God's call among the cornfields: Iowa congregation walks
a missional path in tough times
by Laurie L. Oswald
Shana and David Boshart in the sanctuary of West Union
Mennonite Church in Parnell, Iowa. Shana Boshart is
part-time minister for Central Plains Mennonite Conference
and David Boshart is pastor at West Union.
PARNELL, Iowa -- (MC USA) Gravel roads are the only way to
get to West Union Mennonite Church, tucked among Iowa's cornfields,
eight miles from any town. But drifting snow in winter, tire-spinning
mud in spring and failing crop prices in fall don't keep anyone
away, least of all the Spirit of God.
At a time when many rural congregations inch toward extinction,
West Union stays on the growing edge in its community, about
20 miles from Iowa City. The congregation, whose post office
is in the village of Parnell, was founded in 1897. Today it
includes families who have struggled with the shifting farm
economy of recent decades. Still, many of the 220 attendees
say they're eagerly searching for new ways to reach out to
a community that refuses to be wiped off the map.
What is West Union's secret? David W. Boshart, senior pastor,
said that the congregation's strengths have often grown out
of its weaknesses. Boshart and his wife, Shana, part-time
youth minister for Central Plains Mennonite Conference, have
often seen failure turned into success since 1996 when they
were called to West Union.
Take, for instance, the 2003 baptism class, which almost fizzled
because of scheduling nightmares. Boshart remembers coming
home one night and pouring out his frustration to Shana.
"We couldn't get everyone on the same schedule for classes
if our lives depended on it," Boshart said. "I was
frustrated, because baseball, hunting and shopping seemed
to take priority over the nurturing of faith in our young
people, which is deeply important for them personally and
for us as a community.
Shana reminded David that all the baptismal candidates were
part of a one-on-one mentoring program that the congregation
begins for youth in seventh grade and often continues informally
into high school. Could these mentor pairs be used within
the new members' class?
"The light bulb went on," Boshart recalled, "and
I realized we could return to a more ancient practice in the
church, which is to provide a 'sponsor' for new baptismal
candidates. They could do one-on-one dialogues on the baptism
topics and then we'd meet five times as a whole class."
What began as a bumbling mess therefore turned out to be a
memorable experience of spiritual formation. "It forced
youth and adults to engage issues in more intimate ways,"
Boshart said. "It invited an integration of the creativity
and energy of youth with the wisdom and critical thought of
adults."
The process lasted from May through mid-September. In the
end, all 11 youth, including the Bosharts' son Aaron, were
baptized. "We had a glorious celebration in the pond
at Crooked Creek Camp and we plan to do this again in the
future. The whole congregation responded in a heartwarming
way."
Passion instead of programs
This incident is only one in which West Union discovered pearls
of great price within the grit of rural life. Other struggles
and challenges have launched the congregation into renewing
its worship, nurture and mission.
"Back in the mid-1990s, we got involved in the Giving
Project, which invited us to reconsider our entire mission,
including the use of our building," said Boshart. "During
the process, James Krabill of the [former] Mennonite Board
of Missions, challenged us to ask ourselves, 'Does our church
smell like mission?'" They concluded an audit and detailed
study of the congregation's purpose.
The congregation created a mission statement and members explored
what mission meant for their personal lives. "Because
of the changing times," Boshart said, "our church
could no longer depend on extended families to keep the church
alive. We needed to reach out beyond ourselves."
As a result, instead of building only a wheelchair ramp, the
congregation built a whole new addition so that they could
be more hospitable to the community. But the bigger question
became not how members would build bigger or better ministries,
but how they could enfold their activities into what God was
already doing.
"We shifted our perspective from planning structured
programs," Boshart noted, "to inviting people to
engage in their passions. People have more energy for what
they're passionate about than for doing that which they have
no interest in or gifts for."
Janet Stutzman, for example, has run a catering business for
10 years. Today, she sponsors a men's lunch each month at
the farm that she and her husband and family operate. "I've
felt that it's important for men at a church to get together,
and what better way to get them to come together than food?"
she said.
Janet cooks the food, the men come and she lets the men visit.
"It is fun to see neighbors from the community come who
don't belong to our church, like the time one farmer invited
his vet and another guy brought his accountant. It's really
a simple thing, but it works."
Another woman, Romana Miller, coordinates a monthly women's
"Grab and Gab" -- a come-and-go Friday night fellowship
for women. Here older women teach younger women to quilt or
knit. "It's small and it's intimate," said Miller.
"It's easy-going and geared for women in our neighborhood
who haven't been at West Union before and may feel shy about
coming to a Sunday church service."
Relationships, inside and out
West Union has discovered that less can be more. In its new
missional focus, it keeps programs simple, short-range and
oriented toward building relationships. But West Union also
tackles longer-range issues and nurtures a concern for peace,
justice and service.
"We had already broken ground for our new addition when
the bottom fell out of the hog market in 2000" David
Boshart said. "And even though I had grown up on a farm
in Wayland, Iowa, it took me awhile to understand how critical
this was for farmers, because farming had changed so much
since I was a kid.
"But I finally woke up. We had been praying for 9,000
people each Sunday who had been affected by Hurricane Mitch
in Honduras, but I suddenly realized some of our own families
were devastated."
To respond to the crisis, he visited each hurting farm family
and called a prayer vigil at church. The congregation also
created a farm ministry committee, which planned a summer
hog roast for the community. This event -- becoming larger
each year -- will enjoy its fourth summer in 2004.
The hog roast and other initiatives help West Union to affirm
rural life at a time when it is disrespected and misunderstood.
They also help strengthen ties to Irish-Catholic neighbors
who, because of the interdependency of farming, have been
intertwined with Mennonites for decades.
But, according to Lowell Yoder, the ecumenical bonding brings
breadth to the West Union's missional sense. Yoder, a clinical
social worker at the University of Iowa, moved back to Iowa
with his family in 1995. "We visited a lot of churches
and West Union seemed to have a nice blend of people from
different backgrounds and perspectives. It didn't seem internally
focused." Today Yoder serves as chair of the elder board
and of the farm ministry committee.
David Boshart shares the passion for building bridges in the
community. The great-grandson of a Catholic-turned-Mennonite
who joined West Union, Boshart prays that he will be able
to plant seeds of friendship between the two groups. Besides
the hog roast, West Union hosts a Thanksgiving service with
the Catholic church and West Union joins the Catholics for
a Christmas Eve service.
"Just as I ask the people in my congregation to follow
their passion in ministry, I need to do the same. And I am
passionate about these ecumenical relationships."
Laurie L. Oswald is news service
director for Mennonite Church USA.
Coming home and reaching out.
Ben Miller, 29, felt he'd never marry a Mennonite, move back
to the Midwest, or attend a Mennonite church. But in the last
couple of years, he has done all three. Despite earlier resistance,
he sensed God guiding him to reconnect with his past and with
the community at West Union. Now, after voluntary service
in Oregon, Bible school in Alaska, wheat harvesting in Texas,
a Mennonite Disaster Service stint in Puerto Rico and work
at a ski resort in Colorado, Miller is back in his boyhood
Iowa.
As the youngest member of West Union's vision discernment
committee, Miller spoke highly of his Anabaptist upbringing.
"I haven't ever been anti-Mennonite, or fled the Midwest
so I could go into drugs or craziness," Miller said.
"But I felt pretty sheltered growing up here. Like a
lot of kids, I needed to throw off what I was raised in to
see if the values would hold up in other situations."
Now married to Nicole and helping to raise their son Tobin
(and another baby on the way), Miller noted, "We want
stability. The world is a really unstable place and there
is a lot of shiftiness going on out there."
But they also don't want too much of the traditional, either.
When he moved back, Ben wanted a place where he could bring
guys from his construction crew who wore tattoos and knew
zero about Mennonites, he said. He also wanted a place where
he could reconcile his daily life with faith and show that
being Mennonite is about shining a light in a bleak world.
"I'm a firm believer that we need to operate outside
of Mennonite circles," he said, " but I want a place
where I can bring people into our circle, too." --
Laurie L. Oswald
Worship planning is two-part process
Martha Yoder, longtime worship chair at West Union
Mennonite Church in Parnell, Iowa, shares a children's
moment during Sunday morning worship in late November
2003.
Martha Yoder, chair of West Union's worship commission, divides
the monthly commission meeting into two parts. The first part
involves visioning -- studying and discussing biblical worship
and aesthetics. The second half is devoted to the "nuts
and bolts" details of upcoming worship services.
"I realized early on that using the entire meeting to
plug people into slots and figuring out how to get 'warm bodies'
up front does little to lead a congregation to meet God,"
said Yoder, an artist who manages a print study room at the
University of Iowa. "The hearts of those on the commission
have to be attuned to God first before we can ever hope to
lead anyone else there."
At times the commission has invited other members of the congregation
to help work through the more sensitive issues. One group,
for example, helped the commission explore how to introduce
contemporary worship but not threaten the older people. Commission
members then talked one-on-one with older people about possible
changes, rather than to throw all the new ideas at them at
once. "We have such a rich history of the older people
respecting the younger people and vice versa," said Yoder,
"and we wanted to continue building on that history."
The result of these efforts is that a praise band plays one
in every six Sundays, while the congregation routinely enjoys
a mix of traditional hymns, instrumental selections and organ
preludes, she said.
"For a church to remain strong and centered, it must
be strong and centered in worship," Yoder said. "My
passion for worship stems from my belief that a congregation
is much healthier and cohesive if it can truly worship together
and meet God in a corporate place. ... Well-planned and thought-through
worship services help that to happen."
-- Laurie L. Oswald
Coming full circle.
When David Boshart, pastor at West Union Mennonite Church,
looks out his living room window, he sees the tombstone of
his once-Catholic great-grandfather, John Doolin, in the church
cemetery.
Boshart -- who grew up as a Mennonite boy in Wayland, Iowa,
as part of a family tree that has Catholic roots -- has come
full circle in being pastor at West Union in Parnell. His
great-grandfather was one of the first Mennonite converts
at West Union. And whether it was with Doolin or others, the
congregation has shared strong friendships over the years
with Catholic neighbors in the close-knit farming community.
Boshart, who grew up at Sugar Creek Mennonite Church in Wayland,
treasures these ties and wants to do his part in strengthening
them, he said. They weave ecumenical threads through the community
and colorful hues through his family history.
How Boshart came to be a part of this unlikely "communion
of the saints" is a story he loves to tell.
"My great-great grandfather, Tom Doolin, settled here
and went to St. Michaels, a Catholic church down the road
in Holbrook," Boshart said. "Because of a conflicted
relationship, he asked my great-grandfather to leave the farm.
My great-grandfather ended up boarding at a Mennonite home,
part of a community in Upper Deer Creek Mennonite Church,
where he met my great-grandmother, Este Yoder.
"It was not okay for a Mennonite gal to date a Catholic,
so they passed notes back and forth in an empty fence post
and eventually eloped in a bobsled. ...They gave birth to
six girls and one boy-- including my grandmother, Erma, who
married Enos Miller, parents of my mother, Ermadine, who married
my father, Norman Boshart.
"So here I am, the great-grandson of a Mennonite convert,
who is now pastor of his former church. I didn't realize how
significant that was until I started here and sensed the importance
of these roots -- and the present-day relationships that they
foster. They become more precious to me every day."
Boshart is deeply touched by the fact that because of his
vibrant faith, John Doolin forgave and reconciled with his
father, Tom. "My great-grandfather took his father out
of the county home -- where he was being treated for dementia
-- and cared for him in his own home until his father died,"
Boshart said.
The significance of all this history has dawned on Boshart
slowly in snippets over time, he said. Like the time he sang
in a mixed octet on one of the first Sundays after he came
to West Union.
"Someone came up to me after we were done singing and
asked if I realized that everyone in that group was my second
cousin," "Boshart said. "That wasn't immediately
apparent because the Doolin daughters who stayed in community
married Mennonites with names such as Miller, Yoder, Eash
and Marner."
This interconnectedness appeared in more places than the natural
family tree. It also appeared within the spiritual family
trees at St. Michael's and West Union.
"Years ago, Bishop Abner Yoder at West Union and the
priest at St. Michael's were good friends," Boshart said.
"When that bishop died, the priest came to the Yoder
home for visitation. When he walked into the funeral home,
there was dead silence, no pun intended."
Over the years, that silence turned into dialogues that turned
into friendships. Boshart prays that he will plant seeds to
carry on the rare legacy. For example, each year West Union
shares services and events with the Catholics from Holbrook.
They include a Thanksgiving service at West Union, a Christmas
Eve service at the Catholic church and the hog feed at West
Union.
"One of my main priorities is to build bridges from our
faith tradition to other traditions," Boshart said. "Just
as I ask the people in my congregation to follow their passion
in ministry, I need to do the same. And I am passionate about
these ecumenical relationships." -- Laurie
L. Oswald
Teams strive to dismantle racism, heal hearts in Mennonite
Church USA.
by Laurie L. Oswald
From left, Mennonite Church USA Executive Board members
participate in an antiracism training during a board
meeting held spring 2003 in Newton, Kan. From left they
are Lois Thieszen Preheim of Aurora, Neb., Pat Hershberger
of Canby, Ore., Edwin Rempel of Centennial, Colo., and
Harold Miller of Corning, N.Y.
NEWTON, Kan. (MC USA) -- As part of Washington (D.C.) Community
Fellowship's antiracism team, Jeanne Wilson Woods, 70, said
she's found healing in sharing how as an African-American
child she couldn't attend an elementary school in her neighborhood.
Soon after she became a teacher, a Supreme Court ruling from
Brown vs. the Board of Education in 1954 desegregated schools.
Years into her career that same school employed her as a supervising
teacher and she's regained some of the dignity she'd lost.
Retired after 36 years in teaching, Woods now shares her story
in antiracism workshops to help examine attitudes that still
foster white privilege 50 years after the laws changed.
The Washington team is part of a network across Mennonite
Church USA -- including the denomination's own antiracism
team -- that strives to dismantle systemic racism. The church
hopes to reach out to all racial-ethnic groups and invite
them to use their gifts in a predominantly Caucasian church.
Woods hopes to further that calling by sharing her suffering
for the healing and awareness of others.
"It has been healing for me to share memories I've repressed
for decades, and I think it's also healing for others to hear
how I've dealt with disappointments and rejection over the
years," she said. "In seeing the sensitive reaction
by others, I could finally get out the stuff I'd held down
just to survive.
"At first I resisted joining the team. I felt that I
was a victim of racism and that it wasn't my job to deal with
the problem. But I've found the opposite: I've discovered
that my Caucasian brothers and sisters have really good hearts
but that they're just not aware that racism exists. .... Together,
we can be more purposeful and unified in our efforts to deal
with the injustice of racism."
Young people are surprised to hear stories of such blatant
segregation, because laws have changed so much, she said.
Despite those changes, society still grants more power and
privilege to the dominant Caucasian culture.
"In some ways, it was easier before, because we knew
what we were fighting," she said. "Our goal was
to get concrete, visible laws changed and we had something
to push against to find our place. But young people today
are trying to fight something that is invisible and more illusive
and they become disheartened."
Despite the painstaking work of dismantling the oft-invisible
racism, church leaders strive to shape new attitudes, said
Jim Schrag, executive director of Mennonite Church USA, and
a member of the denomination's antiracism team that includes
African-Americans, Asians, Hispanics and other Caucasians.
The team relies on the resources of the Damascus Road training
process provided by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC).
"Forming this team isn't only about dealing with the
pigment of our skin but is more about dealing with who gets
favored in the system," Schrag said. "It's that
playing of favorites that no one wants to talk about. ...
We are uncomfortable with the negativity implied by 'antiracist.'
While individuals may not hold racism in their hearts, we
are all part of the systemic nature of racism, which provides
more power to the dominant group."
Mennonite Church USA formed the antiracism team to be held
accountable for fulfilling its goal of becoming an antiracist
church, Schrag said. The goal is one of several denominational
values, including missional church, worship, leadership, education,
stewardship and building global, ecumenical and intra-church
relationships.
Daryl Byler, serving on both antiracism teams for Washington
Fellowship and Mennonite Church USA, said the denominational
team also wants to support the antiracism efforts of congregations
and area conferences and provide some initiatives of its own.
Those initiatives include helping to ensure that the churchwide
assembly at Charlotte 2005 will be receptive to all racial/ethnic
groups. The team also provides workshops, helps the Mennonite
Church USA Executive Board foster awareness among constituents
and encourages the creation of written materials in languages
other than English, such as Spanish.
"If we want our churchwide assembly to reflect the church
we are becoming with its many racial/ethnic groups, then it's
important that we have teams that work at these issues,"
said Byler, also director of MCC's Washington office. "Our
institutions have had a long history of functioning in very
white ways, and it's important that we shape our assemblies
to represent a diverse group of people. And we need to be
fairly deliberate about it, or it won't happen at the pace
we need it to happen."
Leaders join Byler on this team to support antiracism. They
include Kenyetta Aduma, director of Mennonite Church USA's
Intercultural Relations; and pastors Elaine Bryant, Englewood
Mennonite Church in Chicago; Jane Hoober Peifer, Blossom Hill
Mennonite Church in Lancaster, Pa.; and Bishop Leslie Francisco,
Calvary Community Church in Hampton, Va.
Other members are Kim Vu Friesen of St. Paul, Minn.; Ron Byler,
associate executive director of Mennonite Church USA; Susan
Mark Landis, peace advocate for Mennonite Church USA; and
Marco Guete, associate conference minister for Western District
Conference.
As Guete ministers among Hispanics within the area conference,
he also strives to make the Anglos aware of how providing
written materials in Spanish can help create an antiracist
church. "It's really important that we translate our
materials into Spanish, because we have about 130 to 140 Hispanic
congregations across the denomination and many of the people
in those churches don't speak English," he said. "If
we don't communicate with them in Spanish, there will be no
communication."
Dick Davis, pastor of Peace Mennonite Church in Dallas, joins
Guete to provide antiracism efforts in the Texas region. His
congregation's team is currently dormant, but many of its
members, including himself, are part of teams formed through
the Dallas Peace Center and the Greater Dallas Community of
Churches.
"There is often a great divide between the Anglo and
the Hispanic churches, and that is common in many areas regarding
other racial/ethnic groups," Davis said. "Right
now in Mennonite Church USA, the greater growth is among congregations
such as Hmong or Hispanic, but the white churches tend to
hold the purse strings and the power.
"That's a challenge we face in becoming an antiracist
church. But I have hope that we will begin to act on the belief
that God is in all cultures and that racism has defined us
in ways that are sinful. ... I believe our efforts will help
us to live out of the reality that we are all sons and daughters
of God and that we are family."
Asian people, as well as Hispanics and African-Americans,
grapple with racism, said Sue Hahn, 31, part of the Washington
Community antiracism team. She believes that Mennonite Church
USA's strong spiritual focus will help create a welcome for
all.
"The strength of our work with these issues is that we're
not doing it because it is politically correct but because
it's our calling in Christ," Hahn said. "We see
racism as a theological and spiritual problem and we seek
a solution that incorporates our faith.
"I have a lot of respect for the way Mennonite Church
USA is so faithfully going about trying to deal with this.
We're doing a lot. Mostly it can feel like we're pushing a
ball up a hill that keeps rolling back again. But we're persistent."
Laurie L. Oswald is news service director for Mennonite Church
USA.
Commentary: Antiracism and Antifreeze (by Jane Hoober
Peifer)
by Jane Hoober Peifer
(on behalf of Mennonite Church USA Executive Board's antiracism
team)
What does it mean for Mennonite Church USA to declare itself
antiracist?
That is the question the Mennonite Church USA antiracism team
members are asking ... and they aren't the only ones. Many
delegates to the Atlanta Assembly last summer asked that question
as well, and some also asked, "Can't we find a more positive
way to say that our church is committed to being a racially
diverse community?"
We (the antiracism team of Mennonite Church USA) wondered,
"Are there other "anti" words that we actually
regard as positive and helpful things?" We thought of
antibiotic, antiseptic, and antifreeze among others. These
are words that we use regularly to describe elements that
work against whatever is destructive. We are grateful for
antibiotics that kill bacteria, which destroy healthy bodies,
and we are grateful for antifreeze that keeps water in cars
from freezing, thereby avoiding destruction. So perhaps we
can use the word antiracist to describe our commitment to
dismantle or work against the destructive reality of racism
in our church and world. It is certainly important that we
not use up all our energies on defining the term and never
get to the job at hand.
Granted, there is a bit of an edge to the word antiracist.
It assumes our church is affected by the racism that permeates
our culture. Mennonite Church USA believes that to be true.
Mennonites in the United States have been directly impacted
by a system of race privilege and race prejudice. Naming ant-racism
as one of our church's priorities means that we believe racism
needs to be recognized and dismantled in order for us to be
spiritually healthy as followers of Jesus.
The first century church, made up of Jews and Gentiles who
lived in reconciled relationships with each other, is a model
for our struggle with racism. In a review of the book, United
by Faith: The Multiracial Congregation as an Answer to the
Problem of Race,* J. Daryl Byler writes the following: "In
a nation in which one culture has been so dominant and racism
has been so destructive, some argue that racially separated
congregations provide a place to embrace and nurture culture
and to seek refuge from and resist racism. But the authors
(of the above book) reply that 'while racial separation may
be sociologically comfortable, we do not accept it as ordained
by God.' Indeed, the New Testament church demonstrated 'the
power of the Holy Spirit to reconcile people across socially
constructed divides.'" (Sojourners, Sept-Oct, 2003)
By naming antiracism as a priority, Mennonite Church USA is
committed to being a church where the power of the Holy Spirit
is recognized as power that breaks down the dividing walls
that separate us. Paul's words to the Ephesians concerning
the hostility they experienced as Gentiles and Jews, must
be our vision as well. "For [Jesus] is our peace; in
his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken
down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.
He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances,
that he might create in himself one new humanity in place
of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups
to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death
that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace
to you. ... In him the whole structure is joined together
and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also
are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.
(Eph. 2:14-17a; 21-22 NRSV)
Mennonite Church USA desires to be a dwelling place for God,
and as long as we are blind to the ways in which we create
dividing walls between racial/ethnic groups, God's Spirit
cannot fully dwell in our midst.
What does it mean for Mennonite Church USA to declare itself
antiracist when our Native American brothers and sisters continue
to fight for land to bury their ancestors; our Hispanic brothers
and sisters continue to be punished in schools for speaking
their native language; and our African American sisters and
brothers still only earn 73 percent of what white Americans
earn?
Racism is one of those things that is so big and pervasive
in the systems of our communities that it is hard to get our
minds around it, which then contributes to our wanting it
not to be an issue. It is just too hard to "make a difference"
or "fix it." I confess that I don't like problems
that I can't fix. That is why it is so important that we do
this work together, by the power of God's Spirit among us.
Jesus began his ministry with these words, "The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring
good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release
to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let
the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's
favor." (Luke 4:18-19 NRSV) Our call as followers of
Jesus is to proclaim the Jesus way which levels out all playing
fields (under the Lordship of Jesus Christ), shares power,
privileges, resources and rights among all races, and celebrates
and welcomes the gifts of all peoples. The Jesus way is not
a way that holds one racial group's way as the standard for
all others.
Living out an antiracist priority in our church is a conversion
process -- a very slow conversion process, but we must not
give up. My dream is that our children's children will know
a Mennonite church that is closer to a true sign of the kingdom
as was revealed to John, where "there is a great multitude
that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes
and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and
before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their
hands. (Rev. 7:9 NRSV) May it be so among us.
*United by Faith: The Multiracial
Congregation as an Answer to the Problem of Race is authored
by Curtiss Paul DeYong, Michael O. Emerson, George Yancey,
and Karen Chai Kim. Oxford University Press.
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