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2008-11-04 issue:

2009 convention to focus on Holy Spirit

‘Breathe and Be Filled’ will revisit Jesus’ words to his disciples in John 20.

by Laurie Oswald Robinson

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The Mennonite Church USA Convention 2009 is far removed from when Jesus breathed his Spirit on the first disciples. But the planning committees for Mennonite Church USA’s convention next July are risking the theme on the belief he’ll do it again with huge crowds of Mennonites.

In a move to bring a deeper focus on the Holy Spirit than in past conventions, adult and youth planning committees chose the theme “Breathe and Be Filled,” based on John 20:21-22. That is where Jesus reminds his disciples that as his Father sent him, so Jesus was sending them. To empower them to go, he breathed the Spirit upon his disciples, and they were filled. Planners hope the theme will integrate the stillness of waiting upon, listening to and receiving from the Spirit and the “sent-ness” into a broken world that is a response to this infilling and strengthening.

“We worried some constituents may feel this theme will encourage us to have a big feel-good party in God and foster a me-and-Jesus mentality that forgets we are a called and sent community,” says Regina Shands Stoltzfus, adult planner from Elkhart, Ind., will colead adult convention worship with Joel Miller, pastor of Cincinnati Mennonite Church. “But we believe the theme encourages us to receive the breath of Christ that releases us to go and do the works God calls us to do. We are called by Christ to go out in his name through the empowerment of his fire and breath and energy.”

Miller agrees now, although he wasn’t sure at first. He came to planning sessions hoping the theme would focus on identity-building for the church as Christ followers in North America. But some months down the road, he believes this theme is more integrative than he initially thought.

“This theme allows us to integrate the two components of our faith—the Spirit who sends us and who we are as the sent ones in this world,” Miller says. “Our spirituality is all of who we are—the peace Christ gives us within and the peace we advocate in the world.”
The theme also invites participants to connect intimately with God by renewing their sense of personal call, says Anna Gomez, youth planner from Los Fresnos, Texas, who will be coleader of youth worship with Peter Eberly, youth planner and youth pastor at Harrisonburg (Va.) Mennonite Church.

“As their worship leader, I want to impart to them a sense that the Holy Spirit isn’t something they have to strive to get,” says Gomez. “If they are believers in Christ, then they already have his Spirit within them. I also want to reassure them that adults will walk alongside them on their journey but that we can’t do it for them.”

Some staff of Mennonite Church USA’s Executive Leadership—charged with guiding the convention—also feel it’s time to give the Holy Spirit freedom to move in fresh ways.
“It really impacted me to sense how the Spirit was moving among us and how people were opening themselves up to that movement,” says Marathana Prothro, communication director for Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership.

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