By Connie Faber

Our current discussions as U.S. Mennonite Brethren about issues that come to the forefront as we review articles 12 and 13 of the Confession of Faith raise a question: Does resolving differences always mean that someone has to change his or her convictions? How do we nurture healthy relationships in spite of our different perspectives about citizenship, allegiance and the use of violence to bring about good?

I tend to think that in order to have a good relationship one “side” or the other will need to amend a particular perspective, conviction and/or practice. But I wonder now about this assumption. An alternative picture to living with differences is offered by Head Over Heels, an Academy Award-nominated film that illustrates that good relationships—including good marriages—don’t just happen.

“If the film has a message, it’s that relationships require effort,” says filmmaker Timothy Reckert in a recent interview with World magazine about his 10-minute claymation film nominated in the Best Animated Short category.

Reckert’s simple story concerns a middle-aged husband and wife who live in the same house, but one lives on the floor and one lives on the ceiling, depending on your perspective. The only things Walter and Madge share are a refrigerator they slide back and forth down the wall as needed, a photo taken during happier days and resentment—clearly articulated in this film that is free of dialogue.

Their equilibrium comes tumbling down when Walter tries to ignite the old romance, and the couple that can’t agree on which way is up is forced to find a way to put their marriage back together. You can find the stop-motion animated short on YouTube, Netflix and iTunes.

Although Madge and Walter mend their broken marriage, their two gravities remain, and the film ends with Madge walking off into the sunset, holding on to the cord that connects her to Walter, who is sitting upside down—or would that be right-side-up—in his favorite chair. Harmony is restored even though their differing perspectives endure. And that caught my attention.

I doubt that anyone who attended the January Board of Faith and Life study conference, “Kingdom Citizens in a World of Conflict,” changed their mind. But even if we left with our perspectives largely intact, I hope that we find ourselves linked together by a cord of three strands, as Eccles. 4:12 describes the value of partnerships.

Agreeing that, in spite of our differences, peacemaking will characterize who we are as Mennonite Brethren who are also citizens of the United States means that we agree to hold on to one another as we put feet to our convictions about peacemaking. That even while we maintain different perspectives, we will firmly grab hold of each other and work at our relationships with one another.

by Connie Faber

U.S. Mennonite Brethren gathered in late January for what Board of Faith and Lifey C (BFL) chair Larry Nikkel told delegates to the USMB biennial convention “may be the most important gathering of (USMB) leaders we’ve had in 50 years.” Important because participants would talk about two articles (Article 12 Society and State and Article 13 Love and Nonresistance) in our Confession of Faith about which we lack consensus and therefore unity.

“We’ve probably never had the sense of unity on this issue (Peace and Nonresistance) that some may think that we’ve had,” said Nikkel in a CL interview (“Time for a family talk,” Oct/Nov issue). Important because this occasion would test our mettle: Can we talk peaceably about peace?

In numerous conversations with the CL, Nikkel emphasized that the 2013 study conference would be the beginning of a 12 to 18 month conversation. The CL editors agreed to not publish articles or essays on this topic prior to the January event. Nikkel also repeatedly said that this event would be open to anyone and everyone.

And so it is important that we provide an avenue for those interested in discussing this important issue, whether or not they were able to attend the study conference. The CL offers limited opportunities for dialogue—we publish on a bimonthly schedule, and our content is limited to 32 pages—but these restrictions are not an issue in an online discussion or blog site. And so the CL, BFL and the USMB social media coordinator are partnering to create a discussion space on the USMB website.

This online discussion provides an opportunity for those in the USMB family to continue the conversation that began at the “Kingdom Citizens in a World of Conflict” study conference. This discussion, like the study conference, centers on a biblical understanding and real world application of Articles 12 and 13. The goal of the discussion is to provide input for BFL on the mood, biases and positions of the USMB family as the board reviews the articles, identifies areas of unity and determines the best path forward in processing the USMB commitment to peacemaking.

We expect participants to have a variety of opinions and to disagree with one another. It’s OK to have strong feelings about important matters as long as we listen well to one another. USMB social media coordinator Myra Holmes, who is also the CL assistant editor, will moderate the blog to ensure that the discussion stays on track and avoids personal attacks. Excerpts and full reprints of study conference papers will be posted on the site. Readers are invited to submit essays, respond to discussion questions and leave comments and interact electronically with one another. Join the conversation.

By Connie Faber, CL editor

A helpful parenting suggestion I explored when our children were young was the notion of intentionally establishing a unique family identity. We never went so far as to draft a family mission statement or to create a coat of arms, but we did talk about “Faber House Rules” and occasionally informed our three children that, “Fabers don’t (whine, cry, mope, argue) in public.” We recognized that while our goals as parents were very similar to those of other parents—that our children would exhibit Christian virtues, for example—there were certain things that we were particularly interested in cultivating in our children—a willingness to ask questions, for instance.

The idea that a family is both unique from and similar to other families is helpful when thinking about who we are as U.S. Mennonite Brethren. Jim Aiken, in his article “Proud to be Mennonite," urges us to treasure our spiritual heritage as Mennonite Brethren. His comments suggest some thought-provoking questions: Does it matter whether we U.S. Mennonite Brethren claim a unique identity? Aren’t all Christians given the same charge to be fishers of men and to live as disciples of Jesus Christ? So why not highlight what we have in common with other denominations instead of championing a distinctive? Doesn’t God’s Word call us to unity?

These are good questions to ponder as we approach January 6, the anniversary of the birth of the Mennonite Brethren Church—a church formed by 18 German-speaking families living in the Ukraine that today is a global spiritual family comprised of 20 national conferences in 17 countries. In the afterward to The Mennonite Brethren Church Around the World: Celebrating 150 Years, editor Abe J. Dueck says this: “Most Mennonites around the world today do not have ethnic roots in Russia and do not have the same memories to define a common sense of identity.... The common identity of Mennonite Brethren is shaped by their desire to live in faithfulness to the gospel and by their attempts to bring hope and faith to a world where violence, injustice and despair are a daily reality.”

Yes, we have much in common with thousands of Christians in the United States and millions of Christians around the world. But our particular understanding of the role the Bible plays in our lives as Christians and our commitment to the teachings of Jesus along with the values we hold concerning community, discipleship and nonviolence provide a unique and valuable perspective. The world needs this perspective and so does the Church. We need to celebrate our uniqueness and share it proudly.

by Connie Faber, CL editor

Throughout the 2012 election campaign we have heard politicians say over and over again that they want a more civil political discourse. But too often calls for civility and acts of incivility show up in the same speech.

Associated Press reporter Allen G. Breed describes it this way: “The fundamental narrative of American politics in recent years contains two powerful threads: First, demand a better discourse among the people who run the country. Second, do everything you can to make sure that better discourse doesn’t take root.”

And it seems to me that civility—and the lack of it—begins at home. I came to that conclusion 12 years ago when our daughter was prevented from using the slipper slide during recess because of her vote in the elementary school mock presidential election. As parents, we communicate our political beliefs to our children whether we do so intentionally or not.

Politics isn’t the only arena in which what we say isn’t necessarily supported by our actions—or the other side of our mouths. Consider what we say about our money and what we do with our money.

Writing in this issue, Jon Wiebe, president and CEO of MB Foundation, argues that teaching our children about giving, tithing and generosity requires both words and actions. Wiebe suggests that parents teach and model firstfruits living, and by firstfruits we mean giving our first and our best to God. Read Wiebe’s article and check out the resources on the MB Foundation website designed to help congregations teach these principles.

So it seems that if we want to create civil and generous children, we can’t just tell our kids to share with others and to be nice to someone who voted for a different presidential candidate than they did. We have to be openhanded and bighearted ourselves.

The rightness of practicing godly virtues like civility and generosity extends beyond the doors of our homes. For example, a firstfruits lifestyle is good for us as individuals and families, and it’s good for us corporately. So MB Foundation is encouraging and resourcing congregations that want to rework their budgets and stewardship strategies to follow the biblical firstfruits approach.

And now the new USMB funding strategy asks churches to employ firstfruits giving and to tithe corporately to USMB—to give 2.5 percent of the annual church income to the national budget. But the principle of firstfruits doesn’t stop there. We as U.S. Mennonite Brethren belong to a global family that includes the International Community of Mennonite Brethren and Mennonite World Conference, and these global fellowships ask us to tithe to their ministries.

It is no easy thing as followers of Jesus Christ to act with honor and integrity when it comes to things like civility and generosity. If we’re honest, we admit that we find it too easy to attack another person’s political opinions or to care for our own needs before we tithe. But I encourage us to continue striving to be people who mirror God in our words and our deeds.

A wedding I attended at the beginning of the summer reminded me why the things that we do together as U.S. Mennonite Brethren are important. At the end of the marriage ceremony the pastor invited an older woman from the bride’s congregation and a younger man from the groom’s home church to offer prayers for the couple.

These two individuals had served as Ministry Quest (MQ) mentors for the bride and groom when as high school students they participated in this yearlong leadership program. The purpose of MQ is to help young people understand God’s call on their lives. The fact that this couple asked their MQ mentors to be part of their wedding day told me how important this process was to them.

Ministry Quest is just one example of the things we do better together as U.S. Mennonite Brethren. Preparing young people for ministry in the church and in their chosen professions is a historical priority for us. And so owning a college and a university together makes sense; it’s something few congregations could manage on their own.

Working together to equip pastors, missionaries and church planters allows us to be more efficient, to develop our theology in community and to highlight the distinctive Anabaptist and evangelical theology we hold as U.S. Mennonite Brethren.

When we band together as local congregations, regardless of size and location, we have the resources to plant churches in our own country and around the world. Publishing online and in print is affordable when we work together. We can offer low-interest loans to churches when we pool our financial resources.

Delegates and guests who attended Conection 2012, the biennial USMB delegate convention held last month in Omaha, Neb., heard from about a dozen people that lead national and binational MB endeavors. Hearing firsthand reports is one of the benefits of attending a national convention.

We leave national events excited and inspired. We leave more familiar with the things we do together and better equipped to introduce Mennonite Brethren resources, programs and ministries to our home congregations. There is a good reason why when asked about a national convention many of us say, “You had to be there.”

Providing delegates with the information we need to champion Mennonite Brethren ministries in our home congregations is a key goal of biennial USMB delegate conventions. And Conection 2012 deserves high marks for accomplishing that objective. No, the business sessions weren’t perfect as there is always room for improvement. But delegates left Omaha excited about the work of USMB and its partner agencies.

And so I encourage individuals and congregations to begin planning now for the 2014 convention. Watch for announcements as to the date and location and then mark your calendars—both at home and at church. Start saving for Conection 2014. Biennial USMB conventions are expensive events, but the benefit to local churches is significant enough that it’s worth helping delegates cover some of the costs. Let’s encourage the congregations we are part of to set aside funds now to help our delegates attend Conection 2014.

By Connie Faber, CL Editor

The most influential individuals in the spiritual lives of children and teens are Mom and Dad. It is the responsibility of churches to assist parents in this important task.

A 2011 study by the Barna Group shows that despite strong levels of spiritual activity during the teen years, six out of 10 20-somethings disengage from active participation in the Christian faith during their young adult years—and often beyond that. Statistically, that means two of my three children will disconnect from the local church as they transition from the teen years through their 20s.

A grassroots movement is seeking to address this disengagement by targeting the individuals that have the most influence in the spiritual lives of children and teens: Mom and Dad. Research shows that children rank their parents as the top influencers in their faith development (Search Institute). Unfortunately only 12 percent of church youth have ever talked with their mom about faith and only 5 percent have talked with their dad. So while we parents are the primary influencers in the spiritual lives of our children, most of us are not actively involved in passing on the faith.

So this crusade—involving a variety of Christian authors, seminars, conference and publishing houses—aims to equip churches to train parents to intentionally transform their children’s faith. This new approach is in contrast to the “destructive codependent relationship” that many parents and churches currently experience, says Jack Eggar, president and CEO of Awana. “Parents, with little inclination and few high-quality resources to devote to the spiritual nurture of their children, have largely abdicated the job to the church,” writes Eggar in his forward for Rock Solid Kids by Larry Fowler. “And the church has readily taken on a task that as originally mandated in Scripture to the parents of children.”

USMB congregations recognize this as an important issue. Three congregations in the Southern District Conference (SDC) have implemented programs to prepare parents and pastors from those congregations have written an article in this issue that we hope will spark an interest in CL readers to learn more about this movement. These pastors from First MB Church of Wichita, Kan., Hesston (Kan.) MB Church and North Oak Community Church of Hays, Kan., presented a workshop on the topic at the SDC convention last summer and are repeating it at the USMB delegate convention next month in Omaha, Neb.

USMB congregations must address this issue. We must equip parents in our congregation to nurture the spiritual lives of their children. We must not lose our children as they transition to being young adults.

A friend of mine tells a story about family dinners at the home of her grandmother, where the table would be laden with huge bowls of mashed potatoes, large platters of meat and generous side dishes. Grammy wanted to be sure all were welcome at her table and all were well-fed. One legendary holiday, the dining table cracked under the load!

Here at the Christian Leader, we like to think of our communications efforts as a family table, where we gather to converse and connect. Like food at Grammy’s table, we’ve found that the good stories among USMB are plentiful—too plentiful, in fact, to fit within our bimonthly magazine. We have more testimonies of transformed individuals, families and communities than our 32 pages can accommodate. More thoughtful articles for the feature department, more helpful column ideas and more news.

So we are building a bigger table. This month we begin publishing C-Link, a free, biweekly electronic news digest that offers breaking news, CL updates and stories from our schools, USMB and partner agencies.

Assistant editor Myra Holmes and I will cull through the news stories that come to us from Tabor College, Fresno Pacific University, Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary, MB Mission, MB Foundation and the International Community of Mennonite Brethren. We will consider information from local churches, district conferences and USMB ministries such as the Historical Commission, National Youth Convention, Ministry Quest, the leadership program aimed at high school youth, and Kindred Productions, the North American MB publisher. We will review updates from the alphabet soup of the larger Mennonite community—MCC (Mennonite Central Committee), MDS (Mennonite Disaster Service) and MWC (Mennonite World Conference), to name just three.

 Then every two weeks, we will provide C-Link subscribers with the most interesting and informative stories.
We look forward to sharing with you via C-Link news and stories that you won’t find any place else. It’s another way our communication efforts are expanding, and another way to keep us connected. A healthy family is a linked family.

So when you sign-up for C-Link you are getting more than a biweekly news digest. You’re strengthening our USMB family ties. Look for the C-Link sign-up button at www.usmb.org, on the CL Online home page or on our CL Facebook page. Come join us at our newly-expanded family dinner table.

It was a lovely fall day when photographer Stephen Humber, who is also a pastor at Stony Brook Church in Millard, Neb., scouted sites in downtown Omaha, Neb., for the cover photo for this issue of the CL. A month later when Humber and his pastoral colleagues gathered for the photo shoot, it was again a beautiful day—this time thanks to a winter snowfall that increased noticeably during the afternoon.

In this issue CL readers are introduced to the ministries of USMB congregations in Omaha Neb., led by the men pictured on the cover because we want you to catch their vision. Omaha is one of several cities that are growing Mennonite Brethren hubs. Omaha is a place where churches plant churches that plant churches. You can read about Omaha’s 50 years of church planting in our cover story, “Getting ready for an eternal party.” This summer Conection 2012, the USMB biennial convention, will be held in Omaha’s Old Market area. Come to Conection 2012 and become part of the Omaha story. The convention schedule includes opportunities to learn about and serve USMB churches in Omaha, a city in which USMB is actively engaged in church planting.

You will likely hear a lot about planting churches at Conection 2012. USMB leaders are calling us to make church planting a priority for the next decade. Beginning in 2012, the goal is to plant six churches in each of the next 10 years.

Which means that if we achieve this objective, we will have identified and prepared 60-plus church planters by 2022.

Church planters, I’ve decided, are gutsy people. Consider the story told by Chris Eidse in this issue of church planting more than 100 years ago in North Carolina. The courage and boldness of these men and women in the face of racism is inspiring. Spend time with the more than one-dozen couples currently leading USMB church plants and you will quickly conclude that they share the same passion and resolve of their cohorts a generation ago. USMB church planters are not a uniform bunch but they are unified in their commitment to seeing individuals, families and communities transformed by God’s saving grace.

Think about church planters the next time you are at church. Look around. Who in your congregation could be a church planter? Who does God bring to mind? And don’t forget yourself. Maybe that potential church planter is you. Pray for this individual and if God continues to nudge you, pass the nudge along. If USMB is going to succeed in planting dozens of new churches in the next decade, we need all the church planters we can find.

by Connie Faber

In late October, a clogged sewer pipe created several miniature shallow ponds in the Faber basement. We quickly cleaned up the dirty water, hired a plumber to clear the pipe and assumed we had solved the problem.

But looks can be deceiving. Dirty water had crept into the unused bedroom and seeped underneath the bathroom flooring, creating the perfect environment for growing mold. We quickly learned that you don’t mess around with this fungus. Before we fully comprehended the need for speed, the basement became a destruction zone thanks to a largely unseen destructive enemy: paneling and dry wall gone, sections of the carpet cut out and the bathroom floor tiles gone.

Which got me thinking about what’s underneath my own exterior. Most days, I clean up pretty good. I put forth the effort to look nice and to reflect a Christ-like spirit in my interactions with others. I think of myself as a “clean” person, when in fact that isn’t the truth. When God looks at me, he sees the ugly, stinky sin that is gleefully growing. Call it soul mold.

Just as it is impossible to get rid of all mold and mold spores in our homes, it is impossible to rid our world of sin. My life is impacted by my own sin and the sin in the lives of those I love and in those of anyone and everyone I encounter. Sin, like mold, is here to stay.

But sin does not have to take root in my life. Just like mold spores will not grow unless moisture is present, sin will not flourish when I create an environment that inhibits it’s growth. When it comes to sin, I must purposefully cultivate a rocky soil that discourages attitudes and actions that are contrary to God’s Word. Jesus says in Matt. 12:34b-35: “For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.”

This month we celebrate the birth of Christ, who came to save us from stinky, moldy sin. God’s wonderful love for us compelled him to send his Son to live for just over three decades on a planet riddled with sin. The baby Jesus grew into the man who died with the sins of the entire world crushing him. This year, thanks to mold, I am rejoicing in the knowledge that God’s perfect and holy Son waded into the mess of our lives to clean things up.

We’re coming up on the Season of Lists—Christmas gift lists and New Year’s resolution lists. But before these two holidays comes Thanksgiving. And so topping the list of lists should be a list of things we’re thankful for. This year my “things I’m thankful for” list starts with this picture.

When I first found the photo, my eyes locked on the table. The day before my brother-in-law had discovered the child’s table in the attic of my parents’ home. I assumed the little table was long gone and seeing it again was like being reunited with an old friend. It was a delight to recall my childhood as I looked at this picture. But I also realized that when I gently nudge the memories a side, the past is the soil in which my 2011 thanksgiving list is growing.

Two sisters… I’m thankful for my siblings—for the sister I grew up with and the brothers- and sisters-in-law I belong to via marriage. Sibling relationships are sometimes complicated, but these friendships can also enrich our lives in one-of-a-kind ways.

Celebrate a birthday… I’m thankful for celebrations. Celebrations provide occasions to affirm one another and to express gratitude to those who enhance our lives. Being the honored guest at a birthday, baptism, wedding or anniversary party tells us that we matter to the people around us.

At their home… I’m thankful that my basic needs are met, that I’ve always had what I need—a warm home, plenty to eat and clothes to wear. I’m grateful that these essentials and other basic needs are taken care of—jobs, health care, education, personal and community safety, etc.

With gifts piled on a small red wooden table. In addition to my needs, I am also blessed with a long list of things that I simply want. Many people in the world can’t say this.

I’m thankful for the things that this picture suggests but doesn’t show. Topping that list is my parents. Neither of my parents is in this picture, but I know they were there; they were always there. I’m thankful for my dad and mom and that a love for Christ and his church is part of who they are. I’m grateful that my family history is filled with more people who put their faith in God than those who didn’t.

So between today and Thanksgiving I invite you to look closely at a favorite photograph. The first glance may take you on a trip down memory lane. But I hope the second look reveals a list of things for which you offer God a prayer of thanksgiving.

Sometimes the story focuses on ministry within God’s family. Just because we are followers of Jesus Christ doesn’t mean our lives are perfect—Christians need to be served, loved and cared for just like anyone else. Other times CL articles highlight Mennonite Brethren who are investing themselves in those who have not yet declared their allegiance to King Jesus.

Many times we focus on positive outcomes—the lives that have been changed and stories of success. But getting close to another person—a fellow believer or someone still searching—is easier said than done.
It can be inconvenient and risky. Investing ourselves in others can ask more of us than we think we are prepared to give. It can stretch our financial and emotional resources. Hugging someone who smells bad or who has a contagious illness may require some resolve and determination. So can spending less time on established friendships in order to nurture a new relationship with someone with whom you have little in common but that you feel God is asking you to befriend.

In this issue we tell the story of the El Faro soccer team. The opportunity to invest themselves in nearly two-dozen teenage boys was an answer to prayer Ricardo Biberos told a reporter from the Reedley (Calif.) Exponent last year when the newspaper interviewed members of the church involved with the soccer team. Just eight months after forming the team, coaches could see the teens changing for the better.

But it can’t have been easy to earn the trust and friendship of these bored troublemakers, familiar with gangs and drugs. There likely were some “messy” moments as the adults and teens formed the comfortable relationships they came to enjoy. Being involved in the lives of nearly two-dozen teenage boys is no doubt one of those easier-said-than-done acts of service.

Yes, there are rewarding highs when we serve others, and it’s good to celebrate the ways in which God uses us to bring about change in someone’s life. There are also discouraging lows. This stuff—the tough reality of what it means to give yourself to someone else—can be hard to share. But it’s an important part of ministry, a valuable thing to share as we encourage one another as servants of Jesus Christ and his church.—Connie Faber

In this issue we include a special report of San Antonio 2011, the most recent Mennonite Brethren National Youth Convention held April 16-19 in San Antonio, Texas. Prior to SA2011, negative reaction to the announcement that Shane Claiborne would be one of two keynote speakers threatened to overshadow other features of the four-day convention.

While some students were motivated to attend SA2011 because Claiborne would be speaking, others stayed home because congregations and parents were concerned about what the 35-year-old Christian activist and author would say. Many students who did attend were aware of the controversy over Claiborne, and so they listened curiously and carefully to what he had to say.

So what did Claiborne say? Was his message appropriate for Mennonite Brethren youth? Was it in keeping with our core values? Claiborne shared speaking duties with Paula Simpson-Parry, a Scottish woman now living in Texas who worked with Youth For Christ in Great Britain. While the majority of youth leaders (60 percent) agreed that Simpson-Parry’s sermons were challenging, Claiborne’s messages clearly hit the spot, with 95 percent of youth leaders saying Claiborne was challenging.

Listening to Claiborne, I was struck by how similar his message was to Simpson-Parry’s—and these speakers were about as different from one another as they could be. Their message wasn’t complicated and it wasn’t new, but it hit home: God loves you. Don’t leave this room without responding to God’s offer of salvation. Use your gifts and abilities to serve your community, your neighbors, the world; let God’s flood flow out of you and into the lives of others.

It wasn’t only what Claiborne said but how he said it. Claiborne quickly established rapport with his audience. The students’ response was so obvious and so positive that Claiborne agreed to a question and answer session with students following his first sermon. The questions they asked ranged from tough to silly, and Claiborne answered each question graciously, thoughtfully and respectfully.

Bringing Claiborne to SA2011 created an unexpected flood of controversy. Was it worth it? I don’t know how the codirectors and planning team would answer that question. But there is no doubt in the minds of many of us present at SA2011 that Claiborne’s message was one our teens needed to hear.

His colleagues and former students portray Henry as a fun-loving, innovative, visionary and intensely spiritual man who deeply cared for others and Christ’s kingdom. The description of Henry as a father and grandfather written for the memorial folder by his two daughters, Debra Brady and Laura Roberts, highlight the same characteristics for which Henry’s colleagues and friends commend him. Henry was an enthusiastic disciple of Jesus Christ who modeled joy, love, generosity and service in his private life as well as his public ministry.

Even when Henry was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, a disease that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior, his love for others and his faith in God’s compassion continued to guide Henry’s life. When he learned that Alzheimer’s was the cause of his cognitive decline, Henry switched gears—from a retirement focused on international travel and speaking to building strong relationships with his family and to becoming a prayer warrior.

One of his prayers, say his daughters, was that God would “be merciful and allow him to leave this life still aware of his family and still able to tell Mom how much he loved her. God chose to answer this prayer.” In June 2010 Henry calmly received the news that he had pulmonary fibrosis, a fatal disease. His wife, Elvera, cared for Henry until the day when, true to form, he took the “fast track” to meet his Lord.

“A giant has been in our midst and we may not see another like him in our movement,” says Ron Penner, president of Columbia Bible College, Abbotsford, BC, and a former MBBS faculty member.

New technology doesn't guarantee new habits

Connection, research has shown, is our most basic need. It is crucial to our wellbeing that we connect with one another, with our own hearts and minds and with the God who created this desire for intimate connection. The ways in which we connect with each other have changed enormously in recent years. The growth of the World Wide Web, the development of mobile devices and the rise of social networking sites have transformed the way we live, work and communicate.

New media have also impacted the church, including the USMB. In late 2010 the U.S. Conference hired Justin Salters as the denomination’s first social media coordinator. In the Feb/March issue you can read Justin’s thoughts on how social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can benefit our family of churches.

And so USMBs march into the second decade of the 21st century armed with new and old methods of relating with one another. Redesigning our print magazine, creating an interactive Web site and opening Facebook and Twitter accounts are three recent changes that USMB leaders have made to our communications efforts in hopes of building stronger connections.

But forging connections that build community—whether fueled by discussions on Facebook or exchanges in the church hallway—do not come easy for a family of churches like ours. USMBs are diverse. How do we create a sense of belonging among more than 35,000 people who speak as many as nine languages and are part of almost 200 congregations spread across 20 states?

Church families don’t always agree. How do we cultivate connections when disagreements are only natural? How can we disagree about things that are important to us—who is speaking at the National Youth Convention, how we provide theological training or the words we use to talk about Christ’s atoning sacrifice—and still demonstrate respect for one another? USMB leaders have initiated informal and formal occasions to discuss the places where we disagree. But issues are often complicated and resolution takes time.

New technology does not eliminate poor communication habits or hurtful words. It does not increase our tolerance for the opinion of others or make us more gracious when our views are challenged. Whether we are posting on Facebook, writing an e-mail or talking face-to-face, our words have great power (James 3:1-12). I wish James had a solution to the “deadly poison” of words that curse rather than bless, but he doesn’t. What he does offer is encouragement—to recognize the problem and to not give up trying to control our words. So let’s spend our words in ways that better connect us to one another and strengthen any link, no matter how tenuous, between us and another person.

Celebrating God's rescue plan

by Connie Faber

I come to this Christmas season marveling at the scope of God’s rescue plan for mankind. The apostle John uses the word “whoever” to describe how many people are invited to believe in God’s Son and to gain a whole and lasting life (John 3:16). The English hymn writer Isaac Watts celebrates God’s intention when he writes, “Joy to the world! The Lord is come; let earth receive her king; let every heart prepare him room.” God extends his love to everyone on the earth, and right now that means about 7 billion people.

That’s a lot of human beings, and yet the number of people God has in mind is much bigger than the current world population figure. God invites every heart in every age to accept his invitation. And that is a number that I can’t even begin to imagine—but last month I tried. My husband, our three children and I were in Washington, D.C., in early November. For five days we encountered people, people and more people. There were the folks we rubbed shoulders with as we waited in airports, dined in restaurants, rode subway trains and walked the sidewalks and hallways of landmark buildings. We also met up with people from the past who were featured in the various museums, memorials, monuments and government buildings.

So one evening I imagined of all these people—both contemporary and historical—as if they were hub cities on a map. I visualized them with lines emanating from the outline of their bodies showing their connection to other people in terms of families, schools, churches, workplaces, neighborhoods, friends, hobbies and community organizations. So, for example, the young woman on crutches who stood with her college soccer team in front of the Lincoln Memorial for a group picture is linked to her teammates, coaches and the doctors who treated her injury and also to her parents, siblings, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, professors, roommates, summer employer and co-workers, a boyfriend, the people in her church, the grade school kids on the recreation soccer team she coaches—I had fun imaging all of the possible associations. Meanwhile, Abraham Lincoln is connected to his wife and four sons, the men and women who worked in the White House when he lived there, his cabinet members, the generals he appointed, the countless soldiers who fought in the Civil War, the slaves he set free and the man who assassinated him.

While the number of people I came across that week as I followed this train of thought is endless, I know that God, in all of his mystery, knows each man, woman and child by name. I also know that our Heavenly Father desires that everyone from every era will know the joy and peace that comes from living in step with him. That’s what I’m celebrating this Christmas.

We hope the changes are pleasant—and tasty

by Connie Faber

Since U.S. Mennonite Brethren partner as one family, the Christian Leader functions in many ways like the family dinner table. This is a place where we talk, listen and learn from each other. We might not always agree, but around the table we’re family. And this is a dinner table that expands and grows as new congregations and individuals join us.

Just like the family cook every so often changes the menu, magazine editors periodically alter the content and appearance of a publication. While the CL was redesigned in 2005, it’s been 18 years since the CL had a significant makeover. For some time now we’ve dreamed of publishing in full color and of reworking our magazine to better reflect current publishing trends and practices. This month you see the fruit of this labor. And its worth noting that thanks to the recent purchase of new printing equipment by the printer with whom we contract, the move to full color did not raise our printing bill!

Think of the “new” CL as the same balanced diet but with a twist. Some favorite dishes are seasoned with different spices, while other parts of our menu feature new dishes. We hope the changes are pleasant—and tasty.

• Our new content plan, guided by the 2009 Readership Survey and staff research, reflects the U.S. Conference mission statement that we “partner as one family serving one Lord on one mission, for the transformation of individuals, families and communities.”

• We hope the new column format will help readers think in new ways about these integral parts of our everyday lives. New columns written by a variety of authors will focus on family issues, the impact of media in our lives and testimonies of transformation. Devotionals written by Mennonite Brethren pastors and two reader essay opportunities are also new. We know readers will miss the regular contributions of our long-standing columnists, and I want to thank Rose Buschman and Phil Wiebe for their faithful contributions over the many years they served as CL columnists.

• The feature section will target general and specific interests of readers in all stages of life, encourage discipleship and address contemporary issues of faith and life. We are moving away from a theme for each issue’s feature department and think this is a good move given the shift to a bimonthly publishing schedule. 

• News Briefs and Church News departments are expanded. The addition of a Mission USA section includes news about church planting and a message from Mission USA director Don Morris.

Which is exactly why having a gathering place is so important. The ways in which we communicate are changing, but the benefits of being linked to one another remain the same. The better we know the other members of our rich and varied family of faith and the more we talk together about our shared values and convictions, the greater our opportunity to experience the “oneness” that can be ours as part of Christ’s church.

What we can learn from Celebration 2010

By Connie Faber

In so many significant ways Celebration 2010 was a success and commendation is due the conference staff that organized the various components and the volunteers that helped it run so smoothly.

The facilities and food at the various sites were excellent. There were few administrative oversights. The complimentary shuttle service was a blessing. Emcees Valerie Rempel and Steve Berg did a great job and provided continuity throughout the week. Renewing Identity and Mission sessions were well done.

Binational evening celebration services—North American testimonies, enthusiastic congregational singing and challenging international guess speakers—were inspiring. The reports from various MB ministries, including the multi-media components, were outstanding. Displays by denominational and inter-Mennonite agencies added a nice touch; the resources offered by Kindred Productions were appreciated. Experience Vancouver provided valuable insights into urban church planting. Children and teens that attended were well cared for.

Given the good experience offered by this historic anniversary celebration, it is sad and disappointing that more of us weren’t there. I can offer a string of likely reasons for low numbers but the bottom line is that we are not engaged as churches and as individuals in the broader Mennonite Brethren church. We don’t see the value in attending denominational gatherings. If we did, we’d find the money and time to be present.

A generation ago people attended denominational events out of a sense of duty and discovered something of great value in the process—and it kept them coming back. I think the inherent value of denominational events remains the same. The importance of face-to-face fellowship is huge. It confirms that we are part of something bigger than ourselves and local efforts to make a difference in the world for Christ and his kingdom.

Give yourself the opportunity to get hooked on denominational events. Some district conferences are having conventions this year. Plan to attend the next district convention and Conection 2012, to be held in Omaha, Neb. Talk with leaders in your congregation about designating church funds to cover some or all event costs.

While we must take responsibility for attending—or not attending—events like Celebration 2010, conference leaders are responsible for offering events worth our attendance. We learned some things at Celebration 2010 that can help guide planning for future occasions.

Organizers expected Renewing Identity and Mission (RIM) to attract fewer people than it did and the Celebration 2010 binational sessions to draw more. This suggests that we North American MBs are more interested in talking about our beliefs, history and identity in a environment that assumes our active participation than we are in listening to reports and conducting business in a setting where delegates have limited opportunities to engage in debate and conversation. I encourage U.S. Conference leaders, including the Board of Faith, to offer occasions for us to interact with one another in meaningful ways about what we believe and how we live.

There were moments during RIM workshops when a presenter or attendee spoke about a time in the past 150 years when Mennonite Brethren made mistakes—when we made poor theological decisions, when our beliefs played out badly in the life of the church, when we didn’t deal with conflict well, when we were prideful and arrogant. I found these moments refreshing. When our corporate gatherings embrace the hard things, our times together have greater depth. We should balance times of celebration with acknowledgements of painful times when we fell short of the calling of true believers.

One of the specific Celebration 2010 attendance goals was to grow the number of young adults, and so organizers waived registration fees for a limited number of young adults and provided times for them to interact with one another during their free time. While there are certainly benefits to connecting with peers, feedback suggests that young adults value interacting with the more experienced convention goers. As work begins on the 2012 USMB convention, let’s avoid facilitating something that looks like an under-30 clique. Let’s give the young and old opportunities to rub shoulders with one another and create ways for seasoned conference-goers to mentor newcomers.

Celebration 2010 was a wonderful celebration of the past 150 years and it can become a springboard for our future. When those of us who sit in the pews attend denominational events, we experience a first-hand connection to God’s work in the world. When event planners ask delegates to work together as young and old and to do more than rubber-stamp decisions, our corporate gatherings are infused with meaning.

by Connie Faber

Birthday cakes and candles go hand-in-hand, as does the tradition of having the birthday person make a secret wish that will be realized if all the candles are extinguished in a single breath. Since we in North America will be celebrating the 150th birthday of the Mennonite Brethren this July with a weeklong celebration, I want to share my wishes for our church family in the United States.

I wish we U.S. Mennonite Brethren would do what we say. The struggle to have congruency between belief and action is one shared by Christians through the ages. Inconsistency between what the Bible teaches and how Mennonites were living prompted our spiritual ancestors to break away from their church and community 150 years ago and to form the Mennonite Brethren Church.

This commitment to have a consistent witness in belief and behavior is prompting our U.S. Conference Board of Faith and Life (BFL) to begin looking at how we 21st century U.S. Mennonite Brethren measure up to our stated convictions. Denominational leaders who participated this past April in the annual Leadership Summit encouraged BFL chair Larry Nikkel and the board to courageously lead the denomination in this quest. Becoming Christians characterized by theological integrity will require some of us to lead, most of us to follow and all of us to wisely execute our responsibilities in this process. We need bold leaders and valiant followers.

I wish that we would handle our disagreements in healthy ways. Several news stories in this issue allude to the fact that disagreements can become conflicts that create unhealthy situations. This happens in local congregations as well as at district and national levels. To imagine that Christians—and Mennonite Brethren—will never disagree is pie-in-the-sky thinking. On the other hand, to believe that disagreements can be resolved before they do permanent harm is to prioritize biblical peacemaking.

Leadership matters in every sphere of life, says Ken Sande, president of Peacemaker Ministries, a Christian organization endorsed by the U.S. Conference that offers conflict resolution resources to churches. Even in the healthiest organizations, including the church, conflict and leadership are interwoven threads. It is not uncommon for U.S. Mennonite Brethren leaders with some history in our denomination to talk, sometimes laughingly, about ours as a dysfunctional family. They recall that conference leaders have not always handled disagreements in healthy ways. Nor have they always processed decisions in ways that kept everyone on the same page. Nor have leaders always talked directly to and honestly with one another about important things.

Admitting that leadership in our denomination has at times been flawed is helpful, but it is not enough. We must be willing to do the hard work and invest the time it takes to build a culture of peace among U.S. Mennonite Brethren. Those of us in leadership need to avoid corporate thinking—“results over relationships.” Instead, when leadership and conflict intersect we are called to put into the practice the counter-cultural message of Jesus Christ. We don’t just repeat what our Confession of Faith says about being agents of reconciliation but commit ourselves to putting that conviction into practice. It means that our leaders, boards and committees put a higher priority on relationships than the speed by which agenda is addressed.

I wish that we would be people who radiate hope. The mission of our denomination is to “partner as one family to serve one Lord on one mission, for the transformation of individuals, families and communities.”

Our neighborhoods and schools are filled with people who need to hear that their messed-up lives can be different. We will meet people this month thanks to summer recreation programs or at the gym or swimming pool who may look put together on the outside but who are swamped with feelings of despair. People need our message of hope to nourish their souls and acts of kindness that acknowledge their physical needs.

While some transformations come quickly, others require an exhausting investment of time and energy. Transformation can be messy and inconvenient. But we don’t really have a choice. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ means demonstrating the kind of “true evangelical faith” that Menno Simons describes: responding to spiritual and physical needs out of thanksgiving for what God has done for us. New life is God’s wonderful present to us and one that we can share with others.

These are my wishes. Will they come true? That’s up to us.

Thanks to MB Herald editor Laura Kalmar for her “Make a wish” editorial, January 2010, that inspired my own wish list.

Where do we draw the line when protesting abortion?

By Connie Faber

One of seven options on Facebook for describing the relationship with your significant other is, “It’s complicated.” It’s an honest response to the sometimes-complex nature of romantic relationships. “It’s complicated” can also be the most straight forward response when it comes to theological questions like the ones posed by sanctity of life issues, including abortion.

The Bible teaches and our Mennonite Brethren Confession of Faith (COF) affirms a clear-cut conviction: We should oppose action that takes someone’s life. The COF is very clear on abortion: “We hold that procedures designed to take life, including abortion…are an affront to God’s sovereignty” (Article 14).

The Confession of Faith Commentary and Pastoral Application elaborates on this belief, saying that it is God who gives value and transcendent worth to human life—we can’t acquire or earn it. “The sanctity of life is independent of the value that can be placed on a person by virtue of efforts, accomplishments, talents or any other measure,” it says. The commentary goes on to emphasize that in giving our lives value, God does not distinguish between the righteous and the unrighteous (Matt. 5:45).

This is where it gets complicated. How far do I go to stop someone who has decided that he has the right to kill another person? Someone like late-term abortion doctor George Tiller.

Tiller came to the nation’s attention in the summer of 1991 when the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue blockaded Tiller’s Wichita, Kan., clinic for 46 days, resulting in more than 2,600 arrests of 1,700 protesters. The “Summer of Mercy” drew national attention when a federal judge ordered U.S. marshals to keep the clinic open.

The Christian Leader reported on the two-month Operation Rescue campaign and for months the magazine received letters both supporting and critiquing editor Don Ratzlaff’s comments on abortion in general and Operation Rescue more specifically. While Ratzlaff and his readers agreed that God stands for life and grieves the loss of unborn children and the circumstances that prompt the decision to abort, they did not agree on the bestway to combat abortion.

And it’s likely that we still don’t agree, two decades later. Some of us work to change abortion laws while others of us focus on reducing the number of women who seek abortions. There are those who prefer to do nothing while others believe we should at the least pray, contribute resources or campaign for appropriate candidates.

As we prepared this focus on the sanctity of human life, we found several Mennonite Brethren congregations that are  involved in addressing this issue—offering support to women who have had abortions, partnering with a local children’s home and creating a home for unwed mothers. We plan to highlight some of these ministries in future CLs.

The COF Commentary and Pastoral Application suggests thinking of this array of responses as a continuum. It is along this continuum where we most often find ourselves disagreeing. Our passion for the value of life can cause us to judge the actions and words of others and to simplify a complex issue to the point of being black or white, all or nothing. Instead, we should willing acknowledge, “It’s complicated” and agree to disagree—an approach that can require humbly admitting that I don’t have all the answers even though I have plenty of emotion to go with my convictions.

At the other end of the continuum are actions that oppose abortion in ways that break God’s law, and if asked, most of us will say that Christians should draw the line here. But do we walk the edge of that line in our thoughts and sometimes even our words? We wouldn’t pull the trigger ourselves, but we don’t have a problem saying that an abortion doctor who is murdered had it coming. That he deserved to die. That it’s better to kill one man than to have that man continue killing unborn children.

That line of thought is why some Christians support Scott Roeder’s decision to kill George Tiller at close range May 31, 2009, while Tiller was serving as an usher at his church in Wichita. Roeder says he killed Tiller to protect the unborn.

“From conception forward, it is not man’s job to take a life,” Roeder said from the witness stand.“The only exception I even struggle with” is when the life of the mother is at stake. “These babies were dying every day. I felt if something was not done, (George Tiller) was going to continue…. If someone didn’t stop him, they were going to continue to die.” Asked if he regretted killing Tiller, Roeder said, “I do not.”

This admission fills me with deep sadness, as I think it should all followers of Jesus Christ. May we always side with God when it comes to the value of human life. Let’s challenge one another to watch what we say about the value of another person. Even when it’s complicated, let’s remember that God values each of us and that he intends us to nurture life rather than end it.

By Connie Faber

Our congregations will be stronger when we are encouraged to not let sin pile up, to keep short accounts with God and with others. Our congregations will be renewed and our witness strengthened when we confess our sins to one another, clearing the way for God to speak to us and to change us. As we prepare for the celebration of Resurrection Sunday, let’s challenge our leaders to include a time of confession in our worship services. Let’s publicly confess that Jesus died on the cross because of our sins, because we are bad enough.

Situational awareness refers to the ability to demonstrate complex decision-making skills and to process large amounts of information in a situation where poor decisions can have serious consequences. The birth of the Mennonite Brethren Church, an event we will be celebrating in 2010, offers examples of good and bad situational awareness.

The founders of our denomination didn’t mince words when they informed the church elders that they had decided to form a new fellowship. They wrote of “the decadent condition of the Mennonite Brotherhood” and an “openly godless living and wickedness (that) cries to God in heaven.”

Was it really that bad? Had the situation deteriorated to the degree that disassociating from the Mennonite Church was the answer? Diaries and other sources suggest that the answer is yes. Mennonite leaders of the time describe illicit sexual relations, stealing, drunkenness and partying, fights and wife beating—among church members. The lack of discipleship and preventive church discipline added to the crisis.

These 18 Brethren and their families showed spiritual situational awareness: They realized that what was going on around them was having a negative effect on their spiritual health, and they took action, signing a Document of Secession Jan. 6, 1860.

The formation of this new fellowship set off a chain reaction of harassment and poor treatment at the hands of church and civic leaders. Controversies, misunderstandings and mistreatments poisoned the relationship between the Mennonite Brethren and the Mennonite Church, and when members of the two groups immigrated to North America the conflict came along. One hundred years later it was a new generation of leaders that offered the kind of leadership that could have avoided the deep schism. In 1960, the president of the General Conference Mennonite Church came to the Mennonite Brethren North American convention and apologized for the “feelings, words and deeds expressed by our fathers in an unbrotherly way and in a manner contrary to the spirit of Christ.”

This difficult chapter in Mennonite Brethren history illustrates the importance of good leadership. For a variety of reasons, the Mennonites in South Prussia lacked godly leadership and that void contributed to the lifeless spirituality that so frustrated the Brethren and led to a 100-year rift between two groups of Mennonites.

We Mennonite Brethren continue to need leaders who have a strong situational awareness. That is one reason why MB Biblical Seminary (MBBS) was founded—to develop leaders who have had a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ, who look at faith and life from an evangelical Anabaptist perspective and who have been trained for pastoral ministry. Ironically, today, 54 years after it was founded, the very seminary established to train such leaders finds itself in crisis, struggling to flourish in a time when theological education is changing and adapting.

Some would say that MBBS has responded too slowly to a 20-year decline in enrollment and that its leaders have clung too tightly to a traditional educational delivery system. Maybe. But the current administration is acutely aware of the situation they face, and has been talking for the past year with Fuller Theological Seminary about a partnership. Fuller’s decision to withdraw its offer to partner with MBBS in Fresno was disheartening. But the seminary vows to continue developing new models of leadership training. In a Nov. 4 statement, the MBBS Board of Directors says it supports newly installed president Lynn Jost in effecting “major changes in the structure and delivery of theological education at MBBS over the next few years,” with 2012 as the target date for implementing “innovative delivery, curriculum and church-based graduate program initiatives.”

What can we do to help the seminary in this process? We can recognize that institutions are multifaceted by nature, and that change will take time. There will be multiple options to consider, and so we can pray and have confidence in the power of these prayers to guide and uphold our seminary leaders. We can offer continued financial support. We can call out people in our churches that have leadership potential and recommend MBBS to them. As the seminary continues to explore new partnerships, we can offer our feedback when asked.

Adapting MBBS to better meet the needs of prospective students and the churches that look to the seminary to provide its leaders will dominate the school’s agenda for the near future. I affirm the MBBS board, administration and staff for demonstrating situational awareness and for taking on this difficult task. I also caution us to learn from the past and to remember that our denominational health demands that we have well trained leaders with the situational awareness to make wise decisions in a complex world.—CF

By Connie Faber

While Blackburn’s immediate concern was for his family, his thoughts quickly turned to his congregation; Blackburn is pastor of Greensburg Mennonite Church. And that’s when he realized that his church didn’t have a disaster plan. The lessons that Blackburn learned the hard way thanks to the tornado have him preaching the value of having a congregational disaster response plan, including ways to check on every member following a disaster and what to do if a disaster strikes during a service.

So let me ask the question: Does your congregation have a disaster response plan? “If you can imagine (a disaster), it can happen,” says Kevin King, Mennonite Disaster Service executive director.

Thanks to the appearance in March of H1N1, then called swine flu, one emergency that is becoming easier to imagine is a flu pandemic. Today H1N1 dominates the news and is prompting U.S. colleges and universities, including Tabor College, to work out pandemic flu plans, as this highly contagious flue targets children and younger adults.

Preparing for a pandemic is new territory for many of us. In a recent news release, Mennonite Publishing Network quotes Tim Foggin, a Canadian public health physician from Willingdon (BC) MB Church, who says that the church will play an important role should a pandemic occur. The ill will likely be cared for at home by family and friends—by each other as fellow believers—since hospitals will be stretched thin and family doctors will be swamped.

Foggin encourages churches to answer questions like: What will you do if a third of the congregants are ill? What will you do if all the pastors get sick? How can you best prepare to maintain what you do well?

While caring for its members is one priority, the church is often among the first groups a community looks to for help in an emergency. As followers of Christ, our response to natural disasters should be rooted in heavy hearts that grieve with those who have lost so much and experienced such pain. And tears should lead to deeds. “God wants us to release our grip on our money, our resources and our selfishness,” writes pastor and author Erwin W. Lutzer in Where Was God? “When disasters come, we should be the first to respond with sacrifice and generosity.”

Responding to a flu pandemic raises unique questions about personal safety. When we fear for our health, we naturally want to protect ourselves. When confronted by a virulent flu, will Christians retreat in fear, or will we respond with healing and hope? Pam Driedger, author of Beyond Our Fears, a new resource published by Mennonite Publishing Network, says government and municipalities are creating disaster response plans. “Shouldn’t we, as ordinary people of faith, be spiritually prepared?” she asks. “Why not know before the crisis what kinds of actions and attitudes are most consistent with our faith?”

Christians should also be ready to help other believers—and doubters—cope with what Lutzer calls the “religious aftershocks” that follow a natural disaster, challenging the faith of those who believe in God and reinforcing the cynicism of skeptics. How do we confidently trust God even when natural disasters bring seemingly unnecessary suffering? Can we trust a God who allows a disaster he could have kept from happening?

Whether it’s an H1N1 outbreak at the local university or a neighborhood devastated by a flood, we are best equipped to offer material, spiritual and emotional care when we’ve prepared ourselves in advance of the crisis. Preparation is practical and hands-on: offering basic first aid training, including CPR, at your church, connecting with your city’s emergency management office or making sure church leaders are aware of congregants with specific medical needs. It also means anticipating that we will need to curb the sometimes natural desire to offer answers when the best thing to do is to sit with neighbors and friends, sharing the pain that comes with loss. It’s preparing to do and to be.

Mennonite Church Canada has a pandemic Web site that offers a variety of resources.

Thank You Times 20

In addition to her work as bookkeeper and secretary, Donna’s “to do” list includes two Christian Leader tasks that I would say are critical to the smooth operation of our magazine. She is our business manager, which puts her in frequent contact with advertisers, and the CL circulation secretary, which puts her in touch with you, our readers, and the church offices that regularly update our mailing list. Donna’s years of experience make her a wonderful and invaluable resource to the magazine as well as to our denomination.— CF

By Connie Faber

Reflecting on these experiences, I realize that there are some bad experiences that I feel good about—times when the memories of my discomfort are diminished—because the people of the congregation were genuinely interested in me, excited about their faith and at ease with any differences there were between us. I think of my first visit to a Greek Orthodox church and being tempted to join their newcomer’s book club—even though it meant driving an hour to do so—because of the leader’s warm invitation.

Our Sunday school discussion took place in the context of a three-part series presented by a local educator who has focused her professional work and personal ministry efforts toward serving those who live in poverty. Her presentations were based on research done by Ruby K. Payne, a Goshen (Ind.) College graduate who helps educators and other professionals work effectively with children and adults who live in poverty. I recommend Payne’s book, What Every Church Member Should Know About Poverty co-authored with Bill Ehlig, to anyone interested in the topic.

Payne’s material looks at the hidden rules followed by people in three economic groups—poverty, middle class and wealthy—and how church experiences reflect these rules. Most churches play by the hidden rules of the middle class and because America tends to be economically segregated, most of us don’t know the rules of other economic classes. Hidden rules in church relate to things like giving, church finances, prayer, mission work, social events and facilities. So if a congregation is going to successfully minister to the poor, members must understand the hidden rules of generational poverty and middle class.

Payne highlights the differences that exist among Christians of different economic classes, and I find her conclusion to be wonderfully unexpected: When all is said and done, regardless of whether one lives in poverty, middle class or wealth, one thing we all go to church looking for is emotional and spiritual rejuvenation. We gather with other believers because we want to fill that God-shaped void in our lives and have an inner life that is vigorous and effective.

Despite the hidden rules by which we live and the differences these rules make in how we think about our possessions, time, education, family structures, resolving conflicts and church, we’re all looking for opportunities to make genuine and profound connections with God and others. The idea that church is one place where we all are truly equal is exciting, but equality before God does not automatically level the playing field here on earth. Differences do exist and they often result in uncomfortable situations. But we can’t let that stop us from developing the deep connections we long for.

Nikki White, in an essay in the July issue of the MB Herald, says it well: “Too often we are content with relational ‘snacks,’ happy to tick church off our to-do list each Sunday without having had one meaningful, uncomfortable encounter with another person, much less with Jesus. Perhaps our Menno-nice approach has become an end in itself, rather than a means to a far more relational end.”

It seems to me that even if we alter our programs, worship format and dress code, a person who is totally unfamiliar with church will still feel out of place. That no matter what we do, there will be clumsy moments when a newcomer worships with us. It’s people, not programs, that help someone feel less awkward about being clueless in church, whether this individual is lost because church is a foreign experience or because she is new to this particular church and its set of rules. Our willingness to be involved in revitalizing one another emotionally and spiritually balances out the inevitable feelings of being lost and out of place.

The church is meant to be a community where we experience an intimate relationship with our Creator, fellowship with other believers and opportunities to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ. To forge these kinds of relationships we must move beyond just being polite to one another at church committee meetings and potlucks. We must look for opportunities to develop intentional relationships with one another and to let our humanity peek out.

It doesn’t matter what circumstances prompt a change, one thing that is a constant about change is that change offers new opportunities. And so assistant editor Myra Holmes and I are doing our best to take the lemons we were handed in May and to make lemonade, to paraphrase an old adage. For at least the next 12 months, you will receive the Christian Leader every other month rather than monthly. Since it was first published in 1937 as a monthly magazine targeted at young people of the Mennonite Brethren Church, the CL has been published either monthly (the first nine and the past 15 years) or biweekly (for 48 years, from 1946 to 1994).

The current change in the magazine’s publishing schedule is prompted not by vision but by economics. As reported elsewhere in this issue, the CL is experiencing a 49 percent reduction in our publishing budget and Mission USA is looking at a 60 percent cut. U.S. Conference ministries, including the CL and Mission USA, are funded by contributions from U.S. Mennonite Brethren churches and individuals. Unfortunately church giving, which has been steadily increasing from 2002 to 2007, is expected to drop again this fiscal year as it did last year thanks to the current recession.

While the timing of this change in frequency is related more to money than to vision, our goal is that vision rather than dollars will guide the next set of decisions we make about communication in our family of churches. Publishing six not 12 times this fiscal year was a we-don’t-have-a choice decision, which means that at some point we will need to decide if we return to a monthly schedule. A second issue that we and most everyone involved in communication is exploring is how best to incorporate new electronic media options into the existing communication strategy.

U.S. Mennonite Brethren are often described as a family—a family of churches spread across 17 states and comprised of at least a dozen cultural groups. Given this diversity, staying connected is both a challenge and a priority. So what guides our strategy for family connectedness?

Thinking about how I remain close to members of my own extended family helps me think about how the Mennonite Brethren family can stay connected. There are two areas in which this comparison is helpful.

In our extended families we don’t rely on one method of communicating with each other. We keep in touch with e-mails, phone calls, Skype, text messages, MySpace, cards, visits and reunions. Variety should also characterize the way U.S. Mennonite Brethren communicate.

There are numerous electronic options available to us today that Peter H. Berg, the first CL editor, could not even imagined. We have some ideas about how to intertwine electronic and print communication but we want our approach to reflect the way you use media. Do you want to follow the denomination on Twitter or see us on FaceBook or MySpace? In what new directions should the U.S. Conference Web site be developed? Would you appreciate receiving an electronic newsletter? Do online discussion groups sound interesting?

My extended family relationships grow stronger the more we communicate with each other. So when it comes to a family of churches, what advice do you have for us about frequency?

Many readers value the CL because it connects them with the wider Mennonite Brethren community—individuals, other churches and denominational ministries, events and leaders. How many times a year should we connect with one another via the magazine? Is CL Online updated frequently enough? How about other sections of the Web site?

As we prepare to make changes to the CL and gather feedback on broader communication questions, we will be surveying readers, particularly those under the age of 40. If you are among the readers selected to participate in a written survey or focus group, please take advantage of this opportunity to influence the way in which U.S. Mennonite Brethren communicate in the future.

We will also periodically post brief surveys at www.usmb.org/christian-leader to gather feedback from anyone interested in discussion broader communication questions with us.

Where will all of these changes take us? I’m not certain—Myra and I have a lot of lemons yet to squeeze. But the lemonade will be refreshing and sweet if we work together to discover a vision for connectedness that best serves U.S. Mennonite Brethren.—Connie Faber

But when it comes right down to it, Mennonite Brethren congregations don’t financially support the denomination. The most recent Church Giving Report, released at the end of February and covering the first nine months of the current U.S. Conference fiscal year, shows that only 65 of the 200 U.S. Mennonite Brethren congregations have contributed something to the U.S. Conference. My guess is that church giving to our denominational agencies—MB Biblical Seminary, MBMS International, Tabor College and Fresno Pacific University—follows a similar pattern.

I’ve attended enough church business meetings to know why congregations struggle to contribute their fair share to the denomination and its ministries. The needs of the local congregation are right before us—paying the heating and cooling bills, replacing old or inadequate facilities, purchasing Sunday school curriculum and appropriately compensating pastors. The needs of our community are staring us in the face—unemployment, poverty, single-parent families and people who don’t yet have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

The needs of the denomination seem far away, so we first take care of our congregation’s needs and budget for local outreach projects. Then we divvy out the remaining money to conference ministries.

This giving pattern has dogged U.S. Mennonite Brethren ministries for a long time and conference leaders have addressed the situation in a variety of ways. But the trend continues—most of us don’t send money to fund denominational ministries and those congregations that do donate send less than we are asked to contribute.

This creates an annual funding problem that has been magnified this year by the current recession. In early March, U.S. Conference leaders determined that even if church contributions remain consistent for the last three months of the fiscal year (March, April and May) and other fundraising is successful, the conference will need to under spend its budget by about $100,000.

The two U.S. Conference ministries that account for a significant portion of the budget—almost 60 percent—are the Christian Leader, the monthly magazine you are reading right now that is sent to members and attendees of U.S. Mennonite Brethren churches, and Mission USA, the church planting and church renewal ministry of the conference. So it’s natural that cuts will be made in these two areas.

Don Morris, Mission USA director, says that savings will be realized as some partnership projects are concluding, and some new projects will not be funded at the level first anticipated and as others are delayed.

Next month you will not receive a Christian Leader. The May issue has been canceled as a cost-saving measure. This decision has a domino effect. It involves the printer and design firm with which we do business. It impacts ministries that highlight their work through advertisements. I appreciate the gracious understanding of these folks regarding this decision.

We look forward to publishing in a future issue the essays and articles commissioned for the May focus on the sanctity of human life. Although there will not be a print magazine, we do plan on posting new news stories and feature essays at CL Online.

Cutting budgets—at home, at work and at church—is never fun. The things we plan to do are good and worthy of our time, energy and dollars. In spite of the budget challenges congregations may be facing, I encourage churches to support the U.S. Conference and the ministries of our denomination. The motto that Kim West adopted when she raised funds to buy a car for her friend would serve local congregations well as we think about whether or not to contribute to the U.S. Conference: “Not many of us have a lot of money, but a lot of us have a little. Give what you can.” —Connie Faber

It’s been a great vehicle. Honest. It has hauled bricks, scorned blizzards, towed trailers, made grocery runs and carpooled kids without complaint for a decade. It hasn’t asked for anything more than an occasional oil change, so we haven’t given it any further attention.

Which may be the problem. Maybe somewhere along the way we should’ve invested time and money in a more extensive examination and tune-up.

Pastors are a bit like my SUV. Not because of the ugly hail damage, but because they work hard, pouring themselves out in service. They teach, lead, guide, administer and counsel, sometimes for decades, without asking for more than an occasional vacation—the human equivalent of an oil change.

Maybe we should invest more in them. We at the CL believe that our pastors need more than an occasional oil change; from time to time they need a real tune-up to keep running smoothly.

Garvie Schmidt, pastor of Enid (Okla.) MB Church, talked to us via e-mail about his recent sabbatical as we researched this article. He told us, “As I look at my life before the sabbatical I could best compare it to a car that had been running hard without regular times of scheduled maintenance. During this sabbatical I had a chance to pause, look under the hood and find that I needed to make some adjustments in my inner life. I needed a spiritual tune-up.”

The job of full-time pastor is notoriously challenging. Ed Boschman, executive director of the U.S. Conference, points out in his column this month that pastors face low wages, limited respect, opposition, family stress and loneliness. We’ve all heard stories of pastors who have burned out, failed morally or just plain given up.

Roger Ediger, moderator of the Enid congregation as they processed the decision to provide a sabbatical for Schmidt, points out that the stressful nature of ministry means pastors need extra maintenance. Ediger says, “We would all benefit from a break in our occupational activity, and from time to time we take vacation. But being in the limelight of the congregation and carrying the burdens of many people and their spiritual needs perhaps fits into a different category.” He calls a sabbatical “a good investment in the life of our pastor.”

As I gathered input from pastors for the article we published this month on pastoral sabbaticals, two things stood out: First, while all six pastors agree that their sabbatical helped to get the engine running smoothly again, each had a different plan for their sabbatical, tailored to their specific goals and needs. An educational seminar won’t help the pastor who truly needs a quiet retreat time, and vice versa. No two pastors have exactly the same needs, so we need to work with them to determine what kind of maintenance they need.

Second, all the pastors we talked to said this was their first sabbatical. Several had been in ministry for decades without a significant break. Dennis Fast, Gaylord Goertzen and Steve Toews each have over 30 years in ministry. Garvie Schmidt has just under that, with 27 years and Steve Ensz has been in pastoral ministry for 23 years. I’m not a pastor, but it seems to me that’s a lot of miles without a major tune-up.

So, here’s a question to ponder: Does your congregation have a sabbatical policy? When was the last time your pastor had a chance to check under the hood and make necessary tweaks? If your pastor is looking a little battered and weary, if his sermons rattle and clank a bit, maybe a sabbatical tune-up is overdue. Sabbaticals are an investment in our leaders that promises many miles in return.

I believe that anticipating what’s next is also central to the work of the Christian Leader. One of our tasks as editors is to put forward issues and direction the U.S. Mennonite Brethren Church should consider. Our priorities for this year are reflected in the topic list for 2009.

Evangelism: Interacting with our neighbors and coworkers as if we are missionaries who serve in foreign cultures is becoming a common approach to the Great Commission. Next month we will explore this idea that individual Christians should live “missionally.” The changes that occur in our lives when we encounter the resurrected Christ—and our longing to share the good news of our transformation with others—will be the focus of our Easter issue.

Core teachings: Evangelicals, says Christianity Today editor Mark Galli, have specialized in “Go and make disciples…” and have not been as strong at “… and teach them all that I have commanded you.” The church is called to evangelize and to teach. And so we want to feature articles that teach the core values of the Christian faith as understood in the Anabaptist tradition and expressed in our Confession of Faith.

This month’s focus on the Bible is an example of a historic Mennonite Brethren core value that is as central to our lives in the 21st century as it was to our founders. This year we will also look at how core teachings intersect with current events and contemporary culture. Affirmation of human life and stewardship of resources are two themes that evangelical Christians are discussing, and we want to reflect on these issues from our denomination’s perspective.

Throughout the year, we will also draw attention to the unique person and work of Jesus Christ, a core teaching of the Christian faith that is being discussed in our current culture.

Transformation: U.S. Conference leaders have called on us to be a denomination that partners together for the transformation of individuals, families and communities, and so this summer we will highlight the importance of healthy marriages. And in the news department we will continue to share stories of congregations that are making disciples in their congregation and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ in their communities.

Our approach to these topics will not be neutral. Our primary writers will be Mennonite Brethren with expertise in the area they are addressing. These men and women, many of whom volunteered to write on a specific subject, will help us think about these topics—some of them potentially contentious—from a Mennonite Brethren perspective.

Some readers may wonder why we publish articles on subjects about which Mennonite Brethren disagree. Issues of faith and life are very important to us—they have eternal implications—and so it’s only natural that we feel strongly and passionately about them. At the CL we choose to express our unity by acknowledging the diversity of opinion within our denomination and by listening to one another with respect and humility.

These are our publishing priorities for 2009, and we look forward to exploring these topics. This year the CL editorial staff is pursuing an additional priority: formulating a communication plan for 2010 that addresses three goals. We are researching publishing something on a regular basis for Mennonite Brethren who read Spanish, regularly publishing something in Russian and attracting a new generation of CL readers.

While the number of publications will increase, the amount of money the U.S. Conference spends on publications will not. The Christian Leader budget will be reduced to fund these new publications, with the hope that future partnerships with district conferences or local congregations can provide some financial assistance. This means the CL will change. We are looking at reducing the number of pages published each month and altering the magazine’s frequency to free up money for these new projects.

As I talk with printing specialists and other denominational magazine editors, a common piece of advice I get is to involve readers in decisions about changes in content, design, frequency and format. So I invite and encourage you, as the opportunity presents itself, to be involved in this process.—CF

I praise God for the resolve of our spiritual forbearers to be men and women who lived as Jesus taught, even when their commitment put them at odds with the established church and community structures of their day. As we anticipate celebrating in 2010 the 150th anniversary of the Mennonite Brethren Church, I pray that we will be bold in our faith and that we will see God move in new ways among our global Mennonite Brethren family because of it.

I imagine American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow had a heavy heart Christmas Day 1863 when he wrote the poem, “Christmas Bells.” The U.S. was in the midst of the bloody Civil War, and 40,000 soldiers had lost their lives six months prior at the battle of Gettysburg. The poem reflects Longfellow’s anguish in the face of this ongoing war, as America was still months away from General Robert E. Lee's April 1865 surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant.

Longfellow’s poem reveals his deep antiwar convictions. He hears the Christmas Day bells playing the “old familiar carols,” promising peace on earth, as the angels did when Jesus Christ was born. But immediately, Longfellow despairs as he realizes there is no peace, and that hatred has again destroyed the dream of peace and brotherhood.

Longfellow clearly identifies the Union cause as synonymous with right and the Confederate cause as evil, which made his poem very unpopular in the South. When the poem was converted in 1872 to the Christmas carol, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, the offensive fourth and fifth stanzas were removed. The eliminated stanzas speak of thundering cannons drowning out the carols of peace and of households made forlorn by the violence of war.

“Christmas Bells” not only reflects Longfellow’s distress with the Civil War but also his own personal sorrows. Four years after their marriage, in 1835, his first wife died. He married his second wife, Fannie, in 1843 and the couple had five children. Eighteen years later, the same year the Civil War began, Fannie was sealing an envelope with wax when her dress caught fire. Despite her husband’s desperate attempts to save her, she died the next day. Too ill from his burns and grief, Longfellow did not attend her funeral. Profoundly sad, Longfellow published nothing for the next two years.

Longfellow’s sorrow was heightened when in November 1863 his oldest son Charles, a lieutenant in the Army of the Potomac, was severely wounded in the war. Charles knew his father disapproved, but he enlisted anyway. When Longfellow learned that his son was injured, he went to Washington, D.C., to care for him.

While Longfellow condemned the war and mourned the loss of his wife and his son’s life-threatening injuries, his trust in God’s ultimate sovereignty gave Longfellow hope. As Longfellow listened to the bells peal “loud and deep,” their constant and joyous ringing that Christmas Day expressed his belief in God and innate optimism that: “God is not dead, nor doth he sleep.” Longfellow affirmed God’s supreme authority and his own faith in the ultimate triumph of righteousness when he wrote, “The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth, good will to men.”

There are times when I share Longfellow’s distress over the absence of peace and the abundance of hate in our world today. While war does not rage in my own country, other Mennonite Brethren are not so fortunate.

DR Congo is home to the second largest Mennonite Brethren national conference and so I grieve for the hundreds of thousands of Congolese who are fleeing eastern Congo to escape fighting and disease. I read with concern about the massive anti-Christian violence in India’s eastern states because this country is home to almost 94,000 Mennonite Brethren and is the largest of all national MB conferences.

The list of countries where Christians live daily with violence is much too long: In the Middle East the list includes Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine. In Africa I think of Zimbabwe, Somalia and Sudan; in South America the list would include Colombia and El Salvador. I think of Asian countries like India, Afghanistan and Vietnam and European nations like Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia.

What are we to think of a world so riddled with violence? Do we despair? No, we are to have faith in the angels’ message: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men in whom he is pleased” (Luke 2:14). We are to have a faith that sees with a different set of eyes.

These eyes see a baby born in a manger as the promised Messiah, an itinerate preacher executed on a Roman cross as the resurrected Son of God and a world torn with violence as a place that will someday be restored. As Longfellow wrote in his original seventh verse, also omitted from the Christmas carol: “Till, ringing, singing on its way, the world revolved from night to day, a voice, a chime, a chant sublime, of peace on earth, good will to men.” 

I commend MCC staff and board members for listening to their constituents and for sharing the reasons for their decisions. I believe MCC truly understands the concerns that are shared on this issue, and yet the agency feels compelled to continue talking with Ahmadinejad, should he initiate another meeting. Sometimes we make the mistake of thinking that someone hasn’t listened to us because the discussion has not persuaded the other person to change her mind. In this case MCC has listened, and I encourage those readers who disagree with the decision to continue meeting with Ahmadinejad to support the agency in its efforts to obey Christ’s teachings.