El recién nacido de Dios renueva una congregación más antigua
Poco después de Navidad del año pasado, Naun Cerrato, un participante de la capacitación sobre plantación de iglesias de la Red Sent (Enviados) de la Red Menonita de Misión, estaba listo para el lanzamiento de la Iglesia Menonita Piedra Viva, una congregación de paz hispana nueva en Elkhart, Indiana. Pero sin seguridad financiera para alquilar […]
Barcelona giving and receiving all year-round
Through the Garbers’ ministry, Mennonite Mission Network partners with the Mennonite Evangelical Community of Barcelona, with a focus on youth outreach and congregational mission. Did you know? $25 pays for community building and outreach activities.$50 helps pay for recording new songs to be used in Sunday schools and youth groups.$100 helps pay for leadership training […]
Jesus models mission
In a post-Resurrection appearance, John reports that Jesus offered God’s peace to the group of terrified and fearful disciples locked behind closed doors (John 20:21). Jesus adds to his benediction an important elaboration: "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." Jesus makes it clear that God’s mission of restoration and reclaiming the […]
Mission and Migration
To talk about migration is to talk about identity, both individual identity and the collective identities of communities of faith. Forced migration characterized and shaped the early Anabaptist movement—a movement created, in part, to ensure religious freedom and the ability to practice faith as separate communities. This pattern of movement, originally meant to support a […]
As you go
Some people may recall how visiting missionaries would click through images of ministry in far-off corners of the globe via the now-defunct slide projector. Afterward, over homemade pie, silent thoughts most likely swirled within the aroma of freshly brewed coffee: These missionaries have a special call from God, but who am I to think that […]
Mientras van
Algunos recordarán cuando los misioneros llegaban de visita desde lugares lejanos y pasaban imágenes de su ministerio en el ahora obsoleto proyector de diapositivas. A continuación, y al compartir un pastel horneado para la ocasión, pensamientos silenciosos posiblemente se entremezclaban con el aroma del café recién hecho: Estos misioneros tienen un llamado especial de Dios. […]
Post-colonial mission
The modern missionary movement’s greatest advance came during the period when colonial powers were engaged in a massive land-grab in the global south. To be sure, many missionaries were actively engaged in resisting some of the heinous, even brutal, excesses of colonial expansion and rapacious greed that dispossessed people of their lands, livelihood, and cultural […]
Creating an Anabaptist church-planting culture
New faith communities do not fall out of the sky. They generally emerge slowly through the Spirit-guided vision, sweat, and intentional effort of followers of Jesus who believe that giving birth to new communities is, as Stanley Green puts it, “an essential part of our spiritual DNA as the body of Christ” (p. 1). The […]
Working together for the cause of Christ
Tucked away in the mountains of northern Thailand is a town called Pakouay. In that town is a small Mennonite church we worshiped with on a recent visit. The rural church, mainly comprised of farmers, is one of 23 in the Hmong District 20 church conference. The leadership, given by Thawee Saeya and Chanisara Saeya, […]
Sitting down while others stand up
Jane and Jerrell work half the year with indigenous church leaders in the Ecuadorian rain forest and half the year as mission workers and educators in the United States. It’s an unusual model and we asked what feedback they have heard. Here’s what Jerrell had to say: One bit of feedback that has been important […]