MWR : Vietnam church celebrates new leaders

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April 26, 2010 issue

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Vietnam church celebrates new leaders

26 pastors ordained; pastoral training institute launched

By Jewel Showalter Eastern Mennonite Missions

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HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Government officials sent congratulations and bouquets when the Vietnam Mennonite Church celebrated a group of new leaders.

Nguyen Quang Trung, center, chair of the Vietnam Mennonite Church, and Gerry Keener, a non-resident Eastern Mennonite Missions missionary to Vietnam, present Tran Quang Duc with a certificate of graduation from a pastoral training class. — Photo provided by Gerry Keener

The accolades symbolized changing times. For three decades, until 2007, the government did not recognize the VMC.

Nguyen Quang Trung, VMC chair, who led the church during its time without recognition, officiated at a March 20 ceremony that celebrated the graduation of 30 students from a pastoral training class and the ordination of 26 pastors from all over Vietnam.

“This event is very meaningful for the Mennonite church,” Trung said. “It is really a springboard for the church to push forward and develop the Lord’s work in all parts of Vietnam.”

More than 100 Mennonite leaders and believers joined the festivities, held in a banquet hall near the church’s headquarters.

In the ordination service, Trung charged the 26 pastors, all of whom had completed the certificate program and were serving in pastoral positions in Mennonite churches, to commit themselves fully to the work of the Lord. He urged them to share the gospel with godly passion.

One by one the pastors knelt to receive the blessing and charge as Trung, Gerry Keener of Eastern Mennonite Missions, Pastor Tuyen Nguyen, Pastor Jae Sun Lim, Pastor Lee and visiting Mennonite theologian Palmer Becker commissioned them with the laying on of hands and prayer.

“This has truly been a kairos time for the Vietnam Mennonite Church,” said Ray Brubacher, former staff person of Mennonite World Conference, who saw the Vietnamese churches become part of MWC last summer.

Another celebration came a week later with the official opening of the Vietnam Mennonite Institute in Theology and Renewal.

The new school, which offers a bachelor’s degree program in theology, had just enrolled 14 students and finished its first week of classes. Becker, under special assignment by Mennonite Church Canada, and Keener collaborated to teach “The Biblical Story” as the first course in the program.

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Comments

Your article reports this event as a celebration but the caption under the picture was painful to read: "Twenty-six newly credentialed pastors and their wives join in song ..." The implication is that "pastor" means "male." Is that true? The article did not say whether the Vietnam Mennonite Church recognizes pastoral gifts in women, but the implication is of a patriarchal system (where pastors have wives, not husbands). Please correct that impression if it is wrong. That perception was strengthened when it listed only men -- including a handful of North American men -- doing the commissioning of these pastors.

- Karl (apr 29 at 5:08 p.m.)
Karl,

Thank you for your comment and question. I appreciate your interest in what God is doing in the Vietnam Mennonite Church (VMC). While a complete response is beyond the scope of this reply, I will make a few observations that may help provide a fuller picture of women and men in ministry in Vietnam. The VMC recognizes pastoral gifts in women as well as men. Indeed one of the most creative and lively Mennonite congregations in Vietnam is pastored by a woman who is highly gifted and very courageous. The VMC also actively includes women in all its ministry training programs, and a woman serves on the full administrative board of the denomination.

That noted, I was personally disappointed to realize that no women would be formally ordained in this recent ceremony. In my view, this is primarily a cultural expression. Yes, Vietnam is mostly a patriarchal and collective society, coupled with a high respect for elders and tradition. Combine that with western missionaries who (out of their respective cultures) taught a pattern of male pastoral leadership in Vietnam from 1911 up to 1970. The West has changed much in this regard in the last 40 years, but much of evangelical church culture in Vietnam has remained the same….while the general culture has changed dramatically. The Mennonite Church itself has many creative and contemporary expressions in its life and witness, however the formal aspects still tend to be more traditional.

Again, thank you for your interest and prayers for the movement of God in Vietnam. There is still much contextualization work to be done.

Gerry Keener

- Gerry Keener (may 4 at 10:13 p.m.)

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