February 1995

THE CHRISTIAN

· A· D · E R •

FEBRUARY 1995

THE

PUBLICATION

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MENNONITE

BRETHREN

CHURCHES

FEBRUARY

1995

FIR S TWO R D S from the interim editor

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N 1HIS ISSUE we celebrate the arts and artists in the Mennonite Brethren faith community. The number of artists among us is increasing, and, we hope, will continue to increase as we bless the arts in our faith life.

The lead article encourages making the arts and artists a more integral part of every aspect of church life. Following that, we hear either about or from a sampling of our artists: • Darlene Voth Schroeder gives us a closer look at Esther Loewen Vogt, who began her long career in fiction writing more than 40 years ago, and has her 23rd book at the publisher. Her creative mind, even at age 79, keeps producing.

• Deborah Penner interviews Jean Janzen, the leading Mennonite poet in the United States, about the creative process.

• Kathy Heinrichs Wiest profiles Larry Warkentin, perhaps our leading composer of sacred music.

• Maxelin Wiebe waxes theological about her work in ceramics.

On a personal note, it feels good to be back with the Christian Leader for a few months to allow Don Ratzlaff a much-needed sabbatical leave. I look forward to interacting with readers. While the cat's away, the mice can play.

Let's play together.-KFW

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COM I NG • FEBRUARY 16-18-Mennonite Central Committee annu-

al meeting, Fresno, Calif.

• FEBRUARY 18-19-"lnvitation to Healing and Discipleship: A Conference for Women and Men," Winnipeg, Man. Lydia Harder, speaker.

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• FEBRUARY 23-25-Annual joint board meetings of the

U.S. Conference boards, Dinuba, Calif.

• MARCH 25-28-Estes '95, the quadrennial national youth convention, Estes Park, Colo.

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QUOTABLE • Creativity, to me, is taking what both disturbs and exalts you, internally and externally, and wrestling with it, reforming it, until somehow you have altered both it and yourself. It is the refusal to accept, at a gut level, what other people say about what's important to you. It also means working long enough and hard enough that you can reproduce for others what you have learned to do, think and feel in your own struggle.-JAMEs S. MILLER IN CHRIS11AN CENTURY 2·

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THE CHRISTIAN

VOLUME 58, NUMBER 2

FEATURES - Theme: The arts 4 Art: Artificial implant or natural body part?

If the church neglects the gift of art, both the artists and the congregations suffer. BY KATIE FUNK WIEBE

8 Called beyond a dream Esther L. Vogt followed her dream and God's call to become a writer of fiction books. BY DARLENE VOTH SCHROEDER

INTERIM EDITOR Katie Funk Wiebe

ASSISTANT EDITOR Connie Faber

EDITOR: Don Ratzlaff (on sabbatical)

10 A way to the true self Poet Jean Janzen talks about her growth as a poet in the Mennonite constituency-and beyond. BY DEBORAH PENNER

13 A most excellent gift Larry Warkentin concluded that expressing music was more than a luxury-it was a ministry. BY KATHY HEINRICHS WIEST

16 In the hands of God the Potter A potter sees the creative forces of God at work in her craft.

And shares them with us. BY MAXELIN WIEBE

DEPARTMENTS Inquiring Minds .. ....... . .. .. ... . .. by Marvin Hein 18 • Forgiving others • Laying hands on new members

Ph'lip Side . . . .... . ..... ......... . . . by Philip Wiebe 19 • Over the edge

Bodylife. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 20 • Immigration is a challenge for the church 20 • Japan's deadly earthquake 21 • Laurelglen Bible Church's Romania connection 22 • Mennonite mission agencies' funding woes 23

Musings . .. . . ...... . . . . . . .. . .... . ... by Jim Holm 29

BOARD OF COMMUNICATIONS: Ron Braun (chair), Noelle Dickinson, Jeanie Klaassen, Herb Schroeder, Kathy Heinrichs Wiest MANDATE: THE CHRISTIAN LEADER (ISSN 0009· 5149). organ of the U.S. Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches, is published monthly by the U.S. Conference Board of Communications, 315 S. Lincoln, Hillsboro. KS 67063. The Christian Leader seeks to inform Mennonite Brethren members and churches of the events. activities. decisions, and issues of their denomination. and to instruct, inspire and initiate dialog so that they will aspire to be faithful disciples of Christ as understood in the evangelical! Anabaptist theological tradition.

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READER PARTICIPATION: The editors encourage readers to interact with our articles through letters to the editor and essays to Forum. our op-ed column. letters for What Readers Say must include the author's name and address. Forum is open to members or attenders of Mennonite Brethren churches.

Essays to Forum can address any issue of relevance and interest to the faith and life of the Mennonite Brethren Church . The essay should be no longer than 800 words and should include the home church. occupation and a clear photo of the writer.

COMMUNICATION: All correspondence should be addressed to The Christian Leader, Box V. Hillsboro.

KS 67063. Phone: (316) 947-5543 . Fax: (316) 9473266.

Miscellanea ... . . .. .. . .. . . .. .. . .. .. . . . . , , . , . .... . 30

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Editorial , , . , . , . . . . . . , , .. , . , . . , . . by Katie Funk Wiebe 32 • Crossbearing in a cross culture

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• Rebirth of an evangelist

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ART CREDITS: Cover design by Brenda Hamm; page 4, Religious News Ser· vice; page 8, staff file photo; page 10, Jean Janzen; page 13, Fresno Pacific College; page 14, personal photo; page 16, Orley Friesen; page 22, MCC photo by Amy Tripp; page 24, Laurelglen Bible Church.

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POSTMASTER: Send Form 3579 to The Christian Leader. Box V, Hillsboro. KS 67063 . Second-class postage paid at Hillsboro. Kansas.

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by KATIE FUNK WIEBE

Artificial implant or natural body part? with a new friend, I commented on the beautiful crocheted tablecloth adorning the table.

My hostess explained that earlier, during a difficult time in her life, she had longed for something to bring hope to her drab existence. As she crocheted the tablecloth, she dreamed that some day she would have a house and furnishings that matched its beauty.

That tablecloth symbolized hope to her.

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If the church neglects

the gift God has given in the arts, both the artist and the congregation suffer

can achieve dignity, purpose and beauty for the singers when it becomes part of the ongoingness of life. Because today's newer hymns have little or no connection to some older adults' passage through life, they reject them.

I believe art should be something that has to do with life's dailiness, encouraging, and bringing hope and joy, as in the parable. Art should not have to do just with religious embellishments. I see art as a way of seeing, a way of knowing, an attempt at rebirth, at self-cleansing, at recapturing the good and the beautiful.

Let's be more convinced that we can shape our environment in the direction of peace, joy and harmony when we encourage the pursuit of beauty through art.

When is art an artificial implant in the body of Christ?

A hunger for beauty exists everywhere.

Despite poverty and the scarcity of materials, early pioneer women made beautiful quilts out of cloth scraps. They did not let the world shrink to the size of their cabin, but expanded it through their creativity. To create, to know beauty, is a human need.

All yearning to see people find and know Christ as Savior, or for peace and justice, to establish a stronger place in the world is in essence a pursuit of beauty, harmony and unity in relationships with God and one another.

If the church neglects the gift God has given in the arts, both the artist and the congregation suffer, for art can bring an unexpected shining glory to corporate life.

In some ethnic groups, art is an integral part of life. Art is not something hung on the wall and contemplated from a distance as is done here when, on a free afternoon, people stalk the halls of a museum to pass judgment on the art.

In some tribal groups, art belongs in the functional realm. It is part of daily life. For example, a carved wooden mask is not complete unless worn by a person in a dance.

Part of our problem with art is that we tend to judge a painting hanging in isolation on a cold wall or a hymn in a hymnbook instead of when it has become familiar and is being sung by a particular congregation for a particular occasion.

ConSidering the value of hymns in context may help us understand why older hymns are more meaningful to older adults. The stages in their life cycle at which the hymns were sung make the difference. A weak, mediocre hymn

• We make art an artificial implant when it becomes part of the frills of congregational life, a garnish to make worship attractive, or to titillate religious sensitivities, the way we add a fancy dessert to a full meal. It is an artificial implant when we value an energetic musical piece only as a spectator performance, which we applaud for its entertaining showmanship, and remain unresponsive to other music.

Yet it need not be that way. One morning I visited the Mennonite Church of the Servant in Wichita, a small house-church based congregation that emphasizes spirituality and service outreach. As I entered the small meeting room, I was surprised and refreshed to hear a small string ensemble playing the prelude and later accompanying the singing. They had lacked a pianist so they used the available gifts of their members.

Art releases the spiritual gifts of all church members, not just of a few.

• We make art an artificial implant when we substitute the worship of art for the worship of God and it becomes part of congregational life for art's sake, not to glorify Christ.

Some people are snobs in their attitude toward anything not classified as art, especially music. Some congregations can't sing a hymn that hasn't the name of some famous composer attached to it. Others won't sing it if it has. Snobs are impressed with Congregation X because they have an organist who plays classical music for the prelude, and appalled at Congregation Y that relishes sentimental schmaltz.

Yet before judging any congregation's music, we should find out where the congregation is in its journey toward beauty of worship. It is important to be on that journey and not stagnating.

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God can use many kinds of artistic endeavor. Not everything has to be professional quality. Not everything has to be Simplistic.

• We make art an artificial implant when we ask only for a dab of originality of our artiSts, not their best artistic efforts, to keep us comfortable.

Some people would like the gospel always presented in clear-cut outline form. They want a message, "a lesson," or at least a little moralizing.

Yet little destroys art as quickly as the pressure to tum that which works by indirection into a piece of propaganda for the church. I use the term "propaganda" positively, for the church needs proclaimers.

Art has a different purpose than teaching or preaching. It attempts to share an experience, an insight, whereas propaganda and sometimes sermons (which should actually be works of art) attempt to impose the writers' will on the reader or listener. Both have their place in kingdom work.

The artist's goal is not to present a didactic message . The artist's goal is not to achieve power, to control, to manipulate, but to present a vision of life as he or she sees it. That may include the heights of heavenly glory but also the darkness of sin and evil.

In the Soviet Union, our tour group came upon a huge war memorial with sculptured figures of soldiers, aU 30 to 40 feet high, amid a disarray of military equipment. The scene depicted a tremendous human struggle against death and destruction. The power of that artist's vision of the horror of war stayed with me for days. It overawed me as no statistical explanation of the need for peace could. It mirrored my feelings of the ugliness of war.

Art is a form of praising God through beauty.

It has the power to reach into a person and bring the individual to new understandings of them-

The artist's goal is not to achieve power, to to manipulate, but to present a vision of life as he or she sees it. That may include the heights of heavenly glory but also the darkness of sin and evil.

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selves, the world and God. Creativity ends when the goals of security, productivity, success, soul count, body count, money count and product count are most important .

When is art a normal part of church life?

We have given many styles of music a good Mennonite Brethren baptism by immersion. We have sprinkled certain kinds of writing, like devotional writing and poetry, skits, journalism if it doesn't dig too deeply, biography and similar writing genres, but sculpting, painting, photography, drama, fiction, fUm, movement, or poetry that doesn't rhyme is still a distance from the baptismal font.

Art is different from crafts, from decorations, yet it must show up in ordinary church life, not just as table and wall ornamentation. The goal must be to make art a normal, ordinary joy, and an aspect of our regular praise of God that brings the unpredictable into worship.

So when is art a natural part of the body of Christ?

• When we teach that creativity is for all believers-not something restricted to a select few. Every believer has the obligation of creating his or her own life into a thing of truth, beauty and holiness. Beauty, or splendor, and holiness are paired in Scripture (ps. 29:2; 96:9; Phil. 4:8; Eph. 5:27). A holy person is a beautiful person.

When Mary bathed the feet of Jesus with precious ointment, the disciples accused her of acting foolishly. Her meaningless gift fed no poor, yet Jesus commended her for committing an act of beauty .

• Art is a natural part of the body of Christ when we value a poem, a story or a painting as a gift to give or receive at birthdays and weddings more than we do a toaster or a plate setting of china.

Each Christmas I give my children a gift of writing in some form instead of buying them an item of clothing or adding to their stack of plastic gadgets and toys. Last year it was .a story I had been working on for about 10 years. This year it was a biography of an uncle growing up in the Ukraine during the Russian Revolution.

I would like to see the church commissioning works of art, paintings, stories, poems and music for special celebrations, including our conference conventions, like we do sermons and devotionals. And pay at least according to the rates we pay plumbers and electricians. Artists who earn a living among the faithful are few .

Commissioning or patronage frees an artist to

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An artist can teach us all how to risk, to break habits that lock us in, to help us escape the chains of ((We never did it that way before" in the spirit of the child unafraid of new frontiers. pursue God's calling.

• Art is a natural part of the church when we nurture the artists among us and listen to them. People ask why the new hymnal does not include more Mennonite Brethren hymn writers.

Probably because as a church we have not nurtured the poets and the hymn writers and listened patiently to their poems and sung their songs in the local congregation when they were fumbling artists. Most artists need and want affirmation more than they want money, although money helps. An artist needs an audience and tolerant supporters.

Some of our congregations already have worship committees who bring a creative approach to worship, introducing the splendors of the visual and auditory arts. I hope the future will bring a renewed emphasis on worship through workshops and courses for lay leaders that expand their understanding of how worship that includes the various art forms can bring the congregation into a broader understanding of them.

• Art is a natural body part when we allow an artist to threaten our comfort level, or our sense of tradition. An artist doesn't look for answers to discontent and problems in formulas, rules and regulations. An artist may give us insight into human nature, but usually not blackand-white answers.

An artist can teach us all how to risk, to break habits that lock us in, to help us escape the chains of "We never did it that way before" in the spirit of the child unafraid of new frontiers.

Children are daring star trekkers and explorers. They conquer kingdoms. An artist can teach us the joy of risking-in worship, in life, in new understandings of God's truth. Artists can show us that deep water and drowning are not the same thing.

In the movie Parenting, Steve Martin portrays a father who wants his son to be perfect.

At a school play, his youngest son, a 3-year-old,

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Parable of the sons

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NeE UPON A TIME there was a village chief who had three sons. Each had a special talent. The oldest raised olive trees and traded oil and wood for tools and cloth. The second was a shepherd. Under his care the sheep thrived and he sold much wool.

The youngest was a musician, poet and dancer. When the people were discouraged or tired, he cheered them up with his poetry, his music, and his dance.

One day the chief decided to go away on a long journey. He called his sons to him and said: "Take care of my village until I return."

At first things went well. But when winter came, it was much colder than usual. Because of the terrible blizzards and intense cold, the olive t rees froze and cracked with the cold . People ran out of firewood to keep themselves warm. At first the oldest son refused to let them cut down the olive trees to use as firewood, but eventually gave in .

The intense cold made it impossible for the people to go over the mountain pass to the next kingdom for food. What to do? "Let's eat the sheep," the people said . The second son argued that then they would have no livelihood next year. "But what good is a livelihood if we are dead?" they replied. So they killed and ate the sheep.

And so the people got through the winter. But in spring, they were disheartened because they had no olive trees or sheep. They left the village to seek a living elsewhere.

In spring, when the chief returned to his village, he saw no smoke rising from any chimney except his. What had happened? The sons explained and talked about the terrible winter. The oldest son explained how he had finally allowed the people to cut down the trees to keep themselves warm . The second son explained that he had allowed the people to kill and eat the sheep to stay alive.

The father replied, "Don't be ashamed, my sons. You acted wisely in these circumstances. But what about you?" he asked, turning to his youngest son .

"Life was so hard," said the youngest son. "The people had so little to eat and so little firewood . I didn't think my little poems and my music and dancing would help much . It would have been insensitive and improper to dance and sing, so I kept silent."

"Then give me a poem and dance and sing for me now, for my village is empty and so is my heart. Fill it with joy and courage once again, " said the father.

The third son got up, but his legs were stiff and his voice was rusty from not using it. And all that he could recite were stiff little jingles.

"Ours was once a strong village . It could have survived the want of fuel and food but it could never survive without hope. Because you failed to use your talent wisely and well, our people gave up what little hope they had left. So now the village is deserted and you are crippled . Your punishment has fallen upon you ," said the father.

(Adapted from Storytelling : Imagination and Fa ith, by William J. Bausch)

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unable to grasp that he is watching a play, rushes to the stage to defend his older brother who he mistakenly thinks is being attacked by the other players. In the confusion, the stage scenery tumbles down and the play comes to a screeching halt. Everyone in the audience is laughing at the boy's antics except the father, who is drowning in his embarrassment.

Suddenly the youngster's father remembers what his mother told him about life being either a roller coaster or a merry-go-round. Those who view it as a merry-go-round live staid, settled lives but never get anywhere. They never do anything new. The roller-coaster people have the thrills, but they have to risk, even with child-raising.

And so he laughs with the audience at his son.

Being an artist means taking roller-coaster rides and not always being sure the roller coaster will return to where it started.

The true artist never actually fears not surviving or not being successful or even of not finding the answers. An artist can handle ambiguity. He or she fears only not being able to create-not being able to work in God's kingdom with his or her gifts.

Creating is a tremendous risk. It is always accompanied by a spirit of powerlessness. The purpose of any kind of creative expression is not to control but to give a gift to the world: "Here is my poem, my painting, my story. I give it to the world. Do with it what you will. " Artists will always be a puzzle to the world as the disciple Mary was to the men who watched her anoint Christ. Yet they attract others into the kingdom for they model true freedom. When God created the world, he stopped and said, "That's good." Creativity in the Christian life is arranging one small part of God's world in such a way that others say, "That's great! That's good!"

At a poetry reading by Mennonite Brethren Jean Janzen last winter, a pastor turned to me and said, "Katie, this is the ftrst time I have ever attended a poetry reading. Why haven't I ever gone before?"

Yes, why? Was he afraid of being bored? of being stretched? He went home invigorated by what he had heard. He was introduced to one artist's vision of life and learned joy and hope.

Art can also lead us to sin and darkness. But that possibility shouldn't keep us from looking for and creating beauty that reflects God's holiness. Like the third son in the accompanying parable, unless we let art nurture us even as we nurture it, the church opens the door for deadness to enter. e2 a-THE

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Called beyond

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Combining a call from God with lots of hard work, Esther Loewen Vogt has become our most prolific fiction writer

by DARLENE VOTH SCHROEDER

Esther Loewen Vogt: "The Lord has given me this gift."

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Her rust award-winning book, Turkey Red, won the David C. Juvenile Book Contest in grabbed me by the neck and set me Cook 1975. She wrote it as a children's book, but it contains historical up straight in my chair and said, information about Mennonites immigrating to the United States "You'd better get busy and use your in 1874. A sequel, Harvest Gold published in 1978, an.d Turkey talent or you'll lose it,'" says Esther Loewen Red have been recommended by the Kansas Reading Circle as good Vogt of Hillsboro, Kan. In the early 1950s, sources of Kansas history.

Before she writes a historical she had been reading Matthew 25 for her novel, she does extensive research. Splendid Vista relates devotions and remembers her children were the story of German Baptist Brethren living in the playing on the floor when the revelation came to Dunkard settlement when a Civil War battle is her. fought in their community. They believed war "I didn't hear the words but the impact of was wrong, but were caught in the midst of a that Scripture was so great I simply said, 'OK battle which killed or wounded 23,000 soldiers Lord, I will if you provide the opportunities.'" in a single day. Historical photos of the church Her early childhood years had been spent on show scars of bullet holes. a farm in Eastern Oklahoma but her family The artist painting the picture for the cover moved to Kansas when she was 8 years old. After of Splendid Vista said he visited the battlefield graduating from Tabor College in 1939, she and of all the stories he had read about the Civil taught in a one-room country school for three War, he thought Vogt's was the most accurate years before marrying Curt Vogt, who died in and compelling.

1975.

Vogt feels God has directed her footsteps She always loved to read and dreamed of from a small beginning to being the most proliftc writing the kind of stories she enjoyed. But she Mennonite Brethren fiction writer. One of her felt she was just a Kansas farm girl, a nobody, books, Edge of Dawn, has been translated into and authors were somebodys.

German.

She expressed her feelings on paper but kept Her 21st book, The Wandering Trails, third them to herself. Every hill and valley in her comin a series of Kansas historical fiction, is coming munity was named and her mother called her the out this spring. It was purchased by the publishdreamer. "Du draemst aul vada," her mother er before even reading the manuscript. would say in Low German. (You're dreaming Most of her novels include a romance and all again.) contain Christian main characters. Vogt's writing She sold her first story to an obscure chilhas been compared to that of Laura Ingalls dren's paper. Holding a check for $6.37 in her Wilder, Bess Streeter Aldrich, and Willa Cather. hand, Vogt excitedly told her neighbor, "Look, Splendid Vista (Herald Press) won the Silver I'm an author!"

Angel Award for Religion in Media in 1990. The She set a goal of writing one story a month Enchanted Prairie (Horizon House) was awardfor herself and achieved it. In 1956 she began ed the J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award writing children's stories for "The Junior Leader" from the Kansas Authors Club in 1992. section of the Christian Leader and continued to Esther Loewen Vogt is researching facts to delight adults as well as children with a story for be used in her next books as she keeps her each edition until 1980 when "The Junior Leadpromise to use her talent if God will provide the er" was discontinued. opportunities. "To me, writing is my call, enterEncouraged by her friends, she decided to tainment with a message. The Lord has given me try writing a book. Cry to the Wind was pubthis gift and I want to useilt for him." i2. lished in 1965, the first of many books to follow.

"If you've written one book, it's like salted Darlene Voth Schroeder is a free-lance writer peanuts," she says. "You have to have another. " from Goessel, Kan.

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EAN JANZEN is considered by many to be the leading Mennonite poet in America. She also teaches poetry at Fresno Pacific College. Jean and her husband, Louis, are members of the College Community Church of Clovis, Calif. Deborah Penner, former assistant editor of the Leader, sat down with Janzen a few months ago to talk about the creative process. Here are excerpts from that interview.

PENNER: Although you don't use Christian jargon in your poetry, the reader comes away from your work with a strong sense that it stems from deep spiritual experience. Can you explain how this happens?

JANZEN: Poetry is very close to prayer; you get to your truer self. We are such an enigma to

Away to the true self For Jean Janzen, poetry gets us close to the discovery of what God intends us to be Jean Janzen: "Poetry is very close to prayer."

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ourselves. That's one reason I write-to figure out what I'm thinking and who I am. Poetry gets us close to the discovery of what God intends us to be. In some sense, almost all poetry has some which becomes transformed, if it is a good poem. For a Christian, this experience of creating the poem feels like the movement of the Spirit.

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JANZEN: In our church, I have occasionally done a poetry reading in place of the sermon, grouping my poems on a theme, and making a few comments about them. I have also read a few poems as an offering of worship, like a testimony. They have been very well received.

William Stafford said, "What do you mean, 'Poet-

PENNER: You have published several books with Mennonite publishers, but also seek to publish in the secular press. In light of the spiritual source of your poetry, do you find acceptance or resistance from non-Christian publishers?

JANZEN: Some editors are not interested in my work, probably because it is too religious.

But the editors of Poetry and The Gettysburg Review [two leading literary journals] are not threatened by this and print my poems. Some of my non-Christian friends and mentors probably feel I'm limited by my orthodox belief; the admiration for agnosticism is most accepted in the academic world. Some would say, "I'm sorry that you hang on to that.» But others say, "I envy you your faith.» I feel it is important to be a voice in the secular publishing world.

PENNER: Although you are interested in publishing in the secular press, you also have a deep love for the church. What are some ofyour ideas about how poetry can be used in worship?

AFfER THE PRUNING The vineyard has never been so clean. Stripped to the elemental, now air and light enter full-shaft

the green flow now that the dead and unnecessary is gone, now that the wounded eyes have healed shut.

where last autumn all was weight and must in the dusty shade. And where the knife cut with its double

Even night unlocks its iron gates and allows the moon to enter the vineyard where she spreads her white gown and loosens her hair.

edge, all is delicacy and lift, a jig in the breeze, as though no terrors exist, as though nothing could stop

-jean janz en, from The Upside-Down Tree

UP AGAIN

Cat's wails, sirens, the breaking of glass, no matter which city, means the shattering of sleep.

I awaken to these in Karaganda and rise from a lake of dreams, think riots, thieves, the KGB, but see nothing, only stark moonlight on pale shards.

Karaganda means "black hole,» cousin Kolya has told me, these acres of emptiness over a gutted earth, coal stacks spewing black ribbons day and night. Near here Aunt Margaret and her children were pushed off freight cars onto the plains. Autumn 1942, a dirt hut quickly dug before the blizzards, a diet of vermin, and hymns rising in the dark, tones they clung to like a rope. Finally a drift of sleep like threads until baby's cry, or her own muffled cry, and she was up again, bare feet on this cold earth.

Now the cool tile under my feet, and silence, before I lie down again into the tidal sounds of the years, the chain of Kyries and the answering Gott ist die Liebe, moonlit and swirling in the dark.

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ry in the worship service-the worship service is a poem.'" And poetry is a central part when you recognize the poetry of the Sciiptures and the hymns.

PENNER: You also teach poetry writing at Fresno Pacific College, in the Fresno public schools and at Eastern Mennonite College in Virginia. How do you "teach" poetry?

JANZEN: I think you can't "teach" poetry writing, but as I tell my students, I try to create an environment where they will be able to write-and maybe fmd some poems. And that's about it. But always the excitement of the students' discoveries makes it very worthwhile.

As part of that nurturing and creative environment, I ask my students to read a lot of poetry, and then to write about it in their journals.

Through writing poetry, my students have often been able to bare their most painful memories at

a slant-the opposite of a blunt telling. The poetry allows them to get into themselves.

PENNER: You have finished a new book of poetry, tentatively titled Snake in the Parsonage.

Tell us about it.

JANZEN: My newest collection, which is seeking a publisher, is made up of poems written during the last five years. They seem to carry a common thread-our longing and need for the other.

It is an exploration of how our erotic and sexual drives are intertwined with our deep need for God. So the book includes childhood and adolescent memories, love poems to my husband, and of course, a section about death, since that is the ultimate giving of ourselves to God. Oh, and the title, if I decide to keep it, doesn't refer to the biblical snake, but comes from one of the poems about a literal snake. ff?

DOUBLE RAIL

Winter 1933 and one more mouth to feed. Seven at home and his schoolroom full during freeze and thaw. I wonder what he wanted then as he crossed the darkening yard where after lessons he skated with the growing boys. I wonder what he thought when he entered the warm kitchen where my mother waited, her apron clean, dark hair smooth, skin smelling of bread.

What to give a woman when she asks?

Refuge? A thousand years of peace?

Only after the Rapture, he tells my brothers at the supper table. Premillennialism, he called it. (And the young child listens and fears, for who can abide the day of His coming?)

His broad, immaculate hands butter the bread, the talk is steady. What difference, the train stopping at Karkhoff with the Reds streaming out, or the S.S. blowing bridges in the spring? Sons. Brothers. Nothing to stop the flow. A train for escape?

Zug, we called it in German, as it dragged through the prairie, Sighing into the station with its load.

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The congregation stares up at him in the pulpit. Behind him the words carved on the wall: Heaven and earth shall pass away, as the corn swells and the lake thickens with fish. In the pews all of us listening for the Word that speaks to our feasts and droughts, to the sludgy bottom of the lake and the silence after harvest.

This life is a journey to another world, a different glory, he sang out as he stood shaving at the mirror. He rode the trains with a carefree spirit, at country crossings inched the car forward toward the thundering freight as we gasped and begged. But also, he knew the shadowy places, the times when life was stopped and crowded, when he confided, sometimes I hardly know who I am. That great distance and my mother kissing him, so that at the end he wasn't sure to which home he wanted to go.

-Jean Janzen, from The Upside-Down Tree

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Warkentin: His aesthetic container is running over.

A most excellent gift For Larry Warkentin music is more than the 'whipped cream of life, ' it's a way to minister

by KATHY HEINRICHS WIEST

HEN I GOT TO THE POINT WHERE I COULD PLAY 'Heavenly Sunshine' as good as the guy on the Old-Fashioned Revival Hour, my parents were satisfied, but by that time I was hooked," recalls pianist and composer Larry Warkentin. As a young pianist he found it wasn't quite enough to be skilled at playing hymns and choir accompaniments. "We each have an aesthetic container inside ourselves," he explains. "At some point our container is full and running over." As he grew more skilled in FEBRUARY

1995·13

music, "my view of what music could be was expanded, and when I wanted my cup to run over I had to have a greater challenge." The challenge and discipline of classic compositions filled his expanded cup to overflowing.

Through his years at Immanuel Academy in Reedley, Calif., and as he began pursuing an English major at Tabor College, Warkentin accepted many opportunities to accompany church and school choral groups while pursuing his own interest in classical music at the piano.

His practical mind, however, would never allow him to consider music as a vocation.

He couldn't imagine music providing a reasonable income, nor did he view being a musician as a legitimate Christian calling. "Music was kind of the whipped cream in life; it wasn't the roast beef," he reasoned. So he would plan a career in something solid and significant like teaching, and consider his music only a pleasant diversion.

At Tabor College, reason begarr to give way to the living examples of musicians who took a different view. The lives of Benjamin Horch, a music teacher at Immanuel, and instructors Herbert Richert and Paul Wohlgemuth from Tabor's music department, made Warkentin reconsider.

((There are times when I've thought Why can't I quit composing?' andltry to quit, but it doesn't work."

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"All three of them had a sense that music was a divine calling, that there was something more than entertainment," he says.

"I began to see that it was in fact a way of ministering. It had all the components 1 think a Christian calling should have." Sensing his own inner call from God he decided "I'd rather be poor and happy," and chose to pursue music as a career.

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ow a music professor himself, Warkentin wants his students at Fresno Pacific College to understand that music is more than the whipped cream of life. The world needs musicians just as much as it needs doctors, he asserts. "Sometimes I have thought that music is even more important. A doctor just gets you fIXed up and you die anyhow; but music makes life worth living."

Musical expression as a divine calling has its roots in the Bible, Warkentin tells his students. "I don't think it's by chance that we think of heaven as angels singing and playing harps. So many of the real high points in the biblical accounts are accompanied by music," he notes, pointing to Jesus's birth and John's revelation. "Those are there for a purpose. They tell us something.

"When it says in the Bible we were created in the image of God, one of the things it means is that we were created to be creators," he added.

As an artist, "In a sense I'm trying to create a Garden of Eden in which, before the fall, everything worked perfectly. The closer one gets to that kind of perfect creation, we consider that person to be a greater artist."

While being a musician may be a divine calling, Warkentin doesn't always count it a blessing.

"Sometimes I almost consider it a burden. It's very time-consuming and I have enough to do in life." The burden also comes in the personal nature of the creative process. "Each time I compose, it's like a testimony or a confession and therefore, if someone doesn't like the piece, it feels very personal.

"There are times when I've thought 'Why can't 1 quit composing?' and 1 try to quit, but it doesn't work."

From Warkentin's pen-and more recently from his computer-have flowed a wide variety of musical fOmls. His compositions include religious hymns and cantatas, string quartets, works for the piano, and even a piano score for ballet.

Among his most recent works is the hymn "God of the Lion," which won ftrst place in the hymn category at Church Music Seminar XI in Winnipeg, Man., in January. Fresno Pacific Col-

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His home congregation, College Community lege's 50th anniversary celebration in November Church in Clovis, has been one place where his opened with the powerfully jubilant fanfare "Lobe den Herren" for choir, bell choir, brass unique musical expression has been nurtured.

"College Community is a wonderful church for ensemble, string ensemble and organ, composed me. There is a love there for the music I love. We

by Warkentin for the occasion.

Audiences throughout North America have do a lot of traditional things, but are also willing to take a few creative risks." heard Warkentin's work in churches, concert In the larger church, Warkentin has halls and on the radio via the Canadian Broadcasting Company. The Fresno Philharmonic Orchesobserved the changes in church music with tra performed "Koinonia," a symphonic essay, some concern. "[The Apostle] Paul instructs us to 'sing with the spirit and with understanding.' and in 1992 he performed his "Concerto in G for The best church music has the best balance of Piano and Orchestra" with the local Tulare Symintellect and emotion," he says, expressing conphony Orchestra. cern that current trends place a heavy emphasis Whether for secular or church audiences, on the emotional side_ Warkentin's compositions are an Technology is opening expression of his testimony_ The "Concerto in G," for example, was up many musical opportuni"My music is a presented ill a secular setting, but ties, Warkentin said, but also has its pitfalls. The temptathe work grows out of Wartestimony. I don't tion with electronically prokentin's spiritual roots. The three duced sound is to use it "as movements of the concerto reflect think you get a an excuse for not using the the preaching ministry of J-B. Toews, who, as a pastor and colreal thing. ' lege professor, has influenced the Quite eager to experisincere testimony ment and use current techcomposer's spiritual development. nology in music, he con"The first movement is this you're looking big, pulpit-pounding thing," says tends that it should be used Warkentin . The second moveto produce new sounds that to see what people expand the possibilities of ment, based on the hymn "How expression, rather than subFirm a Foundation," is more reflecwant to hear." tive, as in a mid-week prayer meetstitute electronic sound for ing meditation_A flamboyant third traditional instruments. movement depicts Toews's evanHe explored the expresgelistiC preaching style with its simple, direct sive potential of synthesized music in his "Pentemessage conveyed in a variety of ways. cost Anthem_" Blending the music of choirs and The ideas for Warkentin's compositions organ and a reading by the congregation, often come from his reading_ In addition to ScripWarkentin used a synthesizer to "create those ture, he has found inspiration in poetry, essays, undefinable sounds that were probably part of even some works of Spanish poetry by Fresno [the Pentecost] experience."

Pacific College colleague Hugo Zorrilla.

In light of shifting priorities and changing Warkentin's daughter, Rhonda Langley, selected technologies in church music, how does and helped translate the three Spanish poems he Warkentin defme what is "good" church music?

Good church music does not necessarily come in set to music. one specific style, he says, but it will share one arkentin recognizes that the complex common denominator-excellence. and often dissonant-sounding music "Throughout the Scripture we are encourhe composes does not appeal to a aged to bring an offering without spot or blemish," he says. "Whatever style becomes the best broad audience. "I have found it difficult to get my serious works published," he admits. vehicle for our worship expression needs to be But Warkentin is unapologetic about the tested by that standard." kind of work he creates. "I have written things With integrity and sincerity Warkentin's life that express who I am without concern for and work exemplify his admonition: "We each whether they would be published," he says. "My need to find the most excellent gift we can. " ef2 music is a testimony. I don't think you get a sincere testimony if you're looking to see what peoKathy Heinrichs Wiest is a free-lance writer ple want to hear." from Kingsburg, Calif.

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POTIER MOLDING CLAY

from the earth is one the world's oldest trades. A otter myself, I find that working with a mass of clay is an appropriate metaphor for how God creates and molds us. I believe I can link the emotions I feel while I work to those of a God who I know loves and cares forme.

From beginning to end, the potter experiences the thrill of victory, the cost of mercy and the pain and agony of judgment. Finding the right clay is important. Then it must be washed and cleaned, dried to a plaster texture, wedged, tested for shrinkage, combined with other clays and grog (crushed fired clay to add strength) and aged.

InJeremiah 18, the prophet is taken to a potter's house. Here the potter centers the hump (a large piece of clay from which individual pieces are made) and pulls a vessel from the clay, only to have it marred in his hands. Impurities that mar the vessel include air bubbles, stones and Maxelin Wiebe: God has held nothing back.

In the hands o/God the Potter God has placed a mass of living clay into time and space. But he has also chosen to be with us, to walk in our shoes.

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hard clay, all illustrating sin. If these impurities are in the small piece, they will also be present in the larger piece, so the whole hump must be reworked and wedged.

The potter's patience is long-and so is God's, in that he chooses to continue to show mercy and grace. Every other generation turned from God to do what was "right in their own eyes." The defection ratio was so high that God tells the prophet to take an earthenware flask and shatter it outside Jerusalem's Potsherd Gate, the location of Baal worship and the sacrifice of children (19:10-11). This was a prediction of disaster for those who "were stiff-necked and would not listen to words" (v. 15).

Even though God used the smashed vessel to demonstrate his judgment on sin through Jeremiah, we can also see God's mercy demonstrated in the work of the potter. When the finished vessel is placed in the kiln, it is a time of great anticipation for the potter. Firing is a matter of intense concern because of the many uncertainties. Placing it in the kiln is a surrender, a giving up to the metamorphic forces of fire. The clay undergoes a chemical change and shrinks, weakening the structure. At 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, the vessel is fragile; all organic matter in the clay is burned out. With my best work in limbo, I stay close by, controlling the fire and the intake of oxygen and carbon dioxide.

After 12 hours of "cool down" time, I open the kiln with great anticipation. Even after all this time, the temperature inside is still more than 1,000 degrees. Too fast a cool down, even at this point, would break the wares. The firing is critical, and when it is successful, I reap the fruit of all other processes in shaping the clay.

The suspense of waiting for those final results is central to the potting experience. As a potter, I echo Peter's words: "I should not be surprised at the fiery ordeal ...for I share in the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejOicing, so that also at the revelation of his glory, I may rejoice with exultation" (1 Pet. 4:12-13).

On the flip side of this exultation is the destructive work of the kiln. As much as 25 to 50 percent of my work does not make it through the firing process. These vessels remain on the shelves for months, even years, before I destroy them. Eventually, I take them out to the pit and smash them beyond all use, lest someone come and use them for another purpose. A defective vessel is a dishonor to me and my creativity.

But even though many pieces wind up smashed to pieces, destruction of a vessel is never a consideration at the time of its creation.

It goes against the very nature of the potter to think in such a way. To break is the opposite of

building and creating. For me, the trip to the pit is not a time of rejoicing, but a time of weeping and remorse. If I cannot use the piece for its designed purpose, then I do not want anyone else to use it. Judgment is painful. Christ illustrated it best when he looked over the doomed city of Jerusalem and wept.

Just because some useless vessels end up shattered in the pit, one might assume that the potter's own pots would be the pick of the litter, the top of the line or the most marketable. Not so. At my house, the most valued vessels are those which are a delight in my eyes only-the bean pot without a lid, the oil lamps that cannot hold oil, the discolored cups. They delight my sense of design, color, ideals, form and purpose, even though they are not uniform and would not sell in the marketplace.

But they were not made for the marketplace, with its narrow ideals about size, color and purpose. A free form is desired, but not too free .

Some vessels are made for me, to live with me, not with others. In Exodus 4:10-11, Moses tells God he did not make him right. God takes full responsibility by telling Moses, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes him dumb or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?" God makes one-of-a-kind people who are special and unique. Problems arise when we go to the marketplace and let the buyers decide what is beautiful and useful on the basis of unifOrmity alone.

God the Potter is different from all earthly potters. Would anyone consider becoming the substance of his or her work? As a potter, I would never think of becoming the clay on my wheel. Yet we know that is exactly what Christ became (Phil. 2:7-8). God took on the form of our human "clay." The creator of this universe became the perfecter of faith in this way and considered it joy! (Heb. 12:2).

God has placed a mass of living clay into time and space. But he has also chosen to be with us, to walk in our shoes. Our experiences of victory and pains of defeat are also his. God is a merciful and faithful high priest (Heb. 17: 18).

God the Potter pulls me from the pit, comes into my life, forms me, sets me free, gives me maturity even in spite of my rebellion, and then puts a shield around me, giving me his glory.

62 God the potter has held nothing back.

Maxelin Wiebe is a potter and painter from Lee's Summit, Mo., where she and her husband, Gary, are Mennonite Brethren church planters.

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BY MARVIN

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Luke 17:3 says: "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him." Is it possible to forgive when the offender has not requested forgiveness? (CALIFORNlA)

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The primary thrust of this passage is that the believer should never withhold forgiveness from one who repents of a sin. But the above question is a good one.

In tenns of effect, granting forgiveness has at least two dimensions. It is good for the offender, but it may be even better for the one who extends forgiveness. The more important matter when someone sins against me may not be the offender's attitude, but mine. If I forgive, I regain a sense of balance and sanity in my life, regardless of what happens to the offender. Few things are worse than the effects of unforgiveness harbored in our hearts. Cherishing grudges brews both cold and hot wars. Insisting on our rights (insisting that the offender do penance) only stokes the fires of wickedness within us.

No doubt, a tremendous sense of relief comes to the offender when sin is forgiven, and most of us know the joy of being declared gUiltless. But in a sense, even if no request for pardon is made, the one sinned against can forgive and thereby cleanse his or her own soul and find release. In that sense, it may not be necessary for the offender to ask forgiveness. Jesus, on the cross, asked God to forgive the gambling executioners at the foot of the cross. They did not deserve pardon. So far as we know, they did not seek forgiveness. But Jesus took the initiative and prayed for their pardon.

On the other hand, one of my professor-friends contends we can't really forgive until asked. What he means is that all we, the offended, can do if there is no willingness to be forgiven, is to say within our heart that we will not hold anything against the offender. But we can't offer full acceptance of that person if he or she does not want to be forgiven . When I am sinned against, a reality stands 18

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It once was customary to lay

hands on head or shoulders when new converts were accepted into church membership. It has been a long time since I have seen this observed. Why has this practice been discontinued? (KANSAS)

According to J. B. Toews, veteran historian, the blessing my "inquirer" misses in his church today originated in Russia. Surprisingly, it was one of the carryovers from the "old" Mennonite Church in Russia out of which the Mennonite Brethren Church was born. This new-member blessing was one of the fonnalities the "Brethren" adopted from the church that had become stale and often unspiritual because of its emphasis on fonnality rather than experience.

Toews recalled that at his baptism in Russia at age 14, those baptized were asked to kneel at the front of the church and the ministers laid hands on them and prayed: "And the very LEA D E R

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between the offender and me. I cannot remove that for the offender.

Another professor-friend suggests this is the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation. Our voluntary releasing of the offender's sin is forgiveness.

Reconciliation does not occur until the sinner seeks it with the one sinned against. For example, God has forgiven humanity.

But reconciliation (salvation) does not occur until the person accepts and appropriates the offered forgiveness.

The New Testament instructs us to be eager to forgive . The New Testament also urges the sinner to seek forgiveness and reconciliation. We who are sinned against are responsible for our attitude and action, but we cannot act in behalf of the one who has sinned. For the process to be complete, the offender must accept responsibility for the sin and the offended must be ready to forgive .

Christ's offer of salvation works precisely that way as well.

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Do you have a question about a Bible passage, doctrine, conference policy, or other spiritual issue?

Send it to "Inquiring Minds, " c/o Marvin Hein, 4812 E. Butler, Fresno, CA 93727.

God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the cOming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Faithful is he that calls you, who also will do it" (1 Thess. 5:23-24).

What about this practice today? I suppose my answer is: nothing is essentially imperative about using this practice. A tradition, which this seems to be, can be either good or bad. My view is that this is a valuable practice carried over from a sometimes corrupt church. Nothing demands its continuance.

Having said that, I will also say this: I love it. The New Testament offers plenty of precedents for laying on hands-not nearly all for purposes of ordination. Moreover, it would seem appropriate to effect the transfer of blessing to the newly baptized through physical touch. That may be one reason the inquirer testified what a meaningful experience this blessing had been for him when he was received into the church.

In our families we need to reinforce our expressions of love with touch. A husband's expressed love for his wife would probably ring hollow if he never touched his wife. The same applies to our relationships with children. They need our touch. Some of us have learned this all too late.

And then, after we have learned it, we find it is "unsafe" in our culture when practiced outside the home.

Refraining from touching a new member during the blessing may be a little like a pastor not touching a child being dedicated. The Bible does not dictate this practice, but it seems to make sense. e!2.

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BY PHILIP WIEBE

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Over the edge

T HAS OFTEN been said that today's church should be on the "cutting edge." I suppose I agree. In our dense info-jungle, the church should be blazing new trails toward better ways of thinking and relating, working and living. Sometimes, though, it seems like the Church of the Cutting Edge is less interested in promoting better ways of living than new ways of singing.

I don't mean to be facetious. I like contemporary worship music, and not just because it's more fun to play on guitar and bass. To state the obvious, contemporary songs speak the musical language of modern culture. And, as also should be obvious but often isn't, we can't expect to reach modern men and women with antiquated language. The good news won't do much good if nobody can understand it.

However, at times contemporary worship philosophy seems to posit that if we merely assemble the worship band and toss out some media bites, they will come. Well, maybe they will, but they probably won't stay. Back in my early days as a worship leader, someone advised me to plan services in the spirit of television.

"Since TV is our main competition," went the logic, "we need to equal or surpass it." To which my response remains: Why aim so low?

Let's face it: Television is not the most substantial medium going. Rock icon Bruce Springsteen sang for many when he growled, "Fiftyseven channels and nothin' on."

People may be channel surfing their way through prime time, but they don't necessarily like it. Neither, I think, do most folks care for church surfing. Contrary to popular belief, the search for substance hasn't been canceled.

Recently a medieval vocal ensemble called "Anonymous 4" explained the current popularity of "Chant" and other chart-topping albums of ancient church music: "People's lives are so complicated and noisy, they're looking for something simple and reflective and deep."

In my view, the church should jump on that like a loose football during the Super Bowl. We can get so busy cloning cultural trends, we forget that our real calling is to counter them. So I've been wondering: does today's church need to be more cutting edge, or less? I guess it depends on how you define "cutting edge." Again, if it means setting the pace in areas of relationships, human worth and the meaning of life, of course the church should be cutting edge. If it means

keeping up with all the style trends, then you have a debate.

Style is not irrelevant. Marshall McLuhan may have overstated the matter when he pronounced, "The medium is the message," but admittedly the medium is some of the message.

How we say what we say says a lot. But style without substance is like that first bite of cotton candy. "It looks a lot better than it tastes," Mom and Dad kept telling me one year at the fair.

But I had to have some, and finally got hold of a big blue wad and took a bite. Nothing.

"Nothing" is a pretty good description of what passes for "cutting edge" these days. Two recent movie reviews come to mind. "Pulp Fiction," widely hailed as one of the year's best films, was called "stylish and hypnotic." "Shadowlands," a film loosely based on C.S. Lewis's late-life courtship and marriage, was "thoughtful and meaningful." "Pulp Fiction" could be described in its entirety as "hip gangsta's toting guns." "Shadowlands" was merely about life and death, love and spirituality. The verdict? "Pulp Fiction" was cutting edge; "Shadowlands," oldfashioned. Style is cutting edge; substance, oldfashioned?

To those following him around after he fed five thousand, Jesus essentially observed: You're not really looking for me, but for the perks and pleasures surrounding my presence. He challenged, "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life" (In. 6:27). God elaborated through Isaiah, "Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare . Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live" (Is. 55:2,3).

Before we slide too far down the cutting edge, let's remember that our first call is to commitment. There's a word you don't hear much anymore. Yet it's the one thing, the only thing, that matters in the end. When we flirt with people's senses without engaging their hearts, we are not near to the heart of God. As Richard Foster pointed out in Celebration of Discipline: "Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people."

Amen. May we get over the edge, and delve into the deep.

FEBR U ARY

When we flirt with people's senses without engaging their hearts, we are not near to the heart of God.

Philip Wiebe lives in Salem, Ore. 1995

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Friendly faces in a new land?

• MCC aids immigrants coming to western shores

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N ANY GIVEN Sunday in the United States, Mennonite Brethren worship in about 10 different languages. Mennonite Brethren congregations across this country now represent Indian, Slavic, Latino, Japanese, Korean, Ethiopian, Hmong and Khmu people. Many of these congregations are on the West Coast.

Immigrants to the western shores of the United States find a friend in the church and local Mennonite churches are supported in their efforts by Mennonite Central Committee.

West Coast MCC shares Christ with immigrants by sharing groceries and parenting tips and by trying to change the increasing anti-immigrant sentiment in that region.

Sharing Christ by sharing groceries West Coast MCC's ongoing grocery sharing project allows coordinator Mary Elizondo an opportunity to meet the immediate needs of immigrant families while at the same time demonstrating Christ's love. Elizondo works with refugee and immigrant issues with West Coast MCC. When a winter freeze hit California in 1990, Mennonite Disaster Service donated funds to help buy groceries for some affected families including the Wenceslado and Saloma Bejar family.

Touched by the gesture, Saloma and her younger children began attending EI Buen Pastor Church, the Mennonite Brethren church in Orange Cove, Calif. Later Wenceslado began

attending and later still, the couple's teenage children - a son involved in gangs and daughter Maricela. They all eventually accepted Christ.

Last summer Maricela became involved with MCC's 1994 Summer Service program thanks to Elizondo. Maricela worked with the church's Kids' Club while earning money for college tuition. She has recently completed her first semester at King's River Community College in Reedley, Calif.

"Maricela's parents are from a

Ways to 'Welcome the stranger' 1. Avoid thinking and saying "we" and "they." Avoid generalizing when talking about another ethnic group.

2. Attend a church service

d ff

This Brazilian boy mugs for the camera, but he may not feel welcomed if he would immigrate to the West Coast. Public discussion about California's Proposition 187, for instance, was at times "unchristian, dehumanizing, even hateful," according to MCt's Stephen Penner.

of an ethnic group i erent from your own.

3. Learn another language.

4. Select a particular refugee or immigrant group and learn more about them. Read, attend cultural celebrations, go to their churches. .

5. In church, learn songs from another ethnic group. Read scripture m another language.

6. Invite a guest speaker from a refugee or immigrant group, with a translator if needed.

7. Plan joint meals, where people from various ethnic groups gather together to eat. .

8. For youth groups: plan an activity with teens from. another ethnic church. See the CBS Fox movie "EI Norte" available at most vldeo stores.

9. Learn your own family stories and history. Find out why and when your family immigrated. Write these stories for the next generation.

10. Learn to know on a personal basis a refugee or immigrant.

11. Offer to provide transportation to church or the doctor for a refugee or immigrant. . . .

12. Volunteer for a local agency that works wlth refugees and tmmlgrants. b 13. Sponsor a refugee or a refugee family. Hold a grocery shower, ba y shower or household shower for a newly arrived immigrant or refugee.

14. Host an exchange student.

15. Adopt an international student from the local college/ university.

Adapted from West Coast MCCs list ofpractical steps individuals and congregations can take to express the spirit of Christ toward immigrants and refugees.

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very rural area of Mexico. Her mother and father can read just a little Spanish. It's really a huge step for the children of farm workers to be able to attend college," says Elizondo.

Maricela's brother "has really cleaned up his act," Elizondo relates.

He worked in the fields last summer to save for college. He is now also attending college and hopes to work in corrections.

Elizondo is also developing a team trained in parenting education to present workshops in West Coast churches. The workshops are intnded to help newcomers discern what parenting methods to adopt from u.S. culture and what to keep from their own.

"For the Russian and Ukrainian communities especially, the change is drastic. They come from places where they were told what to do to a place where they have to find their own future. The children adapt but the parents don't. The Hmong people and

Mexicans also feel a loss of control over their children," Elizondo says.

Toward a welcoming attitude In addition to helping newcomers with practical needs, West Coast MCC encourages Christians to model a welcoming attitude. Increasing anti-immigrant sentiment in the region prompted West Coast MCC board members to pass a statement in September outlining "A Christian Response to Refugee and Immigrant Issues."

Some of the public discussion about Proposition 187 was "unchristian, dehumanizing, even hateful," says Stephen Penner, director of West Coast MCC. Proposition 187, which passed in California by a 2-1 margin in November, stipulates that people suspected of being in the United States without proper documentation may not receive medical and educational services and must be returned to their native country. The legislation is now tied up in the courts.

The statement calls upon the MCC U.S. constituency to look upon the situation differently, says Penner, adding that on the West Coast increasing numbers of Mennonite congregations are of newcomers. In just the past couple of years, some 3,000 Russian and Ukrainian immigrants have joined Mennonite Brethren churches in California, Oregon and Washington.

The statement points out that "many of our grandparents and greatgrandparents came to the United States" for the same reason as do immigrants today: "For protection from religious or political persecution and in search of freedom, peace and opportunity for their families. " "Immigrants want to become economically self-sufficient and to make positive contributions to the land where they are living. As the children of immigrants we should welcome these new arrivals with Christian care and compassion," the MCC statement says.-MCC and CL staff

NATURAL DISASTER

At press time, Mennonite Central Committee and MBM/ S both were waiting for further information in order to assess the potential need for North American response. The Japan Evangelical Fellowship, a broad coalition of many evangelical groups with its own relief • Area churches spared other casualties; agency, appears likely to coordinate Christian participation in relief efforts, including MCC. A Mennonite repreMBM/S and M CC try to assess need sentative is involved, according to Gary Hardaway of A MENNONITE BRETHREN student was reported killed MBM/ S. .1"'l..in the earthquake which devastated Kobe, Japan, Meanwhile, the youth of the Japan MB Church are Jan. 16. Pastor Tsujikawa of the Semboku MB Church in forming teams to help the government distribute supplies the Osaka metro area, reported to MB Missions/Services on bicycles to the stricken of Kobe. An estimated that one of their attenders, Wataru MOri, 22, attending 310,000 people spent the night ofJan. 20 in shelters for the University of Kobe, died in the disaster. Because of the homeless, most without heat or running water. Roads the massive wreckage-41,000 buildings destroyed or are clogged with thousands walking to the suburbs to badly damaged-his body was not found for several days. buy food and bring it back to their families.

Mori's parents are long-time members of the church, Three of the 26 churches in the Japan MB Conferlocated 20 miles from Kobe, and he had attended there ence are located only a few miles from the earthquake's all his life. He had not yet joined. epicenter. MBM/S has three English teachers in the Osaka Aside from the one death, Mennonite Brethren in area, about 20 miles from Kobe: Susan Sivertson of BurnaJapan came through the quake with no other major dam- by, B.C., Chris Braun of Hillsboro, Kan., and Dawn Hogan age to people or church structures. However, their hearts of Omaha, Neb. Braun and Hogan both report being are burdened for neighbors and friends less fortunate. At awakened by the earthquake. Braun also reported that his press time, the death toll numbered more than 5,000. apartment building received structural damage.

The Japan Mennonite Emergency Relief Committee, About 80 percent of the Japanese Mennonite headquartered in Northern Japan, announced that it "is Brethren congregations are also located in the Osaka appealing to all Mennonite Church, Tokyo Fellowship, metro areas. MBM/S church planting couples Steve and Mennonite Brethren, Brethren in Christ and General Con- Bobbie Friesen of Komaki, and Laurence and Leona ference churches (in Japan) to raise money for the disas- Hiebert of Toyota, each live about 100 miles from Kobe. ter and, if possible, send volunteer groups" to the devas- Doris Goertz, an MBM/S English teacher from Winnipeg, tated areas. also works in Toyota.-from MBM/S releases

MB student reported killed in Japan's Kobe earthquake

FEBR U ARY

1995

21

BODYLIFE

MISSION

Bakersfield congregation reaches out to abandoned children of Romania • Congregation is sending mission teams to Romania to minister to the physical and spiritual needs there

I

N THE DREARY rooms of a Bucharest orphanage, several women work diligently to bathe and clothe the children, while other team members teach a vacation Bible school.

Down the hall a couple of men, wielding hammers and paint brushes, busy themselves with a construction project. Outside, several others turn the ground in preparation for playground equipment.

It's all in a day's work for the Romania Project team from Laurelglen Bible Church in Bakersfield, Calif.

From the beginning, the LBC Romania Project has been a labor of love.

Sparked by church member DeAnn

Sampley's mission trip to Romania with JOni Erickson Tada in 1991, LBC has developed a vital ministry working with a Bucharest orphanage known as Casa de Copii #7, meaning House of Children.

"My trip to Romania with JOni was such a life-changing experience, that when I brought it back to LBC, they embraced Romania and the LBC Romania Project was born," Sampley says.

Many Romanian children were abandoned during Nicolae Ceausescu's dictatorship, when families were heavily taxed if they produced fewer than five children. According to Ceausescu's reasoning, the more chil-

Team member Sarah Bird helps a child wash. Bird has been on two trips with LBe and spent three months in Romania with Chidren to Love, a missions organization reaching out to Romanian orphanages.

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dren born in Romania, the stronger his work force would become. However, larger families created fmancial hardships for parents. As a result, many children were deserted because their families could not afford their care .

According to Grace Cabalka, LBC Romania Project team member, a few children are visited regularly by their parents. Many others, though, abandoned because of physical or mental deformities, know neither the love of people or God. But LBC is striving to bring the love of God to the children of Casa de Copii #7 by sending mission teams to Romania to minister to the physical, health and spiritual needs of the children and orphanage staff. This is accomplished by providing essential needs such as milk, vitamins and medical supplies, and making repairs and improvements at the facility. .

The first LBC team traveled to Romania in summer 1993. Other church members had already been to Bucharest on independent ministry trips, with the goal of providing essential medical treatment for those in need. Five Romanian children have been adopted into Bakersfield families as a result of those initial trips.

LBC has since sent five teams to work with the orphans and staff at Casa de Copii #7. Team members, although prepared intellectually for what they will fmd in Bucharest, can't help but be moved by the pitiful living conditions.

Grace Cabalka recalls her ftrSt reaction upon arriving at the orphanage: "It really smelled bad, like a combination of rotten food, a strong cleaning solution and urine. The walls were a dark yellow/brown color and very depressing. Many of the children were like little animals, totally out of control and using the yard as their toilet. " The children of Casa de Copii #7, ranging in age from 3 to 9, have a very regimented life but they have nothing to do. They will often sit on a line in a big room for three to four hours at a time watching Romanian news broadcasts on television. Many sleep up to 16 hours a day out of boredom.

Team members soon discovered that many of these children are never called by their names . The natural reaction is to want to bring them all home, but team members know they

BODYLIFE

can be most helpful by working to improve the living conditions by completing the established goals for each trip.

"We saw a real need for these kids to be held and loved," Cabalka says.

"The kids need God's love, but you can't tell them that Jesus loves them when they are cold and hungry, so we try to meet their physical needs .

Hopefully by learning how to accept human love, they will be able to accept God's love. We also want to model for the orphanage staff that these kids have value, not just in our eyes, but in God's eyes. " According to pastor Ken McDuff, chair of the Romania Project Committee, "The LBC Romania Project is serving as an excellent vehicle to open the eyes of the LBC congregation to the needs of the world, and our ability to respond practically to those needs.

The project also affords those who are considering involvement in missions the opportunity to experience a shortterm mission assignment on a crosscultural basis."

To draw the LBC congregation into the project, team member Karen McDuff suggested a prayer support network for the kids, but her plan soon grew in scope to include a financial support network. Church members were given the opportunity to support a child at Casa de Copii #7 for $36 per year. LBC's desire to support the children both in prayer and financially became evident the day the sponsorship program was announced: every child had a sponsor by the end of the evening.

As the Romania Project evolves, one of the goals is to provide assistance and support to the Romanian community of believers in responding to the needs of their own people. Up until now the LBC teams have ministered directly to the children and staff of Casa de Copii #7 . Now they are beginning to incorporate the help of a local church in Bucharest, to minister to the direct needs of the orphanage.

Project team members are working closely with representatives from a Nazarene Church , whose members will visit the orphanage weekly and monitor the day-to-day ministry effort.

LBC will continue to send mission teams and to serve as a source of support.

"LBC's ministry at Casa de Copii #7 has been successful because there is love behind it, but we are really just learning as we go, " Ken McDuff says.

"The team members have become like favorite aunts and uncles to the children. Even if different people visit the orphanage each trip, the children always recognize where the visitors have come from," Cabalka says.

As for the future of the project, "Even as the political climate in Romania changes, there is no end to what we can do for the children. We will find creative ways to meet our goals," McDuff says.-Marcia Hirst, LBC CONSULTATION

Missions share financial woes • Mennonite agencies 'hanging on by fingernails'

W

E'RE HANGING ON-by our fingernails." That's what personnel from Mennonite and Brethren in Christ mission agencies told each other Dec. 11-15, at the annual meeting of the Council of International Ministries held in Chicago, Ill. Having focused on the world and the church in previous meetings, this year CIM turned its attention to itself with the theme: "The Health of the North American Mission Enterprise. " Jack McClane of Brethren in Christ Missions, Grantham, Pa., was the first to use the fmgernail imagery. He told of declining financial support, which has meant a decrease in the number of missionaries sponsored by his agency. Others picked up the theme.

MB Missions/Services, Fresno, Calif., reported that while it had a surplus of $600,000 in 1990, it will have a deficit of almost that much in 1994.

Once projecting 200 overseas workers by 1995, it has had to cut from 125 to the current 84.

Mennonite Board of Missions, Grantham, Pa., Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference, Winnipeg, Man., and Commission of Overseas Mission (General Conference), Newton, Kan., all reported a decrease in overseas staff while Eastern Mennonite MisSions, Salunga, Pa., reported a 15 per-

cent budget cut.

For only one group have the past years been better than hanging on: the Evangelical Mennonite Conference, Steinbach, Man. They reported an increase of $300,000 in overall funding, mainly through the use of special projects. The number of missionaries with EMC has also remained constant, though many are "seconded" to work with independent mission agencies.

For some CIM members, the answer for lessening missions support can be found in a new generation of Mennonites that has not caught the mission vision of a previous one.

Others charged that the individualism and affluency of Western culture have diverted the church from its primary task . "Church members have changed from stewards into con sumers," said Sylvia Ronsvalle of the Empty Tomb, Inc., a resource leader for the CIM gathering .

Ronsvalle would shift the focus of the crisis away from agencies to the constituency. For Ronsvalle, a theology of money would relate stewardship to discipleship. She indicated surprise such a theology has not been developed in light of all the references to finances and stewardship in the Bible-"more than on prayer, " she said.

When challenged that stewardship is more than money, she replied: "But (money) is a North American sin we need to deal with. If we let one little crack in the door and say our problem isn't money, everyone will stream out that crack."

"The well is not dry," said Harry Olfert, formerly an executive with MB Missions/Services who now runs a fundraising conSUlting service out of Winnipeg, Man. Olfert challenged CIM agencies to get beyond thinking that money coming from congregations and conferences is somehow better than that from individuals.

Olfert suggested CIM agencies use a variety of methods in raiSing their funds-and value contributions from whatever the source.

"If we want the well to continue to flow and increase its flow, it probably will not be either working through the church or through individuals-but through both," Olfert said.

Hugo Zorilla, a member of the MBM/S board and a professor at FresFEB R U A R Y

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no Pacific College in Fresno, Calif., called for major changes in Mennonite mission strategy. A former pastor in Colombia, Puerto Rico and Spain , Zorilla placed particular emphasis on missionary training.

"Many missionaries have never evangelized in their cultures, and now

they want to plant churches in other cultures-often in the worst Western manner," he said. "We have not found a Mennonite way of doing mission.

Yes, there have been changes, but these have been only cosmetic."

After two and one-half days of lectures and discussion, CIM members

agreed that the church needs a new vision for mission. They also agreed a ftrst priority for this vision must be to capture the imagination of youth. That agreement came after three young adults challenged CIM to develop this mission vision for the church.-Lorne Peachey for Meetinghouse

. NEWS BRIEFS CELEBRATING: Fresno Pacific College and MB Biblical Seminary in Fresno, Calif., are joint hosts for a conference planned as part of Mennonite Central Committee's 75th anniversary year commemorations.

"Unity Amidst Diversity: Mennonite Central Committee and the 20th Century North American Mennonite Experience" will be held March 9-12 on the two campuses. The conference is open to all interested persons.

To register for the conference or for more information, contact West Coast MCC, 1010 G Street, Reedley, CA 93654; phone (209) 638-6911.

are asked to prepare original speeches on the general theme of applying the Christian peace position to contemporary concerns. MCC provides each participating college with a grant to be used as cash awards in whatever configuration the college finds most useful. Faszer's essay on racial harmony placed first in the 1994 Tabor College contest held last March.

The first-place winners of the campus contests are then entered into the intercollegiate contest. In addition to a typed manuscript, judges of the intercollegiate competition were provided with tape recordings of each entry. (TC)

(MCC) AWARDED: Deb Faszer, a Tabor College junior from Sioux Falls, S.D., received the top honors for her entry in the binational C. Henry Smith Oratorical Contest. In addition to a cash prize, Faszer's winning speech will be published in

Mennonite Weekly Review.

The annual contest is sponsored by Mennonite Central Committee U.S. Peace Section.

The contest was established in honor of C. Henry Smith, a Mennonite historian and professor at Goshen and Bluffton Colleges who had an abiding interest in the Mennonite peace position .

The contest is run on two levels. Each spring Mennonite and Brethren in Christ colleges across North America are invited to hold contests on their local campuses. Participants 24· THE

PUBLISHED: Ray HarmsWiebe, MB Missions/Services missionary to Brazil, has contributed a chapter to the first of a two-volume book that deals with creative ecclesiology. The book is titled Ultrapas-

sando Barreiras: Novas Opacoes para a Igreja Brasileira na Virado do Seculo XXI (Overcoming Barriers: New Options for the Brazilian Church at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century).

Harms-Wiebe says that "the book is an attempt to provide creative, practical, biblical alternatives to the modern Brazilian church so that it can be more relevant and effective in its Kingdom task next century."

His chapter deals with the structure, religious and sociocultural context, implementation and specific vision of a particular church community.

(MBM/S)

CHRISTIAN

LEADER

TRAINING: A comprehensive training seminar to prepare church groups to start victim-offender reconciliation programs from the ground up is being sponsored by the Fresno Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program (VORP) at their Fresno, Calif., office March 29-31.

Accommodations, registration and fee information is available from Kathy Stuck at 1-(800)-909-VORP. The seminar fee pays for up to three participants from a given group and includes lunches, refreshments and all materials which includes two manuals. The training includes an in-depth look at the vision and mission of VORP, training on corporate organization, case management, volunteer management, mediator training, and 24 hours of interactive instruction. (VORP) ACCESS: Congregations wanting to make their facilities more accessible to people with disabilities can receive financial assistance through a new fraternal benefit from Mennonite Mutual Aid. Matching funds of up to $2,000 are available through Handicap Accessibility Grants effective Jan. 1, 1995.

Expenses eligible for assistance include construction of ramps, elevators, pew cuts, curb cuts, modifying rest room facilities and the purchase of listening devices, large-print resources or other adaptive equipment.

Grants are available to congregations who relate to MMA. Congregations interest·

ed in applying for a grant should contact the Advocacy and Educational Resources Department of MMA by calling

1-800-348-7468. (MMA) RESIGNED: Stanley and Susan Clark have resigned their positions at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kan., effective July 1. They will be moving to Moscow, Russia, where Stanley will be vice president of the newly created Russian American Christian University and Susan will be director of personnel and community relations. Stanley has served Tabor for 14 years as dean of the faculty and vice president of academic affairs. Susan has served as director of the foundation and corporate relations for the past six years. (TC) PUBLISHED: Laurel Schunk of First MB Church, Wichita, Kan., has had her first book of fiction, The Voice He Loved, published by Thomas Nelson. The 277-page Christian romance-suspense novel is the story of an adult survivor of child abuse. "I see it as a novel of redemption," Schunk says.

EXTENDED: The deadline for congregations to buy Worship Together, the new Mennonite Brethren hymnal, at a discounted pre-publication price has been extended to March 1. Editorial delays have necessitated the extension, according to Ron Wood, publisher. Church wanting more information should call Christian Press at (204) 667-3560.

BODYLIFE

. CHURCH NOTES •

Baptism/Membership

CLOVIS, Calif. (Mountain View)-Mary Reed, Nicole Hamilton and Rick Briones were baptized Dec. 11. This is the third baptism held since the congregation began public services last May.

• Ministry HENDERSON, Neb.-Garvie and Diane Schmidt, pastoral couple, were the featured speakers at the Colombian MB Mis· sionary Retreat held Jan. 2-4 in Cali. The Schmidts, along with their children, Nathan and Heidi, participated in the Colombian National Conference in Cali, Jan. 5-8, and then traveled to Bogota to visit Mennonite Brethren churches in the area until Jan. 14.

CLOVIS, calif. (College Community)-Pas· tor Stan Friesen, his wife, Delores, who teaches counseling at MB Biblical Seminary, and their daughter, Ingrid, traveled to Africa in late December as part of Stan's sabbatical. They spoke at a retreat for MBM/S, MCC and Mrica Inter-Mennonite Mission workers in Botswana. Stan will spend from Jan. 9 through Feb. 17 work· ing with a training school for church leaders in Accra, Ghana. Delores worked with him there untilJan. 23.

SHAFTER, Calif.-Pastor Dave Gerbrandt and his wife, Marilyn, traveled to Burkina Faso to build a house for missionaries Phil and Carol Bergen.

•

We'd like your story...

S

HOULD FAITH INFLUENCE where and how you work? Thomas Theocarides believes premarital sex is wrong. So the 38-year-old obstetrician-gynecologist from Elkhart, Ind., sent a letter to all his patients last month warning that after a one-year grace period he will no longer provide contraception for those who aren't married, citing the potential for serious health risks. When he asked patients if they believed in God, most said yes. When he asked if they thought being sexually active though not married was right in God's eyes, the vast majority (95-98 percent) said no.

Are you someone whose faith makes a difference in how you do your work, where you do it, and even what you do? Do you know of someone who falls into this category?

I'm calling on you to share your stories about how faith makes a difference in decision-making in your work. How does the church and pastoral staff, friends and family, support you in your work-related concerns and decisions.

Another topic we're interested in hearing about from you concerns the relationship of faith and leisure-time. How do you decide what happens during your leisure and vacation time?

I'd like to hear from you. Send your comments to Katie Funk Wiebe, 836 Amidon, Wichita, KS 67203-3112 .-KFW

view the family film, "Power Play," with a fellowship time following.

•

NEW HOPE, Minn.-Tabor College president-elect David Brandt was the featured speaker Jan. 15. Tabor alumni and friends were invited to meet the Brandts after the service to eat, fellowship and ask questions.

LITTLETON, Colo. (Belleview Acres)"Bringing Jesus to the City" was the theme of Missions Sunday, Nov. 20. Dwight Short of the Jesus Church ,was the speaker in the morning and Penny Kreibel from New Directions Counseling Services spoke at the evening banquet.

Fellowship

Mennonite Brethren Missions/Services

MADERA, calif. (Bible)-Home Bible studies will be offered in 11 different locations on Sunday evenings for six months.

NEWTON, Kan. (Koerner Heights)-Tbe congregation set a goal for the next three or four months of having every family socialize with someone in the church they don't ordinarily visit. Church board members and elders began in January by inviting someone; those families will be asked to do the same in February.

HENDERSON, Neb.-An adult study and support group entitled "Transitions-Savoring the Seasons of llie," met for six weeks through January and February. The study focused on transitions and changes associated with adulthood.

FAIRVIEW, Okla.-All men and boys were invited to a Wild Game Supper Jan. 13 that featured pheasant, fish, quail, deer, etc., donated by church sportsmen.

HILLSBORO, Kan.-The Parkview MB church joined with the Hillsboro MB congregation on New Year's Day evening to

Proclamation

is accepting applications for the position of

Director of Support Services Location: Fresno, California Slarting Dale: June 1, 1995 Deadline for Applications: February 28, 1995

Duties: • Supervise and evaluate department managers responsible for Personnel, Media, Office/Facilities Management, and Finance.

• Give leadership in the development and implementation of an annual budget for the agency.

• Administer employer/employee-related services for all staff.

(Full job description available on request) Qualifications Desired: • Christian commitment and lifestyle consistent with the Mennonite Brethren Confession of Faith .

• Membership in a Mennonite Brethren Church .

• Relational and Administrative strengths to give leadership in the duties of this position.

• Computer skills in word processing and data base management.

• Masters degree or bachelors degree with significant experience.

• Experience in financial and personnel management.

FEB R U A R Y

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25

BODYLIFE

• Teaching/Nurture FREEMAN, S.D. (Silver Lake)-The congregation is hosting the annual three-month "Mid-Week Joint Sessions" with two other rural Mennonite churches. The program features two joint rallies and two five-week teaching sessions for children, teens and adults.

TOPEKA. Kan.-The congregation hosted a preaching seminar Jan. 5-7 for Southern District pastors. Allen Guenther of MB Biblical Seminary led the seminar on the book of Hosea.

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (Laurelglen)-Ron and Betty Wiseman led a marriage seminar Jan. 15-17.

COll..INSVILLE, Okla. (Westport)-A oneday women ' s retreat Jan. 21 featured music with Kris Schoeppey and workshops on the Christian life, skill development, home crafts and family helps.

• MOUNTAIN LAKE, Minn.-The congregation hosted a "New Testament Walk Through the Bible" seminar Jan. 28 for the southwest Minnesota and northwest Iowa area.

''VIENNA: MUSIC AND CULTURE" TOUR MAY 30 - JUNE 13, 1995

Join Professor Wilbur Maust of Conrad Grebel College for a musical and cultural experience in Vienna, an international music center for centuries.

For more information on this tour or other tours, please write or call.

April 18 to May 1

Henry D. Landes, Pieter & Martha Gotwals Postma

Lands of the Bible

May 10-23

john & Naomi Lederach

European Anabaptist Heritage

july 5-21

john Ruth & Ruth jantzi

European PAX

july 10-26

Cal Redekop & Henry D. Landes

England/Scotland

August 9-24

Wilmer Martin & Mary Rittenhouse Schwartzentruber

Mexico

November 15-30

Cal Redekop

Tulip Time in Holland

TOUR MAGINATION 22 King Street South, Suite 401 Waterloo, ON N2J IN8 (Reg. #1 567624)

WICHITA, Kan. (First)-The Music and Worship Ministries Team will host singers/songwriters Dick and Melodie Tunney Feb. 25. The afternoon offers separate seminars for men and women as well as a joint seminar on marriage and family issues. The day closes with an evening concert by the Tunneys.

1011 Cathill Road Sellersville, PA 18960

Tel. 1-800-565-0451 (U.S. & Canada)

Celebrations

SAN JOSE, Calif. (Lincoln Glen)-The Ethiopian Christian Fellowship joined with the congregation for a Christmas Eve candlelight service led by the Chancel Choir.

HILLSBORO, Kan. (Ebenfeld)-An undecorated evergreen tree was a visual reminder of the advent season until Christmas Day when church families decorated the tree with ornaments brought from home.

HESSTON, Kan.-Part of the Dec. 11 morning service was a celebration of the cancellation of the group's building loan.

Lynford Becker of MB Foundation participated in the service.

ADAMS, Okla.-In recognition of the I35th anniversary of the Mennonite Brethren Church, a portion of the Jan. 8 morning worship service focused on the past, present and future of the denomination.

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (Laurelglen)-Flowers were placed in the auditorium Dec. 18 in celebration of the 58th wedding anniversary of Harvey and Fern Gaede.

BUHLER, Kan.-The family of Marion and Anna Wichert hosted a 50th wedding anniversary celebration Jan. 1.

ENID, Okla.-The family of Mr. and Mrs. Gideon Bertsch hosted a 50th wedding anniversary reception Jan. 1.

.%e Tabor College Board of Directors cordially invites you to the inauguration of H. David Brandt as the eleventh president of Tabor College on Friday evening, the seventeenth of February, nineteen hundred and ninety-five, at seven-thirty in the Tabor College Gymnasium, Hillsboro, Kansas

Reception foUowing

/"'>..

IITabor

College

Christ-centered educatlon

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CHURCH PARTNERSHIP EVANGELISM (CPE) INVITATION SAN JOSE, Calli. (lincoln Glen)-Clarence and Clara Nickel celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary at a family dinner given by their children. The Nickels were also recognized in the Jan. 8 morning wor· ship service and an arrangement of flowers was placed in the church in their honor by their family.

•

Workers

LODI, Calif. (Vinewood)-Gary Wall was installed as senior pastor at an afternoon service Jan. 8 which was followed by a reception. He, his wife, Tami, and their three children were welcomed with a "Pantry Shower" as well as a "Casserole Shower" to help stock the cupboard and freezer.

MADERA, Calli. (Madera Bible)-Bob and Wanda Kroeker have announced their res· ignation, effective July 1. They will have completed 44 years of ministry in the Men· nonite Brethren Church, including more than 20 years in the pastorate, 21 years as missionaries in Zaire, and three years as directors of the U.S. Conference Evange· lism and Christian Service activities. The Kroekers say they are open to other min· istry opportunities, including interim or associate roles.

Your Job skills are needed now In Christian

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Highland Mennonite Brethren Church of Calgary, Alberta, invites applications for the position of

SENIOR PASTOR to begin ministry May/June '95

Send resume to: Pastoral Search Committee 4018 Centre B Street N.W. Calgary, Alberta T2K OW2 Phone: (403) 276-9396 Fax: (403) 276 3884

King Road MB Church in Abbotsford, B.C., is seeking volunteers for its Church Partnership Evangelism outreach to ....

PARAGUAY . . .... . .. . ........ . .. .. ....... .. ... March 7-22,1995 PERU, Piura & Sullana .... . ..................... May 2-18,1995 RUSSIA, Zaporozje, Molotchna, Chortitza, Berjansk . . . June 5-30, 1995 FIJI ISLAND ....... .. .... .. .................... July 10-28, 1995 RUSSIA, Odessa ..... . ........................ . Aug. 14-31, 1995 CANADA, Fraser Valley ...................... . ... Sept. 7-21,1995 PERU, Chiclayo .............. . ....... . ......... Oct. 3-19,1995 INDIA, Gadwal area ..... .. .. . ..... . ............. Nov. 13-30, 1995 • Team up with national Christians and witness for Christ door to door.

• Some knowledge of the country's language is helpful.

• Each partiCipant must raise or contribute half of the cost: $1,500.

• Similar campaigns have resulted in 200-400 conversions.

• Come and be part of an enriching spiritual experience, discover what GOD can do through you .

For further information, contact: Evelyn Unruh, 604-852-5744 or CPE 604-864-3941 Peter Loewen, 604-883-3173 or FAX 604-853-6482 Peter Loewen Promoter

Peter Huebert Missions Committee President

"I believe that ideas have consequences for how we live and act. As citizens of God's kingdom our students must learn to think clearly and carefully about the ideas that shape their lives. " Dr. David Faber, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies

JJTa1)or CIu1ot·cenlen!d educaUcn

400 South Jellenon 1tIIoboto. lIS 67063·1799

1-800-TABOR-99 FEB R U A R Y

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ART: Tabor College announces a position opening in art for the 1995-96 academic year. This is currently funded at half-time, with the possibility of expansion and/or combination with another parttime position at the college. This position requires a master's degree; college teaching experience is strongly desirable. The teaching assignment includes introductory courses in drawing, painting, watercolor, basic design and art appreciation.

Supervision of modest art gallery is also included.

All faculty are expected to be able to articulate personal faith in Christ, and be supportive of the mission of an evangelical Christian college. Send resume and three professional references to: Dean of the Faculty, Tabor College, Hillsboro, KS 67063. The position will remain open until a suitable candidate is found, so early application is encouraged.

CLEARINGHOUSE POSITIONS AVAILABLE INSURANCE POSITION-Mennonite Aid Plan of the Pacific Coast (a fire and casualty company) is looking for a dynamic general manager with experience in marketing, knowledge of reinsurance, industry reporting requirements and ability to motivate people. Resumes accepted until 31 March 1995. Position will be filled prior to 1 June 1995. Offices located in Reedley, Calif., serving five western states . Qualifications and job description available upon request. Salary and benefits commensurate with experience and education. Reply to Vern Warkentin, 18685 E. Floral Ave., Reedley, CA 93654.

BIBLICAL STUDIES-Seeking qualified faculty member to teach in biblical studies and related courses in liberal arts college faculty. Old Testament emphasis desired. Doctorate desired, master's degree required. Church-related ministry . experience and Mennonite Brethren or similar church membership required. Applications will be evaluated beginning Feb. 15, 1995, and appointment will be made as soon thereafter as a suitable candidates is secured. Fresno Pacific College is a dynamic Christian liberal arts college of the Mennonite Brethren Church. All candidates for faculty positions share the college's Christian commitment. For full description and application form, write or phone Dr. Gerald G. Winkleman, Academic Vice President, Fresno Pacific College, 1717 S. Chestnut, Fresno, CA 93702; (209) 453-2023.

Position beginning Aug. 15, 1995. Women and members of minority groups are especially encouraged to apply.

HEAR THE MESSAGE • GET THE INSPIRATION • CATCH THE SPIRIT & LILT FOR SALE

A sampler of 60 of the newer songs from

FOR SALE: Two lots in Fresno, adjacent to Willow Gardens, near Butler Church and Fresno Pacific College. Size ca. 70x125; $35,000 each . Can build to suit. Elmer Martens, (209) 291-5904.

the new Mennonite Brethren Songbook recorded by

SINGING MENNONITE BRETHREN (Tom

SOLD OUT AND RADICAL

CANADA" U.S.A.

A new three week entry level missions experience in Mexico and Southern California for youth groups (ages 15 to 17) from across North America.

Costs: $500 per participant (leader goes free with a group of 5 youth).

AVAILABLE IN EITHER COMPACT DISC OR TAPE RECORDINGS

ORDER FROM M.B. Singers 315 S. lincoln Hillsboro. KS USA 67063

M.B. Singers 159 Henderson Hwy Winnipeg. MB Canada R2L IL4

Only pre-payment ordetS accepred-make checks payable to: M.B. SingetS

Tape: $8.95 USA (Postpaid) CD: $1195 USA (Postpaid)

Tape: $9.95 Canadian (Postpaid) CD: $14.95 Canadian (Postpaid)

All the songs recorded are for inspirational listening and for becoming acquainted with some music found in WORSHIP TOGETHER. the new M.B. worship resource.

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THE

CHRISTIAN

L EAD ER

(July 25 to August 13. 1995)

Why lie around next summer

when you can Soar?

For brochures, posters or video contact: Youth Mission International 4867 E. Townsend Fresno, CA 93727-5006 (209) 456-4600 Fax:(209) 251-1432

For College age participants: Two month assignments with YMI to Austria, Thailand, Lithuania, Brazil, and Egypt as well as inner-city teams throughout North America.

otrusings

BY JIM

HOLM

Rebirth of an evangelist

I

'M PROBABLY A little slow in catching on to a new idea. But I've just discovered something that I'd like to share with you. I'm fully aware that some, perhaps many, of you have known about this for a long time. I haven't. I'm a little embarrassed to reveal my ignorance, but I've done it before in these paragraphs, even a few times when I didn't know it (though some have been kind enough to point it out to me).

So I suppose one more confession won't be inappropriate.

Let me set the background. I'm a frustrated evangelist. Witnessing has never been easy for me. I've often been afraid of sharing my faith with others. To fight that fear, I've participated in various witnessing activities. I've counseled at city-wide crusades. I've gone door-to-door with neighborhood surveys and little booklets of laws. In my first pastorate, I spent almost every Thursday night for 10 years visiting people in their homes, sharing a plan of salvation, and hoping for an evangelism explosion. I have done evangelism.

But I've seen very little fruit. Many people were willing to listen to the gospel, but not willing to respond. Others prayed a prayer of acceptance, but their lives never really changed. They didn't have the hunger for the Word or for worship that I wanted to see. Often I would ask God, "What is wrong with my presentation?

What is wrong with me? Why do these methods give such phenomenal success to others, and seem so unproductive when I use them?"

At the same time, I have a deep desire in my heart that people come to an understanding of Jesus. That's why I am a "frustrated evangelist."

I long for my witness to be effective, and for the church to see the birth of new believers in Jesus. I desire to be effective in evangelizing.

Now, to my discovery. I've just read the book, Living Proof, by Jim Peterson. What a refreshing shower of cool water that was. I know that many of you have read it, and that others have seen the video series which Peterson has produced. But for those of you who, like me, haven't seen it before, let me summarize a few of its ideas. Peterson's enthusiasm and his lucid presentation have made me excited about evangelism again, and have made me believe that ordinary Christians can have the joy of doing what so many of us really want to do.

My space is limited here, so let me share without much comment a few of Peterson's

ideas that struck a responsive chord in my mind and heart. I'll italicize my paraphrase of his comments, so you know which are his ideas and which are mine. Almost half of our society is unchurched and we Christians are not communicating with them. Ouch! But true. We are speaking primarily to the people who think like we do. Christians ought to learn to carry the gospel to their own peers, to people on their level. We can't keep going only to the rest home or the rescue mission. That makes us feel better, but the gospel is not just for the sick, the old, the burned out and the incarcerated.

We are so established in our ineffective patterns of evangelism that we maintain them even though they are ineffective. Peterson suggests that evangelism consists of two parts. First is proclamation-the presentation of a plan of the gospel. But proclamation is mainly effective among people who already have an open mind.

They have been prepared to receive the Word.

Second is affirmation-modeling, incarnating and demonstrating the gospel in life. We don't do the second one well. We have been conditioned to understand evangelism as sharing the message verbally. However, people who aren't prepared to accept the Bible as true can't respond to a verbal message. As a result, we tend to bypass them completely.

The best part of the book is Peterson's solution. This was so encouraging that I recommend it unhesitatingly to you. We need to relearn to build relationships with people outside of our normal circle of contacts, seeing them as Christ did. Dinner in our homes or at a restaurant, and talking with people, showing care for them, is the place to begin. Then, instead of sharing a method, we need to help people ask two questions: Who is Jesus Christ? and What does he want me to do? The best way to get them to ask those questions is to invite them to study the Bible, just the Bible, with us, beginning in the Gospel of John. The Bible itself becomes the witness, and the Holy Spirit does the convicting.

That's exciting.

What needs to happen now is that we need to take the time to build bridges, even if we have to cut back on our attendance at church meetings to do it. God has called us to be witnesses, not to do witnessing. Peterson gives refreshing ideas on how to be.

Yes, I'm late to that important truth. But I'm hoping that late is better than never. ef2 FEB R U A R Y

Peterson's enthusiasm and his lucid presentation

have made me excited about evangelism again, and

have made me believe that ordinary Christians can have the joy

of doing what

so many of us really want

to do.

Jim Holm is from Reedley, Calif.

2 9 9 5

29

M

s c

I

ELLANEA

CLIPS AND COMMENTS

-&.. Pontius' Puddle LIFESTYLE

mE\lISlOl'l C,LAMOIl\'%E!. VIOLEf&e.C, OUQ.

Counting the costs Children living in homes headed by "cohabitating" parents fare worse economically than children in families with married parents, according to an analysis of census data by Penn State sociologists Wendy Manning and Daniel Lichter.

The study estimates that 2.2 million U.S. childrenroughly one-seventh of the children usually counted as living with a single parentactually live with a single parent and his or her unmarried partner.

But even when the income of this second potential breadwinner is added to family income, per capita income in families headed by nonmarried parents lags behind families with married parents.

sp,tt\'tUJ.Lct'l.

VALuES,

Cohabitating households averaged $7,200 per capita, while the per capita income in married-couple families is almost $10,800.

(EP)

IDEOLOGY

Morally nailed Though author Camille Paglia identifies herself as a left-wing atheist, she admits that her ideological opposites have hit the nail on the head in identifying America's problems. "The

far right diagnoses certain failings in the culture right now, and what I'm telling the left is, 'Guess what?

They're right!' The people on the right are seeing something real, something's terribly wrong in the culture; the young kids have nothing and are being given nothing, " she says.

"This is why there's a movement back toward conventional religion. The left became spiritually empty in the last 20 years."

(EP)

STEWARDSHIP

Way to give Churches that emphasize giving as an outgrowth of the church's beliefs and traditions collect more money per parishioner than churches which don't, according to a Lilly Endowment-funded study of five denominations. The study of 10,000 church members found that Assemblies of God members gave $628 annually, Presbyterians

YOUTH

But do they like the closing prayer?

R

ecently, GROUP magazine asked about 100 teenagers what they adore or despise about church. In a word, the chief thing they liked: friends. A number of kids also said they like learning about God, being with people who share their beliefs, and the fun activities they do.

But kids saved their juiciest answers for what they don't like about church.

Among their responses: • Hypocrites, limited thinking, conformity, lack of realism. I know there 30

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is a God, but I don't feel I belong in church. The idea is very good, but the church is too political. The actual outcome in today's society isn't practical.

• I don't like how the pastors and our youth group leader believe they know more about being a teenager than we do. They have no idea how many teens use drugs, alcohol and cigarettes. Peer pressure is a b-.

• I don't like long-winded LEA D E R

prayers/sermons/services.

• I don't like sitting so long (a popular criticism).

• Some of the adults keep to themselves too much-they need to be involved with the youth.

• It's boring (a popular criticism).

• Some adults seem judgmental .

• I don't like having to dress up and people trying to shove their beliefs down my throat.

• I don't like the phony music.

• It destroys individualism.

• I don't like uptight old people who won't change.

MISCELLANEA

$611, Baptists $550, Lutherans $415 and Catholics $160. According to statistics in the 1992 U.S. Conference Yearbook, Mennonite Brethren churches averaged just under $1,800 per member. (EP, Yearbook)

longest hymn will have to stand for a long time. The hymn, "Sing God's Song," has 3,017 lines and takes two-and-a-half hours to read.

Carolyn Ann Aish, a pastor's wife and a grandmother, has made it into the Gui-

ness Book of Records for writing the hymn. "A lot of people thought I was crazy when I was going for it," she told the Weekly Challenge. Her hymn, which took seven years to complete, beats a record held for more than 800 years by

Bernard of Cluny, who, in the 12th century, wrote a Latin hymn with 2,966 lines. The longest hymn in English until now has been "The Sands of Time" at 152 lines. (EP)

AWARDS RESEARCH

Elusive evidence Investigators were unable to substantiate any of the 12,000 accusations of group ritual satanic abuse, according to a recent study for the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. The study, directed by Gail Goodman of the University of California at Davis, found that while there is little evidence of abuse by organized satanic groups, there is "convincing evidence" that lone individuals or couples who perpetrate abuse sometimes say they are involved in satanism, or use the claim to intimidate victims.

The study, which was the ftrst nationwide attempt to examine reports of ritual abuse, casts doubts on "recovered memories" of such abuse by people in therapy. Bette Bottoms, coauthor ofthe study, insisted that parents with conventional religious beliefs are more likely to be sources of abuse, and said, "Our data indicate that more abuse is occurring in the name of God than in the name of Satan. " (EP) RECORDS

Beyond 'Just As I Am' New Zealanders who want to sing the world's

A word for faith healing of another sort

R

eligious commitment may be the medical miracle that lengthens people's lives, speeds recovery from injuries, increases personal and marital satisfaction, and lowers the risk of suicide, depression, drug use and alcohol abuse, according to medical researcher David B. Larson.

Larson is no crackpot theorist. He spent nearly a decade as a research psychiatrist for the National Institute of Mental Health, was a senior policy analyst for the Department of Health and Human Services, and is currently president of the National Institute for Health Care Research. With more than 140 professional publications to his credit, Larson is a leading authority on the connection between faith and health.

Larson's interests in the subject can be traced to medical school, when the psychiatry residency training director told him that mixing faith with psychiatry would harm his patients. But analyzing existing studies with an emphasis on religion produced astonishing results. ''When we started really getting into the research, we found that 85 percent of the research has shown a beneficial effect of religion, while less than 5 percent has shown harm," Larson says.

Among his findings: • People who attend religious services at least once a week and who valued religion had lower blood pressure, even when controlling for variables such as smoking, age and weight.

• People who attend church at least

once a week were found to have cut their risk of death from arteriosclerotic disease nearly in half, and to have substantially reduced their risk of dying from emphysema, cirrhosis of the liver, and other common conditions.

• Studies of elderly people found that religious involvement cut mortality risks in half, even when controlling for such factors as overall health, income and age.

• A study of elderly women with hip fractures found that those with stronger religious beliefs and practices were less depressed and could walk further at discharge than those lacking religious commitment.

• Large-scale studies of the general population found that people with religious commitments have much less psychological stress than the uncommitted.

• Those who do not attend religiOUS services were found to be four times more likely to commit suicide than those who attend frequently.

• Religious faith can reduce medical costs, because people who have faith in God have less fear of dying, and consequently use hospitals and emergency rooms less toward the end of their lives.

Larson stops short of adviSing doctors to say "Take two prayers and call me in the morning." But he does suggest that doctors should be prepared to refer their patients for spiritual care, or even pray with patients who request it. "We should be more open to whatever people might wantto try," he says. (EP)

FEBR U ARY

199<;

':11

E

D

ITORIAL

Crossbearing in a cross culture

T

More likely, crossbearing means a willingness to suffer HE YOUNG MAN sitting in front of me at the concert wore a small gold cross in his ear. What was with Christ; the cross and resurrection created the church its signifIcance for him, I wondered. and defines its character. Christ's cross brings with it no At the not-for-profIt international gift shop where I halo of glory, only a daily denial of looking after self fIrst. volunteer, I placed a gleaming mother-of-pearl cross on a It calls for reaching beyond oneself to touch and be chain next to a row of silver ones. In five minutes a young touched by the needs of others. woman had purchased it. The store manager commented, Mieczyslaw Malinski writes: "It's easiest to see the "I can't keep enough crosses on order." cross on Jesus's shoulders. It's a bit harder with our neighWe live in a cross culture. A cross makes a fashion bor's cross. Most difficult of all is seeing our own cross." statement when worn in ears and as pendants. It identi- And sometimes even more difficult is to see it on the fies a denomination when displayed on steeples, church shoulders of a congregation, especially our own congregafurniture and gravestones. It symbolizes comfort when tion. Yet crossbearing is for the body of Christ, as well as hung on the wall or used as a bookmark. The selection of the individual.

The church is a community under the cross, writes form is great: Greek, Latin, St. Andrew's, St. George's, Celtic, Slavic, Russian and others. People like crosses for theologian Juergen Moltmann; it is called to participate in many reasons.

Christ's journey to Jerusalem, confronting the false powers that oppose God's rule On March 1 the Christian church and enduring the suffering those powers begins the season of Lent, that period of As I contemplate preparation through inner searching inflict.

I asked my Bible study class how crossthat leads to the cross of Jesus Christ. the cross, I grasp bearing would evidence itself in the instituTo the New Testament believer, a cross that its wonder is tionallife of the congregation. It took some was no object of beauty. It brought up the immediate image of a condemned not in its thinking before the answers came. A crossprisoner picking up and carrying the bearing congregation has an interior life appearance, but in that reveals itself in an exterior life, visible cross he was to die on. The cross was a to others. They said it would show up in death sentence. Only that. The bearer the Superglue of budget line items, by the amount spent for of the cross experienced animosity and love that took congregational concerns versus the amount suffering. The cross was ugly, a shame.

Yet the hymn writer writes, "When Christ to the cross spent for others.

I survey the wondrous cross on which Cross bearing would show up in the and held him there. weekly the Prince of Glory died." He sees the schedule of events, giving evidence cross as wondrous, as beautiful. that the congregation through its weekly What other objects do I call wondrous? While in one program of activities seeks to serve others, not just its of the northern states one winter, I chanced upon some own members. It would show up in the united voice with wondrous clusters of tiny frost-fashioned feathers which a congregation speaks against sin and evil in the attached to a metal grill. Some Superglue kept these community in spite of opposition. It would show up in miniature works of art suspended for hours. Yet they individuals who choose to make ministry a lifetime commitment. were so fragile a rough breath easily destroyed them. Yes, With such open evidence of crossbearing, the cross is they were wondrously beautiful.

But Christ's heavy, splintery cross was not like these more than a glittering piece of ornamentation. It is beautidelicate creations of nature. It was ugly. A thing to tum ful.-KFW from. As I contemplate the cross, J grasp that its wonder is not in its appearance, but in the Superglue of love that took Christ to the cross and held him there. The only ART OF MY TASK as interim editor is to find and beauty of the cross for the believer is in crossbearing. develop new writers. If you are interested in making Each of the Gospel writers mentions Christ's call for folthe Christian Leader part of your writing ministry, please lowers to pick up their cross daily and follow him.

Crossbearing in a cross culture has come to have vari- contact me in care of this publication. Give me some perous meanings. For some it is only ornamentation. Some sonal background, a writing bibliography (if you have people refer to their cross as the heavy burden of sick- one), topics you are interested in, and a writing sample. I ness and difficult circumstances life loads on them. Per- can't promise you an assignment but J will promise you an answer to your letter and some encouragement.-KFW haps Jesus meant that.

We are looking for writers...

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