wfn.org | Westside story: the Mennonite version

[BethAH <BethAH@mbm.org>]

June 27, 2001
Beth Hawn
Mennonite Board of Missions
(219) 294-7523
<NEWS@MBM.org>

June 27, 2001

Westside story: the Mennonite version

BUFFALO, N.Y. (MBM)  West Side Story evokes images of New York
City in the 1950s where the Jets engage the Sharks in murderous
gang fights.  The Mennonite version of West Side Story is being
acted out today among the Tonys and the Marias, the Azizas and
the Ghedis at 184 Barton Street, where love is spilling out of
the doors and into the streets of Buffalo, N.Y., to do battle
with the injustice and violence.

Buffalo, at the turn of the millennium, is a city in decline as
steel mills and the auto industry have shut down.  In the last 20
years, population figures have plummeted from 600,000 to less
than 300,000.  Those who are able to make the jump, leave [the
city].  The families who remain feel they are losing control of
their own destiny, said Pastor Neftali Torres, describing the
context in which he and the 35 members of Westside Mennonite
Church minister.

At this point, I am reminded of a Mennonite-Anabaptist
distinctive, a deep sense of call for community that is
immediate, personal and responsible, Torres said.  This
biblical proposition suggests theology and mission as living
entities to be shaped by the current needs of the community being
served.  Our lives are continuously being shaped; were stretched
by our world.   God is doing new things.

Torres, also an urban ministry director appointed by Mennonite
Board of Missions and the New York Mennonite Conference, has a
vast repertoire of stories about the surprising things that God
is doing in the lives of those who worship with Westside
Mennonite Church.  Attendance often doubles the membership
figure.  The people who lift their hands and voices in praise
defy the neat columns of record books.  There is 4-year-old
Hannah and her powerful conversion experience; Carlos, the
self-appointed member, who never responded to an altar call, yet
is the first in the congregation to volunteer for any kind of
service; the Christian immigrants from Sudan, who assumed they
were members the first Sunday they entered the church 

And then there is Little Angel.

Torress voice softens as he remembers the Good Friday service.
Foot-washing was in progress when 9-year-old Angel walked through
the door with his grandmother.  They waited for their turn at the
basin.  As Angel knelt to wash his grandmothers feet, he said to
those around him,  She is my sister.  Angel and his grandmother
also took communion that day.

Westside Mennonite is drafting a mission statement in which the
congregation is seen as a parent community in a neighborhood
where the concept of family is disintegrating.  In modeling God
as a loving parent, the church community reaches out with
welcoming arms to those in need.

While Westside has many programs for a small congregation,
maintaining programs is not one of the congregations
objectives.  These programs are about being, not doing.

The relationships came first, said John Powell, director of
MBMs department of Evangelism and Church Development and member
of Westside Mennonite.  Westsides programs have grown out of
relationships.  This is contrary to what often happens when
churches create programs and hope that relationships will evolve
out of those programs.

The parent community is a relationship program, he added.  The
parent-child bond is not a hierarchy.  Both are needed to have a
complete family.  They have a responsibility toward each other.

At Westside, everyone in the congregation works at developing
relationships in some way.  Prayer, visitation and small-group
interaction underlie all ministry.  Mentoring allows newcomers to
quickly grow into responsibilities.  Each one, then, makes their
gift available to the community through various means.

Cornelia Peck, a German immigrant, uses art for healing some of
the neighborhoods wounds.  At the foot of the Niagara River, a
few blocks from the church, Peck painted a mural of scenes from
the Underground Railroad.  Currently, she is helping community
people paint their own silhouettes as an alternative to the angry
graffiti that screams from many of Buffalos walls.  As neighbors
work side-by-side to beautify their surroundings, they also take
ownership of the place where they live.

The parent community at Westside can say with Jesus, In my
Fathers house are many rooms.  The ex-television station where
the congregation meets has an antenna that serves as a landmark
anywhere in the city of Buffalo, and its 80 rooms permit the
congregation to act as a broker for various ministries.

As a broker, Westside Mennonite encourages ministries that it
doesnt have the resources to totally support.  The following
programs and services share the spacious building:
? Jericho Road Family Practice, owned and directed by Dr. Myron
Glick, an Anabaptist devoted to holistic treatment of
approximately 3,000 patients annually.
? Journeys End Refugee Resettlement Services, where partnerships
are formed between refugees and local churches to provide
assistance in finding jobs, housing, schooling and medical care.
? Westside Ministries, Inc., begun by Shirley Powell to serve as
an umbrella organization for various projects, including a
mothers group and a mens club.
? Youth ministries, such as a Bible study, a teen leadership club
and an employment program.
? Homework Club, founded and directed by Diann Takens-Cerbone,
where help with school assignments provides a context for showing
Jesus love.
? Urban Leadership Quest, an MBM program that allows people to
test a call to urban ministry.
? ECDs regional office.

Some inner-city congregations believe that using Mennonite in
the name of their church speaks of an ethnicity that creates
barriers for seekers.  In 2000, however, the Buffalo congregation
changed its name from Westside Church of the Living Word to
Westside Mennonite Church when someone showed them literature
about a cult called Church of the Living Word.

Mennonite describes unambiguously who we are and what we stand
for, says Powell.

Westside has taken great strides toward the dream of becoming a
multiracial, multicultural church.  Over the past two years,
however, a number of professional and salaried members have moved
away from Buffalo.  This loss, resulting in fewer financial
resources, has had a serious impact on the congregation and its
ministries.

In response to the circumstances in which Westside finds itself
at this time, the church invites individuals, congregations or
any organization that shares its vision, to share partnership in
ministry through short-term service assignments, financial
sharing or other ways.

* * *

Lynda Hollinger-Janzen                       PHOTOS  AVAILABLE