During our most recent conference, frequent conversations focused on how we relate to our larger church institutions. Do we take on the role of prophet, calling institutions to new ways of thinking? Or do we work within the systems in place to make small but meaningful steps in reconciliation? Can we do both?
A recent post, found at the Interchurch Relations page of the Mennonite Church USA offers some reflection:
Movements and institutions need each other.
This summer and early fall I met people who are part of movement Christianity.
In August I attended a Jesus Radicals gathering hosted at Portland (Ore.) Mennonite Church.
In September I attended a gathering of community networkers convened by Reba Place Fellowship in Evanston, Ill., a Mennonite Church USA congregation, to discuss how to support newer discipleship communities.
Later I flew to Southern California and participated in a west coast Catholic Worker retreat. These Catholics live together in houses of hospitality, emphasizing the importance of Christian peace witness.
I also spent time with Urban Village, an intentional community birthed out of a Sunday school class at Pasadena (Calif.) Mennonite Church.
At the Abundant Table Farm Project in Oxnard, Calif., I was inspired by the integration of work, church and life as an organic farm, intentional community and worshiping community all use the same land.
In each case these groups are alternative communities interacting with the institutional church in a variety of ways.
After these visits I landed in Pittsburgh for MC USA’s Leaders Forum, a gathering of conference representatives, agency board members and denominational staff. I was there in my staff role with MC USA, feeling the tensions of working within the institutional church while also being in relationship with movements on the margins. I thought of how different we look today from the “leaders forum” that met in a barn, secretly, to draft the Schleitheim Confession in 1527.
Given our Anabaptist origins, I wondered, how are our institutions accountable to movements at the margins? Have we given increasing power to institutions while limiting movements in our midst? How have movements, at times, refused to engage with institutional structures?
Have we become either cynical about institutions or dismissive of movements? What could it look like for there to be mutual accountability between movements and institutions, recognizing that institutions often carry disproportionate amounts of power?
Let’s be open to the Spirit’s creativity and wisdom, wherever it is found.
Joanna Shenk, of Elkhart, Ind., is associate for interchurch relations and communications with Mennonite Church USA.
While written from a specifically Mennonite perspective, this post has some things to say about the broader issues at work here. As we continue to discern and move forward in this second decade of Bridgefolk, what are your thoughts?
