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General MB Conference celebration
Passing on the fire


When 18 people gathered in a small Russian village in 1860, they fanned a fire that has since burned into the hearts of hundreds of thousands of people around the world. Those ordinary villagers hungered for the community and fire of the early New Testament church. By signing the Document of Secession, they birthed the Mennonite Brethren Church,

“Jeremiah”, (Wayne Dahl), prophesies at evening celebrations

breaking with an established Mennonite Church they described as ritualistic and steeped in “open godlessness” and “corruption”.

The fire that burned in the hearts of these spiritual forefathers was symbolically and structurally passed on to future generations this summer during three nights of celebration honouring the General (North American) MB Conference, which effectively dissolved on July, 27, 2002.

The General Conference, started in 1879 by MB immigrants from Russia to North America, provided a structure in which MBs could grow, minister and function as a family for over 123 years. Many ministries came under the Conference umbrella, continuing even after the US and Canada formed individual national Conferences in 1954. In 1999, delegates to the General Conference convention in Wichita, Kan. voted to dissolve the General Conference and transfer its ministries – in missions, publishing, seminary education, theological guidance and history – to the US and Canadian Conferences.

How do you commemorate such a thing? At the closing communion service, General Conference executive secretary Marvin Hein compared the gathering to a funeral. “We unashamedly hold on – remembering and celebrating the life of this Conference and its ministries”, he said, but we also let go. “Just as we release loved ones to depart from this life, so we need to let go of what was once a very vibrant part of the Kingdom work and now will be replaced by the new.”

Laura Kalmar, Marvin Hein, Eric Wingender serve communion at Saturday evening celebration

A call to fire

The two speakers during the celebration programs issued a passionate call for Mennonite Brethren to keep the fire burning.

“It’s all about the secret of my delight,” declared Thursday night speaker Lynn Jost, professor of Bible at Tabor College in Hillsboro, Kan., referring to Jeremiah 9:23-24. The real prize is intimacy with God – and to know God we must know Scripture. But our culture fights against intimacy with God. “We live in a culture . . . where the highest value . . . is economic wealth and growth.” As in Jeremiah’s time, injustice comes in the accumulation of wealth when others are in need, but knowing God includes seeking justice for the oppressed. This means that instead of praying for our children to be rich, we should pray that they are filled with the fire of God.

“Difficulty seeing is part of the human condition,” said Friday night speaker Dan Unrau, pastor at Fraserview MB Church in Richmond, B.C. The men who encountered the resurrected Jesus on the road to Emmaus missed who Jesus was because they were distracted. “We have trouble seeing,” Unrau said, because “the spirit voices of this age are distracting us.” These voices tell us that there is no central truth, all roads lead to the same end and tolerance is everything. How do we not get caught up in the values of this age? We must be aware of the true nature of the church. “It doesn’t exist to give us what we want. The church exists for its mission to tell the world of Jesus.”

John Nickel, Rudy Baerg with Celebration Choir

The Past: Celebrating our spiritual heritage

On the first evening, a readers’ theatre, interspersed with testimonies, music and photos on an overhead screen, portrayed MB history from the early beginnings when a small group of villagers gave birth to a faith profoundly affected by anabaptism and evangelicalism (a mixture of “Menno Simons and Billy Graham,” suggested Éric Wingender, president of École de Théologie Évangélique de Montréal.)

The readers continued the story as groups of MBs left Russia and arrived in North America in the late 1800s and early 1900s, keeping in touch through Zionsbote (an early German-language publication) and travelling preachers. Life was hard, but the fire still burned. Missionaries were sent to the corners of the world, ministries sprang up, schools came into being, and churches spread across the continent.

Gradually, the readers reached 1999, when delegates voted to dissolve the General Conference. The story, they said, was not about the beginning and end of a structure, but about the individuals who made up that structure.

One such story, that of “Nels” (C.N. Hiebert), was told by his son Clarence. Unable to farm because a broken right arm never healed properly, Nels struggled with what God wanted him to do. One mission captured his attention – going from house to house selling Bibles and literature. Through his simple, Bible-based sermons and vivid storytelling, he became an influential preacher. After 20 years, at a 1925 convention, MB delegates asked him to be Winnipeg’s city missionary among nominally Christian, German-speaking immigrants. His ministry suddenly expanded when thousands of immigrants escaping Russia’s Communist revolution arrived in the late 1920s. In 1948, Mennonite Central Committee asked Nels to minister to immigrants in Paraguay for two years. Later, he went to Germany and Austria for a two-and-a-half-year refugee ministry. At the time of his death, a former refugee said, “As a little girl, I felt this man was more like Jesus than anyone else I know.”

Dave Balzer, Amy Siu Ling Lam, John Lopez and Alexandr Kapria share their testimonies at evening celebration

The Present: One in vibrant diversity

“From our birth in 1860, the fire of God has spread out over the nations and taken shape in many different ways,” said Mary Anne Isaak, pastor at College Community Church in Clovis, Calif., opening the Friday night program. Today, MBs worship in many different languages. Our churches have different music styles. Some lean toward the evangelical stream of our heritage, others toward the anabaptist stream. Yet, “we are one in Christ in our vibrant diversity.”

This diversity and the work of God among us today were symbolized by the stories by four MBs. Sitting on stools, they were interviewed by Dave Balzer, host of Family Life Network’s God Talk. (FLN is a ministry of the Manitoba MB Conference.)

Pastor Alexander Chernikov shared the story of Pilgrim Slavic MB Church in Spokane, Wash. Started 10 years ago with 40 people, the church grew, and prayed to find a place to meet. They found a building appraised at $1 million. With a loan from MB Foundation, a stewardship ministry of the US MB Conference, they bought the building for only $250,000. Instead of taking 12 years to pay it off, they made their last payment four years later. The church now numbers about 500.

John Lopez shared a story of personal redemption. Twenty-one years ago, Lopez was in a hospital 12-step recovery program. Looking at the ceiling, he said, “God, if You are there, let me know.” Twice he heard God’s voice: “I never left you.” Today, Lopez leads Grace Community Church in Sanger, Calif. “I found a church for the first time in my life that feels like home,” he said. “Thank you for adopting me into this family.”

Amy Lam’s story was one of deep pain and comfort. In a voice that sometimes broke, Lam shared that her husband, pastor of Tri-City Chinese Christian Church near Vancouver, had died of cancer six months before. “God promised that we could have joy and peace even during cancer,” she said. Lam feels it important to tell her story whenever she can because many who have heard it have turned their lives over to Jesus. “I am willing to continue serving God,” she said, thanking God, her congregation and the MB family for their care.

Balzer also shared a story. He played two minutes of a God Talk program featuring listener response to Balzer’s use of the word “mercy” after the Sept. 11 attacks. It was apparent that the word had sparked controversy. Evangelical anabaptism is perfect for talk radio, Balzer said. “It is controversial, thought-provoking and, every now and then, entertaining.”

The Future: What is yet to come

“How do you portray what is yet to come?” General Conference executive secretary Marvin Hein asked as he began Saturday evening’s program. The service attempted to do it by hearing from those on the “cutting edge” of ministry.

Butler Ave. MB Church in Fresno, Calif. is a multi-culture, multi-language body much like the vision Revelation presents, said Pastor Rod Suess. Noting that the youth and children at Butler MB are the quickest to cross into “uncharted territory”, he concluded, “I need to hang around young people more. They are ready to move.”

While working in a camp with inner-city kids, Jenny Shantz heard about their problems. She thought, “I must do something.” Today, she is working in a church-sponsored centre for kids in inner-city Vancouver. The lives of the children are hard, but “it is amazing to see God working in lives,” Shantz said. “I’m looking forward to God using them to be the future leaders.”

While at Bible College, Christie Neumann knew she wanted to do God’s will, but she didn’t feel she “could hear the voice of God for myself”. In September 2000, she went on a 10-month mission trip with YMI–TREK, a short-term mission program of MBMS International. “Those were the hardest 10 months of my life,” she said. “I asked God to break and mould me – and He definitely did.” In Guatemala, Neumann learned Spanish and shared her faith. “It was the beginning of a new love for the lost,” she said. In Colombia, the people she worked with inspired her. “God taught me to be bold in what I believe.” Back in Canada, Neumann found another love – for the youth group at her church. She is now hearing God calling her to be a youth sponsor. “I never want to get too comfortable in one place,” she added. “I want to live my life so that when God calls me, I can pick up and go.”

Neumann’s radical commitment to Jesus is not unique among MB youth, said Trever Godard, mission instructor at Bethany College in Hepburn, Sask. “They are willing to sacrifice – careers and even their lives.” The next generation of leaders, he said, “are looking for someone to disciple them, someone they can follow”. Godard challenged those present to share their experience by coming “alongside our young people”.

 – Carmen Andres

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Last modified December 17, 2002.

© 2002 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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