www.TheMennonite.org June 16, 2009 Page 8 12 Vacationaries 14 God has come near 18 What’s right with Mennonite Church USA 32 Open up to Millennial women GRACE AND TRUTH Whose church is it anyway? have been wrestling with the above question lack of believing what we declare to be true. We for the several months. The question is not Mennonites look at the church and the world and I sociological. I know well that the congregation think it is somehow up to us to fix the one and belongs to its members and not to its pastor. save the other. We often behave as if we believe Pastors come and go, but congregations remain. the church will die unless we come up with some That last sentence reveals a bias, I know. With brilliant marketing scheme or missional strategy. all the data, it may seem unreasonable to say “con- But whose church is it anyway? Isn’t Jesus gregations remain.” We are graying, aging, declin- Christ the Lord of the church? And didn’t he give ing in many ways. At conference meetings one us the Spirit to ensure the church would thrive detects the anxiety just below and serve God’s purposes in the the surface, an anxiety born of Isn’t Jesus Christ the world? Do we believe that the facts that point to our pending church belongs to Jesus Christ demise as a people. That same Lord of the church? and that the Spirit is still alive anxiety is felt in the larger and well and working within and denomination, as together we among us and in our world and Ron Adams is pastor at East try to figure out how to preserve and even restore that the body of Christ will endure and continue to Chestnut Street the church. Preserve it for the next generation and be salt and light to the world until Christ returns? Mennonite restore it to something like its former dignity and If so, then perhaps we can engage in a little Church in grandeur. reorientation. Rather than looking at the church Lancaster, Pa. But whose church is it anyway? Here I’m asking and seeing only gray hair and wrinkled faces, the question theologically. If all we consider are maybe we need to look a little deeper and see the the facts, if all we read is the data, we can easily light of Christ and the hand of the Spirit. Rather succumb to the notion that the church is dying or than assuming the church is ours to save and the at least on the road to death. And so we scramble world ours to gain, perhaps we ought to throw up to come up with some new idea of how to make our hands and call upon the Lord of the church to the church more accessible or user-friendly, more have his way with us, even if that means smaller missional or in some other way more attractive to gatherings and slimmer offerings. Maybe we need those outside. These are all noble pursuits; they to admit that the church does not belong to us, are all aspects of our calling to live out the Great that we couldn’t save it if we tried and that our Commission. This is what we were created to be addiction to the facts too often borders on the and do as church. unfaithful. But underneath it all is this anxiety, this fear This is not a call to avoid our genuine missional that says we’d better hurry up and grow or else. calling. Neither is it whistling past the graveyard. What’s missing from so many of our conversa- It is an invitation to wrestle with our theology of tions, strategy sessions and frettings about the the church. What exactly is the Spirit up to among state of the church is a clear declaration of the role us graying, wrinkled and worried Mennonites? of the Holy Spirit in the preservation and growth Let’s try to discern that and then give thanks of the church and its mission. Or perhaps it is our before we get to work. TM TheMennonite Vol. 12, No. 12, June 16, 2009 The Mennonite is the official publication of Mennonite Church USA. Our mission is to help readers glorify God, grow in faith and become agents of Editor: Everett J. Thomas Offices: healing and hope in the world. The Mennonite (ISSN 1522-7766) is normal- [email protected] 1700 S. Main St. ly published on the first and third Tuesdays of each month (except only one issue in August) by the board for The Mennonite, Inc. Periodical Associate editor: Gordon Houser Goshen, IN 46526-4794 postage paid at Goshen, IN 46526. Subscription rates for one year: $43.95 [email protected] phone: 800-790-2498 fax: 574-535-6050 to U.S. addresses and or $51.45 USD to Canadian addresses. Group rates Assistant Editor: Anna Groff available. Scripture references are from the New Revised Standard Version [email protected] 722 Main St., P.O. Box 347 unless otherwise noted. The views expressed in this publication do not Advertising, subscriptions: Rebecca Helmuth Newton, KS 67114 necessarily represent the official positions of Mennonite Church USA, [email protected] phone: 866-866-2872 The Mennonite, or the board for The Mennonite, Inc. Bookkeeper: Celina Romero fax: 316-283-0454 [email protected] Postmaster Editorial Assistant: Nora Miller 801 N. Negley Ave. Send form 3579 to: Design: Dee Birkey Pittsburgh, PA 15206 The Mennonite phone: 412 894 8705 1700 S. Main St. Web site: www.TheMennonite.org fax: 412-363-1216 Goshen, IN 46526 2 TheMennonite June 16,2009 CONTENTS 6 21 8 ‘For I was a stranger and you invited me in’ Resident aliens and wandering strangers—Donald Clymer 12 Vacationaries Too much ‘missions tourism’ is based on what will benefit us rather than what will help them.—Bob Lupton 14 God has come near A reflection on Mark 1:4-15—Betsy Headrick McCrae 26 17 Strangers become friends David and Krista meet Israel and Rosario—David and Krista Powell 19 Danzig church books return to Poland The four books are among the oldest Mennonite church records in existence.—Melanie Zuercher 20 Waltner completes her two-year term as Mennonite Church USA moderator An interview 22 Former MVSer trades tools for wheels 23 New Kenyan church works at tribal peace 13 DEPARTMENTS 2 Grace and truth Whose church is it anyway?—Ron Adams 4 Readers say 6 News digest 18 Leadership What’s right with Mennonite Church USA—Sharon Waltner 27 For the record 30 Mediaculture Books on following Jesus—Gordon Houser 32 Editorial Open up to Millennial women—Anna Groff Cover: Tim Hoover/MCC June 16,2009 TheMennonite 3 READERS SAY U.S. is an out-of-control principality is not all bad. God is always at work around us and Thank you much for Everett Thomas’ editorial that always in the most difficult, dark and dangerous highlighted the “obscene amount” our national places. We are called to be faithful, fearless follow- government is spending on its military ers, no matter what happens. Let’s remind our- (“Mennonite Church USA’s Identity,” May 19). selves and each other of the many biblical stories Thomas was right to encourage our delegates in where God’s people were told, “Don’t be afraid.” This publication Columbus, Ohio, to discern an appropriate —Margaret Metzler, Goshen, Ind welcomes your . letters, either about “churchwide effort to confront the military-indus- our content or about trial empire that controls our lives as the Roman Prisoner offers suggestions issues facing the Mennonite Church Empire did in Jesus’ day.” Regarding the article “Mennonite Churches USA. Please keep While every government is fallen, the one over your letters brief— Discern If and How to Minister to Convicted Sex one or two para- us has embraced deceit and violence. It has Offenders” (April 21): If there is a third way it is to graphs—and about jumped the tracks and is running amok. We saw one subject only. We take each person and situation on a case-by-case reserve the right to this with the illegal invasion of Iraq. We see it basis. Nothing else makes real world sense. edit for length and again now in the expansion of war in Afghanistan clarity. Publication is I have spent many years in prison. My case is also subject to space and the daily bombings in Pakistan. And we will still in the absurdist court system. Although the limitations. Send to see it far into the future through a steady diet of Letters@TheMenno- categorization of “sex offender” is far too broad, as nite.org or mail to government propaganda that makes the American Groff’s article hints, I have never run into anyone Readers Say, The people afraid and then offers violence as our sav- Mennonite, 1700 S. in prison for a so-called “sex crime” who would Main St., Goshen, IN ior. As Thomas pointed out in the editorial, this readily admit it (because of the stigma) except for 46526-4794. Please leads inexorably to the militarization of our society. include your name a few who have dedicated their lives to child sex— and address. We will It also leads us away from our Lord. Our witness and such do indeed exist. You do not want those not print letters sent to the light will take many forms, I expect, includ- anonymously, people in or near your church or your family.