Turning church inside-out
During her community outreach work, Judith McCartney will typically ask people: “Did you know Christ walked 22,000 miles in his lifetime of ministry?” McCartney believes in venturing outside the church doors and putting on some miles. She’s spent nearly 40 years in ministry and non-profit work, and she worries that churches do not focus enough…
Shackled together in perfect unity— ‘Blame it on God’
God’s success is our problem. But it’s a good problem. From these thoughts of Tom Yoder Neufeld came a catch phrase of MennoCon19: “The church is a mess. Thanks be to God!” A professor emeritus of religious studies at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ont., Yoder Neufeld led 495 Mennonite Church U.S.A. delegates in Bible…
Unity of the Spirit
Ephesians begins by blessing God for revealing the great mystery, namely, to “gather up all things in Christ” (1:10). Ephesians 2:11-22 then celebrates Christ’s making peace between strangers and enemies, breaking down walls of hostility through giving his life on the cross, thereby creating a “new human.” Fittingly, the exhortation to recipients of that grace…
We know who we are
Common knowledge helps to form our identity. It creates the basis from which to describe ourselves and helps us to understand others. Change can create a crisis of identity. When what we thought to be fact changes, it can create a distressing cloud of confusion and uncertainty. We wonder if there is anything we…
The challenge of diversity
Today, our community of Anabaptist-related churches spans the globe, incorporating people from many different cultural, ethnic and political backgrounds. We are, without a doubt, a diverse community. Whenever we gather, we enjoy this diversity and feel enriched. Still, at times questions arise and we find ourselves irritated. Diversity is also a challenge! Are there limits…
A Tale of Two Farms
We were on the island! The train had risen about the surface of the water out of the underwater tunnel that had taken us a half hour to traverse. We looked at the rural villages, the mountains, the fields. This was Hokkaido. On our trip to this northern island of Japan, we enjoyed the food,…
Industrial or Ecclesiastical?
It took two weeks and some intense times together, but by the second “cultural night” of NARPI (Northeast Asia Regional Peacebuilding Institute), groups were no longer isolated by country or regional cultures. A Mongolian and Japanese team did a dance, Korean and Japanese women led a song, and Chinese and Mongolian participants were the emcees.…
