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Illinois congregation reaches out to other churches, faiths With the Spirit’s Daring

Illinois congregation reaches out to other churches, faiths

Larry Wilson, pastor of First Mennonite of Champaign-Urbana

“In a time when the church is so clearly a minority in our culture, our congregations will be stronger if we acknowledge the existence of other valid expressions of Christian faith and if we seek the Spirit’s guidance for engaging thoughtfully and actively in interchurch relationships.”
–With the Spirit’s Daring: An Interchurch Relations Guide for Local Settings, resource for Mennonite Church USA pastors and leaders


NEWTON, Kan. (Mennonite Church USA) – God is at work in many ways and through various faith expressions. So believes Larry Wilson, pastor of First Mennonite Church of Champaign-Urbana in Illinois.

Consider the interchurch activities that draw First Mennonite into fellowship with Christians of many denominations. Consider also interfaith relations that, especially since 9-11, have linked the congregation with the mosque down the street.

Larry Wilson still thinks of himself an Illinois farm kid. He grew up in Meadows Mennonite Church at Chenoa. But after college, seminary and ministry experiences in other states and countries, he feels that the world he knew as a kid has stretched.

“The world’s not small,” he reminds us.

Interchurch relations within the local church

At least half of First Mennonite’s 136 members have faith beginnings in a dozen or more denominations, including Baptist, Catholic, Episcopalian, Lutheran and Methodist. Many of the members, according to Wilson, have joined First Mennonite because of its unapologetic emphases on peace and community.

Wilson has heard the church’s new members sometimes say, “That’s who I was, but now I’m ….”

But Wilson responds with, “This is the leg of the journey you’re on right now, and you’re walking with us. We don’t know where you’ll be walking down the way. But where you’ve been is also part of your journey. You are in part who you are because of what God’s done in your life in other places. There’s no need to apologize for your earlier experience.”

Everyone who joins the church gives the body new ways to understand itself, Wilson explains. Several years ago, over a two-year period, congregational members met monthly on Sunday evenings to tell and hear their own faith stories. When new members join, the telling and hearing continues.

“That’s probably one of the best things our church has done to create ‘we’ feelings and appreciation for each other,” Wilson says. Hearing the stories of those who have come from other traditions “helps us see how God is working in so many varied ways. Acknowledging that these persons want to identify with our congregation is very affirming for us all.”

Another way First Mennonite addressed the topic of interchurch relations was to offer an adult Sunday school class on ecumenism. Taught last year by one of the church elders, Peter H. Dyck, the class encouraged individuals to share their personal stories. After using an online resource, “With the Spirit’s Daring: An Interchurch Relations Guide for Local Settings,” written by a team of Mennonite Church USA pastors and leaders, Dyck and others at First Mennonite realized that their own congregation often focuses on interchurch thoughts and activities.

“Ecumenism means valuing others. It means that other people’s experiences of the Christ are valid and sacred and to be honored,” Dyck says.

One thing the class did was to dispel ignorance. Dyck often heard class members’ comments about other denominations, such as “Is that why they do that?”

Interchurch relations within the community

Since its start in 1964, First Mennonite Church has sought to be a welcoming presence within the community.

Location may be everything when a church wants to broaden its global perspective. First Mennonite sits at the corner of a busy intersection and next to the University of Illinois with its 42,000 students from 50 U.S. states and 100 countries.

Within the sister cities of Champaign and Urbana (population: 100,000), First Mennonite Church brushes shoulders with more than 20 Christian denominations and groups, including Korean and other Asian churches.

First Mennonite members exemplified interchurch relations when they built a Habitat for Humanity house and participated in joint worship services with the Community United Church of Christ congregation. Members from First often plan peace and justice activities with Quakers or Catholics.

“This is a lively, urban church,” says Marlene Kropf, denominational minister for the Congregational and Ministerial Leadership team of Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership. “The church holds an outward-looking vision and is keenly aware of the local community as well as the broader world.”

The benefit of interchurch relations, according to Kropf, is that congregations, like First, who befriend other churches are enriched by a wider vision of Christ’s church.

“Some goals can only be accomplished by churches working together,” Kropf says. “Engaging effectively in interchurch relations also requires a certain comfort with our own identity and a confidence in our capacity to reach across boundaries.”

Interfaith initiatives

After 9-11, First Mennonite’s relations with Muslims at the mosque a block away came to the fore. In spite of public criticism of Muslims, the Mennonites practiced the acceptance of others that Jesus taught.

Friendships developed. Mennonite youth and adults visited the Central Illinois Mosque and Islamic Center. Muslims visited First Mennonite Church.

“Some Turkish grad students from the mosque came to our church to observe our children’s Sunday school classes, wanting to see how the teachers related to the kids,” Wilson remembers. Before the visit, teachers at the church questioned what they should teach that Sunday. Wilson counseled them to use the lessons outlined in the curriculum. “The Turkish students didn’t expect us to change what we were teaching.”

Back and forth went the Christian-Muslim dialogue as Wilson and congregational members occasionally appeared on panel discussions on the topic. Last fall, invited by First Mennonite Church, Mennonite global missions expert David W. Shenk spoke at the mosque in a series of meetings for Mennonites and Muslims. The sessions also included a speaker from the mosque talking at First.

Earlier this summer Larry Wilson, his wife and another couple from First Mennonite spent 10 days in Turkey, invited and hosted by several Turkish students they had befriended at the mosque down the street.

“The more one sees of the world and God’s church and of what God is doing, the bigger God becomes,” Wilson says.

A chaplain at the Catholic hospital in Urbana, Peter H. Dyck describes First Mennonite as a congregation that is exposed to variety and diversity in religious expression.

He stresses the importance of knowing how to step across boundaries “in a good way­to be neighbors.”

An example of the ways Dyck steps across boundaries is his involvement with the Whirlwind Project, a community interfaith effort that brings together people of many faiths and traditions to foster understanding and sacred stories through music and the arts.

A theology of diversity

Dyck begs for a “really good theologizing about diversity.” He believes that churches should be able to articulate how and why diversity is good and be able to communicate that plainly.

Discussions about diversity need to happen within the Mennonite church, Dyck believes, because individuals and congregations can think of themselves as self-sufficient.

“Sometimes, as churches, we do our own thing and think we don’t need the other Mennonite churches within our area conferences or within the denomination. We even think we don’t need the broader agencies in Mennonite Church USA, but we do. We need to go to conferences to be both comfortable and confronted. We need to know how to relate with someone who believes like we do but perhaps doesn’t practice the belief exactly like we do,” Dyck says.

With the rising number of people coming into the Mennonite church from various denominations and faiths, Mennonites can benefit from interfaith, interchurch as well as intrachurch dialogues.

“We need to unpack that old-fashioned word of fellowship,” Dyck says.

With the Spirit’s Daring

With the Spirit’s Daring: An Interchurch Relations Guide for Local Settings includes stories and worship resources, as well as discernment and action steps for congregations who want to strengthen their ties with churches of other denominations in their communities. The study guide was commissioned by the Interchurch Relations office for Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership. For free download, see www.interchurchrelations.org.