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Anabaptist Leaders Form Global Mission Fellowship

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe — For more than 100 years, Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches in North America planned mission efforts in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Now the churches that emerged from those efforts have their own identity and leadership and want to discern where the next mission fields should be, in some cases without North American involvement.

In meeting here on Aug. 9-10, representatives from Mennonite World Conference member churches on five continents and of Anabaptist-related mission agencies voted overwhelmingly to create a new mechanism that will begin to shift mission leadership to churches in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Called the Global Mission Fellowship (GMF), the plan calls for meetings of representative of these churches and mission groups at the global level every three years for encouragement, vision-sharing, networking and cooperating in mission. The frequency of regional meetings will be determined as these are established.

"This is a very significant shift," said Stanley Green, who chaired the committee that created the proposal. "Now the vision for Africa, for example, will originate in Africa and be shaped in Africa and North American and other agencies will need to discern how to participate."

Such visions emerged quickly in the Africa caucus. For example, Fikru Befirdu, from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, suggested that the African churches should work together on a new mission to unchurched people, living just 100 kilometers from his home, who are cannibals and practice animistic religions.

"We would like to begin working together, not with the politics of the outstretched hand but with our own resources," said Damien Lukak Kakhenda from Masina, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Some representatives worried that money for regional gatherings would be taken from existing mission programs, many of which already face funding shortfalls.

"Is it right to spend the money on such gatherings rather than on sending missionaries?" asked Chizuko Katakabe from Miyazaki-ken, Japan.

Green, president of Mennonite Church USA's Mennonite Mission Network, acknowledged that North American mission agencies are facing financial challenges that affect how many workers can be supported.

"If the reduction in our capacity [to send mission workers from North America] is met by the creation of a forum that encourages the sending of workers from the south," Green said, "it is an exchange that ought not be considered a loss."

The relationship to MWC includes facilitating GMF by providing staffing, having a representative on the GMF planning committee and receiving reports from the GMF Planning Committee.