More than 7,000 Mennonites gathered in Columbus, Ohio, last month for the Mennonite Church USA Convention 2009. One way to learn about what happened there is to listen to what others said about us.

Linda Emmons, director of sales for one of the local hotels, told us “Of all the groups we host, your group of young people were by far the best group of kids and more well-mannered than any I have ever worked with. From the time the first guest checked in to the last guest checked out, we had nothing but compliments from our staff.”

At the 2007 convention, delegates agreed to join Christian Churches Together, an interchurch body of many different kinds of Christians. CCT’s executive, Dick Ham told us in Columbus: “You have steadfastly stood against the use of the church by the state, often bearing this witness even unto death.

You have embodied Jesus’ call to be servants of the world. You understand the difference between democracy, which seeks to know the will of the people, and discernment, which seeks to know the will of God.”

On the international level, Mennonites have been in dialogue with Lutherans. Michael Trice, ecumenical officer for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America told delegates in Columbus: “Your work and mission in the world is of central importance to our common calling of Christian unity, where all of our local relationships are irreplaceable aspects of the one greater unity of the Body of Christ.”

Delegates passed a resolution on health care, asking the church to be concerned for the health of all people in our country as well as for the health of pastors and church workers. Another resolution on human trafficking brought by Mennonite Women USA admonished us to join our voices as a body of Christ against all forms of slavery.

A third resolution on following Christ and growing together as communities even in conflict noted our inability to talk to each other when we disagree on issues of human sexuality. It asked the Executive Board to work with conferences to provide resources for discernment.

Shane Claiborne of the Simple Way community in Philadelphia told us to stop complaining about the church we’ve experienced and start becoming the church Christ imagined. In Columbus, I saw signs that we are ready to follow Claiborne’s advice.

Ron Byler,
Acting Executive Director,
Mennonite Church USA