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Strasbourg, France
Global gift sharing workshops held in Africa


“This is the first time in our history that Mennonite World Conference has brought us together with another church. We have always shared a boundary, but we have never had contact. There has been a spirit of gift sharing through the format of this workshop.”

These were the closing remarks of Michael Badasu, moderator of Ghana Mennonite Church, at the end of the joint two-day Ghana/Burkina Faso Global Gifts Sharing Project held in Accra, Ghana in April.

The Accra workshop was the last of nine held throughout Africa over the past six months with MWC member churches. It was the first time two member churches, Ghana Mennonite Church and the Evangelical Mennonite Church of Burkino Faso, were brought together in the same workshop.

The Global Gifts Sharing Project (GGSP) is a world-wide initiative of MWC to encourage the sharing and exchange of gifts among churches in different parts of the world. Through such sharing, it is hoped that the unity of the church will be strengthened and that churches can develop a stronger awareness of their own and others’ gifts.

The first phase of this project involves the compilation of a global inventory, or “offering”, of gifts available within each member conference. In the second phase, the inventory is made available to churches and church-related institutions and programs with the hope that churches will take the initiative in setting up sharing and exchange relationships with each other.

The team leading the workshops consists of MWC project coordinator Pakisa Tshimika of Fresno, Calif., and Tim Lind of Durban, South Africa.

Tshimika, who is also Africa program director for MBMS International, said, “Mennonite World Conference is not particularly well known beyond the national leadership level. Often it is understood as a club for leaders who occasionally travel to far away places for meetings.” Through discussion of MWC goals, the workshops encourage a broader ownership and accountability of MWC among church members.

However, the Accra workshop presented special challenges in bringing together a French-speaking and an English-speaking church. The standard workshop format used in other parts of Africa was modified. A brief history of each church and background information about MWC and the GGSP were given. There were sessions on the theological understanding of gifts and gift sharing and a discussion on how those gifts are understood in the various cultural traditions represented. Participants divided into small groups to identify resources and gifts in their churches.

“Many of the member churches in Africa are quite isolated and have little or no means of communication with Mennonites and Brethren in Christ in other countries,” noted Tshimika. “As a result, BICs and Mennonites in places like Angola, Tanzania and Congo are naturally receptive to the idea that they are part of a global family.”

One Ghanaian participant likened the Accra gathering to a family reunion: “I have come to experience that we are one in the Mennonite family. In spite of language barriers, these two churches are one. There is no tension between us. It is as though we have known each other for a long time.”

According to Lind, who also works with the Mennonite Central Committee Africa Connecting Peoples activities, an exciting aspect of these workshops is seeing how the biblical understanding of gifts and the sharing of gifts parallel those taught by a variety of cultural traditions. “While the workshops have often been made up of people from half a dozen or more distinct cultural and language groups, participants agree that all gifts are of divine origin and are intended by God to be shared with others. We believe that these are the biblical principles regarding gifts.”

In many of the workshops, the acknowledgement of this fundamental continuity between culture and biblical faith led to serious reflection on why the ethic of sharing gifts is not stronger in African churches. “Many African churches struggle to support their structures, including their pastors,” said Lind. “While it is true that many African Brethren in Christ and Mennonites do not have a lot of material resources, we know that a much higher level of self-support is possible.”

While the objective of the workshop is to prepare an inventory of gifts, participants and facilitators agree that the process itself has been more valuable than anything else. “Churches in Africa have for many years been used to thinking of themselves as only having needs,” Tshimika explained. “The gift sharing workshops are in a small way contributing to a different perspective.” As one Zimbabwe participant enthusiastically remarked, “We are a rich church!”

Lind agrees that the African churches have many gifts to share with each other and with those in other parts of the world. “For centuries, Africa has been a supplier of resources to the rest of the world, whether forcibly through the slave trade and colonial exploitation, or voluntarily through the migration of African professionals to other countries.”

A preliminary report of the Africa portion of the GGSP will be presented to the MWC General Council meeting in Guatemala in July. It is envisioned that GGSP facilitators will be working within churches in other parts of the world during the coming year.

 – Mennonite World Conference

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Last modified July 20, 2007.

© 2007 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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