04.29.09
BC MBs – Annual Convention
I’m getting ready to attend a convention I haven’t attended in twenty years. The BC Mennonite Brethren churches meet in Abbotsford next weekend. It’s been a long time, and I expect to run across a few old friends.
My history with MBs dates back to 1979 when I attended Mennonite Brethren Bible College. That was somewhat of an accident. It was in the right place at the right time (or maybe I was). Two years later I found myself at Regent College in Vancouver as it entered perhaps its fourth or fifth year of operation. I went home for the summer and found myself at Sardis Community Church – an MB congregation that was in the process of planning to build a multi-use building. SCC became my church home, except while attending seminary, for most of the next six years.
As a result of that growing connection and immersion in things Anabaptist, I eventually went to seminary in Fresno, CA. MBBS was an interesting experience. It was also complicated. It was a good experience theologically, difficult spiritually. We went to Fresno without any friends and with a new baby. We came home with two children, some new friends, and a small debt. But I came home a bit of a lost soul, very tired and hitting the wall with my own drive to prove myself.
That began a long and winding journey through the Vineyard, out of church entirely (at least, the organized system) and now back among MBs. It feels a little like coming home – but of course you can never really go home. You are different, and so is the “home” you return to. It saddens me that Mennonites have lost so much. I know.. for every loss there is some kind of gain.. but I don’t believe Mennonites are better off having become much like the evangelical mainstream.
For better or for worse, it seems this is my tribe. It is diverse, messy, beautiful, confusing. The convention should prove an interesting ride.
“To stand within a tradition does not limit the freedom of knowledge, but makes it possible.” Hans Georg Gadamer
Related: Anabaptist future Part I
