The Road to Emmaus/The Road to Convention

Our biannual national Mennonite Church USA convention begins on Tuesday, and there are two resolutions coming before the delegates that highlight disagreements about how our denomination should include LGBTQ people. The resolutions are fairly new, but the disagreements themselves are not. Many Mennonites, myself included, have spent a lot of time hashing out the details…

Confession of Faith in a Queer Perspective: Article 22

By Mark Rupp “[Jesus] has called us to find our blessing in making peace and seeking justice.” The Mennonite Church’s peace stance is likely the first thing people think of when trying to articulate what makes Mennonite faith distinct from other Christian denominations. In fact, the Mennonite emphasis on peace and justice are what initially…

Friendly Progressive Suggestions to Progressives

Or How to Survive the Kansas City Convention: Attend the “Bound Together, Together Free” worship service: Tuesday, June 30, at 5 p.m. Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral. (Next to the Convention Center.) Offer prayers of thanksgiving that there will (finally) be a (convention-authorized) booth for Brethren Mennonite Council in the main convention hall. Go to…

God is Still Speaking. Dare We Stifle the Prophetic Voice?

Confession of Faith in a Queer Perspective: Article 4. Scripture Reflections by Frank Trnka Like so much of what we have seen coming from the merged MCUSA, the language of the fourth article of the Confession of Faith seems to serve primarily as reassurance to Mennonites of an evangelical, fundamentalist bent that MCUSA is holding…

Sermon Snippet on being “Missional”

The following is an excerpt from my sermon this past Sunday. Just to show that I am on board with some of MC USA’s priorities. You can also read other sermons from our “Enough for All” series: Proverbs 30:7-9; 1 Kings 17:1-16. – – – – How do we not worry? Seek first God’s kingdom…

Sermon Snippet: 1 Kings 17:1-7

–This is part of a sermon I preached on 1 Kings 17:1-16. The full text is available here. – – – – – I try to be a person of faith. As a pastor, having faith is part of my job description, I suppose. But I tell you what, Elijah has me beat. There is…

The Wait is Over . . . Unfortunately . . .

Believe it or not, I have been eagerly awaiting the Mennonite Church USA Executive Board resolution–for weeks. Weeks! And it is finally here. Unfortunately. For those of you who just want the Readers’ Digest condensed version: the resolution from the MC USA Executive Board, “On the Status of the Membership Guidelines,” is a train wreck…

Confession of Faith in a Queer Perspective: Article 20

Most of you have seen the news about Evana—the new “non-denomination.” And depending on how strong your stomach is, you may have even looked through the entire web site and noticed the way that the “Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective” is being used as code for that one line in Article 19: “We…