Amidst all the war and pain of the twentieth century, the time and space in which we live has been radically redefined. Through transportation and communications revolutions, the world has increasingly become a single place. The globe is now the primary functional unit for many spheres of human existence. Older units, such as economies defined by national states, are but sub-components of transnational decisionmaking and action.
Demographically at least, the same thing has happened to the church. During the most violent century in world history, the Christian population has become authentically global. No longer primarily Euro-American in character, as at the beginning of the century, the church is now found in nearly every country. The centers of Christian population are moving from the west and the north to the south. Fifty-eight per cent of all Christians live in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. No longer should the word "Christianity" have a territorial connotation.
The Anabaptist-Mennonite family is a microcosm of this historic development. That our population today is more international than it was in the nineteenth century is evident to everyone. In 1850, for example, Mennonites were found in only seven countries: Germany, France, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Russia, the United States, and Canada. And most of those churches could, with a bit of effort, converse with one another in German or a Germanic derivative.
Globalization of the Anabaptist-Mennonite population began in earnest at the turn of the century. The years 1890-1910 saw a burst of activity as Mennonite or Brethren in Christ missionaries entered India, Zimbabwe, China, Nigeria and Zambia. By 1975 Mennonite or Brethren in Christ churches had been organized in 44 nations of Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, and North America. Today the total has grown to more than 60 countries.
In a word, from early sixteenth century roots in several small Germanic groups, the Anabaptist Mennonite branch of the Christian family has spread by the beginning of the 21st century into over one hundred cultures. Today global membership of Mennonite and related churches exceeds one million baptized believers, representing a Christian community of nearly two million people. We speak at least 75 languages and constitute more than 8,000 local churches in some 190 autonomous national churches or, in a few cases, transnational churches.
For some Mennonites, the globalization of the Anabaptist-related family has led to so much diversity of local identity that it makes no sense to speak of a worldwide family of faith. Hans-Jurgen Goertz, for instance, in his article entitled, "From the Edge to the Center" (Mennonite World Handbook, 1990), said: "Very little connects one place with the other; little do the people know of one another. A Mennonite Indian in the Chaco and a Mennonite businessman in Krefeld, a Mennonite woman in Tanzania and a Mennonite housewife in Siberia--worlds separate them. Perhaps they all refer back to a mutual confessional source, especially to their nominal patron Menno Simons of Witmarsum. But what they believe and how they believe separate them no less from each other than from other Catholics, Lutherans and Mennonites in Europe and North America. The 'worldwide brotherhood' is an illusion....
This assertion focuses a fundamental choice forced on us by the globalization of the Anabaptist-Mennonite population. Shall we develop our church life in the new millennium on the assumption that "the worldwide brotherhood is an illusion"? Or shall we take as a fundamental operating principle the conviction that there is now a global family of faith?
The new Mennonite World Conference (MWC) majority--three-fourths of MWC member churches are African, Asian and Latin American--answers the question clearly: the "worldwide brotherhood" is not an illusion, or at least should not be. We owe our existence to Anabaptist-Mennonite churches of the north. We belong together. We intend to stay together. Let us learn from one another. Let us grow together. There is a longing for identity, for connection, for solidarity, for partnership, for mutual accountability, for "equal interdependence." The time has come to create sustainable ways to live not only as local and national churches but also as global Anabaptist-Mennonite church.
A growing number of Europeans and North Americans voice the same conviction. Often these are individuals and institutions who have regular or substantial interaction with African, Asian or Latin American churches. Mennonite Central Committee is a leading advocate for the position that there is now a global Anabaptist-Mennonite church which should be given power to help revitalize and restructure our common life and mission. Some missions committees and educational establishments take a similar stand. A growing number of national conferences and local churches say that they want international church-to-church connections within the context of the global family of faith.
Transforming Mennonite World Conference
As the only global Anabaptist-Mennonite body--84 national churches in 50 countries are members--MWC increasingly finds itself at the intersection of the calls for opportunities and structures which enable Anabaptist-Mennonite churches to think, speak and act as global church. The occasional MWC world assembly alone is an inadequate instrument for responding to the rising expectations generated by the globalization of the Anabaptist-Mennonite population and its shifting center of gravity. But what other forums and instruments are needed? And how can we see which ones are appropriate?
Responding to the ferment
Different methods are available to people looking for right responses to historically unprecedented events. It is possible to proceed "deductively" and "from above." Leaders of a worldwide organization, for example, can first of all formulate a comprehensive plan for the development of new global structures and activities, then seek support for their plan from the organization's members, and finally try to implement the plan. Or their approach can be more "inductive" and "from below." Here world leaders give priority to discerning the essence of what is fermenting among the members (movements, ideas, gifts, needs, proposals), then initiate appropriate action (or bless and amplify existing local actions) which gives sustainable international form to the new energy, and finally help members articulate the emerging vision so that they are ready to address the next generation of challenges.
MWC has chosen to respond to the globalization of the church more "inductively" than "deductively." This approach to the future gives a somewhat provisional and experimental look to MWC, at least in its current phase of existence. While it is possible to indicate which direction MWC is now moving, it is impossible to say where it will be in the year 2010.
So where is MWC headed 75 years after Christian Neff and the Palatine-Hessian Conference convened the first "world conference?" A partial list of activities and forums recently created or adapted by MWC--so that member churches can more fully share life and share convictions--gives some sense of the emerging direction.
Sharing Life