mbmission.org
Fall 2018
TOGETHER that the world may know
Witness Fall 2018
Contents Editorial: Together as One Family............................2 Two Families Becoming One....................................4 Mogoya!....................................................................6
TOGETHER as one family
From MB Mission to Multiply...................................8 Young Peacemakers in the Middle East.................10 Parakeets in the Pines.............................................12
Editorial by Randy Friesen
Pastoring a City.......................................................14
Staff Editor-in-Chief......................................Randy Friesen Managing Editor............................... Mark JH Klassen Layout & Design.................................. Darcy Scholes Illustration & Design............................. Colton Floris Writing & Prayer Mobilization.................Nikki White Media Director......................................Daniel Lichty Circulation & Administration..................Ann Wiebe
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I will never forget the experience in 1995 when I was gathered with 5000 mission leaders from around the world at the Global Consultation on World Evangelism in Seoul, Korea. The unity, urgency, and diversity of that gathering deeply impacted me as a young mission leader. The nations were together as one family before God, and we experienced his presence in a powerful way. Our heavenly Father must feel so much joy on occasions like that when his big family meets together! Our vision for the family of God must be guided by the vision that our Father gave us in John’s Revelation: “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb’” (Revelation 7:9-10). Is this vision only reserved for the future, or can we view it as our Father’s best plan for us now? With God’s grace, we can live into this amazing vision of diversity within the body of Christ unified in his presence. How would that be possible? In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he calls them to “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). In our Father’s eyes, we are already one body, one family. We often don’t act like that, so sometimes we need to be reminded of the importance of peacemaking within Ephesians 4:3 the family of God! Sometimes it seems that we’d rather make peace with our enemies than with our brothers and sisters from other denominations. The Holy Spirit unites us and fills us with peace. When we meet other Christ followers from around the world, we sense the bond of peace within them, testifying to the presence of Christ. When we experience the reality of Christ in our lives, there is no place for arrogance, defiance or defensiveness. God’s will for us is unity; only the enemy wants to divide us. I think the leaders of the Early Church would be astounded at the fractured state of the Church today.
“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
Are we really making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the Body of Christ? When Jesus prayed for the Church, he said, “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me” (John 17:21-23). Jesus was praying that we would live on mission together that the world may know. The key to unity in Christ’s prayer is God’s glory, his presence. That means not just God’s Spirit indwelling us, but our pursuit of his presence as we gather for corporate worship and intercession before God’s throne. What if Revelation 7 was not just a picture of what heaven will be, but of who we are today – the children of God seeking the face of our Father? I was in Nairobi, Kenya some years ago, and I was invited to speak at a large church in the Mathare slum. When I arrived for the evening service, I discovered that services had been running every two hours throughout the day since 8:00 AM. This church was attracting some 12,000 people every Sunday. At that time, they were meeting in a large circus tent next to the concrete shell of their future sanctuary. As I walked up the aisle toward the podium, I sensed the presence of the Lord in a way I would never forget. When I found my seat at the front, that awareness only became stronger. As the service began and thousands of Christ followers entered into worship, I was overcome by the presence of the Lord and I found myself weeping. When I got up to speak, the words flowed and
my translator seemed to be completing my sentences and reading my mind! There is nothing like the anointing of the Holy Spirit. As the service closed, many responded to the Gospel and came forward to receive prayer. Before I left that place, I pulled aside one of the pastors and fumbled for words. “How is this happening?” I asked, “Why is there such a powerful presence of the Lord in this church?” He smiled at me and said, “Come here tomorrow morning at 5:00 AM and pray with thousands of people who gather together every day to seek the presence of the Lord before they walk to work. Or join us on Friday night when thousands more will gather to pray all night for the Lord to pour out his presence on our lives, our families, our community and our nation.” The presence of the Lord was transforming this congregation! I took the pastor’s invitation and joined them for the all-night prayer meeting and witnessed their bold prayers for the Gospel to go throughout the earth. I believe that the Lord is uniting his Body today and pouring out his Spirit in preparation for an unprecedented harvest around the world. This is the heart behind our new tagline, “together that the world may know.” This is more than a catchy marketing line; it is the prayer of Jesus for us, and the key to greater effectiveness in mission. Let’s make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit and become the family of peacemakers that Jesus is calling us to be. Let’s come together, worship together and work together, as MBs, as the Body of Christ, and as all nations before his throne!
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TWO FAMILIES BECOMING ONE in Mae Phrao By Jon Esau, Thailand “When I was ten years old,” Chaloerm said, “we moved to a Khmu village called Mae Phrao, where my father intended to plant a church. The leader of the village was a man named Dtailang who hated Christians, so we were forced to live outside of the village, separate from everyone else.” Most of the people in the village were animists, which meant they believed that spirits controlled their lives and they needed to appease those spirits in order to be protected. Since Chaloerm’s family believed in Jesus as a higher authority, they refused to participate in appeasing the spirits, which made the animists feel afraid, vulnerable and sometimes angry. Eventually, Chaloerm’s family heard about a piece of land in the village next to the cemetery. The villagers said that it was haunted by ghosts and filled with snakes. “Since the owner didn’t want the land, we were able to acquire it,” recalled Chaloerm. “We moved onto the property and my father prayed that God would protect us.” 4 | witness
Dtailang, however, continued to rally the villagers against Chaloerm’s family. Although they faced persecution constantly, the family endured it and eventually a church was planted on their property.
Although they faced persecution constantly, the family endured it and eventually a church was planted on their property. When he was sixteen years old, Chaloerm left Mae Phrao to study in Chiang Mai. There he was welcomed into a Khmu community where there were other believers. “It was there that my faith became my own,” he said. “I knew
I wanted to serve God and his kingdom, so I went to Bible School to equip myself for God’s calling on my life.” Then the news came that Dtailang had passed away. After many difficult years, Chaloerm and his family wondered if anything would change in their relationships with the other villagers. After years of preparation, Chaloerm went back to Mae Phrao to embrace his calling: “I returned to my village to pastor the church that my father had started. I didn’t know how hostile Dtailang’s family would be toward me, but I knew that I needed to invest in the members and leaders of the Mae Phrao church.” The first sign of change came one day when Dtailang’s son, Phuu, approached Chaloerm and asked for his help. “My daughter is sick,” he said. “She has convulsions and goes into shock. Something is severely wrong. The doctors can’t fix it, and the animist priests can’t fix it. Can you?” Chaloerm gathered the church leaders together and they laid hands on Phuu’s daughter. They prayed for her in the name of Jesus, and she was healed. It was a turning point in Mae Phrao. “The girl and her parents came to Christ that day,” said Chaloerm, “because they saw the truth and power of Jesus.” Others in Dtailang’s family were furious. They began to persecute Phuu over his decision to follow Christ. Some even disowned him. Then Dtailang’s widow became ill. In the midst of her suffering, people from the church began to visit her regularly and to help her in various ways. “A door was opened in her heart,” Chaloerm explained, “as we reached out to her in love.”
After some time, the church elders went to her and prayed for her healing. “God met her at once and took away her pain,” said Chaloerm, “and immediately she also put her faith in Christ.”
They prayed for her in the name of Jesus, and she was healed. It was a turning point in Mae Phrao. Next, it was Dtailang’s daughter-in-law who attended one of the church gatherings and heard the Gospel. She also decided to follow Jesus, despite the fact that her husband, Dtailang’s other son, followed in the footsteps of his father and was a strong persecutor of Christians. He didn’t want his wife to attend church without him, so he accompanied her every week to see what these Christians were really about. Gradually, his heart was moved by the love that he saw and he became convinced that what he was seeing and hearing was true, so he also accepted Jesus as his Savior. “Most of Dtailang’s family are still unbelievers,” Chaloerm said. “But one by one, they are being reconciled to God and to our church family. Those who once stood in opposition to the Gospel have joined hands with us – their former enemies – and today they are becoming more and more involved in serving and expanding God’s kingdom in Mae Phrao and beyond!”
PRAY Please pray for Dtailang’s family, that they would all be reconciled to God. And pray for Chaloerm as he continues to be involved in pastoring, church planting and leadership training among Khmu people in Northern Thailand. Chaloerm is married to Baeng and they have two children.
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MOGOYA! By Phil Bergen, Burkina Faso “So, is there a bag of drinks for me too?” I asked, and smiled. It worked! The woman behind the desk laughed and smiled broadly back at me – a sweaty white man with messy hair. She was clearly surprised to hear me speak her language. But then, she had surprised me first. I was at the national power company in Bobo Dioulasso, the second largest city in Burkina Faso, sitting on a hard plastic chair and feeling not so fresh from hours of running errands by bicycle on hot, dusty streets. I had been watching this woman, one of the directors, pulling soft drinks out of crates stacked by her desk, and packing gift assortments into plastic bags. All the while she was also making phone calls, and then handing the bags out to individuals who were stopping in after receiving one of those calls. Clearly this activity was a top priority, and she was taking it very seriously.
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While waiting respectfully to be noticed, my eyes had wandered to the documents posted on the wall. One read, “Instead of telling God about your really big problems, try telling your really big problems about God.” Fascinating! None of this was what I expected to see at a major utilities provider. I asked her, “What does handing out pop have to do with running the local electricity grid?”
“It’s Easter,” she explained, “and the Christians could use help with their parties. These drinks are the gifts purchased by us Muslims for the Christians who work here.”
“It’s Easter,” she explained, “and the Christians could use help with their parties. These drinks are the gifts purchased by us Muslims for the Christians who work here.” My jaw hit the floor. “At Ramadan, it’s the other way around,” she went on. “The Christians buy food gifts for us Muslims.” Now the poster made more sense. Her actions were based on seeing godliness, not as a burden, but as a practical answer to everyday life. Here was an employer who was determined to see good things in both the Christian and Muslim faiths, and she was taking steps to help in the free expression of those faiths. Here, I realized, people were being treated as people first, and employees second. What a wonderfully Burkinabé way of seeing things! My heart soared like an eagle in a spring sky as I basked in the warmth of this aspect of Burkina culture. To show this woman of substance that I understood, I said, “What you are doing is mogoya!” At my use of this Jula word, she stood tall and smiled again, seeing that I understood her language and her people’s values. In Jula, mogoya means “humanness”. It is a weighty concept, taken from the word mogow, meaning “people”. In English, we have the word “humanity”, but that doesn’t quite cover it. Humanness is what is expressed in acts of kindness that bring no reward other than a healthy relationship. It happens when we oppose the strong taking what they want from the weak, when we do the hard work of building partnerships rather than hierarchies, and when we have enough faith to joke about our problems rather than moan over them. It’s that part of our nature that is ethical. Mogoya is when we are most truly human. After taking care of my business at the power company, I took my dusty, sweaty clothes and my happy heart over to the central police station. I needed to have a vehicle document legalized by Interpol. Having had my curiosity aroused at the last office, I asked here as well if the people in their organization also gave each other cross-religion gifts at holiday times. “Of course!” came the prompt reply. “All important civil services do that sort of thing.”
Burkina is the land of mogoya , where all of us – Christian and non-Christian – are understood as being made in God’s image. How had I not known about this? During our twenty-five years in Burkina, perhaps I had been distracted by all of the corruption I had seen, especially as the influx of cash contributed to the breakdown of community. I had seen truth routinely reshaped for personal gain. I had seen how almost everyone would, at some point, turn to evil spirits to help them get more than their fair share, usually at someone else’s expense. I had seen people live in constant fear of the reprisals of the injured and the ongoing demands of those same spirits. And yet Burkina is also the land of mogoya, where all of us – Christian and non-Christian – are understood as being made in God’s image. In this case, non-Christians were acting like Jesus, reaching out to give gifts to those whom they have traditionally perceived as their enemies. Imagine what could happen, I thought to myself, if these people had the Holy Spirit! The good that they do could then be empowered by God to fulfill the dreams of their entire society, enabling them to change so that they could live fully human lives, guided by godly ethics instead of by selfish impulses. It has happened elsewhere. It’s starting to happen here too. That day, I felt encouraged, as I hope you do, to recommit to following Jesus, our role model for being more truly human through the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit.
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From MB Mission to Multiply We have been working together to understand what it means to live on One Mission – locally, nationally and globally. How do we learn together to live on cross-cultural mission both here and around the world? In a world where mission is now “from everywhere to everywhere” church planters are learning from each other globally. The merger between MB Mission and C2C has opened the door for MB Mission to participate in new churchplanting strategy conversations in North America and it has also given C2C opportunity to speak into strategy conversations with church conferences globally. Following the merger, the MB Mission Board engaged in a strategic planning process to define the structure of this newly merged mission entity. As we talked to our global workers, staff and leaders within the International Community of Mennonite Brethren (ICOMB), we sensed that the Lord was inviting us into a new wineskin – a completely new global church-planting network called Multiply. Multiply will continue to plant both MB churches and, as we are invited, assist other denominations in their church-planting strategies. Multiply will continue to be governed by the current MB Mission Board, which represents both the US and Canadian MB conferences. Multiply will continue to honor donor intent for donations that are designated either to global mission or to domestic church planting. However, Multiply will now offer an integrated local, national and global church-planting strategy to church structures and planning circles at the provincial/state, national and global levels and, most importantly, to our local supporting churches. Our prayer is that every Christ follower would be equipped to live and share the Gospel and every church would be involved in planting a church both locally and globally. Our new tagline for Multiply is: together that the world may know. We invite you to hear more of the story at multiply.net
Randy Friesen General Director
together that the world may know
FAQs Why did MB Mission and the C2C Network merge to become one agency? This merger has brought local and global mission closer together at a time when the world of mission is changing. Some of the least-reached peoples of the world are moving to the West and the church of the Global South is emerging as a growing mission force. The false dichotomy between the work of “the church” and “missions” is being replaced by a growing understanding that God is on a mission and his missionary is the Church. Mission is now “from everywhere to everywhere.” The best of C2C’s church-planter support systems along with MB Mission’s contextual and holistic mission strategies have come together in one agency to more effectively help the world get to know Jesus.
What is the mission, ministry and governance of this merged agency? Our mission is to facilitate church planting locally, nationally and globally. This is accomplished through making disciples, planting churches and growing partnerships with others who share this focus. The new agency will be governed by the current binational board of MB Mission, representing the US and Canadian Conferences of MB Churches.
Why change the name to Multiply? When will this happen? Multiply has been a word that God has been speaking into the strategy of MB Mission and C2C for a long time. We believe the whole church is called to live on mission and to multiply. According to Jesus, those who abide in him will bear much fruit! As we humble ourselves and generously live and share the Gospel, like a seed that falls into the ground and dies, the impact is exponential. We will officially launch as Multiply in January 2019, at which time we’ll communicate with our partners and supporters that we were formerly MB Mission and C2C Network.
For more questions and answers, go to multiply.net
YOUNG PEACEMAKERS in the Middle East An Interview with Manuel Bohm Manuel Bohm serves with the Peace and Reconciliation Network of the World Evangelical Alliance. He is from Germany but lives in Canada with his wife, Valerie. This past summer, Manuel participated in a peace camp in one of the most war-torn regions of the Middle East. At the weeklong event, he was joined by forty other international volunteers and fifty-two local participants who came from a wide variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds. They lived together, shared their lives and stories, and walked through a curriculum focused on practical peacemaking. In this interview with Mark JH Klassen, Manuel tells about his experience and shares his heart about this unique model of mission.
Mark: What motivated you to take part in a peace camp in the Middle East? Manuel: War has ravaged this part of the world, and many of the survivors are desperate for peace, especially the young people. In my work, we’re trying to connect people from around the world who are involved in peacemaking. We want to share resources and bring together those who need peace with those who know how to bring peace. When I visited the region for the first time last year, I met people who had endured terrible violence and trauma; I heard some of their stories, but I wanted to learn more. So I came back this summer to be involved in the peace camp in hopes that I would really get to know people and grow in my understanding of what it takes to make peace in a place like this. Mark: Were your hopes fulfilled? Manuel: Yes, it was an amazing week and I feel like I developed deep friendships with some very precious people. I was surprised how quickly we were able to bond as participants. I lived in an apartment with four roommates, young men who were from different countries, different religions and spoke different languages. When the camp began, we didn’t know each other but, after the first day, one of them said to me, “We are family.” Every morning, we ate breakfast together in our apartment. Some of us cooked and some did the dishes. When you share your lives together like that, it doesn’t take long to build strong relationships.
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Mark: Was it ever awkward? Manuel: When we first walked into the apartment, there was just one double bed in one of the rooms. Three of our roommates took the three single beds in the other room, and I was left standing there with this young guy. We were from opposite sides of the world and we had just met for the first time, and now we were expected to share a bed! But we did, and then soon afterward we found out that we also shared the same faith in Jesus. Before long, we were praying together for the city and the region where we were. I prayed in English and he prayed in Arabic. It was very special. Mark: What was most profound about your peace camp experience? Manuel: Definitely the relationships. It didn’t matter who you were or where you were from, you were loved and accepted by the whole group. Everyone belonged. And the joy that resulted in the hearts of participants became very noticeable. On the third evening of the camp, the whole group went on an outing to an amusement park. It was amazing to see how the group stuck together and enjoyed each other’s company in public. When there was music playing in the park, the participants began to dance and celebrate together. It was such a beautiful expression of joy that other people in the park began to watch. They were awestruck to see such a diverse group of youth dancing together. People took out their mobile phones to record it. Where did this joy come from? It was the joy of deep relationships.
Mark: Did people express sorrow and pain as well? Manuel: Yes, there were tears. It was really important for us to create a safe atmosphere for everyone, so that we could really be ourselves and share our burdens. Many of the participants shared stories of pain and loss in the war and the persecution. They talked about family members who had been killed or kidnapped. They felt so open that they shared what was heavy on their hearts and it touched people. And then these conversations continued in the smaller groups and in the rooms, and people felt very free to ask questions and share more. Mark: What was the most challenging thing about the camp experience? Manuel: I’m a German, so sometimes I would say in my mind, “You can’t do that. What about the schedule?” But I learned that it’s not about the schedule, it’s about the heart. We can talk about strategy and capacity, but if the heart is not connected, then it doesn’t matter. So I learned to be flexible. It’s not about being on time, or doing this lesson at this point. Learning is dynamic. The foreigners need to pay attention to the cultural mindset of the local people. Leaders need to be sensitive to how people are learning. I remember at one point, one of the participants stood up and said, “I have a better idea,” and we all listened to him. Everybody was equal. Mark: Would you recommend this experience for others? Manuel: I would highly recommend it! I especially want to see more Christians coming and being a part of these peace camps. Sometimes in our churches we think that it has to be done in a certain way, and if we don’t see it happening that way, we don’t do anything at all. We need to overcome that obstacle. We need to learn how to walk together with those who are different from us, because our countries have now become so multicultural. We can meet these same people from the Middle East in Canada and Germany who have suffered in these conflicts. Will we share the message of peace with them?
Manuel (far left) with his fellow peacemakers other, me from you and you from me.” That’s when the door opens to share the Gospel and speak about our relationship with the Prince of Peace. But first we seek to listen and understand, and we serve with an open heart. We need to be courageous, but humble. We need bold humility. Mark: Is the global Church ready to embrace this peacemaking opportunity? Manuel: I hope so. As followers of Jesus, we have something unique to offer the world when it comes to peacemaking. The life and teaching of Jesus is respected in this context, so we have an opportunity to share openly. Parts of the Gospel message, like forgiveness and reconciliation, are integrated into the curriculum and presented in the sessions. But it’s in the conversations afterward when the deeper questions are asked, in the evening when you’re on an outing or at night when you’re lying in bed. That’s when you need to live and breathe the message of peace. That’s when you get the opportunity to really share your heart and speak about your faith in Jesus.
Mark: What about local churches in the Middle East? Manuel: I think it’s so important to equip local churches in these settings with the tools for peacemaking. We need to encourage them and let them see what is happening in these peace camps. The local church was represented at the camp, and these local believers will be involved in ongoing peacemaking efforts with this broader family of peacemakers. But I really hope that they will spark a fire in their churches and their churches will get more involved in peacemaking. The Church needs to reach out to their neighbors with an open hand and say, “Let’s accept each other. Let’s be who we are. Let’s learn from each
GET INVOLVED Are you ready to embrace peacemaking as central to the Gospel message, whether it brings you around the world or across the street? For more information about getting involved in peacemaking or providing financial support for peace camps in conflict zones, contact your local Mission Mobilizer at 1.888.866.6267.
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PARAKEETS in the Pines By Nikki White High in the remote mountain villages of Oaxaca, Mexico, there are facinating anomalies. During a recent visit, I saw clouds drifting across footpaths, impoverished indigenous peoples using sophisticated cell phones, and tropical birds thriving at the chilly altitude of eight thousand feet. There were parakeets in the pine trees. Church leader Samuel Cleris is like one of those incongruous birds. He, too, is an anomaly. “I don’t fit in with my own culture,” Samuel told me, “because I refuse to take charge.” Samuel and his wife host two weekly church gatherings in their home in Oaxaca City. Each Sunday they meet together to exchange biblical insights, confess their sins and share their lives. Although others call him “pastor”, Samuel has chosen to adopt a very counter-cultural model for leadership. He seeks to lead through friendship, letting Jesus be at the center, avoiding the traditional, hierarchical church model that is more prevalent in Mexico. Some simply want him to take charge, but he is determined to lead in a way that involves the whole community. This has, in some ways, left him in pastoral limbo. “I do not know if I am making any change,” Samuel confessed, “You will see that right now there is no concrete goal in my life, except to serve. It is my delight.”
Although uncertain about his impact on church culture, Samuel is confident in his calling.
Samuel chose to adopt a very counter-cultural model for leadership. Samuel grew up attending church, less because of conviction and more because it was the only place in the village with grass and mango trees. But it was not until attending a Christian summer camp at age seventeen that he experienced God in a dynamic way. It was there that he met Abraham Torres, a pastor who had made it his life’s work to bring the Gospel to the indigenous peoples of Oaxaca. “It was a classic moment,” Samuel said, smiling at the memory of his first real encounter with Jesus. “There I sat in the light of the moon, listening to guitar music and praises, with a big plate of guajillo chile broth in my lap. The food grew cold, but Jesus took my heart completely.” Sending Samuel to the camp had been no small sacrifice for his parents, poor as they were. Samuel was one of eight children, although only four are his biological siblings. His mother had a propensity for picking up random, abandoned children and bringing them home to raise as her own. Samuel’s parents had been praying for Samuel for years, wanting him to embrace a living faith in Jesus. God answered those prayers. So enraptured was Samuel by his conversion experience at camp
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that he wanted only to savor Jesus, be discipled by Torres and become a pastor. When he announced this to his parents, at first they only smiled. They had grown accustomed to his fleeting passions - magic classes, mountaineering, herbalism, regional cuisine. When they realized that Samuel was serious, a family meeting was immediately called.
When they realized that Samuel was serious, a family meeting was immediately called. None of his brothers or sisters were happy with Samuel’s proposal. In Oaxaca, families are expected to stay together, even after marriage. For him to leave would be scandalous. And dangerous. Samuel would be living in the mountainous regions of the state of Guerrero, apprenticing under a man who had a reputation for risking his life to evangelize in remote and often violent indigenous villages. But Samuel was adamant and, in the end, they let him go. “Life at the Bible School was much more difficult than I expected,” Samuel said. He was surprised to see that very few students spoke Spanish. Instead they spoke an indigenous dialect of Guerrero called Me’phaa. “There were many funny and sad experiences, trying to communicate,” he remembers,“but we worked together. We had to, to survive.”
Mission global worker Robert Thiessen became a friend who would, over the next ten years, mentor Samuel. Together they sought to navigate through the cultural Christian extremes of legalism and paganism into a deeper understanding of grace and community. Robert and his wife Anne emphasized the importance of team, shared leadership responsibility and mutual accountability. This model, in Mexico, was an anomaly. So Samuel fit right in. In order to support his family, Samuel now works as a custodian in a Christian seminary. There he faces some condescension from those who run the school, both because of his indigenous background and also because of his unorthodox approach to church authority. There is an additional tension in that the students themselves often seek Samuel out with their personal and theological dilemmas. It is a fine line that Samuel and the Thiessens seek to walk, wanting to cast a vision for a humble community ethos while remaining respectful of the traditional values of the Mexican culture. “I want only to help others see Jesus: the True and Real, the Compassionate and Pleasant,” Samuel says. “My concern is not to fit in. My concern is that we all serve him well, together.”
The students had no outside financial support, and so they made and sold tamales, chairs, wooden benches and cakes to pay for their rent and food. They travelled to various indigenous villages, some of which were hostile to Christianity. But these challenges only served to strengthen Samuel in his character, and instill in him a deep appreciation for collaborative community. So he was disappointed when, less than two years later, the institute had to close due to lack of economic resources. “I came back to Oaxaca, eager for the local church,” said Samuel, “but everything was changed. The pastor was teaching polygamy and prosperity. No one could oppose him.” Samuel saw how absolute power in the hands of a single individual could be a dangerous thing, and it strengthened his desire to do church differently. He ended up leaving the fellowship, and losing many friends because of his convictions. God, in his perfect timing, then brought the disillusioned Samuel into contact with a group of young Mexicans and North Americans meeting in a house church. MB
Samuel Cleris “I want only to help others see Jesus.”
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PASTORING A CITY (by Letting the Salt Out) By Marc Pilon, Quebec When I was in training, my church-planting coach said to me, “Marc, pastor your city and your city will become your church.” We started out with that focus, but as our congregation grew we were drowned by the daily needs of running the church and we had very little time to pastor the city. It wasn’t until years later that I realized something – if we kept doing the things we were doing, even for forty years, the city would not be transformed by the Gospel. I realized that our budget, our resources, our creative energy and our time were being drowned by the interior needs of that growing church. It was a very successful church. We had grown from 100 to 500 within a very short amount of time. We had baptized at least 250 people from unchurched backgrounds. But we were only accomplishing part of the mission. Most of the people in the city were still lost, and most of them weren’t coming to our Sunday morning services. To reach our city, we needed to find ways to let the salt out, because keeping all of that good salt in the saltshaker was useless. We had too many strong Christians serving in the church and focusing too much on how to structure ourselves. We needed to get them out into our city.
Keeping all of that good salt in the saltshaker was useless. At the same time, I heard the story of a pastor in Uganda who decided to put his local church into the hands of another pastor because he felt God was calling him to be the pastor of the country. I was amazed by his story. God was making himself known in Uganda through that pastor in ways I hadn’t seen before in my life. When I heard that, something resonated within me. I realized that God was calling me to more. 14 | witness
As I read my Bible, I saw how Jesus stepped out of his comfort zone to come to us, and it challenged me to ask the question, “How are we stepping outside of our comfort zones in the church to engage people in our communities, in our cities?” When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. I realized that that was the landscape of our city. People were confused. They didn’t know where to get help. When their marriages were falling apart, they didn’t know who to turn to. Jesus cared about people who were outside of the fold, outside of the church. He was willing to leave the ninety-nine to go help the one that was lost. It was time for us to think about how we should restructure the church and our mission so that we could feed and shepherd the whole city and take responsibility for everyone, not just those within the church. How could we do that? How could we feed the multitudes? There was only one answer to that question: Listen to Jesus and obey him. If we brought our five loaves and two fish to him, and let him do the miracle of feeding the crowd, then our city would never be the same again. So, the first thing I did was let go of my salary. I knew someone else had to take on the role in the existing church to make sure that the everyday stuff would keep on happening and that we would keep discipling people. I knew that I would have to figure out other ways to provide for my family, but I needed to explore this new world of how to pastor a city. The next thing I did was start spending more time on city committees and less time on church committees. I even asked some of our best leaders in the church to join me on the Chamber of Commerce. It was one of the ways to get the salt out of the saltshaker and into the world. I knew I needed a strategy to serve the neediest people in our city, but God also challenged me to find a strategy to
reach the rich and influential. That was not easy for me, because I didn’t have a heart for the rich. But God gave me compassion and showed me how lost they were. So I started going to places where influential people were spending their time, like happy hours and city meetings. I often felt awkward, but God was calling me to be a good missionary and to learn the language of the people he was calling me to reach. The next step was organizing a leadership event in the city. Of the 150 people that came, ninety were non-Christian leaders in our city. After that, they were the ones that started contacting us about helping the city. We had an opportunity to shepherd them. The day after that leadership event, I was invited to be part of the committee for the revitalization of our street in downtown. Then I was invited to have lunch with one of the most influential leaders in the city. During that lunch, that leader told me three things: “I want to be involved in whatever your church wants to do in our city to help those in need. I want to be involved with you guys with whatever you’re doing in terms of leadership in our city. And I want to know Jesus.” With several key city leaders, we started a leadership breakfast. Together, we began identifying the five most influential leaders in the different spheres of society, so that those people could be cared for, so they could be fed. After that, a hotel in our city burned down and several businesses suffered. The Chamber of Commerce asked the church to help. It was a huge step for us and it cost us a lot of money to help all these different people. One of the businesses that suffered was a massage therapist, so we purchased a new table for her and set it up in our church office, so she could keep serving her clients. We also helped the hotel managers, a lesbian couple who couldn’t believe that the church would help them. We befriended them and had some very honest conversations about sexuality and faith. They were so touched by the love that they received that they began coming regularly to our church service. We just kept serving people and sharing Jesus with them. Another business person that we helped at the hotel was a famous wine taster in Quebec. In the fire, she had lost all of her promotional materials. So the church paid for new material for her upcoming wine festival.
During Halloween, we asked people in our church to open up their houses to be houses of light where we would have bonfires and serve hot chocolate, hot dogs, hot cider, and where people could use the restrooms. It was creating community in the different neighborhoods in our city. The next day, it was all over social media. People were talking about how great it was and how it’s creating a spirit of community and generosity. Some houses had more than a thousand people come by and they gave out over 600 portions of candy. Are we willing to include Halloween candy in our church budget? It was an example of the church being creative. Generosity was flowing and the church was leading, being a light in the darkness. Our hope is actually to transform Halloween into a celebration of light, to show how light is more powerful than darkness. This is one of the ways to pastor a city, to feed the sheep outside of the fold, to reach those that don’t want to hear, those that won’t come on a Sunday morning. People in the city are being touched by the Gospel, and some of them are now attending our church. So we do need to make sure that the internal structures of the church are in place, that they are functioning. We need to make sure that our people are well trained and they’re being discipled. We need to keep in mind different parts of the mission, but I think God is calling us to think about new creative ways to engage our cities. God has specific stories that he wants to write in your city through your church. Get close to Jesus. Figure out what he is telling you to do, and obey him. Offer your five loaves and two fish to Jesus and let him do the miracle of feeding the multitudes.
Marc is a church planter with the C2C Network in Magog, Quebec.
“Why are you even helping the rich?” people asked us. “Because God has a heart to build a community where we take part in one another’s suffering, whether you’re rich or poor, whatever class you’re in,” we told them. The city was hearing the Gospel.
To learn more about C2C and our church-planting initiatives across North America, go to c2cnetwork.org mbmission.org | 15
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