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Previous | Next July 12-16, Guatemala City
Global Anabaptist Missions Consultation (GAMCo)
Unlike ICOMB and MWC, GAMCo is not an organization but was a one-time consultation on Mennonite mission work around the world, sponsored by Mennonite World Conference and the Council of International Ministries.
From around the world, a passion for missions
Nzash Lumeya of the Democratic Republic of Congo came to the Global Anabaptist Missions Consultation July 12-16 with little good news about his war-torn country but lots of hope for the global church. The war has ravaged villages, killed civilians and destroyed the economy, but it hasn’t quenched the Africans’ passion for Christ and for missions, said Lumeya, a consultation speaker and a Mennonite Brethren missiologist and mission school dean. “This [war] has caused a wilderness, but the grace in this wilderness is the presence of God,” he said in an interview after he spoke at a plenary session July 13. “Some people say, ‘If God loves Congo, than why all this suffering?’ But in the midst of all this suffering, you see the church growing not only in number, but in love for God and one another. The churches in the Congo are even sending missionaries to the Sudan – and to work with Muslims in Kinshasa [the capital city].”
Lumeya’s testimony – of a church eager to spread the gospel, even in the midst of suffering – was one of many similar stories shared at the consultation.
The gathering was the first missions meeting held on such a far-reaching scale for Mennonites and Brethren in Christ. About 200 people from about 50 countries met to foster mutual relationships and to develop mission partnerships in a changing global church, which now has more members in the South and East than in the North and West. Participants included leaders of conferences and mission agencies, missions experts and mission workers.
Delegates from around the world worship together. |
The Council of International Ministries, a group of North American mission agencies and affiliated overseas ministries, and Mennonite World Conference, a fellowship of 84 Mennonite and Brethren in Christ national churches in 50 countries, co-sponsored the meeting at Mariapolis Centre in Guatemala City.
Balancing the need to build relationships and the need to define new mission structures challenged planners of the consultation,
Bedru Hussein of Ethiopia, vice-president of MWC and Stanley Green chair a session of GAMCo. |
said planning committee member Stanley Green, president of Mennonite Board of Missions. The planners used the theme of being at the threshold of a new era and depending on God to open the door from Colossians 4:3: “Pray that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ.”
“On one hand, I feared we would have a big party – but that nothing would be defined,” Green said. “But on the other, I feared we would rush too quickly into structures.” However, the meeting achieved a good balance, he said.
A vision discernment team drafted a consultation findings report – gleaned from general sessions, regional mission interest groups, continental caucuses, workshops, fellowship and worship. It showed a desire for more interdependency and a celebration of God’s gifts distributed throughout the worldwide church.
A continuation committee – consisting of representatives from all continents – will further study and test the findings with various groups and regions before forging a recommendation for a flexible global missions structure. The committee will bring the recommendation to the 14th Mennonite World Conference assembly, tentatively set for Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, in 2003.
Marcos Alvarado of Costa Rica gave an impassioned testimony for interdependency in the last plenary session July 15. “A little more than 15 years ago,” he said, “I was a drug addict and could find a church where people showed me love. Today, thanks to God, this has given me the privilege of being a part of the family of God. We [in Costa Rica] are the fruit of your mission work. We need mutual cooperation, so we can together do the work of God and wait for the return of Christ for His church.” – Laurie L. Oswald, Mennonite Weekly Review, for Meetinghouse
Mission defined
In lively discussions at the Global Anabaptist Missions Consultation, participants grappled to define missions and to envision a structure that will further God’s kingdom. A mission definition drafted by participants – open to further revision and testing – is a starting point:
Mission is defined as actions in words and deeds by churches and their agencies which witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ to persons and peoples outside the community of Christians.
The focus for our exploration of cooperation in mission is on cross-cultural or international mission activities whose goal is to form and nurture new communities of Christian faith among other people groups.
Mission activities would include preaching, teaching, intercessory prayer, fasting, healing, deliverance, church planting, social services, disaster relief, development aid, peacemaking, conflict mediation and training ministries.
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One candle
Throughout the stadium, hundreds of people from many lands and races had participated in communion to conclude the Global Anabaptist Missions Consultation. Smoke from candles they held high in the air for a final prayer wafted around the faces of Latin Americans, Europeans,
North Americans, Asians and Africans. One by one, they blew out their flames and left.
As I stood up, I turned to see an elderly Guatemalan woman with a weathered, lined face. She sat still as a statue, holding her lighted candle. Shocked to see such stillness in the midst of swirling humanity, I suddenly remembered my camera and clicked the last picture on my roll of film. I realized, I was trying to capture the mysterious essence of that gathering – the light of Christ shining in the eyes of His people, never to be extinguished.
From all I had heard about the war that had swept through Guatemala, leaving poverty, broken trust and emotional scars, I could guess at how lines had etched her face. Perhaps she had lost a husband or child in the violence. Perhaps she toiled hard to eat. Less understandable was how certain she seemed of that one small flame, how much fortitude still remained in her eyes.
I brought home a picture of this Guatemalan woman’s wordless testimony of Christ. – Laurie L. Oswald
Gift-sharing the key to missions in a new era
The global Anabaptist church is changing. Participants at the Global Anabaptist Missions Consultation discussed these changes and envisioned how to share their gifts for God’s kingdom in the new millennium.
Churches in Africa, Asia and Latin America – begun through early 20th-century missionary efforts from churches in North American and Europe – have now surpassed their parents in numbers of members. Of the world’s more than one million anabaptist church members, more than half live in the developing countries of the South and East. They have fewer material resources than those in more affluent countries but are rich in relational gifts and spiritual zeal.
This shift has created the need for a new missions model, based on gift-sharing. In this model, countries of varying resources and gifts would all be givers and receivers in missions and would develop mutual relationships that break cycles of Northern and Western dominance. Financial resources would work in tandem with spiritual riches, in recognition of the fact that they all belong to God.
Participants at the consultation grappled with the tensions, joys and implications of these shifts and changes when a vision discernment team presented the final draft of its findings report July 15. Some participants feared the findings report didn’t go far enough in defining structures; others feared that it pushed for making commitments too soon. John Lapp, a church historian from the United States, said: “We have been told this is a historic meeting. . . . I wonder if the response here is adequate enough?” Fimbo Ganvunze of Democratic Republic of Congo said: “We can’t say we have done nothing here. . . . We have taken some important steps.”
The findings report encouraged the Mennonite World Conference General Council to establish a global missions council. Its tasks would include communicating about missionary efforts around the world and promoting regional and national mission consultations and projects.
Participants also committed themselves to:
- relying on God through prayer and worship;
- recapturing the historic Anabaptist zeal for proclaiming and living the gospel as expressed in the New Testament; and
- developing mission strategies that embrace the biblical teaching on peace and justice.
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The report also targeted gift-sharing issues: “Our worldwide resources are not evenly distributed, so we need to seek ways to share our material, human and spiritual resources so that they are used wisely for the kingdom.
Nzash Lumeya of Congo said: “I will leave [the consultation] with gratitude for all who have listened to the Spirit speaking. And if I remember anything, it will be that it is not only the 16th-century Anabaptists who can be faithful; we today are also radical disciples sharing the gospel throughout the whole world.” – Laurie L. Oswald, for Meetinghouse
Reflections on GAMCo
The purpose of this consultation was for anabaptist church leaders from around the world to gather for felIowship around the theme of global mission. Biblically-based presentations challenged attendees to re-commit to the carrying out of the Great Commission. Much time was spent praying together. Several individuals shared on the theme “How the gospel came to my people”. In continental caucuses, presentations were given on possible specific strategies of co-operation and collaboration.
A vision discernment team had been assigned to listen and summarize discussions. This team presented a draft of a mission statement for the delegates to adopt. However, the delegation did not come to agreement on the statement. While they agreed on the importance of collaboration, the delegates were not prepared to commit to specific strategies. (In some of the continental caucuses, delegates did commit to further dialogue and the pursuit of partnership in various ways.)
In spite of the slow progress, I think the consultation was valuable in that it provided an opportunity for church leaders to meet. Relationships were built and/or strengthened. As those relationships become stronger, partnership will follow.
Another aspect of global mission that anabaptist churches face is partnership not just with anabaptist churches but also with other evangelical churches. Though this aspect was referred to several times, it did not seem to find favour with many. There appeared to be some ethnic and denominational “baggage” still in the way of this happening at this time. I think anabaptist churches have much to contribute and receive in this wider collaboration.
All in all, I found the consultation valuable. We need to give more attention to working in collaboration with the global family in global mission. Consultations like this one will facilitate that happening. – Ike Bergen, outgoing Moderator, Canadian MB Conference
Good Samaritans provide aid at international meetings
The 200 participants in the Global Anabaptist Mission Consultation had several opportunities to provide assistance to people with whom they had connections.
On the second day of the consultation, participants were informed that a Mennonite mission worker in Guatemala, Dale Wolgemuth, had suffered a heart attack in Monte Cristo, a nine-hour drive north of Guatemala City. He had been brought to the city and needed blood. Six of the GAMCo people who had the needed blood type went to the hospital to donate blood for Wolgemuth. According to latest reports, Wolgemuth, who was flown home to the USA for medical care, is doing well. He and his wife Lois, were serving as medical workers in the Monte Cristo area, sponsored by Eastern Mennonite Missions.
On the first day of the consultation, participants were informed that the eight representatives from the Democratic Republic of Congo had all lost their luggage on the flights to Guatemala. An offering was taken to help them replace some of the lost items. Nearly $900 US was raised for this purpose. Eventually the lost luggage caught up with them, and the Congo delegates passed on some of the gifts they had received to others who had experienced lost luggage too.
The GAMCo meeting and the Mennonite World Conference General Council meeting which followed also had special times of prayer for three participants: Hiroko Inamine of Japan, Doris Dube of Zimbabwe and Marie-Noelle von der Recke of Germany, who all experienced the death of a parent or sibling during their time in Guatemala City and needed to return home early. – Eleanor Miller, Mennonite World Conference
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Last modified October 20, 2000.
© 2000 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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