Article on Followers of the Way

[Nomad]

Is it any different to be the most powerful person in the room here in the US?
Should we also call for an end to traditional western authority structures as well, and view anybody with wisdom, ordination, etc. as simply equals... with no more responsibility or authority than anyone else?
I'm quite sure the latter would not go over well at FOTW.

I think it simply comes down to how we handle our authority and influence. Jesus had every reason to have a power differential when he came to earth, but he humbled himself and became a servant.

This is a disposition that serves both missionaries abroad and leaders in North America very well.

I’m with Ernie on this one. What’s more, as someone who’s been a member of the Honduran Evangelical Mennonite Church for 18 years, I can tell you his critique misses the mark.

I agree with Ernie here as well...I'm just not sure that was Matthew's point. Milioni would likely agree with Ernie as well with it worded that way...

[HondurasKeiser]

Is it any different to be the most powerful person in the room here in the US?
Should we also call for an end to traditional western authority structures as well, and view anybody with wisdom, ordination, etc. as simply equals... with no more responsibility or authority than anyone else?
I'm quite sure the latter would not go over well at FOTW.

I think it simply comes down to how we handle our authority and influence. Jesus had every reason to have a power differential when he came to earth, but he humbled himself and became a servant.

This is a disposition that serves both missionaries abroad and leaders in North America very well.

I’m with Ernie on this one. What’s more, as someone who’s been a member of the Honduran Evangelical Mennonite Church for 18 years, I can tell you his critique misses the mark.

I agree with Ernie here as well...I'm just not sure that was Matthew's point. Milioni would likely agree with Ernie as well with it worded that way...

I don’t gather that interpretation from the quote but if you know Milioni personally perhaps you have some insight that isn’t coming through in the article.

[Nomad]

I’m with Ernie on this one. What’s more, as someone who’s been a member of the Honduran Evangelical Mennonite Church for 18 years, I can tell you his critique misses the mark.

I agree with Ernie here as well...I'm just not sure that was Matthew's point. Milioni would likely agree with Ernie as well with it worded that way...

I don’t gather that interpretation from the quote but if you know Milioni personally perhaps you have some insight that isn’t coming through in the article.

Its been awhile since I heard anything from Milioni. I used to listen to him a bit when FOTW was fresh and new...I recall maybe his issue was with "Missions" not "Missionaries" if that makes sense. His "statement I believe is more a jab at Americans funded large quantities of money to go overseas in the name of the Gospel while living in homes bigger than the locals and driving nice cars off the wealth donated from America while the natives live in relative squalor by comparison.

I'm not saying he's right. I have family who are Missionaries from missions as well. I'm just guessing that was his point. It's hard to tell from the article though and the statement "They don't need us for the gospel..." is somewhat odd. Perhaps they don't "need" us specifically...but they (like us) do need the gospel whether its from "us" or elsewhere.

[ken_sylvania]

I suppose I don't have much faith that the article quoted him accurately anyway.

[HondurasKeiser]

I suppose I don't have much faith that the article quoted him accurately anyway.

Why’s that?

[barnhart]

Is it any different to be the most powerful person in the room here in the US?
Should we also call for an end to traditional western authority structures as well, and view anybody with wisdom, ordination, etc. as simply equals... with no more responsibility or authority than anyone else?
I'm quite sure the latter would not go over well at FOTW.

I think it simply comes down to how we handle our authority and influence. Jesus had every reason to have a power differential when he came to earth, but he humbled himself and became a servant.

This is a disposition that serves both missionaries abroad and leaders in North America very well.

I think the power dynamic is the same wherever you are, but his point is the imbalance is so great in traditional missions so as to require a re-evaluation.

I have read here on MN negative experiences about several churches or even entire conferences where someone felt marginalized "because they don't have the right last name" or "they weren't the bishop's family" or they were questioned for some infraction "because they were a seeker" or felt marginalized because they didn't have family wealth, own a house and worked in an industry with low pay. This social dynamic is amplified several times over in a setting where one group has the golden passport and the other does not.

If the authority structures Ernie is talking about work out to privilege or empower one group over another, maybe they need a Millioni to speak out against them. Jesus said the mark of the unbelievers is "ruling over" and the mark of his kingdom is serving. One is often mistaken for the other.

[barnhart]

Milioni’s take on missions in this article is, to use their terminology, “not biblical” and results in a balkanization of the church. More to the point, it’s flat wrong and is more a reflection of some worldly zeitgeist than anything approaching a Christian and Biblical missiology.

Another person quoted in the article, Rebecca Mui stood out to me because I vaguely remember her from the “Dank Kingdom Christian Meme” days. At the time she seemed to take great delight in poking fun at the unenlightened Mennonites and certain conservative elements here on MennoNet. Now it seems she’s grown disillusioned with the FOTW crowd too and her critiques are all but indistinguishable from a Mennonite Action-esque grad student from Goshen or EMU.

I noticed this with Rebecca Mui as well...it kind of surprised me when I read her comments. I wonder what changed?

I have met her and and have had some interactions on-line, and I think it's good to remember her critiques and emulations of Anabaptism are from an outsider position, outside Anabaptism, outside the US, outside the West and outside of a "white" dominant society. Perhaps that is why she doesn't always track the way you expect. I don't think it is inconsistentsy her part. She lives, worships and dresses conservative mennonite because she is drawn to the theology that produced these things more than the socio-cultural environment that has grown out of it.

Also the language she uses is the language of her world which makes her critiques sound like the reactionary secularist scholastic but I don't think that is where she is fundamentally.

[JohnH]

She lives, worships and dresses conservative mennonite because she is drawn to the theology that produced these things more than the socio-cultural environment that has grown out of it.

Part of 'living plain Anabaptist" would be rejecting worldly ways of viewing the world (such as the academic language used around critical theory), although "living conservative Mennonite" these days would quite honestly mean embracing worldly views of viewing the world: sometimes this results in having big lawns with big, expensive houses, nice, new vehicles, and an ever-growing business; for others, it might mean seeking acclaim through academic pursuits, adopting the language of the academy and seeking to fit in and find favour there.

Likewise, plain Anabaptists would accept a simple reading of scripture from 1 Corinthians 11, including that us, as men, are to be submitted to Christ. The modern conservative Mennonite pays lip service to this (perhaps even with a veil they wear today, but have plans to discard in 10-20 years), when underneath the surface we have wives running marriages and homes, husbands not submitted to their church, and churches that are not submitted to Christ. (Rebecca Mui seems to spill a lot of ink about how terrible the idea of wives submitting to husbands is; indeed, her dissertation was on that very topic. One might well question how much of a "conservative Mennonite" such a person is, analogous to a "conservative Mennonite" who spends their time constructing more efficient ways to put rifles together or design drones for drone warfare.)

So I would agree with you: she has fully embraced the modern, fundmental- or moderate-"conservative Mennonite" life, just with a slightly different flavour.

[ken_sylvania]

I suppose I don't have much faith that the article quoted him accurately anyway.

Why’s that?

I guess I've just had enough experiences of seeing "journalists" take a quote out of context, misrepresent what was said, or omit contextual information that would have crucial bearing on how a person's words should be interpreted. Not necessarily willfully or intentionally, but it happens frequently.

[Nomad]

I suppose I don't have much faith that the article quoted him accurately anyway.

Why’s that?

I guess I've just had enough experiences of seeing "journalists" take a quote out of context, misrepresent what was said, or omit contextual information that would have crucial bearing on how a person's words should be interpreted. Not necessarily willfully or intentionally, but it happens frequently.

I agree, I couldn't shake the feeling that this article was a ever so subtle hit piece. However, FOTW have done their share of hit pieces (sometimes not so subtle) as well, so I suppose what ever comes around goes around...