Comments on: Revival, anyone? http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2006/11/13/revival-anyone-5/ let's activate something Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:56:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Francisco Gortz http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2006/11/13/revival-anyone-5/#comment-485 Francisco Gortz Wed, 07 Feb 2007 18:43:32 +0000 http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2006/11/13/revival-anyone-5/#comment-485 Becca: I live in Brazil, the city is Curitiba. I'm a brazilian mennonite and I think that I know what you are talking about. Every monday, from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. in our mennonite Church "Familia Crista" we are praying for the revival among mennonites in the hole world. God bless you. Francisco. [57 year old] Becca: I live in Brazil, the city is Curitiba. I’m a brazilian mennonite and I think that I know what you are talking about. Every monday, from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. in our mennonite Church “Familia Crista” we are praying for the revival among mennonites in the hole world. God bless you. Francisco. [57 year old]

]]> By: TimN http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2006/11/13/revival-anyone-5/#comment-192 TimN Wed, 15 Nov 2006 16:31:53 +0000 http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2006/11/13/revival-anyone-5/#comment-192 Becca thanks for this challenging post. Your vision for Mennonite revival is exciting. One of the challenges would be trying to agree on <i>how</i> we should be living differently. I recently visited a rural Mennonite church recently and was aware of how differently their experience of living out their Mennoniteness might be. While some valued peace as a central part, others were more likely to see it as a part of Mennonite history. I asked one man who had joined the congregation after attending an Evangelical Free church what attracted him to Mennonites and he wasn't able to identify any particular differences, besides a vague sense of Mennonites being nice people. One Mennonite organization that does seem to connect with Mennonite across the board (besides MCC) is Mennonite Disaster Service, which is a distinct expression of something Mennonites can all <i>do</i> together. A look at the birth story of MDS is quite interesting. On the <a href="http://mds.mennonite.net/MDS_Stories/History" rel="nofollow">MDS history page</a>, a section headed "A Spontaneous Movement" describes how Mennonites on a Sunday School picnic wanted to "seek opportunities to be engaged in peaceful, helpful activity...just where we find ourselves." This vision has a striking resemblance to what you're talking about, Becca. At the same time, the sucess of MDS can also draw out some of the differences among Mennonites. I heard an anecdote about a MDS coordinator in Kansas who chastised a prominent local Mennonite for speaking out against the Iraq war in a newspaper article. The MDS representative explained that identifying Mennonites with anti-war liberals would make raising support for MDS a lot more difficult in the conservative state. Becca thanks for this challenging post. Your vision for Mennonite revival is exciting. One of the challenges would be trying to agree on how we should be living differently. I recently visited a rural Mennonite church recently and was aware of how differently their experience of living out their Mennoniteness might be. While some valued peace as a central part, others were more likely to see it as a part of Mennonite history. I asked one man who had joined the congregation after attending an Evangelical Free church what attracted him to Mennonites and he wasn’t able to identify any particular differences, besides a vague sense of Mennonites being nice people.

One Mennonite organization that does seem to connect with Mennonite across the board (besides MCC) is Mennonite Disaster Service, which is a distinct expression of something Mennonites can all do together.

A look at the birth story of MDS is quite interesting. On the MDS history page, a section headed “A Spontaneous Movement” describes how Mennonites on a Sunday School picnic wanted to “seek opportunities to be engaged in peaceful, helpful activity…just where we find ourselves.” This vision has a striking resemblance to what you’re talking about, Becca.

At the same time, the sucess of MDS can also draw out some of the differences among Mennonites. I heard an anecdote about a MDS coordinator in Kansas who chastised a prominent local Mennonite for speaking out against the Iraq war in a newspaper article. The MDS representative explained that identifying Mennonites with anti-war liberals would make raising support for MDS a lot more difficult in the conservative state.

]]> By: joe http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2006/11/13/revival-anyone-5/#comment-187 joe Mon, 13 Nov 2006 20:50:05 +0000 http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2006/11/13/revival-anyone-5/#comment-187 Hi - great post. I'm not an anabaptist by background, but I think you'll find there are a whole bunch of people feeling like this. Somehow we have to dig deeper, try harder, do more, talk less. Be the change we want to see in the world. And I'm not entirely sure I'm ready to face the challenge that would inevitably bring in my life. Peace Joe Hi - great post. I’m not an anabaptist by background, but I think you’ll find there are a whole bunch of people feeling like this. Somehow we have to dig deeper, try harder, do more, talk less. Be the change we want to see in the world. And I’m not entirely sure I’m ready to face the challenge that would inevitably bring in my life.

Peace

Joe

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