bg真人

Published: September 21, 2020

Mennonite World Conference and bg真人 enter partnership in 鈥渟haring of gifts鈥�

By John David Thacker, Annette Brill Bergstresser (bg真人) and Karla Braun (MWC) | September 2020

ELKHART, Indiana, and KITCHENER, Ontario (Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary and Mennonite World Conference) 鈥� Mennonites around the globe yearn for Anabaptist theological education, identity formation and leadership development, but attending an Anabaptist-related college, university or seminary has not been possible for Mennonites in many countries. A new partnership has been designed to respond to this need.

 (MWC) and Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (bg真人), Elkhart, Indiana, have forged a new agreement to provide Anabaptist-based theological and church leadership education to Anabaptists around the globe in both for-credit and noncredit formats. Pastors and church leaders will be able to take courses in biblical and theological studies, church history and ministry in their home countries.

A memo of understanding between MWC and bg真人 lays out the details of what C茅sar Garc铆a, Ph.D. student, MWC general secretary from Bogot谩, Colombia, describes as a response to a 2003 call for 鈥渟haring of gifts鈥� among MWC member churches. bg真人 is owned by Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite Church USA, which are two of 107 member churches (national conferences) of MWC, a 鈥渃ommunion of Anabaptist-related churches linked to one another in a worldwide community of faith for fellowship, worship, service and witness鈥� that began in 1925.

鈥淲e perceive this relationship with the seminary as a gift that we are receiving from  and  in order to support global Anabaptist churches,鈥� said Garc铆a.

Rapid growth creates need to equip leaders

While on the whole, membership is declining among Mennonite churches in the U.S. and Canada, many Anabaptist-Mennonite churches in the Global South are growing rapidly. Along with this growth comes a need for leaders grounded in Anabaptist faith and theology.

鈥淎fter more than a half century, several churches born of Mennonite work do not know who the Mennonites are or what their particularity is within the larger Christian family,鈥� wrote Burkina Faso Mennonite church leader Siaka Traor茅 in Anabaptist Songs in African Hearts, MWC鈥檚 Global Mennonite History volume (Good Books, 2006). This need has become more urgent as the Anabaptist family has expanded around the world, said Garc铆a.

鈥淣ow that most of our Anabaptist member churches are in the Global South, we have a huge need to do theology from an Anabaptist perspective in each context,鈥� Garc铆a said, noting that opportunities for discipleship training as well as more specialized ministerial leadership training would be embraced.

Garc铆a said that through their online platforms, the most popular evangelical, fundamentalist and charismatic preachers influence theological development in MWC congregations around the world.

鈥淲hen we lack Anabaptist identity, it is so easy to absorb the influence of these theologies without entering into a real conversation with them,鈥� Garc铆a said. 鈥淎nd this affects how we make decisions in our global communion, how we think about the structure of our global church, and how we exercise the responsibility of leadership in our churches. We want to help our churches enter into a discerning dialogue instead of blindly receiving from other traditions.鈥�

Joining gifts to build up the church

bg真人 leaders have been working to make Anabaptist educational offerings available to church leaders around the world 鈥� in their own contexts. Beginning in 2017鈥�18, former bg真人 President Sara Wenger Shenk, Ed.D., led an initiative to recruit participants for seminary courses and certificate programs that students could engage from a distance.

Conversations between Garc铆a and Wenger Shenk 鈥� and subsequently with bg真人鈥檚 incoming president, David Boshart, Ph.D. 鈥� about working together to strengthen Anabaptist identity in the global communion led to a meeting in January 2020 to formalize a new partnership. The shared memo of understanding was affirmed in March and April by  and Mennonite Church Canada executive leaders, MWC Faith and Life Commission leaders and Executive Committee members, and the bg真人 Board of Directors.

According to 鈥減oints of convergence鈥� outlined in the memo of understanding, both MWC and bg真人 are dedicated to strengthening the life and ministry of the churches they serve and to cultivating their rich heritage as Anabaptist organizations. They see their new partnership as a way to join their gifts in building up the church and its ministries together.

Among the gifts that MWC brings to the partnership are an extensive network of international relationships and connections, communication channels and an accountability structure. MWC leaders will help identify professors from around the globe who can offer global perspectives as sessional faculty members at bg真人. They will also promote program and course offerings to member churches.

bg真人 brings more than 70 years of experience in educating church leaders from an Anabaptist perspective, including many international students. In 2019鈥�20, international students represented 25 percent of the graduate student body and 29 percent of participants in the seminary鈥檚 nondegree Journey Missional Leadership Development Program. Since the launch of bg真人鈥檚 distance-friendly Master of Divinity Connect program in 2013, faculty members have gained experience in online instruction. The seminary鈥檚 teaching and administrative faculty are creating curricula and curating library resources that are increasingly attuned to global contexts.

Boshart anticipates that the partnership will further enrich the quality of instruction at bg真人: 鈥淥ur teaching faculty will be engaged in settings where the church is growing at such a pace that it is outstripping its resources for leadership development. Working with churches and leaders in contexts such as these will enhance their teaching because they鈥檒l gain a much broader exposure to and understanding of the vitality and resilience of the global Anabaptist community, especially in the Global South.鈥�

Opportunities for synergy

In 2019, in the process of developing its first fully online master鈥檚 degree 鈥� the 46-credit-hour Master of Arts: Theology and Global Anabaptism 鈥� bg真人 began a partnership with  (MKC) in Ethiopia, which is part of Meserete Kristos Church, an MWC member church. In 2019鈥�20, nine MKC graduates in Ethiopia began studying through a cohort version of this degree program, which combines online instruction with short-term classes taught on the MKC campus by visiting professors from bg真人.

Also in 2019, the seminary鈥檚 Journey program expanded to include a cohort in Southeast Asia. The two-and-a-half-year distance-friendly leadership development program is designed for church leaders without formal education and lay leaders exploring a call to ministry.

Although these programs are open to participants in MWC member churches, Boshart noted that the educational options made possible by the new MWC-bg真人 partnership could take many different forms. International mission and educational leaders have offered strong encouragement to keep the options 鈥渁s open and flexible as possible,鈥� he said.

Gifts for mutual growth

Both Garc铆a and Boshart have high hopes for this sharing of gifts for mutual growth.

鈥淭hese educational opportunities will equip new leaders in the global church with more awareness of the tradition to which they belong 鈥� and with the capacity to enrich other traditions with our distinctives while also receiving from others,鈥� said Garc铆a.

Boshart agreed, saying, 鈥淚 think this can only be good for a more unified and clarified sense of Anabaptist identity for the global communion as bg真人 meets educational institutions around the world to think together about what it means to be Anabaptist in the world today.鈥�

MWC exists to be a global community of faith in the Anabaptist tradition, facilitate relationships between Anabaptist-related churches worldwide, and relate to other Christian world communions and organizations. 

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