Mennonite Church USA News Service

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Contact: Laurie L. Oswald (316) 283-5100, E-mail: LaurieO@MennoniteUSA.org

Cokes, chats begin friendship between Mennonite Church USA, Congolese churches.

Mustard seeds of faith grow into branches reaching around the world.

20 ways - and many more - to join God's mission in the world.

Cokes, chats begin friendship between Mennonite Church USA, Congolese churches

by Laurie L. Oswald

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (MC USA) -- Congolese leaders and Mennonite Church USA Executive Board delegates didn't connect at Mennonite World Conference (MWC) in August because they share similar lives. But they did share some basics -- the Cokes in their hands and the hopes in their hearts for friendship.

The four leaders began to build this church-to-church friendship during MWC in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, in August. They met several times to initiate their relationship with the guidance of Pakisa Tshimika, MWC staff person. More importantly, their interaction included chats in the outdoor cafe. That's where the leaders shared Cokes and personal details about families, personal histories and hopes for their churches.

The new friends are Jim Schrag, executive director of Mennonite Church USA; D. Duane Oswald, moderator of Mennonite Church USA; Fimbo Ganveunze, legal representative for Mennonite Church of Congo (CMCO); and Pascal Misakabu Nzala, legal representative for the Evangelical Mennonite Church of Congo (CEM). They set in motion a church-to-relationship. That means they are initiating the relationship directly as a friendship, a different approach than only setting up mission partnerships or projects through a mission agency such as Mennonite Mission Network.

They dreamed together about what their friendship will mean. It will initially include e-mails that describe their churches. Eventually it may lead to visits to each other's homes and countries. This friendship won't be based on the sharing of financial resources but on the sharing of the gifts of understanding, mutual respect and spiritual support and prayer.

"If we take both the 'across the street' and 'around the world' as equally important in our priority of being missional, then this kind of relationship is important to us," Schrag said. "We need to relate to folks across the street, who we don't know and also to others around the world from whom we can learn in reciprocal friendships where we receive as much as we give.

"But the building of friendships is going to take some time. We are talking in the time frame of decade rather than biennium."

Ganveunze also looks forward to building this friendship over time, congregation by congregation, person by person and prayer by prayer.

"We, too, have ideas we want to share with your leaders, and it's my hope that we can move forward together and go forth into all God has for us in this friendship," Ganveunze said. "We pray that God's spirit helps us to have good relations, and we ask your prayers for our church. We are a country in transition and need your prayers for peace."

Schrag responded, "We ask your prayers for America, too. The country has become very fearful and is closing itself up since 9/11. And please pray for our new church. We have had a very good experience in Atlanta and feel we have a strong foundation for new things

"Beginning a friendship with you helps us make good global connections, which is one of our priorities. ... It is good for us to share these specific prayer concerns, so we can start praying for each other right away."

Schrag and Oswald enjoyed beginning the friendship with their African brothers at the cafe, they said. But the Executive Board won't be the only ones to be involved in the future at the denominational level. Rather, initially they will invite two area conferences to relate to the two Congolese churches. Those area conferences will then choose two congregations that will relate to the Congolese in a close way with a focus of gift-sharing in friendship.

This sharing of gifts needs to be redefined in these kinds of relationships, said Oswald, who's teaching a Sunday school class about gift-sharing in his congregation, Mennonite Community Church, in Fresno, Calif. The class is based on the book written by Tshmika and Tim Lind, Sharing Gifts in the Global Family of Faith (Good Books, 2003) that MWC used as the theme for its gathering in Zimbabwe.

"Many of us are not clear about what gift-sharing really means," Oswald said. "The first thing people think of is giving money, but that's not it at all. It's more about congregations relating to congregations, where close sharing can take place.

"In our study, we are learning that when we give of ourselves, we get much more in return, and both parties benefit. If we give of ourselves congregation to congregation, the sharing is more personal and intimate. ... This fits with Mennonite Church USA's commitment to help every church be a missional church."

Church-to-church relationships have a different focus than relationships developed mission agency to church, but both types are needed to develop a fully missional denomination, Schrag and Oswald said.

"The Mission Network is a tremendously important part of Mennonite Church USA," Schrag said. " We are all speaking in similar ways on the importance of making these global connections.

"And church-to-church relationships are another important way in which we can connect more deeply to the global Anabaptist fellowship. The mission agencies and direct relationships fit together with the 21st century understanding of how relationships are based on both friendships and partnerships."

Oswald said, "In many ways, churches around the world are growing up and want to be recognized in their own right and want to be related to in a peer-to-peer way. This friendship can help build that sense of being peers.

"But in developing this friendship, we have no desire to supplant what the mission agencies have done or are doing. I think what we're doing will complement what the agencies are doing, as what we do can build on the relationships that are already in place, as well as develop new ones."


Mustard seeds of faith grow into branches reaching around the world

by Laurie L. Oswald

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (MC USA) -- Deep within people like Paulo Campos from Brazil lie the mustard seeds of Anabaptist faith sown by churches in the North during the 20th century. Those seeds took root in good soil and are growing into a strong tree reaching around the globe -- as those who received from missions are developing their own.

Numbers of Mennonites in Latin America, Africa and Asia have surpassed those in North America and Europe, and these believers are eager to share what they've been given. Mission activity is no longer flowing from North to South but in all directions, as these tree "branches" reach into their communities, regions and beyond.

About 100 mission representatives from around the globe met in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, in August, when they overwhelmingly voted to launch Global Mission Fellowship (GMF). It's will support new partnerships and networks between churches and mission groups in the North and South. During GMF meetings -- held prior to and during Mennonite World Conference spanning Aug. 10 through 17 -- participants listened to stories from Campos and others that describe some of these new connections.

"We are doing a lot of consciousness-raising in Brazil, so that the churches learn to invest in missions," said Campos, executive secretary of the International Mennonite Mission Board in the Brazilian Mennonite Church. It is seeking to support churches in Mozambique by sending mission workers there.

"Mozambique is a country that is economically poor, and in Brazil we have limited resources, but we are not discouraged," he said. "We are developing a culture of mission in our churches," he said.

This Brazilian-Mozambique connection is only one of many examples of how God is maturing the global church and beckoning it into relationships that look more like those of brother-sister than parent-child. GMF will help those reciprocal relationships to grow, said Peter Rempel, coordinator for the Council of International Missions (CIM), which coordinates the work of about 20 North American mission agencies, including Mennonite Mission Network in Mennonite Church USA.

Rempel served on a committee of representatives from the five continents that worked since the first Global Anabaptist Mission Consultation (GAMCO) in Guatemala City in 2000 to create a proposal for GMF. Mennonite World Conference since the mid-90s had received a growing number of requests for such a forum. It provided the first space for collaboration during the MWC General Conference meeting in Guatemala City.

In GMF, Anabaptist-related churches and mission groups will meet for encouragement, vision-sharing, networking and cooperating in mission. Plans call for regional meetings of each of the five continents to meet every three years, which will change the way North American mission agencies coordinate their work. Those agencies won't shape how Africa, Latin America and Asia do missions but will need to decide how join the efforts of those continents in new partnerships and networks.

"Until now, North Americans have drawn in all these gifts from around the world, as we sent people to other lands, where they acquired many cross-cultural values and then came back home and enriched our churches here," Rempel said.

"But now not all mission activity is going from North to South, and we northerners aren't learning all the lessons and conveying them to the rest of the world. People in other parts of the world are learning their own lessons directly."

Stanley Green, executive director of Mission Network, said that as funding tightens, the mission agency needs to strengthen its partnerships with others. Green desires to see North America become one helping hand of Christ's global body, rather than all its limbs.

"Limited funds means we can't send as many workers from the North to other places in the world," Green said. "But if an increased investment makes it possible to send various representatives from southern churches here to the North, I think that is a benefit we could embrace, even if it means we further reduce our sending capacity from the North."

One Anabaptist brother from the South is Nzash Lumeya, who is from the Congo and is a mission professor at Mennonite Brethren Mennonite Seminary in Fresno, Calif. He was a member of the continuation committee that helped shape GMF and led the Africa caucus during the GMF gathering.

He's working to develop networks that revolve around common language and common vision, rather than only responding to needs in one's immediate region. He's part of a growing movement to help believers in countries that speak Portuguese to begin connect and communicate in more significant ways -- such as helping the Angolan Mennonite Church to join Brazil in supporting Mozambique.

"I see GMF as helping us move beyond our limited landscapes into a new seascape," Lumeya said. "We are entering a new day of passion to work together. For example, the Congo is working in five different countries. ... GMF can help us develop other relationships in Canada, in the Philippines, or Ethiopia, Nicaragua and Zimbabwe.

"Up until now, we have had limited relationships in our partnerships with Canada and the United States. But in this new space we want to create more partnerships."

Two women in this growing global family of collaboration are Alix Lozano, a seminary director that is head of missions department for the Colombia Mennonite Church, and Rebecca Osiro, a seminary student in Kenya who also leads a ministry to Muslims. Osiro helped to organize a grassroots network of women theologians in Africa with the help of MWC. The network has inspired Lozano and other Latin American women to do the same.

They spoke how important it is to both share the burdens of suffering that exist in their countries -- such as HIV/AIDS pandemic and widespread violence -- and the strength of gifts that can help the Anabaptist global church share the gospel.

"We need to let our talents and gifts be shared outside our church," Loranzo said. "They should be shared in secular life in the social life. We're all part of a people, we are not separate of our nations. And as we share our sufferings, we also need to share our gifts.

"It has been easy for the church to isolate but we need to go out to strangers and become servants of the rest of the earth in many spaces of the world. We need to become part of the work of God to make a better world. In this new century, we need to be a testimony that the Anabaptist churches are seeking something different. Let's not let this historical moment pass us by but let's allow it to bring dignity to our future together."


20 ways -- and many more -- to join God's mission in the world

by MC USA staff

NEWTON, Kan. (MC USA) -- A recent book written by Laurie L. Oswald, news service director for Mennonite Church USA, tells 20 stories about people and congregations in Mennonite Church USA who have joined God's mission in the world. But there are hundreds more stories waiting to be told.

The Mennonite Church USA Executive Board Office of Communications invites you to request the book, 20 Ways to Join God's Mission in the World: First Steps on a Missional Journey ($1 each) at Communications@MennoniteUSA.org; or call toll-free 866-866-2872.

The office also invites you to send in a three-paragraph anecdote about how you or your congregation is being missional to: 722 Main St., Newton, KS 67114. The office will compile some of these paragraphs into a larger story to share through news service. The deadline is Jan. 1, 2004. The first five people to send in stories will receive a free Mennonite Church USA T-shirt.

20 Ways may inspire you and your congregation to join God's mission in your community. In the preface she writes: "During the first 16 months of the new denomination, I journeyed ... into many of the church's 21 area conferences. I captured the first steps of this emerging being, the missional church. The stories and photographs that chronicled my travels were part of Mennonite Church USA news packets.

"At first I disliked describing the word missional on paper. It was hard to define this word for readers. But when I saw it being expressed in countless ways in countless congregations, a light went on in my soul. It will always shine bright in my memories.

"What I saw were not people who wanted to do more activities but people who wanted to be more in tune with God. Instead of asking God to bless their plans, they were learning to bless God by joining God's plan -- across the world and across the street; in their backyards and barbershops; in their worship and work; in their communities and prayer closets; in their public arenas and private lives.

"Those stories and photos can bring you face-to-face with Mel, who experienced the horrors of 9/11 but found healing through Project Restoring Hope; with Julie, who came to church expecting to see black buggies in the parking lot but found Jesus in the service; and with Nemi, whose outdoor prayer ministry brought the touch of Christ to a girl on drugs."