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I was on the roof of First MB Church in Wichita, Kansas. I was moving carefully, as it had rained the night before and the footing was wet and slippery, as it always is higher up. From that height, I could look down at the assembled delegates to the General MB Conference and order the whole convention to move "a little bit farther to the right".
It provided a momentary and illusory sense of power. I was on the roof merely to take a photo of the delegation in obedience to a request from the Conference leadership and the Historical Commission, anxious to record the historic occasion of the last General Conference convention for posterity.
Earlier in the convention, new General Conference moderator Herb Kopp told of the Chief Executive Officer of Pepsi who was asked to join another company. When he asked why he should leave a $10 million a year position to work for a smaller, poorer company, he was told, "So you won't have to tell your grandchildren you sold brown sugared water for a living." Herb noted that, in working for God's church, he was glad he had been able to spend his life doing something worthwhile.
Speaker Brian Stiller picked up a similar theme in his convention messages. He described the universal human desire to be successful, to "write our name on the universe". He said, "At the end of life, I want my life to have mattered."
I have often described this as the desire to "make a difference". Ask a pastor why he is still hanging in there doing the hard work of being a pastor, and he is liable to tell of someone he led to Christ 20 years ago and who is still living for Jesus today.
In our work at the Herald, we receive much praise. I am grateful for this. However, what keeps us going is the occasional glimpse God gives us that, through what we publish, God has changed someone's life for the better.
We have no delusions, of course, that we actually change anyone. Yet, in a miracle of grace, God invites us to be partners with Him in His work. There is something humbling and yet remarkably invigorating and affirming in being a tool or servant, beloved by God and used by Him to change someone's life for the better. "God gives the increase" (1 Corinthians 3:6), but what a privilege to be a planter or waterer in God's garden!
I began writing these thoughts while still in Wichita at the General Conference convention. The last General Conference convention was followed by the "first" International Committee of Mennonite Brethren convention. There, I received even more insight into these issues. While all of the presentations were stimulating and informative, the highlight of the ICOMB convention for me was Africa Night, including a passionate message by Mbayamvula, head of the Congo MB Conference.
Unemployment in the Congo stands at 90%. Those with jobs are not being paid. Food is scarce. Having been freed from a brutal dictatorship, the country is once again involved in a cruel civil war. In such a situation, can the MB church manage to hold on, to find a way to survive until times are better and normal church life can resume? The Mennonite Brethren Church has survived. In fact, it is growing. Well, more than that. In the last ten years or so, the Mennonite Brethren Conference in Congo has planted a daughter conference in Angola to the south, by reaching out to Angolan refugees who had fled to Congo. A couple of years ago, with the help of North American agencies, the Congo MB Conference began to do relief work among Rwandan refugees in eastern Congo and eventually added an evangelistic and teaching ministry. More recently, the Conference has begun evangelizing an unreached pygmy people in Cameroon and Central African Republic to the north, as well as others across the river in the "other" Congo. (Our MB Conference is in The Democratic Republic of Congo; the other nation is The Republic of Congo.) The MB Conference in Congo also sent relief funds to the Japan MB Conference when Japan was hit by a hurricane a couple of years ago.
What also struck me was that the presentation at Africa Night was the most joyful of the ICOMB convention.
Mbayamvula spoke to the ICOMB convention on "Renewal through suffering". Among other things, he said, "Whatever your circumstances are, if you're impoverished, if you can't read, you're capable of something....God considers you as having potential." He was talking about making a difference.
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