peers in God’s mission to reach those who have not yet received the good news of Salvation.
In the next one to three years, our goals are to: 1) Review all EMM programs to ensure that they align with our larger goals, priorities, and philosophy of mission, to ensure organizational efficiency and effectiveness. 2) Give increased focus to sending teams of workers to the field, rather than only individuals/families. We aim to create greater accountability, to continue to model healthy Christian community, and to create effective supervision and support for overall long-term sustainability and continuation of our mission mandate. 3) Continue to train and support congregations, listening to discern their needs, so that we may collaborate for greater effectiveness in mission. ROSEDALE MENNONITE MISSION’S THINKING, PRAXIS, STRUCTURE AND PRIORITIES Joe Showalter1
In 1988, Rosedale Mennonite Missions presented to the larger CIM body a document excerpted from a booklet published by RMM in 1981, called The Meaning of Mission. The excerpts focused on three different areas: 1) theology and world view, 2) definition of the task, and 3) indigenization.“ We maintain many of these core values while we have changed some of our practices and priorities.” Very little has changed in terms of theology and world view since 1988. RMM continues to believe the mission of the church is rooted in the nature of God and his redemptive work. We believe that biblical Christianity is true; that non-Christian religions do not provide a way of salvation. We believe that the Holy Spirit motivates his people to obedience to Christ’s commission to disciple all nations and that he distributes gifts and anoints his people for the task. We believe in the doctrines of the Bible as represented by orthodox evangelicalism. We adhere to the Conservative Mennonite Conference’s Statement of Theology and its Statement of Practice which are more recent documents that have replaced for us the Mennonite Confession of Faith (1963). We continue to believe in holistic ministry and a holistic view of humankind. We recognize that we are physical, spiritual, social and psychological beings and that our ministries need to address all of these areas.
Definition of the Task We continue to accept as our mandate the commission of Jesus in Matthew 28 to go and disciple and baptize all the peoples of the earth. The message of the gospel includes the atoning work of Christ, our obedience to Jesus, the power of the resurrection, the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the blessings and benefits of the kingdom of God which is both now and not yet. We continue to believe that it is the church’s responsibility to address material and social needs and that addressing such needs is a part of the gospel though not a complete gospel. As was stated in 1988, from the 1981 document, “Material and social ministries are a valid part of Christian ministry but have limited value if performed apart from evangelism since the natural human spirit resists reconciliation with others and peacemaking at the cost of self.”
1 *This is an informal report written by Joe Showalter, RMM President, January, 2013.
Joe Showalter is President of Rosedale Mennonite Missions, agency of Conservative Mennonite Conference.
Mission Focus: Annual Review © 2012 Volume 20 Joe Showalter 39
Indigenization The third area of focus in 1988 was indigenization. We continue to affirm the indigenization of the church. We believe that the church is to both adapt itself to and be a transformer of the culture in which it takes root. We affirm that the gospel will have particular relevance to both the strengths and the weaknesses (the blessings and the sins) of a particular culture. The role of the missionary is to represent Jesus in a given society through the power of the Spirit—incarnation that includes both word and flesh, both proclamation and demonstration. While RMM retains many of these core values, we have changed some of our practices. With regard to indigenization, we have become more intentional in taking a backseat role in the development of the emerging church in a pioneer setting. Rather than entering a culture with the intent of gathering and pastoring a local fellowship and eventually passing the baton to local leadership, we now see our task as entering the culture with the intent of planting the seed of the Gospel and mentoring others to lead the emerging fellowship from the start. Much of the task remains the same. We model prayer, spiritual disciplines, and obedience to the Spirit of God and the word of God. We then expect the local leaders to shape the emerging church. So we are less likely to be front and center in the process and development of the emerging church. We believe we can be more effective in planting seeds of faith and letting those who are cultural insiders be the ones to carry most of that same seed to their own people.
Mission Priorities Another change in our praxis has to do with our mission priorities. We have intentionally allocated a higher percentage of our resources toward the least reached areas of the world. We have, since 2004, articulated a vision of “establishing locally rooted and led, rapidly reproducing churches, giving priority to areas that are least reached with the gospel.” This new focus has led us to withdraw from church planting in some of the locations where the church is well established and self-sustaining. We have refocused much of our energy and resources to the Mediterranean region and to parts of Asia that have in recent history been most isolated from the gospel.2
Prayer-Saturated Another change in focus is that while we have always believed in
2See a condensed version of “The Dallas Document” below, drafted at a meeting of RMM mission practitioners and administrators in Dallas, Texas, in November, 2003.) 40 RMM’s Thinking, Praxis, Structure and Priorities prayer, it has become a greater emphasis in our work. We have determined to become not only an agency that prays, but an agency that is thoroughly prayer- saturated. For the past decade we have hosted biennial prayer conferences and continue to be intentional about building prayer into the fabric of our lives and our work as a mission. We expect those in our organization to be people of prayer. At the office we schedule weekly times of prayer and quarterly silent retreats.
Current Structures Structurally very little has changed at RMM. We continue to relate to a board of directors which governs us under the larger umbrella of governance of the Conservative Mennonite Conference (CMC), currently a conference of more than 11,000 members. Administratively there has been some structural ebb and flow from a leadership team of three in 1988, to a team of eight or nine in 2001, to the current Executive Team of five. We continue to prioritize partnership and fraternal relationships with other mission bodies. We participate in CIM. We have become members of the newly formed Global Mission Fellowship and the Mission Commission of Mennonite World Conference. We are also members of a mission organization called International Mission Association (IMA) which was initiated by Eastern Mennonite Missions. We continue to be influenced by those in the larger evangelical mission world who have initiated and done subsequent research on rapidly reproducing church planting movements or disciple making movements, as they are variously called.
Closer Connection to Local Churches As we look into the future, we anticipate the need for reshaping our modus operandi. In a North American context where denominational loyalty is waning and local churches are increasingly individualistic, we feel an urgency to establish greater connection between us as a mission agency and the local congregations whom we serve and of whom we are an extension. In 2012 we launched a new initiative to address this need. With our board we have created a pilot group of seven churches within our fraternity that we will be working with more closely for the next two or three years. By relating more closely with this pilot group, we believe we will be able to discover ways that we can better serve the local churches, develop resources that will be of value, and implement models that will make our mission efforts more truly an extension of our churches rather than an agency to which they outsource mission. THE DALLAS DOCUMENT3 One of the things we are constantly evaluating at RMM is our effectiveness in the task of inviting the nations to worship Jesus. We are grateful to God for the fruit of the past decades of RMM's ministry on four continents: North America, Central/South America, Europe, and Asia. At a strategic planning meeting in 2003, our office staff agreed that we had often been unfocused in our vision, careless with our resources, and haphazard in our planning. In response, we articulated a new mission statement: RMM exists to establish locally rooted and led, rapidly reproducing churches, prioritizing people groups and locations that are least reached with the Good News. This does not necessarily limit RMM to the 10/40 window, but prioritizes unreached groups wherever we find them. We will carry out this vision by fasting and praying. We will work in humility, repentance, and brokenness with a servant posture to the emerging church being desperate for God and passionate for what is on his heart for where we work. We will facilitate, coach, and mentor local believers to plant churches. We will employ thorough research, strategic plans, and consistent training. The seed we are seeking to plant is a spiritual community capable of nurturing, protecting and reproducing itself. As the seed (a spiritual reproducing community) interacts with the soil (the target culture) new churches are formed. We will respect and empower the local disciples, believing that the local church is God’s primary agent of reconciliation and transformation of societies. We will work in gift- based team settings with missionaries filling an apostolic, not pastoral, role.
3 Condensed in 2013 from 2003 version. MENNONITE BRETHREN MISSION: A BRIEF ASSESSMENT OF ITS MISSION THEOLOGY AND PRAXIS Ray Harms-Wiebe
1. Introduction As Hans Kasdorf notes, in his 1988 Mission Focus article, “Toward a Mennonite Brethren Theology of Mission”, Mennonite Brethren “have not yet outgrown the stage of self-theologizing”, neither in North America nor in other regions of the world (evidenced by new confessions of faith in India, Japan and elsewhere), and the challenge of each generation is to be engaged in dynamic conversation with God, the biblical writings and its surrounding context(s). He summarizes the development of MB theological thinking in the following manner:
(1) The early Mennonite Brethren based their holistic mission theology of preaching, teaching, helping, and healing on the simple content of the Scriptures, and they demonstrated it by their effort of obedience in faith. (2) In the course of time they ground their salvationist theology in the love of God and the cross of Christ. (3) Upon revolutionary times in the world and in mission, they saw Christ as Lord and themselves as servants. Thus their kingdom theology is rooted in the lordship of Christ and in servanthood ministry. (4) Their Trinitarian approach is anchored in God’s love for the world, in Christ’s obedience to the Father, and in the Spirit’s empowerment for mission. Herein lies their most comprehensive theology of mission.1
Today, Mennonite Brethren mission theology would draw on all four streams and perhaps suggest some forward progress in a number of significant areas affecting theology and praxis.
2. Trinitarian Theology 2.1 Three Persons in Mission Contemporary Mennonite Brethren mission theology, in harmony with
1 Hans Kasdorf, “Toward a Mennonite Brethren Theology of Mission,” Mission Focus, March 1988, Volume 16, no. 1, 1-6.
Ray Harms-Wiebe is Lead Team: Global Program Director of MB Mission.
Mission Focus: Annual Review © 2012 Volume 20 Ray Harms-Wiebe 43 the progression outlined by Kasdorf, begins with an understanding of the Triune God. The mandate to reach the world with the love of Christ issues forth from God himself. Engagement in the missionary task is grounded in relationship with the same Father who sent Jesus to earth and the same Holy Spirit who empowered Jesus. The Father, the great “I AM,” passionately desires to see “the knowledge of the glory of the Lord” fill the earth “as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. 2:14). As the lover of all peoples, from the first pages of Scripture, He is on a mission to draw all people to Himself. As the ultimate expression of His gracious will for all of creation, He sends His Son Jesus. The Father desires deep, bonded relationships with His children. He wants to be known. Jesus is the “I AM” revealed. Through the incarnation, the glory and holiness of the Father are unveiled in human history. Although all things have been created through him, Jesus empties Himself in order to redeem a fallen humanity that cannot save itself. He is the only Way to salvation, the Truth that liberates, and the Life that makes whole. Through His life, death and resurrection, Jesus inaugurates the new covenant, between the Father and His children, and shows the way to covenant community for all who desire to follow His self-emptying path. The Holy Spirit is the evangelist who witnesses to Jesus and leads His followers to wholeness. He enables God’s children to perceive their distance from the Father’s glory and awakens within them a desire for intimacy with the Father. He teaches the truths of the kingdom to followers of Jesus and binds them together in covenant community through His indwelling presence. He transforms God’s children from glory to glory. He is the creative power who equips Jesus’ disciples and empowers them for service. All three Persons in the Trinity work together in perfect harmony to reveal their glory, to serve and to love human beings, and to shepherd their children. Together they reign over all things, communicate the good news and enter into covenant with their people. They invite disciples into a dynamic, loving reality. They want their followers to experience life in its fullness.
Mission Application: MB Mission believes the Trinity provides the relational model, creative life and sure foundation for global church planting. The salvation message (holistic gospel) has as its source the Father’s love for the world. This love embraces all people groups. Jesus’ incarnation and sacrificial service determine the model for participating in God’s mission. The gospel is founded on his life, death and resurrection. The Spirit of God creates, shapes and empowers the church to carry on God’s mission to the least reached peoples of the earth. Through listening 44 MBMission - Theology and Praxis prayer and community discernment, our church planting efforts are a response to God's calling on our mission to participate in the extension of his kingdom among the least reached.
2.2 Trinitarian Community The above summary of Mennonite Brethren’s Trinitarian understanding serves as a foundation for its newfound emphasis on the Trinitarian community. Not only are the three persons of the Trinity on mission, they are also communal. Father, Son and Holy Spirit exist in an intimate, eternal relationship. Father, Son and Holy Spirit love each other deeply, glorify each other, cede to each other, enhance each other, release each other for specific roles, share everything, are committed to eternal oneness and always communicate with each other. They work together for the salvation of humankind and the restoration of all things.
Mission Application: For this reason, MB Mission seeks to form church planting teams that reflect the Trinity in their relational life and live the shared values of Jesus’ kingdom as they cross frontiers to plant churches. They send teams characterized by shared divine calling, covenantal relationships, strategic team leadership, healthy patterns of conflict resolution, a common philosophy of ministry, and an environment oriented by grace. As ambassadors of God, among least reached people groups, missionaries seek to experience and reflect this glorious oneness as they live community before those who have never heard of Jesus or had the privilege of participating in Christian community. MB Mission sends out church planting teams, called and equipped to live in community, with complementary gifting (Eph. 4:11-16; I Cor. 12-14), doing life and ministry together so that the least reached people will experience the presence of God among them through this Spirit-filled community of followers and be inspired to form their own indigenous communities of faith that reflect the presence and glory of God.
3. Kingdom of God 3.1 Holistic Service Holistic ministry is rooted in the MB understanding of the Kingdom of God, encompassing all of life, and God’s eternal desire to see his glory manifest among all the ethne.2 The apostolic task is to invite the peoples of the
2 Paul Hiebert, “World Trends and Their Implications for Mennonite Brethren Mission,” Mission Focus, March 1988, Volume 16, no. 4, 75-82. Ray Harms-Wiebe 45 earth to form communities of followers around Jesus. Disciples of Jesus are to experience the transforming power of the Holy Spirit on all levels: spiritual, emotional, physical, relational, familial, social, and financial. MB Mission is seeking to transform its “implicit holistic theology” and historic three priority framework for mission (evangelism and church planting, leadership training and social action) into a fully-owned, integrative process which reflects the fullness of God. Churches of the kingdom value evangelism and healing ministries as much as medical and educational ministries. Agricultural and business personnel who follow Jesus walk full of the Spirit and share their faith with those they assist through both word and deed. There is no need for separation.1 “Holistic church planting that transforms communities among the least reached,” the vision statement of MB Mission, should simply emanate from a life of communion with the Triune God. When the understanding of holistic ministry is grounded in the nature of God, there is no need to separate evangelism and spiritual deliverance from justice and peace initiatives. As the gospel of the kingdom is proclaimed and incarnated, demons are expelled, relationships are healed and communities are transformed. Salvation, peace and justice are possible because of Jesus’ authority over all things. They are integrally connected in God’s holiness. They are faces of God’s glory revealed in the person of Jesus.
Mission Application: Followers of Jesus work for peace and justice in the world. They understand that individual and communal peace is only possible when Jesus Himself is their peace, reigning in their lives and healing their communities (Ephesians 2:11-22). Our mission candidates are equipped to walk under the authority of God in their homes, the church and the workplace. If they have not learned to walk under God-given authority in these spheres, they will lack wisdom and authority in arming themselves to confront their spiritual enemies and work for lasting peace among the least reached. As God’s kingdom is established among new people groups, missionaries and national believers often encounter resistance and attack from their spiritual enemy. Governments are sometimes hostile. New believers are ostracized by families and the larger society. Mission candidates are being equipped to walk under the authority of Jesus as they share the good news of the kingdom through peacemaking and conflict resolution, spiritual deliverance, inner healing and gospel proclamation. The challenge is for MB missionaries to understand their primary identity as disciples under the lordship of Jesus who are ready to immerse themselves long-term in the least reached context, willing to die for the least 46 MBMission - Theology and Praxis reached people group out of love for Jesus. His invitation is to walk in the fullness of the Spirit, as lambs among wolves, in the midst of darkness (2 Cor. 4:1-6; Eph. 6:10-20).
3.2 Mission Ecclesiology An understanding of the “who” of God shapes the “who” of the church. If God defines what it means to be alive in the kingdom, then the church is to be the most tangible expression of that kingdom life. If God empowers human beings for service, then the church must be an experience of God’s gracious reign and the empowering body that releases its members for mission to the world. If God is present in the world to save and restore, then the church must exist for the redemption of the world and be the community of faith, which ministers healing and radically works for peace. If the Trinity lives in eternal covenant community and seeks to covenant with human beings, then the church should be the human community where covenant values are embodied through the bonding of the Holy Spirit. If God is one who compassionately cares and shepherds His people, then the church should be the community where the Shepherd’s voice is heard and disciples learn to follow His counsel. The church is to be a visible revelation of the Trinity to a watching world. To be seen it must be actively involved in the world. In essence, the church is to be a reflection of the Godhead on earth. It is to live the reality of God’s presence, embody the values of the kingdom of heaven, and make disciples of all people groups. MB Mission believes that the primary agent for kingdom transformation among the world’s people groups is the gathered community of Jesus’ followers; that is, a planted church in a given context (i.e., ethno-linguistic people group or geographical region).
Mission Application: Therefore, MB Mission intentionally trains mission candidates and forms teams under the guidance of the Spirit that will reflect the multiple gifting necessary for kingdom life. The way training is done is as important as the content of the instruction. Our missionary expression naturally flows out of who we are. Who we are and how we live is as important as what we know and what we can do. MB Mission promotes a transformational training philosophy which facilitates the integration of character change (spiritual maturity), relational growth (conflict resolution patterns, interpersonal communication, etc.), spiritual awareness, cross-cultural sensitivity, and ministry skill development. For transformation to happen on all levels, this learning experience requires the Spirit of God, a cross-cultural context, experience, reflection, and analysis. The learning process takes place in real life. Ray Harms-Wiebe 47
3.2 Servant Leadership An understanding of the “who” of God is not only transforming the MB understanding of church, it is also fundamentally transforming its understanding of the character and function of leadership. In the past, at times, Mennonite Brethren leadership has been largely confined to the pastoral and teaching roles (most often positions). While shepherding and teaching ministries are critical for the pastoral care of the community of faith and the instruction of God’s people in the whole counsel of God, they do not fully reflect the fullness of God’s design for leadership in His kingdom. The New Testament provides ample support for a broader definition and experience of leadership. Apostolic ministry carries the glory of God into yet unreached people groups or regions. It lays the foundation for the expansion of the church. Prophetic ministry hears the voice of God and speaks forth His word to the church and the nations. Evangelistic ministry shares the good news of Jesus through word and deed with the world. The teaching ministry instructs disciples in the ways of the kingdom and encourages them to multiply. The shepherding ministry cares for the wounded, empowers the weak for service and zealously labors for the health of God’s people. Church leadership is not grounded in positional authority. In Scripture, the Father delegates all authority to the Son. Jesus exercises His authority through service (John 13) and eventually makes the ultimate sacrifice for a fallen humanity (John 19). After His resurrection, He delegated all authority to His disciples (Matthew 28). They were to exercise their authority by making disciples of all nations in the power of the Spirit. The first disciples delegated their authority to new disciples. Leadership exists to empower and equip the members of Christ’s body for service so that the mystery of the gospel might be revealed to all peoples—God present among His people (Ephesians 4:11-16; 3:7-10; Colossians 1:24-29). This empowerment is received as leaders live a life of worship in his presence among the nations.
Mission Application: All ministries empowered by the Spirit are essential for the church to mature and experience the fullness of God (Ephesians 4:11-16). Missionaries are trained in church planting contexts where the realities of service to the world demand the emergence of all ministries of the Spirit. Although with training in shepherding and teaching ministries, mission candidates are mentored in apostolic, prophetic and evangelistic ministries. Without these ministries, missionaries become less visionary and hopeful in relation to their moment in history, less perceptive in their understanding of spiritual truth for their time, and less compassionate for those who live outside of Christ. Most 48 MBMission - Theology and Praxis importantly, they and the churches they plant fail to fulfill their purpose as the embodiment of God’s love on earth.
4. God and His Immanence 4.1 God Speaks Our God is on mission. He is the Initiator who serves, speaks, empowers and sends his followers. As the Father sent His Son into the world, 21st century missionaries are sent by the Holy Spirit (John 20:21) to embrace their eternal inheritance among the ethne (Matt. 28:18-20). But, as Jacob Loewen rightly notes, many Western missionaries have difficulty hearing the “still small voice” and “often miss strategic directives from him, and when this happens we become hindrances in God’s work.3 When considering our future, we do not hear God’s invitation to participate in His redemptive plan for humanity. When walking among the harassed and helpless of our generation, we do not hear God’s heart of compassion. When working among those who have never heard of Jesus, we are not prompted to share the good news of the kingdom. When observing the unfolding of human history, we do not feel called to intercede and act. Throughout Scripture, however, we find God speaking clearly and repeatedly to individuals and whole people groups (e.g., Genesis 12:1-3; Isaiah 6:1-7; Jeremiah 1:4-10; Acts 13:1-3; Romans 4:17-21). The advance of God’s kingdom, from the first pages of Scripture to the final day of ultimate consummation, utterly depends on the leading of God’s Spirit. MB Mission believes that God continues to speak to his people through Scripture, prophetic words and listening prayer. He calls, guides, counsels, teaches, orients and directs.
Mission Application: For this reason, mission candidates are taught to listen to God’s voice through Scripture, community, prayer, silence, creation and circumstances. God is creative. He is speaking to his people and to the nations. As mission candidates stop to listen, they find that God not only speaks to them, but he shares with them his heart for the ethne. When considering new church planting initiatives among least reached people groups, MB Mission employs an extensive community decision making process. Team members are mobilized to pray for an affinity group, intercession teams are sent to the geographical region, local churches of mission candidates are engaged, and leadership teams (Lead Team and
3 Jacob Loewen, “Strategies for Cross-Cultural Mission: Past/Present and Future,” Mission Focus, March 1988, Volume 16, no. 4, 88. Ray Harms-Wiebe 49
Mission Board) provide discernment. Engagement in mission is a response to God’s invitation to receive our inheritance.
4.2 God the Catalyst Jacob Loewen rightly suggests that a catalyst needs “to improve his hearing of and his obedience to directives from God’s Spirit” if he is to be sensitive to God’s work among a chosen people group.4 As Mennonite Brethren are called to participate in God’s mission among the ethne, they discover that God the Initiator is already at work in the ICOMB family. He has catalyzed a process in the lives of individual followers, their families, and their communities of faith. The task of the leadership team is to be sensitive to what God is stirring among his people and hear what he is saying. Following affirmation and sending, church planting missionaries seek to discern what God is catalyzing among the least reached people group. They are not bound to prescriptive strategies and prefabricated methodologies. They seek to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit. Jacob Loewen referred to the missionary role as a catalytic role, a passing role, where he or she refuses to become a major player in the local context. When missionaries begin to work among a chosen people group, they again recognize that God has been active among them. They attempt to respond in obedience to the directives of the Spirit as they enter the new culture.
Mission Application: Following the Jesus’ model, missionaries seek to incarnate the word of God by learning the heart language of the new people group, adjusting to cultural patterns and norms, serving the people in a sensitive manner, communicating the salvation message, and above all, cultivating a genuine love for the people. MB Missionaries are taught to serve with an equipping, empowering and releasing mindset. From the outset, they prepare to leave and transition to new initiatives. The current MB church planting philosophy equips and empowers new followers of Jesus to lead their communities of faith from the outset. Missionaries are available to equip with biblical training, provide access to alternative models, serve as a mirror to the emerging national church, connect indigenous leadership with the global family of faith and, more importantly, direct them to the Spirit of God as their source for provision and guidance. In faith, they plant seeds of the kingdom. The goal is a contextually relevant, indigenous church which fully embraces its identity in the kingdom, multiplies spontaneously and follows the
4 Loewen, “Strategies,” 84. 50 MBMission - Theology and Praxis leading of the Spirit in mission to other ethne. As the new family of churches coalesces, MB missionaries continue to serve, as requested, as catalysts in the areas of community development, leadership training and mission sending (Mission Capacity Building). If they are being invited to come alongside, their role is to nurture those kingdom seeds.
5. God of All Peoples At the beginning of the 21st Century, Jesus’ name is being worshipped around the globe. Mission is no longer from North America and Europe to the global south. Today, many ICOMB partner conferences are sending missionaries. The role of MB Mission, as the mission agency of the Canadian and American Mennonite Brethren Conferences, and the ICOMB partner conferences, is to continue to send missionaries to the least-reached regions of the world. The Great Commission and the Great Commandment are as binding today as they were for the first disciples. Currently, MB Mission has long-term workers among least reached people groups in West Africa, North Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia and Latin America. ICOMB partner conferences are also sending missionaries to these regions. For the ICOMB family to participate more fully in God’s mission, all members must find their identity in Jesus. All must see themselves as full heirs of the kingdom of God—sons and daughters of the Father, sent out under Jesus’ lordship, full of the Holy Spirit, with authority to proclaim and live the gospel among the nations. All members must look with faith to the same God who inspired and led the first followers of Jesus.
Mission Application: As the Global Mission Alliance continues to take form, ICOMB has requested that MB Mission encourage the ICOMB partner conferences in their efforts to embrace their global mission, building their capacity through leadership equipping and community development (Mission Capacity Building Service). As part of this service, MB Mission facilitates the church planting and mission sending initiatives of ICOMB partner conferences. From the perspective of MB Mission, the key questions are those of national or regional vision, ownership, and initiative. It must be remembered that MB Mission’s Mission Capacity Building Service is an interim step toward the full development of the Global Mission Alliance. This engagement as an ICOMB family is already leading to the formation of multi-ethnic, multicultural, and multinational teams—a tremendous challenge, but also a wonderful expression of God’s glory. As global mission has served to unite the Canadian and American Conferences, MB Mission believes that ICOMB partner conferences will be united by Ray Harms-Wiebe 51 participation in global mission together. Walking together in mission, the people groups encompassed by the ICOMB family will more fully reflect the glory and goodness of God to a watching world.
Bibliography Abe Dueck, ed., Mennonite Brethren Church around the World: Celebrating 150 Years (Kitchener: Pandora Press, 2010). Confession of Faith of the U.S. and Canadian Conferences of the Mennonite Brethren Churches (Winnipeg: The Christian Press, 1999). G.W. Peter, Foundations of Mennonite Brethren Missions (Hillsboro, Kansas: Kindred Press, 1984) G. W. Peters, The Growth of Foreign Missions in the Mennonite Brethren Church (Hillsboro: Mennonite Brethren Publishing House, 1947) Hans Kasdorf, “A Century of Mennonite Brethren Mission Thinking” (Th.D. diss., University of South Africa, 1986) Hans Kasdorf, “Toward a Mennonite Brethren Theology of Mission,” Mission Focus, March 1988, Volume 16, no. 1, 1-6. Jacob Loewen, “Strategies for Cross-Cultural Mission: Past/Present and Future,” Mission Focus, March 1988, Volume 16, no. 4, 84-90. Knowing and Living Your Faith: A Study of the Confession of Faith (Winnipeg: Kindred Productions, 2008). MBMSI, “Global Mission Guidelines: Vision, Priorities and Strategies for Century 21” (Fresno: Mennonite Brethren Missions/Services, 1997) 28- 30. MBMSI, “Vision for the Future: Goals for the 1990s” (Winnipeg: Mennonite Brethren Missions/Services, 1990). Paul G. Hiebert, Mission Principles and Policies of the Mennonite Brethren Board of Missions and Services (Hillsboro, Kansas, 1977) Paul Hiebert, “World Trends and Their Implications for Mennonite Brethren Mission” Mission Focus, March 1988, Volume 16, no. 4, 75-82. Ray Harms-Wiebe, “The Global Mennonite Brethren Movement: Some Reflections and Projections,” in Abe J. Dueck, Bruce L. Guenther, and Doug Heidebrecht eds. Renewing Identity and Mission: Mennonite Brethren Reflections after 150 Years (Winnipeg: Kindred Productions, 2011) 217-232. TESTIMONIALS - CIM MEMBER AGENCIES TRANSFORMED
INTRODUCTION Some weeks before this publication, a retired missionary, one of several who spoke to me on this theme, pointed out that the North American volume of the Global Mennonite History series, which was celebrated and also probed in the 2011 issue of Mission Focus, understated the transformative impact of Mennonite globalization through mission on Anabaptist-Mennonites in North America. As it turned out, the central focus of the annual meeting of the Council of International Ministries (CIM) in January 2013 was on how sending church and mission agency were being changed, even transformed. The following are a transcription with some editing for readability of many of the stories presented - often with Powerpoint slides - over a three hour period. The CIM theme was “Expressing Anabaptist Values and Identity in God’s Mission”, which accounts for the frequency with which that phraseology appears below. After each presentation, there was a prayer for the reporting church community and its partners, a style of listening, praying and pondering that seemed its own expression of being changed. The first story cannot be published since it concerned the experience of congregations related to Meserete Christus Church, but based in Eritrea where there was and is much persecution. Nevertheless, bearing witness to Christ in hostile settings, in times of testing, to suffer for the sake of Christ was a persistent theme throughout nearly all of the testimonials. - the Editor.
Brethren in Christ World Missions, Chris Sharp, Director: Our experience in mission has really helped to shape how we understand ourselves in North America. We have been a movement focused on church planting and you will hear some things tonight about our compassion ministries [There was a recognition banquet for Dr. John & Esther Spurrier, long term medical missionaries in Zambia]. What is interesting in the early BIC history, concerns the story of a woman who spoke ‘out of order’ at the general conference of 1894 and expressed a call for mission. Out of that there are today 32 nations where there are BIC churches. For the BICs, it is the global South that is growing, not the global North. Many of our churches, indeed the majority, are in Africa, and the churches are growing rapidly in certain areas. Some of the areas where we are focusing is to work on the least reached areas. In many ways the local church simply wants to do its own thing so this emphasis is not due to strategizing for the least reached. We are finding that it is wonderful to partner together and we have been praying how we can do this a little better.
Mission Focus: Annual Review © 2012 Volume 20 Testimonials - CIM Agencies Transformed 53
There was one pastor in Cuba who began preaching at the age of 19, then came to Miami to establish a church. From there that church has grown to about 75 churches in the Florida area. What was also happening, and which the broader BIC church family did not notice, is that they started planting churches back in South America, sending workers from south Florida to that area. That resulted in 61 more churches in Central and South America. So they have done it on their own it seems. They go and do it without asking for money. What happens now is that we have a vision together with the bishop in Florida who indicated that they had difficulty keeping track of the 113 churches he has obligations to oversee. So he kept asking Chris Sharp to come and visit to help dedicate a church, and then he indicated that they lack the means of credentialing their pastors. Then very recently that bishop proposed to the BIC world mission agency to partner together for some of the structures that need to be built up. It is clear that God has done this work, and our task is largely to serve as the partner with some study conferences to help these pastors in South America in training programs. For the first time they asked for some funding to help with that. Mostly, however, they want partnership - to know something about their identity that they share with us, but it felt like the partnership had not been very meaningful yet. We are hoping that this may become a model for the rest of our conference in other relationships of partnering. So we are asking how can we partner with the church that is growing rapidly? In the self understanding of the Brethren in Christ World Missions, it is under the leadership of the church’s General Conference, so the Conference needs to affirm the actions that we take.
Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission (AIMM) - Rod Hollinger Janzen: A feature of our agency is that it is inter-Mennonite. When you think about that, considering the major restructuring we did in 2004, the intention was that we wanted to become an inter-Mennonite organization internationally. We wanted to form circles of partnership that would reflect the values of mutuality and community in the body of Christ internationally. Steve Wiebe Johnson, Hippolyto Tshimanga and Rod Hollinger Janzen (as administrators for MMN, Witness, & AIMM respectively in Africa) worked closely in North America to develop a unified approach to our work with African partners. One of the ways that this began to take shape in 2006 was when we took the partnership leaders from Congo to a meeting in South Africa. During a conversation we recognized how difficult it is to travel, how expensive it is, because the leaders of the three Mennonite congregations in the Congo do not live in the cities, but have their headquarters among the 54 Testimonials - CIM Agencies Transformed congregations. The idea that emerged was: “what if we should start visiting each other’s headquarters and seek to develop personal relationships among ourselves?” Over the course of the next year it was agreed that leaders in Congo would go to one of the three headquarters and spend some days together to learn about the life of the church there. The visits were then made in the following years. Suddenly we received a request in North America proposing a time of retreat together. Again the reasons were not specified but we proceeded with a two-day retreat. Following that retreat a document arrived in the AIMM office in Elkhart indicating that they had realized they shared many problems. So they were proposing a program of common training with a core group of leaders from each of their three headquarters who would be focusing their training on the area of peace and conflict, on pastor-spouse relationships as a second area, and on administrative skills as a third theme. I present this as a story because this grew out the concerns we had, that the African partners did not have enough of a voice in planning for mission initiatives. Now out of this came a new structure with conversations together that resulted in a shared training program that was entirely in line with our values in North America of also strengthening relationships. This we saw as an affirmation of the direction we had taken for more shared interest in Mennonite partnering.
Mennonite Mission Network, Stanley Green: What I intend to describe for you is the evolution of a relationship that has been transformative by embodying the values of mutuality and reciprocity. When we were part of the transformation of the Mennonite church which led to the transformation of the General Conference and the Mennonite Church into MC USA, one of the things we observed was that within each agency for the first 50 years of operation, mission was initiated and designed primarily in North America. We had terminology that referred to the places that we went as mission fields. Along with that came a sense of objectification of the people to whom we brought the gospel. They were the objects of what we had designed and sought to implement. For the next quarter century, we made a shift as some of those churches developed into maturity, and we began to see those churches as collaborators. Still the mission initiative was designed in North America, but we sought persons who could collaborate. Increasingly we began looking for invitations rather than just going and doing what we thought they needed. We sought their collaboration. Toward the end of the past century we were beginning to be aware that churches around the world in the global context were becoming subjects of their own mission. This did open the door to true partners in Testimonials - CIM Agencies Transformed 55 mission with whom we could share our gifts and receive also the gifts that they had to share. Our story starts in the late 1990s for the beginning of this evolution. We had an invitation from an entity called Pueblos Organizationas Evangelicas in Ecuador. We thought we were somewhat progressive by appointing a missionary family from Argentina, Mauricio Chenlo, whose assignment to do theological education lasted for three years. Then there was a hiatus for some years. Then the supporting regional conference, now known as Central Plains Conference in Illinois, decided to take the relationship one step further, toward mutuality and interdependence. Meanwhile we in MMN hired staff whose portfolio was partnership coaching and development. As relationships were built we developed a partnership that now consists of four membership groups - the Colombian Mennonite Church, which across the years has supplied vision and people. Serving now in Ecuador: are Valencia and Luis Moreno, plus César Moya & Patricia Uruéna, all of whom are members of the Colombian Mennonite Church. The Ecuadorian Mennonite Churches has become second partner. The Central Plains Mennonite Conference is the third partner and Mission Network is the fourth. These four partners meet once every two years in a partnership meeting to hold each other accountable and to do vision together about opportunities and objectives there may be for this partnership. Given the world’s economic imbalances, much of the financial resource has come from the Central Plains, whereas resources of spirituality and people have been brought to the partnership from the Colombian and Ecuadorian churches. In each year a working team comprised of members of churches in the Central Plains, along with Colombian Mennonites to work at projects in Ecuador. Across the years, a number of shorter-term volunteers who serve for a year or two or even shorter service terms, have served in Ecuador. The four partners all have both given and received. The Ecuadorian Mennonite Church has seen the planting of two churches, one in Quito and one in Rea Bamba. They have received some theological training to develop their leaders. They have been given the capacity to host a refugee ministry for fleeing Colombians. They have also conducted a number of building projects as a result of the partnership. The Colombian Mennonite Churches gained mission experience. They have personnel now who have served for many years, who are experienced and have gained mission experience. For Central Plains, dozens of volunteers have gone from a week or two to several years to serve in Ecuador and the horizons of the members of the Central Plains Mennonite Conference have been expanded through that. They also have developed relationships, deep and profound relationships, with the Colombian and Ecuadorian Mennonites. As well they have received the gifts of spirituality and fellowship as Ecuadorians 56 Testimonials - CIM Agencies Transformed and Colombians have traveled to the Central Plains to be an integral part of some of the conference experiences. The partners from the south have come to share and that has helped expand their horizons. For Mission Network as the fourth partner, we have gained a number of partners and our resources have been expanded. So we are not just relying on our capacity, which is increasingly difficult to recruit people here in North America, but also partners will bring to us people resources from elsewhere for deployment in many places. Through this process have learned have to value our interdependence. We are growing to appreciate its reciprocity and mutuality. We probably still have a way to go, since we live in a world that still values financial wealth as a supreme value among others, but we are discovering that the gifts of spirituality and prayer that some of our partners are bringing to us, are opening us to see that the church grows not just by our financial capacity but by people who sense a call to follow Jesus and to extend there His witness. So we are being transformed, just one of the illustrations of partnership in which we are engaged currently. In this case we have been learning about much to receive as well as much to give.
MBMission, Vic Wiens: We have experienced a fairly recognizable shift in terms of priorities after several decades, toward one focus on unreached people groups, and we mission thinkers often trace the origin of this emphasis on people groups to the 1974 Lausanne Congress in Switzerland. But as an Anabaptist I wonder whether that was the first such gathering, perhaps the first was in 1527 in Augsburg, often called the Martyrs’ Synod, when 60 Anabaptist leaders gathered and essentially mapped out witness to Europe and decided to divide up into teams of two, also to get to the outermost regions of Europe and beyond in fact. To take the gospel to the unreached. I would like to share a story about a group with whom we have been very blessed to engage. This is an experience of reciprocity with them. Let me read first from 1 Cor. 16 :9 which has already been our experience in connection with this group in Southeast Asia. The apostle Paul says “I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” That is been our story when serving with the Kamu. The Kamu are the untouchables in Thailand and Laos, as well as in Vietnam and South China. They are an ethnic group that straddles a number of states. There are over 1 million Kamu, an ethnic people group scattered across Southeast Asia. In recent years around 60,000 Christian believers, two thirds of them baptized, have become known. In 2012 a small community of 24 house churches called the Kamu Mission Conference became a partner with Testimonials - CIM Agencies Transformed 57
MBMission. The MBMission role is to support a training program for pastoral couples, also in the awareness that there is still no complete Bible in the Kamu language. There are some parallels that we can find between this story and the early Anabaptist story, as well as going back to the New Testament beginnings where there was a reaching of the unreached. There are some values that we hold dear that we noticed with this group – the preaching of the gospel in witness, there is a lot of activity in local rural villages, nameless villages in essence, yet these are “fields ripe unto harvest”. That is where our partner group is located. The leader is an apostolic leader of one of these movements, who communicated with the government to inform them that they would honor them, but at the same time saying that they had a preference for being faithful to God above all. There is an ebb and flow of government approval or tolerance of this movement, and there are times when the persecution is more or less severe. Another point of linkage (to our tradition) is that 20 of the leaders have gone to prison. They have experienced suffering for their faith. And the members see that as normal for their Christian experience, they do not see it as something to dread but as an opportunity to share their story further. One person came to Christ in prison, was left for dead and had a virtual resurrection experience, where the Lord appeared to him in a vision like to what Paul received. He has been faithfully pursuing that vision ever since. We seek to bring about discipleship in community so that the new believers, of which there are many, gathering in homes or in open spaces in Laos and northern Thailand. Believers meet to pray, to study God’s Word similar to the experiences of early Anabaptists. Informally there are mentoring relationships forming between older and younger believers, not just the pastors doing the mentoring. At a more formal level there are workshops and seminars given at a training center in northern Thailand where leaders from these regions are able to travel to attend for a week. At times those are resourced also by persons not only from within Thailand but also from North America. At a formal level there are scholarships being provided for persons studying at a Bible college. Next month we anticipate an interesting experience which will have a reciprocity dimension. A group of North American church planters and leaders will be coming to visit this Kamu group, but they are not going to teach, they are going to learn and share. It is called an exchange of mission DNA. Our director Randy Friesen has become more convinced, every time he goes, that it is never clear who needs to be teaching or who needs to be praying for healing and understanding about following Jesus. So there is a good-sized group of people coming from the USA to pray together and share together and 58 Testimonials - CIM Agencies Transformed to light some fires together with the this Kamu group. I might also add that this has been a partnership, where the vision for partnership emerged from one local church, and from there it grew and encompassed our mission agency. Then it continued to bring in other partners from other Christian churches in Thailand. Rather recently the Kamu Mission Cconference was received into our international family of churches (ICOMB). To be recognized and received by a global family of churches, honored and prayed for by them, has been very amazing for them. It is been a wonderful thing to see this family of churches emerge as part of ours and impact the relationships with each other. This has been for us the most notable example of a New Testament type of Christian emergence, also repeated in the 16th century, and we have therefore been impacted probably more so. We are being transformed by this partnership of experience in witness and service.
Witness Council - Gordon Janzen We wanted to share with you about the ministry we have been involved with in the Philippines in recent years. Some of you will know of this ministry. In 2006 we began a ministry in the Philippines when we were able to send Dan and Joji Pantoya to the Philippines. Both had grown up around Manila, but then they had spent about 20 years in Canada until in 2004 Dan and Joji joined a Mennonite congregation in Richmond, British Columbia. Together with that congregation they proposed a ministry in the Philippines where we had till then not been involved. So we joined as Witness Council with that congregation along with several others, in order to support this ministry. The primary vision for this ministry was one of peace building in the area of conflict in the central region of the Philippines. The primary mode of that was to establish Peace and Reconciliation teams, or what they called PAR teams. Dan often comments about the work that they do as being built upon the long-standing work of MCC in that region. The relationships and contacts that they have built their ministry around are on that foundation, a long MCC background. So the primary ministry is one of peacebuilding in a land of conflict. But we have also come to realize that there is a need to build a base on a faith community to provide a long-standing foundation for this kind of work. So there was a shift from the original vision to resourcing churches with a peace theology. This included providing resources for the Integrated Mennonite Churches (IMC). We know about the natural disasters and other emergencies that have struck, so responding to such disasters as the tycoons of December 2012 and of 2011 were part of the response program. The focus was initially on Testimonials - CIM Agencies Transformed 59 areas of conflict, knowing that the roots of conflict go back as far as the colonial impact of the Spanish-American rule. It is particularly focused on the conflict between the MILF and the government forces of the Philippines. In the fall of 2008 there were numerous skirmishes, battles, which displaced tens of thousands of the population and upset families in the region. So PBCI began with that as one of the first emergencies they responded to. This may bring to mind the mass killings in 2009 of journalists in particular. Over 57 journalists were killed, and Dan arrived on the day after the massacre when large earthmoving machines were used to bury the victims. So that became an image of some of the conflict in the region, as well as the Christian-Muslim tensions, the issue of people being displaced because of army movements. So the vision is to plant PAR teams - peace and reconciliation teams - one of them based in a university campus in Manaus city. Other teams work in healthcare, several are based in local areas of Muslim- Christian tensions. One of the accomplishments of the ministry is that the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches has established a Peace and Reconciliation Commission and intended to plant a PAR team in each of their 80 communities that are participating in the Council. Last October when I visited, a PAR team in Valencia were working in cooperation with the local ministerial group. Their purpose was to help the local churches respond to the presence of the army in the region, how to live out a peace theology in such a setting of tension. They also interacted with indigenous people who are now producing coffee (fair trade partners) as part of the overall structure of business for peace. Essential to the whole ministry is to build on a strong faith foundation, so there is a powerpoint slide that PAR teams often used to summarize the nature of their peacebuilding approach. They use the language of harmony, harmony with God, and harmony of spiritual transformation. They use hand gestures in their training that includes harmony with God, harmony with self including social psychological transformation, harmony with others, and harmony with God’s creation (ecology). I should add that the center of the picture is the cross. So we have come to see the harmony language in this image as a symbol of working out our Anabaptist theology with Jesus at the center, and harmony with all. We made a shift to encourage church leaders to be agents of peace, and this has become a key part of the ministry including the Philippine Council Evangelicals has adopted PBCI as an organization to be a resource to the whole nation where evangelical churches are present. The main resource book is one written by Dan, and the council is using it widely. Here a comment on the way in which natural disasters have impacted the PBCI. In December 2011, MCC worked with Peace Builders Community in 60 Testimonials - CIM Agencies Transformed providing resources, as did United Church Canada, and right now it is quite a shift of attention to dealing with the most recent typhoon and its impact. Occasionally skirmishes have cropped up but there have been fewer of them since 2008. Peace Builders Community engage in conversation with both the MILF and the other side. This has created an array of opportunities for engaged peacebuilding. A spinoff effect has been that the fair trade coffee business, called Coffee for Peace, which has grown out of relationships developed with indigenous peoples who were already growing coffee, but not having an adequate to market with good returns on it. Joji saw this as an opportunity, proposed purchasing some coffee and establishing a coffee house. That has grown into a larger fair trade business, including one initial shipment to Level Ground Trading in Vancouver. So perhaps this will grow into a larger program. The coffee for peace training also incorporates the same peace theology training, including the same imagery of harmony as the PCBI group is using. So what is the impact? Numerous local church leaders have been inspired to embrace peace theology in a way that they did not realize was there in the gospel before. The pastor of a large Bible Church, now serves on the board of the PCBI, as do several other pastors. There are also growing connections with the IMC. We did not immediately have fruitful connections with the Integrated Mennonite Churches when we started with the PCBI, but after a meeting of Mennonite World Conference leaders in Manila, new connections were made that has resulted in a developing connection. There are 34 corrugations of the IMC and out of that group they have invited Mennonite Church Canada to begin a church planting initiative in the city of Manila. The vision, that the IMC have, is to have a church in the center of power in the Philippines that would embody and proclaim peace theology in a way no church is currently embracing and proclaiming. So Christina and Darnell Barkman, interns at the PBCI for 10 months, deeply schooled there as well as at Columbia Bible College in British Columbia, have moved to the center of an upscale part of Manila and already have a group meeting for worship with them in their living room. The impact in Canada that we have noted is a number of congregational partnerships, embracing this ministry, plus several learning tours. I think support for the ministry is growing. It is fostering seeing service and evangelism and peace building going together and to be kept together.
EMC Canada Missions - Tim Dyck: I would like to share three stories with you today, two of them are from the EMC, and I was also asked share one from the EMMC [see second story below] with whom we have close relationships. Jake Thiessen, the current director told me that story. These are stories about the way our Anabaptist Testimonials - CIM Agencies Transformed 61 partners have been transforming us. The first comes from Nicaragua when EMC was involved in establishing a church in Nicaragua. It was going very well, the church was growing, things were going well, the missionaries who were there at the time had not really stressed teachings of peacemaking and nonresistance. But that became a real issue in the late1970s when there was civil war in Nicaragua as you may remember. The Sandinista government was established and then war continued involving church members from both sides of the conflict. So the members came to the missionary staff to ask “what should we do?” The missionaries felt very chastened that they had not really prepared them for this kind of situation. They had not taught them what to do. This was a situation where there was conflict right within the church, some people were supporting the government, others supporting the rebels. So the missionaries began collecting teaching resources, and set about teaching in the church about not taking sides, to get the church members not to take sides in that war. What was also happening was that people were coming along who were dragging people into one of the sides to participate in the fighting. The missionaries also helped the members to develop the concept of doing alternative service which they then presented to the government as an alternative to participating in the military. Unfortunately the government did not accept that, but it was a good thing to see the congregation coming together on that. As a result there were church members forced into battle, one refused to wear the uniform and was eventually released. Another had taken some courses and was working toward a degree in dentistry, so he was able to serve as a medic in the army. Yet another said he would not use a weapon, and eventually he was made a bodyguard! Some of the church members were killed, and there were some who were in the armed forces at that time, who later, because of the witness of the church, left the armed forces and joined the church. So there was a tremendous beneficial effect not only for the church in recognizing that there was a good way to respond to the situation, but also an impact on our missionaries in our conference. To this date it is interesting to note how through the experience in Nicaragua, the congregations are much more appreciative of the way of peace, and that is even true in our own conference churches. So we are grateful for this impact. A second story comes from Bolivia. Jacob Thiessen and I consult periodically and we work together well on many partnerships. One we often talk about is the concern of doing a mission partnership in the least reached areas. Yet whenever he would talk to his board about that, he would encounter resistance. They would say that our specialty [as EMMC] is to work with the low German ministry of the Old Colony Mennonites, we have experience in 62 Testimonials - CIM Agencies Transformed that, as well as among some Spanish-speaking persons. That is where we do well and we should stick to it. They had established a series of congregations. including a conference in Bolivia. At the 75th anniversary celebration of the EMMC which took place in Winkler, Manitoba in 2012, representatives of this Bolivia Conference present. When they spoke they showed a video presentation in which they expressed their desire to go to a setting in the 10/40 window, to the least reached. They said to the EMMC, “we ask you to be a partner with us in that”. As a result of that initiative, coming from their mission church, EMMC leaders now began to rethink and become more open to how they can participate in mission worldwide, beyond where they have long been involved and were comfortable. The story continues to unfold. The third story to tell you about is a recent one, something that is still unfolding. There is uncertainty and we are still learning. It takes place in the state of Chihuahua Mexico and of course we all know about the violence that has been happening in Mexico, how persons are killed routinely. It is a very violent place to live. We are all aware of that and concerned and we as EMC also have a church conference (14 churches) that we relate to in the state of Chihuahua - Spanish-speaking churches. Recently one of the pastors of a church was traveling with his wife, also a serious co-pastor, in a nearby mountainous area. She and her sister and their nieces were accosted by some men, were brutalized and they murdered them. They were found several days later. This made a major impact on the churches and on us in Canada, since we knew and loved them. The husband, Walter Ranpennig, had lost his wife. To complicate things more, Walter was being threatened. We are not quite sure what all the details were, but somehow the same people who had attacked his wife and sister are now threatening him and his adult children. So they made the decision to go into hiding right after the funeral and not return to the city of Cuathemoc. They felt it had become too dangerous for them to be in the city. So now there are several churches without pastors, who now are without leaders, for at the same time the pastor of another church nearby went to hospital for a routine operation and it turned out badly, so that pastor passed away soon afterwards. This is a conference of churches that has few good leaders to begin with, and now key leaders have left and will not return. So we grieve for the church and are seeking to walk alongside them, asking how we can help. What is encouraging is to notice some young persons who are coming forward to give leadership. Walter was also the leader of the conference and he has already been replaced by someone else. It is encouraging to see that there is a determination and stamina. Yet it is also very difficult to watch. Walter wrote a beautiful tribute for his wife Ciapino, from which I offer a few excerpts: “Ciapino had a clear goal marked in her heart. Today we Testimonials - CIM Agencies Transformed 63 are marking this tragedy that is due to the tragedies abounding in this country. There is much pain but her vision was a deep commitment to changing herself, not even to change me, this was her secret. We lived together for 28 years of marriage and together we fought against the sin of violence. Now if we want change, to want this violence to end, we invite everyone in the state of Chihuahua to work with the change that needs to take place first of all within yourself, as my wife started to show the way.”
Rosedale Mennonite Mission, Joe Showalter: I’m going to approach this by talking about our mission story. RMM is the mission agency of the Conservative Mennonite Conference which used to be called the Conservative Amish Mennonite Conference. When I understand, that the Amish strain of Anabaptism from which many of our people have come, did not even have a mission vision at all, who thought that was not a proper interpretation of Scripture that we are to go into all the world. Then it is a bit of a miracle that RMM exists as a mission agency. But 102 years ago when our denomination was formed, early minutes show that there were concerns about what is our obligation around the world. So they decided that we do have an obligation to take the gospel around the world. Their first effort was not an international one, they created a home for children in Grantsville Maryland around 1914. That was a first effort at mission. As I understand the story these were German or Pennsylvania Dutch speaking churches and a children’s home almost immediately began to transform us because children from the home were coming to our churches since families were helping them out and there was much community engagement to care for the children. These children came to worship but they were English speaking children. They could not understand what was being said so soon there was a discussion in the church about use of the German language. Eventually (after a decade or so) it was decided to hold services in English so the children could understand. I think that was probably the earliest example of how our experience in mission transformed us. From there we moved into Eastern Kentucky into an Irish Catholic “bloody Russell County” actually, where my family lived and where I was born. Again we were changed by those people. They were not exactly peacemakers and I don’t think we quickly made them into peacemakers although after many years some of those ideas did help account for reduction of the bloodshed there. Eastern Kentucky did shape us. Then we went into Latin America where we were shaped by worship as we sent North Americans to Latin America and experienced the vibrancy of the churches there. When missionaries came back home we had to deal with such things as whether to use musical instruments in our churches. This 64 Testimonials - CIM Agencies Transformed transformed us.. Back when we first went to Latin America we sang four-part harmony music, but by now it is rare for any church to use a cappella music at all. Thus our international connections have transformed our worship life. Currently our international connections are transforming one of our mission teams, specifically the Bangkok team. It consists of North Americans and Latin Americans. Three or four years ago several Nicaraguans joined that team in Bangkok - they were part of churches that RMM had helped establish some years ago. These young men from Nicaragua’s outback country, to now be in a major Asian city was a huge culture shock for them. They both began attending a university, a Muslim owned university which included Buddhist faculty and other cosmopolitan elements. They are actually having a bigger impact in their work there, than our are North American team members. They tell stories of being in an ethics class with a Buddhist professor. When they were discussing different ethical paradigms, the professor said to the class that actually the highest ethical efforts across a spectrum comes from the Christian faith. There are several persons from Nicaragua in the class who can tell you about that. So they had countless opportunities to share their experiences with other students. That has transformed us because it humbles us first of all. We cannot do it all; we do it less effectively than a lot of other people can. I’m wrestling with the thinking as I heard it at the CIM sessions, that we do not want to plant American churches, we do not even want to plant Thailand churches, we want to plant kingdom churches. I get that, I resonate with that. So the tension for me is, as I recall the wrestling in our tradition with use of language, or the issues over clothing such as use of neckties or not to, or wearing dresses and head coverings constantly. Initially we took those practices with us to the mission territory, and made it part of the gospel that we passed on. Today we are not comfortable with that. What I am wrestling with now is to what extent do we add on to the gospel? Some people I have been hearing discussing the great commission, have remarked, Jesus said go into all the world and teach them to obey all that I have commanded you. Some are saying, (and this makes a good deal of sense to me), we have gotten that slightly wrong because we have read it more as teach them to obey or teach them to see how obedience to Jesus looks, rather than to teach them to obey Jesus and let the Holy Spirit speak into their lives as a faith community to determine what that obedience will look like. To what extent do we carry Anabaptist theology with us, and to what extent do we carry the life of Jesus and radical obedience to Jesus with us, and say that this is what we all are called to? That is a question I am wrestling with and I will leave it with you as well. I would say we have been transformed to the point at least of questioning the way of carrying the Anabaptist identity to the field. That is a pretty major identity transformation. Testimonials - CIM Agencies Transformed 65
Virginia Mennonite Mission - Loren Horst & Aaron Kaufman: Trinidad & Tobago, one of the smallest countries in the world, have just over 1 million people. It is only seven miles away from Venezuela. In a move that eventually spawned about 10 congregations, five of which have banded together into a conference called Mennonite Church of Trinidad and Tobago, to which Virginia Mennonite Missions and Virginia Conference relate. The mission had its root 100 years ago, really before the formation of Virginia Mennonite Missions. It was due to impulses in the highlands of West Virginia which developed over a half decade until there were 30 congregations in the northern district of Virginia conference alone, and 20 congregations in the highland country. Around 1950, half of the members of that northern district were non-cradle Mennonites and similarly this was true of the clergy. Then came a collapse and that northern church district does not exist today. But I want to talk about what grew out of those mission impulses, which resulted in a burden more broadly first to go to Italy, second to Jamaica and then in 1971 to Trinidad and Tobago. In 1971 Dr. Richard and Margaret Keeler received an invitation to come to Trinidad. He as medical doctor with a specialization in tropical diseases was invited by the government to come and help get Hansens disease under control. Leprosy was treatable but not under control at that point. When he arrived in 1971, there was still a nearby island where they reserved the Hansens disease patients. When I arrived in 1987, the oldest believers in the church then were former Hansens disease patients, some of them without their digits but the disease had been rescued. Interestingly, in the beginning Virginia Mennonites had not planned to start churches. We partnered with the Keeler’s in their medical work and then several years later several years later VMM sent Paul and Edna Kratz, in a partnership with Mennonite Broadcasts, to produce an English-language radio broadcast called Way to Life. Along with this radio broadcast and the Bible correspondence (a program that also came under that ministry), there were at one point 3000 people on the mailing list of Bible correspondence. I said they did not deliberately plant churches, in fact, there was a decision not to do so. They said they would bless the existing churches and feed any new believers into existing churches. So one of the first Mennonite missionaries pastored a Chinese evangelical church. But some persons came to the Lord and some of the first were Hansens disease patients. Small Bible study groups, perhaps a half dozen, sprang up around the islands. Then came this new nationalism movement in the Caribbean, Castro playing a role. Then missions could no longer send missionaries for more than a one-year religious visa. So the counsel from the mission to those small groups of believers was to encourage them to move into other churches. It is interesting that at that point they became deliberately and intentionally 66 Testimonials - CIM Agencies Transformed
Mennonite and said, “we have come to know Jesus in the context of Mennonite witness and we are Mennonites.” So they chose to become a Mennonite church. That is the history. Am I proud of it? I’m just describing it. Another picture I will give from some later years. This conveys some of the personality of Latin culture since people are very dramatic in expressing themselves. They are very straightforward in their style. When I went to visit them a few years later and asked how they were doing they said “fine”. When I asked them how are you doing with the Lord, one person said “well, I have backslidden” - there are no secrets in those kinds of things. But those kinds of personalities sometimes produced a fair amount of drama in the conjugation. That is, there was conflict and Erline and I were sometimes caught in the middle of that and we are classic passive-aggressive types in the German-Swiss Mennonite sense. We had a treasurer in the church, a respected leader in the congregation, who one day after revival meetings, came to my house which is walking distance from the church, with a confession to make. He and his wife came and he said, “I’ve taken money from the church and I’m under conviction. I want to apologize for that.” He agreed and desired that he be able to share that with the core membership of the church. I was petrified because we did not tend to treat sinners overly well all the time. But we agreed to do that. The meeting came and we shared what had happened. We put it before the congregation and I was surprised by grace. And I was reminded that when the church finally gets down to doing what Jesus instructed us to do, we actually rise to the occasion. The congregation forgave him, created a restitution and restoration plan. They took away some of his financial responsibility but did not even stop him from preaching in the church. But then he was preaching out of his own known brokenness. I went back about five or seven years later to that same church, and the same man had been appointed president of the conference. It was an example to me of how God can work graciously within sister churches. Aaron Kaufman: It is now the year 2011, I am two months into my position at VMM and I was invited to go to Trinidad to meet with leaders of the church of Trinidad and Tobago to talk about future relationships together. Talk about being transformed, I had much learning to catch up on in that assignment. After 40 years of ministry when relating to the Mennonite Church of Trinidad and Tobago, a number of workers from North America that had helped to bring the church into being, our partners actually initiated a conversation with us about how that kind of relationship should change. Even in their own history there had been movements promoting nationalism and local autonomy. So there was that awareness when they initiated the conversation to say that they now had all Trinidadian pastors and one Trinidadian overseer, but the Keeler family Testimonials - CIM Agencies Transformed 67 was still there. Keeler’s also were actively training local leaders as pastors. They said we want to talk more about how we will relate together. So that was inspiring to be part of a conversation that had been initiated by them rather than from the North American side. Then I had to respond to help navigate the conversation, and it seemed pretty healthy that it was a new guy who lacked all the history and background, to be part of the conversation. We haven’t mentioned this value so far, but in Anabaptist circles we talk about the value of giving and receiving counsel. In this conversation I was almost dumbfounded when the oversee of the church said to me, “Aaron I want to talk to you about your financial contributions here in Trinidad. I have questions about how you are using your money.” That made a big impact on me, a partner caring enough for me and our mission agency to speak to me in love. That led to changes in how we are relating financially to that church. Two other things briefly: one of the things that we tried to model was the mentoring of leaders. Ramon and Carmella were nurtured by the Keeler family into leadership before the Keeleers stepped out of that role. And it was amazing to see how the church in Trinidad took on the notion of mentoring. So when Raul became an overseer, he said that he too wanted to be mentored because he had never been an overseer. So he asked one of the pastors in Virginia Conference to be a mentor to him, someone he had come to know over the years. Pastor Risser visited a few times in the following few years where they discussed what was happening, in mutuality. Raul has grown in his own sense of responsibility. At the same time Richard and Margaret Keeler retired, and the church said that we do not need them replaced long-term, but they did say that we continue to want to mentor our own people into leadership, and they designated someone as mentor to emerging leaders. Then the church asked them to partner with the Trinidad church in the financial sponsorship of some of that mentoring. This theme of mentoring has therefore become a theme for us. Among staff at VMM we are starting to emphasize the theme of mentoring each other and mentoring workers. It is only in looking back and reflecting on the story that we’ve noticed that impact on us. Sometimes we talk about communal discernment as an Anabaptist tradition, but the Trinidadians certainly have applied it in a different way in shaping their leadership.
Mennonite Central Committee - Don Peters & Ruth Keidel Clemens:: (Don Peters, who is MCC Canada executive director was speaking for Willie Reimer, global programs director who was traveling; and Ruth Keidel Clemens, global programs director for MCC US alternated as speakers when showing slides and telling the stories. I have dropped the indication of who said what, so the paragraphs flow more smoothly. - the editor) We will tell a few stories of transformation illustrating the ways that 68 Testimonials - CIM Agencies Transformed
MCC as an agency is expressing Anabaptist values and identity in God’s mission, and ways that MCC is being transformed by mission. These include stories to show the expression of Anabaptist values among our international partners and ways in which they are being transformed that has an impact on us. This morning David Brubaker brought to our attention three Anabaptist values of community, simplicity and peacemaking. The operating principles and values of MCC are clearly aligned with the shared convictions of Mennonite World Conference. The MCC operating principles include working with church partners, acting sustainably, building just economic relationships, and connecting with people across cultural, political and economic divides. They include dismantling oppression to realize greater participation, practicing nonviolence, seeking a just peace. The following stories are organized around a number of these operating principles. The Mennonite Brethren churches in Chocó, Columbia have observed the economic social and ethical issues around the increasing coca cultivation in the region. They also see the increasing violence as a result. Instead of ignoring the issue, and just try to help their own church members caught in the coca cultivation dilemmas, the MB denomination there decided to work with community councils in 15 communities, encouraging rice cultivation. At the same time the MBs worked at starting a rice processing plant in a central location in the region. This was to serve anyone in the community, whether in the church or outside. This initiative was financially supported by MCC. The entire effort involves a great deal of volunteer time commitment, including church leaders who face many obstacles. The process has also tested their commitment to nonviolence. At one point one of the paramilitary groups in the region called the regional leaders of the church to a meeting. At that meeting they requested a tax for permitting the project. The request was accompanied by death threats. The MB leaders called on their Anabaptist background and responded to the situation by saying they are Mennonites, with a firm historic commitment to nonviolence. “We will not support any armed groups, nor illegal armed groups. You can close down our project, you can kill us, but we will not support you.” The rebels checked with their top commanders and then came back and said, “you are okay you can proceed.” We have been responding to the crisis in Syria for the past year and doing this mostly from Jordan, but also managing our relief efforts into Syria from Lebanon. I was in Aleppo last spring and met many peacemakers, people who are in leadership in various groups, organizations, NGOs. These folks have had training at SBI in EMU, and many of the young leaders have studied there. They are having a tremendous impact in their own country. We have worked with bishops from the Syrian Orthodox Church, Testimonials - CIM Agencies Transformed 69 through whose structures we are responding to the crisis. They maintain an orphanage in homes. In recent months we have received up to $1 million for a relief response to the needs in Syria. The church workers continue to respond, not only to the Christian communities but beyond them to the Muslims around them. This is having at tremendous impact and witness to the surrounding Muslims. One project partner who is based in Lebanon, learned that his mother in Syria had died, so he went there for the funeral. Tensions arose when a busload of Muslims came to the funeral. They were forbidden to cause trouble, but actually they were coming to the funeral of this woman because they said that they recognized that the Christians in this community had been sharing with them, sharing the disaster response with materials for everyone, not just for the Christians. So the Syrian Orthodox Church is being a major witness through this crisis. One of our partners in Kenya is the East Diocesean Assistance Humanitarian Program, an agency of the Kenyan Mennonite church. In February 2012, about 2000 armed youth swept through the communities in the hills region of Western Kenya. This was a conflict fueled by ethnic rivalries and caused major damage. It displaced several thousand people and destroyed 80 homes. When this occurred our partners from this diocesan organization immediately contacted MCC and EMM. The two agencies were able to respond together directly to release relief supplies and eventually provide materials to rebuild destroyed houses. An additional part of the response was to look for ways of working at longer-term peacebuilding in the region. So MCC was able to work with that diocesan staff to see how that might happen. In the end the decision was made by the organization to invite the Catholic justice and peace commission to actually lead the effort. The MCC country representative wrote to us that when he had visited the region in June, the district officer of the government expressed her appreciation for this effort. There had been a number of relief organizations, holding meetings and bringing people together, but then leaving, and that was the end of their funds. But this was a local leader continuing involvement for this long-term at risk and fractured community. The openness of the Mennonite community and its leadership to engage with a Catholic agency was an additional expression of peace. In Honduras the partner working with us is a social service agency of Brethren in Christ churches in Honduras. This organization is currently carrying out a water purity project in a semiarid region. It is aimed at helping 230 families improve their water security. One of the activities originally planned for this project was that farmers would donate a portion of their seed. Thanks to the training of this agency, which organized farmers in different communities, these farmers had come to know each other. Hence they were more willing to share their resources, rather than selling to each other. So those 70 Testimonials - CIM Agencies Transformed who had additional seeds shared with those farmers who had less instead of selling it to them. The organization had talked regularly to those farmers about the importance of caring for each other, of compassion and solidarity regardless of how much one owns. In Indonesia the motto of the peace center at Ducawatana Christian University is: “peace as a lifestyle”. Center director Paulus Widjaya has been an active peace worker for many years, living out his Anabaptist values. He explains that peace as a lifestyle is applied in all that they do in the center. Other folks in Asia have become interested in how Anabaptist values can be carried out in educational centers. The peace as a lifestyle theme has transformed both MCC workers and Indonesian Anabaptists. So MCC in Indonesia has provide scholarships for young pastors when engaged in peace studies and contextual theology. After some years we’re seeing numerous other developments and connections between various Indonesians. The general secreary of the GITJ Mennonite church in Indonesia is talking about lifestyle as a prophetic voice. Young theologians from all three Mennonite synods are arranging gatherings for discussing peace theology. I [Ruth] was recently in Zambia for several weeks, and there was a reunion of international volunteers in the peace program. Zambia has had 47 young persons who were involved in these international programs. These have left an impact on the Brethren in Christ churches in Zambia as a result. Some of them are working in teacher training, such as in teaching HIV-AIDS prevention. One of the areas of the world that is darkest now, and where we can use the connecting people principle very much, is North Korea. An MCC sponsored visit to Canada involving partners from the APRK [North Korea] reinforced ongoing efforts to build relations with people who have generally been painted as the enemy. MCC began working with the APRK in the 1990s, its current focus is on sustaining agriculture, to also fight tuberculosis or hepatitis, and to assist in rest homes and orphanages. Most of what the APRK has experienced internationally in the past 60 years has been hostility. Political restrictions inhibit interactions of people with the PRK, to relate to them and view them as humans. Thus this program is all the more valuable for fostering relationships, to reduce the tensions between the Koreans. The two Koreas are still technically at war. These visits provide partners a powerful view of the aid provided by MCC. While in Canada they saw volunteers assembling and packing blankets, and for distributing school kits and canned meats for food. These Koreans saw volunteers dicing and dehydrating vegetables and fruits. When visiting in Canada, openly viewing the various volunteer workers locally that had sent materials to Korea, helped build the trust for the Koreans for the future. When partners come to Canada to see for themselves who we Testimonials - CIM Agencies Transformed 71 are, and that we are not hiding anything, and to check with people in the offices how we are raising money - all of this builds trust. There is a saying in Korea, one partner said, one must visit one’s family members often in order to be a family. The work with which MCC has been received, makes MCC a family to North Korea. Last summer I [Ruth] visited eastern Congo where there has been conflict as spillover from the Rwandan genocide. There is also conflict involving national armies, armies from Rwanda and Burundi, plus other factions fighting each other. The latest fighting during Thanksgiving week overran some of the camps where MCC was assisting – women were raped, people were displaced, a really terrific situation. But MCC is working through the diocesan branch of the Protestant Council of Churches. They work through the whole network of Protestant churches in eastern Congo, a network of church social workers who go deep into the conflict areas to find Rwandan refugees who are still in those conflict areas, (which provides a platform for some conflicts continuing). So it is difficult to convince the refugees to meet with a pastor, to travel with them and be repatriated back to Rwanda, in addition to providing food assistance for that travel. But I met some of the social workers, who are deeply engaged and see it as a Christian calling, that God is with them as they do it. The last story is under the inscription – seeking a just peace – a fairly recent story sent to us by Doug Hostetter, director of the MCC UN office. This took place in Jordan during a learning tour. “This afternoon we visited with a young Sunni woman with four small children, living in a small flat that she and her husband were renting for $100 a month. Her husband was away working as a salesman in a men’s clothing store for which he earns $105 per month. Do the math. They were engaged when she was only 15, and they saved their money for 14 years to buy a flat in Aleppo Syria, just two years ago. When the fighting got bad, a few months ago, they fled by bus, bringing only one extra pair of clothes. Having failed in earlier attempts, they made it to the Jordanian border after many detours. It took 24 hours which during peacetime would take less than 10 hours. Soon after they left, they learned from neighbors that their flat had been completely destroyed. While the mother was explaining to us that she did not favor any side in the conflict, feared and despised all men with guns, they only hoped that this fighting would cease so that she and her family could return to their beloved Aleppo. The oldest child, seven years old, Dadir, slipped out of the room and soon returned from the kitchen to serve savory hot tea to the guests from Canada and USA.. Once again as has often happened in my work with refugees, I found myself being served and blessed by people who had lost everything.” These stories convey how MCC is seeking to express Anabaptist values in mission, and stories about how MCC is being 72 Testimonials - CIM Agencies Transformed transformed by our partners.
Responses to the Stories of Transformation: What I am noticing when listening to these remarks is that there is a thread of ‘ministry recognition’ happening. The other thread was a temptation to recognize the groups and make them into our own, and apparently that temptation was resisted - Walter Sawatsky. A common theme goes back to Anabaptist roots, that of suffering. It seems to be so much a part of the story of God’s grace in the world including in the Anabaptist world where they used baptism to interpret it, the baptism of blood. Most of us benefit from serving out of a base where that suffering is only a story, but at least it still shapes us - Loren Horst. I don’t think that the fact that we are changed in relationships, and the fact that we recognize and go into relationships knowing that will happen and expecting it to happen may be the newer thing. I ask the question of who really was getting converted when groups grounded in the stories of our cultures meet. It has been this colonial perspective that mission is a one-way street that was flawed. This has been a way to become aware of the interaction that causes us to be changed. Short-term service has been very hard to promote because people want to think that they will be changing the world even in their short- term service. Yet when they reflect on it afterward, they usually say that they were probably changed more than their service made a difference - James Krabill. In the Brethren in Christ story it was interesting to note how many times the statistics quadrupled, like an explosion. Further, the large number of Congolese Mennonites far exceeds the number of Mennonites in Canada. I noted the report by Rod Janzen where there was the image of what it is we bring to the table and he explored what the Congolese were bringing. The theme that came out of it was a mutual transformation taking place, I think we in MCC have much more to learn about what those sets of conversations and transformations actually mean in the end - Don Peters. When I had been in Korea for about two weeks I asked one of the local leaders what we could bring, considering they had so many churches existing already. He said, “what we need is new eyes to see what is happening.” So I tried to be those eyes in my work in the following months. Mutuality is not us and them, it is when it all becomes “us”. Both sides need eyes to see each other and the nature of the church emerging - Tim Froese. How can we be true partners I keep asking myself, when they bring their gifts that are really more important than what we are able to? - Ruth Keidel Clemens. With reference to the session on strategic planning, it seemed to me that when the North Americans became aware of how God was working, a Testimonials - CIM Agencies Transformed 73 recognition of the work of the Holy Spirit, then it became important for us to actively and intentionally acknowledge that fact and to value it - Chris Sharp. THE MARCUS MISSION IN THE FORMER NETHERLANDS NEW GUINEA Gerlof D. Homan
Introduction Some time ago Walter Sawatsky, professor of Mennonite History at the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, IN, drew my attention to the memoirs of Richard Ernest Herbert Marcus (1915-2000) which tell the story of his and his spouse’s experiences in the former Netherlands New Guinea, now called West Papua, and suggested I write a short article about this document. These electronic, unpublished memoirs, entitled, “Van Eeuwigheid tot Amen,” (From Eternity to Amen), were written at the suggestion of various individuals during the time of Marcus’s retirement. It was not easy to write such memoirs: most of the Marcuses’ archival material had been burned by a radical Papua in Netherlands New Guinea. Fortunately, his spouse, Dr. Hermina Frederika (Mieneke) van den Nieuwenhuizen, who worked besides him as a medical doctor in Netherlands New Guinea, had kept a diary. By drawing upon this valuable source, their own memory, and letters written to relatives during their stay in Netherlands New Guinea, it was possible to reconstruct many events. It was written ca. 1996. The memoirs consist of six parts, a total of 593 pages, and include a narrative of events from c. 1915, the date of Herbert’s birth, until their return to the Netherlands, many letters, newspaper clippings, and a map. In the first part, comprising some ninety-six pages, Marcus discusses in considerable detail his early life, education , and military service in the German army during World War II. The second part tells of his decision to do mission work, his preparation for this new task, his marriage, and departure for Netherlands New Guinea. The remaining parts tell the mission story. Except when indicated otherwise, all information about their mission work is based upon these memoirs and a few details provided by Mrs. Marcus. The narrative assumes the reader knows something about events and circumstances. In fact, the last part contains very little narrative but many letters and clippings. Very helpful are the manuscript’s marginal notes and summaries. The reader may find it difficult at times to determine the precise chronology of events, to identify various individuals and to decipher many acronyms. Marcus claims he strove to be objective in writing these memoirs. We all know memoirs hardly ever are! These memoirs are no exception.
Gerlof Homan is Professor emeritus of History at Illinois State University. A Dutch version of the article is to appear in Doopsgezinde Bijdragen.
Mission Focus: Annual Review © 2012 Volume 20 Gerlof Homan 75
This author was greatly aided in writing this article with the most valuable assistance of Dr. Marcus, Amersfoort, the Netherlands, who tirelessly and patiently answered many questions by phone and electronic letter. Rev. Ad Ipenburg, of Maastricht, the Netherlands was also most helpful. It was he who forwarded a copy of the memoirs to Sawatsky and helped me to initiate contact with Dr. Marcus.1 The article below will first discuss the geography and history of the former Netherlands New Guinea/West Papua. Next it will focus on Dutch Mennonite missionary interest in Indonesia. Finally, it will discuss the Marcuses’ experiences in Netherlands New Guinea using the Marcus memoirs and interviews and correspondence with Mieneke Marcus as our principal sources. This is not a complete history of Dutch Mennonite mission in the former Netherlands New Guinea in the 1950s. For that one must consult additional, especially archival, sources.
Netherlands New Guinea/West Papua Dutch mission work in Indonesia ended in the 1940s, but the former Netherlands New Guinea offered new possibilities. West Papua is the western half of New Guinea the second largest island in the world and also includes
1 After his correspondence with her, the author learned that Hermina Frederika (Mieneke) van den Nieuwenhuizen died in 2010. 76 The Marcus Mission some of the small neighboring islands such as the Schouten Islands of Biak, Noemfoor, and Japen. The Netherlands laid claim to the western part of the island in 1828 maintaining it was part of its Asian empire. In the 1880s Britain claimed the southeastern territory of New Guinea, later transferring it to Australia, while Germany annexed the northeast. After World War I German New Guinea became a mandate of the League of Nations to be administered by Australia. The two Australian-governed areas became independent in 1975 and are known as Papua New Guinea. In 1941-2 Japan occupied much of the northern part of New Guinea which was liberated by US forces two years later. West Papua is about 421,981 square kilometers, or about 162,927 square miles, somewhat larger than the state of California and eleven times the size of the Netherlands. The area has many mountain ranges, wet- and grasslands, dense rain forests, a large number of lakes, many swampy areas, and some large rivers. The area is rich in minerals and even oil. About fifty percent of the total population of about two-and-one half million is Papuan, ethnically very different from the rest of Indonesia. The rest of the population is now predominantly Indonesian most of whom have moved or were forced to migrate there since the 1960s. Most inhabitants live in small villages and engage in simple agricultural pursuits and speak a great variety of different languages. It took the Netherlands until the early part of the twentieth century to institute some administrative control over this region. Even in 1950 about 40 per cent of the indigenous population was under Dutch administrative control, and by 1941 most of the area had not been explored and was still very primitive and underdeveloped often plagued by much warfare. In some parts the natives still practiced cannibalism.2 Soon after the Marcuses arrived in Netherlands New Guinea relations between the Netherlands and Indonesia began to deteriorate. In December 1949 Indonesia became independent, but the fate of Netherlands New Guinea remained undecided. Indonesia claimed the territory contending it had been part of the former Dutch Asian empire. When the Netherlands for a variety of reasons refused to cede it Indonesia, led by President Sukarno, threatened war. Indonesian troops infiltrated the territory in the early 1960s and attacked a Dutch naval vessel. Under considerable U.S. pressure the Netherlands finally agreed in 1962 to place the territory under U.N. administration, the so-called
2 For an early history of Netherlands New Guinea one might consult, Dirk Vlasblom, Papoea: Een geschiedenis (Amsterdam Mets and Schilt, 2004). Anthony van Kampen in his book, Jungle Pimpernel (6th ed., Amsterdam: De Boer, 1951) gives a very good picture of the primitive and wild conditions that still prevailed at the time the Marcuses arrived in Netherlands New Guinea. Furthermore, Jan van Eechoud, Vergeten Aarde (Amstedam: De Boer, 1951), chapter 5, is most useful. Unfortunately, the latter was published after the Marcuses’ departure for New Guinea. Gerlof Homan 77
United Nations Temporary Executive Authority, which would transfer the area to Indonesia by May 1, 1963. Indonesia agreed to hold a “free vote” to allow the Papua population to determine their own future during the UN transition period. This “free vote” was held in 1969. Its outcome could have been predicted because the small number of 1025 Indonesia-selected Papua delegates who were allowed to vote chose to join Indonesia. Many Papuans felt betrayed over this outcome claiming the “free” vote did not reflect real Papuan sentiment. Many Papuans resisted the imposition of Indonesian control, and for many years the area saw much violence and experienced, what some would call, genocide. In recent years Indonesia has relaxed its rule, but still does not allow any expressions of Papuan self determination. Indonesia renamed the area West Irian but in 2003 divided the territory into the provinces of West Papua and Papua. However, today the entire region is often referred to as West Papua.3
Missions in Netherlands New Guinea The first Protestant missionaries in Netherlands New Guinea arrived in 1855. In 1863 the Utrechtsche Zendingsvereniging (Utrecht Mission Society) sent some of its people to the area. Later other denominations such as the Dutch Reformed, the Christian Reformed Moluccan Church, Protestant American missionaries, and Roman Catholics became active in the region. By 1950 about 170,000 Papuans had become Christian. The Christian missionaries were the first westerners who trained indigenous Papuans as helpers in their work in spreading the Gospel.4 Dutch Mennonites did not exhibit much interest in mission work until the second half of the nineteenth century. In 1847 a few individuals founded the Doopsgezinde Vereniging tot Verbreiding des Evangelies in de Nederlandsche Overzeesche Bezittingen (Mennonite Society for the Evangelization in Dutch
3 There is considerable amount of literature on the Netherlands-Indonesian dispute over Netherlands New Guinea. Among them are Arend Lijphart, The Trauma of Decolonization: The Dutch and West New Guinea (New Haven:Yale University Press, 1966); Chris L.M. Penders, The West New Guinea Debacle: Dutch Decolonization and Indonesia, 1945-1962 (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2002); Ben Koster M. Een verloren land: De regering Kennedy en de Nieuw Guinea Kwestie (Arnhem: Anthos, 1991); John Saltford, The United Nations and the Indonesian Takeover of West Papua , 1962-1969: The Anatomy of Betrayal (London: Routledge, 2002); Vlasbom, Papoea, pp. 187ff.; Elizabeth Brundage et. al, eds., Indonesian Human Rights Abuses in West Papua: Application of the Law of Genocide to the History of Indonesian Control (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004). There is also a considerable amount of information on the Papuan struggle on the internet e.g. tanahku.west-papua.nl 4 Sihor Aritonang and Karel Steenbrink, A History of Christianity in Indonesia (Boston: Brill, 2008), 350-352. 78 The Marcus Mission
Overseas Possessions). Later it was renamed Doopsgezinde Vereniging tot Evangelieverbreiding (Mennonite Society for Evangelization). However, the Vereniging was a private society and would not be part of the national organization, the Algemene Doopsgezinde Sociëteit (General Mennonite Conference) until 1957. At that time it was renamed the Doopsgezinde Zendingsraad (Mennonite Mission Council). In 1851 the Vereniging sent its first missionary, Pieter Jansz, to Java, the most important island of the former Netherlands East Indies, now called Indonesia. In the course of time Mennonites in Germany, Switzerland, Russia, and the United States made financial contributions to this missionary endeavor which soon also included Sumatra and after World War II, Netherlands New Guinea. Furthermore, a number of Mennonites from Russia and Germany went to Sumatra to serve as missionaries. However, in the post-World War II era the Doopsgezinde Vereniging tot Evangelieverbreiding decided to join the Reformed Verenigde Nederlandse Zendingscorporaties, the (United Dutch Mission Corporations), in this new endeavor. The Verenigde Nederlandse Zendingscorporaties accepted Dutch Mennonite mission participation and assigned it the area of Inanwatan located in the southern part of the so-called Vogelkop, the northwestern peninsula of Netherlands New Guinea. The Vogelkop or Bird’s Head peninsula consists of about 21,00 square miles, an area about twice the size of the Netherlands.5
Herbert and Mieneke Marcus The Doopsgezinde Vereniging tot Evangelieverbreiding decided to send Richard Ernest Herbert Marcus as missionary to go to Netherlands New Guinea. Herbert, as he preferred to be called, was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1915. The Marcus family was originally Dutch, but one member of the family settled in Hamburg in the 17th century. Herbert’s father, Richard, married a Dutch citizen, Cornelia Maas. The couple had five children. Father Richard became a prisoner of war in 1914 and spent some three years in a Russian POW camp. After the war the family moved to Surabaya, the Netherland East Indies where Richard found employment. Herbert really liked Indonesia, but his parents separated, and Cornelia and the children returned to the Netherlands. Herbert finished his high school education at the Kennemer Lyceum in Overveen, the Netherlands, and hoped to be able to find employment as a chemical analyst. However, he was unsuccessful and considered studying theology. In the meantime, he had met Lykele Bonga, Mennonite pastor in
5 Theodorus E. Jensma, Doopsgezinde zending in Indonesië (The Hague: Boekencentrum, 1968), passim; I.P. Asheervadam et al., Churches Engage Asian Tradition. Global Mennonite History Series: Asia (Intercourse, PA: Good Books, 2011), chapter 3. Gerlof Homan 79
Leiden, who would become his father figure and baptized him in his church. He liked Bonga so well that he followed him to Leeuwarden when the latter moved to that city in 1934. In 1937 Herbert met Hermina Frederika (Mieneke) van den Nieuwenhuizen who would later become his spouse and go with him to Netherlands New Guinea as public medical doctor. Herbert felt very much at home in the Netherlands and decided to become a naturalized Dutch citizen. “My loyalty and way of thinking were thoroughly Dutch,” he declared after the war.6 However, the administrative process lasted too long, and he was still a German citizen when war came to the Netherlands in May 1940. He would not become a Dutch citizen until 1954 when he was in Netherlands New Guinea. In 1940 he was still subject to German military draft. In February 1941 he went to Paderborn, Germany, where the barracks of the Blue Dragoons, “the gates hell,” as he called them, closed behind him.71 For the next four years he was with various German army units in Poland, Russia, Luxemburg, and France. Fortunately, he did not serve as infantry soldier but was part of a supply unit and later served as truck driver. He did not qualify for officers training because he was considered “politically unreliable.” He was injured once. In May 1945 he became an Allied prisoner of war in Germany where chaotic conditions prevailed. Upon his release he could not return to the Netherlands where anti-German sentiment was still very strong, and joined relatives in Hamburg. He also made contact with Mennonites in the area. Fortunately, Herbert met a Dutch officer who had also attended the Kennemer Lyceum. In early 1947 he was allowed to return and meet Mieneke again whom he had seen twice during war time. She had been studying medicine at the University of Leiden but was unable to continue her studies when the German authorities closed the university in 1940. Subsequently, she studied on her own and resumed her academic work in 1945. She finished her medical studies, which had been interrupted by the war, in 1949.
Mission Work in Inanwatan Upon his return home Herbert decided to do mission work while Mieneke would practice medicine in the same area where he worked. It was especially his World War II experience that motivated him to embark on this new challenge. The war had taught him much about the spiritual needs of the world, and his stay in Russia had told him much about the inspiring faith of the Orthodox church in that country. Therefore, he decided to devote the rest
6 Marcus, “Eeuwigheid tot Amen,” 23. 7 Ibid., 48. 80 The Marcus Mission of his life to meet those needs while showing special concern for the worth of his fellow human beings. The Doopsgezinde Vereniging tot Evangelieverbreiding agreed to accept him after completion of his training program offered by the Reformed Church entitled Kerk en Wereld (Church and World). This four-year program emphasized practical Christian work. Herbert completed it in two years at De Horst, Driebergen, located near Utrecht, and received further training at the Zendingshogeschool, (Mission University), in Oegstgeest. Meanwhile they also tried to read as much literature on Netherlands New Guinea as they could. They soon learned there was not much good recent literature. They were married in 1949 and left in early July 1950 for Netherlands New Guinea. Herbert was eager to go to New Guinea. He had very good memories of that part of the world where he had spent some of “the happiest years of his youth.”8 He was also looking forward to this new task as a new, great adventure.
The Inanwatan district was officially transferred to Marcus on October 1, 1950. This district comprised an area about equal to the size of one third of the Netherlands. It had a population of about 50,000 souls of whom many belonged to the Maybrit and Tehit tribes. The Reformed Church had been active in this district for many years. At that time the district had some twelve congregations and twenty-
8 Ibid., 98. Gerlof Homan 81 four so-called evangelization posts. There were a number of schools which were being subsidized by the government but supervised by Dutch missionaries. The whole area was still very primitive and had no infrastructure of any kind. Initially, the Marcuses lived in the coastal village of Inanwatan, located on the south coast of the Vogelkop peninsula. But soon after they moved farther inland to the village of Ajamaroe some thirty-four kilometers farther north. During this move Mieneke became ill with malaria and had to be carried. Later they lived in Mefkajim and finally settled in Teminabuan, located about eighty miles northeast of Inanwatan, where they lived for most of their stay in Netherlands New Guinea.9 The Marcuses’ goal was to bring the gospel to the natives and to lay a foundation which would be free from “Christian traditions” but based on “elementary Biblical ideas.”10 But they also hoped they could help the natives “to restructure the archaic, pagan society, so that people would be less vulnerable in the unstoppable economic and political development.”11 Their task was not easy. They were constantly plagued by malaria and other diseases such as hepatitis and Mieneke even had to be treated for a herniated disk while she and Herbert were on furlough in the Netherlands in the mid 1950s. For two months she had to lie very still on a board and was not allowed to stand. Herbert’s tasks were manifold: He was school superintendant, principal spiritual adviser, resource person in numerous cases of moral lapses, of which there were many, arbitrater of disputes, architect, administrator, and land surveyor. Already during the first few weeks Herbert was called in to settle a dispute. One of the worst moral questions concerned adultery among the natives. One time one of the evangelists committed adultery. Handling this case, Herbert felt, was one of the “most miserable and heaviest tasks” he had to fulfill.12 They both had to cope with what they considered a colonial bureaucracy and mentality and were disgusted with the arrogance and “rudeness and stupid stubbornness” of some bureaucrats.13 Although there was freedom of speech and press, the colonial government, fearing Papuan “radicalism,” violated postal secrecy in the late 1950s by opening the mail a
9 For some time the Marcuses also lived in the village of Fatase. There the wife of an Papuan evangelist killed four of her children and then committed suicide. After that terrible episode no evangelist dared to live in Fatase: They were afraid of the dead woman’s spirit. So the Marcuses lived there for a while. 10 Marcus, “Eeuwigheid tot Amen,” 212. 11 Ibid., 240. 12 Ibid., 157. 13 Ibid., 348. 82 The Marcus Mission policy that prompted a parliamentary investigation. Especially the arrogant Indo-Europeans, or Indo’s as they were called, and Ambonese Moluccans, opposed reform, the elimination of colonial relationships, and political development. A large number of Indo-Europeans had settled in the area before and after Indonesia became independent. Hebert was not reluctant to criticize the colonial administration. The Nazi period had taught him, he felt, that one had a moral obligation to speak up against injustice. That, he felt, he could do more safely after his naturalization in 1954. Because of their low opinion of the conduct of colonial officials he incurred the wrath of some who often slandered him. In fact, at times Herbert was accused of having been a Dutch Nazi. Finally, he had to face the challenge posed by the Catholic mission in the area. While at one time Catholic mission work had been excluded from parts of the Vogelkop region this was no longer true in the 1950s. The Catholic church now considered the native Protestant population a proper mission field. Herbert expressed a desire to work with local Catholic missionaries, but he was rebuffed. He considered the aggressive Catholic competition as a “distasteful and unworthy struggle.”14 Yet later he was credited with stopping Catholic encroachments.15 One of the most bizarre experiences during their stay in the resort Inanwatan was the exhumation of two American Southern Baptist missionaries who had died in the area: one was killed by the natives and the other drowned. Exhumation was done at the request of American missionary Harold Lovestrand whose fundamentalist religious views were not appreciated. Making the rounds, or tournéés as the Marcusses called them, which involved travelling to the various mission posts, congregations, and schools was no easy task: It all had to be done by boat or foot, mostly the latter, and bare footed at that, and therefore consumed an enormous amount of time. In 1953, for instance Herbert, spent some twenty-five weeks on the road; in 1959 he travelled 155 days. Often Mieneke travelled with him. They often travelled hundreds of miles through swampy areas, mud puddles, mountainous and very rough terrain strewn with roots and rocks. No wonder that at the end of the 1950s Herbert’s knees were worn out.16 In 1953 Herbert’s task was lightened when another Dutch missionary, Piet Messie and his spouse, joined him. Messie was assigned one-fourth of Inawatan where he was to promote congregational work. He did pioneer work in the mountainous areas and later moved to Teminabuan. Messie was
14 Ibid., 149. 15 Jensma, Doopsgezinde zending, 164. 16 A few times Marcus referred to himself as landloper. However, a landloper is a hobo. He should have said woudloper, jungle walker. Gerlof Homan 83 disappointed in his work and did not enjoy working with the Reformed Church. He left in 1956. A few years later Lieuwe Koopmans joined them for a short time. In the meantime, Mieneke had started her medical work in her small hospital in Ajamaroe.. Before she left for Netherlands New Guinea she had received a government appointment. In the beginning the enormous health and medical problems overwhelmed her, and it took a while before she was able to overcome the emotional strain. She treated especially yaws cases, and in the course if time was able to eliminate this serious tropical skin disorder in much of the area. Some times Herbert assisted her in her work, but one time fainted during a difficult delivery. Yet, in September 1952 she was suddenly informed the government no longer needed her services. Her contract was suddenly torn up. She might have been dismissed because bureaucrats in The Hague had expected her to go to Java instead of Netherlands New Guinea. She also felt that the authorities preferred a male medical doctor and did not like her long absences during the tournéés. Her dismissal also meant a loss of two-thirds of their income. Yet she continued her work and in the course of time might have treated some 100,000 patients. In 1959 she also took on the responsibility of principal of a village school. She took over from one of the most competent Papua evangelists in the area who had killed his wife and three children and then committed suicide. By the late 1950s Marcus was ready to retire from the heavy physical demands of missionary duties. He was no longer able to make the two- or three hundred kilometer rounds, he felt. By this time the Doopsgezinde Zendingsraad, the successor of the Doopsgezinde Vereninging tot Evangelieverbreiding, had ended its cooperation with the Reformed Church. In 1956 all Reformed missionaries joined the newly-formed, Geraja Kristen Injili, (Evangelical Christian Church). However, it seems that Marcus continued to consider himself as a Mennonite missionary. He had a difficult time, he confessed, to adjust to the new regime. For him ecumenicity meant unity in love but not a dogmatic “leveling.” He considered himself a “radical “congregationalist” and “radical Mennonite” who was willing to cooperate under the will of the Lord but not under the will of men who were “wholly or partially disloyal to their own Calvinist principles.”17 Changes did come in 1960 when the Geraja Kristen Injili suggested to the Doopsgezinde Zendingsraad to “loan” Herbert to enable him to serve as principal and head docent at the training school for evangelists in Ransiki located some thirty miles south of Manokwari. Both cities are located on the east coast of the Vogelkop peninsula. The Doopsgezinde Zendingsraad agreed to
17 Marcus, “Eeuwigheid tot Amen.” 559. 84 The Marcus Mission allow him to go to Ransiki. Although Herbert considered the school’s curriculum outdated, he enjoyed his work immensely. This was a better life than in Teminabuan, Herbert felt. At the same time Mieneke enjoyed teaching in a Dutch elementary school and also medicine and health related subjects. However, in the summer of 1961 Herbert was suddenly dismissed by the Geraja Kristen Injili as a result of students’ complaints. There had been discipline problems with some of the students. It is not clear how Herbert tried to resolve those issues, but apparently the students were not pleased with his decisions and went on strike. They also complained to the Geraja Kristin Injili which sent Rev. Filep J. S. Rumainum, a member of its steering committee, to investigate the situation. The Marcusses knew Rumainum very well; he had often stayed in their home. Rumainum talked to the students, but made no effort to hear Herbert’s side of the story. Nor did the Doopsgezinde Zendingsraad. Apparently, Rumainum recommended to dismiss Herbert. The Geraja Kristin Injili agreed charging him with failure to relate to Papuans.18 How they could charge him with such failure is difficult to comprehend. Had he not very successfully worked with many Papuans for some ten years? Naturally, as he wrote in his memoirs, Herbert felt very deeply aggrieved over this misfortune. He had been removed as a “mangy sheep,” from a herd he had helped to build, he felt.19 Even many years later he could not determine the real reasons for his dismissal. Was it his Mennonite identity or Indo complaints about his easy relationship with local Papuans, he wondered? Only the archives may tell the real story, he concluded. Subsequently, he accepted employment at a lumber yard in Manokwari where he was in charge of loading ships with lumber. He liked the work and had good relations with his Papuan employees. In late 1961 they decided to return to the Netherlands where the Doopsgezinde Zendingsraad was of no help. Fortunately, the Dutch Mennonite congregation at Itens accepted him as pastor. Some time later also the neighboring congregation of Baard accepted him as well. Here Mieneke found part-time work as a doctor. Herbert retired in 1968 while his spouse stayed active as medical doctor. He died in 2000. The Marcus memoirs do not include his ministry in
18 Chris M. Penders in his book, The West Nieuw Guinea Debacle, while citing J. Miedema and W.A.L. Strohof, eds, Irian Jaya. Source Materials, no. 2. Series A-no.1 (Leiden: DSALCUL/Iris, 1951), n.p.), states that Rumainum was “unreliable and self-seeking,” and a “confidence trickster” who sold information to two parties while gaining “a pretty sum out of his dealings.” (410). While this may or may not be true, Miedema and Strohof do not refer to Rumainum. Penders must have obtained this information from a different source. Unfortunately, this author was unable to communicate with Penders because of the latter’s serious illness. Some of the details of Marcus’s dismissal came from Dr. Mieneke Marcus. 19 Marcus, “Eeuwigheid tot Amen,” 580. Gerlof Homan 85 these two Mennonite congregations. In spite of the humiliating experience in Ransiki the Marcuses could look back on a very successful ministry in Netherlands New Guinea where they did much for the native population. These memoirs give us only a glimpse of their achievements. For a more complete account of their achievements other sources will have to be consulted but, we can be sure, they will only confirm what we know today.20 The Marcus memoirs are a most valuable document for the study of Dutch Mennonite mission in this remote part of the world. They are the recollections of a remarkable and unique pioneer missionary who, together with his spouse, performed yeoman’s work in a very primitive environment.
20 J.P. Matthijssen, had much praise for the Marcus mission in “Uw zending: Het echtpaar Marcus.” Algemeen Doopsgezind Weekblad, Feb. 27, 1960. Cited in Marcus “Eeuwigheid tot Amen,” 503. Also words of praise came from his Papua friend Frederik Athaboe who wrote, “In Memoriam Richard Ernest Marcus,” Doopsgezind Jaarboekje 2002 (Amsterdam: Algemene Doopsgezinde Soci¸teit [2003], 8-10. SHORT TERM MISSION TO MENNONITE CHURCHES IN NORTH INDIA Jai Prakash Masih
Background and Acknowledgments This is a report of our short visit to India with Dr. Palmer Becker, as we went to teach the book ` “Who is an Anabaptist Christian?” September 11-22, 2012. First of all I am grateful to God for giving us this opportunity of ministry in three of the Mennonite Churches. I am also grateful to Rev. John F. Lapp and MC USA for their encouragement and for standing behind us and sponsoring my full travel expenses to make this trip possible. Rev. John F. Lapp made the initial contact with Mennonite Christian Service Fellowship of India (MCSFI) for the arrangement of these workshops. I am grateful to MC Canada for standing behind Dr. Palmer Becker and also his friends and support group. I am personally grateful to Dr. Palmer Becker and Mrs. Becker who personally gave generously towards these workshops and personally encouraged me all the way. I am also grateful to the churches and individuals who graciously contributed towards this trip. To CDC and IMC for their support and encouragements. We are grateful to “Mennonite Christian Service Fellowship of India”, and Rev. Emmanuel Minj, the Director of MCSFI,who helped us to arrange all the workshops. I am personally thankful to Bro. Sharovan Kumar, of Atlanta Georgia and his publishing company` “Yeshu Ke Pass Inc.” And also Dr. C S R Gier who worked selflessly to print the booklet in Hindi. “ The title of the booklet in Hindi is: “Ek Anabaptist Masihi Kaun Hai.” Special thanks to Rev. James Krabill the chief editor of Missio Dei series for his encouragements. We are also grateful to you for you prayers and opportunity to speak about it even in the weeks to come. Even though this was a short trip, yet it was challenging and eye opening to many realities the Indian churches are facing today. In total we had three workshops in three different Conference areas; namely the Bihar Mennonite Mandali of Ranchi area, the Bharatiya General Conference Mennonite Churches of Chattisgarh, and The Mennonite Church In India of Dhamtari area, also in Chattisgarh. All the workshops were on a similar timetable in the following pattern:
The BMM (Bihar Mennonite Mandalo) Workshop: (Sept. 12th to Sept. 14th) We arrived in Ranchi from Delhi by plane and were received by Rev. Emmanuel Minj the Director of MCSFI, at the airport. The workshop was
Jai Prakash Masih, formerly pastor in BGCMC churches in India, is currently a church planter in Chicago.
Mission Focus: Annual Review © 2012 Volume 20 Jai Prakash Masih 87 arranged at the old mission station of Chandwa about 3 hours journey by car in to the jungles of Jhar Khand. A group of pastors who were already present there welcomed us. After a brief rest we went to the first introductory session of our workshop. The introductory worship led by the local group was very traditional tribal and inspiring. I would like to mention here that the tribal groups of Bihar in most of the rural areas do not use the traditional hymns for worship but they have their own songs and Bhajans, which is so very indigenous. These songs are direct recitations of Biblical teachings or stories or psalms. I had been to BMM about 12 years ago, and at that time the group of pastors were all old and almost retired. Most of them were hardly primary or middle school pass in education. It looked as if the church would not survive for long. But this time the group was a mixed group. There were some newly educated and young pastors and lay leaders in the group. It definitely gave a different picture of the church. Yes there is a hope and future for the church and I will speak about it a bit later. Bihar Mennonite Mandali has about 25 congregations under it. Rev. Joseph Lakra is the chairman of BMM. They are rural and village congregations. Most of the people are farmers or daily laborers who have very low income. Rev. Minj told us that for some reason all of the pastors could not be present there. However those who were there showed keen interest to learn and were very attentive in all the sessions. They were very exited to learn the definition of, “who is a Mennonite Christian”. Some of them asked questions about their ministry and practical issues. And wanted to have the answer from the Anabaptist perspective. The young pastors and lay leaders who were there, exhibited lots of promise and possibilities for the future of BMM church. In their written response they expressed appreciation for the Hindi booklet “Who is An Anabaptist Christian,” and the opportunity to learn things that they had never learned before. On the evening of Sept. 13th there was a time of open sharing and question and answer, which was very edifying and encouraging. Many of the pastors and leaders shared their stories of ministries and experiences. The same evening Dr. Palmer told an incident of his own ministry of removing an evil spirit for a home, which was very well understood and accepted. Rev. Minj told of his recent experience of prayer for a sick paralyzed Hindu man named Vinod and healing that he received. Hearing those stories I can say the church is very much alive and ministry is going on. The workshop concluded with worship and communion on the 14th in the afternoon. But I am not yet done with BMM . There is one more ministry that is going to affect the future of BMM that needs to be acknowledged here, because it happens right in the premises of the old Bungalow. That is the ministry of 88 Short Term Mission to North India
Compassion International , Western India Branch. On 13th Sept. in the morning when I came out of my room I saw about 300 children in different uniforms taking their breakfast. We got to interview some of the compassion workers who were also attending our workshops and what they shared with us was heart warming. Most of the children are from nearby villages and Mennonite churches even. It was so encouraging to see these children who were being cared for by dedicated workers both physically and spiritually. Chandawa was a place where the Mennonite church had a boys hostel for some years. I definitely felt that where we left the ministry as a church maybe God has re- started it in the form of Compassion Ministries for the Children. Before I go I would like to make this comment: “I thank God that the mission bungalow is still there, otherwise all the ministry and gatherings that take place would not have been possible.” In my concluding remark for this section I would say that for the sake of future generations and ongoing ministries, the old mission bungalow needs a good renovation. I have spoken to Rev. Minj very personally about it. I pray that God will make it possible.
The BGCMC Workshop: (Sept.16th to Sept. 18th.) The Bharatiya General Conference Mennonite Churches have spread across four major districts of Chattisgarh. They are in Ambikapur, Bilaspur, Raipur, and Bastar. There are a total of 28 congregations, both rural and urban within the BGCMC. The BGCMC workshop was first organized in Champa but for some reason it was moved to Jagdeeshpur. We travelled from Ranchi to Champa by train on 15th of Sept. and since our workshop was not beginning in Jagdeeshpur till the evening of the 16th we had planned to visit Champa and Korba on the 15th evening and 16 th morning so that Dr. Palmer could have a glimpse of the entire BGCMC area within the limited window of our time available to us. We went around to churches and hospitals in Champa even when it was raining on the evening of 15th, a Saturday. The visit to the Champa hospital was very revealing. Everything looked old and run down completely. On Sunday, since we had very little time, we viewed the churches in Korba area from the outside only. We came to exchange greetings in Hebrone Mennonite Church in Kusmunda where I had pastored longest,before I came to USA in the year 1999. Dr. Palmer ministered the word to the waiting congregation. It was a wonderful time. After lunch we started for Jagdeeshpur by car. On the way we stopped at Janjgir Mennonite Church and visited the old mission compound, now a site for the new “Funk Memorial English Medium School.” We had an opportunity to talk to Miss Sarojini Singh, the principal of the school for a little while, who was teaching a small group of of a Sunday School class at that time. Janjgir Mennonite Church is the first church that I started my pastoral ministry Jai Prakash Masih 89 in 1978. I wish I could have been there for Sunday worship. We arrived in Jagdeeshpur just around the time of the beginning of our first session. After a brief exchange of ideas with the Governing Body and Rkhwal Samiti (that would be elder’ s board), we were welcomed by the local church and the organizers. Thereafter our first session began in the local church on the topic “The definition of the word Mennonite”. For this workshop there were about 40 to 50 delegates both pastors and lay leaders. All the sessions went very well. However when Dr. Palmer wanted to talk about the issue of baptism (as there is a controversy going on in BGCMC about the mode of baptism), the leaders refused to discuss the issue. They just refused to listen, not even to mention the subject. In their opinion it was a sensitive issue for that particular time. However the participants appreciated the teaching on Biblical interpretation in the Anabaptist perspective. The subject of leadership also generated a lot of interest among the participants. There were some young graduates from seminaries who were new pastors in various BGCMC congregations. They participated with lots of expectations but we felt that, they were intimidated by the conference leaders, as to ask any questions openly. But in private and in their written responses they expressed that they would like to learn more about these topics and would appreciate further study materials on related topics of leadership, biblical Interpretation, and even expository preaching, from Anabaptist perspectives. After finishing our workshop on 18th Sept. we had limited time to visit the Sewa Bhavan Hospital and Janzen Memorial School in Jagdeeshpur. So we took a quick tour of the two places. Both places looked very run down but the hospital showed some signs of life. Nevertheless it needs upgrading from many sides. The presence of the English Medium School that is run by CNI church was very interesting. This school seems to be doing very well. The visit to the Janzen Memorial School was very revealing. The school has run down significantly. So much so that they are not able to use their main hall for student gathering in the morning. It is obvious the Menno Christian Education society is not able to meet the challenges and demands of the time very effectively. Actually the school is hit from two sides. First as the mission pulled out, the support for up keep and maintenance were cut off. Secondly the changing education policy of the government has not allowed the school to hire good qualified teachers for the higher classes so the teaching level has suffered drastically. As a result of that, school enrollment has gone down. In short I would say that the minority schools are being ignored or cut off from government funding systems. And this is an every day challenge for some of our mission schools. The local church of Jagdeeshpur, used to be one of the largest congregations of BGCMC, but now there are already 5 new churches of other 90 Short Term Mission to North India denominations that have emerged in Jageeshpur alone. This is because people have walked out of the main church and joined other churches for one reason or the other. As we were there we came to learn from a few of the concerned local church members who were sharing with us that the ministry of the word is very poor in the local church. The need for proper spiritual nourishment was greatly felt by the local members. So much so that some times the church members have to go out to listen to some good preaching. Therefore the pressing needs of our churches is to have good qualified dedicated pastors. Another reason the good pastors do not stay is the very poor salary for our qualified pastors. It is not even compatible to a lower division teacher in the government schools. This need must be addressed very soon. Nevertheless there are some individual and ministry efforts that out shine in the midst of all the above. There are some individuals and groups who take initiatives in evangelistic ministry and even revival meetings. Mr. N B Ram a retired teacher of Jagdeeshpur and now pastor Kaser Das from Bethesda Leprosy Home Mennonite Church, Champa are great examples. Mr N B Ram takes teams of people for village evangelism around Jagdeeshpur. Mr. Kaser Das is a radio speaker in Chattisgarhi dialect through Trans World Radio, who speaks twice in a week. He is a great gospel preacher and Bhajan Singer in Chattisgarhi language. I heard him over the radio one evening and it was very powerful. The local Mennonite Church in Danganiya , initiated by the Sona Family, organizes revival meetings every year in the month of February, and these are attended by thousands of people. Hebron Mennonite Church in Kusmunda, in North, have their annual revival meetings that attract all the churches in the area.
The MCI Workshop: (Sept. 19th to Sept. 21st.) The Mennonite Church in India Dhamtari Area in Chattisgarh has about 21 congregations around Dhamtari, Durg and Bhilai areas. But a new congregation is being built at this time. They are both rural and urban congregations. Recently the conference celebrated it’s centenary. We arrived in Dhamtari by car on 19th of Sept. and were received by Rev. M K Das , the Conference Secretary and Rev. Peter Das pastor from Bhilai Mennonite Church. The same evening our first session of the workshop began. With brief introduction of the participants and our formal welcome the introductory lesson was presented. This group was also a mixed group of pastors, lay pastors and lay leaders. However the number of participants was some what smaller then expected. Nevertheless there was a spirit of unity among the group which was very encouraging. The participants were eager to learn and engage in discussions. The teachings on the meaning of Anabaptism, the interpretation of the Bible and leadership style were accepted very well. Jai Prakash Masih 91
Some of the pastors shared their own experience of ministry and style of small group ministries that they have in their churches. Dr. Rev. P S Singh from Charama Mennonite Church, shared about the power encounter and it’s impact in the ministry of the church. Rev. Peter Das shared about the challenges of the urban congregation in Bhilai, where he is ministering. Rev. Ashish Milap, the young pastor of the local church which is called Sunderganj Mennonite Church shared about his ministry. He shared that the membership is about 1300 but only a handful of Christians attend the Sunday worship. And specially the young people attend in very small numbers, which is a cause of concern for him. Pastor Dhirendra Kumar Sahoo had become a Christian from the non Christian faith after much searching for truth. Now he works in village to village preaching the gospel. Pastor Hemlal Gwal of Singpur shared that there is a new church building in progress for which he himself donated the land. The building is about to be completed. I wish we had time to go and see some of this work. Another aspect of the ministry in Dhamtari is the ministry of the Mennonite Christian Hospital. This is one of the most famous hospitals in the state of Chattisgarh. The spirit of co-operation between the hospital and the church looked very healthy. Their College of Nursing is one of the best in the area and meets the need of nursing training very aggressively. As we went around visiting the hospital we were shown the services that the hospital now provides and the spiritual care that it gives to the students and the patients as well. Dr. Palmer had an opportunity to minister to the students in the morning chapel. They have a vision to start a new cancer unit in nearby Sankara Campus, which is a very much needed service for the area right now. The MCI has some very good schools also which we did not manage to visit.
Participant Responses In the end let me give some of the written responses to the workshops in each place. In every place the participants appreciated the fact that they had an opportunity to learn these topics that are so very important for the present condition of the churches. Sushil Topno of Bihar Mennonite Mandali said,” It would be good if time to time such teachings are given to our people, it would keep us focused and challenged.” Participants in each place expressed that there is a real need for such kind of continuing training which will help them in their ministries. Former Pastor of Jagdeeshpur Rev. Jagdalla said, “Thank you for giving us the book “Ek Anabaptist Masihi Kaun Hai?” in Hindi. Dr. C S R Gier who helped in printing the booklet said, “More of the non-Mennonites who see the book ask for it and they want to read about the 92 Short Term Mission to North India
Anabaptist Christians”. Anil K Upadhyay one of the participant pastors in Jagdeeshpur wrote, “I was personally touched by the teaching of Horizontal Forgiveness and Parallel Forgiveness. The meaning of Anabaptist Christian was a real challenge. And above all the way Dr. Palmer responded to the objection raised by some, with humility. I was personally touched by it.” Sunita Nand, one of the lady participants in Jagdeeshpur wrote, “ I will definitely apply the principle of small group, in our women’s fellowship to start prayer cell groups.” Pastor Benjamin Nand wrote, “Thanks for coming and teaching us, it was enlightening. Please come back again.” Sachin Maghi of Dhamtari, wrote, “It was interesting to learn about Constantine, Martin Luther, and their reforms, but to know about Anabaptism in the light of those, was a real eye opener. Thanks for your teaching.” Mrs. Archana Netham wrote. “I learned for the first time what is the meaning of being an Anabaptist Christian. I will first of all apply the principles of forgiveness in my own personal and family life, and serve the Lord with new dedication.” In each place we have seen young pastors and lay leaders who need mentoring and guidance which is not available to them from any where. Dr. Palmer and I, both of us felt the need for a continued engagement with the church in India on a regular basis for encouragement and continuing education. We missed a lot of things because we did not have enough time for the interaction with people. Yes we often want to stretch our dollars in terms of our expenses and time, but it was obvious on this trip that when we go to other cultures, we need to have more time for the people. People are important and so are our churches. Therefore let us continue to do as much as we can; the challenge is great and the need is pressing. Thank you for your support and prayers. May God Bless you. Gratefully Yours; Pastor JP. CONGOLESE CHURCH AND CIM-AIMM CENTENNIAL Richard Hirschler
In 2012 the Congo Inland Mission/Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission (CIM/AIMM) and the Mennonite Churches in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were privileged to celebrate 100 years of mission and church building by Mennonites in the Congo. The result of this work is the presence of nearly one-quarter of a million members in 1,591 churches and organized as three church bodies. They are the Communauté Mennonite au Congo (CEMCO), the Communauté des Églises de Frères Mennonite au Congo (CEFMC) and Communauté Évangelique Mennonite au Congo (CEM). For this celebration we were told by Dr. Adolphe Komwesa Kalunga, president of CEMCO, to expect a lot of noise in the joyous celebrations, and those of us privileged to experience the Congo celebration could certainly appreciate that. Not only was there a lot of music and dancing, they had made hundreds of very colorful print dresses and shirts and even lengths of cloth. Printed on the cloth were the names of the eight mission stations and centennial celebration statements. These were often worn by the church leaders when they were presenting as well as by the choir members. Many people in the gatherings also wore those shirts and dresses.
Beginnings a Century Ago AIMM and the two Mennonite Churches that grew directly from this work, CEMCO, with headquarters at Tshikapa in the area where the mission started, and CEM, which started in Mbuji Mayi after independence (and still headquartered there), are continuing God’s work. There are now two large Mennonite Church bodies of believers in the Congo. A third one is the CEFMC that is collaborating with the other two. To commemorate this centennial, there were major extended celebrations at Tshikapa and Mbuji Mayi in July, 2012. In 1912 Aaron and Ernestine Janzen went to Ndjoko Punda with CIM and worked for four years. The felt called to work in the west part of Bandundu Province and started work there under the Mennonite Brethren Mission that became the CEFMC. Two of the six mission stations were Kikwit and Kajiji. I visited them when I worked in the Congo. Because Kajiji had a nursing school that required the presence of a doctor, I went to work at the Kajiji hospital, covering the need when their doctor was gone. That their first missionaries went to Congo first in 1912 was their connection to this
Richard Hirschler, a medical doctor, served with his wife Jean, twice in Congo and also in Tanzania, now retired but still on short term assignments in Native American settings. He is reporting as participant in a centennial delegation.
Mission Focus: Annual Review © 2012 Volume 20 94 Congolese Church and CIM-AIMM Centennial centennial. The first missionaries at Ndjoko Punda, starting early in 1912, were Lawrence & Rose Haigh, joined by Alvin Stevenson. Aaron & Ernestine Janzen arrived in November of 1912 and worked with CIM from November 1912 through July 1916, and again from January 1919 to November 1921, when they left for the work with the CEFMA (MB). I worked mostly at Kalonda, which is across the Kasai River from Tshikapa, and occasionally filled in for the doctor at Jajiji. A significant effort was made to write short stories about the lives of many of the Congolese and their work in the church. The efforts of these people were known by some people, but many of their stories had not been developed or widely told. By the grace of God there were capable people in the Congo who made the effort to interview widely in the church and to develop stories for the book, 100 Ans de Mission Mennonite en Republique Democratique du Congo: “Témoinages des Apports Locaux: 1912-2012”. A group visiting from Canada, Switzerland and the USA gathered in Kinshasa in July, 2012. The next morning there were leaders from the Mennonite churches who came to be with us and heartily welcome us to the Congo. The visitors were divided into groups and sent with pastors for a visit to their parish or tour Kinshasa. Some groups went to the churches and homes of their hosts and ate a typically large spread Congolese style given when visitors arrive. My host was Pastor Bandoa of Bitabe CEM church, and our first stop was at Église du Christ au Congo (ECC) buildings, where it was mostly quiet on Saturday morning. However, as we approached we met Pastor Idor Nyamuka, the first vice president who works with evangelism and church planting. Pastor Bandoa told him who we were and why we had come. Pastor Nyamuka offered to take us to see his secretary who would show us around. Mado Fumunguya, his secretary who is fluent in English and French, joined us. She is a Mennonite and was to become our official translator during our visit to Tshikapa and Mbuji Mayi. Pastor Nyamuka described their work in evangelism and church planting throughout the country. The Mennonite Church has been expanding rapidly. He is a Baptist pastor and we inquired about his views about the Mennonites. He first mentioned their strong attitude of peacemaking but also recognized the struggles between some of the leaders of the Mennonite Churches in the past. He said that they have done much to influence education and build good schools. Now the results are that there are many of the church and government leaders who were trained in Mennonite schools. Also their health care programs and especially their efforts to help the poor people have health care access have been important. Although those who call themselves Mennonites are relatively few, their influence is quite large. He said that there are deputies Richard Hirschler 95 in the government now and the future is inspiring. The Mennonites have done a lot...
Celebration at Kalonda The next day we went by vehicle the seven kms. to Kalonda over the bridge across the Kasai River and on the roads I had traveled so often between Tshikapa and Kalonda. Many small shops have been built beside the road since I left there in 1984. The small village of Kalonda, that I and my family had called home, was alive with many people gathered for the graduation of seven Kalonda Bible Institute students that morning. It was held in the church with a processional, many choirs and an interesting program. At the end the graduates were showered with many gifts followed by a good meal. The afternoon was scheduled for seminars in the church where three of the departments of the church presented their history, their current situation and activities and their plans for the future. First was the education department which has supervision of 95 schools. There are primary, secondary, graduate level and trade schools such as the Bible Institute at Kalonda, a nurses training school at Kalonda and the seamstress school, Lycée Miodi at Nyanga. Second was the medical department which has seven hospitals and some village dispensaries as well as working with the Government public health program. I was involved as the Sante Rural (SANRU) public health program director when it was started in the Mennonite Church area around Tshikapa. Dr. Makina Nganga Burstein MPH followed me in directing the SANRU in 1985. Third was the social service department that is active in many churches helping those in need. They have much to celebrate and have hopes for improving on their current situations. “‘Missionary accomplishments were only possible because the Congolese people worked hand-in-hand with their brothers and sisters from North America’, Komwesa said, in congratulation to his church for their solidarity.”1 From my experience the importance of this could not be overstated. After breakfast (July 18) we went to Dibumba, a six km trek across the Tshikapa River. Our meetings started about noon and we had many choirs with one singing a long song recounting the 100 year history of the church including the names of the mission stations etc. Dr. Komuesa talked about missionaries and some of their positions on paternalism and control of finances, and a heavy focus on spiritual life with less concern about conditions that oppressed the Congolese people. He went on to give gratitude to these
1 E-mail, by Lynda Hollinger-Janzen,“Congolese Mennonites celebrate 100 years of God’s faithfulness and partnership” NETWORK NEWS from Mennonite Mission Network, 8-2- 2012. 96 Congolese Church and CIM-AIMM Centennial same missionaries who brought the good news of Jesus Christ. At 3:00 pm we had an excellent traditional feast and then a conference about women started with a lecture by Annie Tshimbila, who teaches at the Kalonda Bible Institute, She told about how many women were involved in the CEMCO church, and how important their role has been, while being denied most of the roles of leadership. The subject was pertinent since the General Assembly meeting held several days before the celebration, had voted that qualified women may now be ordained as pastors. Tshimbila said that many traditions of their culture, along with the teaching of missionaries, led to discrimination against women. She said that no woman had been allowed to lead a department....
Centennial at Tsikapa Sunday had been planned to be the culmination of the centennial celebration at Tshikapa. Church leaders, local dignitaries and many people from the city and village came to celebrate. Dr. Komwesa had words about the founding of the Mennonite mission and how God has blessed this work that has expanded to 9 provinces with over 110,000 members of the CEMCO today. This came about by the faithful work of many Christians and their offspring. Now we look forward expectantly to the second century. The Centennial book, was dedicated and introduced to the people. It was announced that one of the contributors, who had gathered stories for the book, had died the night before, followed by a minute of silence in his memory. There had been choirs from the various tribal groups who sang about our unity in Jesus Christ and often included aspects of the history of the Mennonite Church in the Congo. Although there have been severe tensions between some of these tribal groups that has affected the church in the past, this celebration was a good opportunity to bring them together. There was a gathering of, “…Mennonites from three continents in praise for ‘100 years of evangelization and cultural encounters.’”2 It included a lot of noise and celebration. One of the large choirs with over fifty voices, that sang frequently throughout the week was La Chorale Grand Tam-Tam, (Big Drum Chorale). This group from Ndjoko Punda walked together over the 150 km the week before, carrying their drums, luggage and even some babies over the savannah and through the forests through which I used to drive my motorcycle. They spent nights in school buildings. The celebrations at Tshikapa were very inter-tribal and international. The work of the church in the past and at the present was discussed in its many aspects. We had many times of celebration including the graduation of new
2 Ibid. Richard Hirschler 97 pastors from the Kalonda Bible Institute. I had an interesting meeting with Fimbo Ganvunzi. We discussed some of the ways that Congolese had been confused or misled by the missionaries. Drums have been central to many of the activities in their culture. The early Mennonite missionaries did not appreciate the drums, especially in church and were even against the new Christians having drums. Then the missionaries introduced guitars into the church services. That surprised and confused the Africans because the only place else that they saw guitars was in the taverns of the Belgians, and the missionaries preached against using alcohol. At first, when the missionaries would invite children to school the important people in the village were not sure that they could trust the white people because of past experience. Therefore most of the poor children were sent to the school which ended up giving them advantages as the time passed. These were the ones who were taught the Jesus Way and they became important in the development of the church. The students were taught crafts and became educators and evangelists. As the village leaders began to see that they could trust the missionaries and that the educated children had advantages, they began to send their children to school also. The earliest converts who were baptized often became important leaders of the church. The missionaries did not emphasize the importance of nonresistance and the peace principles as taught by Jesus, but generally taught noninvolvement with the government.
CEM Celebration at Mbuji Mayi I went on the first of two flights to Mbuji Mayi where we were welcomed at the door into the airport by church leaders and were quickly processed through the airport to go out and meet a large crowd of church people who escorted us with very animated singing and dancing the three blocks to the church and school compound. This is where the CEM Church headquarters are located. We went to an open shelter on the compound where there were introductions. The crowd was then dispersed but invited to come back in three hours to welcome the second airplane load of visitors which they did. At noon we had a good discussion about the culture and history of the Congolese with CEM President, Rev.Benjamin Mubenga, before the food arrived. It was interesting to see the difference in perspective of someone born after Congo independence, born in 1965, and the people born a generation earlier. He did not have much interaction with missionaries in the Congo because of the lack of relationship between AIMM and CEM for many years. CEM was started by refugees from the West Kasai to Mbuji Mayi 50 years ago when the church leaders in Tshikapa did not want the then elected president of the church to be in control. President Rev. Mathew Kazadi gathered other 98 Congolese Church and CIM-AIMM Centennial
Mennonite refugees and worked with CIM missionary, Archie Graber, during the forced migration and in 1962 the CEM was organized. It was officially recognized in 1966 as a separate community by the National Protestant Church. This year they are celebrating 50 years of their church along with the relationship to their roots started 100 years ago. Rev. Mubenga told how the Lulua people and the Baluba people were cousins and their customs were similar. Traditionally they were against killing anyone, and they tried to make peace even when other tribes were attacking them. They ended up being pushed into the sandy less agriculturally productive regions. But that is where the diamonds are found and they have gotten some compensation from that. Both girls and boys shared in the family’s inheritance. The Baluba expected a man to have his field and build his own house before marriage. The couple would come from families that were well known to each other. They practiced child spacing by separating the husband and wife until the child walked and talked. They had several methods that were useful in reinforcing this. We arrived at the CEM headquarters compound at 11:15 a.m. the following day when the singing was just starting. There were a lot of people there and again there were several choirs and singing groups with drums guitars and dancing. Jean-Felix Cimbalanka wa Mpoyi the CEM vice president talked about several departments of the church and their contributions to the communities. He gave reports on the departments of health, education, both primary and secondary schools, social assistance for the poor and youth for Christ. They are celebrating their fiftieth anniversary and are now working in four provinces. They plan to add Bandundu as the fifth soon.. Mr. Benoit Kazadi, the vice governor, came at 12:30 and soon was invited to speak. He brought greetings and then gave a very truthful and encouraging Christian message that made me think that he could be a pastor. I found out that he is a pastor in a Pentecostal Church. Mgr. Jean-Marcel Mokuna Kanyemesha, moderator for the ECC Provincial Synode of the Kasai Oriental also spoke. During the program on the 25th, there were many references to Rev Mathieu Kazadi, who’s story in the book, The Jesus Tribe, is interesting and revealing. He was born in 1912,and an older brother brought him to Ndjoko Punda at a young age, so he grew up with the church. A missionary raised him and while he lived with them he became useful in the house. He went to primary school and Bible School there. He worked for the missionaries and at the same time worked as an evangelist and teacher. Soon he was able to buy some land to grow coffee and then processed the coffee and peanuts. He then became a pastor and was simultaneously continuing his work as a pastor, evangelist and a teacher of Christian Ethics at the Bible school. Being involved at an early stage of the Mennonite church’s development meant that he was known and loved by many of the leaders of the church. As an itinerant Richard Hirschler 99 evangelist he started several churches there between 1932, at age 20 years old, and 1940 when there were few CIM missionaries in the Congo. He was known for the way he proclaimed the gospel everywhere and in all circumstances. “His main preoccupation throughout his life remained the preaching of the good news of salvation according to the Anabaptist doctrine.”3He lived the Christian ethics that he taught and was adept at linking deeds to the Word of God. Blacks and whites alike appreciated his way and that assured the growth of the Mennonite church both spiritually and numerically especially in the Ndjoko Punda area. 4 When he and his family got their own house later in Mbuji Mayi, he continued worshiping with the Presbyterians. As other refugee Mennonites, some of whom were active in ministries in the Ndjoko Punda area, came to Mbuji Mayi, they gathered at his house and held their services there until it became too small. His son-in-law had become governor of South Kasai and he gave Rev. Kazadi some land to build another Presbyterian church. However, he determined that that place was too small and he was becoming dissatisfied with Presbyterian doctrine. He wished to return to Anabaptist doctrine and be able to serve the many Mennonites who were now living there. Therefore he called a meeting of all Mennonites to his house on April 24, 1962, and that is when CEM was initiated. God blessed him with a long life and he remained faithful through many trials.... In the early 1970s, Pastor Kazadi, then president of CEM, was not happy with the continuing conflict between the Mennonites and Pastor Kabangi, president of CEMCO, agreed that it was time for reconciliation between the two groups. Rev. Bertsche told me that in the early 1970s the two presidents called for a meeting of their members and some missionaries to meet at Lake Munkamba in order to seek a resolution and reconciliation. They expected to have those most opposed to resolution to come and air their grievances. Both presidents sat together at the front of the room according to Rev. Levi Keidel, who, at that time was a next door neighbor of ours in Kalonda. They invited those present to make whatever complaints or statements they wished to be heard. The first day there were many difficult situations brought up by members from each side that seemed to deepen the wounds that they felt. Both sides were feeling badly hurt. When they stopped that evening, all were invited to return the next day. Starting out on the second day it seemed that there would be a continuation of the complaining, until Pastor Kazadi stood up and said that, “We have heard much ‘tumvi’ (manure)
3Jean-Felix Chimbalanga,”Mathieu Kazadi and the new Evangelical Mennonite Church,”in The Jesus Tribe, ed. Rod Hollinger-Janzen, Nancy J. Myers, and Jim Bertsche. Elkhart:Institute of Mennonite Studies, 2012 p. 120. 4 Ibid p. 120. 100 Congolese Church and CIM-AIMM Centennial brought up yesterday and today it is time to bury the old ‘tumvi’ and start building relationships again. Everyone had heard the complaints of yesterday and those present began confessing their faults and asking for forgiveness.”5 At the end, prayer and celebration started, and they were talking together. In 1993 the General Council had accepted that women could be ordained and the ordination service was that evening. This ordination service included the first woman to be ordained by the CEM. After a big dinner at 3:30 PM the ordination started with a procession of the 16 candidates to be ordained. A men’s choir was singing and dancing and many people joined in the celebration as they came to their seats at the front. Sometimes the noise was so loud that the choir could not be heard. After a short sermon and exhortation to the candidates, they were invited forward to kneel and many of the church leaders prayed over them. The ordination was conferred on them and they were presented as new pastors. Then they were surrounded by a throng of people presenting white roosters, confetti and many presents in a tremendous celebration. Many people were taking pictures especially of the first woman to be ordained and her husband. The first eighty-five years of the mission and the church is described in great detail by Rev. James (Jim) Bertsche who was a missionary on the field with his wife and family for many years., then served as Executive Secretary of AIMM from 1974 to 1986. In his book, CIM/AIMM: A Story of Vision, Commitment and Grace, (1998) Bertsche pointed out that the first missionaries made two critical decisions based on their wish to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. First was that they must teach and work with the Congolese and give them the skills and authority to spread the word. Second was that they would not allow any tribal preferences or separations of the church in their work, especially because of the many tribes. “During the first decades of missionary presence, African leaders emerged who had close ties with their missionary counterparts. With modest formal education, (both missionaries and Africans) theirs was literally on the job training as understudies of the missionary pastors and evangelists with whom they traveled and associated closely. Frequently their relationships became enduring ones of mutual confidence and respect.”6 The mission stations were very far apart so that communication was done with letters carried by a runner and it was difficult and slow. The missionaries would travel some in the areas of their station and depend on the
5 Interview with Rev.Jim Bertsche 12-22-12. 6 Jim Bertsche, CIM/AIMM: A Story of Vision, Commitment and Grace,(Lima,Ohio, Fairway Press,1998)p. 27. Richard Hirschler 101
Africans to do more and more of the evangelizing and teaching. Starting with Tshiluba they attracted a few young men to their school and they learned to read and write in Tshiluba. Because the Tshiluba Bible was already available they studied the Bible and after three years the first converts were baptized. The missionaries would take these young men with them when they visited the villages and soon the Congolese were able to go on their own to tell about Jesus. In the late 1920s when some of these men were approaching middle age, the missionaries encouraged some of them to become resident evangelists located in outlying villages and they would visit the villages around them. About that time some girls were also coming to the schools and they learned more about Jesus. They became acquainted with the young male students. Often this is how they would find their spouse. By the early 1930s there were a number of these couples residing in villages around the mission station, and there was a sense of urgency to have at least one couple go to the large tribe of people to the west known as the Bashilele. This tribe had never accepted to allow missionary activity in their villages.
Congolese Couple in Daring Witness to Bashilele Tribe The first story in the book, The Jesus Tribe, tells the story of a young dedicated and humble couple who were willing to go, saying, “With the Lords help we are willing”7 This story was read and acted out as part of the Silverwood Church (Goshen IN) Centennial Celebration service. The couple went to the village with the missionary who had trained them to become messengers of the good news. They talked with the chief but he refused to allow them to stay. The local chief said, ““Why would we want a missionary teacher?” the chief asked. “What does he know that we need to know? Could we hunt better if he lived here? Could we smelt iron better than our forefathers if he talked about Jesu among us?””8 The chief finally grudgingly gave them permission to build on the edge of the village, but no one in the village was to help them build or to prepare their field. Also no children would be allowed to go to their school. The couple took up the offer and called the children to come each morning by using pieces of scrap metal as a gong, but no one came. They talked with the Chief and elders and on Sundays they held services with singing and told stories about Jesus at the open area in the middle of the village. One day the chief called the man to come to see him and when he got there a conversation proceeded something like this. “You keep telling us about someone named Yesu.”
7 Ibid, The Jesus Tribe,p. 4. 8 Ibid, p. 4. 102 Congolese Church and CIM-AIMM Centennial
“That’s true”.. “You tell us that he raised people from the dead while he was on earth.” “He did.” “You say that he himself died and then three days later rose from his grave.” “He did.” “Well, we want to try this Yesu business out here in our village today. Do you see that corpse over there? That man died this past night. Today at sundown, we will bury him as is our custom. But since your Yesu can raise dead people back to life, we want to see that happen before our eyes today. We’re going to tie you to that corpse. Then you can ask your Yesu to bring him back to life. If he does, we will rejoice and we’ll believe in your Yesu. But if not, we’ll put you in the grave with him.”9 So the plan was followed until it was nearly sundown when a boy came running to tell them that the Belgian administrator was in the next village and would be here soon. Quickly someone cut the man free from the corpse before the vehicle was heard. In the confusion of preparing for the administrator, he slipped away and joined his wife in their little hut. The administrator had heard that they had a teacher and asked how he was. The chief’s intent to put fear into the hearts of the new couple had worked but as they discussed the possibility of leaving that night and spent time in prayer, they decided that no matter what happened to them, they would stay. When the gong sounded the next morning the chief was astonished. Some boys heard the gong and one boy told the others that how surprising it was for the teacher to stay, so he must have something important to tell us and I am going to find out what it is. Several other boys followed him. This boy, David Lupera, studied well and became the first ordained minister of the Bashilele people. I remember traveling to Banga where the Bashilele tribal people were served. The church had built and was operating a small hospital there. Although this was a small hospital with poorly educated staff, they had been trained well to teach about healthy living and maintenance. They were taught to perform some important procedures such as emergency surgeries for common simple problems and treat TB and other serious infections. We had radio contact daily in the 1970s and 1980s so consultations were possible and MAF mercy flights were made when needed. A doctor made a visit one day a month if possible. In 1923 there was a baby girl born in the village of Luba Kakesa, but her mother died right after she was born. Her mother’s family did not want to assume responsibility for the baby so they planned to put the baby into the
9 Ibid.p. 6. Richard Hirschler 103 coffin with her mother. It so happened that a Congolese pastor, Joseph Nsongamadi, and missionaries drove through the village. They noticed that the people were mourning. When they discovered what the situation was, they asked to take care of the baby, and her family allowed the missionaries to take her. She was given the name Rebecca Gavunji and lived with the missionaries for a few years. There was another time that she could have died when she was young but was saved. She went to Ndjoko Punda for school where she met another orphan, Jacob Gasala Kasongo. They were married in 1935 and their first son was born in 1936, so she was thirteen years old when Kakesa Samuel was born and it seems that she did well in spite of or because of these challenges. She became an excellent midwife at Mukedi where she was director of the maternity ward from 1949 to 1972. The maternity unit is now named Mama Gavunji Maternity Clinic. There are stories about events such as the ones above that I consider involve the intervention of God’s grace. I started work at Kalonda in 1972 when Kakesa Samuel was the Legal Representative for CEMCO and he lived at Tshikapa. He was a faithful member of the administration at that time and an advocate for the well being of the church later when the administration had become a disturbance to the work of CEMCO.
Visions for Congo Mennonite Unity in Life and Witness for Next Century The Mennonites in the Congo had common roots in the 100 year old beginnings that have been blessed with hundreds of missionaries from North America who were able to overcome their tribal and denominational differences to work for the proclamation of Jesus as Lord of their lives. They have had thousands of Congolese who were able to overcome their tribal and location differences to work for the same. They have had their difficulties along with their joys but are still known among other Protestants for their willingness to work for peace. There are three official Mennonite churches in the Congo who at times are working together in some activities. They have spread from an area the size of Illinois to many centers throughout the country that is the size of the USA east of the Mississippi River. This was brought about by church planting done by members who were displaced because of ethnic cleansing, job transfers, political unrest and the sending of their Congolese people as missionaries. It spread from 14 small mission stations in two provinces to twenty five large centers in many provinces. People who have studied this attest to the work of God in ways that go beyond our understanding. The Presidents of each of the three Mennonite Churches in the Congo stated their visions for the future in the MWC Courier (2012/4): “Let us work together to breathe new life into Mennonite 104 Congolese Church and CIM-AIMM Centennial
evangelism and mission in the Congo. It takes fingers working together to eat okra sauce, so we commit ourselves to Mennonite unity. Our second century should be a century of strengthening our unity.”- Dr. Adolphe Komwesa Kalunga. President of the Mennonite Church of Congo. “My vision for our church is to build a true community that strengthens our leadership as a peace church, to empower local congregations to contribute to the growth and development of the church of Jesus Christ, and to better our partnerships.” - Rev. Gerard Mambakila. President of the Mennonite Brethren Church of the Congo. “The future belongs to God and we commit it into God’s hands. While recognizing this, we want to build a strong, united and dynamic community -- a missionary community whose goal is salvation for all people. In order to do this, we need training that will unleash a mental, spiritual and material revolution to overcome our precarious life situations.” - Rev. Benjamin Mubenga wa Kabanga, President of the Evangelical Mennonite Church of Congo. MY PILGRIMAGE IN MISSION Byrdalene Wyse Horst
On a farm near Archbold, OH, I was fourth of ten children born to parents who kept the radio tuned to short wave Christian HCJB, Quito, Ecuador, and Moody Bible Institute programming from Chicago. We heard missionary stories, preachers, and religious news every day. My parents invited visiting missionaries for meals or overnight. Years later I learned that my mother had hoped to be a missionary. Our family life centered on our farm, church, and service. Sunday afternoons we often distributed tracts in Bryan, a nearby city, or sang in nursing homes. In high school I earned attendance at Bible Memory Camp by learning the required 300 Bible verses while crating eggs and taught summer Bible School in southern Ohio mission churches. I absorbed a narrow definition of Christian: only those who belonged to our kind of Mennonite churches! I heard teaching that God has a blueprint for each life that we young people needed to discover. Otherwise our lives would be miserable and out of God’s will. I have come to believe that God gives people the freedom to choose what seems life-giving. My desire as a teen was to be a missionary overseas, hopefully in the jungle or in the mountains. I postponed a Goshen College scholarship to help on the farm for a year after high school graduation. During that year I taught Sunday School at a Spanish church where my parents were involved. Although the pastor was Mexican and conducted the service in Spanish, the children’s classes were in English. I didn’t understand Spanish, but listening to it every Sunday facilitated my Spanish study in college. One night in July 1960, before leaving for Goshen College, I couldn’t sleep, thinking about the coming year. Toward morning, the thought came to me to consider attending Eastern Mennonite College (EMC). It would mean turning down the scholarship. I finally prayed, “Ok, God, if my clothes are acceptable for EMC, I’ll go there.” I met Willis at EMC when we were assigned to do home visitation together Sunday afternoons as part of a mission outreach in Staunton, VA. Walking the streets we realized that we shared a similar desire to serve God someday as overseas missionaries. For the summer of 1963 between my college junior and senior years, I accepted a voluntary service assignment at a Mennonite school in Cachipay, Colombia. Gretchen Kingsley and I served together that summer and became
Byrdalene Wyse Horst served in Argentina with her husband Willis Horst, for 38 years with Mennonite Mission Network and its predecessor agency Mennonite Board of Missions. They live in Goshen, IN and have four children and seven grandchildren.
Mission Focus: Annual Review © 2012 Volume 20 106 My Pilgrimage in Mission lifelong friends. We had no idea that one day we would be on the same mission team in Argentina. As Willis pondered the future, he was drawn to Nepal. I wanted to serve in South America. Should we go separate ways? We consulted Dorsa Mishler at Mennonite Board of Missions. He counseled, “You decide on your relationship and the decision of where to serve will become clear.” With that counsel, we became engaged.
Introduction to Native Americans Willis saw a request for teachers on the Navaho reservation which would qualify for I-W service in lieu of military service. That sounded challenging, so I agreed. We married after graduation and headed west where we taught Navaho students for two years and, during the summer between, studied at the Summer Institute of Linguistics in Oklahoma with a view toward Bible translation. In 1966 we returned to Goshen, studied Greek and then seminary for a year at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries. While at AMBS, we learned that the Navaho Mennonite pastor, Naswood Burbank, requested a volunteer to fill in at Black Mountain Mission while he and his family attended a Bible Institute in Phoenix, AZ for a year. It was the same area of the reservation where we taught school and had often visited them. Eagerly we volunteered to return, and in 1967 our first child, a son, was born on the reservation in a mission hospital an hour away. We lived in Burbanks’ double hogan with an outhouse up the hill. A generator provided electricity in the evening. From the government school five miles away we hauled water in large containers on a small trailer pulled behind the mission pickup truck. The community families picked up their mail at our house whenever it was convenient for them. Navaho cultural courtesy indicated that a visitor sits in silence for perhaps an hour before stating the purpose of the visit. Often several children accompanied an adult. The visitors enjoyed holding our small son. Later we encountered a similar custom among the indigenous in the Argentine Chaco. Everyone’s “insides need to be lying down” before business can be introduced. A class of Navaho language study that year with Mennonite missionary Stanley Weaver, along with our involvement in the local Navaho church and community life clarified the call to long-term missionary service among indigenous peoples. Mennonite Board of Missions offered a possibility in the Argentine Chaco to teach the people to read the newly translated scriptures. The Chaco, far from any jungle or mountains, offered instead thorn forest even flatter than northwest Ohio farmland. Trusting God to take us through the adjustments, we responded positively and were accepted. During missionary orientation in June, 1968, Willis became severely ill Byrdalene Wyse Horst 107 with hepatitis which caused a six-month delay in attending Spanish language school in Costa Rica. Willis studied the full year of 1969 but needed much rest. At the Summer Institute of Linguistics we had met a Conservative Mennonite couple from Plain City, OH, who were doing Bribri Bible translation in southern Costa Rica, sponsored by Rosedale Mennonite Conference. We spent a week with them observing the translation work and the decisions about how to represent on paper difficult sounds in Bribri speech.
Argentine Visa Delays We returned to the US in December 1969 and packed for Argentina. The plan was to leave for Argentina in a month, but in early January 1970 Mennonite Board of Missions received word that our visas had been denied. We lived with my parents and Willis did independent study at AMBS. In a conversation with Professor John Howard Yoder that year, he encouraged Willis with the comment: “This is like waiting for the second coming. We don’t know when it will happen, but we believe it will.” When our visas were denied a third time, we were advised from Argentina to come as tourists and get residency visas after arriving. We celebrated New Years 1971 overnight on the plane, rejoicing in God’s goodness. We decided that we would call Argentina “home” without renouncing our US citizenship, and we would refrain from saying, “We’re going ‘home’ on furlough.” Upon arrival we lived for three months in a small apartment behind the Floresta Mennonite Church in Buenos Aires while pursuing visas. There we received encouragement and friendship from John Howard and Annie Yoder and their children who were living next to us in the parsonage. John Howard was teaching at several seminaries that year in lower South America. In March we traveled by bus to the Chaco region in northeastern Argentina without residency visas. Mattie Marie and Michael Mast met us and began orienting us to the ministries in which they were involved. Together we visited indigenous homes and churches within a 200-mile radius on weekends, resourcing and encouraging church leaders, preaching and teaching when invited. We also made available a supply of Bibles, hymnals and other appropriate literature in Spanish as well as in the three indigenous languages of those churches: Toba Qom, Mocoví and Pilagá. In May 1971 we came home one Sunday evening from a weekend trip to find a police order posted on our front door giving us 24 hours to leave the country. The time limit had already passed, so we walked in and called the Argentine Mennonite pastor working on our case. He urged us to stay home and wait and trust God that our situation would be resolved. He informed us that if we left the country, we would be permanently barred entry. This pastor left no stones unturned and conducted extensive research 108 My Pilgrimage in Mission with photos and a comprehensive report to present to government officials about Mennonite Churches and mission work in Argentina. However, neither that nor the fact that we now had an Argentine daughter born in the Chaco in September 1971, were sufficient. But thanks to the prayers of many people and churches, along with the pastor’s persistent diligence in filling out innumerable forms and knocking on government officials’ doors, our permanent visas were finally granted in February 1972. God truly performs wonders and moves mountains. We felt overwhelmed with gratitude. After some years in the Chaco, I realized that I likely wouldn’t have lasted long-term in a jungle because rainy weather depresses me, nor would I have been happy in the high mountains in winter because I don’t enjoy being cold. But I loved the Chaco heat, similar to Miami, FL weather. The Chaco seemed like the right place for me and I felt at home.
Argentine Chaco Ministry Several weekends a month we traveled as a family, camping out at a Toba Qom community in the churchyard under a tree or beside the pastor’s home. After one camping trip I wrote,
Home looks so good, but it doesn't seem fair that inside the house I have several faucets with clean water, easy access to enough food, fruits and vegetables, clean cups, a dry bed, a shower, the bathroom door is fastened to the wall, we are alone reasonable stretches of time, we can call our children, we have money to meet our needs, I don't have to store my kettles on a tree branch, or leave the soiled dishes on the table where the chickens and flies search for a morsel. Life isn't fair, and it's only by God's grace that we enjoy these comforts. So we do want to be generous and gracious.
Wednesday afternoons a friend stayed with our children while Willis and I visited Toba Qom families in a community about six miles north of Formosa City where we lived. I also helped women learn to read and write along with Bible study. One pastor told me the women and young girls were asking for help with Spanish vocabulary to be able to talk with doctors about their bodies. So I teamed with a non-indigenous nurse who was a pastor’s wife and a Toba Qom midwife to hold a series of workshops on hygiene and women’s concerns. One Wednesday I informed the women that I was invited to lead a Bible study at a Toba Qom church two hours drive away, which meant I would not be present the following week. They responded, “But you can’t go, you’re our teacher.” For years the Chaco mission work seemed to me a man’s world. I Byrdalene Wyse Horst 109 became aware that the men on the mission team talked about “my car,” “my trip,” even when the whole family traveled. I longed for more equality in terminology and space in ministry. It felt as though we missionary wives, in a sense, raised the children and “held down the fort” while the men visited churches. Before we left for Argentina, someone had told me, “If you can raise a happy family in the Chaco, you will have done your part.” It was good counsel, but frankly, that was not the kind of missionary career I dreamed of. I hoped to be out there with Willis making a difference in the world. I discovered, though, that I did thoroughly enjoy being a mother, breast feeding, rocking, doing creative activities with our children and their friends, teaching them in English in the afternoons, and helping them accept Papi’s absences. Our second daughter was born in 1974. During the 1970’s Argentina experienced violent guerilla activity, kidnappings, then the 1976-1982 Dirty War, a military coup patterned after Hitler’s strategy to form a pure society, this time by eliminating intellectuals and anyone serving the poor. Those were frightening years. Late one night as my colleague, Mattie Marie Mast and I were returning from a Bible Study, we were held at gunpoint when soldiers jumped out of the military truck we were following and searched our car. Soon after that war came the tensions of the Falkland Islands War, and our son’s high school classmates labeled him the enemy when the USA sided with England against Argentina. Our third daughter was born in 1977, during this traumatic time. I cherished friendships formed with the mothers of our children’s friends in our neighborhood in the city, which gave ample opportunity to discuss our unique missionary presence. “No, we are not here to convert or civilize the Indians; no, we don’t build churches, or schools, or carry out assistance or development programs; we’re not pastors of any church. We do learn and promote the indigenous languages and culture. We welcome their visits to our home. Through studying the Bible together and making Bibles and other literature available in their languages, we resource and enable pastors and spiritual leaders. Also, we advocate for indigenous rights through local initiatives.”
We referred to our missionary presence as a ministry of accompaniment. We were there not to take over leadership, nor to teach how to be a “correct” church from our viewpoint. Rather, we sought to be a sympathetic ear, to discover together how God was guiding, and to encourage and strengthen their own identity as an ethnic people. We saw the goal to be a thoroughly indigenous church, with local spiritual leaders completely in charge. Our missionary presence was to accompany, “walk along side of,” indigenous leaders. This kind of missionary presence, so different from the 110 My Pilgrimage in Mission established pattern of the time, was incomprehensible to most people outside the indigenous communities. Over the years it seemed that rather than tell people they needed to be saved, it was more honest and fruitful to talk together as friends about how we see God working in our lives, share what’s difficult for me and where I need to grow. With the indigenous women, I often asked them how they began to follow Jesus. The response was usually a story of a crisis involving illness, conflict or desperation. One space I found to use my gifts for ministry from home was in preparing and editing literature for distribution. Beginning in the 1950’s, the Mennonite missionary families published and distributed “Qad’aqtaxanaxanec” (Our Messenger), a pastoral letter designed to promote the translated scriptures and strengthen church life and ministry. By 1971, it had become a quarterly pamphlet with copies mimeographed on a hand-cranked machine and mailed to 30 churches. When we retired, the number had reached 5500 copies mailed to more than 400 addresses to several hundred church groups. For use in churches, I prepared and published booklets, some of them illustrated, by permission, with photos of people we knew in the indigenous churches. These materials had large print with limited vocabulary for literacy use. Some were illustrated Bible texts, such as Psalms 23, Selected Proverbs, Jonah, Phillip (Acts 8), Hagar, Ruth and Naomi. Songs and choruses in Toba Qom became an illustrated songbook which we used as a literacy tool. Another involvement brought further changes in my thinking. Beginning in 1979, missionaries serving among indigenous peoples of the Gran Chaco met together one weekend each year. This soon became a conference that included Protestant, Evangelical, Pentecostal, Catholic and Anabaptist workers, gathered for fellowship and discussion of a chosen theme. These times of ecumenical conversation, worship and prayer moved me to embrace differences by recognizing that the needs in the Chaco were too great for any one group alone. Instead of competing, we were complementing each other. For example, no other group was focusing specifically on the Bible: translation, distribution, grassroots Bible study or relating to the indigenous churches. For years I worked closely with Catholic sisters in planning some of these gatherings, and preparing several books for publication. In this way I came to love and accept them as dear sisters in Christ and friends. Since 1997 this diverse group of missionaries shares communion on the final day of the conference.
Women’s Concerns The year 1987 brought change. For years I had been teaching Toba Qom women to read and write their language using simple Bible stories and Byrdalene Wyse Horst 111 texts. Now, for the first time, indigenous women asked for their own Bible study apart from the men, and invited me to coordinate. So I studied books in Spanish and in English on women’s issues, feminist theology and women of the Old Testament. Especially pertinent were the study booklets that South African women in Mthatha had prepared. We called these Bible studies with women Bible Circles because sitting in a circle invited full participation on equal terms and avoided the hierarchical model of traditional classroom education. I began each Circle by saying, “All of us are teachers; all are students, all are of equal value before God. One coordinates, but each participant has a unique contribution to share which can be God’s word to the group.” This format empowered the women to express their own reflections and experience in a way they didn’t when men were present. When first introduced to the Bible Circle, one participant observed, “This creature has neither head nor tail, and therefore won’t go anywhere.” But once they experienced it, this format burrowed deeply because the circle is central to indigenous spirituality everywhere. Occasionally, in conversation with indigenous women about God’s work in our lives, one would mention domestic violence. I began asking about this trauma, how they felt about it and what to recommend. These conversations led me to prepare an article on the subject for Our Messenger in which I included a few anonymous testimonials I’d collected and urged both spouses to respect each other and to be kind. I tried to make my thesis clear: that no one has the right to physically or verbally harm a spouse or a child. A few weeks later a young husband told me, “We men talked about that article for three hours last Sunday afternoon. We concluded, ‘It looks like the women are on their feet,’” (meaning they are making themselves heard). Domiciano, a Toba Qom pastor, and his wife, Rosenda, have eight children. One Saturday morning he rode his bike the seven miles into town to visit us, and surprised us by asking, “What shall we do? Our teenage daughters want to go to church during their monthly period when they should be staying home. They get up, bathe, and go, even if we say no.” Toba Qom culture includes a strong prohibition against any menstruating female being in close proximity to a male. This custom is based on a belief that menstrual blood has the power to effect negative results. For example, male speakers and singers who become weak and hoarse during their participation in the church service usually conclude the condition was caused by the smell of menstrual blood. A menstruating woman does not participate in a communion service or a wake. After a long conversation with Domiciano, I quietly mentioned Jesus’ words, “Let the children come to me. Don’t try to stop them.” (Mk 10.14CEV) I began discussing this dilemma concerning church attendance with indigenous women. Later they asked me to talk with pastors also since they 112 My Pilgrimage in Mission didn’t feel comfortable approaching the subject themselves. One woman confided that after missing several services she needs the encouragement of the singing and preaching, so she sits inside the back door. Another said she wishes her daughters could go because as it is, they don’t stay at home and rest; instead, they roam and hang around with the wrong crowd. One church allows women to sit with the congregation but not be on the platform. In another church, as a menstruating woman enters, she lets the pastor know not to call on her to speak because of her condition. In contrast to Domiciano’s concerns, his wife, Rosenda said that her grandmother had gathered all the females of her family, including the in-laws, and counseled them: “You know we have this custom of women staying at home during their period. But we should not follow the old customs any longer, because now we are following the Bible.” Although ancient customs change slowly, the churches are processing this cultural prohibition in a thoroughly indigenous manner. Without forcing the issue, they search for non- confrontational ways of respecting diversity.
Recording Ministry We had been assigned to the Argentine Chaco to teach indigenous people how to read the Bible portions translated into their languages. During Bible studies we included reading practice. We also taught individuals, but not many of them learned to read well. As in other oral cultures, people preferred to listen to the text and had great capacity to remember and reflect on what they heard. When we visited churches, I recorded church services and the testimonies of those willing to tell of God’s work in their lives. Then we took these cassettes to the government hospital two blocks from our home to play for tuberculosis patients interned for months at a time. Tears of joy and loneliness would fall as they listened, but invariably they drew strength from the singing and preaching to carry them through the long days ahead until we would return the following week. I also played cassettes for visitors as we sat together for hours on our front porch. In Our Messenger, we included testimonies I transcribed from recordings. I remembered that Rosenda Diarte, one of the preachers in her church, could write her language. I asked whether she would be willing to transcribe recordings of messages. She wrote them out in Toba Qom, which her husband, Domiciano, translated to Spanish. This experience helped prepare her to become one of a team of three translators who then worked with Richard Friesen several years to revise the Toba New Testament, first published in 1982. Rosenda also became president of the Argentine national women’s organization of the indigenous United Evangelical Church. Byrdalene Wyse Horst 113
From Toba Qom to Pilagá Ethnic Group In 1997 Keith and Gretchen Kingsley joined us in Formosa as part of the Chaco Mennonite Team. Kingsleys began relating to the eighty-some Toba Qom churches we had been visiting for many years. Willis and I then concentrated on the eighteen Pilagá communities three or more hours drive from our home. The total Pilagá population is about 8000. From 1999 until retirement in 2009, I focused on facilitating Pilagá scripture recording, a project that became the Argentine Bible Society’s first audio scripture production in an indigenous language. Back in the 1940’s and 1950’s, before his people knew of Jesus, Luciano Córdoba, a Pilagá religious leader, had initiated a large spiritual renewal movement. When word reached him that a powerful messenger had appeared among the Toba Qom, traditional enemies of the Pilagá, he traveled by foot and horseback nearly 200 miles to make contact. There he met evangelist Juan Lagar and acquired Spanish New Testaments and hymnals. Back home he encouraged his followers to carry these books and gave them this prophecy, “This book is a powerful message, although we can’t read it. Someday someone will come who can read from this book. Listen, and pay attention to its message.” Soon thereafter, when Toba Qom evangelists began preaching Jesus among their Pilagá relatives, they encountered a receptive people. Today the Pilagá consider Luciano Córdoba to be the “John the Baptist” of the Pilagá nation because he pointed his people to Jesus.
Audio Scriptures In 1997 the United Bible Societies began an emphasis on Audio Scriptures as a response to the needs of largely oral societies. The UBS called this format a new “language” that required an adapted translation of the Bible text and reflected a current vernacular dialect in use by the youth, rather than a perhaps more “correct” dialect better understood by the elderly. The audio versions would use text adapted to a dramatized readers’ theater format with a narrator reading all the portions that were not direct conversation. Indigenous believers would participate in defining the text as well as assisting in the production process. This clearly meant modifying the already existing translated text and seemed like a daunting challenge. When the United Bible Societies held a training workshop in 1997 in Asuncion, Paraguay, for indigenous people of both the Argentine and Paraguayan Chaco, they also invited missionaries serving among them. Willis and I and another team member accompanied two readers from each of the three indigenous groups among whom the Mennonite Team was serving. One of the Pilagá participants later read for the New Testament recording. Rolando Villena, of the Bolivian Bible Society, who later directed the Pilagá New 114 My Pilgrimage in Mission
Testament recording, was one of the technicians present. Mennonite missionary Albert Buckwalter and Julio Suárez, the elderly Pilagá translator, had completed the Pilagá New Testament translation; and distribution began in 1993. They had also translated the book of Jonah, Psalms 23 and 133. After the Buckwalters returned to the USA in 1993, Julio told us he wanted to continue translating, now in the Old Testament. We facilitated notebooks, pens and several Spanish translations along with the Toba Old Testament, which he used as his primary source text. However, Julio needed help with writing. It was difficult to read his handwritten manuscript, so we recorded him reading his translations. Someone told us of Zulema Sosa, a young Pilagá mother of four boys, who had learned to type in high school. She lived in the Pilagá community named Barrio Qompi with her husband, Cornelio Guayki, a preacher who had only second grade formal education but could read his language exceptionally well. They invited four teachers and church leaders to form a translation review team that met for three hours every afternoon to edit Julio’s translations. Then Zulema typed them. With Zulema and Cornelio, we trained readers and coordinated the recording of the book of Jonah in 2000. Three years later, when the translated text of the book of Ruth was finalized in readers' theater format, the readers recorded that book. During the next several years, readers recorded four stories from Judges, the Book of Lamentations, and selected Psalms. Each of these recordings took months of work involving many trips to the Pilagá communities. For the Psalms recording, the Argentine Bible Society consultant for scripture recordings held a music workshop where Pilagá musicians created songs inspired by the texts. A total of sixty people from six Pilagá communities participated in these five productions, including readers, musicians, and those who finalized the text. After each new recording was distributed in the communities, churches played them over their loudspeakers heard throughout the community. Families also played them at home, and children soon had the stories memorized. The recordings also provided new preaching and teaching content.
Pilagá New Testament Recording Willis and I had intended to retire at the end of 2007. However, in February of that year while Willis and I were on spiritual retreat I received a clear sense of call to stay another year to record the Pilagá New Testament. In June 2007 the Argentine Bible Society held a second workshop in northern Argentina on oral scriptures and invited us and two of the Pilagá readers to tell about the seven years of scripture recording. That recognition encouraged the readers and us to continue this ministry. Byrdalene Wyse Horst 115
Fifteen Pilagá readers had helped prepare the five scripture recordings done in the previous seven years. But for the New Testament recording we learned that we would need at least 32 readers. So in November and December of 2007 we held literacy workshops in several Pilagá communities for anyone who could read. We were amazed at the response and the enthusiasm. Skills varied, but the readers were eager to improve. By August 2008, the scripture texts and the readers were ready. Two technicians arrived from the Bolivian Bible Society, and over a period of six weeks, we recorded near a Pilagá reservation. A Catholic retreat center in charge of an elderly Italian priest provided the setting. The technicians improvised a recording studio with mattresses from the bunk beds. August is wintertime, but the temperature varies, so some days we shivered and other days we perspired because we could not have the noisy fan on during the recording process. Some days the hot north wind blew dust through the cracks. Willis took charge of transportation arrangements and paying readers each day. I took care of bedding, towels, fans, water, medicine kit, snacks, and meal plans with the cook. Every morning after breakfast we studied a passage of scripture, usually one that a reader had questions about, and prayed together. We also prayed with each reader in the studio before they began recording. The Bolivian technicians were Jose Luis, an indigenous Aymará from La Paz, and Rolando Villena, the Quechua Methodist pastor from Cochabamba, who had been at the workshop in Paraguay. He was in charge of scripture recordings in South America for the Bible Societies and had already done eleven New Testaments in indigenous languages, including Romani, the language of the gypsies in Chile and Argentina. The Pilagá New Testament would be his twelfth recording. As indigenous people, the technicians bonded immediately with the readers. The recording team completed the four Gospels and the Book of Acts. During the final week Pilagá musicians recorded instrumental background music and we and a group of readers listened to the entire recording to correct errors. In the end there wasn’t time to record the remainder of the New Testament. That remains for others to finish. Finally, Argentine Bible Society specialists worked with us and the Pilagá translation team on the design of the CD packaging, plans for reproduction, and distribution. They prepared sets of CDs, some in audio format, some in mp3 format, for the 50 Pilagá congregations. In addition, a limited number of solar-powered mp3 Megavoice players were given to the elderly or those with disabilities. In 2009 we enjoyed accompanying Bible Society personnel to begin distribution in the communities. Offerings, gifts and grants from faithful followers of Jesus far and wide made the recording 116 My Pilgrimage in Mission production possible. I’m grateful to have had this privilege of witnessing God’s faithfulness throughout this challenging ministry.
Testimonies As a way of communicating the profound impact the process of producing the Audio Scriptures had on those involved, I include testimonies of some of the participants. Rolando, the Bolivian Bible Society technician, told the group about his brush with death two months before, as he was returning from Hosanna Ministries in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As his plane was taxiing down the runway, the passengers heard a noise like an explosion, then felt a hard bump. The plane stopped and everyone filed out in total silence, amazed that they were still alive and no one was injured. Back home in Cochabamba, Rolando’s teenage son said, “Papá, God saved your life for some reason. You have something to do yet.” This New Testament recording wouldn’t have happened that year without Rolando! Zulema Sosa was a key person in the ten years of Pilagá Bible translation and scripture recording. She and her husband, Cornelio Guayqui, helped lead the reading workshops. She is proud to be Pilagá and loves her people. She narrated the book of Mark, reading all that was not conversation. She also read the explanatory notes the Bible Society included for each book. After the recording was completed, Zulema told us that her grandmother Rosa had shared for the first time a memory from Zulema’s childhood. “Zulema, when you were in grade school and were supposed to practice writing words in Spanish, I would urge you to write them in our language, and you would think hard how they might look and you’d try to write taxadéna’ (father) and chidéna’ (mother). Now look what you´re doing!” Zulema told us, “I liked writing down those words. But I never dreamed I would someday be translating the Bible! What my Grandmother told me made me so happy.” She realized how God had been working in her life to prepare her for making God´s message clear for her people. One night in December 2007 Zulema had severe abdominal pain. Finally at dawn she called for the ambulance at the hospital where she works as a laboratory assistant. By evening she was in a coma. When she regained consciousness the doctors operated and found a ruptured cyst in her abdomen and an inflamed appendix which they were able to remove just in time. She remained in intensive care for five days. In the ICU she dreamed that huge animals—elephants, a hippopotamus, and others—came crashing into the hospital. She heard them thundering down the halls saying: “We’re going to eat three because we have big mouths.” Zulema became very frightened because they were the three Byrdalene Wyse Horst 117 patients in intensive care. When she heard them crash through the ICU wall, she saw a cloud of smoke rise from the foot of her bed, and over the smoke were five figures in beige-colored gowns, looking down on her. The huge animals turned immediately and left, and Zulema awoke. We rejoiced that by God’s grace she would be able to continue preparing the text and the readers for recording. Cornelio Guayki, Zulema’s husband, read the part of Jesus in the Gospels. He is an excellent Bible teacher and preaches regularly. One night in June, 2008, two months before the recordings were scheduled, he suffered an accident that jeopardized his participation. A severe thunderstorm hit their reservation. Cornelio remembered he hadn’t unplugged the refrigerator, so he got up and, barefoot on the damp dirt floor, reached to unplug it. The electrical shock he received was so severe that it damaged his arms and shoulders, leaving him with temporary mental confusion and lingering pain. He knew God had saved his life. While in high school, Oscar Florico was studying to be a radio announcer and working at the radio station. One day, very hungry but penniless, he walked around town searching for something to eat. In an abandoned building, he noticed a book tossed in the dirt. He dusted it off, paged through it, but couldn’t figure out the language. He sounded out words giving them Spanish pronunciation and suddenly realized he understood what he read, his own language! Oscar took the book home and began to read it. It was a copy of the Pilagá dictionary that Albert Buckwalter had prepared with his translator, Julio Suárez. We might wonder how anyone can enjoy reading a dictionary, unless, like for Oscar, it happens to be the first time he ever saw something written in his mother tongue. Oscar read Spanish well, but stumbled when reading Pilagá. With practice he improved and soon he could read his language fluently. Traditionally the indigenous people speak softly, but with radio training, Oscar had learned to vary tone and volume. He read the part of the apostle Paul in the Book of Acts with enthusiasm. Paul’s preaching was powerful through Oscar’s strong and confident voice. Doroteo Dominguez is a young Pilagá teacher in his 20’s. Doroteo’s father was alcoholic. In high school Doroteo went to class but spent the rest of the day smoking, drinking and carousing. He and his father often drank together. Once while they were drinking, his father said, “Son, I don’t ever want to see your son drink.” Doroteo had no children, nor even a wife. But his father’s words struck home, hard enough to give him courage to break free from both addictions. Soon even the smell of cigarettes or wine repulsed him. Doroteo is pleasant, kind and respectful. Doroteo plays guitar very well and sings many church songs. He read multiple voices: the part of John the Baptist, 118 My Pilgrimage in Mission a disciple of Jesus, Phillip, and the devil tempting Jesus. Cristina Mato, whose husband is a pastor, read the part of Mary Magdalene. When she came to record she asked for prayer for their 18-year-old son who had been baptized as a young boy. He was studying in high school but at night he would carouse with his friends, drinking and smoking. He lost interest in school and refused to go to church. A year later when we gave her a copy of the New Testament recording, she told us how Christmas night her son didn´t come home. She searched throughout the community in the midnight darkness and found him in a friend´s home, stretched out totally drunk. Her son is strong and tall, but Cristina, who is small, placed her hefty son over her shoulder and carried him home praying loudly all the way. Then, beside his bed she continued to pray until morning. I believe God gave her a double portion of strength to rescue her only son. Shortly after that, he told his mother that he was not going to drink anymore because the smell of liquor nauseated him. When school started again after summer vacation, he studied with diligence, stopped smoking, began going to his parents’ church. He was respectful and helpful around home. Román González is a young pastor, a Pilagá bilingual school teacher, a guitarist and singer. As narrator of the Gospel of Luke, he read all the parts between conversations and almost never made mistakes. One day at mealtime, Román told us that on that morning as he was practicing Luke 24, he read about the women coming to the empty tomb, and how later the disciples did not believe the women’s news. Suddenly he found himself crying hard because they didn’t believe the women! “That happens to many women, and even in the church,” Román said. “I am one of the pastors in our church. My father used to be the pastor but now he says he is learning from his son. I will never leave the gospel because I know God is so great and has done so much for me and for my family, healing and providing for our needs. My oldest son is 10, and during these days here recording Luke, I’ve come to realize that I need to start reading the Bible to my children every day to guide and teach them.” Ignacio Silva is also a bilingual school teacher and a preacher in his church. Several years ago he began writing down the history of his people. We got him a small recorder so he could record memories and stories of the elderly in his community. For the New Testament recording he read all the Old Testament texts cited in the Gospels and Acts. When we gave him his set of the recordings, Ignacio told us, “I would like for all our people, especially the youth, to become more aware of the importance of using our language. We are a marginalized society. What better way to strengthen our understanding of who we are? And who better than we ourselves to transmit the value of our own culture, especially by respecting our Byrdalene Wyse Horst 119 elders, whose memories are our books, our library. That’s why this effort to record the Bible texts in our language is so important for us.” When we gave Ignacio his copy of the recording, he told us, “I’ve worked with anthropologists, technicians, teachers, and gone to conferences, but you, you made me feel like a person.” I want to mention one elderly, dearly loved leader, Pedro Martin, the pastor of the oldest church in the community. He was a survivor of the Pilagá massacre in 1947 that the military carried out with the collaboration of the local priest. Pedro never learned to read, and for years cataracts blinded his eyes. He had to be led across the road from his house to the church. Eventually he was able to have surgery that restored his sight. Pedro was eager for a copy of the next Pilagá scripture recording. Following the New Testament recording, while Pedro anticipated the distribution, he went to Zulema’s home every afternoon for several weeks to pray for her and her family. He had been so blessed, he said, by the previous recordings in his language, and was eager to hear this one. He kept repeating, “This recording, God’s message, is very important for our people. We need it. That’s why I’m praying for your family.” In October 2008, two months after the recording was completed, a tornado twisted through Barrio Qompi, where many of the readers live. The storm leveled the two large brick Pilagá churches. One of them was the Foursquare Gospel church where 20 of the New Testament readers were members. The other was Pedro Martin’s church. The wind also destroyed many homes. The people rejoiced that they were still alive and only a few were seriously hurt. Since the tornado Pedro’s congregation meets outdoors. A few sheets of tin roofing provide shade for the singers and speakers. People throughout Argentina sent aid and food, and the government built new homes. The readers said the recording experience of daily exposure to the gospel text gave them the courage they needed to face the trauma of losing their homes and church buildings.
Conclusion In 2009 members of the Mennonite Team in the Chaco wrote of their experiences in mission. These were published in Buenos Aires in a book in Spanish entitled Misión sin Conquista (Mission without Conquest). When the book came off the press, the Argentine Bible Society director purchased a copy for each of the Bible Society personnel. The book became the basis for discussion in several seminars he led for the employees. In January 2012, a major Buenos Aires newspaper, El Clarín, published an article by the Argentine Bible Society about the Pilagá Audio Scriptures. We read it with amazement and rejoicing because it made no mention whatsoever 120 My Pilgrimage in Mission of foreign personnel or funds involved in the process, only of the Argentine Bible Society and the Pilagá people themselves. In this way the article communicated clearly an unspoken endorsement of missionary action understood as “mission without conquest.” The coordination of the New Testament recording was an adventure in gift-sharing among a broad spectrum of God’s family. It drew together gifts God had given Willis and me, combined with gifts the Pilagá believers brought to the task. We were all blessed by God at work among us. This experience resulted in a fulfilling way to conclude our ministries in the Chaco. However, my greater joy has been to observe the growth in the lives of indigenous women in the Argentine Chaco. Through sustained exposure to Bible texts, their faith in Jesus has empowered the women to stand “on their feet” and take their rightful place in living out God’s love. ACCOMPANIMENT: AN ALTERNATIVE MISSIONARY PRACTICE Willis G. Horst1
The book Mission without Conquest2 represents a case study of a way of doing mission which we as a peace church are especially interested in because it is an effort to recover the missional posture of the early church. The classic Christian missionary movement began and was largely carried out during the era of colonialism. The paradigm was Constantinian. The western worldview assumed superiority to the rest of the world because empire could be imposed through the use of force. Along with this mentality, those who went to foreign lands to convert the heathen assumed that the truth of Christianity was clear and that it was just a matter of time until Christendom would in fact take over the whole earth, ushering in the end of time. Today we encounter the world in all its diversity and multi-faith reality. Persons and empires who claim to belong to the Christian faith have shown themselves capable of being every bit as barbaric and evil as those of any other religion. We Mennonites have tried to dissociate our mission enterprise from empire and its imposition of the stronger over the weaker. As a missionary presence, we have sought to be in the world in ways which seem to be more closely aligned with Jesus’ own way of being in the world. Stanley Green has referred to this newer style of mission presence in these words: (The Mennonite, Nov 17, 2009, p 18) “Beginning around the midpoint of last century, Mennonites took seriously the need to reflect the example of Christ in their encounter with people of other cultures. That approach can best be described as accompaniment and is reflected in the stories in this issue [of The Mennonite] of Melanie Quinn (in Botswana), Moriah Hurst (in Australia), and Willis and Byrdalene Horst (in the Argentine Chaco, with the whole Mennonite Team), each of whom […] have been modeling a different way of being in mission.”
1 Willis G. and Byrdalene (Wyse) Horst served 38 years in the Argentine Chaco between 1970 and 2010 under the Mennonite Mission Network and its predecessor agency, Mennonite Board of Missions. They live in Goshen Indiana. 2 Presentation to Friends of Mennonite Mission Network, Goshen, IN, April 2010, based on English translation of the book release, November 27, 2009 at the Argentine Bible Society, Buenos Aires, Argentina: Willis Horst, Ute Mueller-Eckhardt and Frank Paul, Misión sin conquista: Acompañamiento de comunidades indígenas autóctonas como práctica misionera alternativa. Ediciones Kairós, Bs. As., Argentina, 2009. Available in Spanish only from: [email protected] Willis G. Horst, retired to Goshen IN in 2010, reflects on the progressions of the ministry of accompaniemento.
Mission Focus: Annual Review © 2012 Volume 20 122 Accompaniment: An Alternative Missionary Practice
“To accompany others in mission is to listen, discern and share with our companions what the good news of Jesus means in their context and find ways to empower them for their response to God’s call. Mennonite Mission Network has been attempting to find [for] ourselves and encourage Mennonite Church USA congregations on this journey toward a new way.”
Throughout the history of the church it is missionary practice which gives birth to changes in theology. Our time in the Argentine Chaco3 raised many questions for me. I came to the conclusion that my own theological formation did not have answers to some. Increasingly I felt the need to listen, to be present as a guest, to be careful not to take upon myself the responsibility to do that which by rights belonged to another to do.
Post-conquest Culture Mennonite mission workers in Western Europe have for some time referred to their context as post-Christendom. In Native American circles we talk more about a post-conquest culture. Christendom is still very much present in Latin America but the conquest of Indigenous America is the historical fact which most dominates the lives of the indigenous survivors themselves. The Chaco still lives and breathes the mentality of the conquest of its original peoples. The legacy of the historical conquest of the native Chaco peoples is etched into every cell of their memory. Not a day passes without their being aware of the continuing effects of the conquest, which was not limited to military conquest; it included cultural and spiritual violence—what today we would call genocide, ethnocide and deicide. Furthermore, the conquerors committed those atrocities in the name of their “Christian” god, and under his authority. During the process of Constantinization of the church, the term “Christian” came to designate all those who belonged to a certain empire, the Holy Roman Empire in that case. The church still bears the weight of that meaning. In the Chaco context, and, in fact, throughout much of Latin America, the term “Christian” carries a cultural rather than a theological meaning. When
3 The Gran Chaco is a geographical region in the heart of South America that includes western Paraguay and extends into Brazil, eastern Bolivia and northeastern Argentina. One of the ethnic groups the Mennonite Missionary Team relates to is the Toba Qom. Although known in the literature as “Toba”, a name given by outsiders, in recent years they are identifying themselves as Qom, their own term, meaning “the people.” Consequently, we are using the composite term Toba Qom in recognition of the preferred designation. Willis G. Horst 123 one identifies oneself as “Christian” in post conquest Latin America, the meaning is still first of all “of those who came to conquer”, in contrast to those who were already present and were conquered—the First-Nations peoples. It designates one as a non Indigenous. Thus, throughout the Chaco, people use “christian neighbors” and “indigenous neighbors” as contrasting terms. There are indigenous churches and there are “christian” churches, i.e., non- indigenous. During the Spanish conquest of the Chaco, the term “evangelize” was commonly used for the action of violently subduing the indigenous population, and subsequently forcing them to accept Christian baptism. In addition, during the years when military service was obligatory in Argentina, the Toba Qom conscripts were often baptized “Christian” by a Roman Catholic priest as a normal part of their training. According to the testimony of Domingo, a Toba Qom pastor and Bible teacher, he had high hopes that this would end the discrimination against the indigenous soldiers during boot camp. He thought that surely following baptism they would be treated like real persons. After all, the priest had told them they would then be real Christians. However, the day after the Catholic baptism ceremony, when they took their places in line for morning exercises, the commanding officer barked as usual, “OK, you indios over there and christians here!” So it was, as Domingo put it, just one more lie. “We were still indios. Baptism did not make us christian.”
Brief History of the Mennonite Mission among the Toba-Qom People To better understand the alternative missionary practice the Mennonite Team seeks to carry out in the Chaco, we must take a brief look at the history of the Mennonite Mission there. In 1943, when Mennonite missionaries from Canada and the United States established a mission to the Toba Qom people in the Argentine Chaco, they did so in the style of the already ongoing evangelical missions to Indigenous groups at the time. They sought to serve the Toba Qom in the best and most holistic way possible. Therefore they did not limit their ministries to evangelization in a strictly spiritual sense, but also sought to civilize the Toba Qom, whom they considered unfit to follow Jesus in their “uncivilized” state. They believed their calling was to guide the Toba Qom through a time of transition into a thoroughly Christian life and culture. During the first few years the Mennonite Mission established a mission compound completely equipped to carry out worship and Bible teaching, health and basic education services, training in farming and carpentry, sewing and homemaking skills, as well as managing a store in order to provide basic living supplies at fair prices for the Toba Qom living on the mission farm and in the surrounding area. This was indeed a complete mission program. However, it was carried 124 Accompaniment: An Alternative Missionary Practice out without valuing traditional Toba Qom culture. The indigenous way of life and native spirituality were considered only as negative influences to be overcome. The missionary vision did not include the possibility that God’s wisdom was already present in the indigenous culture. The missionaries’ language of communication with the Toba Qom was Spanish, since it was thought to be the key to future integration of the surviving indigenous population into the dominant Spanish speaking society. After all, at the time Toba Qom was an unwritten language. Neither did missionaries drink maté tea with their new Toba Qom neighbors. They considered this custom of sharing a common metal straw to be a dangerous way of potentially passing on contagious diseases, such as the widespread tuberculosis. Thus, missionaries took for granted that the civilization process for the Toba Qom should include use of the Spanish language—that of the conquerors, and support for their families in a sedentary style of life through cotton farming. The mission strategy envisioned that the Toba Qom families who were invited to live on the mission farm would be taught how to live in the new setting and would be converted to a Mennonite way of understanding the Gospel of Jesus. They would then return to their respective areas as emissaries of the new way of life as well as evangelists to their own people. Within a relatively short time, however, the missionaries became the “patrón” (used in the Chaco for the boss, foreman, or owner) of the Toba Qom adherents to the mission program. Those in charge of the mission program were inadvertently furthering the goals of the government and immigrant population of the time: to erase the Indian culture and transform the Indians into participants of the dominant “Christian” culture. Thus, Toba Qom participants in the mission program understood its demands to be simply another version of the larger social changes required by the so-called “Christian” culture that surrounded and dominated the surviving Toba Qom. At the same time, of course, they must have realized that the mission personnel were acting with all good intentions, and talked also about the love of God. But pressure to leave their indigenous ways was ever present. We must remember that the missionaries involved in the Mennonite program at that time were sent out with no specific training for understanding cultures so foreign to them as that of the Native American Indigenous peoples. This was also true of many missionary efforts of the time, both Roman Catholic as well as evangelical—Mennonites included. And not only in the Chaco, but in all parts of the world. They thought they were proceeding in an acceptable way since they included the message of salvation through Jesus as part of their civilization program. Today this approach looks like “ethnocide”, no matter by what name nor with what intention it may be carried out. By the early 1950s, ten years after the founding of the mission, Willis G. Horst 125
Mennonite missionaries were so busy administrating the entire program, they had little time left for teaching the Bible; neither were the Toba Qom people understanding the Gospel message, because they did not hear it in their own language. Something had to change! In 1957 Mennonite missionary Albert Buckwalter wrote a letter to his colleagues responding to an article entitled, “Acculturation and suppression of the Indian tribes” written by Darcy Ribeiro, chief of the Indian Protection Service (IPS) Studies Section of Brasil.4 Albert Buckwalter drew attention to an except from the article: In the critical balance sheet which we had occasion to present jointly on the activities of the I.P.S. and the Religious Missions, we showed that all the tribes which entered into peaceful contact with civilization during the last 50 years, those taken care of by the I.P.S. as well as those aided by the Religious Missions, were extinguished or are on their way to extinction. And it cannot be said that they were assimilated or acculturated, fusing into the civilized population. From every place where we have been able to obtain information, it appears that the Indians simply died or that only a very small part of them managed to survive, always remaining Indians, notwithstanding their having adopted the clothing and vices of civilization. [Factors leading to the obliteration of Indians populations] 1. The diseases brought by civilization, many of which take a grave form among the Indians; 2. The forceful incorporation of the Indians within our economic system when they are not prepared, 3. The creation of a real trauma, provoked by the impact of a society endowed with material things far superior which assume a great prestige in the eyes of the Indians. This trauma determines a collapse in their beliefs and values by which they explained the world and their place in it, finding reasons to live and love existence.”
Buckwalter then made the following commentary on the excerpt: “It is no passing interest which prompts me to bring your attention to this article, but the deep and growing conviction that we missionaries too easily cast aside such direct and obvious warnings under the pretext that we are following the Holy Spirit’s leading in
4 The article appeared in Boletín Indigenista, December 1956, published by Instituto Indigenista Interamericano, Niños Héroes 139, México.] 126 Accompaniment: An Alternative Missionary Practice
bringing the Gospel to the Indians, and are therefore immune from bringing tragedy to the very people we serve. “Most of us are guilty of not caring one whit what the Indians’ concepts are, and for that matter, of being pre-convinced that their ideas merit no serious respect from the missionary. The notion that we missionaries confront nothing but pure “paganism” when we face the Indian is a white man’s illusion, and as such, it is sin. The truth is that it “just ain’t true”, no matter how many seminary degrees you have, or how calloused your knees are. “A case in point is my own personal experience in the Chaco. We missionaries to the Tobas busied ourselves in the Lord’s work, that of doing just what all missions to Indians do: trying to help the Indians become good Christians like the missionaries. Now, this can be good if it isn’t taken too far. But unfortunately, we took it too far. We thought that a Christian should have the same completely materialistic concept of the causes of disease that we have. We also thought that he should be economically and socially individualistic. And what’s more, as long as we thought that way, we were frustrated in our work, since all the reward we got for all our hundreds of dollars worth of material aid, and the hundreds of hours of patient teaching was the persistence of this detestable (from our “superior” viewpoint) Indian character. “Thank God that in spite of us, He saved Tobas. In fact He saved so many of them that we had to become convinced that salvation is not by works. To make our position all the more precarious, God fortified the very beliefs which to us seemed so sub-Christian. The Toba Christian is more convinced than his unbelieving counterpart that healing of the body is basically spiritual- an act of God. Moreover, the communal spirit inherited from his non-Christian past is augmented to a devastating degree. One Toba recently said: “All I have the Lord has given me; therefore, when any of you come this way, don’t go to the hotel, come to my place.” Only those who have lived with Tobas know the utter impossibility of that man’s so much as ever getting a bank account. “It’s high time we missionaries reconsider our Gospel. Are we teaching that faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, saves from sin and gives us eternal life, or are we so confused in our ultimate issues that we try to peddle off the social and economic concepts of the occident (and more particularly, of the Mennonites, if you please) as an integral part of that faith?” --Albert Buckwalter, Sáenz Peña, Chaco, Argentina, January 24, 1957 Willis G. Horst 127
A Bold New Approach in Missionary Practice In 1954, The American Bible Society, upon request from the Mennonite workers, sent William and Marie Reyburn to the Chaco. With their training in cross-cultural communications, anthropology and linguistics, and their years of field experience as Bible translation consultants, the Reyburns were engaged for the purpose of helping missionaries in the Chaco understand the intercultural dynamics of their context. In addition, the Reyburns carried out a preliminary linguistic analysis of the Toba Qom language with suggestions for a scientifically defined orthography. (According to oral history, on one occasion, when the conversation was about whether or not to drink maté tea with the Toba, Bill Reyburn asked the missionaries, “After all, who should missionaries really come to save, the Toba or themselves?”) Based on the Reyburns’ work, Albert and Lois Buckwalter, who were directing the Toba Mennonite Mission at the time, underwent a profound conversion in their way of understanding their calling in the Chaco. They became the main protagonists of an innovative approach to inter-cultural mission, a non-paternalistic presence which did not propose to form denominational churches, or to impose imported theology. This was Mission without conquest, an experiment in being a nonviolent missionary presence. Albert and Lois, in responding to the wisdom brought to their dilemma by specialists in academic disciplines other than those normally considered sufficient for missionaries, clearly understood this change as coming from the Lord. They wrote to their mission headquarters, Mennonite Board of Missions, probably at least in part to help them comprehend such a radical change, “The Holy Spirit took the church away from us!” By the grace of God, J.D. Graber, far-sighted mission administrator overseeing the work in the Argentine Chaco at the time, encouraged the change, even though it meant entering uncharted waters for the Mennonite Church. Thus, in the mid 1950s a bold, new pattern of missionary praxis was born in the Argentine Chaco. The indigenous survivors of the Conquest of the Chaco were thereby free to experience the Gospel as invitation rather than imposition. Following this watershed change, Mennonite missionaries focused on various ministries designed to strengthen ethnic identity as well as to encourage the development of a thoroughly indigenous church. The goal was to relate to the indigenous on as nearly an equal basis as possible, as brother among brothers, as sister among sisters, so that God’s love would be felt as a non-intrusive presence. In addition to learning the local indigenous languages and translating the Bible, ministries now given high priority were: 1) a program of pastoral visitation serving indigenous churches over a large geographical area and 128 Accompaniment: An Alternative Missionary Practice participating in their worship; 2) distribution of literature, primarily Bibles and hymnals the believers requested; 3) the preparation and circulation of a pastoral letter to indigenous church leaders; and 4) Bible teaching when invited, but always as a guest, never taking charge of how that Bible study actually happened. The what, how, when and where was now in the hands of Toba Qom church leaders themselves. When the Mennonite missionaries began to call themselves “fraternal workers”, it empowered Toba Qom leaders to name their own missionaries and pastors from among their own people. This was clearly understood as a way of being present with the Toba Qom believers unobtrusively, respectfully, yet with the unshakeable conviction of the relevance of Jesus for the Toba Qom reality.
We Arrive in the Chaco (1971) When Byrdalene and I arrived in the Chaco mission field in 1971, this alternative way of missionary presence was already well established. As we sought to deepen and expand the model, we soaked up all we could from previous workers and from the indigenous people themselves. Spending time with the indigenous leaders and their families convinced us of the mutuality of the accompaniment style. While we sought to accompany them, at the same time they also accompanied us. They hosted us both physically and culturally, they gave us counsel, encouragement and often prayer for special needs. We learned that the gospel is perhaps announced most effectively by listening, by being fully present to the other person, that conversion itself is best achieved mutually. In time, the Mennonite Team’s accompaniment of indigenous people in the struggle for human rights—especially in their claims for land, which is indispensable for maintaining indigenous identity—led the team to begin broadening their involvement beyond the growing institutional church. Gerald Mumaw, who had been director of MCC’s program in Bolivia, became our Latin American secretary. Gerald encouraged us to explore moving into other areas with the same accompaniment style which had been developed for our involvement in the church. Today the team accompanies indigenous initiatives in areas of bilingual-intercultural education, social organization, recuperation of land, as well as church leadership formation, intercultural Bible studies, Bible translation, and the production of Audio Scripture recordings in indigenous languages. At the same time, we recognized the importance of being witnesses. We began to understand that evangelization often takes the shape of a simple word of testimony which identifies God’s presence. Sometimes that word affirmed the achievements and victories of the people in order to strengthen dignity and self esteem. Sometimes it was a word to endorse self-determination Willis G. Horst 129 as a viable road for the achievement of human dignity in the world. In other instances, it took the form of denouncing injustice. Our indigenous friends themselves taught us the profound value of intercultural theological dialogue. We found that in order to hear God’s voice through the Biblical texts from an indigenous viewpoint, the circle is the best format. In what we called the Bible Circle, everyone teaches and all learn from each other. Together with them, the Mennonite Team continues learning how best to be present without conquering the other—neither for expanding the Christian denomination which sent them out nor for spreading the culture of the workers themselves. As time passed we realized that the future of the fraternal accompaniment of the indigenous peoples in the Argentine Chaco should be in the hands of Argentines. Today three very capable Argentine families are serving on the Mennonite Team. Though not all from Mennonite background, all three came to the team convinced of an Anabaptist theological stance. Personally, it has been a source of profound gratitude to see Argentine workers join the team, take on the accompaniment model and keep developing it. It has also been a confirmation to see several other mission efforts in the Argentine Chaco, Catholic as well as evangelical, adopt the accompaniment model for their own mission efforts. We as a Chaco Missionary Team claim with conviction that this is the most adequate way we have discovered to carry out Christ’s mission in the context of the First Nations in the Chaco. May God receive the glory for patiently guiding the Mennonite Team in the Chaco in learning to practice “mission without conquest.” GLIMPSES INTO A REREADING OF GOD’S MISSION Willis G. Horst
My pilgrimage in mission is the story of how a life of service in a radically different cultural milieu transformed my understanding of God’s mission. I have described my life quest as a search to identify inclusive/- exclusive faith issues. I used to call it the search to define syncretism. Thirty- eight years of pursuing that quest among Native American followers of Jesus helped me understand God’s mission in terms I now believe to be more closely aligned with indigenous spiritualities than with common western Christian definitions. In addition, I found my life work increasingly driven by a search to understand a basic hermeneutical question: how to read the Bible with devotion and respect, but also with intellectual honesty and cultural sensitivity. One’s view of the Bible is inextricably tied to one’s understanding of God’s mission for the church in the world.
Growing Up My quest began in childhood as I pondered the parameters of the church. Who was in and who was out? I grew up in the Wisler Old Order Mennonite Church near Wadsworth, Ohio, and joined church at age 14, a bit younger than most of the candidates. During my years in public high school, the narrow definition of just who was living in full obedience surfaced. I began to spread my wings in activities outside the church. Singing Handel’s Messiah in a community choir convinced me that God was also actively involved outside of the Old Order Mennonite fold. At age 19 a decision during an Augsburger evangelistic tent meeting near Orrville, Ohio, gave me new resolve. The promise to the Lord was to take my faith seriously no matter where that would lead me. Intuitively I realized it would mean leaving the church of my childhood, as my horizon had broadened. There was no turning back. I made the commitment to become a missionary at age 20 while taking a short-term Bible course at Eastern Mennonite College in the winter of 1959, which my parents allowed me to attend against their better judgment. That decision motivated me to aspire to attend college and I returned home with a hunger for learning about the wider world.
Willis G. Horst, retired missionary, here reflects on how his thinking changed through encounters with Native American peoples, see also his “A New Call to Mission” in Mission Focus: Annual Review 2005.
Mission Focus: Annual Review © 2012 Volume 20 Willis G. Horst 131
Preparation I left for Eastern Mennonite College in Harrisonburg, Virginia, at age 21, where I followed a strict moral life, faithfully memorized the list of texts for Personal Evangelism class, and was active in outreach opportunities. I was stretched by my professors and thoroughly enjoyed the freedoms of a liberal arts college environment. It was also at EMC that I met Byrdalene Wyse, my future marriage partner. As love would have it, we both decided to do church outreach activities at the same mission outpost where we spent Sunday afternoons together doing house to house visitation. Along with training for future missionary service we learned to know each other. During my second year of college at EMC I was officially excommunicated from the church of my childhood by my own uncle, the active bishop at the time. On the written statement from the local ordained men, the reasons given included my confession that while I agreed to not partake of the communion service with those Christians who were not nonresistant, I believed I could continue to have fellowship with them. I was struggling in my search to know where to draw the line. Needless to say, the excommunication process was traumatic; the resulting estrangement from my church and family of origin touched me for life. Following that experience I decided that I never wanted to be guilty of excluding anyone from the kingdom of God simply because our religious definitions of obedience did not coincide. I transferred to Goshen College, Goshen, Indiana, for my junior year, following Byrdalene’s lead the previous year. Thinking I might need a profession to fall back on if Bible and Missions weren’t adequate for earning a living, I changed my major to Elementary Education. I also considered that as a missionary I might feel more comfortable in a bi-vocational assignment. Goshen College in the early 60s was a liberating experience for an ex-Wisler. Professors were stimulating in my quest for understanding the Bible and world religions. I was learning what an Anabaptist orientation meant for life, church and mission. I had opportunity for a variety of outreach and service activities that included leading singing for worship at Tri Lakes Chapel north of Goshen, and together with Byrdalene, biweekly boys’ club activities at Englewood Mennonite church in African American southside Chicago. Byrdalene and I also taught English to Mexican immigrant workers at Pine Manor turkey farms just south of Goshen. With Waterford Mennonite Church we helped give impetus to the founding of the Iglesia del Buen Pastor that reached out to Spanish speakers in the Goshen area. After graduation in 1964, Byrdalene and I married and began teaching on the Navajo reservation in the Southwest. Teaching school for the National 132 Glimpses into a Rereading of God’s Mission
Bureau of Indian Affairs qualified to meet the requirements of U.S. Selective Service as my 1-W obligation, an alternative to military service. Among the Navajo we taught school two years, studied the Navajo language and served a year of Voluntary Service at Black Mt. Mission where our son was born. Our experience with the Navajo language and culture convinced us that our call was to serve among Native Americans. We also knew we did not want to participate in mission as it was carried out by many of the missionaries on the Navajo reservation, whose negative view of Native American culture seemed unjustified. Further preparation included a correspondence course in cultural anthropology from the University of Arizona. Byrdalene and I studied linguistics and literacy two summers at the University of Oklahoma in the Summer Institute of Linguistics/Wycliffe Bible Translators program. We made good friends during our time at SIL and learned to highly respect their linguistic expertise, but decided that we wouldn’t be comfortable working under Wycliffe’s program. Although fascinated by linguistics and attracted to Bible translation, I was frustrated and began to question what seemed to be a compulsive urge to use literacy as the solution to world poverty or as a tool for evangelization. When we applied to the Mennonite Board of Missions (MBM, a predecessor agency to Mennonite Mission Network of Mennonite Church USA) and heard of the possibility of serving in the Chaco, we were quickly attracted to the non-paternalistic style of ministry there, although geographically and climatically we were not so enthused at first. This changed as we experienced it to be a birder’s paradise and Byrdalene realized she actually enjoyed the sub-tropical heat.
Further Steps In 1968 MBM appointed us to the Chaco. During our “orals” as candidates, one interviewer said to me, “If someone came running up to you and said, ‘I want to be saved,’ what would you say?” I hesitated a bit, then responded, “I would first ask him ‘Why?” I was hesitant to accept the traditional missionary role. In fact, I chaffed at the designation of “missionary,” and preferred the more ambiguous term “missioner”. I chose not to be ordained, which to me meant being set apart from the common people, the laity. At our commissioning services at both our home congregations, Byrdalene and I helped design a service which also commissioned some local members engaged in God’s mission in their respective home situations. This was a deliberate intent to not step up onto the missionary pedestal. Neither did I pursue a full seminary degree, although I did complete a one-year theology program at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries, designed for professionals in other academic areas who simply wanted to Willis G. Horst 133 update their theological understanding. In later stints at AMBS I preferred to study what interested me and took courses I considered potentially useful for our assignment in the Chaco, rather than meet degree requirements. While participating in the seminar for overseas workers at MBM headquarters in Elkhart following our appointment, I came down with a severe case of hepatitis B. During the three weeks in the hospital I was quarantined. They brought a TV into my room, hoping that would stimulate my interest in life. I was so ill, so tired, I didn’t care much whether I lived or died. However, during those weeks I experienced a profound touch of God which, as I looked back on it later, I could only describe as a kind of “close encounter” with the Holy Spirit. Some use the terms “baptism” or “filling.” Whenever the theme of reconciliation was portrayed on TV or in conversation with bedside visitors, or even when my own thoughts turned to the subject of forgiveness or reconciliation, my eyes involuntarily filled with tears. During the months of recuperation it slowly dawned on me that my future service would have something to do with the ministry of reconciliation. As it turned out, most of the years we worked in Argentina I served as coordinator of the mission team. That brought its own challenges for conflict resolution, especially when we took on Argentine as well as German team members. Multicultural ministry teams are often hard work in themselves. Also, in accompanying leaders of independent indigenous churches, I often found myself in situations where I was looked to for counsel in the search for reconciliation or conflict management. In 1969 we attended a year of intensive Spanish language study at the Instituto de Idiomas in San José, Costa Rica. The interaction with other missionary students on the way to Latin America was both enriching and challenging in this interdenominational setting. Byrdalene served as coordinator of the program of house helpers for students. I was elected student chaplain for our final trimester, with duties which included programming the daily chapel time. This was the era of the Vietnam War and protesters in the U.S. scheduled a Moratorium on the War. Along with several other Mennonite students plus a group of Mennonite Central Committee workers on their way to Bolivia, we could not resist the opportunity to make our anti-war voice heard. Together we scheduled a special chapel program. We arranged the benches in a circle layout (in itself an apparently unheard of innovation) and took turns reading, alternately, quotes about the war and pertinent Bible texts. This immediately electrified the atmosphere. Immediately after the final amen, a number of militaristic students of conservative denominations rushed to an adjacent classroom where they drew paper bombs, pinned them to their lapels and wore them throughout the day. Rumors flew. That evening a mild 134 Glimpses into a Rereading of God’s Mission mannered friend tried to convince me to resign as chaplain. After consulting with the director of the school, I conceded to make a verbal “apology” the following day in chapel in recognition that I hadn’t consulted adequately for the planning of such an explosive presentation. Through the experience I learned more about possibilities of interdenominational cooperation which would stand me in good stead for future collaboration with others in the Chaco.
Single-minded Persistence. Following Spanish language study we fully expected to leave Ohio soon for Argentina. However, the day after shipping our personal belongings, we received notification that Argentine immigration authorities had rejected our application for residency visas. Repeated applications were likewise rejected, so following a year’s delay we were advised to travel to Argentina on tourist visas, begin service and apply for permanent residency later (in country). During the delay, I pursued further studies at AMBS in preparation for our assignment. This was a time when others questioned our calling. We began to receive warnings from well-meaning friends that perhaps it was not God’s will for us. However, we persisted, trusting the voice within. Once in the Chaco, even though our visas were delayed another 1½ years in coming, Byrdalene and I were at peace; we felt we belonged there. Experience confirmed in our hearts that we had heard the call.
Argentina - From Truth-giver to Truth-seeker I went to the Argentine Chaco to teach the truth as I understood it. We were sent as literacy workers to teach people to read the recently translated Toba New Testament. For our first prayer card the Mission Board sent to our supporting congregations, we chose a text from Ephesians 4:11-13. “The gifts he gave were that some would be…teachers…to build up his body…till we arrive at maturity in Christ.” We would teach, to those who still didn’t comprehend the truth they were lacking, the “all things whatsoever I have commanded you,” of Jesus’ Great Commission. It didn’t take us long to realize the profound wisdom of God within the Toba Qom, even in the pre-Jesus era of their story. Toba Qom wisdom is based on relationship rather than on head knowledge. We marveled at the capacity of memory in oral cultures. We began to recognize the presence of the Creator in all things, to see and accept the Christian life lived out in ways quite different from our own. We also came to realize our own blind spots. We didn’t know all the truth either. Mattie Marie Mast, one of our fellow team members, expressed it better than I can: Willis G. Horst 135
I went to the Chaco as a seller of the Pearl of Great Price. Twenty years later, I found myself a fellow worker with those I had gone to serve, searching for the pearls of the Creator’s presence, and the truth hidden away in the lives and culture around me. The search for wisdom is a process in which spiritually sensitive persons from all cultures are already involved. We are called to join the search and to share our understandings with each other as among equals. To be missionary after Jesus’ own style is to enter into the dialogue with an openness to be further converted ourselves.
An Alternative Missionary Practice – Mennonite Chaco Missionary Team When we arrived in the Chaco region of Argentina in 1971, we joined Mennonite missionaries engaged in an innovative approach to mission work among the Guaycuruan indigenous people groups. In 1954, ten years after its beginning, with the help of anthropological and linguistic coaching and the full approval of a perceptive mission board administrator, J. D. Graber, the missionaries in the Chaco abandoned a “mission compound” model to launch a course of alternative missionary action that came to be recognized as an “accompaniment” model. Thereafter, Mennonite missionaries were identified as “fraternal workers” whose role was that of walking along side of indigenous leaders in their ongoing conversion process. Missionaries later referred to this change of attitude as a “conversion” of their own. Accompaniment included the effort to empower a fully indigenous church. Bible translation work and pastoral visits became major emphases. Byrdalene and I were immediately attracted to this culturally sensitive approach to missionary practice. Over the years we sought to continue the accompaniment model, and eventually broadened it to become a fully international worker team. The team sought ways to apply the same accompaniment style to other areas of indigenous life such as education, land acquisition, and legal rights through cooperative arrangements with local partners both indigenous and non-indigenous.
Dream: a Call to Accompaniment After ten or twelve years of service in the Chaco, although I found much to encourage me, I was also frustrated and felt I had not yet discovered my true niche in the accompaniment process. I spent a day fasting and praying on a vision quest in a wooded park outside the city. Several Bible texts came to me during that time. They spoke to needs of the Toba Qom churches, but I still couldn’t settle the relational dilemma: How was I to best accompany the historical process of the Chaco Indigenous peoples in their search to follow 136 Glimpses into a Rereading of God’s Mission
Jesus? One morning not long after this I awakened abruptly following a vivid dream in which I was standing on the bank of a river flowing through a deep, tall and dense forest. A group of Indigenous people were beckoning to me from the other side—something like a Macedonian call, it seemed. I did not remember crossing the river but upon reaching the group on the far bank I immediately understood they wanted me to go with them to find the way through the thick forest. A few of us went slowly and deliberately, finding our way cautiously, for it seemed somehow dangerous. At times one of them would spot a clue, other times I indicated the way to go. It was an uncanny feeling, as if I had gone that way before, although I didn’t remember having done it. I sensed that they trusted that I knew the way. Reflecting back, it seemed similar to the children in the Tales of Narnia finding the lamppost in the forest which led them back through the wardrobe into the real world. At times we skirted a human dwelling, careful not to be detected. At other times we approached a small clearing with a humble house where we received food and drink for the journey. I knew the trusted places and had no fear. It seemed to be a friendly and protective forest. Sometimes we gathered fruit from trees. Somehow I knew where we were going—to a safe place, a resting place, a refuge, deep in the forest where all would be well. I woke while still on the way, before reaching the destination, with a strong awareness of the forest all around me. I was not afraid, but filled with awe. I sensed the Presence that had guided us. A certainty filled me that we would walk together, accompanying each other on the search for a deeper spiritual resting place. That place would be the result of our sharing of insights and intuition. The way would not be found through the use of scientific tools or literacy. We would be guided by an inner light.
North American Sojourn 1983 – 1986 In September of 1983, illness in the family abruptly interrupted our ministry among the Toba Qom. We made an unexpected return to the United States from the Chaco to seek treatment for our 14-year-old son. This led to a critical family time of struggle, uncertainty and re-evaluation. Byrdalene and I found temporary employment in Elkhart, Indiana, while further seminary studies and valuable family counseling guided us in navigating this mid-life crisis. Following this three-year extended medical leave, our son now in college, we made a commitment to complete our career in the Chaco with the Mennonite Board of Missions. In January 1987, we left for Argentina with a vision to make the heart of our concern the nurturing of culturally relevant Willis G. Horst 137 skills in Bible study and theology. I intuitively recognized there was much more to be done in intercultural theological dialogue, a calling that challenged and energized me. Processing the decision to go to Argentina a second time verified inner conviction as a reliable guide for discernment of God’s call.
Renewed Search - The Search for Shalom Upon our return, Dr Walter Regehr, a Mennonite anthropologist from the Paraguayan Chaco, met with the Mennonite Team for a program evaluation. At the time Walter was working for the Indigenous Ministries Department of the Paraguayan Catholic Church. Two important conclusions came from our conversations with Walter. First, Walter stressed the importance of the land for Indigenous groups who had lost all territorial land rights during the Conquest. In response, the Mennonite Team began accompanying processes for legally recovering traditional indigenous land. The second result was the insight that each ethnic group or tribe was, already in their pre-Christian culture and religious tradition, engaged in what we came to call a “life project.” Each people is on a search for life, struggling against death, and moves through its historical process with the Creator’s guidance. Jesus’ entrance can enhance each “life project.” but is not entirely essential for there to be life. A life-giving history can also go on without knowledge of the Christian narrative. We began to discover Bible passages which hint in this direction, for example, Acts, chapters 10, 14 and 17.
From Classroom to Bible Circle In Bible studies we moved from the classroom model to a format we came to recognize as the “Bible Circle.” Although the Toba Qom are in cultural transition, their most persistent thought patterns are those of hunters and gatherers; communication is predominantly oral. Studying the Bible in this context needs to be: 1. participatory, 2. accessible to non-readers, 3. relevant to daily life, and, 4. transferable. That is, easily led by persons within the congregation who have little or no formal schooling and with a minimum of teaching aids. When I experimented with the Bible Circle format, the Toba Qom found it to be culturally appropriate for theological reflection. The circle has symbolic importance in many Native American cultures, representing equality, inclusiveness, unity, wholeness, and more. To coordinate a Bible Circle, all one needs is a few people who want to participate and at least one who can read aloud with understanding. Someone needs to choose the texts, but even that is often done best, or at least supplemented, by the group itself. The circle format lends itself to hearing each participant’s 138 Glimpses into a Rereading of God’s Mission
“word,” recognizing that each person has value and that God may speak to us through any one in the circle. An open Bible on a simple table in the center of the circle means that God’s Word comes to us in a definitive way through the Book, as it is “heard” and interpreted in the Circle. The circle format also illustrates well what theologians throughout Latin America often refer to as the “hermeneutical circle,” in which life realities (living in the struggle) provide orientation for re-reading the biblical texts, while the texts give illumination for reorienting life. We often use the simple comparison of a tree. Our life and the Bible are like two large limbs of a single tree. God is the root source and sustainer of both. Our experiences of life help us understand and find meaning in the Bible; at the same time, God’s written Word helps us know how to live. Thus, we begin by discussing issues of community life, then go to the Bible texts to hear how they are related to and shed light on our everyday life.
From Bible-centered to Christ-centered The more hermeneutical freedom we recognized, the more we began to differentiate between the Word of God and the book itself. We had considered that the accompaniment ministries practiced by the Mennonite Team were Bible-centered. We now realized that our approach to the Bible was Christ-centered or Word-centered. Not only does God’s Word come to humans in and through the canon of the Sacred Book; that same Word also comes to us through Creation, through oral communications outside the Book, even by means of non-verbal media. This meant that we now understood the values which the Toba Qom affirmed in their own traditional spirituality as expressions of God’s Word. The wisdom of the Toba Qom ancestors was just as much the wisdom of God as that written about in Proverbs 8 or Psalms 19, which clearly teaches that “The heavens are telling the glory of God….Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” God’s Word is present in Creation as well as in Scripture.
Indigenous Theology Over the last two decades (the 1990s and the 2000s) the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI), together with the Indigenous Pastoral Ministries Team of the Catholic Church (ENDEPA), sponsored intercontinental conferences on (American) Indian Theology. I was privileged to participate in the second one held in Panamá in 1991. Byrdalene and I accompanied two Toba Qom delegates from the Argentine Chaco to the third conference, this time in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in 1997. Among the Indigenous participants were ordained Catholic priests, evangelical pastors, avowed traditionalists, and most of the gamut in between. These gatherings of both Indigenous and other church Willis G. Horst 139 workers from agencies across Latin America were opportunities to hear from many leaders involved in the search to integrate Native American and Christian worldviews. One young teacher, a Mapuche Catholic woman from southern Argentina, declared that Mapuche spirituality has nothing to learn from the Church and does not need Jesus. A young man from a remote Brazilian tribe declared that as he understood it, Jesus came for those who were lost. Others, like his people, who had never distanced themselves from the Creator, were not lost and did not need Jesus. Needless to say, these were challenges to my own theology.
Retreats on Chaco Indigenous “Thornbird” Theology From 1994 to 1999 our Mennonite Team held four retreats on themes of Indigenous evangelical spirituality with participation of six to twenty Toba Qom and Pilagá church leaders and Bible students. Subjects we investigated together were: 1) the presence of God in Indigenous cultures. 2) the moral imperative: a study comparing Israel’s law—the Ten Commandments and Torah—with Indigenous, orally transmitted ethical boundaries—taboos and myths. 3) covenant in the Bible and in traditional Indigenous culture. 4) the place of the church in Indigenous evangelical spirituality. In these gatherings with pastors, leaders and budding Toba Qom theologians, we took further steps in the pursuit of a thoroughly indigenous theology, seeking to understand the Christ through Toba Qom eyes. We began to discuss what I later called “thornbird theology,” a metaphor taken from Chaco reality to identify a theology built with common local cultural elements.
Spiritual Self-determination During these years of deepening understanding of indigenous spirituality, the Ecumenical Missionary Gathering in the Argentine Chaco (called E.I.M. for its Spanish designation) chose the theme “Self-determination” (Autogestión, in Spanish) for its 1994 annual gathering. I prepared a paper, “Towards a theology of religious self-determination”1 that further developed my growing redefinition of mission. I emphasized the positive protagonist role of the believers of the receiving culture in defining the outcome of faith in
1 The revised article appeared as Chapter 1 “Autogestión religiosa y la iglesia autóctona: hacia una teología de autogestión de la iglesia” in Willis Horst, Ute Mueller-Eckhardt and Frank Paul, Misión sin conquista: Acompañamiento de comunidades indígenas autóctonas como práctica misionera alternativa, Ediciones Kairós, Bs. As., Argentina, 2009. Available in Spanish only from: [email protected] 140 Glimpses into a Rereading of God’s Mission
Jesus. Local thoroughly inculturated followers of Jesus should have the last word on defining the shape of the church as well as the meaning of Jesus for their cultural context. I based this stance on a creation theology, bolstered by recognition of the active presence of God in the pre-Gospel indigenous cultures, and confirmed by the experience of the Toba Qom indigenous church. I began to better understand the missionary role as that of accompanying a fully capable native leadership. To the “three selves” understanding of the indigenous church (self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating) popularized in missionary literature, our Chaco missionary team would add a fourth: “self- defining” or “self-theologizing.”2 The indigenous church should also manage its own definition of the church.
Responsibility in Decision-making Spiritual self-determination also speaks to the subject of self-worth in the Toba Qom context. For the traditional Toba Qom, decision-making was based, largely if not totally, on outside forces acting upon the individual. As a result, they minimized personal responsibility for actions. The place of human agency as a decisive role in determining one’s course of action seemed unclear. Therefore, for many believers, the Bible was little more than a magical power object, or fetish, invoked to bring about a desired action. This fit well with their traditional spirituality, but did not seem to be helpful in finding their way out of poverty, in view of the fact that human agency is essential in cultural development, including the spiritual dimension. Consequently, with Toba Qom Bible students, I searched for a way to approach the subject of the sacredness of the Holy Book. We discovered that God’s power does act through the book, but also through informed decisions that committed disciples make. Texts such as Genesis 4:7 where Cain is faced with temptation in which he has power of choice over his actions made a profound impression. We learned in Philippians 2:12-13, that human collaboration with God should be the norm for achieving right living.3 Exercising spiritual self-determination in the indigenous church—the “self-defining/self-theologizing” function referred to above—spoke to Toba Qom self-esteem. To be created in the image of God, with the capacity of
2 The definition of the indigenous church as one that carried out the three functions under native leadership is usually attributed to the English missionary, Roland Allen (1868-1947). This fourth “self” was suggested by David J. Bosch in his work, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (Maryknoll, NY Orbis, 1997), 450-57. 3 “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12 and 13 NRSV, emphasis added) Willis G. Horst 141 creativity and choice, is to recognize self-worth. Thus, comprehension that the Holy Spirit is a power acting from within rather than simply acting upon from outside was both empowering and liberating for the Toba Qom. To accept one’s actions as the result of one’s choices is both privilege and responsibility. In addition, the role of accompaniment of believers in Jesus who take full charge of shaping their own lives, including their church life, is liberating for missionaries as well.
Newer Patterns of Missionary Practice: Eco-missiology Colonization of the Chaco region resulted in deforestation and degradation of the environment that continues to cause major problems for regional ecosystems. I saw this as the result, in part, of the strong secularization influence of the Western worldview imposed upon the Indigenous’ territory. Missionaries obviously contributed to that process through encouraging the indigenous believers to participate in the surrounding culture (schools, medical services, economic structures, etc.). In 1970, anthropologist Elmer Miller, a previous Mennonite missionary in the Chaco program, published an article which strongly called this to our attention.4 We mission workers often discussed the fine line between wanting the Indigenous to succeed in the mainstream culture while at the same time encouraging a strong ethnic identity. Secularization inevitably led to ethical conflicts and the demeaning of Toba Qom spirituality. The desacralization of nature contributed to a process of disintegration of the traditional Toba Qom worldview and way of life. I firmly believed that mission must consider these larger social forces at work in the Chaco. During the years 2000-2003 I took tree seedlings along to give away on church visits. This was an effort to strengthen the traditional Toba Qom worldview which considered all of nature to be sacred. At the same time it encouraged local pastors and community leaders to value native trees. I usually gifted seedlings of algarrobo and quebracho trees (native species) to the local church during a worship service, inviting the pastor or other leader to offer a prayer for the seedlings and their care. I also spoke briefly, encouraging the local church to consider the sacredness of all creation and the earth-care dimension of the gospel. I distributed more than 500 seedlings to over 50 churches. Many were planted in church yards and continue to provide shade from the hot Chaco sun for gatherings.
Minister’s Manual, 2000 – 2007 In 2000 the Team decided to respond to a perennial request from
4 Elmer S. Miller, “The Christian Missionary, agent of secularization,” Anthropological Quarterly, 43 (June 1970), The Catholic University of America Press, Washington DC 20017, 14-22. 142 Glimpses into a Rereading of God’s Mission
Indigenous pastors for a manual of guidelines for their churches. We launched a process to produce a Minister’s Manual with Indigenous church leaders which in the end took seven years to complete. I began by noting recurring themes in these requests, then by holding workshops with as many sectors of the church as we could manage, over the next several years. The result was a Toba Qom-Spanish bilingual manual which included not only detailed instructions on church structure and polity as currently practiced in Indigenous churches across the Chaco; it also included cultural issues that the churches deal with and which aren’t found in any of the denominational Minister’s Manuals available in Spanish. This process was instructive to all of us involved as to the self- understanding of Toba Qom believers. It gave leaders the opportunity not only to continue to define their own church, but also to clarify cultural issues which demand the rereading of their traditional spirituality.
Rereading Sacred History In 2006, the Ecumenical Missionary Gathering (E.I.M.) chose for its theme: mythology and its function. A Catholic sister, Mercedes Silva, teacher and historian working among the Toba Qom in education, was invited to address the question: How have Indigenous wisdom teachers reinterpreted the ancient foundational myths of their cultures to cope with present day crises? I was invited to do the same with the Bible: How did Israel, and later the church, reread the foundational narratives or myths of their own Sacred history? We concluded that the process was very similar for both traditional Indigenous storytellers, and for Israel and the Church. The following year, 2007, I was invited to present on how Jesus reread his own past religious tradition. First, we identified formative influences that shaped Jesus’ spirituality. Then we looked at Jesus’ life and teachings to discover the content and the parameters of his filters. Jesus identified with the God of his ancestors, and chose from his past tradition what he considered to be true to God. For that selection he used an identifiable set of criteria that we might call Jesus’ “filters.” The early church and the gospel writers used the filters they learned from Jesus to evaluate the faith of their Hebrew ancestors.
Jesus’ Filters Following Jesus means we also need to use the same criteria Jesus used as we read the Old Testament, and eventually, even the New Testament. Jesus clearly chose certain texts as the basis for his life and teachings. Those texts that Jesus did not endorse and therefore do not agree with the Spirit of Jesus, while they have value for teaching, are not God’s Word for his followers in the same sense. This selection process takes on the nature of a paradigmatic model that Willis G. Horst 143 illustrates how a pre-Gospel spirituality can be reread, using the same set of criteria Jesus used. First, Jesus identified with the God of his ancestors. The early church did this when it appealed to the “God of our ancestors” (Heb. 1:1) “whom [we] worship with a clear conscience” as stated in the letter to Timothy (2 Tim. 1:3). Jewish converts as well as early Greco-Roman church leaders tried to show clearly how Jesus changed their way of understanding their previous religious tradition. For those of Jewish background the argument is expounded in the book of Hebrews. In the case of those of Hellenistic background, this is seen already in some of the writings of the Apostle Paul, then in the prologue to John’s gospel, and later in non-canonical apologetic treatises. Next, having firmly identified with the God of the ancestors, Jesus went on to use a certain set of criteria to evaluate his past religious tradition. He neither endorsed nor rejected his past spirituality in its entirety. Rather, Jesus evaluated the faith of his Hebrew ancestors according to a particular set of filters. We identified a number of elements of Jesus’ filters. These included compassion over sacrifice, suffering love over violent retaliation, prophetic over apocalyptic justice, forgiveness over vengeance, among others. A fuller description lies beyond the scope of this paper. Matthew relates this process in his version of one of Jesus’ brief parables: Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old. (Mt. 13:5) In a similar way, each people will identify that which they can affirm about their own past experience of the Divine with what they recognize as true in Jesus. This same pattern will enable each ethnic group to connect the signs of Life in the spirituality of their ancestors with the signs of the presence of the one universal God acting in Jesus. Anyone involved in the mission of the church can encourage and empower those receiving the Gospel to use the filters Jesus used to evaluate their own ancestral spirituality.
Pilagá Audio Scriptures 2000 - 2009 When colleagues Michael and Mattie Mast returned to the USA in 1992, Byrdalene and I shifted our attention to the Pilagá people and their churches farther to the west in Formosa Province. The process of producing the Pilagá Audio Scriptures, which Byrdalene coordinated through 2009, brought our attention with convincing clarity to the truth that ancestral Pilagá spirituality has much to offer.
Toba Qom Salvation History In 2007, in an attempt to give more formal shape to the search, 144 Glimpses into a Rereading of God’s Mission
Byrdalene and I structured an Intercultural Theological Colloquium, a monthly week-end gathering with a group of six to ten leading Toba Qom and Pilagá women and men. Most of them were actively engaged in professions or the arts. They had been prepared in Bible studies by the Indigenous church and by long contact with the Mennonite Team. All had participated previously in seminars on subjects related to Indigenous identity. The group explored Sacred History through our various cultural filters. We looked at Israel’s Story of Salvation History, into which Jesus was born, identifying some of the landmarks of Israel’s rereading of that history, noting especially how Jesus re-evaluated Jewish Scripture selectively. We also looked at Toba Qom Salvation History, and how Jesus’ filters lead to a certain kind of rereading of that history. This process led us to view traditional Toba Qom spirituality, including its mythological foundations, as part of their salvation history, a kind of “first covenant” with the Creator—a Toba Qom “Old Testament.” We concluded that God does indeed act in history—not only in Israel’s history but in that of all peoples.
The Quest Continues In December, 2010 we moved to Goshen, Indiana, for retirement. My pilgrimage has redefined the search instead of providing all the answers to my life quest. Rather than asking, Who is included or excluded among the people of God? I now find myself asking, To whom can I communicate that they belong? How can I enhance the humanity of “the least of these”? The goal of mission continues to be to link all things in Christ. However, since we can only see Jesus authentically through our own cultural eyes, which are different from those of Jesus, we will all make use of culturally defined elements from additional spiritualities in our attempt to understand Jesus and his teachings. Our hope is to discover unity in the midst of diversity. As humans we all have within, something of the fundamental intentions of God for the universe and for human existence. Call it the image of God at the core of our being. Call it the “inner light.” That includes those who may never have heard of Jesus, as well as those who may not be fully committed to his program. The challenge is to join with all who are willing, in the movement toward shalom which is God’s dream for Creation. My pilgrimage among Indigenous believers has taught me more than I could ever have imagined. I can live with unresolved questions even as the quest goes on. I trust that the transformation of how I understand God’s mission has been guided by an inner light, and informed by the Cosmic Christ who is present in all creation and was in Jesus, reconciling the creation to God’s self. SERIOUS MISSION PARTNERS IN EASTERN EUROPE: REFLECTIONS ON 20 YEARS OF POST-COMMUNISM Walter Sawatsky
Introduction - Our Problematic Sitz in Leben The moral revolution of 1989, one of the most dramatic globally significant changes of the 20th century, allowed the world for a time to imagine an end to the Cold War.1 In terms of the Russian-American relations that caused many scholars to speak of a “bi-polar world” mentality dominating the second half of the 20th century, things have changed after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, but a cold war mentality still shapes American policy toward Russia, as historian Steve Cohen has argued repeatedly. At a gathering of Mennonite mission and service leaders meeting in 2011 on the theme of “The Fall of the Wall” my task here is to reflect on what came after.2 That is difficult because I am very aware that some Mennonites share my understanding of the transformations as driven by people movements across eastern Europe who had their fill of military adventures and of living the grand lie, whereas other Mennonites have accepted the view, predominant in American culture, that American nuclear saber rattling won the Cold War, and that America therefore has the right to police the world. How can we think together about mission in the world, when our interpretations of what happened are so contradictory? The answer that exists is to say, everything changed with 9/11. That usually means that something else became the American psychic fix, to allow for the continuance of a nearly constant state of war (since 1917) to which the American public must assent by absorbing military expenditures massively out of proportion to any other country on earth. The 9/11 myth of “everything changed” has become associated with shifts in global relationships that have also impacted the mission programs and missiologies of American Christianity, including the Mennonites. Our stated topic, “The Fall of the Wall” remains very problematic for me. Some may remember the old phrase “iron curtain Christians”, who lived “behind the iron curtain”. So which side of the
1 “Moral revolution” is the descriptor I chose to highlight in Walter Sawatsky, "Truth Telling in Eastern Europe." Journal of Church and State 33 (1991): 701-729; something that Walter Wink, When the Powers Fall: Reconciliation in the Healing of Nations. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1998, used to draw the global parallels with South Africa, Phillippines people power, and Chile. 2 This paper, slightly modified for publication, was presented at the annual CIM meeting in Chicago, January 2011, together with several other reports on specific Mennonite programs in eastern Europe. One previous CIM consultation on eastern Europe occurred in January 1991, organizers hoping a newly “open” mission would energize Mennonite missions. Walter Sawatsky, retired as Professor of History & Mission (AMBS) in 2012, completed quarter time work as East/West consultant with MCC in 2010.
Mission Focus: Annual Review © 2012 Volume 20 146 Serious Mission Partners in Eastern Europe wall was “behind”? Which side is still behind that wall? I have tried to avoid using iron curtain imagery throughout my career because I believed that images matter, they can be powerful weapons. When scholarly specialists on the Soviet Union began to include “revisionist” historians (1970s), as different from Kremlinologists and the then still dominant anti-communist approaches to 20th century Russian history in the west, it was obvious to those who chose to look and think, that the so-called iron curtain was porous, that the so-called totalitarian east was constantly changing, and the diversity, even among the power elite, was considerable. Those specialists saw 1989 as a moment with a long history, surprising only in some of the specific dynamics. The task I face here I choose to see as a modest one. Although we witnessed a non-violent end to the super power conflict that had involved the whole world as pawns, it was soon evident that 1989 also marked the end of the revolutionary era. That is, between the French Revolution of 1789 that rocked European powers, and the “velvet revolutions” of eastern Europe in 1989, social-political thinking had been shaped by grand theories of radical change. If in earlier years young Mennonite conscripts might have been silenced by a judge’s question whether the way of no-violence had ever resolved political conflicts, the young man could say in 1989 it happened, in a bigger way than anyone expected. But the Mennonite role in this moral revolution was slight. One of the biggest disappointments I have struggled with since then is the way in which the authoritative voices among us that talk about building a culture of peace, that argue for a non-violent social ethic, have ignored what happened, have avoided probing the serious theological and ethical issues those events and developments represent for Mennonites. Instead we are offered local case studies to learn the principles of building a culture of peace on our terms.3 There are several factors to account for this myopia by Mennonite theologians. One obvious one is the reality that the rise of Anabaptist studies to prominence and popularity in America, coincided with the era of the radical civil rights movement and the organized resistance movement to the Vietnam War. To describe evil forthrightly, to call for a drastic metanoia, resonated with the numerous student movements of 1968 in Europa and America, to want to change their worlds and end the nuclear stalemate. The left wing of the Reformation seemed interesting to others, some of them now known as neo-
3 Typical examples are Fernando Enns, Scott Holland, & Ann Riggs, eds. Seeking Cultures of Peace: A Peace Church Conversation. Telford PA: Cascadia Publishing House, 2004; Glenn Stassen, Just Peacemaking : Ten Practices for Abolishing War. Cleveland, Ohio: Pilgrim Press, 1998; Duane K. Friesen & Gerald Schlabach, eds. At Peace and Unafraid : Public Order, Security, and the Wisdom of the Cross. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 2005. Walter Sawatsky 147
Anabaptists, who have kept on telling Mennonites to be true to their radicalism. The longer impact has been to elevate the grand statements of early Anabaptists, so long ignored by Christian historians and theologians, to respectability. Probing studies of what those Anabaptists actually did, and what became of the vision in subsequent generations, has lagged badly. We are now at a point where I encounter the common refrain from Mennonite historians, that our leaders show no interest in the actual history, but prefer sound byte slogans for “moving forward” to wherever that may be. Others seem to have settled for the reality, as they perceive it, that what holds Anabaptist-Mennonites together is not our history, but our theology. One is expected to believe that a de-historicized theology called Anabaptism, will be the lodestar for Anabaptists around the world, in whatever culture they exist. But the rule of thumb for doing global history today and for thinking mission today, is to take seriously the reality that all theology is culturally embedded, is deeply shaped by historical developments in context. As Bevans and Schroeder put it in their widely respected Constants in Context mission theology, the abiding constants are questions that must be asked always and everywhere by all Christians.4 Such thinking allows for confessional and denominational distinctives with their own interesting history of change, but they are secondary to common Christian constants.
Current Presuppositions for the Missionary The standard approach to missiology has long been to note its cross- disciplinary elements for thinking about mission: missioloigists have tended to rely on history, Biblical theology, systematic theology, and the social sciences - anthropology, sociology and social psychology (in rapidly shrinking order), and much more rare are the citations from political science, international relations, economics. The importance of culture for translating the Christian gospel has continued to grow in importance, so that to keep up with theory developments, one needs to notice many more social scientific sub- categories, Paul Hiebert described his way of integrating those diverse methodologies or strands of analysis, by adding adjectives to his central disciplinary focus: anthropology.5 The ones he listed were: ethnology, social anthropology, cultural anthropology, modern descriptive linguistics, symbolic anthropology, cognitive anthropology, interpretive anthropology, postmodern anthropology. At the end of his analysis, he called for two fundamental shifts
4 Stephen B. Bevans & Roger P. Schroeder, Constants in Context. A Theology of Mission for Today ASM Series #30. Maryknoll NY: Orbis Books, 2004. p34. 5 Paul Hiebert, “Sociocultural Theories and Mission to the West”, in James R. Krabill, Walter Sawatsky, Charles Van Engen, eds. Evangelical, Ecumenical, and Anabaptist Missiologies in Conversation. Maryknoll: Orbis, 2006, 169-176. 148 Serious Mission Partners in Eastern Europe in understanding mission theology and the role of the missionary. To take seriously the theological significance of the globalization of Christianity from the bottom up, “we need a metatheology, and agreement on how we do theology.”6 The resultant new labels for the good missionary needed to be the “inbetweeners”, “bridge persons, culture brokers, who stand between worlds and help each other understand.”7 They must be “bicultural” or preferably “transcultural people”. Such shifts to greater theoretical self-awareness and varieties of approach must be welcomed. Hiebert also acknowledged that the discipline of anthropology tended too strongly to a local focus, to try to grasp comprehensively some local or regional “closed system”, which was both its strength and weakness. Given the truly overwhelming predominance of anthropology as frame for thinking missiologically, the myopias of that discipline also help account for the pre-occupations of so much missiological writing. The bulk of the research has focused on what ‘everyone’ now refers to as the “global south”, and I keep wishing for greater self-criticism of how earlier notions of “social Darwinism” or progress theories locked the thinkers into western positivist or enlightenment mentalities of superiority, which are now more invisible since we have shifted from the language of “civilization” to that of “culture” - another Hiebert throwaway line needing more attention. There has been a similar sub-categorization of “theology” and Biblical studies methodologies that also continue to contribute to culture dominance by the west. To pick one specific, it is a western mindset to seek out the roots, the pristine origins of truth as fixed, that must be recognized in Biblical scholarship seeking to establish the most original and reliable text, especially of the New Testament writings. I have often drawn attention among my colleagues to the fact that the vast majority of Biblical manuscripts were found in the Christian east - an indicator that they were widely used in worship and wore out sooner, so scribes had to make new copies. The “errors” that got added (for example by mixing marginal glosses with text) reflected a living, changing tradition, a worshiping tradition since it was in the public readings that the manuscripts wore out.
Thinking Globally Remains Daunting for Westerners What has long troubled me has been both the wonderful reality that so much path breaking historical scholarship has come from the missionary world, yet at the same time the few historians of global Christianity who have published, rely far less on extensive comparison of secondary studies than they could. There is of course the limitation of language, too much writing on global
6 Ibid. p176. 7 Ibid. Walter Sawatsky 149
Christianity is limited to English language literature. That has resulted in perpetuating a Britannia rules the waves mentality, now slightly adapted to an American manifest destiny or a notion of spreading Christianity, democracy, and therefore its free church evangelical forms, globally. Too much of the content of “non-Western Christianity from the global south” is still so recognizably Western that it has me wondering whether and why we seem to be chasing after self-delusions. When the CIM agreed to devote major time to reflecting on mission in eastern Europe in 1991, I was then already a partly reluctant participant, because the attitude I kept encountering was one of hoping that the excitement of a new open door to mission in the former communist world - that “primary antagonist of Christianity” in the twentieth century, as Bevans and Schroeder put it, would inject new dynamism into our languishing mission programs globally.8 Thankfully, most Mennonites were not part of that colossal mission disaster, the Co-Mission project, as a result of which missionary visas for Russia today, for example, are limited to 3 months, and quite impossible to get for most of the central Asian countries. Another reality I sense deeply is that the hoped for renewal of commitment, or even of belief in, Mennonite mission continues to languish, to put it positively. I have found the Bevans and Schroeder introduction to missiology particularly positive for two reasons: it builds on Justo Gonzalez’ argument about a 3-fold typology of early Christianity, where type A (law) and type B (philosophy), were now giving way to type C, the type of Christianity associated with Antioch with its attention to the historical process and its concern for the pastoral. Secondly, rare is the book that draws attention to the common ground for thinking and doing mission that Bevans and Schroeder offer by showing the convergences in Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, and Evangelical worlds, and even some from the Independents. Nevertheless, when Bevans and Schroeder assert that there are two realities for the 21st century - a post-Christian West and a post-Western Christianity9 - they reveal their inability to do more than cite Sanneh, Walls, Bediako or other missiologists like Dana Robert from the Anglo-African community of discourse. There are other realities than those two for thinking missionally. In saying that, I am fully aware that the majority of my Mennonite missiological colleagues consider
8 Bevans & Schroeder, p.240. I might add, that even the David Bosch volume, Transforming Mission, utilizing paradigm shift theory, or the similar theological history of Christianity by Hans Küng, Christianity, History: Essence, History, Future. New York: Continuum, 1995., which offer pages on Eastern Christianity, approach it from a western bias, that continues the flawed thesis of the “hellenization” of Christianity as applying to Orthodoxy, when in fact it was the Roman west that integrated classical Greek (Hellenic) philosophy, whereas Oriental and Eastern Orthodox thought in Biblical (semitic) Greek. 9 Bevans & Schroeder, p242 150 Serious Mission Partners in Eastern Europe those named as global thinkers beyond critique. Why then should I hope to be understood when calling for a more serious “co-mission” with European Christians? Are there bridges to understanding, to the necessary sustained dialogue that probes more deeply why we need to be in Europe, in greater Europe, that north American Mennonites can find?
The Lost World of European Witness Matters for Mission in the 21st Century In 1992 Pope John Paul II, of Slavic origin, called for the “evangelization of Europe.” It was a contextually aware proposal, not like earlier efforts of the Vatican to proselytize away the Orthodox Christians. It was based on the presupposition of partnership in mission, on mission as dialogue, including the many areas where Christians needed to apologize for their wrongheadedness. John Paul II modeled that, even with the Mennonites. One primary presupposition for why eastern Europe and central Asia matters, for Mennonite mission, and indeed for Christian mission as a whole, is that it offers much instructive food for thought that could help us find a better equilibrium for thinking and doing mission. Let me make it clear early on, that when I use the short hand of “mission”, I have in mind a broad, holistic meaning that includes anything MCC does, and that I have never reconciled myself to the division of labor we live by, of keeping mission and service and humanitarian relief in parallel but separate structures. I continue to encounter the repeated refrain that the early Anabaptists were missionary, and therefore their vision is what we must recover. That lost its appeal for me decades ago, because it confused being evangelistic and missionary, the latter word conveying much more the apostolic dimension of sentness, and doing mission in the “dimension of difference”, particularly of cross-cultural mission.10 Instead of repeating the partisan claim that only the Anabaptists were missionary and claiming that the other Reformers considered the Great Commission limited to the first century, and claiming that the Lutheran, Calvinist Reformed and Anglican traditions that emerged had all relied on coerced faith through state protection, we need to be more accurate in our generalizations. Serious historians of the Reformation era and of later European Christian history cannot account for the persistence of all those traditions without the activism of many faithful evangelists (lay and ordained) and the reality that most of those traditions also had their suffering churches living under hostile princes, or under the Ottomans. We have generalized and simplified to easily.
10 See Titus Presler, “Mission is Ministry in the Dimension of Difference: A Definition for the Twenty-first Century,” International Bulletin of Misionary Research, Vol. 34, No. 4 (October 2010), 195-204. Note also his Going Global with God : Reconciling Mission in a World of Difference. Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Pub., 2010. Walter Sawatsky 151
Rather than the recovery of a pristine early vision, what we need is a serious wrestling with the many ways the Mennonite story played itself out in many different cultural settings. What strikes me as not noticed enough, is to ask which areas where Anabaptism emerged stayed small, which grew and why, and, above all, why it was from the larger Mennonite communities of the Dutch and north Germans that sending missions began around 1850. Why did Russian Mennonites, the largest organized body in 1900 anywhere, not only supply a disproportionate number of missionaries for the Dutch program in Indonesia, but were also engaged in many creative mission endeavors across the Russian empire, all the way to Kyrgyzstan, before the Russian Revolution started inhibiting, but not stopping entirely those endeavors? Why is it that in this new century, it is the new scholars from Russia and Ukraine, who find that Russian Mennonite story of the 20th century interesting enough to write doctoral dissertations? What, for example, did Tatiana Nazarova of Volgograd State University find in researching the first ten years of MCC work in famine relief, economic development and emigration support, that she thinks can help 21st century Russia find its way to a better civil society?11 What I have also been pondering is the fact that when the first wave of Russian Mennonite immigrants came to north America in the 1870s, a small majority (especially on the US side) soon joined with the newly formed General Conference Mennonites whose main intention was to band together to do mission. The Mennonite Brethren who came, also were committed to mission, and after considering whether to make common cause with the Baptists or the GC, formed their own conferences. My point here is, that some primary ways of understanding themselves as seeking to be faithful Christians in this world that they were in but not fully part of, produced more deliberate engagement with culture (to use contemporary language) than was true of other Mennonites who had immigrated to USA in previous centuries, so the newer immigrants were more open to alliances with other Christians, and American Mennonite cross-cultural mission was the result. By the time we as north American Mennonites returned with mission projects to western and eastern Europe after WWII, our attitude toward them now tended to stress that the European Mennonites had failed, they needed to relearn nonresistance or learn activist peacemaking, and we had the theology to guide them. That may well be typical reactions by “younger churches” tired of the paternalism of mother church, in this case from Europe, but by now when the “younger churches” are doing it to us, we may be ready to notice with a greater degree of curiosity and
11 The reference is to a doctoral dissertation, Tatiana Nazarova, “Blagotvoritel’naia deiatel’nost’ zarubezhnykh mennonitskikh organizatsii v sovetskom gosudarstve (1920-1930gg)” [Charitable Work of Foreign Mennonite Organization in the Soviet State (1920-1930)] Volgograd: Volgograd State University, 2011. 152 Serious Mission Partners in Eastern Europe humility, why there are still Mennonites in Europe who do not fit the reigning paradigm of “post-Christian and secular”. If there is one over arching reason why I have resisted in joining the wave of Christendom bashing, so evident also in Edinburgh2010 and Capetown 2010, it is the concern that broad talk about Christendom in negative terms closes off serious thinking, makes it too easy for us minority Christians to think “we are not like them”. As I proceed to highlight key developments in eastern Europe over the past two decades I make the assumption that “we” as north American Mennonites are like them, those other self-confident north American missioners to Europe. But I also assume that “we” are like them, meaning those brothers and sisters in the faith who were tested to their core during the communist era - whether Soviet, Chinese, or East European. Some of them betrayed Christ, some tried to escape into apoliticism and ethereal piety, and there were also those many thousands (indeed many millions if we count all Christians) who were martyred, not just those whose lives were snuffed out early, but those who bore yokes of oppression, of societal hostility, of blocked access to schools and scholarship for decades. These are our people, these need to teach us if we would but seek to learn. In short, the Christianity now manifest across western and eastern Europe including Siberia, is the Christianity that suffered more for the faith than anywhere else, and at the same time it includes the Christianity that was more compromised in its witness than anywhere else. Currently it is not the European Union community of nations that seeks to resort to war to resolve global problems, nor is Russia and its neighboring countries, including China, as armed to the teeth and as interfering around the world, as is our American government, which does so by the regularly approved vote of the people - that includes us. Those are realities we dare not lose sight of, if we want to hope for recovery of credibility of our witness, of our advocacy for human rights, for example, or even of the foundations for our theories of social and economic development that shape our global programming. I should also point out that neither Edinburgh nor Capetown paid much attention to the eastern European context we hope to focus on here.12 The attendees from those regions were a small minority, and their voices, their way of approaching theology now, does not really appear in the appeals coming from those congresses. You may respond that there was a major concern, public prayers even, for the suffering church in China at the Capetown event. What are we doing, when we publically appeal for those now suffering? What is the
12 The issue of IBMR reporting on the 2010 global mission congresses, also includes a sharply articulated article, Dyron B. Dougherty, “Christianity is Moving from North to South - So What About the East?” IBMR, Vol. 35, No. 1 (January 2011) 18-22, as a partial compensation, Dougherty limiting himself to literature most IBMR readers recognize. Walter Sawatsky 153 mission agenda behind our public prayers? Is it the same as to ask for a series of presenters from Russian and Romanian Orthodoxy to describe how they see the task for the coming century, to tell us why persons asked to be baptized in recent decades? Is the mission agenda behind our prayers the same as to ask evangelicals from those countries, or from their new schools of mission, to delineate the task ahead? There is no way I can convey to you in these brief remarks the many ways that writers from eastern Europe have articulated the issues and the tasks, merely in the pages of English language journals like Religion in Eastern Europe journal over the past two decades, or in Church State and Society from Keston, with whose editorial board I am still associated, or with the German language Glaube in der 2ten Welt. Indeed, since 2008, there is a new journal, Acta Missiolgica, by now fully shaped by east European missiologists. Two themes I do wish to draw special attention to, aside from noting how much is being written about national and ethnic identity, about public theology, about the needs of the marginalized, are the themes of theological education and mission. It is simply striking that across the communist world, the authorities most explicitly prevented serious theological education, openly prohibited mission, and as everyone knows, restricted religious literature so badly that it drove some mission agencies to smuggling Bibles. What have been and are now the concerns for education, and theological education in particular? What has happened between the sudden emergence of charity societies, the talk about recovering civil society, and the ways of doing mission? I shall try to sketch out some key patterns and issues, while drawing attention to problems for us as Mennonites. Aside from our limits in linguistic communication, our record in global mission has been one where attention to theological education has remained an add on. This is very odd, if we truly believe that it is by persuasion, by words, ideas, and our presence that we witness to and invite to faith in Jesus Christ, not by buying rice Christians, or by relying on the military might of the country that provides us with the passports for negotiating the globe. When I scan our broad record of mission involvement, it is easier to notice the patterns of riding the wave of mission to countries beholden to USA, and of adapting our programs to the economic needs of our workers, too much in the way that Jon Bonk described negatively in his Mission and Money book.
The People Greater Europe is filled with people. So often when I see articles about the state of religion, the troubled economies, the violent wars, or even about Christianity in Europe, such articles contain generalizations from statistics as claim to truth, but what I keep noticing is the ways the Europe references serve to denigrate something in favor of a vision or project the writer wants to 154 Serious Mission Partners in Eastern Europe advance in north America or elsewhere. That is more difficult to do when you keep in mind that Europe is full of people created in the image of God. One time at a Church and Peace meeting in the Netherlands in the early 1980s, when President Reagan was stirring up the second Cold War crisis, and peace activists were writing much about nuclear weapons - who had more, how destructive they would be for all - I drew attention to the secondary relevance of the weapons. I had pointed out that we were part of the one body of Christ, many of whose members were on the other side of the East-West divide. Our primary concern needed to be how to link up for common witness for peace, given the barriers to such relationships. Our conversation changed, most dramatically for Jim Forest of IFOR, who went off to Moscow to meet Russians, and a few years later wrote a book about his Pilgrimage to the Russian Church. Jim and Nancy spent the post-Communist years heading up In-Communion, an international Orthodox peace society, that has been making a difference. At the time other peace activists were doing varieties of what came to be called “citizen diplomacy”, such as taking one’s volleyball team to play against a team in Hungary or Yugoslavia, setting up sister city relationships, until finally in 1986 Mr. Reagan who had earlier warned the citizen diplomats they should leave diplomacy to the experts, gave a speech in which he tried to put himself forward as leader of citizen diplomacy - then the accord with Mr. Gorbachev at Reykjavik was signed. So I want to tell about some people first. A few days ago I was reading John N. Klassen’s survey of Mennonite Brethren in Germany to review it for Mission Focus. It set me thinking about John Klassen, who retired in 2008, Mary and John moving back to Abbotsford, from where I get periodic phone calls and we exchange memos. John turned 80 in 2009, was back in Germany in April 2010 to celebrate the Mennonite Brethren 150th anniversary, as an 81 year old senior church statesman. Paul Warkentin, second generation missionary in Germany, remarked in the back cover blurb that John Klassen had written with a sure feel of the situations, addressing issues with a deft, sensitive touch. Naming some of the conflicts more specifically was my wish, reading as historian/missiologist, but I agreed that John was writing as teacher and pastor for many of those congregations, whose leaders knew too little of the overall story, and they were intelligent enough to notice the subtle ways John showed patterns, of failures and of reconciliations and of spiritual growth. When I first met John around 1975 he had already been a missionary as church planter for 15 years, sent by BOMAS straight out of MB College. Over the next dozen years, we met at least once annually for the Umsiedlerbetreuung meetings, where he represented German Mennonite Brethren and I MCC, before I moved off to AMBS. We met often over the subsequent years in connection with some of my assignments in Europe. Walter Sawatsky 155
Over the years John Klassen did seminary, then we corresponded about writing his dissertation, until finally it was completed at UNISA and published in German. In addition to pastoring, he taught in Bible schools, then in the new Bonn Bibel Seminar. Just a few years before he retired, he sent over the copy of a Russian document with a request that I translate it. So I did. It was brief, like so many similar documents that were sent to family members who were requesting information about the fate of their missing husband, father or relative. In this case, the Russian authorities sent the summary statement in the official state file about the fate of John Klassen’s father, arrested in that major wave of arrests of teachers and preachers in 1937-38, never to be heard from or seen again. Klassen, father of 9 year old John was arrested, tried by a troika court three days later, and the sentence of death by shooting was carried out within the month (as I remember the details now). Then followed the date (around 1991 when massive reviews of such cases were underway) where the Russian judiciary declared Klassen rehabilitated. That is, he was never worthy of arrest and death, he was again deemed a good citizen, though dead. John did not respond directly to the translation I sent over, but I think that his life of ministry told me all I needed to know. It reminded me of the life of Helmut Doerksen, who died in 2010, a friend of Klassen through MB links in Abbotsford, then at MBBC in Winnipeg, and after 1965, Helmut & Lydia also ministered in Europe. Helmut was an MCC sponsored teacher at the Bienenberg Bible School. In the spring of 1974 Peter Dyck proposed that Helmut and I do a trip to eastern Europe together (Helmut had accompanied Delbert Goetz before). It was an eventful trip, I learned a lot, especially to be more aware to offer the ears of a bishop or conference minister to pastors (from whatever denomination) that we visited, burdened down ministers who needed to share their concerns, but did not trust their official supervisors. Choosing to trust another Christian was risky, but it was right to do, and it was one of the principles we fostered more specifically thereafter. That was easier for me than for Helmut. We arrived one day at the border crossing near Linz Austria to go to Czechoslovakia. About four hours later, we were allowed to get into the car again, make a u-turn, then the frightened border guard holding our passports with his finger tips, handed them through the window to me and we returned to Austria. We had been declared persona non grata because we had a dozen theological books with us that we had planned to leave with the Comenius Faculty in Prague. Helmut was more overwrought than I, and I began hearing the Helmut Doerksen version of the John Klassen story about losing your father in the Soviet purges. In Helmut’s case, the widowed mother with children got to east Paraguay, another loser story, then finally to western Canada (I think via stays in Steinbach). So why did Helmut & Lydia Doerksen, why did John & Mary 156 Serious Mission Partners in Eastern Europe
Klassen devote their lives to ministry in Europe? What personal drawn out processes of reconciliation, of practicing enemy love, did they go through as they watched the changes that resulted in the amazing velvet revolutions from within? Finally, I recall persons like the late J.M. Klassen coming to be re- united with relatives in Bonn (around 1975 and often thereafter), or Ron & Gudrun Mathies very recently spending months in Germany, catching up on stories from relatives who did not get to immigrate (as refugees) when Gudrun’s family did. The north American Mennonite involvement with the USSR and eastern Europe was always personal. It was almost too personal for the people I have named, that serve as representative for thousands of Mennonites in Canada, and it was a memory trigger for many of the rest of us. Some Mennonites have learned to hold high the memory of 16th century martyrs, at least those written about in the Martyrs Mirror, other Mennonites know better the 20th century martyr stories, which were far more extensive, and more brutal as were also the wars of the 20th century. Some Mennonites try to remember with pride that their Mennonites refused to serve in the army, while other Mennonite communities had capitulated to nationalism and no longer deserved to be treasured as part of “my people”. Too often, such persons get their facts wrong, because they know about incidents, but do not know about the decades of testing, of valiant witness, of failure and collapse, of spiritual death of the church, and then its resurrection. I was most grateful that Mennonite Quarterly Review published an article by Gerhard Rempel in 2010, which examines the story of several Mennonite soldiers from the Prussian Mennonite community, who participated actively in carrying out the Holocaust, that bigger one outside Germany, across eastern Europe, so Timothy Snyder.13 It is easy to identify with martyrs from among your people, it is much more difficult to identify with those among your people who were perpetrators. But both types have contributed to the legacy of witness of the Mennonites. That is why the witness we must continue to live out, is based on the sober realities of the flawed nature of us and of our fellow believers, of our churches, of our theologies even, in order that the ‘nevertheless’ of the grace
13 Gerhard Rempel, "Mennonites and the Holocaust: From Collaboration to Perpetuation." Mennonite Quarterly Review LXXXIV, no. 4 (2010): 507-549. The reference is to Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, New York: Basic Books, 524pp, reviewers in The Nation and New York Review of Books found him convincing when arguing that popular and scholarly attention associated the Holocaust mostly with Germany, when a much larger percentage of the killing (of Jews and other unwanted minorities) was perpetrated by both Nazis and Soviets in the “bloodlands” between Russia and Germany. Walter Sawatsky 157 of God in Christ, the nevertheless of living in hope, is what we can share with so many other expressions of God’s church, also seeking the way to authentic witness.
Changing Mission in Greater Europe Since 1989 We need to have before our eyes a very large Europe, with its great variety of people, with its two millennia of Christian presence.14 Yet it is not an “old Europe” as Donald Rumsfeld dismissed it, but a Europe often more consciously global in a responsible sense than we in north America are, Mennonites included. It is a Europe that did not begin the third millennium with a new eternal war on “terror”, with aggressively fostering a clash of civilizations with Islam as crusade, nor was it the leader in greedy financial speculations that allowed the gap between rich and poor to grow so rapidly. Why was that? How long must the arrogance of the ignorant against old Europe continue? Why has it also affected Mennonite relationships to Europe? Those matters underline why the conscious return to ministry in Europe needs to be shaped by humility, by an understanding of mission as dialogue, that truly signifies we have a serious learning curve ahead of us. Mennonite mission to Russia and eastern Europe began about 150 years ago. I limit myself to referencing Hans Kasdorf’s Flammen Unausloeschlich (Unquenchable Flames) which not only mentioned the support of German, French, Dutch and Russian Mennonites for the Baptist mission society since 1825, then the role and missiology of Heinrich Dirks (in Indonesia) from the 1860s forward, or MB involvement in India in the 1890s.15 It was a Russian Mennonite and a Swedish colleague who founded Licht im Osten Mission, a voluntary society, that oversaw tent evangelism, ran a Bible school for Russian POWs after WWI, sent support for mission and Bible school initiatives as long as it could. I once named Licht in Osten mission, along with Slavic Gospel Association, and the Swedish Mission as the medium size, trustworthy missions that saw themselves as playing a supporting role to existing
14 I am consciously using “greater Europe”, a phrase by C. T. McIntire, "The Shift from Church and State to Religions as Public Life in Modern Europe." Church History 71, no. 1 (2002): 152-167, in which he pointed out the interpretive biases that underlay the frequent use of “Europe” when the writer meant merely Britain, or merely Britain, France and Germany, whereas “greater Europe” caused one to realize why Prague and Budapest were more the center of Europe, that Constantinople, Rome, London, Moscow and even Wittenburg, evoked a realization that the centers of many Christian traditions were long in Europe, and that the center of Islam had been in Europe since at least 1453. 15 Hans Kasdorf, Flammen Unausloeschlich. Mission Der Mennoniten Unter Zaren und Sowjets 1789-1989. Bielefeld: Logos Verlag, 1991, as systematic a survey of Russian Mennonite mission programs and missiology as we have so far, regrettably not yet translated into English. Hermann Heidebrecht of Bielefeld is preparing a biography of Heinrich Dirks, a major Kirchliche leader, for his German readership. 158 Serious Mission Partners in Eastern Europe evangelical churches that re-emerged after 1945. Much has changed, as have those missions, but they still play a role. There were others like them, deeply concerned for what needed to be done, once it became clear around 1988 that new freedoms for faith and for doing mission were coming. Those others included Baptist, Pentecostal and Mennonite organizations from the west. So in early October 1989, the week before the Leipzig demos reached their climax and the Berlin wall got torn down, I was invited to give two lectures to representatives of the missions I named, who were consulting together in London England. Rereading my lectures twenty years later, was a reminder of what we were thinking at the time, what we were worried might happen and did. Here are some of the key themes, some of which have appeared in my later writings, but which found resonance with that group in 1989. First of all, there were three themes that summarized the pre-occupation of many during the Perestroika years: renewal, search for community, and search for a social vision. I noted that those concerns had become more explicit by 1989, both Marxists and Christians were concerned for renewal. Secondly people expressed the desire for a more satisfying experience of community, the Marxist promise of overcoming conflicts between ethnic groups had not materialized, so there was again a turn to Christian communities. Given the aggressive pushing aside of Christians and other believers to the useless margins of society, what we heard more often in 1989 was the question about what place the Christian has in society. In the vison talk of Solidarnoscz in Poland, or the Charta group in Czechoslovakia, the explicit concern was for restoring civil society, a society characterized by moral qualities, the good civitas, that was essentially the moral order of the Judeo-Christian tradition that even Marxism shared. So the point I made to mission colleagues was, that it was too easy to think that our concern should be limited to spiritual renewal, to calling sinners to salvation, and stay away from issues of community and civil society. But our experience of mission had made us culturally aware, so quoting Paul Hiebert about a “process of indigenizing Christianity in another culture requires an incarnational approach to crossing cultural barriers”, was to preach to the converted.16 The most vital contribution, it seemed to me, was whether we could do such incarnational mission together with the Christian leaders of eastern Europe. Then followed a listing of broad cultural features, such as the nature of Slavic culture so deeply shaped by Orthodox worship and iconography. Anthony Ugolnik’s book Illuminating Icon, had just been published by Eerdmans, whose wonderful phrases about icons that “illumine the senses and
16 Quoted from his then widely read Cultural Anthropology. Walter Sawatsky 159 thereby the imagination”, and the role of the believer to image forth Christ was really Paul Hiebert’s “incarnational approach” in Orthodox garb. Further, I pointed out that to be Slavic had meant to also be Catholic and Protestant, it was not a recent invasion by the latter two traditions. From there is was not that big a jump to draw attention to the fact that after 70 years (in Russia) and at least a generation and a half across eastern Europe, the Marxist/socialist culture had made an impact and would not quickly disappear in the dustbin of history. Nor dare we forget the ways in which Marxism represented a secular alternative to Christianity, and represented a judgment on the failures of Christianity. In a second lecture I focused on what the Perestroika era was teaching us about the major social transformations taking place, and their significance for Christian mission. “The unthinkable is happening” I remarked at one point, “Perestroika has taken on the character of a metanoia”. We were witnessing the modern equivalent of sackcloth and ashes repentance from the days of Jonah, most of us were then already familiar with the impact of the Repentance movie in the USSR where it had been shown in every cinema. Everyone was asking, “what good is a road that does not lead to a church?” So I went on to remind us of the likely needs of the elderly, of the very poor, and of the likely dynamics when building a congregation of persons from the marginalized, those struggling to be free from addictions, etc. We needed to anticipate church conflicts. In hindsight, I might note that the conflicts have been much less prominent than we could have expected. Given the long history of secrecy about church finances, we also anticipated corruption problems. Another theme was how we might help to encourage Orthodox and Evangelical Christians accustomed to spiritual withdrawal from society, to venture into social ministry, because “the needs for charitable work are immense.” Back in 1989 we were also aware that changes to the church structures of both Orthodox and Evangelicals were imminent, and could be times of deep conflict. Most of the mission societies had long avoided addressing ecclesiology, now it was vital that the mission partner from abroad help leaders find good leadership styles, culturally appropriate and different from the “command style” of Soviet culture. Even on the complicated issues of the perestroika of finances, that group of mission leaders seemed resolved to tread carefully and avoid influence buying by what largesse we brought - who would get the desktop publishing gear, etc. As it turned out, this has been one of the more major flaws in the mission assistance of the past two decades. But not all missions came to distribute largesse. Indeed, what was most striking from hindsight, is why the Co-Mission project of the mid 1990s, involving 20 respected mission societies with experience elsewhere, unfortunately not in eastern Europe, violated so 160 Serious Mission Partners in Eastern Europe many of the good practices already learned. Hence my title about now still seeking for the way to serious mission partnership.
Misguided Civil Society Program of Co-Mission The story of Co-Mission, a consortium of 20+ north American mission agencies cooperating together to send over 2000 short term ethics teachers to the former USSR to teach teachers has been told by Perry L. Glanzer, a sociologist. Glanzer, not a specialist on Russia, was an Evangelical who knew and understood the mentality, but as sociologist writing a dissertation, could sense problems within that culture, and heard enough through his interviews and some general background reading, to identify likely differences of perspective of Russian Orthodox, Slavic Evangelicals, and the ex-Communist elite overseeing public education.17 Don Fairbairn’s review of that book not only underlined how and why it failed, but drew attention, as did Glanzer, to a word and deed ethics integration, where both drew on Mennonite writers as model. The less known preface to the story, until Glanzer’s book, concerned the translation and reproduction of thousands of copies of the Jesus Film, also with Mennonite money at a key moment, so the style of approach was shaped deeply by the leaders of the Jesus film project. It was a project in a hurry, and its leaders made numerous culturally insensitive blunders. Glanzer described a process of decision making where the committee members gathered to receive reports and make decisions, all of it bathed in times of fervent prayer, yet when someone expressed concerns about indicators in reports that warned about specific dangers, the prayer and testimonial times functioned to silence the doubters, indeed, to trust the Lord more. The real reason for Russian officials stopping the project, was that Co-Mission representatives spoke a line about offering non-sectarian Christian ethics curriculum for public schools in Russia, when speaking to Russian authorities, and spoke a line about church planting as missionaries when seeking funding and volunteers in America. When that contradiction became known, the project ended, even though many well meaning participants re-learned better ways, and some have indeed gained trust in the Evangelical community, though not in the Orthodox one, to my knowledge. The real concern of the missions, was to mobilize as effectively as possible for this great moment of Russians turning to Christ, a fixation on presenting Jesus, followed by inviting persons to personal conversion. Since
17 Perry L. Glanzer, The Quest for Russia's Soul. Evangelicals and Moral Education in Post- Communist Russia. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2002; see also the long review essay Donald Fairbairn, “Book Review: Glanzer, Perry L. The Quest for Russia’s Soul: Evangelicals and Moral Education in Post-Communist Russia. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2002.” Religion in Eastern Europe, Volume XXIII, Number 5, October 2003, 51-58 Walter Sawatsky 161 there was much talk about a “spiritual vacuum”, a need for ethics to replace “Communist morality” which had not worked, now to address the widespread concern about the absence of a shared moral code. In the language of the velvet revolutionaries like Adam Michnik and Vaclav Havel, forming a real civil society was at stake. So the Jesus Film organizers with their Co-Mission colleagues, found the educational officials they were introduced to at prayer breakfasts, open to outside ideas for an ethics curriculum. Since then the Russian intellectuals and Russian Orthodox leaders have debated the desirability and wisdom of teaching religion classes in the schools, including ethics. Had the Co-Mission leaders taken more time to probe the pre- suppositions that lay behind the various proposed solutions to build civil society through public education, they might well have remained part of what remains to the present a hot topic. The ethics curriculum proposed by them, however, was essentially based on an Evangelical Reformed framework, that they appeared to slip past unsuspecting teachers with their slick training materials. Ethics and religion curriculum that has been taught as produced by some Orthodox writers has also not gained widespread support. A recent poll reported that a good majority of parents chose the “secular ethics class” over the religious ones.18
Theological Education as Weathervane From the vantage point of 20 years, it is even more striking how much the health of theological education has been a primary indicator of the health of Christianity across eastern Europe. I had come to the conclusion at the end of my book on Soviet Evangelicals, that the explosive growth of their number between 1905 and 1929 had been handicapped by failure to keep up with leadership training, so that the rapid collapse of all organized church life within a couple of years when the war on religion began to include attacks on the Evangelicals became understandable. Vladimir Fedorov’s paper on Russian Orthodox education efforts (2006) supplied deeper understanding, as he surveyed the persistent twisting and turning of Orthodox leaders trying to devise numerous alternatives to the theological academies and seminaries that had been shut down.19 Their advantage was a much stronger record of training, and solid publications between 1865 and 1917, in spite of the many restrictions on Orthodox leadership during the Tsarist years since 1721. For the Evangelicals, it was the Bible schools of the Mennonites, and the possibilities
18 Paul Goble, “Russian Parents Overwhelmingly Choose Secular Ethics Courses for Children”, Window on Eurasia, October 9, 2010. Blog received 10/11/2010 via Charley Warner email. 19 Vladimir Fedorov, “An Orthodox View on Theological Education as Mission”, Religion in Eastern Europe,Volume XXV, Number 3, August 2005, 1-37 162 Serious Mission Partners in Eastern Europe for a small corps of leaders to study in Hamburg, St. Chrischona (south Germany) and London, that then became the minimal resource for starting Bible schools in a few places, the longest lasting four years, then shut down before 1929. Evangelicals were relying on those limited resources when resuming theological education in very restricted fashion at the end of the 1960s. By 1989 the deep pressures for schooling had reached a bursting point for Orthodox and Evangelicals alike. By 1996, at a meeting of strategists in Wheaton IL, Mark Elliott could show a list of 99 newly opened schools, just in the former Soviet Union region alone. Yet those strategists were already worried about the massive brain drain through out emigration, and worried about the proliferation of schools and programs, all claiming to be the best and following some western model offered to them. What essentially saved the schools for a while, was the formation of what we now know as Euro-Asiatic Accrediting Association (EAAA) with Dr. Sergey Sannikov as its executive director. The evangelical Protestants across eastern Europe had a better record in theological education, since in numerous countries, theological faculties as part of state universities were permitted, or allowed to function independently in separate quarters with restricted quotas. In most countries where there were Baptist Unions, for example, there were schools called seminaries. Most struggled with poor libraries (especially in local languages), lack of qualified professors. Following World War II, with strong funding from the Southern Baptist Cconvention (SBC), an English language International Baptist Theological Seminary (IBTS) had been established near Zurich, to which the best of the students from European Baptist seminaries could come to be up- graded to a common standard, some also managing doctoral studies. Very timely was the shutting down of that seminary in order to move to Prague, a location not only much cheaper, but also one where it was legally easier for east European students (more than just Baptists) to study. In the mid 1990s IBTS re-structured its program into modules and became a recognized satellite for the University of Wales for doctoral students in theology - Biblical studies, history, mission, and theology. In late 2008 it fell victim to the recession, cutting back drastically, yet the current list of doctoral students meeting in graduate seminars at the end of January 2011 totals 26. Of these, 10 are not from eastern Europe, and 4 are Mennonites, so we have need to be grateful.20 Those of us recalling our own Mennonite developments from winter Bible schools, to Bible Colleges, to liberal arts colleges with Bible and Religion departments, and most recently to universities and seminaries, will recall the
20 In thee summer of 2014 IBTS is scheduled to move to Amsterdam to be part of the Free University of Amsterdam. Walter Sawatsky 163 countervailing dynamics along the way. When the new Christian schools started up in Russia, some were following a TEE approach, others quickly expanded from correspondence courses to campus classes, others almost immediately called themselves theological colleges, or seminaries, or universities. Often it seemed they were simply using a name to gain recognition, locally or from sponsors abroad. Behind the variety of schools lay a bewildering array of notions about what needs doing - for the church, for the tasks of evangelism and mission, for the task of doing theology in context, and for the task of offering a broad education based on Christian values for service to society. Some may think here of Goshen College’s motto of Culture for Service. It was the advisers from the West, especially the Americans, who urged state educators in Ukraine and Russia to follow a secular model, to practice a strict separation of church and state. So obtaining legal status for liberal arts programs, for schools of business, or for medical and other necessary specialties disappeared as realistic option rather quickly. When we survey the troubled school situation today, there are several emerging patterns to watch. The involvement of church activists in social services through charitable societies, has opened them to social needs more deeply, and professionals in some of those social services began to encourage training - in drug counseling, in marriage counseling, and opening clinics or offering care to seniors. The graduates are pioneers, whose work achievements may result in eventual state recognition of such school programs. Secondly, noticeable over the past half dozen years, has been the number of persons dropping out of seminaries in order to study at local universities. No longer was their Christian profession a barrier to university access, only the ability to pay was, but business schools, training in IT, or other professions were now resulting in the likelihood of a living wage after graduation. So taking the university route was vital for securing a financial base, and the desired theological study for Christian ministry, most of which remained unpaid, was attempted through part-time or short courses and seminars. The third pattern has been the waning of foreign sponsorship, and the drastic slowdown in successful evangelism, so that the denominational leaders since 1990, who have shown little concern for theological leadership, but concentrating on evangelism, are either in job transitions, or beginning to look to the schools for help in denominational stabilization.
How Do Mennonites Fit? If there were space for me to survey the Mennonite programs in the USSR and eastern Europe over the past half century, some of my arguments for committing to serious mission partners in Europe and Eastern Europe in particular, might seem stronger. Instead I will rely on a few illustrations to 164 Serious Mission Partners in Eastern Europe show the patterns, and by citing other articles, either written by me or others, to convey more of the details. One in particular is a longer survey, based on MCC archival materials mostly, by Mark Jantzen, now professor of history at Bethel College in Kansas, in which he focused on the East/West program efforts of MCC between 1961 and 1991. It appeared in Mission Focus: Annual Review in 2010.21 There are several themes in Jantzen’s article, that can serve more widely. Jantzen excluded the MCC and other Mennonite involvements in Russia/USSR, describing that as “enormously dynamic but of such immense proportions” (fn4) that it merited its own study. Nevertheless his conclusions also applied to the “East/West” programs in general. Building a two-way bridge required much more knowledge and interest from the sending churches side in USA/Canada than turned out to be possible. That low interest was the persistent problem, Jantzen noting parallels to current MCC efforts at bridge- building to the Islamic world, where “a basic level of knowledge and interest in North America of the topic, communism in the one case, Islam in the other, ... did not and does not seem to exist.” Given my opening ruminations, it seems that what MCC and other Mennonite programming has under estimated, is the degree of Mennonite cultural embeddedness in American and Canadian cultures, especially its presentation of global news from a perspective that presupposes that American democratic culture is what sets the standard for the good everywhere. The “counter cultural” or “alternative culture” stance espoused by missional church advocates as the way for the Mennonite church to be missional, is but a strand of that American culture. One way to notice North American Mennonite entwinement with Europe throughout the 20th century, is the fact that in spite of the massive immigrations of Russian Mennonites to USA and Canada in the 1870s and 1920s, we continued to speak of at least 100,000 practicing Mennonites still living in the USSR from 1920 through 1987. That is, the out-migration did not happen till the end of the USSR, but the influx of new Russian Mennonite immigrants helped the statistical growth of North American Mennonites in the 20th century, since they represented about half of what Jim Juhnke once called a “bi-cultural mosaic”, meaning Swiss origin and Dutch/Russian origin Mennonites in North America. A major section of the immigrant community feared too much advocacy for the Mennonites of the USSR, yet at the same time cared deeply for helping in whatever ways possible. That resulted in a deeply conflicted pattern of program discussion and review, a dynamic that itself affected how issues were perceived and pressed, depending on staff placements. The initial creative work in agricultural and technical
21 Mark Jantzen, “Tenuous Bridges over the Iron Curtain: Mennonite Central Committee Work in Eastern Europe from 1966 to 1991, Mission Focus: Annual Review, Vol. 18, (2010), pp Walter Sawatsky 165 development22 disappeared from the institutional memory of MCC because the deep barriers of distrust between Mennonite communities and denominations caused MCC as inter-Mennonite body to shrink to a shadow of itself. Then in post World War II, the focus of relief shifted to western Europe, but with attitudes of north American Mennonite denominational divisions solidly in place, and with attitudes toward surviving Mennonite communities in western Europe that were paternalist at best, since most workers and even leaders lacked serious knowledge of their recent history, to say nothing of the experience of the Mennonites in the Soviet Union. What developed was a combination of initiatives that could be stylized as seeing Europe as new mission field, of being peace missioners to European Mennonites through MCC’s newly established Peace Section, and of seeking whatever ways of restoring contacts with Mennonites in the Soviet Union were possible. Along the way, notably through major consultations in 1950, 1967, 1979 and 1992, there emerged deepening partnership understandings, increased ecumenical cooperation in order to encourage Mennonites in Europe, east and west, to work with other Christian bodies deeply damaged by the wars and current Cold War thinking, and to find ways of being involved, at least with token representation, in the developing Third World, where mission- initiated Mennonite conferences were starting to shape Mennonite understandings of co-mission. Efforts to connect with fellow Mennonites in the Soviet Union were renewed, with the stimulus of refugees from the Ukraine, whose stories were collected. When the first visit of Mennonite leaders to the USSR became possible in 1956, they were attached to a Baptist World Alliance delegation on its first trip. In Moscow D. B. Wiens and H. S. Bender, armed with some addresses from refugees, met with Peter Froese, who had been a staff member in Moscow’s American Mennonite Relief (AMR) office, but who did not emigrate, who had spent years in the Gulag, and who was trying to rebuild connections among the Mennonites, now (I. In 1956) in a major diaspora due to deportations, Workers Army, and Gulag assignments. One outcome was the beginning of the MCC Suchdienst, that helped re-unite separated family members over the following decades. Froese himself was back in prison in 1957 for having attempted to form a Mennonite leaders meeting and possible denomination for legal registration. Between 1956 and the end of the USSR in 1991, the American Mennonite programs were a creative mix of what seemed
22 American Mennonite Relief, was one of seven NGOs permitted to stay after the famine relief ended in 1923, by fostering agricultural and small craft development, including publishing a journal. Known from MCC files, and this writer’s own scanning of the journal in the Soviet Ministry of Justice archive (1994), its role and impact is examined more extensively by Nazarova (2011). 166 Serious Mission Partners in Eastern Europe possible, constantly pushing at the barriers, with small setbacks. They included ‘tours’, often under tourism auspices, but not secret, with preachers and other ministries offered as possible, including tours by the Hiram Hershey choir from Pennsylvania. By the late 1970s, there were tours to visit the remains of the Mennonite colonies around Zaporozh’e, Ukraine, then to major cities in other republics, led by historians like Cornelius Krahn or Gerhard Lohrenz. By 1989, when Viktor Fast, then of Karaganda, organized a celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Russian Mennonites in Zaporozh’e, MCC staff after consulting with major Mennonite conferences, sent Peter & Elfrieda Dyck as our representatives to the event, including to similar celebrations in Orenburg and Karaganda Kazakhstan. Two senior ministers (GC and MB) were sponsored to visit scattered Mennonite communities with preaching/teaching and spiritual care tasks, for the “left behind” once the last major out-migration started in 1987. Other programs of lengthy duration were sponsoring a research office to collect the stories of faith, to provide accurate information to counter the anti-communist vs pro-detente oriented publicity in America by writing in depth about situations and changes. A book on the Soviet Evangelicals by this writer was published in 1981, an effort to present a fair balance on the split between registered and unregistered Evangelicals, Mennonites present on both sides as well. A temporary setback was the author’s inability to obtain a visa for seven years, but the book then served two functions - to assist the north American Mennonite and Evangelical public to understand and shape support to missions, and its translation within the AUCECB leadership helped internal discourse. Unintended at the time, was the fact that when the book was translated and circulated in 1996, it took on new life to foster understandings for the new generation of leaders on both sides of a still deeply divided Evangelical Christian-Baptist world, and became a frequently used text and reference cited for the new scholarship that has since emerged. Another project started as early as 1977, now known as the Russian Bible Commentary project (1977-1993), modeled close cooperation between USSR leaders and two external partners, MCC and the baptist World Alliance (BWA). It became a vehicle, through annual meetings, to speak in more depth and greater trust about what was happening, and the Barclay New Testament series, became a standard, not just for preaching, but is still used in the theological school libraries. With the break up of the USSR, and new possibilities for missionary visas, much has happened, referred to in general earlier. What were the contours of the Mennonite involvement? Initially there was a shared vision within MCC to open and register a center in Moscow, to serve as link to the Walter Sawatsky 167
Mennonites in Siberia and central Asia23, to offer some theological resources through a library (translation projects had been going since the early 1980s, eventually turned over to a local publishing ministry in Karaganda, Kazakhstan around 1991), and to organize conversations or to attend western mission gatherings, in order to keep a Mennonite or Anabaptist approach to ministry present. Further, Mennonites from north America sought to encourage other local agencies struggling to be a secondary support to local leaders and ministries, rather than dominate with American personnel and programs, and new denominations. With the removal of that Moscow office to the hinterland of Ukraine, namely to Zaporozh’e, the MCC involvement soon was reduced to local projects similar to small scale development in the ‘global south’. Much energy was spent by GC Mennonites, mostly from Canada, to try to form Mennonite congregations in Zaporozh’e and Novosibirsk, pursuing a sentimental hope of recovery of a great tradition without success. Mennonite Brethren, considerably due to the fact that their Europe director at the time was Austrian and well connected to Mennonite Brethren communities in Germany, became involved in numerous projects such as in Omsk, Karaganda, and Kyrgyzstan where funds were administered locally, to assist in the support of pastors or teachers when so many had emigrated, as well as supporting several major projects. One was to provide through Logos branches in Canada and USA, a funding and personnel sending base for the ministries of Logos International (Bielefeld), which, among other things, converted its TEE correspondence courses to what is today the St. Petersburg Christian University, whose president and teachers are now Russians with PhDs. Another project was to support, through the Manitoba based Russian radio ministry, the training of Viktor Hamm, who then worked with the Billy Graham’s organization in Moscow for a time, while Leonid Sergienko of Moscow trained in Winnipeg. For years thereafter, Sergienko maintained a studio in the Russian Baptist Union’s headquarters, and oversaw creative broadcasting in the fashion done by Mennonite Broadcasts in Harrisonburg. These underlined the common commitments between Mennonites, especially MB, and Slavic Evangelicals, although the Kirchliche leaders (now mostly in Germany) shared a common piety/theology with them and cooperated where they could. It would be worth assessing how well several schools, in which Mennonites were primary figures, worked well, or less so and why. With reference to theological education, there was a widespread effort to foster training of local leaders (even as scholarship funds began to shrink in America), to foster an oral history project for bridging between old and new leaders (mostly funded by MCC), small subsidies for archival
23 Which had been the statistical Mennonite heartland through much of the 20th century. 168 Serious Mission Partners in Eastern Europe discoveries and collections, or the CD library of scanned copies of journals, books, and even oral histories published by EAAA, Odessa, that make such resources available to all schools. Since the indicators in the CD that the funding came from MCC, are never seen by non-Russian readers, such involvements have also remained under the radar screen. The big story that needs to be told soon, is of the truly herculean efforts of the immigrants to Germany (Umsiedler as common designation) to assist in mission, service and relief in the former Soviet Union. Hilfswerk Aquila has become the major one, in terms of its two decades of shipping relief supplies to the mission programs of Evangelical Christian Baptist (ECB) unions in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, where fellow Mennonites still lead, and to other branches of Evangelicals in Omsk and Slavgorod. Aquila’s magazine, a quarterly, has also become the richest source of published archival materials from family and church collections, plus carefully researched historical vignettes, and extensive reporting on its ministries and the responses. Aquila’s staff also launched Samenkorn publishing house, after it decided to do more than help circulate other mission organization’s literature in Russian translation, so Samenkorn’s own output has drawn from Umsiedler and Russian/Ukrainian writers back ‘home’ to build up a Russian library. From the earlier generation of Umsiedler, promising youth graduating from MBBS or doing missiology at UNISA, now also at IBTS, were the organizers of Logos mission. It has had a more tumultuous history of leadership, pulling in differing directions, but its Logos press must also be recognized as major producer of literature in Russian for ministries across the former Soviet Union, as well as German language materials to keep the Umsiedler communities abreast of past history and current trends in missiology and theology. I regret that 2011 consultation in Chicago did not include a more trans- Atlantic consulting of leaders for identifying what the fragmented world of mission organizations here and there could do better through serious Co- Mission. Another regret is that I opted to omit (for space reasons) the European Mennonite responses to the post-1989 world, which has also included active involvement with the world of the former USSR, with relief and peacemaking initiatives in southeastern Europe, and with efforts to build understanding with the Umsiedler churches, now constituting over 450congregations in Germany, most of which have chosen not to participate in the MWC. Perhaps a CIM focus on eastern Europe, 20 years after that 1991 session that accounts for some program initiatives, might now contribute to new and better momentum to what we have long called “mutuality” in mission, even if I once wrote about the “elusive road to mutuality” in mission. A missiology of humility toward the other, meaning those of ‘our’ Walter Sawatsky 169 people we have been too distanced from, and a missiology of dialogue in humility with the other Christian world of the East, so consistently left out of our general and theological education, is surely daunting. Perhaps it is most daunting to contemplate when we think of the mentalities of our donor bases, now less informed and interested in greater Europe than during the Cold War era. Authentic, credible Christian witness, however, remains the source of hope, especially for the millions in de-Christianized Europe and Asia, that constitutes an even more challenging task in coming decades as ever more eyes appear to be turning south. Thankfully, it was never our mission alone, it still is God’s mission, doing wondrous things through God’s people. HENRY MARTYN’S SHORT STINT IN INDIA AND PERSIA: PRIOR AND LATER INFLUENCES Dorothy Yoder Nyce
Introduction Much about India intrigues readers. Westerners who choose to live there look to those who previously experienced the sacred and complex, the confusing and exotic about the land of the Himalayas, Ganges, and Mahatma. Henry Martyn surely knew of India’s mountains and rivers, had insight into mathematics that originated there. Long before Gandhi, Martyn likely knew of Akbar the Great; he knew also of William Carey’s recent efforts. From Britain, colonial patterns came to light through direct exposure. Asked by a retired American scholar and teacher of religions in India—one who knew many worthy nationals as well as foreigners—“Why study or write about Henry Martyn?” I pondered. I asked other questions as well. What stands out about a person who inherited tuberculosis from his mother, lived in India less than five years and in Persia on his return, wished to tell people of freedom in Jesus? How was an institution in India, named after Henry Martyn in 1930, known to the writer since the 1960s? Why is a place for research in Cambridge, England named the Henry Martyn Centre? Why examine a profession that historically minimizes the involvement of women—missioning? Or, why not engage with the legacy of Ida Scudder, Amy Carmichael, Martha Payne Alter, or Esther Vogt? What prompted Martyn’s being called “the pioneer Protestant missionary to Muslims”? Ever looking for western mentors who value and commend eastern culture and religion, I recognize Henry Martyn. When on staff at a Lutheran seminary in south India, I, a Mennonite, studied Bartholomaus Ziegenbalg’s life in order to preach in two Church of South India churches about him, on Gurukul’s ecumenical Sunday. German Ziegenbalg and Henry Plutschau were the first Protestant missionaries to India, working in the Tranquebar Mission. To preach about one who in the early 1700s translated scripture into Tamil through Hindu insights and wisdom was appropriate for ecumenical church members. Later, when hosted by Hindu parents of a student friend in Hyderabad, I did research at the Henry Martyn Institute library; it houses many fine, Islamic resources. During a visit to Cambridge, England, I explored holdings at the Henry Martyn Centre. Henry became a strong person of interest. His facility with languages impressed this struggler with Greek and Hebrew; his determination despite a dreaded disease amazed; his ability to Dorothy Yoder Nyce, after experience in mission, teaching at Goshen College, lives in retirement in Goshen IN while continuing research projects related to India and inter- faith issues.
Mission Focus: Annual Review © 2012 Volume 20 Dorothy Yoder Nyce 171 engage the poorest Indians despite sneers from British soldiers whose interest in scripture waned, if ever lived, further impressed. His habit of journaling had purpose: My object in making this journal is to accustom myself to self- examination, and to give my experience a visible form, so as to leave a stronger impression on the memory, and thus to improve my soul in holiness; for the review of such a lasting testimony will serve the double purpose of conviction and consolation.1 The journal opens windows into decades surrounding 1800.
Early Life Born 18 February, 1781 in Truro, Cornwall, England, the son of John and a second wife—former Miss Fleming—Henry grew up with four siblings. When Henry was three, the mother died from tuberculosis, disease that would claim three offspring. Following Truro Grammar School when not yet a Christian, Martyn’s years at St. John’s College, Cambridge, proved his academic brilliance. Awards included Senior Wrangler, first in his year in mathematics at Cambridge University (a collection of colleges) and a Fellow of St. Johns. He achieved the B.D. by 1805. While a student, he along with others came under Charles Simeon’s enduring influence. As a scholar at King’s College, the devoted Simeon had been ordained deacon and priest before becoming vicar of Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge. A “many-sided” pastor and mentor of young men for half a century, he faced public derision as leader of an evangelical revival of the Church of England. Preached from outlined notes, his 2500 sermons later formed 21 volumes, a commentary on every book of the Bible. A firm Anglican committed to Bible and prayer book, and single for life, Simeon started a fortnightly sermon class in 1790 for those ordained and Friday evening conversation parties in 1812. A founder of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) begun in 1797, his concern centered in mission work in India.2 He often found chaplains for the East India Company chair of directors Charles Grant, after 1805. Born in Scotland in 1746 and orphaned with four younger siblings when sixteen, Charles Grant apprenticed with a Cromarty ship owner and merchant, intent to improve family status. A cadet with the East India
1 Constance E. Padwick. Henry Martyn Confessor of the Faith. Chicago: Moody Pr, 1950, 65. 2 Leonard W. Cowie. “Charles Simeon 1759-1836.” http://www.oxforddnb.com /articles/25/25559-article.html; retrieved 15/09/2009, 5 pp. [With thanks for the writer’s assistance to archivist Dr. Sue Sutton and librarian Jane Gregory, at the Henry Martyn Centre, Cambridge, England, Sept. 15-16, 2009.] 172 Henry Martyn in India
Company’s Bengal army, he sailed to India in 1767 and began a fifty-year link with that land—mostly from England, in part as a politician. A strong evangelical, his passion called for Britain’s moral and religious duty to Christianize India; he perceived of Hindu and Muslim ways as inferior.3 Henry Martyn both knew and later extended influence: from his younger sister’s being an “instrument in the hands of Providence to bring me to a serious sense of things,” through the memoir of David Brainerd’s work as apostle to American Indians,4 on hearing Simeon’s sermons. He was ordained a deacon at the great Cathedral in Ely in October of 1803, becoming a curate at Holy Trinity Church alongside Simeon the vicar, while taking charge of a parish in the nearby village of Lolworth. A theory suggests that St. John Rivers in Jane Eyre is based on the life and character of Henry Martyn who had helped Charlotte Bronte’s father when a student at St. John’s College. Martyn sensed God’s call to mission effort in India. Although the first English candidate with CMS, he had to change support plans when, in early 1804 through some malpractice, he lost family inheritance following the sudden death of his father in 1800. That death had sorely grieved this son while at St. John’s. Aware of the need to also support his unmarried sister, he accepted the recommendation to go to India as a chaplain with the East India Company. Income was essential, not wealth. En route, Martyn would be sole chaplain with five thousand soldiers—with a host of transport ships protected by several warships. Before leaving England, Martyn became aware of his romantic feelings for Lydia Grenfell. Counsel from men about whether to go to India single or married caused inner conflict. Mentoring included warnings: that such ‘entanglement’ could interfere with sanctity; that ‘passionate love’ countered “devotedness to God in the missionary way”; of Simeon’s ‘more noble’ voluntary celibacy example. Later, his journal discloses: “My wish [does] not follow my judgment. . . The subject so occupies my thoughts . . . another’s mention of marriage “tore open old wounds; I am again bleeding.”5 Not until 1809 did he presume that “Lydia would never be his.” Yet, memory of the brief, golden hours spent reading poetry and walking along the seaside at Falmouth with this fine friend just before departing could resurface. Then he would recall that her mother refused permission for her to go to India. Or, he would remember that Lydia herself, since formerly engaged, had vowed not to marry as long as that earlier lover still lived. Years of correspondence
3 Penelope Carson. “Charles Grant, 1746-1823.” http://www.oxforddnb.com/articles/ 11/11248-article.html; retrieved 15/09/2009, HMC, Cambridge, 5 pp. 4 Jesse Page. Henry Martyn of India and Persia. London: Pickering & Inglis, n.d., 19, 21. 5 Brian Stanley. “An ‘Ardour’ of Devotion: The Spiritual Legacy of Henry Martyn,” in India and the Indianness of Christianity. Richard Fox Young, ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Pub Co. 2009, 117-19. Dorothy Yoder Nyce 173 followed. A final entry in her diary mentions “the beloved Martyn”; she died September 21, 1829, having endured a painful disease at life’s end.
Western Workers prior to Martyn Located near Calcutta William Carey remains well known—in part for thirty-six continuous years of translation work in India enhanced by early access to a printing press. But Martyn’s standard of scholarship moved beyond the Baptists working from Serampore. He helped them understand biblical texts or questioned their translation decisions. Insight into Carey’s conduct gives the writer pause. Early in the Carey mission career, the Carey parents knew the misfortune of son Peter’s death. Their struggle to find helpers to dig a grave or carry the dead child added shame to grief. Hindu or Muslim volunteers reported losing caste for having done such unclean tasks for Christians. Mrs. Carey’s experience of the death caused her to lose her mind. After her collapse, William spent much of his time in Calcutta honed in on translations, leaving his wife and four rowdy sons in the care of Hannah Marshman in Serampore. That a mission agency did not have the Carey family return to their homeland, even for furlough years, with such a health crisis seems less than responsible today. Baptists located at Serampore, a Danish Colony, over a decade before Martyn’s arrival. Carey, the first messenger with Baptist Missionary Society of England, arrived in 1793. His survey of world religions at the time reports 420 million (nearly 58%) Pagans, nearly 18% Mahometans, 13.7% Roman Catholics, 5.6% Protestants, 4.2% Greek and Armenians, and 7 million (nearly 1%) Jews.6 With no knowledge of what came to be called Hinduism, Carey also knew little about Muslims of India. Common nationals saw the new religion for their region as from “outside” with no connection to their country. Fairly intolerant, Muslims knew their religion to be superior and more modern; it offered a more perfect religious experience. While both religions preached brotherhood, Muslims judged Christians for failing to live that quality. Because both Christians and Jews corrupted their scripture, Allah had revealed to Mohamet a new text. British traders showed little concern for Indian folk; for a half century the British company’s government proved hostile toward Christian missionaries. Both Hindu and Muslim village people listened carefully to Jesus’ teachings, but most chose not to respond to calls to change loyalty. Christians could be freely critical of Hindu superstitions; some Hindu reformation movements followed. Muslims could defy or learn teachings in order to argue, find fault with, or oppose missioners. When William Ward attacked the
6 Sunil Kumar Chatterjee. “Serampore Missionaries and Christian Muslim Interaction in Bengal (1793-1834),” The Bulletin of Christian Institutes of Islamic Studies, vol. 3/1-4, Jan-Dec. 1980, 116. 174 Henry Martyn in India character of Mohamet, Muslims became furious. A crisis occurred when three hundred copies of a tract issued from the Serampore Mission’s press circulated around Calcutta; it accused Muslims of incurring God’s wrath, Mohamet of being a tyrant. When called to the Government Secretary, Carey promised to withdraw the offensive pamphlet and clear future manuscripts before printing. Another mistake of Ward’s followed his having a Muslim convert translate an abstract about Mohamet’s life into Bengali. The translation deviated from the original causing hostility with Muslims. Again, British Lord Minto threatened to confiscate the press.7 Positive press activity followed in 1818 when Joshua Marshman began to publish a local newspaper and what became a quarterly periodical called The Friend of India. Education for nationals near Serampore became another important factor prior to Martyn’s arrival. The first school began in 1800 with a learned Maulavi appointed to teach Persian and Arabic and a Hindu pundit to teach Sanskrit. Before long, one hundred schools, not directed toward conversion, enrolled eight thousand elementary students. Serampore Hindu College, begun in 1816 and based in Sanskrit, included Arabic and Persian language study. Carey’s “strong scientific bent” brought in European influence along with its choice literature. Scotsman John Mack taught there over twenty years. During the peak year of 1834, enrollment included 34 Hindus, 6 Eurasians, and 43 Indian Christians. Carey’s salary as professor at Fort William College and Hannah Marshman’s successful school helped income issues for the Mission. By 1915 when the first Divinity degree was awarded, Serampore College became “the centre for theological education for the whole of southern Asia.”8 Peroo became the first Muslim convert—after Serampore missioners ministered for two and a half years. The question of caste entered with conversion. Among some Christians in southern India, caste was retained; Carey questioned that practice but called for extensive instruction after baptism. Converts did not replace their Indian names with biblical or western names. Krishna Pal, a Brahman who wrote a number of Bengali hymns later translated into English, was baptized in the Ganges alongside the oldest Carey son, Felix. The majority of converts being from lower castes often experienced rejection and being abandoned by Hindu society. They turned to missioners for support. Aware that too much dependence could follow, a bond of allegiance (Form of Agreement) of 1805 called for an Indian church, with Indian Christians assuming duties of preaching and ordinances, to follow “as soon as possible.”9 Hannah Marshman, mentioned above, is known as the “mother of the
7 Ibid., 124-26. 8 Stephen Neill, “Principles of Missionary Action,” in A History of Christianity in India 1707-1858. NY: Cambridge Univ Pr, 1985, 201. 9 Ibid., 199. Dorothy Yoder Nyce 175
Serampore Mission.” As Carey was known as the “father” of the same endeavor, Hannah also was most remarkable. Born in 1767, she was left when orphaned to the care of a grandfather, Mr. Clark, who instructed her in both secular knowledge and genuine piety. Married to Joshua, she birthed a dozen children, six of whom survived. Marshmans with two children traveled to India in 1799. Hannah is noted in Eminent Missionary Women as “the first missionary to women of India and indeed, first of all women missionaries in modern times.”10 Not deterred by the fact that the Baptist Missionary Society did not appoint, support, or recognize women, she is known for these tasks: manager, controller of community expenses, organizer of elementary schools for girls, counselor to Bengali and British women, caretaker (of vulnerable missionary widows, many orphans, and the four turbulent Carey boys). Adjectives used to describe her include: dedicated, creative, versatile pillar of strength, influential, and indefatigable leader in the Mission. She capably restrained her husband’s temper as needed and enabled her scholarly son John.11 With 47 years in India, she outlived the noted trio of early Serampore men—Carey (35 years), Joshua (37), and William Ward (20). Joshua Marshman administered various educational projects; Serampore College which began in 1818 provided self-support for the Mission. Descriptors for him include: strategist, lay theologian, fiery theology debater, sometimes overly zealous and stubborn, lightning rod for clashes between senior and junior Baptist missionaries who followed, and spokesman between Serampore missioners and the BMS. Although he never visited China, he, as a keen linguist, valued translating the Bible into Chinese. He also spent fourteen years translating The Works of Confucius, finished in 1809, and producing a dissertation on Chinese sounds and grammar. “He was a strong defender of the British government in India.”12 Joshua Marshman, along with Scotsman Christopher Anderson, was instrumental during the mid-1820s in confronting the BMS mode of operating. These two called for closer relationships yet more freedom and independence or control for missioners on ‘the field.’ Not having taken a furlough for 26 years, he wrote a missiological monograph titled Thoughts on Missions to India before returning to London. There, he appealed “for the renewal of missions as a Christian movement,” dependent on the Holy Spirit and God rather than centralized, institutionalized
10 n.a. “Women in Missions History: Dorothy Carey and Hannah Marshman,” http://tellingsecrets-mks.blogspot.com/2010/10/women-in-missions-history; 2. See also W. H. Denham. “Memoir of the Late Mrs. Hannah Marshman,” http://baptisthistoryhomepage.com/ marshman.hannah.memoir.htmo; retrieved 7/10/2011, 6. 11 A. Christopher Smith. “The Legacy of William Ward and Joshua and Hannah Marshman,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research, July 1999, (Hereafter: C. Smith Legacy), 124-28. 12 Ibid., 124. 176 Henry Martyn in India bureaucracy.13 Another Martyn predecessor, William Ward effectively served the early Serampore team as “peacemaker, manager, pastoral counselor, publisher, and cross-cultural trainer.” He produced effective statements of purpose, like the 1805 document and a theology of evangelism. Intent to know national habits and ways of reasoning about theological issues, he called for Hindoos to be respected. His major writing, A View of the History, Literature and Mythology of the Hindoos, explained how missioners needed to engage and value Indian culture.14 His sudden death from cholera in 1823 distressed the group. While the Serampore team worked in or near Calcutta prior to and after Henry Martyn’s few years in India, these individuals influenced his life, along with the East India Company.
Henry Martyn’s Experience – En Route to and Early in India Martyn often found his ministry onboard Union ship undervalued; it was too academic and evangelical. Many soldiers with hard, impenitent hearts ignored or laughed when he rebuked what he called their sinful conduct. Officers and some passengers also opposed his preaching and efforts. Martyn’s Journal reports feelings and events. When docked at San Salvador, he addressed the errors of Franciscan monks. Embarking alongside some Mohammedans, he overheard and judged their hymns about a false God. Present at the British conquest of the Dutch at Cape Colony in early January 1806, he attended to dying soldiers. The horrors of this first taste of war distressed him. He would have preferred Britain to convert, not colonize, the world, to send ministers to “diffuse the gospel of peace.”15 A March 2 entry reports: The ship is running 9 knots per hour; with the sea sometimes flying over the side, the captain cancelled the worship service.16 First landing in India in the southeastern city of Madras, Martyn’s Journal and Letters record details. His sermon about Martha and Mary preached at Fort St. George was described by hearers as “too severe” and “a good trimming.” His intense prayers and observations accompanied temperatures of near-100 degrees. He “made calls,” watched men as they plowed and drew toddy from trees, and valued conversations—with Dr. [Richard] Kerr about “the ecclesiastical state of India” and Mr. Faulkner a
13 A. Christopher Smith. “The Edinburgh Connection: Between the Serampore Mission and Western Missiology,” Missiology: An International Review, vol. xviii/2, April 1990, 185-93. 14 C. Smith, Legacy, 125. 15 Page, 50-53. 16 S. Wilberforce, ed. Journal and Letters of the Rev. Henry Martyn, First American Edition, abridged, NY: M. W. Dodd, Pub, 1851, Yoder Nyce notes taken at Henry Martyn Centre, Cambridge, 304-5. Dorothy Yoder Nyce 177
Persian translator about languages. That Martyn had studied Bengali, Urdu, Persian, and Arabic grammars en route to India suggests the kind of linguist that he would prove to be. At their first meeting a few weeks later in Calcutta, he and Baptist William Carey prayed together in Bengali. He located in Aldeen, often shifting the twelve miles between the Baptist center at Serampore and Calcutta city. Martyn soon requested more grammars and dictionaries from England. Known as intelligent, he was asked to preach repeatedly in Calcutta churches, but nationals often scoffed at his content. While Martyn’s parent Company had no intent to alter the idolatry of folk, he reflected what today would be called ‘culture shock.’ He found distinct sights difficult: occasional self-immolation when a widow threw herself on her dead husband’s pyre, people bowing profusely before a black object or lifeless image, noise-making linked with religious festivities of very poor people.17 How Martyn wished to speak with that segment of humanity—to offer them new life, a freedom beyond imagination. How he longed to tell stories about or as Jesus had. Against legalism or then-worldly comforts, he offered spiritual awakening. Journal entries disclose interruptions by scholars or religious inquirers. “Mr. Brown’s moonshee [munshi, national translating assistant] came in and disputed with me two hours about the gospel. He spoke English very well and possessed more acuteness, good sense, moderation, and acquaintance with Scriptures than I could conceive to be found in an Indian. (May 16) Hostility posed by Englishmen felt doubly hurtful for Martyn. After preaching in Calcutta’s Old Church, Dr. Ward took him home and “grieved me by many inconsistencies in his temper and conversation.” (May 21) During a conference of missioners on the topic “Whether God could save sinners without the death of Christ,” Martyn offered an opposite stance to Carey, Marshman, Ward, and Brown. God might save without Christ, he suggested. (May 23) Further hurt from Ward: “Read at the new church and Dr. Ward preached on different degrees of future happiness, from which he proceeded to attack my doctrines, my last sermon in particular.” (June 7) Marshman sketched out a plan for Martyn in India—to stay in Calcutta a year to learn the language and then take along to confirm a couple ‘native brothers’ up country. But Martyn posed other hopes; he wanted to “be doing.” If he were to locate in Hindu-centered Benares, the commander-in-chief could choose to remove him from that military station. Perhaps being near Patna might suit better. Days were given to correspondence (with Charles Simeon, John Sargent, or Lydia Grenfell), language study and translation. He wrote: “. . .
17 Page, 62. 178 Henry Martyn in India began the Bengalee grammar and got on considerably. . . employed the morning comparing Persian and Nagree alphabets and rendering some Hindoostanee stories from one into the other. . . day passed in the same employment as usual: reading Hindoostanee with moonshee and by myself; went on with Marshman in reviewing the translation.”18 A relative John Martyn later described his being a perfectionist: his mind could move through six plus languages, taking his thoughts to bed with him. Returning to Calcutta, he heard of friend Daniel Corrie’s arrival in Madras, of his own appointment to Dinapore, military station of Patna district, near fanatical Muslim Wahabis.
Dinapore During the six week journey up the Ganges on a budgerow, boat with cabin, Martyn either concentrated on perfecting points of languages, reading Sanskrit, or pastoral stops off-shore to leave written materials among diverse people. With local dialect changes every few miles, conversation knew limits; ineptness with language humbled Martyn. In addition to soldiers, merchants, and officials, he met illiterate women, children, and transients. From among the former he drew resentment because of endearing himself to the needs of the latter. Some Europeans considered caring for “degraded souls” to be beneath the dignity of an English chaplain. Then too, women and children might run from him in fear, or rumors falsely circulated that among tracts offered were copies of the sacred Ramayana epic! Martyn ever recorded observations in a notebook: new words that he heard, national dislike for English conquerors, or a festival to honor the goddess Kali with effigies thrown into the river. On one occasion Martyn inadvertently touched the native boatman’s cooking pot; the rice, having therein been polluted, was thrown into the river. Martyn’s concern for fear due to superstition grew.19 By 1807 in Dinapore, Martyn was commissioned to fully translate the New Testament into Urdu (Hindustani/Hindoostanee). He was to upgrade the weak version from Serampore writers and to supervise Persian and Arabic translations of that text. A Britisher tagged these languages Martyn’s “three wives.” The Urdu text was completed by March of 1808; he also translated the Book of Common Prayer into Urdu. Hindu Mizra from Benares and Nathaniel Sabat sent from Madras assisted. Sabat, Arab of high lineage and convert from Islam, had earlier expounded Muslim law in Madras courts. Such munshis both enabled and frustrated the cause. Sabat, known for his temper, might ask Martyn to prove that the gospel was the Word of God; his prior history with Koranic (Qur’an) thought left him prone to judge as sinful the idea that “God
18 Journal/Letters, S. Wilberforce, ed. May 23, June 5, 13, 1806. 19 Page, 72, 79, 83-4. Dorothy Yoder Nyce 179 had a son.”20 Ever fascinated by nuances of vocabulary in half a dozen languages, the master linguist or “born grammarian” persisted. Martyn also spent time preparing to preach, writing letters, marrying British soldiers to Indian women, and starting five or six schools. For the latter, he translated books and produced stories with simple commentary from scriptures, texts like the Sermon on the Mount or Jesus’ parables. Not intent to proselytize, he “wished children to be taught to fear God and become good men.”21 Sarah Rhea describes the four services that he conducted each Sunday—early morning with Europeans (about 500 of the 1600 Europeans attended the service near his home), two for several hundred Hindoos (non- English), an afternoon gathering in the hospital, and one in his own room in the evening for interested soldiers. Such concerted effort often led to pain in his chest.22 Despite the disdain that he knew from European parishioners because of his compassion for “the natives,” through inner faith he knew that “Indians were included in the Divine embrace” . . . that they deserved being met as they “truly were.” So too, an inter-faith logic mattered for Christianity.23 A September 14, 1808 letter to his like-minded friend and confidante Daniel Corrie covers activities of the week: finished translating the great epistle of Romans; frequent visits with many of the European regiment then hospitalized, two of whom were dying; a recent women’s worship service which prompted “no curiosity but ample indifference.” Responding to Corrie’s inquiry about a first baptism of a woman, he closed: “I am, dear brother, affectionately yours, H. Martyn.”24
Cawnpore (Kanpur) Henry Martyn’s transfer during April 1809 took him four hundred miles south, often in a jolting palanquin in extreme heat, to Cawnpore. Arriving exhausted, his physical weakening only increased over the next year and a half. Despite chief munshi Sabat’s “pride, pedantry, and fury,” Martyn pursued
20 Numerous writers describe munshee Sabat’s qualities, as does Padwick, 177-79, 185, 189, 193. 21 Clinton Bennett. “Henry Martyn 1781-1812 Scholarship in the Service of Mission,” in Mission Legacies: Biographical Studies of Leaders of the Modern Missionary Movement, Gerald H. Anderson, Robert T. Coote, Norman A. Horner, James M. Phillips, eds. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1994, 268. 22 Sarah J. Rhea. Henry Martyn Missionary to India and Persia, Missionary Annals Series, Chicago: Woman’s Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions of the Northwest, 1888, 24. 23 Kenneth Cragg. “Henry Martyn (1781-1812),” in Troubled by Truth: Life Studies in Inter- Faith Concern. Edinburgh: The Pentland Pr. Ltd., 1992, 19. 24 Letter transcribed by Scott Ayler, Aug 2004, copied at Henry Martyn Centre, Sept 2009, 2 pp. 180 Henry Martyn in India translation work and preached to British and Indian folk. At times, he disagreed with Roman Catholic missionary work among nationals. So too, Catholic soldiers grew aloof to him, avoiding Protestant teaching that might “infect” them. As many as one hundred soldiers could be hospitalized— pastoral visits being another task. Martyn named four castes of Indian people with whom to contend: Heathen, Mohammedans, Papists, and Infidels.25 With no church building, his Sunday morning prayers and sermons were preached before hundreds of soldiers near his residence on the infantry ‘station.’ Evening gatherings with devout followers differed from the public, afternoon crowd of hundreds of poor, noisy natives.26 A sermon of Martyn’s, not published until 1822, refers to at least 900,000 Christians in southern India and Ceylon by then . . . Portuguese, Protestant converts around the southern region of Tanjore, Roman Catholics, Syrian Church folk who spoke Malayalim, and Cingalese.27 Mrs. Mary Martha Sherwood, wife of Colonel Sherwood and prolific writer of children’s books,28 often received Martyn into her Cawnpore home. She describes the picturesque afternoon “assembly of beggars” who each received an anna and some rice after the preaching. “Frightful were the [subjects who] usually met our eyes in this crowd; so many with monstrous and diseased limbs . . . professional mendicants and religious [Hindu] devotees.”29 With them, Martyn explained single verses as about the biblical flood, calling people to “fear God who is so great and love God who is so good.” Mrs. Sherwood also reports on a school started by Martyn: “. . . a pack of little urchins . . . with wooden imitations of slates in their hands [who] after writing lessons with chalk, recited them with wide-open mouths.” And her descriptors for Martyn include: “luminous, intellectual, affectionate, beaming with Divine charity, and playful with children.”30 The only extravagance about him was his collection of books, she thought. Affection appeared within Martyn’s correspondence. Friends from days in England, Daniel Corrie and he wrote weekly letters when they were not in the same location. Corrie, a Hindi scholar, related effectively with Indians and non-Christians. After serving thirty years in Calcutta, he had a brief stint as the first bishop of Madras. Four months after arriving in
25 Page, 115, 117. 26 Rhea, 24. 27 Twenty Sermons by the Late Rev. Henry Martyn. 2nd edition, London: Seeley and Hatchhard & Son, Sermon # 20 “Christian India” on Gal 6:10, Yoder Nyce notes taken at HMC, Cambridge, 439-40. 28 More famous books include The History of the Fairchild Family, 1818, and Henry and the Bearer. 29 Anon. Story of the Cawnpore Mission. London: Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, 1909, 9. 30 Page, 119. Dorothy Yoder Nyce 181
Cawnpore, Martyn directly asked him: What will friends at home think of Martyn and Corrie? They went out full of zeal, but, behold! What are they doing? Where are their converts? . . . If I were to go home, I should not be able to make them understand the state of things. . . . I am almost resolved not to administer the ordinance of baptism till convinced in my own mind of the true repentance of the person.31 Another exceptional person heard Martyn preaching to the beggars from his Cawnpore courtyard. In his early thirties, Sheikh Salih would visit his father who lived next door to Martyn. He with some young Muslims “went to see the sport.” Getting to the front of the crowd, they “listened with supreme contempt and audibly criticized what Henry Martyn said.”32 But curious about Christianity, Salih contacted the erratic assistant Sabat for a job. When a copyist, he also bound Martyn’s complete Urdu New Testament; he read all of it. Later baptized on Pentecost Day 1811, he was given the name Abdul Masih (Servant of Messiah). He became a dignified doctor and evangelist among his own people, composer of many hymns, and the second ordained, Indian Anglican (1825). When later a colleague with Daniel Corrie in Agra, Masih wrote commentaries on Matthew, Romans, and Hebrews.33 Before and after poor health left Martyn’s preaching voice weak, he gave even more intense attention to translating scripture. In a letter to Charles Simeon back in England, Martyn had expressed: “What a plague to this country is the multiplicity of its languages. . . .Remove my name from and send every book of mine—particularly Bibles, Testaments, prayer books, hymn books, spelling books.”34 To observe apathy or suffering led him to work with rigor through the tools of grammar. Exact terms were often elusive; many idioms in Urdu perverted meaning; wearisome munshis sapped Martyn’s energy; basic terms such as ‘church’ proved “repulsive to Hindu mentality and Muslim dogma.” But his strong faith trusted the mind of readers once they had sacred scripture in hand. “The text would be its own perfect advocate.”35 Martyn’s “Report of Progress of Translations” appeared from Cawnpore in December of 1809. Clearly, the scholar who knew that his version though strong was not timeless, he awaited the British and Foreign Bible Society’s saying when to print his Hindoostanee New Testament. The work of
31 Anon, 11-12. 32 Neill, “Anglican Evangelicals,” 260. 33 Graham Kings. “Abdul Masih: Icon of Indian Indigeneity,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research, April 1999, 66-69. 34 Martyn in Journals and Letters edited by Wilberforce, January 1808. 35 Cragg, 19-21. 182 Henry Martyn in India translation, always a matter of doing theology, ever seemed also to be a contest between European translators wishing to be faithful to the original and national or Muslim scholars who cared for elegant expression or Persian style. Aiming to complete translations within two years, Martyn had by then nearly completed the Persian text through the Corinthian epistles, but only Romans, I Corinthians, and a few chapters of Matthew were done in Arabic. His broader study and work with Persian enabled the Arabic task; people of the East hardly qualified to judge it. He intended to work on the Psalms after completing the New Testament. Hebrew proved to be his “very constant meditation day and night, being sometimes three weeks at one verse before being richly rewarded to understand the meaning.”36
Months Prior to Leaving India Ordered by a physician to take an indefinite leave due to poor health, Martyn left Cawnpore on October first, 1810. That a church building opened on the day before departure gave him deep satisfaction. Separated for less than five years, his lingering wish to persuade Lydia Grenfell to return with him to India recurred. After several months in Calcutta where his portrait was painted, where he preached on the anniversary of the Calcutta Bible Society (a copy of which appears in the British Museum), Martyn sailed on 7 January 1811 for Bombay. He stopped along the coast several times including to see the great monument for St. Francis Xavier in Goa. During his five weeks in Bombay, Martyn valued discussion with a “most intelligent Parsee” named Feeroz and a learned Muslim Mahomed Jan. The former stressed that “every man is safe in his own religion.” While such scholars “didn’t yield to his arguments, they all looked up to him with respect as a man of extraordinary learning and piety.”37 With dreams to travel overland to Europe, his Urdu New Testament in hand, Martyn hoped to test and finalize the difficult style of his second Persian version while in Persia (now Iran), to complete his Arabic version in Arabia.
First Christian in Persia with Muslims On 14 April 1811, Martyn sighted the coast of Persia. At Muscat, an Armenian priest blessed him with incense four times within the altar rails—a sign of special favor. In Bushire the governor shared his hookah. Several weeks later he arrived in Shiraz, noted for ancient ruins and a center for Persian poets.
36 Henry Martyn. “Report of Progress of Translations of the Holy Scriptures into Arabic, Persian and Hindoostanee,” Cawnpore, Dec 4, 1809, Proceedings of the Calcutta Corresponding Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society, 3 Jan 1810, Yoder Nyce copied 4 pp. at HMC, Cambridge, 3. 37 Stanley, quoting James Hough, 125. Dorothy Yoder Nyce 183
Despite loss of strength due to inner fever plus exterior temperatures well over 100 degrees, he donned native Persian dress—stockings, large boots, great coat and a sheepskin cone for his head. In Shiraz Martyn encountered Sufis, other Muslims, Jews, Jewish Muslims, and Armenians. Many wished to argue with their first, visiting English priest. Learning that his Persian New Testament needed to be entirely retranslated, he delved into the task for the next ten months. Men of all kinds daily chose to engage “the talk of the town.” Martyn described the Prince’s secretary, intent to discuss Soofeeism, as “believing [he] knew not what.” When Martyn commended Jesus’ miracles, others advised that he engage the great Koran, “an everlasting miracle.” When visitors’ bigotry mounted, he bravely spoke to the truth of Christ.38 As ever, he relied on prayer and the Spirit. He wrote to Lydia: “I am in Persia, entrenched in one of its valleys, separated from Indian friends by chains of mountains and a roaring sea, among a people depraved beyond all belief.”39 Also to her, “Frigid reasoning with men of perverse minds seldom brings them to Christ. However, I reason and challenge them to prove the divine mission of their prophet.”40 Shiraz Sufi scholars complimented his “learning, humility and patience; they called him “merdi Khodai”—a man of God.41 A January 19 journal entry discloses his insight into Sufi thought: Since God is not affected by good and evil, pleasure and pain, people too can be perfectly happy (know salvation) when they become like God. Journal entries for March 22 and 28 mention conversations with Armenians on points of theology—the fire of hell, reconciling texts, the Incarnation. “We talked incessantly for four hours . . . until I was quite exhausted and felt the pain in my breast which I used to have in India.”42 Then on April 7 he disputed with a dozen Jews and their priest, who, unaware of Jesus, were surprised by talk of his Resurrection and Ascension. A small, sixteen page booklet printed in Bristol much later (1839) is titled “The Persian Christian.” When invited to a Persian evening dinner, Martyn was asked to present his Tenants of Faith. Scorn followed. However, he observed a man who spoke little but paid close attention. A few days later he called upon a respected, learned man. Educated at a Madrassa, Mohammed Rahem spoke good English; they discussed European literature and scriptures.
38 Rhea, 35-37. 39 Page, 138. 40 Sept 8, 1811 in Stanley, 125. 41 George Smith, ed. Portion of Journal entries “In Persia,” Henry Martyn Saint and Scholar 1781-1812, First Modern Missionary to Mohammadans (largest of Martyn biographies). London: Religious Tract Society, 1892, 392. See also Stanley, 125-26. 42 G. Smith, 385-87. 184 Henry Martyn in India
When Martyn suggested that “only one religion could be right,” the man asked if Martyn had been consistent with that idea the earlier evening. In return, Martyn boldly asked the man if he was a “sincere Musselman.” Finally, the man answered, “No, indeed I am not.” To which Martyn asked, “Are you a Christian?” “I am; you now have my secret” came the reply. Martyn gave him a New Testament in Persian at their last visit.43 The age-long, medievalist habit of Islamic public debate, to prove superior learning, both frustrated and tempted Martyn. Earlier Journals and three Persian Tracts illustrate. “I wish a spirit of enquiry to be excited but lay not much stress upon arguments. The work of God is seldom wrought this way. . .Confident in his own case . . . he sensed dishonor to his Master in controversy with dogma or logic with the learned Shirazis who believed themselves mandated to undertake defense of Islam.” He later, when perturbed by hassles, resorted to old arguments against Islam, when invited to debate Muslim scholars like Mirza Ibrahim. In tracts he charged: Muhammed did no prophetic foretelling or miracles, used violence, and had multiple marriages. Martyn tried to explain “why God has not shown mercy without the obedience of Christ.”44 Writing to Daniel Corrie from Shiraz on September 12, 18ll, he said: Dearest Brother, . . . you must have written, though I have not seen your handwriting since I left Calcutta. . . One day on a visit of ceremony to the Prime Minister. . . who should make his appearance but my tetric adversary, the said Aga Akbar. I told him that in matters of religion, where the salvation of men was concerned, I would give up nothing to them, but as for points in philosophy, they might have it all their own way. . . . The Persians are far more curious and clever than the Indians. . . .India is the land where we can act at present with most effect. . .45 With handwritten copies of the completed Persian New Testament in hand, Martyn headed north to Isfahan before to Teheran and on to Tabriz. After hours of intemperate controversy in Teheran, during which he met two moollahs—“most ignorant of any I met in Persia or India”—the vizier challenged him to recite the Kalimah: “God is God and Mohammed is the prophet of God.” When Martyn recited: “God is God and Jesus is the Son of
43 “The Persian Christian,” a 4”x2” booklet, Effects of the Labors of the late Rev. Henry Martyn, a narrative from the Asiatic Journal, Bristol 1839, read by Yoder Nyce at HMC, 16 pp. 44 Journals, April 1807. vol. 2, p 55 and Controversial Tracts on Christianity and Mohammadanism, 80-101, 102-23, 139-60, published in 1824 by Samuel Lee, discussed by Cragg, 23-25. 45 Letter to Corrie in G. Smith, 388-91. Dorothy Yoder Nyce 185
God,” hearers became furious. Gathering his translation, he left in haste. Despite nursing his fever for two months at the ambassador’s residence in Tabriz, ill health kept him from presenting his sacred work to the Shah. British Ambassador Sir Gore Ouseley later carried out the honor. Excerpts of the Shah of Persia’s response to the Ambassador: “[you] should know that the copy of the Gospel, which was translated into Persian by the learned exertions of the late Henry Martyn. . . has reached us and has proved highly acceptable to our august mind. . . It has been translated in a style most befitting of sacred books.”46 Later printed by the Russian Bible Society in St. Petersburg, a second edition was published at Calcutta in 1814. With health somewhat restored, Martyn started out September 2 for the 1300 mile ride, much by horseback, toward Constantinople. Neither the servant hired to speak Persian nor the horses proved reliable. But, the journey included amazing scenery, sight of the peaks of Ararat prompting thoughts of Noah, and an ancient Armenian monastery at Ech-Miazin where the Patriarch and monks received him with “great kindness.” Sometimes riding after sunset to avoid daytime heat, the fever ever recurred, at times with a vengeance. Martyn’s journal entries end October 6. At age 31 he breathed his last on 16 October 1812 at Tokat, Turkey—a city “grim with plague,” 250 miles short of Constantinople.47 Armenian clergy gave him a Christian burial, perhaps also winding his body Oriental fashion in a white sheet. News of his death reached England in 1813 as parliament debated how to support Christian missionaries in its territories.48 The following inscription appeared with Martyn’s body, later reinterred in an American and British cemetery at Baghdad: “a Pious and Faithful Servant, called by the Lord himself, as he was returning to his fatherland.”49
Martyn’s Later Influence on Others Descriptive of the time period, a quote from Martyn’s obituary states: . . . the memory of the Rev. H. Martyn deserves to be embalmed by the affectionate regrets of all those who can rightly appreciate what is due to exalted piety, to heroic self- denial, to engaging beneficence, to extensive erudition. In him the Church of England has lost a most worthy son, and the general cause of Religion a powerful advocate. . . .50 Another example of his legacy appears in an epitaph written by Thomas
46 Page, 176-77. 47 Rhea, 42-45; Page, 152-57. 48 Stanley, 113. 49 Page, 158. 50 “Obituary—Rev. Henry Martyn,” Missionary Register, April 1813, 142-44. 186 Henry Martyn in India
Babington Macaulay that begins: “Here Martyn lies. In Manhood’s early bloom / The Christian Hero finds a Pagan tomb. / Religion, sorrowing o’er her favourite son, / Points to the glorious trophies that he won . . .”51 In the Preface to editing Martyn’s journals and letters, S. Wilberforce says: “No modern name is dearer to the church than that of Henry Martyn.” John Sargent’s A Memoir of the Rev. Henry Martyn, published in 1819, saw the twelfth edition reissued in London in 1831. An anonymous news clipping dated October 15, 1867 found by this writer inside the front cover of the Henry Martyn Centre’s copy of Sargent’s book in Cambridge, England states: . . . One to whom Christian sympathy was as the breath of his nostrils. . . doing the work of ten men. . . leading to question whether it might not be better simply to scatter broadcast as he did, the seeds of Christianity, and leave them to germinate in the native minds under native conditions, than in the approved English way, to try to Christianize by Europeanizing. Martyn is celebrated in a lesser Festival on 19 October in parts of the Anglican Communion. Authors reflect personal perspective in writing about him—one might stress his recurring anguish over chest pain or intense bouts with fever while another might be more negative toward Islam than would have been true of Martyn. Sir J. W. Kaye describes him: “a strange, sensitive being—all nerve . . . always in an extreme state of tension”; Brian Stanley refers to his “uncompromising evangelicalism”; and an East India official named Elphinstone noted his “good sense” as well as possible “holy bigotry.”52 What this writer has come to appreciate about Martyn is careful translation work sensitive to other living faiths, and openness to learn from Muslims or others alongside faithful Christian commitment. Not the first Anglican clerical missionary, Martyn has been called “the first modern missionary to Muslims.” The Henry Martyn School of Islamic Studies formally began in Lahore in 1930. Roots for that institution stem from prior events: a 1906 conference of workers in the Muslim world held in Cairo, Egypt; the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference of 1910;53 and the Conference held in Jerusalem in 1924 planned by the International Missionary Council begun in 1921. David Lindell, at one time director of HMI (Institute’ replaced ‘School’ in the organization’s name), states that Martyn’s “name was given to the School for it signifies a standard of scholarship, a commitment to
51 Page, 161. 52 Stanley, 122. 53 Many have written about this event and its centenary. See Dorothy Yoder Nyce. “The World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh 1910—A Context for Review,” Mission Focus: Annual Review, vol. 18, 2010, 100-23. Dorothy Yoder Nyce 187 the Gospel, and a burning love for Muslim people.”54 Through its eighty-year history, the HMI has changed location several times; since early in 1970 it is in Hyderabad, an Indian city with a significant Muslim population. Understanding across religious lines—a result of sustained friendship and patient study—has been central for HMI research, language study, or development programs. Shifts of focus have followed: from evangelization to dialogue to reconciliation. Both academic work and praxis enable trust and cooperation. HMI’s library is remarkable in quantity and quality, especially its holdings on Islam. A journal, newsletter, and web site provide further information about this International Centre for Research, Interfaith Relations, and Reconciliation.55 Martyn’s honor extends through hundreds of students, actions of mediation intervention, and interfaith insight or respect. A further example of his legacy is the Henry Martyn Hall located in Cambridge, England next to Holy Trinity Church. Roots of the Hall trace to 1887. The Henry Martyn Library, at first a small collection of missionary biographies, books, and journals, opened in the Hall in 1898. Resources were gathered to help students discover the importance of Missions. After Kenya missionary Canon Graham Kings gave the first, annual Henry Martyn Lecture in Missiology in 1992, the library holdings expanded. During the summer of 1995, library resources were moved to Westminster College; the catalogue of 7,500 books and 35 journals became part of the Newton catalogue of Cambridge University. To mark the centenary, alongside increased scholarly study of mission and world Christianity, the name was changed to Henry Martyn Centre in 1998. Martyn holdings report his life and achievements. They include original letters and sermons, materials about him from other British archives, and early mission activity in India. Letters and papers of his first convert from Islam, Abdul Masih, and Martyn’s correspondence with Daniel Corrie appear as do materials of other missioner notables. Writers reflect on Martyn’s achievements. Graham Kings notes two basic aspects: scripture translation and life inspiration for others. Kenneth Cragg notes features of translating with which Martyn struggled—finding useful terms within Indian idioms for key terms like grace and truth, redemption and hope. Avril Powell notes how the Urdu translation of the New
54 David T. Lindell. “The Henry Martyn Institute of Islamic Studies,” The Bulletin of Christian Institutes of Islamic Studies, vol. 3/1-4, Jan-Dec. 1980, 135. 55 Website: (www.hmiindia.com) See Dorothy Yoder Nyce. “Seeing is Believing, The Henry Martyn Institute, Hyderabad, India.” Studies in Interreligious Dialogue, 14/2, 2004, 160-76. Also, Andreas and Diane D’Souza. “Reconciliation: A New Paradigm for Missions,” Word & World, xiv/2, Apr 1996, 203-12. Yoder Nyce again spent several days at the fine , new location of H.M.I. in Hyderabad in late January 2012., meeting the present director Varghese Manimala and doing interfaith research among current Asian journals. 188 Henry Martyn in India
Testament transformed Muslim scholars’ views of Christianity. And Stephen Neill notes that in less than six years’ time, Martyn left “imperishable memorials ”: 1. His Journal, with clear sensitivity for others alongside freedom to fault his own weaknesses. Entries convey his being totally centered in God, his depth of love for poetry, music, and painting. 2. His expertise in Biblical translations for Asia. Compared to the Serampore men, Martyn had a keen ‘ear’ for languages, a sense of idiom, constant contact with Urdu speakers, love for Persian elegance, and insight into Arabic through knowing Hebrew. 3. Enabling a dignified Muslim—Abdul Masih—to claim faith in Jesus the Christ, expressed in part through his new hymns.56 Clinton Bennett reviews the centerpiece of this essay through Martyn’s ecumenical example. While Anglican, he worked with Baptists in Serampore. Near Patna (Dinapore), he conversed in Latin with Fathers and protected Catholic priests from military authorities. During the Persian year, he developed strong friendships with Armenian clergy, brethren, and patriarchs. Alert to the fact that Christian rivalry hurts mission efforts, he stressed cooperation in relating with Muslims.57 Further, he countered attitudes of British superiority; he welcomed many Indians to his home. A scholar at heart, he studied eastern ways of seeing and reasoning; he promoted education. Rather than debate, he chose to credit others’ minds, to express “tender concern for the soul” of Muslims. Alert to the fact that witness to God’s peace through Jesus the Christ is best conveyed through friendship, he showed genuine appreciation for whatever proved best in the Muslims whom he met. Not afraid to admit what he needed to learn, he pursued respect for and knowledge of Islam as much as authentic knowing of his own faith.
56 Neill, 257-260. 57 Bennett, 267-69. See also Clinton Bennett. “The Legacy of Henry Martyn,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Jan 1992, 10-15. BOOK REVIEWS Seeking Places of Peace: A Global Mennonite History Series – North America, by Royden Loewen and Steven Nolt. Intercourse PA: Good Books, 2012, pp 400, 6 appendices with statistics.
Writing a new history is usually about recognizing how the changing present invites us to take a new look at our past. The Global Mennonite History Project (GMHP) began with the recognition that the growing global Anabaptist/Mennonite family was not well accounted for in existing publications on Anabaptist/Mennonite history. In particular, the voices of the growing global south were not heard at all and the voices of the smaller churches in Europe were being lost because the historical conversation was being completely shaped by the US and Canada. A meeting of Mennonite historians in 1995 later became GMHP, a space to learn about these other parts of the global communion from their own perspectives. Because the focus was on those who had not had a voice in the past, many questioned whether there needed to be a North American volume in this series, since there were already many histories of Mennonites in Canada and the US. The decision to publish a fifth North American volume (the other four being Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe) meant that it would need to look different than previous histories, since it would need to fit into the global series. The GMHP editors, John Lapp and Arnold Snyder, chose two excellent North American Mennonite historians for the task. Royden Lowen and Steve Nolt chose not to write another chronicle of the development of the various Anabaptist/Mennonite movements, but to develop a social history of Mennonites in North America. In their own words, they chose to answer one question: “How did Mennonite men and women live out their distinctive religious calling to follow Christ in North America” (xii)? The book seeks to “reflect the complex ways that Mennonites have sought to be a people of peace, externally in geographic sites, internally in mind and soul” (xiii). The title provides the paradigm for their work. Mennonites migrated to North America from various locations in Europe seeking places of peace to live out their faith. The desire to find a place of peace also motivated some to leave North America, or at least the US and Canada. The authors identify three major ways that Mennonites have sought to live out their faith. Some have drawn strongly from evangelicalism and have developed a practice that blends Anabaptism and various forms of evangelicalism. Others have redefined Anabaptism in light of the North American reality, a neo-Anabaptist vision, if you will. A third way has been to draw on traditional life-styles and practices. The book is divided into three overlapping chronological sections. The first tracks the various migratory streams from Europe to North America (1683- 1950). It does not track each migration, but draws on specific experiences that Mission Focus: Annual Review © 2012 Volume 20 190 Book Reviews serve as exemplars of the various types of experiences. The second major section of the book tracks how these same peoples have integrated into life in North America (1930-1980). In particular, they focus on the transition from communally oriented family farming to the diverse ways that Mennonites live today, particularly as most moved away from the farm into towns and cities. The last major section (1960-2010) looks at how Mennonites are living their faith as North Americans. It addresses family life, money, church, media, and how NA Mennonites are relating to their globalized world. The book is a very good social history of the European migrants and their descendants. It tells a very compelling narrative of how Mennonites have struggled to continue being faithful to the theological legacy of their biological ancestors. By telling the stories of specific people dealing with these issues, they help us identify with their struggles and victories. In a way the book is the story of how the two authors, and people like them, developed historically into the committed Mennonites that they are. But the book seemed to promise to be more than a social history of Swiss-German or Russian-German Mennonites in NA. The preface begins with two stories of migration, one from Europe and another of a “new” Mennonite who migrates to Canada from Latin America. The authors seem to imply that they have found a way to tell the stories of all Mennonites in NA, using the common theme of “seeking places of peace” as a way to weave all Mennonite experiences together. It is here where some of the things they chose “not to say” (xiv) would likely have been helpful. To begin with, “new” Mennonites usually only make “cameo” appearances. There is never a clear description of Mennonite mission efforts and how converts became a part of the Mennonite family in North America. The book describes points of encounter, but does not talk about intentional outreach. If the reader does not already know about Mennonite mission efforts in North America, he or she is never given any clarity as to how non-Germanic Mennonites fit in the narrative when they make their occasional appearances. The book would have been strengthened with a complete section on how others have “sought places of peace” in the NA Mennonite family. This is closely linked to a second “gap” in the book. The authors never clearly address the issue of Mennonite ethno-religious identity. It is always in the background, but it is never clearly named as an issue that affects the North American scene in unique ways. For example, in the chapter on “Media, Arts and Mennonite Images” the authors fail to clarify that many of the issues they raise have to do with ethno-religious identity, with emphasis on the “ethno” part of that identity. By not naming the issues raised by the unique ethno- religious Mennonite experience they are not able to explain some of the complexities of the Mennonite experience or how other Mennonites fit or do Book Reviews 191 not easily fit in the NA Mennonite picture. This stands out even more because the GMHP volume on Latin America clearly recognizes this reality in its title “Mission and Migration,” recognizing that there are two distinctive, though overlapping, Mennonite experiences wherever Mennonites have both migrated and done mission work. These gaps also make it difficult to connect this volume to the rest of the GMHP series. All of the other books in the series clearly reflect on their connections to North America. The authors did not want to tell a “trunk history” where they describe how the Mennonites in the rest of the world are the branches of what started in North America (xii). But by not telling that part of the story it is not clear how this volume connects to the series or how NA Mennonites connect to the global Mennonite movement. The last chapter on how NA Mennonites connect to the world, spends a few pages talking about Mennonite World Conference, but never addresses the historical and missional links between north and south or the increasing connections from south to north. Seeking Places of Peace completes a task envisioned and led by John Lapp and Arnold Snyder. They have brought together professional and developing Mennonite historians from around the world to reflect on a global Mennonite reality. The challenge of the series is both to give voice to those who have not spoken, and to help the global community define what it is that makes us one people together. The GMHP has completed an important task by bringing new voices and new issues into the mix. I hope that this first effort generates a space for more voices to develop. The second task will be more complex: What is it that makes all of us Mennonites? Reviewed by Juan Francisco Martínez, Ph.D., Associate Provost for Diversity and International Programs, Academic Director of the Hispanic Center, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies and Pastoral Leadership, Fuller Theological Seminary.
The Jesus Tribe: Grace Stories from Congo’s Mennonites 1912-2012, ed. by Rod Hollinger-Janzen, Nancy J. Myers, and Jim Bertsche. Elkhart, IN: Institute of Mennonite Studies, 2012; 273 pages.
The Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission (named Congo Inland Mission until 1972) has been well documented from the perspective of the sending churches and missionaries. The extensive 855-page volume by Jim Bertsche, former missionary and mission administrator, CIM/AIMM: A Story of Vision, Commitment and Grace (1998) was a definitive culmination of this literature. The new book, The Jesus Tribe, Grace Stories from Congo’s Mennonites 1912-2012, is significant in its own right because of the process by which it was created. For the 2012 centennial of Mennonite presence in the Congo, AIMM 192 Book Reviews and the Mennonite Churches in the Democratic Republic of the Congo cooperated to produce the first major book that told the stories of Congolese Mennonites with African voices. It is a book of brief biographies of people important to the life of the church. Seven respected Congolese Mennonite researchers were selected and trained by African scholars in Kinshasa in the art of digitally recorded interviewing. The researchers were equipped with motorbikes, cameras, and digital recorders. They conducted more than six hundred interviews, sometimes in French and sometimes in the tribal languages. The interviewers followed a prescribed protocol, and wrote summaries in French of each interview. The recorded interviews and photographs now constitute an unprecedented body of primary oral material shaped in the absence of white missionary presence. Three African scholars selected the interviews with what they considered the most significant stories, edited the material, and wrote the stories into coherent French language narratives. The three editor-writers were Jackson Beleji, Vincent Ndandula, and Jean Felix Chimbalanga. The resulting book was published in 2012 in French and in an English translation in time for the centennial celebration of the Congo Mennonite Church and the Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission. According to Rod Hollinger Janzen, current AIMM administrator, the French language volume was received with great enthusiasm in the Congo. Congolese Mennonites want another volume that will include more people and more stories. The French and English volumes are not precisely the same. The English language version, in addition to sixty-one short biographies by the African writers, includes twenty-six biographical stories written by Jim Bertsche with the North American audience in mind. Some of those stories are about white missionaries. The story that provides the book title is about Charles Kuamba, an evangelist of the Lulua tribe who planted a congregation made up of both Lulua and Baluba tribal members. At a time of inter-tribal violence, Kuamba was asked to declare his tribal identity. He responded, “Years ago as a young man I gave my life to Jesus and when I did that I joined his tribe” (95). These are mostly celebrative stories of Christian faithfulness and achievement. The first story in the English edition, written by Bertsche, tells of a Mennonite evangelist who preached the doctrine of the resurrection in an unevangelized village. The hostile village chief demanded that the evangelist bring a deceased man back to life, and then tied him to the corpse for a full day. The story ends triumphantly with the information that a boy in the village, David Lupera, responded to the evangelist’s ministry and became the first ordained minister from his tribe (6). Occasionally these people are acknowledged to have had feet of clay. Book Reviews 193
Esther Mbombo, for example, gave so much time and energy to the church as choir director, evangelist and organizer of church activities, that her husband locked her out of the house (177-78). Jean Pierre Kumbi-Kumbi, five years after his baptism at Mukedi, became involved with the leadership of the Jeunesse rebellion and resisted advice to leave. His biographer concludes, “What is remarkable is that this man tried to stay true to his faith even in a context of permanent violence” (81). Bisonsa Bimpe, the daughter of a sorcerer, quarreled with her pastor and left the church in a dispute about a family in difficulty. She returned, albeit to another Mennonite congregation, after being instructed in a vision by “a man dressed in a white cassock” (184). The theme of evangelism is present throughout this book. Issues of tribal identity and conflict are important. Some of the stories tell of suffering and near martyrdom, but there is greater emphasis on engagement with the powers. Most of the stories are about men, but some are about women. Readers looking for conflicts between the white missionaries and the Africans, popularized in books such as The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, will not find much grist for that mill in The Jesus Tribe. This book is not critical or analytical history. But it does help explain a remarkable phenomenon that escapes Kingsolver, whose book is set in the very Kasai-Loange-Kwilu rivers region where the Mennonite churches took root and grew. How did it happen that Christian churches grew so rapidly in the “dark continent” that a century ago was expected to be most resistant to the gospel? The central agents in that growth were the African evangelists whose stories are told in The Jesus Tribe. Today the three branches of the Congolese Mennonite community include about 225,000 members. This book will be especially important for those people. Reviewed by James Juhnke, Emeritus Professor of History, Bethel College (KS).
History and Mission in Europe: Continuing the Conversation. Edited by Mary Raber and Peter F. Penner. Neufeld Verlag, Schwarzenfeld, Germany, 2011.
Among the gifts for and to the church given through Walter Sawatsky have been his commitment and ability to engage conversations between different denominations and traditions, past and present, history and mission – always with a view to God’s will and the church’s faithfulness. So it is most fitting that a Festschrift honoring Walter continues the conversation(s) with essays by his colleagues from several settings on “history and mission” – and theology – in Europe, a primary but by no means the only, arena of his ministries as administrator, academic and ambassador. Within the broader conversation alluded to in the subtitle, there are 194 Book Reviews several conversations to attend to between the various essays in this book, the first being between the opening reflections and tributes to Walter’s work by a former supervisor in MCC, John A. Lapp, and a former co-worker in the fraternity of Mennonite mission and MCC workers in Eastern Europe, Gerald Shenk. From there on the topics of conversation relate to history and mission in Europe as stated in the title, but also include theology and occasionally have a global scope. On church-state relations: Oksana and Aleksandr Beznosov on the surveillance of a Mennonite settlement (Fuerstenland) by the Soviet secret police in the 1920s; glimpses of the involvement of the evangelical movement in Russia with political parties by Vladimir Popov; an analytical overview of the patterns of church-state relations under Communism and post- Communism by Paul Mojzes; and a more intimate recounting of the “correct losers” and “wrong winners” in Eastern Germany by William Yoder. On concepts and conflicts of church among Soviet Baptists: a history of the Baptist-initsiativniki movement by Tatiana Nikolskaia and an analysis of the re-thinking of the concept of church after World War II by Olena Panych. On partnership with North American missions: Mary Raber’s “memoir in context” on the production of the Russian Bible Commentary; and Hansuli Gerber’s reflections on the influence of North American Mennonites shaped by their context on Europeans. On mission in western Europe: Alan Kreider’s account of the transition of the London Mennonite Centre to the Anabaptist Network in England and Heinrich Klassen’s challenge for Anabaptists to be socially attuned and to plant churches in Germany’s cities. On theology and church life at the grass-roots: Johannes Reimer’s illumination of the role of women as pillars of renewal for evangelicals in Russia and Johannes Dyck’s eyewitness summary of Mennonite theology in the post-GULAG era. On theological education: Anne-Marie Kool and Peter Penner reviewing developments and challenges in Eastern and Central Europe since 1910; Mark Elliott depicting the current crisis in theological education in the Former Soviet Union so that the church re-shapes culture and not only itself; and Bernhard Ott emphasizing the importance of training students in the competencies needed for “doing theology in community.” On doing theology and ethics in a global perspective: Leonard Friesen, inspired by Dostoevsky and presenting “the Russian Christ” as a source for a global ethic and Olga Zaprometova, inspired by Vladimir Solovyov’s “all- unity” philosophy and advocating for “religious experience as a way of doing theology.” The one essay which is not readily paired with another in this Book Reviews 195 reviewer’s scheme is the account of the Mennonite “Selbstschutz” in Ukraine 1918-1919 by Lawrence Klippenstein. This tragic episode of a Mennonite community forming an army to defend against violent banditry reveals its inner struggles over its theology and mission in its turbulent context. These illustrate a recurring insight provided by the essays in History and Mission in Europe, namely that churches are shaped by their context and take on practices and values from their contexts, even hostile ones, to survive in them – see especially the essay by Olena Panych on the “re-thinking of the concept of church” by Soviet Baptists. Some traits are new to their tradition, perhaps even at variance to inherited traits. Furthermore, all traits of human entities have shadow sides which come to the fore, especially if they are implemented without offsetting traits, eg. centralizing and de-centralizing authority. Therefore it behooves believers and leaders to know the context in which their church lives, for knowing one’s context enables one not only to witness to it with immediate relevance but also with a global and long-term perspective. This Festschrift honors our friend, Walter Sawatsky, by continuing the conversations about the churches’ history and mission, context and theology to which he has contributed so faithfully. Reviewed by Peter H. Rempel, former administrator of MCC programs in Europe, COM director for Europe & Africa, and recently retired Executive Director of MCC Manitoba.
The Ethics of Evangelism: A Philosophical Defense of Proselytizing and Persuasion by Elmer John Thiessen. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2011, 285 pages
Elmer John Thiessen’s book is a straightforward, carefully argued, and powerful defense of the possibility of ethically legitimate, even good, religious proselytizing. It is written, as the subtitle indicates, primarily from a philosophical point of view. The philosophical, rather than theological, underpinnings of the book are evident in the major sources on which he draws to make his case, an impressive group of writers, mainly philosophers beginning with Aristotle. The sources he draws on to defend evangelism /proselytizing do not include texts specific to particular religions that command or encourage it (e.g., the Great Commission), even though he is clear about his own commitments: “I am a Christian of a fairly orthodox variety—Mennonite and evangelical” (p. 22). He does not argue for the legitimacy of Christian evangelism/proselytism, for example, because Christianity is true and other religions are false, but because it is good and right for us to try to persuade others (and good and right for them to try to persuade us) of various convictions, including religious convictions—if our 196 Book Reviews persuasion meets certain criteria. I have here already noted implicitly one of Thiessen’s basic convictions (also reflected in the subtitle of the book)—proselytizing is closely related to persuading. In chapter 1 Thiessen clarifies the close relationship between two other key terms, evangelism and proselytizing, by stating that “I am using evangelism or missions, or the making of religious converts, as synonyms for religious proselytizing” (p. 9). This may strike some readers as odd or problematic, since the term “proselytizing” typically carries clearer and stronger negative connotations than the term “evangelism” (even though, for many, evangelism also carries such connotations). Why use them as synonyms, and why does he speak mostly about proselytizing? (One might also ask why he doesn’t use the more acceptable term “persuading” throughout.) Doing so seems to make Thiessen’s argument more difficult to sell. The answer lies in his concern to differentiate between ethical and unethical ways of making religious converts. He recognizes that it is surely possible to use different words to describe the positive and the negative aspects of the same phenomenon, but argues that it is preferable to use the same word, and “then distinguish between moral and immoral expressions of the phenomenon” (p. 12). Thiessen states the central objectives of the book clearly and succinctly in the Preface: “(a) to answer objections that are frequently raised against proselytizing, and to defend the possibility of an ethical form of proselytizing (chapters 3-5); (b) to defend the practice of proselytizing generally (chapter 6); and (c) to develop criteria to distinguish between ethical and unethical proselytizing or evanglisim (chapters 7 and 8)” (p. xi). One of the virtues of Thiessen’s book is the careful (and I judge fair) way in which he addresses objections to proselytizing as being inherently bad or immoral. He groups these objections into three clusters: those based on epistemological and ethical arguments (chapter 3), those based on arguments claiming that proselytizing violates the integrity and/or freedom of individuals and societies (chapter 4), and those based on “liberal” objections, worrying that proselytizing is a form of intolerance, that it does not pass Kant’s test of universalizability, and that it seeks to create uniformity instead of valuing pluralism. (chapter 5) He does not set up “straw men” to demolish, but counters serious arguments with serious arguments. Next, in chapter 6, he moves from defense, arguing that proselytizing can be ethically acceptable despite objections to it, to offense, arguing that “proselytizing is in general a good thing, “ (p. 133) even though he names the chapter “A Defence of Proselytizing.” He hastens to acknowledge that there is much bad, immoral proselytizing, but this does not negate the general claim that “proselytizing is a good thing, and that it is morally right to engage in proselytizing” (p. 152). Drawing on philosophers such as John Stuart Mill and Book Reviews 197
John Rawls, he concludes that proselytizing is “essential to human dignity, both for the proselytizer and the proselytizee. Indeed, we have a moral obligation to proselytize if we feel we have discovered truth that is important to the other” (p. 152). All of this leads to the question Thiessen addresses in chapters 7 and 8: If proselytism is in general a good (morally right) thing, but a thing that can be used badly (immorally), how do we distinguish between ethical and unethical proselytizing? Here he identifies and describes 15 criteria that he argues can be used to make this distinction, while acknowledging that there will be gray areas or unclear cases. In Appendix 1 he summarizes the criteria in four short pages (pp. 234-237). Here I can only list them: 1. Dignity 2. Care 3. Physical coercion 4. Psychological coercion 5. Social coercion 6. Inducement 7. Rationality 8. Truthfulness 9. Humility 10. Tolerance 11. Motivational 12. Identity 13. Cultural sensitivity 14. Results 15. Golden Rule. As I read his discussion of these criterion I was struck by the way in which he seems to me, admittedly one who has not probed these matters seriously, to have identified crucial considerations that ought to be taken into account whenever we try to “proselytize,” or, in other words, try to convince others to change their views and accept ones we hold. While I suspect that it will often be complicated to apply these criteria in actual cases and reach definitive ethical judgments, it seems clear to me that proselytizing will likely be done in a more ethical and sensitive way if conscious attention is paid to these (or similar) criteria. Central to them all in one way or another are respect and care for the other, which imply listening, and especially “persuading” but not “coercing” or “manipulating.” A significant point for me, although more illustrative of his central argument about religious proselytizing than central to it, is his discussion of advertising as a form of proselytizing. He notes how advertising is often far more unethical than most religious proselytizing. Nevertheless, unethical advertising saturates our culture so thoroughly that it is frequently unnoticed, avoiding much of the heat aimed at those engaged in religious proselytizing which may be far less manipulative or uncaring. I commend Thiessen’s book as a helpful resource for those who worry about the legitimacy of sharing their faith because it might be arrogant or insensitive to do so—and for those who easily assume that doing so is unethical. It makes one think; a good thing. It makes one think especially about what kinds of speech (and relating) are ethical as we seek to persuade one another not only about religious truth, but about the whole range of matters about which we seek to convince one another. Reviewed by Ted Koontz, Professor of Ethics & Peace Studies at AMBS. 198 Book Reviews
Winds of the Spirit: A Profile of Anabaptist Churches in the Global South, by Conrad L. Kanagy, Tilahun Beyene, & Richard Showalter. Harrisonburg, VA: Herald Press, 2012. 260pp. Biblio.
The approach and choice of labels in this book will seem normal and current for Anabaptists along the eastern seaboard of the USA, its primary intended readership. Other Mennonites and readers of missiology will likely recognize the jargon and interpret the arguments differently. As understood by its primary author, sociologist and pastor Conrad Kanagy, it is an attempt to apply the content and methodology of a 2006 Mennonites in North America profile (MNA Profile) that became the primary data source for Mennonite Church USA’s focus on encouraging the growth of “ethnic/immigrant” groups who had become part of that newly merged denomination. Sponsored by Eastern Mennonite Missions (EMM), Kanagy headed a team to “study in depth 12 Anabaptist churches in 10 countries”, using questionnaires in local languages, leaders in each country to oversee the data gathering process, and to review the findings (from over 18,000 completed questionnaires) with a larger team of leaders from those 12 “churches”, (meaning denominations or conferences). The reality, as Kanagy observed several times, is that the membership of MC USA accounts for barely 7% of “the total global Anabaptist fellowship” (p.84), yet its leaders (and possibly members) assume the obligation of spokesperson for Anabaptist theology everywhere. The theology of Anabaptism in the book, and the way of using its history and that of Christian history in general, is however, more narrow than that. Even though there are references to some scholarship outside Lancaster Mennonite Conference, the lens for reading that history is that conference and its mission board, now known as Eastern Mennonite Missions. There is, nevertheless, a steadily intensifying prophetic critique of that world view, on behalf of a renewed congregationalism shaped by Pentecostalism (and anti-denominationalism, since “denominationalism leads groups to emphasize religious generalities and universal truths rather than unique beliefs and specific identities.”) (p.137). So this book is a prophetic, often passionate, appeal for a global Anabaptism today focused on the Holy Spirit, that is, Spirit-filled congregations with a passion for evangelism. Embedded throughout, but stated most explicitly in the 4th chapter (on characteristics and trajectories of Anabaptist churches), is an explicit contrast between “a reproduction-only approach” and a “conversion model” for fostering church growth. This is also where deeply held views, based on American sociological thinking come through as Kanagy remarks that “all churches regardless of hemisphere may follow a kind of life course that causes them to rely on reproduction instead of Book Reviews 199 conversion.” (p.103) Since the preferred model of rapid growth are the newer churches of the “global south”, the dilemma for Kanagy the sociologist is to acknowledge evidence of this cycle of growth slowdown in several of the older church bodies in the sample, and to conclude that chapter with the wish that the “Winds of the Spirit” will prevent the “routinization” that sociologists usually predict. Yet the focus on statistics as measurement of growth, of Spirit shaping, is very evident in this volume, as it was in the 2006 book, hardly the deep research that other sociologists have come to use. Given this reviewer’s background in history, sociology and mission, the general arguments and theses were difficult to take seriously, yet the charts were quite interesting. Kanagy’s frames of reference were quite limited, so that his blanket dismissal of much historical work, even his critique of Anabaptist studies, were jarring. A number of times my note in the margin was “not true” because Kanagy obviously did not know the literature. Put differently, Kanagy relied very heavily on the popular writing of Philip Jenkins, such as his The Next Christendom, to advance the notions of a “global south” and “global north” in very general terms. As a result, for example, “Europe and North America” were consistently treated as a common expression of Christendom, or neo- Christendom, and the 17th-18th century Enlightenment had to take the blame for the rejection of spiritualist renewal, as second Christian failure after the abandonment of the idealized characteristics of early Christianity following the Constantinianization of Christendom. It is the absence of differentiation of the numerous Christian trajectories, not only in various parts of Europe over 1500 years, but also the assumption that the only Christian story is the western Christian one, that are problematic. At the same time, the references to 16th century Anabaptism refer only to Swiss and south Germans, yet even there the claim that the Mennonites had not been renewed by pietist streams in the 17th to 19th centuries (in Europe, later also in North America) simply reveals ignorance of the actual history. Even Lancaster Conference’s late entry into cross-cultural mission, requires noticing Pietist movements in Pennsylvania, and the reverse impact of Keswick spiritual revival from Tanzanian Mennonites to Lancaster, which is worth distinguishing from “Pentecostalism”. There are also grand claims toward the end of the book, that “the entire Pentecostal movement in both the Global north and Global South has substantive roots in sixteenth century Anabaptism” (p.184). Another group self-conceit is the line that “the entire Western evangelical missionary movement of the past three hundred years owes much to the faithfulness, persistence, and suffering witness of the Anabaptists.” (p.176). Would it were so. There is some fruitful learning that the careful reader will find rewarding, worth pondering. The “profile” includes two larger EMM founded 200 Book Reviews church bodies (Tanzania and Ethiopia), in both of which the indigenization of practice and theology come through, especially in chapter 6 on congregational life. That includes brief phrases from questionnaires about perceived needs and strengths by churches, and some reflective commentary from global south participant leaders. It conveys quite well how holding up a mirror to one’s church conference, caused leaders to realize realities for reshaping their emphases, such as a new awareness of the large number of young persons and children. A later chapter tells short biographies of leaders learning and relearning the ways of witness and ministry. Other than Lancaster readers will surely wonder why other large Mennonite bodies in the “global south” do not even get mentioned, such as in Congo or India, yet a group very loosely linked to the Mennonites of India was one of the 12 church groups studied. The answer is, that this book provides many excellent insights into the nature and style of the churches linked as the International Missions Association (IMA) since 1997. One can also read parts of the book as a historical sketch of the remarkably rapid growth in less than 80 years of Lancaster Conference mission initiated churches in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Currently scarcely 15,500 members in 167 congregations, Lancaster Mennonite Conference was compared with 11 related church bodies totaling 261,000 members. That statistical success in growing churches in the global south is striking, with the growth most impressive in settings where the missionaries pulled back to let indigenous leadership shape things. Kanagy therefore argued in his opening chapters that the statistically large data gathering for the MNA profile “is the first sociological analysis of global Anabaptists” (p.56), even if it was restricted to EMM related church bodies. Yet his frequent claims that no other data gathering from Christianity around the world exists, unnecessarily ignores so much missiological and historical literature of regions and specific churches, which are more than snapshots, as his research is. So readers will need to dig out that literature for helpful comparisons with Kanagy’s instructive data. A further differentiation to keep in mind, are the diverse ways that pentecostalism or charismatic movements developed around the world. One thinks of the late Jose Miguez Bonino’s emphasis in the Faces of Latin American Protestantism (1995) on the emergence of a trinitarian theology in the second half of the 20th century, shaping growth and mission in both Protestant and Catholic ministries. The role of the Holy Spirit in understanding the missio dei had become ecumenically widespread by 2010 - but church traditions differed on how to read the marks of the work of the Spirit - personalist or communitarian, as fervent flame or as authentic witness. Kanagy and his co- writers advocate a fervency of fath as Holy Spirit driven, and present theological education as an inhibitor to the work of the Spirit. That will Book Reviews 201 certainly be debated. It may be helpful to recognize that the book’s prophetic speech is addressed to a community that learned to view the three part Anabaptist Vision of H.S. Bender (1943) as the norm to be recovered, hence the deep inner anguish that the Vision statement failed to include the Holy Spirit and failed to name Anabaptism’s missionary character at the beginning. Those of us Mennonites in North America and Europe not so schooled in this formulation by Bender, and not relying on a pristine original vision in 16th century beginnings, need to recognize the strong critique of that Anabaptist Vision (pp. 177-184; 233-236) as vital for those focused on a theology of beginnings. Hence the pointing to the early Church and to early Anabaptism as the models for the global south to emulate, but not the lived faith of the contemporary Mennonites of North America. This reveals a mindset that requires a more complete recovery of an Anabaptist Vision that was centrally pneumatological (Arnold Snyder’s summary statement gets quoted twice, as only reference to his immense scholarship). On the other hand, readers may wonder whether the recovery of idealization and visions are as helpful for noticing the “winds of the Spirit” as are the story lines of Lancaster Conference and the IMA sister church bodies in their lived witness over longer and shorter time periods, even if glimpsed fleetingly. Reviewed by Walter Sawatsky, Professor of Church History & Mission (retired) at AMBS, Elkhart IN.
A Light to the Nations: The Missional Church and the Biblical Story, by Michael W. Goheen. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic. 2011. Pp. 242. $25.50.
Recently I attended a professional meeting in which Michael Goheen presented the essence of A Light to the Nations. I heard a kindred spirit, using the same biblical passages I use in my “Theology of Mission” course. Goheen is Professor of Worldview and Religious Studies at Trinity Western University in British Columbia. An ordained Christian Reformed Church minister, his rich scholarship honours the Dutch Reformed tradition, while his scholarly use of Scripture saves him from the narrow strictures sometimes attendant to writing within a particular tradition. The book is divided into nine chapters. Chapter one sets the stage by introducing the biblical narrative of mission as contrasting the story of Western civilization at the heart of the church in North America. According to Goheen, the early church saw itself as a “resident alien” and held “contrary values” that shone brightly in the midst of the surrounding corrupt society (8). The church as a “contrast society” in the world is basic to his understanding of the missional nature of the church. 202 Book Reviews
Chapters two and three examine the way that God formed Israel into a missional people intended to draw the world to God. Chapters four and five describe the gathering of a renewed people of God to carry on this task, with an awareness through Messiah of the end and goal of history. Chapters six and seven look at the rest of the New Testament—the book of Acts as a living example of the people Jesus created, and the letters as commentaries on that exemplary people. Chapter eight offers a most helpful summary of this broad survey of the biblical narrative, drawing Goheen’s insights together under these eloquent headings: “Participating in God’s Mission” (191), “Continuing the Communal Mission of Israel” (192), “Continuing the Mission of Jesus” (194), and “Continuing the Witness of the Early Church” (195). The continuity between the formation of God’s People in Israel and the re-formation of God’s People in the church becomes evident. These two peoples represent one continuous action in God’s mission to reconcile the world to himself. There is discontinuity in the process, introduced by the incarnation and by a view of the end of history; this continuity-discontinuity is visible in the tension between the coming of God’s reign, which is “already and not yet.” This summary reaffirms the idea of the church as a “contrast community” showing what God’s reign looks like (e.g., 193). This emphasis, building on Hauerwas and Willimon’s idea of the church as a colony of “resident aliens,” reminds one of Larry Miller’s depiction, in Transfiguration of Mission, of the church as “microsociety” within “macrosociety.” The closing chapter shows the embodiment of a contrast society, making visible the biblical insights from earlier chapters. Goheen helped to plant a church in Hamilton, Ontario, where he indeed worked at applying in practice the ideas here worked out from Scripture. Goheen’s work is indeed helpful and stimulating. Sometimes “missional” language leaves one wondering if it is simply trendy language, without moving beyond the traditional concepts about the church’s missionary task. But Goheen’s closing chapter gives clear direction to the missional project and is helpful for moving from inward-directed churches to becoming missional churches. Goheen writes: “The original meaning of ekkelesia was a public assembly to which all citizens were summoned by the town clerk to settle the public affairs of the city. … Ekklesia was the name the early Christians chose for themselves…,” conscious of the church’s public presence and role in society (180). Clearly our lives as individuals and as community are built on the foundation of Jesus Christ (1 Cor 3:11). But how do we act publicly? Goheen’s missional ecclesiology offers a plausible answer, building on Book Reviews 203 the idea of the church as microsociety within the macrosociety or the idea that the church is a counter-cultural society living by God’s standards within a fallen world (as John Stott puts it in his study of the Sermon on the Mount). That is, we serve our society best when we live out our communal lives fully as God’s people. When we embody the reign of God in our lives, individually and communally, we act deliberately and intentionally in a public manner. Readers may find A Light to the Nations “dense” if unfamiliar with literature on the missional church; but the final chapter helpfully and practically illumines the central ideas of the book. Having used the book in the classroom, I recommend it without hesitation both to seminary and university students and to church persons looking for a biblical foundation for the church’s engagement in God’s mission in the world. Reviewed by Daryl Climenhaga, Associate Professor of Global Studies at Providence Theological Seminary. BOOK NOTES Worship and Mission for the Global Church: An Ethnodoxology Handbook. ed. By Frank Fortunato, Robin P. Harris, Brian Schrag; gen. editor James R. Krabill. Pasadena CA: William Carey Library, 2013. 580pp, with DVD. www.ethnodoxologyhandbook.com. Creating Local Arts Together: A Manual to Help Communities Reach their Kingdom Goals, by Brian Schrag; James R. Krabill, general editor. Pasadena CA: William Carey Library, 2013, 282pp (wirebound). www.ethnodoxologyhandbook.com.
Sponsored by the International Council of Ethnodoxologists (ICE), these two handbooks are a definite ‘must buy’ for libraries, given the rarity of such scholarship. Cover page photos (from Lausanne2010, CapeTown)) are identical to show that the two belong together. The ethnodoxology handbook includes 148 entries, some longer articles, others 2-3 pages. Divided into 2 sections, the first on “Foundations”, is sub-divided into a sub-section on “Encountering God: Worship and Body Life”, the second sub-section is focused on “Encountering God’s World: Witness and Community-Based Ministry.” Each of the two sub-sections are further organized with 3 articles each under six rubrics - Biblical, Cultural, Historical, Missiological, Liturgical, Personal. None are comprehensive by themselves, but convey the necessary interplay between those six approaches to worship in general, and the elements of worship and the arts necessarily present in Christian witness anywhere. The accompanying Creating Local Arts Together Handbook was initially intended for persons working in cross-cultural mission, but Brian Schrag and his colleagues discovered how much the practical suggestions (and underlying missional theory) made it a valuable tool for any local worship leader anywhere. The handbook advocates for local creativity, but framed by a commitment to full communication of the Gospel. So the advocate for arts in the local congregation gains insights into what are the “arts” too easily overlooked due either to the taken for granted view of the everyday, or to the cross-cultural person not sure what the local cultural practices would evoke. In general, both books are rich in global illustrations, but they are clearly from the free church traditions mainly, yet with an openness to the surprising that the Holy Spirit causes to spring forth, so it can be a positive stimulus for traditional Protestant, Orthodox and Catholic congregational leaders too. My quick sampling of geographic treatments (I checked Peru and Russia) caused me to note that in those cases the cross-cultural missionary (in the Russia case centering on Evangelical missions after 1990 who came with no historical background) reflected learning and more appreciation of the local/national, but had missed longer Christian art, music, etc. that would cause the careful reader to look for more sources. That too is the intent of the Mission Focus: Annual Review © 2012 Volume 20 Book Notes 205 handbooks.
Going Global with God: Reconciling Mission in a World of Difference, by Titus L Presler. Morehouse Publishing, Harrisburg PA, 2010 (www.churchpublishing.org)
Presler is an American Episcopalian theologian missionary, with experience as president of Seminary of the West, as Academic Dean of General Seminary, and as a missionary in India and Zimbabwe. It is a 194pp paperback, complete with discussion questions and a chart of Biblical texts for each chapter, of which there are 12. I first took notice of Presler when the 4th chapter, "Mission in the Dimension of Difference: The Global Terrain" appeared in the International Bulletin of Missionary Research, and I began citing it in my lectures and writing. There are two interlocking themes in his whole book: 1) "mission is ministry in the dimension of difference" [it is always boundary crossing], p52 and 2) "Reconciliation is the mission of God. Reconciliation is the divine mission in which we participate." p. 76. What the book does as a whole is to use four of the mainline Protestant denominations in USA, where he describes the major transformations they experienced over the past two decades, listing patterns of fragmentation, loss of credibility in mission, through to the phenomenon of ever shorter short-term mission trips. He treats this reality as the genie let out of the bottle, and tries to have engaged Christians see how to engage the phenomenon self-critically and accountably. At virtually every turn, what he describes from those four denominations has its parallel in the Mennonite world (but without sufficient analytical scholarship to back it up in our Mennonite literature), so it strikes me as a helpful way to look carefully at our understandings and practice of mission. Doing so with the image of difference and with the task of reconciliation central, may help us realize how limited our thinking has been by thinking we were and are always different from other churches, and they do not grasp the centrality of reconciliation. It is in that setting of working from a broader foundation of Christian unity, that he can use the line - "as we go global with God, God goes global with us." p. 128. The last chapter, in which he uses the language of accompaniment as the crucial mode in mission, he stresses that God offers us humans sustaining companionship. From that he delineates the seven marks of the "mission companion": the mission companion is a witness, a pilgrim, a servant, a prophet, an ambassador, a host, and a sacrament of reconciliation. (Math 25 and Math 10:40, 1 Cor. 12:27 among others). 206 Book Notes
Health, Healing and the Church’s Mission: Biblical Perspectives and Moral Priorities, by Willard M. Swartley. Downers Grove IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012. 2 appendices, bibliography, name and scripture index. 268pp. pb.
The title captures the five elements of this book, which is the fruit of a lifetime as biblical scholar and teacher, deeply committed to mission, and gradually developing expertise in healing - from issues where biblical perspectives on exorcism and possession could be applied, to matters of mental health and the shifting story of American Mennonite roles in what is now the most expensive health care industry in the world. Divided into three parts: 1) Healing (5 chapters), 2) Health Care - Biblical, Moral and Theological Perspectives (4 chapters, the latter two also address history and mission, and disability), 3) Toward New Paradigms (3 chapters, primarily on the current state of the American health care crisis). The opening chapter states 7 theses that convey the nature of movement “from Scripture to today”. They are: “Thesis 1: God intends shalom and community for humans and all creation, but sin and Satan play adversarial roles against us and against God’s intentions for us.” (p27) “Thesis 2: God is God and we are weak, mortal and frail creatures...” (p30) “Thesis 3: Illness puts us in a quandary before God, for it interrupts and challenges God’s good world in personal experience...” (p30) “Thesis 4: Suffering means not divine absence but testing, even God’s love for us. In our suffering God is not absent but present in love...” (p31), “Thesis 5: Jesus is Healer-Savior and leads us in faith and prayer.” (p34) “Thesis 6: The Spirit too is healer and is the divine pledge of complete healing.” (p36). “Thesis 7: The church is called to be God’s face of healing in this world.” (p37) The first half of the book can be seen as an integration of Swartley’s life of biblical scholarship, the second half is a steady movement toward the specificity of the American health care crisis by drawing on a broad selection of recent secondary work, Swartley having relied on a half dozen health care professionals in his local congregation. Chapters 8 and 9 are brief surveys of Christian history and mission that at least highlight the important role of physical health and healing, and the more troubled understanding of disability until recently. Mission Focus readers will find the footnotes helpful (and checking Amanda Porterfield’s more extensive footnotes in her Healing in the History of Christianity, (Oxford 2005) will take one further). The five page quick summary (with footnotes for more) of Mennonite and related groups’ involvement in health care may draw attention to the fact that Mennonites did play an important role. It may help the reader notice that the anxiety about restricting social services (including medicine) to a secondary role in mission in order to protect the primacy of saving souls has been a Book Notes 207 persistent flaw. Although Rick Stiffney is mentioned in the acknowledgments, the bibliography does not list his helpful dissertation: “The Self-perception of Executives Concerning Their Role and Work in Shaping the Faith Identity of Nonprofit Mennonite/Anabaptist Organizations: a Collaborative Case-study and Narrative Approach”, unpublished PhD diss. Andrews University, 2009, a rare probing of the countervailing forces of professionalism, the market, and faith convictions for leaders of Mennonite health care organizations.
Called to Mission, by Mirjam Rahel Scarborough. AIMM, 2012.
This book profiles the experiences of 23 CIM/AIMM women missionaries by probing their sense of call and how that worked itself out in practical ways on the mission field in Congo. It is a fascinating window into women missionaries’ inner world. The book is available during the AIMM Centennial celebrations or from the office. Cost: $18
Intersections: MCC Theory & Practice Quarterly. Winter 2013, Volume 1, Number 1, Compiled by Krista Johnson. A $10.00 donation per subscription suggested.
This new periodical from Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) , a 16 page journal in the layout of the long established Peace Office Newsletter, seems to be a bridge issue, hence the compiling by Krista Johnson, who was editor of Peace Office Newsletter in its final two years, when the MCC Peace Offices no longer existed (ended in 2007). It has short articles starting with Johnson’s introductory editorial and a “think piece” by Johnson and new editor Alain Epp Weaver on “the ambiguities of how we use peace language within MCC”, which circulated among MCC staff before being published here, along with some responses. The latter include a short introduction to Restorative Justice, by Carl Stauffer who teaches the subject at EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, another about “Advocacy and Peacebuilding” by Paul Heidebrecht of the MCC Ottawa Office, and one by long time MCC International Peace Office directors Bob and Judy Zimmerman Herr titled “Peace Theology and Peace Practice”. Finally there is a highly selective “Seven Decades of MCC Peace Section” with a short introduction that includes the remark that “a comprehensive history of the MCC Peace Section and its successors has yet to be written.” Finally at the end is a short paragraph, titled “Intersections: a crossroads of theory and practice” in which the editors, Bruce Guenther and Alain Epp Weaver state their intentions, and invite contributions and suggestions. Guenther and Epp Weaver are Co-Directors of MCC’s Planning, 208 Book Notes
Learning, and Disaster Response Department. The journal can be received by mail, by email, or by accessing it on the websites of MCC Canada (mcccanada.ca) or MCC US (mcc.org). During the extended process of restructuring from what was MCC Bi- national to MCC Canada and MCC US as separate entities doing international programming jointly, a Planing, Learning, and Disaster Response Department emerged. It remains to be seen whether this will finally be a structure by which theory reflection and research finally get more attention in MCC that liked to style itself as grassroots driven and suspicious about theory even as it kept becoming steadily more professionalized. The language and subject matter is carefully restricted in the opening issue to the insider jargon about relief, community development and peacebuilding [sic, rendered as one word]. That was long true of its Peace Office predecessor but this more explicit effort to address theoretical issues is most welcome. The co-editors have doctorates in history and theology, other contributors in the opening issue also have advanced academic degrees, even if that is not mentioned, in keeping with an MCC tradition. When I recall that Mission Focus also started in a similar format in 1982, before shifting in 1992 to a journal format with longer articles, perhaps the future for Intersections may also include serious probing of issues by experienced and/or trained persons doing so as actively engaged practitioners in Christian ministry as calling.
Written by Walter Sawatsky, editor of Mission Focus: Annual Review. IN MEMORIAM Pastor André Bolivar Ntumba Kalala Muyengeyenge, one of the original founders of the Evangelical Mennonite Church of Congo (CEM), passed away in November 2011. Pastor Ntumba Kalala’s story is featured in the French version of the Congo Centennial Book. CEM President Benjamin Mubenga said, “Death has taken away from us our library and baobab of the CEM… He was among the pioneers of the CEM (formerly AEMSK), the first Vice Legal Representative. He later became Legal Representative, and was a School Inspector for CEM until his retirement in 1978.”
James E. Bertsche (1921-2013), died February 27, 2013 in Goshen IN. He completed a long life of mission ministry together with his wife Jenny, remaining active throughout his retirement year. Born in Bluffton, Ohio, married in 1946 to Genevieve (Jenny) Shuppert (of South Bend IN), and having completed education at Taylor University, Northern Baptist Seminary and Northestern University (Chicago), Jim and Jenny began international mission service in 1948 with the Congo Inland Mission, which later became the Africa Inter Mennonite Mission (AIMM). They began with village itineration, teaching, preaching, mentoring new personnel, and translating biblical materials. Later he was also legal representative of the mission in Congo and member of the executive committee of the Congo Mennonite Church. In addition to raising three children (Sandy, Linda and Tim) they were also known as “uncle” and “aunt” to the missionary children of other long term missionaries - a short hand reference here to a legacy of relationship building that even today constitutes a strong alumni support bond for what is often called the AIMM family. So the Bertsches were part of a group of senior missionaries guiding an independent Mennonite Church and AIMM into a more collegial relationship, while board members in North America approached the transition to independence in light of complexities in North America. The CIM had been a unique experiment in Mennonite denominational cooperation as sending missions, as can be seen elsewhere in this issue. Bertsches then moved to Elkhart, IN where from 1974-1986 Jim was executive secretary of AIMM. It was during that time that the “inter- Mennonite” dimension also began referring to African Inter-Mennonite cooperation and eventual partnerships. Jim Bertsche was among the key initiators of a program expansion in which a missiological concept of ‘walking alongside’ African Initiatied Churches (AIC) now included francophone parts of Africa, as well as involvements in southern Africa. The Congo/Zaire focus remained a strong one, but problematic - it is now axiomatic to regard the Belgian colonial rule as among the most brutal, least foresighted in fostering local infrastructures for self-rule. Post-Independence was a further challenge Mission Focus: Annual Review © 2012 Volume 20 210 In Memoriam in misrule and corruption, with rebels and ‘government’ forces frequently clashing. It affected Mennonites in Congo, with a resultant separate Mennonite conference formed in Kisai province 50 years ago. Nevertheless, by 2012 three Evangelical Mennonite Conferences in Congo had grown to be the second largest community of Mennonites globally. As we mark Jim Bertsche’s passing, there were at least two further influential roles he has played. When in retirement, he began writing a massive history of CIM/AIMM where his careful, fair and sensitive discussion of events, of difficult meetings involving conflict and reconciliation, became with its publication in 1998 an instrument for mutual recognition of a story of “vision, commitment and grace” (book’s sub-title). Secondly, Jim was active participant and coach in the preparations for the centennial celebrations of the three Mennonite conferences in Congo in 2012, where it was the voices of Congolese leaders and church members that were heard and featured. The English title of a published story collection “The Jesus Tribe” conveyed in title and content how much the Bertsches, plus many other missionaries from the AIMM family, and above all the many Congolese Mennonites who came from many different tribes that were so often fighting, had shown by their lives of witness that when one became committed to the Jesus Tribe, the Shalom of God was beginning to establish itself among them.
Ann Keener Gingrich (1931-2013) passed away on January 19, 2013 in Goshen, IN. Together with her husband Paul, Ann served as missionary, teacher and counselor in Ethiopia and Kenya (1954-69), under Eastern Mennonite Missions. Upon return to USA, they settled in Goshen where in addition to parenting 6 children she completed a BA in secondary education and MA in Theology and Ethics (AMBS, 1987), taught at Goshen College’s Laboratory Kindergarten and other jobs while Paul Gingrich served as campus pastor, then later as President of Mennonite Board of Missions. Ann influenced many students when she was Pastoral Counselor at AMBS (1983-1990). Following Paul’s retirement, Ann and Paul served (1994-97) as Peace Evangelists for the Mennonite Church. Deep personal ties to leaders from the Meserete Kristos Church remained throughout her life.
Levi O. Keidel (1927-2012) passed away April 24, 2012, in Leo, IN. In 1951 Keidel went to the Belgian Congo with his wife Eudene (King) and son Paul to begin 25 years of ministry in evangelism and literature with CIM/AIMM. From 1962-66, Keidel set up a Christian literature distribution system of small bookstores through East and West Kasai provinces, as a collaborative effort between the Mennonite and Presbyterian churches in Congo. In the 1970s and 1980s, Eudene and Levi Keidel worked closely with many Congolese In Memoriam 211
Mennonite church leaders in evangelism, church planting, and church leadership development. Keidel earned a Master’s degree in Mission and Evangelism from Trinity International University, Deerfield, IL. He is the author of 6 books, focused on both the life of the church in Congo, and on Christian mission practice. He is survived by daughters Priscilla and Ruth, and by sons Paul and Perry.
Eudene Keidel, (Feb.12, 1921-July 25, 2010) served the Mennonite church in Congo through CIM/AIMM along with her husband Levi over a 30 year period from 1951-1981. “When Mom was 9 years old, she responded to the nudging of God?s Spirit to be a missionary in Congo, after hearing a returned missionary speak at Flanagan Mennonite Church, among the corn fields of Central Illinois. Throughout the 1950s when the expectation of women in the US was to be the “Leave it to Beaver” housewife, my mother was having babies in Africa and establishing a medical dispensary for the Bashele people at Banga. This dispensary continues to function under the leadership of the Congolese church. Mom taught the women in the village to raise their children in a healthy environment, using her own health education charts and pictures she had painted. She brought many babies into this world, and helped to train nurses in labor and delivery. During their last term in Congo, my mother spent many hours preparing Bible studies and seminars for the pastors and their wives. Mom and Dad traveled all around the province holding training seminars, to build up the church leadership in Congo. Mom taught each of us children, and many other missionary children, how to play the piano. As she traveled through the villages over the years, Mom collected many African Fables, and eventually put these stories into her three African Fables books, which have since been used by many Sunday school teachers. I thank God for the heritage of a Godly mother. Each evening before bed time, she would gather us around, and read a Bible story. We?d take turns praying. We would sing a chorus and work on a memory verse. We owe our grounding in the scripture to this early practice with our mother. What she gave us in those formative years was of untold value.” (excerpted from Tribute to Mother, by Ruth Keidel Clemens)
Elvina Martens (1926-2012), passed away on April 11, 2012, in Goshen, IN. She graduated from the University of Illinois Medical School in 1950 and married Rudy Martens, a seminary graduate, the following year. They committed to work with Congo Inland Mission (AIMM) and arrived in Congo in 1953. Elvina oversaw large medical programs first out of Ndjoko Punda and then Mukedi, 212 In Memoriam
including the administration of all eight Mennonite church hospitals. Following the 1960 mass evacuation of mission personnel during Congo’s struggle for independence, Elvina ministered for ten years as a local practice physician in Fairview, MI. and Wayland, IA. Elvina and Rudy returned to Congo in 1970 for another decade, with Elvina practicing medicine and resuming administrative duties at the Kalonda hospital. Following their re- entry to North America in 1980, they served first among the Cheyenne/ Arapaho in Oklahoma, then as pastors in Illinois before retiring in 1993. Elvina is survived by her husband Rudy, daughter Elizabeth and sons John and Philip.
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