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2007-07-24 issue:

San José 2007 draws nearly 6,300

by Everett J. Thomas

Print Article

Nearly 6,300 people (see "additional notes" below) participated in the Mennonite Church USA’s biennial convention this year, held July 2-6 in San José, Calif. As usual, we dedicate this issue of The Mennonite to our denomination’s national gathering.

Like churchwide conventions before it, San José 2007 was a complex affair. But worship was the centerpiece for both youth and adults. Meeting separately—except for one joint service on July 4—both the adult and the youth conventions were blessed with provocative preaching and stretched by new congregational songs.

The secondary level of the convention experience was work. For adult delegates, that meant seven business sessions dealing with issues such as health-care access for Mennonite pastors and whether Mennonite Church USA should join a new U.S. fellowship called Christian Churches Together.

Work for several thousand other convention participants included building a Mennonite Disaster Service House in a parking lot and helping some 50 local agencies through Servant Projects.

There was also plenty of time for play, making new friends and connecting with old. But it was the times when each convention—youth and adult—gathered for worship that gave the gathering its focus. The focus was on unity in the body of Christ and within Mennonite Church USA.

To sharpen this focus, convention planners brought in articulate and winsome speakers who are not “cradle Mennonites” (the phrase used in Church Member Profile 2006 for members who grew up in General Conference Mennonite Church or Mennonite Church congregations). In fact, none of the speakers who preached at the adult worship services were cradle Mennonites.

It soon became clear that convention planners wanted to have people who have come into Mennonite Church USA from outside our circles—or who admire our church from their own tradition—to tell us how important our theology and practices are (page 7).
The lineup in the youth convention, however, was more balanced, with roughly half the speakers being cradle Mennonites.

Nevertheless, the aggregate affect of their messages was clear: Mennonite Church USA members must “live the call” to participate with God’s purpose in the world, … and if we do so we will be unified.

This was the first Mennonite Church USA convention to be held on the West Coast; it will probably be the last for several decades, as less than 7 percent of our members live west of the Rocky Mountains. Although California seemed an exotic destination, turnout was 2,380 less than for Charlotte 2005—but that convention included 802 Canadian Mennonites. The next biennial convention will be held June 29-July 4, 2009, in Columbus, Ohio. It will be called Columbus 2009.

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