Steven Wall with Rev. Randy Smart
with contributions from Anne-Marie (Goertzen) Wall
with contributions from Anne-Marie (Goertzen) Wall
Traditional Mennonite Evangelicals maintain
a consensus-style, congregational intellectual process that is antithetical to
the concept of hero-worship.
The EMB have always been on the
intellectually engaged side of Mennonite culture. The historic Brüderthaler often assumed
leadership roles in establishing schools in pioneer North American communities. Isaac Peters, the senior Bishop of the EMB, is
commended by P. M. Friesen and Delbert Plett for his intellect, his
scholasticism and for his understanding and valuing of traditional Mennonite
intellectual sources. John Funk
befriended Peters and enticed him to repeatedly contribute to Herald der Wahrheit.
In Peters’ shadow, the EMB were noted for
pursuing intellectual careers as
educators, missionaries, pastors, nurses and writers, rather than farming. Lacking a school of their own, they adopted
and contributed to the success and growth of Moody Bible Institute, Grace
University and Briercrest Bible College.
In 1911, Evangelical Mennonites established der Evangelisationsbote as the universal intellectual organ for
Mennonite Evangelicalism. Early EMB conferences
were attended by the intellectual leadership of both Russian and
American Anabaptism and much of the impetus behind the failed Evangelical
Mennonite Conference of the 1950s was an attempt by EMB intellectuals to cure a
shortage of available pulpits and possibly found a united Evangelical Mennonite
seminary.
Unlike other Mennonite groups which depend
on conference schools and seminaries for educational development and
leadership, the engines of the Mennonite Evangelical intellect are, and have always
been, the Sunday School, congregational dialectic, the unified conference and
workshops, and arguably, the pastoral library.
From our Kleine Gemeinde roots, we also retain a strong sense of Pietist
reflection on the everyday and the lessons God places within the simple living
of simple lives. Outside resources such
as newspapers, literature and books of science and politics circulate freely
and commonly amongst congregations and between churches, informing both
personal studies and group dialogue.
Intellectual fellowship is definitive of the culture and a constant
activity.
Culturally, the need to go beyond the bare
minimum in secular knowledge and in Scriptural study, distinguish Mennonite
Evangelical culture from many of their neighbors. Regrettably, the rural agrarian nature of
Mennonite society and a lack of financial resources for attending post-secondary
schools, severally curtails such aspirations.
Notably, EMB youth attended high school at a time when this was still
considered unnecessary for a successful farmer, though many EMB, unable to
afford college, did become farmers. In
fact, this wide-spread poverty probably influenced EMB intellectualism more
than any other factor in that the most aspiring youth often found their way to
the tuition free Bible colleges such as Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Even G. P. Schultz’s transfer from Goshen to
Moody was probably an economic rather than cultural decision.
Today, the pursuit of higher education and
the necessity of leaving traditional rural communities in pursuit of careers,
is probably the greatest affecter of declining traditional EMB populations.
The traditional Evangelical Sunday school closely
resembles the catechetical courses of other denominations, but is
life-long. While most Evangelical
Mennonite churches today employ professional pastoral staffs, the traditional
spiritual and intellectual leadership of the laity manifests itself clearly
within the Sunday School department.
Sunday School comprises Biblical studies, social studies, church history
and missiology, sex ed, home economics and training in music while
supplementing secular education in reading, comprehension, rhetoric, research
and presentations, possibly being quite similar to the cultural aspect of the
Jewish day school.
Ethnic evangelical Mennonites differ from
their American neighbors in that they have a distinctively mitigated sense of
the individual or self which is based in part on participation in this
consensual communal dialectic. Though
greatly compromised by recent dependence on non-Mennonite pastoral staffs and
educational materials, it remains viable in the oldest and most rural
Evangelical Mennonite churches. The
individual functions as a part of a greater whole – the fellowship community. Participation in the fellowship community
facilitates spirituality, the cultural intellect, many economic relationships
and church governance.
Intellectually, the pastor is valued as a
teacher, less so as a manager. The
pastoral library and the church library are important and essential resources
for Mennonite youth – especially in rural areas where the church and school
libraries tend to be small and access to public resources is limited.
A scarcity of resources mandates that, as
Smart states, these church assets are often built around sound basic reference
materials – both spiritually and intellectually. There is not a lot of room or money for fluff
such as devotional books or romances.
Certainly, authors such as Chuck Swindoll and James Dobson provide much
needed and trusted guides for the family, emotional development and
relationship resources. One might
criticize churches for depending on such secondary writers, but most church
members do not have access to the educational backgrounds enabling them to deal
with Freud, Jung or Piaget directly and effectively.
C. S. Lewis and Francis Schaeffer reach a
church starved for cultural information and accessibility. Their failings as ideological writers must be
considered in light of others who failed to reach out at all to financially
challenged, rural households such as comprise traditional Mennonite Evangelical
congregations. In truth, Mennonite
Evangelicals are often observed to be voracious readers and prefer radio Bible seminars
and coursework to simple music stations.
Intellectualism is the purposeful
engagement of the intellect for personal and communal development. In this, Mennonite Evangelicals are
exemplars, not villains. Culturally, deeper
questions regard the lack of financial access of poor students to traditional
Mennonite schools and the intellectual flight of those who do read and might
expound upon Kant, Jung, Freud and others from traditional evangelical and
Mennonite congregations and communities.
The weakness of the open-minded, inclusive,
consensus-driven intellect of the congregational Mennonite Evangelical
community is that the process can only absorb, digest and expound upon the
resource base available to it. This
culture has done much with limited and isolated means. What they need from others are not judgment
and derision as much access and participation.
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