In the Heartland with the Fellowship of Evangelical Churches

In my first year as a seminary professor I made a friend with a student who, along with his wife Sarah, have remained friends for 30 years: Scott Wagoner. Scott was not only a very fine student but a solid Christian, became a pastor and then has moved more into denominational leadership. Scott was my grad assistant and he was followed by his friend, now our friend along with his wife Willa: Matt Williams (prof at Biola).

What connected them was the Evangelical Mennonite Church, formerly the Defenseless Mennonites (which speaks for itself — a bit like our wonderful New Zealanders naming themselves the Kiwis); the formerly Mennonite group is now called the Fellowship of Evangelical Churches (FEC). The FEC is steadily growing and gaining a missional vision. When I think of the FEC I think the word “faithful.”

I was invited to speak at the FEC annual convention, this year called Embark 2015. It was a great joy to be with them with their historic commitment to fellowship and evangelism and missions work. Thursday evening finished with a wonderful talk about the work of the FEC in Burkina Faso.

We saw some folks we haven’t seen in years — like Don Roth and Cal Rychener (at Northwoods) and Wayne Baker.

It was an honor for Kris and me to be invited to speak to their annual conference at Northwoods Community Church on the north end of Peoria last Thursday-Saturday. I was asked to speak of the value of their past (among the Mennonites and as anabaptists) for their missional future. I began with Harold Bender’s famous three themes of anabaptism (discipleship, church as fellowship, and nonviolence and peace), their historic commitment to Scripture as the foundation for theology and church life, and then I moved into Paul’s vision for the church as a “fellowship of differents.” (Yes, A Fellowship of Differents.) One session cannot a whole vision sketch, so I focused a church as an alternative society that is known for loving its neighbors (love as rugged commitment to be with, for and unto Christlikeness).

And there were some workshops, and my topic was on how the church has understood kingdom — so I spent time developing five themes on the kingdom of God (from Kingdom Conspiracy).

There is so much about the anabaptist vision, whether the one articulated by Harold Bender or others, that is of dramatic significance for the church today. While it is trendy today to equate “anabaptist” with either “social justice” or “social activism,” and while the historic anabaptist churches have always responded in mercy to those in need, the anabaptist vision emerges from deep commitment to Scripture and to the scriptural way of life as the way for the church of all times. Furthermore, the anabaptist vision has always been church-centered.

So honored to have been a part of Embark 2015.