Pastor's Puddle

This post begins an occasional series of posts on the church as we move further into the 21^st century.

A friend of mine recently provoked my thoughts suggesting that, when the history of the church in the 20^th century is written, scholars will see that bureaucracy was the defining theme of the century. The energy and vitality of the church expressed itself in bureaucratic institutions, vehicles for achieving the mission of the church in an age of institution building in the broader culture.

For Mennonites, Albert Keim’s biography of church statesman Harold S. Bender describes this age as it emerged in the first half of the 20^th century. John Sharp’s coming biography of Orie Miller book ends the age by telling the story of another of our great institution builders. The alphabet soup of Mennonite institutions filled many of us with a sense of identity and clarity about what it means to be a Mennonite.

Mennonite Central Committee and its bureaucracy changed my life, introduced me to my wife, and served as a door for me (and countless others) to the Mennonite church. I cannot repay this debt. These institutions shaped many of our lives and have touched millions with the love of Christ. These institutions enabled our gifts to flourish and bless the world. These institutions were necessary for the vitality of the church. Yet my friend suggests the age of institutional bureaucracy is history, belonging to the 20^th century, as institutions leave the scene to make way for the vitality and mission of the church to express itself in new ways.

Another friend, a conference leader, told me about Marco Guete, Conference Minister in Southeast Conference, who deliberately downsized the conference as a matter of vision, recognizing the conference would not support conference bureaucracy beyond the need for work with pastoral transitions. Whether or not you agree with this vision, it represents the kind of decisions facing us in the years ahead. What is the purpose of conferences, denominations and accompanying agencies and institutions? For Mennonites, the movement of congregations and conferences in and out of Mennonite Church USA during the current crisis will likely crystalize and hasten these decisions.

These times challenge us, calling us to a willingness to let go of what may no longer be useful to the mission of God, and open ourselves to the new things God is doing and will do among us.