This Past Week

This past week has been overwhelmingly full. On one hand, we have had a great time relaxing. On the other we have been stretched and pushed with new perspectives and lots of reflecting. Let me backtrack.

A week ago on Friday we had just left our temporary home in the upstairs apartment of Martha and Darvin Yoder and arrived in Des Moines, Iowa for a final retreat of sorts. We allowed ourselves a night in a Marriot in downtown Des Moines by way of Priceline bidding. It was great. We went out for supper, walked around downtown, stayed up late snacking and playing Rook, then Saturday Jess, Matt and I went to the biggest Farmer's Marked I have ever been to. Needless to say, it was a nice way to take a break before we kicked life into high gear for these last two weeks.

Saturday afternoon we went back to work, putting final touches on some workshops before we met up with Pastor Kent McDougal and his wife Julie of Christ Community Church, Des Moines. At their home we met representatives of Jess and Randy's host families and spent a good hour talking and sharing who we are and what we're up to.

Christ Community is a recent member of the Conference (the past seven years or so); they had been nondenominational and wanted to connect to the larger church. After much study and discernment: reading the works of Hauerwas, Yoder and other Mennonite authors, conversations with different Mennonite leaders, they decided to join. Even with all our flaws, the Mennonite Church was a good fit for them.

We had a good weekend with them, as we enjoyed fellowship and good conversation over and over again. This congregation has worked hard at creating a community and being involved in each others lives.

Our encounter with Christ Community stands out as one where it was very apparent how our stories/histories and experiences with the church have shaped the Seeds and the folks of Christ Community to be wrestling with different things. In many older Mennonite congregations we have visited, we have been challenging folks to think and talk about peace, and connect it to the way they have been living their lives. We have encouraged people to reflect theologically on their lives, and to name the peacemaking activities they are already doing because it's hard for them to talk about faith. On the other hand, Christ Community feels they are good at talking about peace and theology, but find it's easier to talk and harder to act. Please note here, this summary feel like quite the generalization.

The other thing that impressed me about our visit was the difference in worship style. Christ Community is liturgical, and I like it! It was a nice change. During our tour this summer we have off and on used the Anabaptist Prayer Book as a devotional, I have come to appreciate the repetition of the words, and in the same way, I found I a lot of meaning in the repetition of the liturgy, although I know first hand from friends that repetition isn't always meaningful when it's a style that you don't choose and you just grow up in.

In our conversations, we heard folks from Christ Community emphasize the importance of the Eucharist and the of the Trinity. Two things I can honestly say I haven't given much thought to. The Trinity conversations most caught my attention.

I remember in High School after track practice one day standing with a group of people. Some were self-proclaimed agnostic, another an atheist, there were a few Catholics and Lutherans and an Assembly of God and me. We were talking about the Trinity, and to my memory this was the first time I had ever had a conversation about the Three in One. I even had to go home and ask my dad what Mennonites thought about the Trinity, that's how unsure of myself I was. Anyway, this story is to demonstrate how little emphasis I really felt on the Trinity in my own church experience. At Christ Community as we were talking about Shalom/peace as being relational and shalom as being peace in our relationship with God, and in our relationship with ourselves, in our relationship with others and in our relationship with all of creation, one of the pastors noted that, "even before creation and before humans, there was peace." He commented that the relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is an example for community and for peace. Again, I really liked this perspective. It got me thinking about the Trinity. Though I have no more written thoughts to share at this time.

We left Christ Community on Sunday afternoon and headed West together for the last time, West to Jess's home congregation of Wood River Mennonite Church, Nebraska.

We've spent all week at Jess's home, working on our final report, debriefing, cleaning out our stinky van, and getting ready for our last weekend church engagement as a team of four. On Wednesday we spend part of the afternoon with the Pastor of Wood River Mennonite (Darrell) at the local care home. We ate some popcorn and sang some songs together with the Alzheimer unit. Later in the evening we gathered with the youth group to share You're Called to be a Dirk. We had a great time; look for some newly posted pictures!

I guess I've written enough for now; more reflections to come. On Monday morning Randy, Matt and I will be heading to Goshen and on Tuesday evening, at 8pm we'll be doing some sharing and reflecting on the third floor of the Wyse building at Goshen College. Please come if you're in the area! Then we'll keep heading East.

Elizabeth