Institutions Archives - Young Anabaptist Radicals

From Pariah to Partner: Reflections on Mennonite Church USA convention in Kansas City, 2019

This post was originally published in The Mennonite on July 17, 2019. It’s a reflection on “MennoCon19” – the Mennonite Church USA convention that was held in Kansas City from July 2-6, 2019

Conventions are where we in Mennonite Church USA go to wrestle with who we are. Traditionally that happens in the delegate assembly, where resolutions are passed and changes are made to church documents. However, over the last 12 years I’ve seen how it happens in other, less formal ways, which are a big part of what draw me to this biennial gathering.

Shaping our collective identity at convention is a contested project in many ways. Starting in 2009, Pink Menno has shown up with the clear message that LGBTQ folks can no longer be ignored by church institutions. After 10 years of hymn sings and disruptive actions, we saw small but clear steps this year. In the delegate session on Friday afternoon, denominational staff member Michael Danner recounted his consultation with Pink Menno (along with Inclusive Pastors and Brethren Mennonite Council on LGBT Interests) on a process around changes to the MC USA Membership Guidelines. He also committed to continuing consultation with us. We have gone from pariah to partner.

Similar shifts are happening in my work with the Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Coalition. Four years ago, the first time we had a booth at a Mennonite convention, very few people had heard of the Doctrine of Discovery. Now we have visitors stopping by our booth who have hosted one of our speakers, presentations or shows. They are asking how to go deeper and take the next step. In February a retired Mennonite minister in Kansas modeled one approach toward reparations by giving $10,000 to the Kaw nation as part of a land sale.

Another important area of change is how the Mennonite Church USA convention has adapted to make sure there are other perspectives beyond white Mennonites reflected in the content and structure of convention. In Phoenix in 2013 I participated in an anti-racism team organized by Iris de León-Hartshorn. This team presented its observations in a plenary session at the end of the week. Teams like this help model the ways a community can invite critical perspective and respond to them in non-defensive ways. This year in Kansas City there was a strong presence of non-white folks from the stage in worship and other leadership roles. This is part of a long-term trend.

The work of pushing our church itself to change is at the heart of Anabaptism for me. As I’ve written elsewhere, the transformationist stream of our tradition challenges the power structures both in the wider world and in our own church. We see our model in Jesus’ challenge to the Roman authorities and religious leaders of his day culminating in his cleansing of the temple and crucifixion.

For me, participating in the evolution of the church at convention strengthens my sense of connection with the wider Mennonite church. In our individualistic culture, it is critical that we shape our imaginations around collective values and lifeways led by the spirit. Conventions are a space for cross-pollination and connection. In the exhibit hall, workshops and worship gatherings we hear new ideas and the spirit moves us.

Mennonite conventions are a site of contesting our collective future, connecting our current paths and cross pollinating our present. May our web of relationships continue to grow.

TimN July 29, 2026 activism, Institutions, Mennonite Church USA, Social movements 0 Read more >

Social Media as a tool for holding those with power accountable

This blog post was originally published on my blog for The Mennonite two years ago.

In his address to graduating students at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) on May 2, President Loren Swartzendruber complained about social media. On May 2, the Daily News-Record quoted him:

“Here’s the challenge we face,” he said, “namely the question of how we engage in meaningful, life-changing, civil conversations in a world that’s impatient for quick answers … and is all-too ready to vilify those who disagree.”

He said important discussions “are extremely difficult to conduct via social media,” and require intra-personal relationships.

There’s plenty of reasons to be concerned about social media, but there’s a story and a pattern behind this complaint that needs a closer look. Swartzendruber’s critique comes after months of pressure on his administration around its handling of Luke Hartman’s employment at EMU. Social media played an important role in that pressure.

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TimN August 23, 2018 Institutions, Mennonite Church USA, Power, sexual abuse, Social Media, Technology Read more >

Transformationist Anabaptism: the missing fourth stream from the Mennonite Church USA imagination

Arbor Day 2012 tree planting in Camden, New Jersey with community members and Word and World participants

This post was originally published two years ago as MMMMs: Expanding our Churchly imagination in my blog for The Mennonite. Thanks to Hannah Heinzekehr for adding photos to illustrate this piece.

In the wake of this summer’s Mennonite Church USA convention and the pending departure of Lancaster Conference, I am reflecting on the role of “Moderate Mennonite Male Managers” (MMMM’s) in our institutions. This recent essay by John Rempel inspired me to look specifically at a blind spot common among the the “Moderate Mennonite Male Managers” (MMMM’s) of our institutions. For those of you who haven’t read it, this quote summarizes Rempel’s thesis well:

Each type of church brings different gifts to the table. Moderates bring the willingness and capacity for meaningful compromise. Liberals bring the capacity to live with ambiguity and with matters that are presently incapable of solution. Conservatives bring a deep trust in the Bible and the Holy Spirit as sources of clear positions in matters of faith and life.

I resonate with Rempel’s 1 Corinthians 12 inspired vision of the different gifts of the body of Christ that he outlines. However, Rempel’s paradigm, focused around liberals, moderates and conservatives, misses a whole swath of our community and Anabaptist tradition.

To understand more about this missing community, I turn to the model of four streams of Anabaptism that Rodney Sawatsky outlined in 1992. In summary, he traces four contemporary streams of Anabaptism back to our 15th century origins: Separationist, Establishment, Reformist and Transformationist. I will focus in this article on the transformationist, but you can see Sawatsky’s table with all four in my 2007 blog post. These streams do not map perfectly onto Rempel’s model of liberals, moderates and conservatives, but however you slice the cantaloupe, the transformationist stream is glaringly absent.

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TimN October 27, 2017 Four Streams of Anabaptism Series, Group Identity, Institutions, Mennonite Church USA, Power, Privilege, Race, Sexismbureaucracy Read more >

Consistency in small things: wrestling with the vocation of administration

I wrote this piece on my blog for The Mennonite back in October 2012, but never got around to posting it here. I finished up my role of interim assistant director at Christian Peacemaker Teams 5 months ago and I have moved back to doing web site building. However I continue to ponder the themes in this post.

In September I accepted a position as interim assistant director with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT). This role comes as a bit of a surprise, for a number of reasons.

As regular readers of the blog know, I’ve been outreach coordinator with CPT for four years now and I’ve thrived in the role. I love meeting with new people and connecting them with CPT’s work. I like coming up with creative initiatives and following them through to their conclusion. I’ve walked with all our teams in the process of finding a new mission, vision and values (and soon, a new logo). I like working with changing teams of people to accomplish shared tasks together. But I’ve never been comfortable with the term “administrator,” or the “A word” as I like to think of it. I’ve always preferred “coordinator” or “organizer” to describe my work.

But then it happened. I was sitting with Rod Stafford, long-time pastor at Portland Mennonite. We were talking through logistics of their church hosting Peace, Pies and Prophets in January. “There aren’t many peacemaker administrators out there.” he said, “I wish there were more.” And then the conversation went on.

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TimN January 14, 2015 Administration, Institutions, Power Read more >

“Mennonite Women’s Posse”: How feminists organized for accountability for John Howard Yoder

In the new issue of Mennonite Quarterly Review, five essays look at John Howard Yoder’s systematic project of sexual harassment and abuse of women. Unless otherwise noted, the articles named below are part of the issue.

Rachel Waltner Goossen’s essay “‘Defanging the Beast’: Mennonite Responses to John Howard Yoder’s Sexual Abuse” is the most extensive of these pieces. It is the result of an in-depth year-long study using previously inaccessible files. Her piece makes clearer then ever institutional complicity with Yoder’s abuse, starting in the late 1970s through the four year attempt to rehabilitate him that ended in 1996:

“As Marlin Miller and other Mennonite leaders learned of Yoder’s behavior, the tendency to protect institutional interests–rather than seeking redress for women reporting sexual violation–was amplified because of Yoder’s status as the foremost Mennonite theologian and because he conceptualized his behavior as an experimental form of sexual ethics.”

I’ve argued previously that this complicity continued up through the summer of 2013. At the time I asked “How do we develop a theology of power that give us ears to hear the voices of those marginalized and eyes to see the way we participate in their marginalization?”

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TimN January 5, 2015 Institutions, Mennonite Church USA, Power, Sexism, Uncategorized Read more >

Patterns of this World, part 3: Patriarchy, Pacifism and Powerlessness

In the first article of this series, I did a broad overview of the bureaucratization trends in the Mennonite Church. In the second article, I looked specifically at the philosophy of institutions put forth by J. Lawrence Burkholder and practiced by James Brenneman and Howard Brenneman as presidents of Goshen (Ind.) College and Mennonite Mutual Aid respectively. In this third part I’ll look at the history of this thought in the Anabaptist tradition as well as Mennonite and feminist critique of Neihbur and Burkholder. I’ll continue to draw heavily from The Limits of Perfection: A Conversation with J. Lawrence Burkholder as well as The Feminist Case against Bureaucracy.

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TimN March 21, 2011 Anabaptism, Change, Institutions, Mennonite Church USA, Power, Sexism Read more >

Patterns of this World: Institutions and Bureaucracy among the Mennonites, Part 1

A few weeks ago, I referenced Romans 12:2 in a comment on SteveK’s post on fire codes and faith. Tim B questioned whether this was a relevant passage. This post represents my further thoughts on the passages relevance to bureaucracy.

“In the world, but not of it.” This is a concept long embraced by Mennonites in style of dress and rejection of other “worldy” trappings. But in the last 50 years, the stance of mainstream Mennonites has changed dramatically. Embracing radio, television and lipstick, we’ve come to see our Christian distinctiveness through our dissenting view on war, our commitment to simple living and our Christian service. Unfortunately, in our rush to engage the world on these issues, we have uncritically embraced a piece of this aion (Gk., spirit of this world) far more dangerous then lipstick and ties. That is: institutional structures and bureaucracy.

Tim, you might say, aren’t you being a bit over-dramatic? Can institutional structures really hurt anyone? Aren’t they just neutral tools that can be used for good or ill?

In this first part of my series on bureaucracy and institutionalism, I’ll draw on three writers to make my case. The first is Kathy Ferguson in her book, The Feminist Case Against Bureaucracy. (more…)

TimN February 28, 2011 Change, Institutions, Mennonite Church USA Read more >

Bureaucracy, professionalism and dissent in Mennonite Church USA institutions

This is the second article in a series on Mennonite Church USA and its institutions. Part 1 is here.

In the first article of this series, I critiqued “professionalism” in Mennonite institutions without defining it clearly. In the comments responding to the article, a number of people rightly pointed out that professionalism plays a very important role in allowing us to work in consistent, safe and effective ways. As Alan Stucky said in his comment:

Make no mistake that our seriousness and professionalism had a hand in helping to get MVS be the first recognized Christian alternative service organization in 25 years. Professionalism is not inherently evil, or antithetical to the Gospel. Yes, it should be kept in check by the Gospel, but they are not opposites.

Roses shared in their comment about their experience of seeing God move through values of professionalism. Paco, on the other hand, over at Young Anabaptist Radicals speculated on how well Jesus would have done at project proposals and budgets.

I’d like to take the opportunity to define my concern with professionalism more specifically: I am concerned by the way it views internal dissent. During my meeting with Mennonite Mission Network staff that I referred to in the first article, two staff involved with the capital campaign defined professionalism as prohibiting them from publicly dissenting from their institutions public position. As they saw it, their only public option for public dissent was to resign from their organization.

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TimN April 26, 2010 Institutions, Mennonite Church USA Read more >