Editorial: Fall 2008 issue

I'm a member of a suburban Mennonite congregation where the next closest Mennonite congregation is 13 miles away. There are evangelical, mainline Protestant and Catholic churches all around us, but we don't have competition from other like minded congregations. Given our congregation's intentional Anabaptist identity and mission, what we have to offer is unique in our area. To put it in crass marketing terms, we have a niche market.

What it means to be uniquely Anabaptist is a contested matter, of course. If you ask any group of Mennonites for words that describe an Anabaptist perspective, you'd probably hear words like peace, the lordship of Christ, service, mutual accountability and community, hospitality, international outlook, Christ-centered interpretation of scripture, simplicity of living, nonconformity, and independence from the state. Of course someone would that we like to sing together and we throw super potlucks. (Reality check: I hear the saim claim about super potlucks from many non-Mennonite congregations.) And did I add our peace emphasis?

Because peace is often mentioned as a key marker for what sets us off from other Christians, I was somewhat surprised to read Arnold Snyder's article (see page two) in which he argues that the fundamental marker for the 16th century Anabaptists was their "call to profound repentance, life changing conversion, and an empowering spiritual rebirth." Everything else–including Christ's way of enemy love and peace–grows out of spiritual transformation.

Arnold's reading of the 16th century Anabaptists is compelling, but it makes me wonder why something that was so crucial to the original Anabaptists sometimes gets short shrift in our own setting. Conversion is not a word that easily rolls off the tongues of most Mennonites. When was the last time I (or you) heard a Mennonite sermon about the need for repentance, conversion and a life changing transformation? If these concepts have been over-shadowed is it because we modern Mennonites fear that conversion language sounds too much like the evangelicals down the street who preach convesion all the time?

There could be another explanation for this reticence about the need for radical transformation. In his 2006 survey of the Mennonite Church USA (Road Signs for the Journey), Conrad L. Kanagy reports some disturbing data.* To put it bluntly, our church membership is getting older, we're dwindling in size, and we seem to be losing out with young adults. Furthermore, in our lifestyle and daily activities, we're looking more and more like the world around us. Could it be that many of us have reached a comfort zone in our North American cultural and economic contexts and don't want to risk the kind of radical change that Anabaptists would most certainly call us to? As Kathy Yoder suggests (page seven) the kind of change that God calls us to can be scary, unsettling, unpredictable. Who wants to embark on a journey that we cannot control?

Conversion is not a word that easily rolls off the tongues of most Mennonites.

Kanagy's study raises the disturbing question about whether the Mennonite Church has a future given these trends. On the positive side, the growth edge of the Mennonite Church USA is with "new Mennonites," particularly those from ethnic minorities. These are the people who are also the most evangelistic, the ones who feel most comfortable talking about repentance and conversion. They are also the ones who, given their social and economic location, have the least to lose and the most to gain from the prospect of spiritual transformation.

Maybe the church as we've known it must die so that something might be born among us anew. But what I believe with all my heart is that the North American context doesn't need more generic Protestant churches, whether evangelical or liberal–or Mennonite churches that mimic mainstream churches. But if there is going to be a rebirth of the Anabaptist witness, maybe it needs to start with a recovery of this emphasis on repentance, conversion and transformation of life through the empowering work of the Spirit.

Do I hear an Amen?

Richard A. Kauffman

* There is not comparable empirical data for the Mennonite Church Canada, but Robert J. Sunderman's God's People Now!, a more impressionistic portrait of MC Canada, raises some of the same issues