Written by Jolene VonGunten, Mennonite Education Agency
“How do you define mission?”
Michael Danner’s opening question generated a cringe-worthy, yet predictable, response: “baggage.”
Danner agreed there can be a lot of baggage, especially when mission or missional is defined only by sending missionary folks from “here” to somewhere “over there.”
As the Associate Executive Director of Church Vitality for Mennonite Church USA (MC USA), Danner has spent more time than most, thinking about how to revitalize local congregations. He identified three questions people were wrestling with:
How can we be a thriving, vibrant congregation that embodies Anabaptist Mennonite faith and values when what we know how to do doesn’t seem to work for others and we’re declining?
How do we engage our community with a genuine proclamation of the Gospel, rooted in radical hospitality, while making space for people who aren’t of ethnic Mennonite backgrounds?
What does it mean for us as a church to be a responsible and accountable body of Christ, called in the Great Commission to participate in the mission of making disciples?
Danner believes that God is drawing people to God’s self in the world, not just in the church. If being missional means more than evangelizing people “out there,” then how do we participate in that in a meaningful way?
“First,” Danner said, “the church is called to be a mission outpost of the kingdom of God in a particular place, in a particular time.”
“Second,” he said, “this means that for congregations to be missional, they need to be engaged with the people around them and be salt and light in that place, embodying the good news of Jesus in our life together.”
And third, “We are called to proclaim the good news of the kingdom in this place, inviting people into relationship with Jesus as citizens of the kingdom and participants in the beloved community.”
Danner observed that most congregations can get behind the first two callings easily enough. It’s the third one that trips us up, and usually, congregations divert to service. We give to our local MCC thrift store, we send our money overseas, and we think this fulfills the call. We’re reluctant to engage with our neighbors and invite them into relationship with Jesus. Because what happens when they come into our ethnic Mennonite spaces? Do we really want “them” there?
Danner referred to his doctoral research into “cradle Mennonites,” those who were born into an ethnic Mennonite community and congregation. His research question was, “How does the cradle Mennonite identity impact the welcome, or the inclusion or exclusion, of non-Mennonite others?” He shared the imagery of cradle Mennonites inside a castle with a moat around it. When it’s time to be missional, we lower the drawbridge, go out into the community, and do lots of wonderful things. “And then when we’re done, we scamper back to the castle and roll up the drawbridge.” Danner pondered what happens when, in the rush to return to the castle, some of the community folks get swept up with us and land inside. And now we don’t know what to do with these non-Mennonites in our midst.
He suggested some keys to helping Mennonite congregations move from an inward focus to a place of engagement in mission.
Have really honest and frank conversations. Danner urged people to get beyond “Mennonite politeness,” and identify current realities. False agreements can occur when people seek to avoid relational conflict by agreeing to something they don’t believe in. False agreement won’t help to identify or to engage directly with what’s going on in the community. Identify the facts, then do an honest assessment. Danner recommended a book by Patrick Lencioni entitled “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” to learn how to operate church boards and other groups well.
Ask good questions. Ask questions about purpose, intention, responsibility, and accountability.
Look out for Doom Loops. Danner cited Jim Collins’ book called “Good to Great.” Collins identified a cycle of behavior in business starting with a reaction to a problem without understanding it fully, leading to a new direction or a new leader, program, etc. Without commitment to or ownership of the new change, it will lead to disappointing results. This, then, circles back to the original problem.
Switch the narrative by telling different stories. “The story we tell ourselves about ourselves,” Danner said, “actually shapes how we experience a particular community.” So instead of focusing on the narrative of a congregation in decline, for example, start to tell different stories about the things you love and appreciate about the congregation. If people have internalized the notion that their beloved church is dying, it’s hard to get beyond that. Show caring and empathy toward those expressing fear and anxiety, then redirect them to share what they love about the church or ask how they see God at work in the church. This chips away at the power the old narrative holds.
Congregations need to engage in missional decision-making practices, as theorized by Alan Roxburgh in his book “Joining God, Remaking Church, Changing the World: The New Shape of the Church in Our Time.” Danner outlined five practices.
Listening. Get to know your neighbors by listening deeply and sharing about your lives. Map your neighborhood: who are the people around me? What are their lives like? What’s going on in my community? What are the big issues people are facing? As followers of Jesus, listening is a practice we engage in all the time, at every interaction and opportunity. This, then, gives potential entry points into their lives.
Discerning. What is the Spirit doing? What is God doing in our midst?
Testing and experimenting. Take what you have gleaned from the practices of listening and discerning, and turn it into an experimental action of intentional engagement in the community – a small, simple project to start.
Reflection. Analyze the outcome. What happened? Next, how do you evaluate what happened? What new questions did this raise? And finally, what have we learned? What do we want to do next?
This kind of process can be embedded in a traditional committee structure, Danner noted.