Mission - PALNI

MissionFOCUSAnnual Review 2012 Volume 20

Editor

Walter Sawatsky

Book Review Editor

Titus Guenther

Consulting Editors

Lois Barrett

Hippolyto Tshimanga

Alain Epp Weaver

James R. Krabill

Alan Kreider

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published annually

Contents

Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Tribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

MENNONITE MISSIOLOGIES IN TRANSITION

Mennonite Central Committee: Missiological Shifts

and Continuities, 1988-2012 - Alain Epp

Weaver .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Mennonite Mission Network – Shifts in Mission -

Stanley W. Green . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

What Changed at Eastern Mennonite Missions Since

1988? - Nelson Okanya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Rosedale Mennonite Missions’ Thinking, Praxis,

Structure and Priorities - Joe Showalter . 38

Mennonite Brethren Mission: A Brief Assessment of

its Mission Theology and Praxis - Ray

Harms-Wiebe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

LEARNING THROUGH MISSION SERVICE

AND REFLECTION

Testimonials: CIM Member Agencies Transformed

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

The Marcus Mission - Gerlof Homan . . . . . . . . . . 73

Short Term Mission to Mennonite Churches in North

India - Jai Prakash Masih . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Congolese Church and CIM/AIMM Centennial -

Richard Hirschler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

My Pilgrimage in Mission - Byrdalene Wyse Horst

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Accompaniment An Alternative Missionary Practice

- Willis G. Horst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Glimpses into a Rereading of God’s Mission - Willis

G. Horst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Serious Mission Partners in Eastern Europe:

Reflections on 20 Years of Post-communism -

Walter Sawatsky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Henry Martyn’s Short Stint in India and Persia -

Dorothy Yoder Nyce .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

BOOK REVIEWS .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188-202Seeking 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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203-207Worship 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 haschanged between 1988 and 2012 in your 1) mission thinking, 2) praxis, 3) structureand 4) priorities. On the latter, that includes partnership and relational prioritieswithin your own global structures, toward MWC, and toward other inter-churchrelations. With the request I sent a page of background, with deliberatively provocativequestions whether the mutuality in mission we claimed to seek (as early as a missionconsultation 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


“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


(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


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


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


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.


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.


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 USA3 Ibid.4 Ibid.


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.


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


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.


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.


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


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.


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.


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.


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.


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


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).


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.


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


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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.


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


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


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


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,


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


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


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


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


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.


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.nl4 Sihor Aritonang and Karel Steenbrink, A History of Christianity in Indonesia (Boston:

Brill, 2008), 350-352.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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


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


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.


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


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.


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.


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.


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


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


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.


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.


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.


“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.


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


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.


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


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


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


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


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


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.


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


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.


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


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


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,


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


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


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.


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


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.]


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


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.


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


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


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


“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]


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.


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,


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.


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.


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


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.


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


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


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.


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


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


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


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).


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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


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:

Wil l iam 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


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


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

1

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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