Mennonite Weekly Review

People don’t go to church. People are the church. Being a fellowship rather than belonging to an institution is basic to the Mennonite concept of how to be Christian.

But we can’t be a fellowship unless we fellowship. We have to — actually, should want to — see each other face to face.

So we gather locally every week, regionally every year, nationally every year or other year, and globally every six years as Mennonite World Conference.

This is one of those years. And it’s not too late to decide to go to the 15th MWC assembly in Asuncion, Paraguay, July 14-19. Three MWC representatives — Bert Lobe of Kitchener, Ont., Cynthia Peacock of India and Tigist Gelagle of Ethiopia — recently completed a monthlong U.S. tour to spread that message. They would like every U.S. Mennonite congregation to send someone to the assembly.

By mid-March, 555 Americans had registered, Lobe said. MWC’s target number for the United States is 700. Organizers hope attendance will at least match the 6,000 who came to Zimbabwe in 2003. That goal includes an expectation of about 4,000 from the host country.

MWC officials have waived the late registration fee as a gesture of solidarity in a time of financial stress.

Fellowship with international visitors makes a lasting impact in the host country, Peacock said March 11 in Newton, Kan. She spoke as one who helped host the 1997 assembly in Calcutta, India.

“They said, ‘Now we know that we are connected to the world,’ ” she said of Indian Mennonites’ response. “That experience continues to be with them and strengthens them.”

For Lobe, an international gathering presents a chance to live out our professed beliefs about the church.

“We say the church is the vehicle that God has chosen for the redemption of the world,” he said. “But do we believe that in North America? … There is something that is happening among those who are young, poor and suffering that isn’t happening to us.”