July 23, 2009

First-generation immigrant churches want to build unifying bridges to Mennonite Church USA

By Laurie Oswald Robinson

All the workshops were led by first-generation immigrants as a way to call out their giftedness that often gets overlooked as a resource for larger churchwide gatherings.

Those who drew artwork at a recent symposium for first-generation immigrant congregations in Mennonite Church USA didn’t compete for prizes. Rather, their drawings communicated the desire to build more bridges between these congregations and the denomination.

"During the two-day symposium April 24 and 25 at Pasadena (Calif.) Mennonite Church, table groups drew images symbolizing participants’ present and desired future relationship with the denomination," said Madeline Maldonado, a symposium facilitator and co-pastor of Iglesia Evangélica Menonita Arca de Salvación in Fort Myers, Fla.

“At my table, we drew two half circles to symbolize the two different worlds of the first-generation immigrants and the people who have been in the denomination for a long time,” she said. “And then we drew a bridge between these two half circles to show how we desire to have a mutual exchange between these two groups. It symbolized how the flow of ideas needs to go in both directions — to be an even exchange.

“For example, first-generation immigrant congregations have many gifts, such as evangelizing and church-planting and establishing Bible institutes — not only here in the States but also in our homelands. But there is often no avenue for us to share these gifts or to receive the strengths from longtime congregations.”

At another table group, the image of fire emerged. Inside the fire, there were many heads, meant to symbolize the various kinds of people in the church.

“The sense about the fire idea was that when fire burns, it unites everything within the flame,” she said. “The drawing seemed to be saying that we need the fire of God and the passion of the gospel to unify us, even in the midst of our many differences.”

Power in making desires reality

During the two-day symposium April 24 and 25 at Pasadena (Calif.) Mennonite Church, table groups drew images symbolizing participants’ present and desired future relationship with the denomination

The images that emerged were powerful, connecting and unifying. But even more powerful was the symposium’s intent to make these desires reality by sponsoring the first-time gathering for first-generation immigrants. About 55 participants joined the symposium from three area conferences belonging to Mennonite Church USA: Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference, Southeast Conference and Western District Conference — all of which include first-generation immigrant congregations.

“We wanted to provide a safe place to share their stories and to talk about what they are doing locally and globally with their many church-planting efforts,” said Iris de León-Hartshorn, director of Intercultural Relations for Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership and a planner/facilitator of the event. “At the same time, we wanted to provide a place where agency staff could hear their stories face-to-face and to brainstorm ways to resource the entire church.”

Thirdly, the planners wanted to provide a forum for immigrants to resource each other, she said. All the workshops were led by first-generation immigrants as a way to call out their giftedness that often gets overlooked as a resource for larger churchwide gatherings.

For example, Maldonado led a workshop that helped participants examine how they can better navigate the financial and legal matters within their congregations.

“In many instances, the way people have dealt with finances and legal matters in their homeland are very different from the way they are done in the United States,” Maldonado said. “Most new pastors have no idea how to deal with things such as payroll taxes and other matters with the IRS.”

Three other workshops were also offered. One, led by Kuaying Teng and Rebekka Stutzman, focused on generational transformation and what could emerge with the second-generation children within these congregations. Another one, led by Marco Güete, focused on leadership. Participants examined models of leadership, discernment processes and pastoral transitions. A third workshop, led by Dr. Maribel Hinojosa, focused on the emotional journey of immigrants and the challenges they face with depression and mental illness due to the stresses of living in a new land.

Storytelling gets rave revues

It was the emotional component of personal storytelling that captured the hearts of many of the participants, including Virgo Hondojo, pastor of the Indonesian Christian Fellowship in Pasadena area and one of the planners.

“One of the most positive aspects of the symposium for me and many others was the freedom to share our stories and our feelings about our experience here in the States,” he said. “In many ways, we as first-generation immigrants struggle to build community with Mennonite Church USA, because we often feel like aliens and outsiders.

“By coming to the States we have changed so many things and in the process, we have much culture shock and lose our identity. In sharing our stories, we helped each connect with who we are, not only as we reflect on our past but name our hopes for our future within the larger church.”

Though first-generation immigrant congregations often hope to retain some of their former culture, they also want to identify with other Christ followers from other backgrounds, Hondojo said.

“We need each other,” he said. “Mennonites give us our identity as Christians and empower us to live our faith and values. We want to be uniquely Indonesian but at the same time to be closely related to Mennonite Church USA.”

Moving personal into the communal

The personal stories of Hondojo and others are the building blocks that now must be shaped into a more congregational identity within Mennonite Church USA, said Gilberto Flores, associate conference minister for Western District Conference who works many Hispanic congregations in Texas and who attended the symposium as a staff person.

“We need to work harder at integrating these congregations into the life of the wider church,” he said. “Without enough engagement with the whole church, local congregations from other cultures tend to be isolated from what is going on in the general picture and become individualistic.

“Our challenge now is to provide more conduits for having a mutual exchange of understandings and meanings — such as some of the excellent resources increasingly being offered to people of color at our colleges and seminaries. This will take more than a generation to happen on a wide scale, and Anglos have to learn how to be patient with the way other cultures see the same things.”