Radical values
It happened at the Canadian MB Conference convention, during the Friday morning discussion of the Conference's proposed statement of mission and core values. I had participated a little bit in the drafting of the statement, and I endorsed it. However, during this discussion, I suddenly realized something I had not fully seen before. This statement is not just a repetition of the obvious, an innocuous statement that everyone will endorse and follow automatically.
It is not that the ideas in the statement are new. They express what Mennonite Brethren have always believed. However, what suddenly became clear to me is that the Canadian Conference statement of core values deals with the crucial issues of our time. What has been obvious for many years is not obvious any longer.
Searching the Scriptures
An earlier version of the core values statement said that we are a biblical people. This means that Canadian Mennonite Brethren are committed to the idea that the Bible is both dependable and authoritative. Of course. Yet we live in an age when even Christians are becoming biblically illiterate. We do not know the Bible nearly as well as previous generations of Mennonite Brethren did. What is worse, many people in our society, in the church generally and even in the Mennonite Brethren Church have decided that the Bible can simply be overruled where it is perceived to be scientifically inaccurate or politically incorrect. Further, there are dangerous trends that accompany the current preoccupation with "the Spirit". A stress on the Holy Spirit is long overdue, but there are some who confuse "the spirit within them" with the Holy Spirit and assume that what they feel or think in their own spirits is more important than Scripture. An example of several of these trends occurred at the recent Anabaptist Women Doing Theology conference, where at least one speaker talked of interpreting the three texts of Scripture, tradition and our own experience, implying that these three are of equal authority. In opposition to all of this, the Mennonite Brethren Church has stated that we draw our theology and rules of conduct from the Bible.
Encountering Jesus as Lord
As the world has shrunk and we have come into more frequent contact with other religions, some Christians have concluded that all religions lead to God, that Christianity is no more right than any other religion. The challenge of pluralism and relativism has not totally bypassed the Mennonite Brethren Church. At a recent inter-Mennonite consultation on other religions, one Mennonite Brethren theologian talked about the necessity of winning Muslims to Jesus Christ. However, a Mennonite theologian argued that it would be narrow-minded and arrogant to try to convert Muslims since they already have their own religion. As well, there are many in North America who claim to be born again but who seem to think that this does not require any change in their sinful lifestyles. In contrast, our core values say that we believe in Jesus not only as the only Saviour but also as the Lord who is to be followed and obeyed in our daily lives.
Reconciling people
We live in a country which is increasingly divided along regional, racial, economic and ideological lines. We live in a world where ethnic wars claim multitudes of civilian casualties. We hear of Christians who confuse their own country or ethnic group with the kingdom of God and ask for God's help in killing their enemies. We see churches and conferences torn apart by bickering and bitterness over personality clashes and other nontheological issues. Divorce and bitterness are tearing apart both families and society at large. In this context, it is vitally important that we be a people who bring reconciliation.
Valuing Covenant Community
Increasingly, people want to become Christians but see no necessity of belonging to a local church. Even when they join a church, they often don't think that the church has any business telling them how they should live. They think they have a right to have sex outside marriage or donate nothing to God's work and still remain members of the church. Moreover, some churches seem to think they have the same right in regards to their denominations. Several delegates to this convention argued against a constitutional revision that would allow the conferences to expel congregations which refused to abide by conference resolutions. If our conference resolutions aren't enforceable, why bother to pass them? Why do some churches think that they can remain Mennonite Brethren churches without feeling any obligation to accept conference theological positions, abide by conference resolutions or pay conference dues when they are able to do so? Covenant community means that there is an obligation on the part of the local church to help individual members, and an obligation on the part of the conference to help local churches. However, it also means that local churches and individual members are accountable.
Extending the Kingdom
The percentage of Christians in North American society is rapidly declining, and the Canadian Conference statistics show that in some areas we are not even winning our own children. In the face of an exploding world population, our foreign missions program is having trouble maintaining even the same level of funding. Many churches seem to have become discouraged and given up on any serious effort to evangelize their communities. The two E's of SERVE are tied together. If we don't see Jesus as the only hope of salvation, we will see no need to evangelize. That is why it is vital that we continue to stress evangelism. What is encouraging is that we not only have stated this core value but we have done something to make it happen. The Board of Evangelism received the only major increase in funding, and announced plans to plant three more churches. Not only that, but the Conference boards have announced a joint plan to help revitalize older churches so that not only new churches but also older ones will succeed in evangelism.
The core values of the Canadian MB Conference are not radically new, but they are radically important.
Return to the M.B. Herald Vol. 35, No. 15
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