[Note that
this essay neither utilizes nor refers to the work of Mr. Calvin Wall Redekop
or Mr. Kenneth Rempel-Enns, but rather relies on personal experiences within
the Brüderthaler Mennonites and documents produced and released by their
primary church organization.]
Post-Modern religious writer, Kathleen
Norris writes of the term Evangelism, “’Evangelism’ is a scary word even to
many Christians. I have often heard
people who are dedicated members of a church say “I hate evangelism” or “I don’t
believe in it,” or, usually from the shy, more introverted members of a
congregation, ‘I’ll do anything else for this church, but don’t ask me to serve
on the evangelism committee.’ … The word comes from the Greek ‘euangelos,’
meaning a messenger (or angel) bringing good news. The authors of the four Christian gospels --
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John -- are referred to as evangelists, as are those
who preach the gospel. The bad news
about evangelistic might be personified as the stereotypical glad-handing
Christian proselytizer,” (Norris, Kathleen, Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of
Faith (1998), Riverhead Books, New York, NY, p. 300).
Part of the problem that the Brüderthaler -
EMB communities have always had is the definition of Evangelical -- a word as
prevalent and eventually longer lasting than either the words Defenseless or
Mennonite in their tradition. In a sense,
this is not their fault -- Mr. Martin Fast, of Montana’s Grand Prairie
community, once defined Evangelical, quite correctly in my understanding, as
the mission that Christ’s church inherited from the angels who gave to the
shepherds that first Evangel or message -- Evangelical means to spread the
message or evangel of Christ, more or less in response to the Great
Commission.
