Same Question, Different Answers:
A Study of Exodus 1-2

A major challenge facing Mennonites as we talk about national identity is our diversity of viewpoints about relating to the nation, its culture and its government. We are not a homogenous people. We have had vastly differing experiences with immigration, assimilation, displacement, war, military service, alternative service, slavery, political power, the civil rights movement and so on. The communities around us have responded to our presence and our faith perspectives in different ways, ranging from admiration to acceptance, curiosity, toleration or even hostility. To varying degrees, we have been shaped by the larger influences of our society, such as media (including popular Christian media), consumerism, patriotism, civil religion and militarism. These powerful influences have shaped our national identity.

No wonder we find ourselves with such differing attitudes about voting in electio ...

Now bunking at Camp Survival:

HEROD, ZWINGLI and ME

By Joel Kauffmann

La armadura de Dios

Por último, fortalézcanse con el gran poder del Señor. Pónganse toda la armadura de Dios para que puedan hacer frente a las artimañas del diablo. (Efesios 6.10-11 NVI)

En 1984, un oportuno y convincente llamado del teólogo y activista Ron Sider puso en movimiento a Equipos Cristianos de Acción por la Paz (ECAP) en la Conferencia Mundial Menonita de Estrasburgo, Francia:

En los últimos 450 años de martirio, inmigración y proclamación misionera, el Dios del shalom nos ha estado preparando a los anabautistas para una cita con la historia a fines del siglo XX. Los próx ...

Iglesia Menonita USA Proyecto sobre la identidad nacional

Recursos para la adoración

Para ayudar a su congregación a enfocarse en la resolución sobre la identidad nacional que los delegados de la Iglesia Menonita USA aprobaron en San José 2007, se publicarán recursos adicionales para la adoración y el estudio en la web (www.MennoniteUSA.org/identity):

• Recursos para la adoración para un culto entero, como dramatizaciones bíblicas, oraciones y letanías, momentos para niños y presentaciones visuales;
• Preguntas de debate para cada historia;
• Historias adicionales, como dramatizaciones y un rap anabautista.

La declaración central del material para la adoración y el estudio es:

Y hubo una gran alegría en toda la gente:

Una historia sobre una iglesia menonita y una bandera de Estados Unidos

ARCHBOLD, OHIO—Esta es una historia sobre una iglesia menonita y una bandera de Estados Unidos. Un cuento en el que no aparecen ni elfos ni hadas sino personas que ayudan a aquellos que andan por el mundo.

Desde su fundación en 1955, la Iglesia Menonita Zion, una congregación de más de 250 miembros de un pueblo pequeño de Archbold, Ohio, se lanzó al trabajo por la paz y la justicia. La iglesia ayudó a polacos y alemanes de la segunda guerra mundial a reestablecerse, trajo familias de vietnamitas, laosianos y tailandeses a la región en los ‘70 y acogió a refugiados de Centroamérica que se dirigían a Canadá en los ‘80. Durante muchos años la iglesia se relac ...

Iglesias de inmigrantes llaman a Iglesia Menonita USA a ir más allá de lo conocido

El Philadelphia Praise Center (“Centro de Alabanza de Filadelfia” o PPC, por sus siglas en inglés) y el Nations Worship Center (“Centro de Adoración de las Naciones”), dos congregaciones menonitas de la Conferencia de Franconia, consideran al mismo barrio del sur de Filadelfia como su hogar. Ambos grupos están compuestos en su mayoría por inmigrantes trasplantados de Indonesia. Los disturbios de raíces religiosas del año 2000 en Surabaya, la segunda ciudad más grande de Indonesia, hicieron que muchos cristianos indonesios fueran a Filadelfia en busca de asilo y un nuevo hogar.

Los líderes de estas congregaciones lidian con las implicancias espirituales y prácticas de haberse convertido en congregaciones de inmigrantes.& ...

Introspección lleva a pastor a emprender viaje radical con Jesús

por Laurie Oswald Robinson

Cuando Gilberto Flores, un líder de la Iglesia Menonita USA de toda la vida, vio gente inocente ahorcada en una selva guatemalteca, sintió odio.

Antes de ese día, varias décadas atrás, Flores, pastor menonita en Guatemala por aquella época, había visto tanta injusticia provocada por la guerra civil que se preguntó si acaso ponía en práctica su fe. Cuando luego se topó con el baño de sangre en la montaña, comprendió que algo tenía que cambiar.

“Un pastor fue con algunos miembros a la selva para recuperar unas vacas que se escaparon de sus campos”, cuenta Flores. “Al llegar a las montaña ...

Haciendo discípulos: Un bautismo en la iglesia Living Water

Congregación de Chicago da pan y construye puentes para cuerpo y alma

La Iglesia Comunitaria de Living Water descubrió al poco tiempo de mudarse a una esquina de Chicago donde en 2001 hubo un tiroteo entre pandillas que el camino a la vida de la gente joven a veces va por su estómago.

Living Water (“Agua de vida” en inglés), que se fundó en 1995, rentaba un especio para sus cultos dominicales a un par de cuadras de este lugar cuando ocurrió el tiroteo. En respuesta a esto, la congregación se sintió llamada a orar en la esquina. Pronto las oraciones permi ...

Lucha por fidelidad une a iglesias nacionales

Centrados en Cristo: Un servicio de adoración en Colombia

Miles de kilómetros separan a la Iglesia Menonita de Colombia (IMCOL) de la Iglesia Menonita USA. Pero una lucha común por una fidelidad mayor las une de maneras que las acercan tanto como el latido de Cristo.

Los anabautistas de estos países saben que las buenas nuevas de Cristo incluyen la salvación del alma y el shalom para las comunidades, pero a veces cuestionan su testimonio e identidad. Algunas personas se preguntan cómo integrar el aspecto social del llamado de Crist ...

Lealtad en las fallas geológicas

J. Nelson Kraybill

En el otoño pasado, cuando la política presidencial polarizó a la nación, aparecieron fallas geológicas dentro de la Iglesia Menonita USA. Los sentimientos eran tan fuertes que a veces dañaban vínculos dentro de las familias y las congregaciones. Los menonitas que ponen énfasis en el llamado de Jesús a amar a nuestros enemigos apoyaban al candidato que creían que más probablemente elegiría el camino de la diplomacia. Otros apoyaban al candidato que creían que más probablemente protegería a quienes aún no han nacido.

La política no es el único tema que enfrenta a los menonitas entre sí por lealtades que van más allá del cuerpo de C ...

Trasfondo

La resolución de la asamblea 2007

En San José 2007, los más de 900 delegados de las congregaciones, conferencias regionales y grupos raciales/étnicos de la Iglesia Menonita USA aprobaron la siguiente resolución:

Nosotros, el cuerpo de delegados de la Iglesia Menonita USA reunidos en San José 2007, hemos sido desafiados a considerar tanto la promesa como el riesgo de vivir fielmente como cristianos en los Estados Unidos. Como cuerpo nacional de menonitas recientemente creado, invitamos a la junta directiva a iniciar un proceso que nos ayude a explorar nuestra identidad como menonitas que viven en el país que muchos consideran el más rico y poderoso de la tierra. Pedimos que nos provean recursos que nos ayuden a vivir fielmente como Cristo, lidiando a veces con nuestra cultura nacional, y reconociendo que ninguna cultura está totalm ...

The Empire Strikes Back

by Sue Conrad, pastor, East Chestnut Street Mennonite Church, Lancaster, Pa.

Zaccheus

by Rod Stafford

Hymns of Dangerous Praise

Iris de León-Hartshorn

This morning’s text can be seen as a beautiful image of the angels, elders and the four beasts bowing down worshipping God. The verse just before this particular text we see the image of every nation from all tribes, peoples and languages standing before God worshipping. This is often the image we remember in these texts. But what if I told you these were daring and subversive texts that ...

6/26/08

Before Esther Comes Vashti

by Joel Miller

(Esther 1)

This summer at Cincinnati Mennonite we’re taking up a special offering. We’re asking people to carefully consider what portion of their government rebate checks they do not need to spend of save, and to give, generously, to this offering. At the end of the summer we’ll give away all of what we collect together, ½ internationally to the work that MCC is doing with the global food crisis and half locally, to the St. Vincent de Paul Society and food pantry in our Oakley neighborhood that we support.

I’ve appreciated the letters and essays from conference and denominational leaders who have put out this challenge. Given the gracious gift of an economic stimulus package and charged with the mission of going out and spending it on consumer goods, we have put our own Holy S ...

National Identity resolution passed by San Jose 2007 delegates

“We, the delegate body of Mennonite Church USA gathered for San Jose 2007, have been challenged to consider both the promise and peril of living faithfully as Christians in the USA. As a recently-created national body of Mennonites, we call upon the Executive Board to formulate a process that helps us explore our identity as Mennonites living in what many consider to be the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth. We ask for resources that help us live faithfully in Christ-like ways, sometimes at odds with our national culture, acknowledging that no culture is either completely redeemed or completely fallen.”

Go and do what is right and good

Oklahoma urban church, pastors unite on cause of conscience

The conscience is a funny thing. It leads us where we might never go to do things we might never do.

That’s what happens when we take a literal view of Jesus’ command to love (Matt. 5:43-48). Here’s a story of a church and its pastors who have followed their conscience to go and do what is right and good.

A Brooklyn-Goshen Connection

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — What began as a connection among youths at a Mennonite Church USA convention has turned into a relationship of equals for Iglesia Unida de Avivamiento (United Revival Mennonite Church) in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Clinton Frame Mennonite Church in Goshen, Ind. The connection has helped both churches consider their mission to one another and to the world.

Over the last two years, one set of Brooklyn Mennonites from Unida de Avivamiento has spent time in Indiana while two Goshen groups from Clinton Frame have visited the city. The Clinton Frame groups left home intending to focus their labor on Unida de Avivamiento’s building. They returned speaking the language of ...

December 2008

Tongue screws and testimony

At the seminary where I work, I teach a course called “Mission and Peace.” Recently, midway through the course, we came to the session in which we deal with evangelism. I gave a lecture, after which a student raised her hand. “Well, I think St. Francis got it just about right. He said, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel; use words if you must.’” There was a general muttering of assent among the students.

But another student raised her hand. “Look, I was raised a Mennonite,” she said. “And I’ve been in seminary for several years. But I’m still uneasy talking about my faith. I know that how we live is important, but I think talking is important, too.

Last year I was in a group that went to Fort Benning, to the School of the ...

Allegiance at the Fault Lines
J. Nelson Kraybill

Fault lines appeared within Mennonite Church USA last fall as presidential politics polarized the nation. Sentiments were so strong they sometimes stretched relationships within families and congregations. Mennonites who emphasize Jesus’ call to love our enemies supported the candidate they thought most likely to pursue diplomacy. Others supported the candidate they thought most likely to protect the unborn.

Not only in politics are Mennonites tugged by allegiance to something beyond the body of Christ. A substantial part of the denomination today is professional, educated, entrepreneurial or wealthy. In each ca ...

Spiritual homelessness leads to working with homeless in Harvey County

Lee Penner, Newton, Kan., was restless and felt like a man without a spiritual home. Though his former church focused on sharing how Jesus saves hearts, there seemed less interest in sharing how Jesus’ way of life called believers to meet the social needs of their neighbors.

Lee Penner, bottom right, enjoys building relationships with residents such as these at the Harvey County Homeless Shelter in Newton, Kan.

— Laurie Oswald Robinson

Because Penner ached ...

Why I am a Mennonite

Michelle E. Armster

Since I moved to Lancaster, Pa., and joined a Lancaster Mennonite Conference church, I have often turned to the book Profiles of Anabaptist Women: Sixteenth-Century Reforming Pioneers¹. Along with the Bible, this is one of the few books that remind me why I made and continue to make the choice to remain in the Mennonite tradition. Profiles of Anabaptist Women recounts the limited history of these women who were often arrested, imprisoned and/or executed because they would not recant their faith and understanding of the Scriptures.

One such woman is Anna Hendricks of Amsterdam, who died in 1571. Because of her defiant proselytizing and unswerving commitment to hold meetings in her home, “the hangman tied her to a ladder, filled her mouth with gunpowder and cast her o ...

Identity and security: Lessons from Mennonite history

Plaques in the sanctuary of Weierhof Mennonite Church in Germany commemorating young men from the congregation who were killed as soldiers in World War II

Photos courtesy of Rich Preheim

For many in the United States, World War II ushered in two decades of glorious national pride. Militarily, the country got rid of fascism and then led opposition to the global ...

New Orleans presence in line with Mennonite Church USA presence

Churches Supporting Churches connects Gulf churches with resources of broader church

Imitate the compassion of Christ. That’s Steve Brown’s message when he talks about helping New Orleans people and churches as they recover from Hurricane Katrina. Brown is the Mennonite Church USA representative to Churches Supporting Churches (CSC) and currently serves as its vice-president.

The Armor of God

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (Ephesians 6:10-11 NIV)

CPTers light candles on the anniversary of September 11.

Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) was set in motion by a timely and compelling call by theologian and activist Ron Sider at the 1984 Mennonite World Conference in Strasbourg, France:

Over the past 450 years of martyrdom, immigration and missionary proclamation, the God of shalom has been preparing us Anabaptists for a late twentieth-century rendezvous with ...

Struggle for faithfulness bonds national churches

Thousands of miles separate the Colombian Mennonite Church (IMCOL) and Mennonite Church USA. But a common struggle for greater faithfulness bonds these churches in ways that bring them as close as the heartbeat of Christ.

While Anabaptists in these countries know Christ’s good news includes salvation for souls and shalom for communities, they sometimes question their witness and identity. Some people wonder how to integrate the social and spiritual aspects of Christ’s call in cultures embattled with economic and political turmoil. Some people ask, “Do we need to integrate these in order to be faithful?” Some people give up, having been criticized for focusing too much on peace or too much on evangelism.

Soul-searching leads pastor to take
radical journey with Jesus

by Laurie Oswald Robinson

When Gilberto Flores, a longtime leader in Mennonite Church USA, saw innocent people hanging dead in a Guatemalan jungle, he felt hate.

Gilberto Flores seen here at a 1985 gathering of pastors from Central America, Mexico and Panama focusing on the theme of Christian Communities and Pastoral Ministry in Societies in Conflict.

Even before that day decades ago, Flores, a Mennonite pastor in Guatemala at the time, had seen so much in ...

Immigrant Churches call Mennonite Church USA beyond their comfort zone

Philadelphia Praise Center (PPC) and Nations Worship Center, two Franconia Conference Mennonite congregations, call the same South Philadelphia neighborhood home. Transplanted immigrants from Indonesia comprise the majority of members of both groups. The religiously motivated riots in 2000 in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city, brought many Indonesian Christians to Philadelphia seeking asylum and new homes.

Among all the people there was great joy:

A story about a Mennonite Church and an American flag

ARCHBOLD, OHIO—This is a story about a Mennonite church and an American flag. It’s a story with no elves or fairies, but a tale of people helping those who wander the earth.

Project Hope and the Peace and Justice Project at Zion Mennonite Church in Archbold, Ohio, hosted a fiesta, complete with piñatas, to raise money for fuel costs to transport ESL students. ESL students, new citizens and other immigrants added t ...

Sermon: Help Me Save My People

by Cynentha Millsaps

Sermon: Empire Series — Colossians 3: 18-46
By Ron Adams, for East Chestnut Street Mennonite Church, October 5, 2008

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Whatever you do. In word or deed. Do everything.

I am struck by how frequently Paul uses language like this in his letter to the Colossians. How many times he uses words like all and everything to describe what belongs to Christ. It reminds me of that question someone asked Jesus about paying taxes. And Jesus said to give ...

Sermon: Empire Series — Colossians 3: 1-17
By Ron Adams, for East Chestnut Street Mennonite Church, September 28, 2008

This is the fourth in our series on living faithfully in the Empire. Three weeks ago I attempted to set the background for the series. I tried to describe the setting in which the early Colossian believers lived, a setting dominated by the Roman Empire.

The Empire was everywhere. And it was readily apparent to all with eyes to see. From the Roman garrison, to the temple dedicated to a Roman god, to the image of the Emperor on your money, to the smell of meat being burned on a pagan altar, to the stories of heroes from the past, all ...

Sermon : Empire Series — Colossians 1
By Ron Adams, for East Chestnut Street Mennonite Church, September 7, 2008

For the last few years, I have struggled to understand how our faith in Christ defines us and shapes our behavior. I’ve talked about this before from this pulpit, wondering aloud how George W. Bush and I can both claim to be followers of Jesus and yet behave so differently. How he can participate in regular Christian worship and still advocate war and torture and trade policies which create and sustain misery around the world even as they benefit us and our corporations. While I participate in Christian worship and am a pacifist, and believe that we will be judged as a nation on our care for the poorest among us, and am shamed by the effects of global capitalism run amok. We both claim ...

Sermon: Daniel in Babylon
© Megan M. Ramer

[see “Living in the Empire” worship resource under tab for “worship and study.”]

National Identity Resolution:

We, the delegate body of Mennonite Church USA gathered for San Jose 2007, have been challenged to consider both the promise and peril of living faithfully as a Christians in the USA. As a recently created national body of Mennonites, and one member in the larger body of Christ, we call upon the Executive Board to formulate a process that helps us explore our i ...

Professional screenwriters Don Yost and Joel Kauffmann have written a series of dramatic sketches for congregations to use on the national identity theme. Here are some excerpts. You’ll find these entire sketches and others at this site soon.

Camp Survival

A perplexed Mennonite Camper tries to understand why he has been assigned to share a cabin with two of his historical nemeses: Herod the Great and Ulrich Zwingli, the reformer.

ZWINGLI: We didn’t like putting all those people to death, but the survival of our nation, our very way of life was at stake -- so ...

“Living in the Empire” Worship series readings
Chicago Community Mennonite Church
Megan M. Ramer (ccmcil@gmail.com)

[See Living in the Empire worship resource and sermons]

Readings from Daniel, Esther and Joseph

Following Jesus in a world that is not

Drama for National Identity Worship Service

PONZI SCHEME

inspired by Luke 19:1-10

“Living in the Empire” Worship Resource
Chicago Community Mennonite Church
Compiled by Megan M. Ramer (ccmcil@gmail.com) in 2008

[See full length sermon under “sermons” tab]

Introduction and history

The delegates of Mennonite Church USA passed a "National Identity" resolution in San Jose las ...

Chicago congregation provides bread
and bridges for body and soul

Soon after Living Water Community Church relocated to a Chicago street corner where a gang shooting occurred in 2001, the church discovered that the way to young people’s lives is sometimes through their stomachs.

Living Water, begun in 1995, was renting space for its Sunday services a couple blocks from this site when the shooting happened. In response, the congregation felt called to pray on the corner. Soon, the prayers turned toward t ...

Allegiance at the Fault Lines
J. Nelson Kraybill

Fault lines appeared within Mennonite Church USA last fall as presidential politics polarized the nation. Sentiments were so strong they sometimes stretched relationships within families and congregations. Mennonites who emphasize Jesus’ call to love our enemies supported the candidate they thought most likely to pursue diplomacy. Others supported the candidate they thought most likely to protect the unborn.

Not only in politics are Mennonites tugged by allegiance to something beyond the body of Christ. A substantial part of the denomination today is professional, educated, entrepreneurial or wealthy. In each ca ...

The YMLT Tip Jar is a place for Mennonite youth and youth workers to share tips on anything from fundraising, conventions and organizing to how to discuss controversial issues.