2017 Assembly Summary

On March 31 and April 1, the delegate body of Illinois Mennonite Conference gathered for our annual meeting. Over 85 people gathered for a weekend that included rich worship,  an exhortation to make disciples, discernment over the financial conditions of IMC, initial discussion over future challenges, and feedback on a conference discernment process.

WORSHIP

Friday evening worship was led by Randall and Morgan Koehler of Metamora Mennonite Church.  They led us in songs, scripture reading, and prayer. Each subsequent gathering began with gathering songs, scripture, and prayer.  A late night worship session morphed into a conversation among young adults who were present.

During Friday evening worship, Michael Danner preached on the theme text of the assembly: 2 Corinthians 5:14 – 21.  He began with reflections on the future of MC USA, IMC, and local congregations. He noted that people are anxious about the future. He then tied the future of the church to one thing: making disciples. (see the full message here).

FINANCES

The morning business meeting began with reporting from MC USA related organizations, schools, and Nancy Kauffmann, MC USA denominational pastor. From there, the delegates received a financial report from IMC treasurer, Aaron Birkey. While there was new giving from 6 congregations and individual donors, giving to IMC went down in the 2016-2017 budget year. Concrete moves were suggested for lowering expenses. One change, which you will hear more about, is moving from having a physical office space to working in distributed networks.

STAFF

During the staff reports, time was given to expressing gratitude for the ministry of Kim Litwiller, associate conference minister.  Kim has resigned her position, effective July 8, 2017.  Kim has served IMC for over three years and has brought energy, clarity, and passion for the people of IMC. (read her letter of resignation here). Kim will remain the pastor of East Peoria Mennonite Church and is looking forward to rubbing shoulders with people outside the church in her other work.

At the same time, CEM, Michael Danner, announced the desire for IMC to hire bilingual, part-time IMC staff. Over 20% of IMC congregations are primarily Spanish speaking, making up over 40% of IMC congregational members. Hiring bilingual staff with primary responsibility for supporting Hispanic congregations is a first step of moving towards conference staff that reflects the realities of IMC demographically.

LONG-TERM

During the assembly, the reality of our changing context, and the pressures it places on local congregations was named. We are in the midst of cultural shifts from Christendom to post-Christendom, changing political realities, and generational shifts as baby boomers age and millennials lead more and more. This will shape the future direction of local congregations, conferences and MC USA. The question is how to engage these transitions intentionally.  As a recent Facebook thread attested to, there are gifted young leaders in IMC! How can we empower such leaders to shape the future direction of IMC.

A DISCERNMENT PROCESS

The assembly concluded with table-group discernment. Don Rheinheimer, IMC Moderator, led throughout the business sessions and steered this time of discernment. The Missional Life Team proposed a process for use in times when congregations want input from other congregations, or when congregations discern beliefs and practices that strain the relationships between IMC congregations. (see the proposed process here). The MLT received helpful feedback from the table groups and will shape the process based on that feedback.

SUMMARY

In summary, the 2017 Annual Assembly was a rich time of gathering. Michael Danner said, “It is clear that we are moving away from former ways of approaching annual assembly, towards a new vision, and this year was a liminal (in-between) kind of gathering.” IMC Leadership grateful for the time and attention the delegate body gave to one another and to the needs of the conference as we move forward.

 

Make Disciples

This post is a written adaptation of Conference Executive Minister, Michael Danner’s, message from annual assembly delivered March 31, 2017, at Menno Haven Camp and Retreat Center

“I wouldn’t want your job!” Last year that was the #1 response I received from people when I told them I was the new conference minister for Illinois Mennonite Conference. In the year that has passed, that response has moved to #2. The new #1 response is, “What is the future of MC USA?”

That is a question I regularly think and pray about. I also think and pray over the question, “What is the future of IMC?” And it is a question I ask and pray over for each congregation in IMC.  What is the future of your congregation?

These questions are soaked in anxiety, which is rooted in uncertainty around ongoing conflicts over sexuality. But it goes deeper: what is often asked is how do unresolved conflicts over sexuality impact church growth and health throughout MC USA. After a little digging, I usually find out that the greater anxiety isn’t sexuality, it’s decline.

In the face of decline, congregations are actually asking a different question: How can we grow?

Marketing expert, speaker, author, and prolific blogger, Seth Godin wrote this post last week. He wrote:

What if scale wasn’t the goal? 

From restaurants to direct mail, there’s pressure to be scalable, to be efficient, to create something easily replicated.

Which is often used as the reason it’s not very good. “Well, we’d like to spend more time/more care/more focus on this, but we need to get bigger.

What if you started in the other direction?

What would happen if you created something noteworthy and worried about scale only after you’ve figured out how to make a difference?

When I read that I immediately thought of many American churches today. I reshaped his post for the church context/

What if getting bigger wasn’t the goal?

From worship services, to small groups, to children’s ministries and youth gatherings, there’s pressure to create something that grows and continues to grow.

Which is often the reason why it doesn’t work. “Well, we’d like to spend more time/more care/more focus on spiritual formation/Scripture study/prayer/worship, but seekers don’t often tolerate that depth, and we need to grow, a folks can’t sit for more than hour, so…”

What if you started in the other direction?

What would happen if your church created something noteworthy and worried about growth after it figured out how to make a difference?

The truth is, we don’t have to figure out how to make a difference because Jesus tells us how to make a difference. And we don’t have to create something noteworthy because Jesus is already at work creating something noteworthy. All we have to do is participate in what Jesus is already doing and has called us to do with him.

Make disciples.

What is the future of your congregation, conference and/or denomination? It depends on how well we make disciples.

Our assembly theme text gives us an example of one piece of disciple-making.

Before we dive into that let us define the term disciple. What is a Disciple? I define a disciple of Jesus as a person who trusts Jesus with her/his whole life and is growing in faithfulness and obedience to Jesus teaching from within the church.

Discipleship, then, involves two things that are connected:

  1. Discipleship involves inviting people to trust Jesus with their whole life.
  2. Discipleship involves people who have said “Yes” to that invitation, helping one another grow in faithfulness and obedience to Jesus’ teaching in the church.

In my experience, Mennonites are more comfortable with the “helping one another grow” piece, and less comfortable with the “inviting people to trust Jesus with their life”, piece. So I’m going to lean on the first piece through the text 2 Cor. 5:14 -21

How do we approach inviting people to trust Jesus with their whole life?

First, We are compelled by Jesus’ love.

The word compelled is defined as:

  • Evoking interest, attention, or admiration in a powerfully irresistible way.
  • Not able to be refuted; inspiring conviction.
  • Not able to be resisted; overwhelming.

What about Jesus’ love was so interesting, attention grabbing, admirable, powerfully irresistible, irrefutable, inspiring conviction, and overwhelming?  Paul says that it is that “One has died for ALL, therefore ALL have died; and he died for ALL, that those who might live no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” (2 Cor. 5:14b-15)

Paul also writes (Romans 5:6 – 11)

6 You see, at just the right time,when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. // 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

What’s compelling about Jesus’ LOVE? Jesus’ love has no limits and it is for everyone.

Therefore, we don’t look at people the same way.

If Jesus’ love has no limits, and it is for everyone, then there is no one that Jesus love is not for. Paul says that that reality changes the way they look at people.

Every day, in countless ways, we are taught to judge one another according to the flesh. We are taught how to size people up and make value judgments based on all kinds of criteria like race, religion, socio/economic status, sexual orientation, marital status, education, material possessions, fitness, health, external beauty, personal style, talents, and on and on and on.

If we’re not careful and thoughtful and intentional, we can fall right into the trap. The trap, in this context, is deciding from a distance that this person or that person has no interest in hearing about Jesus.

I know this gets very tricky! We want to be respectful of all people, and their right to believe what they wish, and practice their religion without threat of violence, oppression, judgment, etc. – I agree with that. But I’m also with Paul. I’m compelled by the universal nature of God’s love in Jesus, which transcends all these human categories.

The trap is deciding, based on external judgments, that a person can’t or won’t respond to the good news of God’s love for them in Jesus. I think this is what Paul is getting at. Too often we decide what is possible in another person’s life through the external judgments we make. In doing so, we quench the Spirit that is calling us to bear witness.

So we don’t look at people the same way.

Rather, we now know that all people can be a part of God’s family.

When the NT talks about people who hear and respond to the invitation to follow Jesus, it uses words like…

  • From death to life
  • From old to new creation
  • From foreigners to citizens
  • From strangers to family

Knowing the transformative power of Jesus’ LOVE, we receive the ministry of reconciliation as our own.

Jesus doesn’t get to have all the fun, we get to join in with what God is doing in Jesus, too. First as recipients of God’s grace. Then as co-laborers with Jesus, His ambassadors, who share the message. We get to tell people that God loves them, that in Jesus their sins are forgiven, they can move from death to life, old to new, foreigners to citizens, strangers to family.

To ramp it up a notch, Paul points out that when we do that the message doesn’t come from us. The transformative power of the message doesn’t come from us. Instead, Paul says that God is making God’s appeal through US! All of this comes to fruition in a bona fide invitation.

We implore you on behalf of Jesus, be reconciled to God!

In summary, we are compelled by Jesus’ love, such that we don’t look at others the same way. Rather, we see everyone as someone that God desires to have as part of God’s family. Therefore, we accept the mission to let God speak God’s offer of reconciliation to others through us. We do this through an invitation: We implore you on behalf of Jesus, be reconciled to God!

To me, we can’t even begin to answer questions about the future of MC USA, or the future of IMC, or the future of local congregations, until we get down to a very personal question.

Are you compelled by Jesus’ love, such that you see every person you encounter as someone God loves and wants to be in relationship with, if they aren’t already, SUCH THAT you speak God’s offer of reconciliation to them?

How you answer that question impacts the trajectory of your faith. The trajectory of your faith impacts the vitality of your church. The vitality of your church impacts the flourishing of our conference. The vitality of our conference impacts the flourishing of MC USA. But, quite frankly, that’s not the reason we join God in mission, is it?

I believe Jesus when he says that the gates of hades will not prevail over His church. That is not a promise that a particular local church, conference or denomination will be around forever. I suspect that churches and conferences and denominations will flourish to the degree that the faith practiced in those communities spills out into neighborhoods, cities, and nations, and is a source of God’s shalom in the world.I believe that how you answer that question matters not just to church-but to every person you encounter throughout your life.

I believe that how you answer that question matters not just to your church, but to every person you encounter throughout your life. When you love people the way Jesus loves them, it makes a difference. When you refuse to judge people as less-than it makes a difference. When you see people the way God the Father, Son and Spirit, see them, it makes a difference. When you spend time with people and get to know them as they are, it makes a difference. When you invite people to follow Jesus the join community, it makes a difference. When you stick with people, as their friends and neighbors, when they don’t accept Jesus and join the faith community, it makes a difference.

We’re talking about what kind of world is created when we live out the deepest values, beliefs and practices of our faith. And the Christian life – a life of following after Jesus – makes the world a better, more loving, more beautiful, more sane, less chaotic place.

When lives are transformed by the compelling love of Jesus, it has a ripple effect.

QUESTIONS

Now that you are reconciled to God in Jesus…

  • How has your life changed?
  • How do you treat your neighbors?
  • How do you approach your work?
  • How do you respond to injustice and violence?

Is the world a better place because you met Jesus and Jesus changed you?

If the answer is no, you might want to reconsider how you approach your faith.

If the answer is yes, then I think you just discovered the spark that can turn into a blaze through His church!