Keeping our balance

At the recent Christian Churches Together meeting I sat beside the chief ecumenical officer for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He told me the U.S. Catholic Church is engaged in 18 different conversations with other church bodies to gain deeper understanding and affinity. He recently came from the 11th round of discussions with the Lutherans; the first round having begun in the mid 1960s!

Such a timeline might feel slow to us, but for a church that counts itself as two millennia old, what is a 40-year conversation? By comparison our shorter 500-year Anabaptist sojourn since the Reformation is viewed in a new perspective. Then what does one say about Mennonite Church USA, barely seven years old?

Is it time to “settle in” to what could still be viewed as very fresh innovations of church purpose and polity in Mennonite Church USA? At seven years are we getting “old and mature” already? Or should we still experiment with new ways of relating to each other across the parts of the church or experiment with new ways of speaking and acting our witness?

Mennonite Church USA is not yet a bulwark of certainty and established habit. It is like a laboratory where new discoveries are being made. It is a place where new identity is struggling to take root and where new fellowship is not yet fully formed. We are a new church that is “finding itself” as it changes its language and yearns to understand its missional purpose and posture.

We will be wise to keep a loose grip on our present creation, called Mennonite Church USA. We believe that stability and continued transformation are not incompatible. Stability is “keeping our balance” as we make choices among various behaviors of ministry that are still open to us. Stability is keeping our resolve to find new ways of observing what God is doing in the world. This shows us what we ought to be doing with our time, energy and money.

These are wonderful and challenging years. Pray that God continues to offer our fledgling church the gifts of both vision and balance.

Jim Schrag is Executive Director of Mennonite Church USA

Beginning with its May/June issue, Equipping will become a bi-monthly publication throughout the calendar year.

This transition is happening as part of a long-range plan for Equipping to become a primarily Web-based resource. Executive Leadership is making these transitions in an effort to practice better stewardship of churchwide resources.

This should save significant costs related to printing and shipping and have little impact on the actual information and resources made available to Equipping readers.

Hard copies of Equipping will continue to be delivered on a bi-monthly basis until a new version can be fully incorporated as part of the Mennonite Church USA Web site. Executive Leadership is working with Mennonite Education Agency, Mennonite Mission Network, MMA and Mennonite Publishing Network to enhance the features of Equipping online in an effort to meet a broad set of needs for Equipping recipients.

Once Executive Leadership and the agencies have a chance to test and implement the new version of Equipping, it will go live on the Internet and hard copy mailings will be reduced to four times per year with monthly e-mail reminders sent to recipients directing them to the Web site. More information on how to subscribe to the e-mail list will be available in future Equipping packets.

Tax rebates provide unique opportunity

This spring, many Mennonite Church USA households will receive tax rebates as part of the U.S. government’s economic stimulus package. The goal of the rebate is to encourage spending in an effort to boost the national economy.

Mennonite Church USA invites members to view this rebate as an opportunity to do kingdom work, rather than making consumer purchases. If we redirect all or part of our tax rebate to meet any of the needs listed on the enclosed flier, we could demonstrate to the world an alternative vision of how to use unexpected financial resources. Executive Leadership encourages you to make copies of the enclosed flier to distribute within your congregation to use to stimulate conversation and discern whether redistributing the tax rebate is right for those who receive one.