Minatrea with Mennonite Annual Convention

Summer is the time when families get together and visit. Laughter flies as stories are told at reunions across America. With many similarities, large families of faith gather in the summer as well in what are often called Annual Conventions.

Columbus, Ohio was the site where our Mennonite friends met June 30 to July 5, 2009 to “Breathe and Be Filled.” More than 6,500 Mennonites filled Nationwide Arena July 2 for a joint adult and youth worship focusing on “Centered in the Spirit.”

During sessions, Shane Claiborne, author and founding partner of The Simple Way, a faith community in inner-city Philadelphia called on listeners to “ask what it means to be radical nonconformists to the ways of the world.”

Sojourners editor-in-chief and co-founder Jim Wallis greeted Mennonites as “a friend of the family” who has been enriched by the Anabaptist movement and Mennonites. He told those gathered, “Your best stuff is the right stuff and you need to share it.”

The Missional Church Center logo appeared on the screen when it came time for Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary to report. Milfred Minatrea talked about his teaching experience at the seminary in January 2009. After seeing the video post we did subsequent to our teaching the class Missional Church in a Post-Modern Context, the Seminary contacted us asking permission to use segments of the video in their annual report. We were delighted to have a small part in assisting this significant institution in telling its story.

If you are looking for theological education in the San Joaquin Valley, we recommend you consider Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary in Fresno, California. Its strong commitment of faithfulness to its Anabaptist roots and to contextual relevance in preparing students makes us glad to join the reunion with this of the Father’s family.

Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary

While teaching Missional Church in a Postmodern Context at Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary last week, I was privileged to interact with wonderful young developing leaders as well as current church pastoral staff members. Staying on campus allowed me to watch student families interacting in the courtyard of the apartments. Their international diversity provides a microcosm of the global church. Their passion for God’s purpose reflects His heart.

Our discussions in class were rich with varied denominational traditions bringing doctrinal differences of interpretation. A common theme was the overarching hunger that the whole world might experience the whole Gospel as truly Good News. Using Christopher J.H. Wright’s, The Mission of God together with my book Shaped by God’s Heart as texts (both available at www.missional.org), we considered how the Gospel transcends cultures, addressing spiritual and global issues that are of vital concern to many in a postmodern and post-Christian environment.

It was exciting to be with those who hungered to imagine and experience the narrative of the Gospel as Good News for the nations: the alien, the impoverished, the sick, the lonely, the lost. I was reminded again that the two great epic narratives of the Old Testament have become our narratives as followers of Jesus, the seed of Abraham, through whom God is blessing the world. In the exodus we remember our redemption from that which enslaved. In the exile, we recall our dispersion among the nations for whom He commands our intercession and blessing. He is on mission through His church.

Watch the video segment and join us in the practice of reading scripture through a missional lens. Write the insights you glean from your own missional reflections on scripture, sharing those with us via email to minatrea@missional.org. I look forward to learning with you!