Many Peoples
Becoming God's People, 1986
Mennonite Church USA
Many Peoples Becoming God's People:
Building up the General Conference as a rainbow of churches
I. The biblical vision
In the Bible God calls many peoples
to become God's people (Genesis 12:3; Isaiah 2:1-4; Ephesians
2:13-22; Revelation 5:10).
We believe God is challenging
the General Conference Mennonite Church to respond to this call
with clearer commitment.
We see the call as a call to
confess with a sense of grief that our mission work in the past
has not always given priority to inclusive ministries, intending
from the beginning that "we" and "they" together
become "us."
We see the call as a call to
recognize that every cultural heritage--European as well as Native
North American, Hispanic as well as African or Asian--is incomplete
alone, and inadequate to convey the biblical vision without the
others.
The glory of God is reflected
in the mosaic of many peoples becoming God's people. The recent
immigrants from Asia and Latin America, the native North Americans
and people from African and European heritage give us an opportunity
to anticipate another Pentecost (Acts 2) and to experience more
deeply the prayer of our Lord, "that they may become perfectly
one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have
loved them even as you have loved me" (John 17:23).
II. A way station for our
journey: toward the year 2000
One way station on our journey
to be One People may be represented. by the year 2000. By that
year the Commission on Home Ministries proposes that in implementing
the General Board's four objectives (evangelize, develop leadership,
seek Christian unity, teach biblical principles) we make
1. evangelism and cross-cultural
subsidies available resulting in a mosaic of ethnic and language
churches more closely representing the proportion of these people
in Canadian and U.S. populations;
2. leadership development training
opportunities more accessible to minority groups, and scholarships
available for current leaders to become bilingual;
3. the decision-making boards
of our conferences, institutions and programs represent all ethnic
and language groups in ways that help achieve Christian unity;
4. our periodicals and curriculum
publications teach the "many peoples" biblical principles
and reflect our multiethnic membership.
III. Commitment
Planning specific steps
1. We propose that during 1986-1989
the Commission on Home Ministries consult with ethnic and language
minority groups, church schools, camps, congregations, district
and provincial conferences, boards and commissions about specific
programs to help our conference be "many peoples becoming
God's people." The findings and the cost would be presented
at the 1989 triennial conference session.
2. Implementation by the year
2000
3. If the development plan funds
are granted we commit ourselves in the 1990s to implement these
programs that enable full participation by all peoples in God's
family.
Already beginning
While this consultation is going
on we call ourselves to find ways to be a more inclusive conference
without waiting for 1989 or financial support from the development
plan.
It "seems good to the Holy
Spirit and to us" (Acts 15:28) to issue this call as a venture
of faith for all of us as individuals, families, congregations,
district conferences and the General Conference.
Adopted at the
triennial session of the General Conference Mennonite Church,
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, 1986.
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