wfn.org | MBCM transfers evangelism portfolio

[BethAH@mbm.org]

March 28, 2001
Beth Hawn
Mennonite Board of Missions
(219) 294-7523
<NEWS@MBM.org>

March 28, 2001

MBCM transfers evangelism portfolio to MBM

ELKHART, Ind. (MBM) – Inspired by the theme of integration that
currently pervades the Mennonite Church, some church agencies are
consolidating in preparation for restructuring that will take
place this year.

On Oct. 21, 2000, Mennonite Board of Congregational Ministries
transferred the evangelism portfolio it held for nine years to
Mennonite Board of Missions.  John H. Powell, director of
Evangelism and Church Development for MBM since 1997, will give
leadership to the program, though MBCM continues to provide
funding for the interim period.

Powell said he believes it is right that evangelism and mission
should be part of the same agency.  “Mission and evangelism
belong together,” he said.  “[Their union] speaks to who Christ
is and what the church is about.  We need to bring more than a
cup of cold water.  We need to talk the walk.”

The transfer of the evangelism portfolio strengthens the mandate
under which ECD has been operating.  “I am convinced … that if
churches are going to be planted and developed, local
congregations must be challenged to do it,” Powell said.

Powell’s dream is for church plants to grow out of established
congregations centered in mission that will enter into long-term
partnerships.  Many times when a conference begins a new
congregation, it includes the church plant in its budget for
three to five years.  After this period, the conference expects
the church plant to flourish on its own.

Powell is building on the legacy that his predecessor, Allan
Yoder, left.  “We are working at the development of an Anabaptist
theology for the city,” said Powell.

“Are we really following Jesus, if we aren’t telling others why?”
asks Dale Bauman in Mission Insight (No. 11), an MBM publication
that encourages reflection on modern-day mission issues.

In his preface to Bauman’s essay, Powell writes that early
Anabaptists threatened the established order to such an extent
that authorities clamped tongue screws on them so they could not
tell their torturers about the love of Jesus.  “Are there ‘tongue
screws’ in my life that keep me – even today – from active,
effective evangelism?” asks Powell.

The October transfer of the evangelism portfolio marks its return
to MBM.  In 1991, MBCM assumed the responsibility for the LIFE
(Living in Faithful Evangelism) process.

LIFE was MBM’s response to the 10-year goals that were set in
Ames, Iowa, in 1985 at the Mennonite Church General Assembly.
These goals for measurable numerical growth came to be known as
Vision 95.  They included a call for 500 new congregations and an
increase in overall membership growth by 50 percent in North
America.

The movement of the LIFE process from MBM to MBCM was an
acknowledgement that because evangelism is an integral component
of a healthy congregation, it needed to be administered by the
agency that carried responsibility for nurturing established
congregations.  However, MBM continued to facilitate the creation
of new congregations in urban settings, where there were no
previously existing Mennonite churches.

G. Edwin Bontrager, who joined MBM in 1987 and continued on staff
with MBCM from 1991-2000, gave leadership to the implementation
of the LIFE process in Mennonite churches throughout North
America.  More than 300 congregations followed the three-year
process through to completion.

As the LIFE process peaked in the mid-1990s, the integration
process of the Mennonite church and the General Conference
Mennonite Church took center stage.  At the same time, the
Damascus Road anti-racism project began to call for programs that
served the entire Mennonite Church.  The MBCM board discovered
that the LIFE process did not help mostly white congregations
reach out to other racial/ethnic groups.  Consequently, Bontrager
coordinated the development of new modules that would help
congregations in cross-cultural evangelism.

The LIFE process is now being promoted by New Life Ministries
based in Mt. Joy, Pa.  This is a cooperative initiative among
five Anabaptist denominations and two para-church organizations.
Bontrager, now a pastor in Virginia, represents the Mennonite
Church on New Life’s board of trustees, and Dale Bauman, the ECD
consultant for church-wide evangelism, is on the management team.

The memorandum of agreement that established the terms for
transferring the evangelism portfolio from MBCM to MBM will be
reviewed after July 1, 2001.  “ECD is looking beyond the interim
period,” Powell said.  “We are making assessments as to what will
be needed in the new church structures and trying to be fluid
enough to be restructured.

“Our main challenge,” Powell continued, “is to get the church to
realize that mission is part of its DNA.  I’m hopeful that we can
help the leaders and congregations to see the vision and to be
part of God’s creative energy.”

Powell was a professor at Houghton (N.Y.) College and directed
the college’s Pastoral and Church Ministries program until
February 2001, when his part-time position at MBM became
full-time.  Powell’s association with MBM dates back to 1968,
when he became executive secretary for the Minority Ministries
Council.

ECD serves the church through prayer ministries, the channeling
of resources, funding, and the training of leaders.  Networking
among church leaders happens through ECD-sponsored regional
conferences and annual gatherings.  ECD also publishes a
grassroots newsletter, Urban Connections.  On-site urban ministry
directors extend ECD’s services to ten strategic areas in North
America.

* * *

Lynda Hollinger-Janzen