Mennonite Weekly Review

BLUFFTON, Ohio — Dissatisfied that the Christianity around him did not look like Jesus, Pastor Mark Van Steenwyk founded an intentional community in Minneapolis.

Called Missio Dei, it is affiliated with Central Plains Conference of Mennonite Church USA.

Van Steenwyk visited Bluffton University Sept. 22-24 as part of the minister-in-residence program.

Missio Dei consists of three houses, one of which is owned by the community as well as by neighbors who live nearby.

The community started slowly, and Van Steenwyk noticed that many of the people who joined were, at first, just in need of a place to stay. They came intending to be there a few days and stayed.

Van Steenwyk believes that Missio Dei functions partly because sometimes people have nowhere else to go. As more people became involved, he saw that the community actually “helped convert people to a different way of looking at things.”

Although Missio Dei is an intentional community, people own some things individually. It is common for its members to share food, take turns paying bills and share cars.

Van Steenwyk said the goal is “to create an environment in which people would be aware of the needs of others.” If someone has an abundance of one thing and notices others lacking that resource, it is their obligation to share.

This kind of community is a foreign idea to American culture, Van Steenwyk said. People who attempt to live in community with others must first be comfortable with who they are, he said. Living in community means that often a person has to deal with other’s joys as well as problems, even when the natural reaction is to run away.

Van Steenwyk gave the message at Bluffton’s weekly chapel service. His message, “Plastic Jesus,” was based on Luke 4:16-20. The inspiration came when he was in a Christian bookstore and saw a Jesus action figure next to a Moses action figure. This prompted the idea that Christians often try to package Jesus into who we think he is.

Van Steenwyk posed a question: “What would it look like to take Jesus out of his packaging?”