AEC2000

ELKHART, IN — Anabaptists wanting to plant churches in the 21st century will be successful only if they increase awareness of the multicultural, diversifying and browning of the population in North America, some 40 practitioners and scholars were told at the 3rd annual Anabaptist Evangelism Council held at a snowbound Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS), Feb. 19-20.

"We are a browning nation," said researcher Rocky Kidd, director of Chicago Opportunity for Peace in Action (COPA), whose study of 17 multicultural churches showed a rapid shift in urban centers toward a polyglot of brown, yellow, black, white and mestizo (mixed). "And those who do not live in the urban centers are greatly influenced by an omnipresent urban popular culture, piped into the American consciousness via the entertainment/media world."

Kidd, along with co-researcher Allan Howe of Evanston, Ill, observed that much of the numerical growth within Mennonite congregations since 1985, for instance, has been in minority and multicultural churches, the Hispanics being the fastest growing. Much the same holds true of the Church of the Brethren, The Brethren Church and the Mennonite churches of Canada, also participants in the two-day study around the theme: "A New Humanity: Anabaptist Ministry Amidst Many Peoples."

The Council was sponsored by New Life Ministries, a partnership in outreach of both branches of the merging Mennonite groups, the Church of the Brethren, The Brethren Church (Ashland, OH) and two parachurch organizations: Shalom Foundation of Harrisonburg, VA and Christian Community of Fort Wayne, IN.

Supporting the new cultural awareness, Art McPhee, assistant professor of missions and evangelism at AMBS and former speaker on the Mennonite Hour and its sequel "Art McPhee in Touch," said the Gospel must be presented with a "clear-eyed view of the cultural mosaic surrounding it. For whom is the Gospel meant, he asked, then answered his own question: "It’s meant for the whole world. It is meant not only for the local channel, but for CNN, for the BBC.

"When the Gospel (Good News) was new in Jerusalem," he recounted, "it went from house to house, was kept in-town. But as opportunities presented themselves it was taken further and further out. It was meant, from the beginning, to be for the whole world."

But Anabaptists tend to be "reluctant evangelists," chided Steve Reid, professor of Old Testament Studies at Austin (TX) Presbyterian Seminary in an opening address, comparing our multicultural efforts today to those of Jonah whom God called to preach to the people of Nineveh.

Like Jonah "we hear the call to take the word of the Lord to another culture, but resisting we instead book a ship to Spain (the opposite direction). And even when given a second chance, like a three-day retreat in the belly of the whale, we finally go, but complain of the heat, the cheap seats, the poor podium from which to speak. Like Jonah, too, we often have poor attitudes about the people (of another culture) and are surprised, even angry, when they show a repentant attitude, like Nineveh."

In another challenge to his Caucasian brothers and sisters of European descent to be more intentional in spreading the Gospel, J. Nelson Kraybill, president of AMBS, pointed to the example of third century Marcellus, a centurion in the Roman army, who in July, 298 AD, threw down his soldier’s belt at a military banquet in front of the legionary standards (the closest thing to a Roman flag) and spoke in a loud voice: "I am a soldier of Jesus Christ, the eternal king. From now on I cease to serve your emperors and I despise the worship of your gods of wood and stone, for they are deaf and dumb images."

Marcellus was promptly arrested, imprisoned and later sentenced to die by the sword, laying down his life in witness to Jesus Christ. It is in this environment, said Kraybill, that the early church grew at the rate of 40 percent per decade, at a time when the Roman Empire was approaching its peak of power and wealth.

Chiding North American Mennonites (and Brethren) for too easily hiding their Christian identity, Kraybill pointed to new Christians in the Indonesian church who pray, preach and testify at every celebrative event, like birthdays. "We hesitate to put words to deeds. Our peace work sometimes has made us so determined to be diplomatic and sensitive to other convictions that we lose the clarity of confessing that Jesus is Lord."

In her listening committee report, Mary Mae Schwartzentruber, minister of missions from the Mennonite Conference of Eastern Canada, asked her white brothers and sisters to take a look at their own culture, to question whether or not the call to be multicultural isn’t an "Anglo need."

Dale Stoffer, professor of historical theology at Ashland Theological Seminary and another member of the listening committee, pointed to Antioch as the closest example of a multicultural church in the Bible. He pushed for "starting mono-cultural and then branching out to multicultural."

Terry Widrick, a native Mohawk of Iroquois/German descent now working with the Mennonites of Canada, was disturbed by the lack of awareness of the First Nation culture and the emphasis on the Hebrew people and their descendants. "We need to hear more from the people who were already here (on this continent), a people with a quite different history."

Workshops focused on multicultural ministries among African Americans at Reba Place in Rogers Park, Evanston, Ill, among Latinos in Harrisburg, PA, among a mix of cultures in North Baltimore, MD and among the Ojibways (native Americans) across Canada.

Next year’s Council will be held at the Church of the Brethren offices in Elgin, IL, expanding to a three-day event, Feb. 16-18, 2001. The 2001 theme will center on church planting.

by Dick Benner, 3-3-00

Read reports on previous councils

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