ICOMB hosts global higher education consultation

by Karla Braun of behalf of the North American MB English publications MB Herald and Christian Leader

A constant hum of voices—simultaneous interpretation in Spanish and French, and explanatory words in Portuguese, German, and Russian—animated each session of the International Community of Mennonite Brethren’s (ICOMB) Higher Education Consultation. Meeting together June 13-17 at Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, Man., participants from around the world engaged with presentations on the theme “Church and School: Compañeros (co-laborers) in growing people of God.”

Mennonite Brethren church conference leaders and directors, deans and board members from 30 Mennonite Brethren and Mennonite institutes of higher learning from 17 countries on five continents (representatives from Angola were denied visas) spent a week living in the school dormitories, thinking, eating, discussing, laughing and learning together through a daily schedule of singing, devotions, plenary addresses, round-table discussions, workshops, and prayer. “We go by first names; nobody asks to be called ‘Dr.,’” said Arthur Duck, director of Faculdade Fidelis, Curitiba, Brazil.

Participants from U.S. schools were D. Merrill Ewert, president of Fresno Pacific University, Fresno, Calif., Jim Elliot, vice president for advancement at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kan., and David Faber, director of Tabor College's Carson Center for Mission, Service and Global Education. Ed Boschman, executive director of the U.S. Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches, also participated.

The theme of church and school as partners sparked productive discussions but also more questions than answers in the many sessions organized around sub-themes: Compañeros in biblical and church history; Compañeros in growing people of faith in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition; Compañeros in growing people with a vision for mission, Compañeros in growing a people equipped for holistic witness to the world.
ICOMB is a vehicle for partnership between 18 Mennonite Brethren member conferences in 15 countries. But at this second ICOMB-sponsored education consultation, representatives of Mennonite Church-sponsored schools (Seminario Biblico Menonita de Colombia, Bogotá) Anabaptist institutions (Meserete Kristos College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) and multidenomination schools with Anabaptist connections (LCC University College, Klaipeda, Lithuania; St Petersburg Christian University, Russia) fully participated alongside their MB counterparts.

“Many of your preoccupations and worries are mine as well,” said SBMC administrator Zarai Gonzalia through an interpreter in the closing session. “I would like to continue participating in this growth together.”

Church and school true compañeros?
A rare pairing in a schedule headlined by international scholars like DR Congo’s Nzuzi Mukawa and Paraguay’s Alfred Neufeld, two Canadians gave Thursday morning’s plenary presentations on “compañeros in growing the relationship between church and school.” They addressed one of the major challenges faced by all the schools represented and highlighted one of the ironies of the consultation—it was mainly academics talking to other academics about working collaboratively with churches.

Schools that provide theological education are “an arm” of the church, said presenter CMU president Gerald Gerbrandt in “What I (my school) would like the church to contribute to the relationship between church and school.” He spoke of schools as not merely a partner (parallel entity) but a part of the church. He called for church to support school through sending students, seeking to collaborate, funding, praying and providing a home for students—a safe place to ask questions and test faith; a safe place to fail as they exercise growing skills in service and leadership.

Stephen Dintaman of LCC University College, Lithuania, asked from the floor whether Gerbrandt’s vision was “a pipe dream”—currently school is “more of a semiautonomous arm.” It’s “aspirational,” Gerbrandt acknowledged but “worth working toward.” For the most part, Gerbrandt was preaching to the converted.

Interim ICOMB general secretary and former executive director of the Canadian Conference of MB Churches David Wiebe’s reverse presentation, “What I (my church) would like the school to contribute” had particular resonance around his request that schools “be careful in their discipleship role,” and teach not only how to analyze and criticize but also how to affirm the positive and build on strengths. “We need to develop stewardship of deconstruction,” said Columbia Bible College director of intercultural studies Bryan Born in the discussion time, “because at the end, if that’s all we have, it’s just destruction.”

Workshop case study: Visionary peacebuilder trains leaders
Afternoon workshops used case studies to further explore avenues of the day’s theme. In a session on “Compañeros in growing a people of faith in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition,” Congolese educator Pascal Kulungu spoke about his vision for holistic peace witness in his country.

“I was walking on Huntington (in Fresno, Calif.) when I saw writing on the wall, saying “Centre for peace and conflict studies,” said Kulungu. It was “like Adam seeing his wife for the first time.” After completing a bachelor of arts in administration, he did a masters in leadership and peace building.

Now administrator of finance for the six-denomination-founded Christian University of Kinshasa (UCKin), the self-described “product of missionary work in Congo” founded the Center for Peacebuilding, Leadership and Good Governance in 2002. “The church started to plant those seeds (of peacebuilding) in me, and school took over,” he says. Through his center, Kulungu attempts to teach people “they have to serve the church instead of be served” in a society where “heritage of power means entitlement…. Peacemaking too often gets isolated (from leadership training).”

The man known as “Reverend Pascal” for his conflict transformation work across Africa’s second-largest country plans to run for office in the November 2011 elections because “when you live in the country things are not running well, you have to change your lens.” Answering concerns about power corrupting, he responds “to fight the lion, you go for hunting, we say in Africa.” Equipped with a vision for peace and good governance, Kulungu wants to “speak on behalf on the population in general and of Mennonites in particular.” The church should be “an advisor,” he says: DR Congo is officially 90 percent Christian.

“Pascal can’t be everywhere—we need to train others,” said UCKin president Komy Nsilu Diakubikua Nsilu through an interpreter. “That’s why we give 100 percent support to this program.”

School reports
Each school represented, rom Bible college or discipleship training program to liberal arts university, had some 10 minutes to report on their students and faculty, programs, unique strengths and challenges. Presentations came not only from MB institutions, but also Mennonite-church supported schools and multi denominational schools who participated in the unique education conference, unheard of elsewhere in the Anabaptist world.

Praying in tongues
Each day closed with a concert of prayer. One day, Nzash Lumeya of Fresno (Calif.) School of Mission designated 12 participants to offer a prayer in their own different language. Another day, participants wrote prayers on Post-it notes, affixed them to posters marked Worship, Confession, Commitment, Personal Request and Thanksgiving, then toured the room to lift up the praises and petitions. Every inch of the Thanksgiving sheet was covered with gratefulness for the consultation and fellowship with peers from around the world. Personal requests included prayer for family with recently deceased members, and Confession requests recognized the rift that exists between churches and schools.

A findings committee gave a preliminary report on the consultation with observations falling under the subject headings listening, reflecting, counselling and acting. Participants affirmed the pursuit of dialogue and greater connection between church and school, however, “the language is still dichotomous of church and school,” said Jim Pankratz, dean at Conrad Grebel University College, Waterloo, Ont.

“Church and school: we share the same vision,” said Mexican MB church leader Enrique Rodriguez through interpretation, “to form in order to transform.” And they share the same challenge—to call people out of the world to advance the vulnerable position of being in relationship, he continued.

“We are to be missionaries to the world of culture, not just people,” said Pankratz, defining the mission as bringing every thought captive to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Sidebar: Briefly noted

• Offerings for the Japanese conference to assist with earthquake/tsunami relief totaled $1,700: $1,200 (including a pledge from Nzash Lumeya’s school of mission) collected from consultation participants; Diego Martinez brought a $200 offering from Colombia; George Rodriguez $300 from Peru. Shortly after the conference, the Evangelical Biblical Seminary in Osaka planned to send students to the earthquake-affected area on a work-service mission.

• Participants honored leaders who had died since the last consultation: missiologist Hans Kasdorf, leader and mentor Henry Schmidt, and Bible teacher David Ewert, all associated with MB Biblical Seminary; Masolo Kulunga, a long-time leader in DR Congo; and MB Mission pioneer to Paraguay and Asuncion Bible school founder Hans Wiens.

• In the past, the Fresno seminary was the training hub of the MB world; this event demonstrates MB theological education now happens around the globe. In 2010, ICOMB launched the Global Scholarship Fund to help leaders in the global South access Bible and professional training in their own regions. Applicants must be supported by their national conference. MB Mission administrates the fund.

• With donations from the Canadian Conference of MB Churches, Dalton and Beverly Reimer Family Trust, MB Mission and AIMS Educational Foundation, ICOMB covered the travel and accommodation costs for all MB school representatives from outside North America. Mennonite Church Canada Witness covered travel and onsite costs for representatives of their partner schools.

• Celebrating 150 Years – The Mennonite Brethren Church Around the World was printed in Spanish in Paraguay. With financial support from College Community Church MB, Clovis, Calif., ICOMB distributed 13 copies to Spanish speakers and gave away 20 copies of the English version.

• Another book giveaway offered volumes culled from the CMU library, donated from the personal libraries of CMU professors, and from the MB Historical Commission’s inventory.

• “I have 1,200 emails from Dalton in my inbox,” said interim ICOMB general secretary David Wiebe. Without a single face-to-face meeting, planners designed the consultation by email and phone: ICOMB education facilitator Dalton Reimer and “MB educator-at-large” Elmer Martens in Fresno, Calif., Wiebe and host institution president Gerald Gerbrandt in Winnipeg, former ICOMB general secretary Victor Wall in Paraguay, and MB Mission liaison to ICOMB Victor Wiens in Abbotsford, B.C.

• A result of the 2007 consultation in Fresno, the ICOMB global education newsletter has been circulated quarterly for three years. It contains school news, promotes faculty exchange opportunities and shares information about publications by MB faculty.