Who Owns 606?

By James Miller

My friend Darryl Strode turned to me as we reached the finale of "606" and pronounced: "That was a unique rendition of the doxology! I'd never heard anything like that before. It was beautiful!"

It was Darryl's first time at conference and the first time he had ever heard a large assembly of Mennonites sing "606," also known as the "Mennonite Anthem."

What is it about us, as an historically ethnic conference of believers, that enables us to touch first-time visitors like Darryl?

Saturday featured:

• Stormy Times: Moderator Max Zook masterfully built his address around a metaphor - the storm. We live in "stormy times". Y2K is only 139 days away. Divisive issues in the church create "windy doubts" and "waves of suspicion". Max recalled our Conference goal of "20,000 by 2,000" and admitted that when the subject of evangelism is brought up he often "feels a storm coming." In the storm, Peter began to sink not because his feet or legs needed to be fixed. Rather his eyes needed to be fixed on Jesus.
  
  At the end of his address and his term as moderator, Max Zook passed on the moderator's baton to John Ivan Byler.
• An Unrehearsed Choir: CMC ministers wend their way to the front of the auditorium. Under the direction of Bob Brenneman, they formed a nearly unrehearsed choir of about 90 men, and lustily sang two songs in a capella four part harmony. To my knowledge, this has never been done before at conference. Is this the beginning of a tradition?
• A Rehearsed Choir: In contrast, the traditional Conference Choir resonated with the sound of greater excellence and sophistication under the direction of Julian Coblentz.
• Scores To The Altar: After Mel Shetler preached a powerful message on the prayer life of Christ, scores of people went forward to the altar to commit themselves to be leaders who would lead others to be faithful in prayer.
• New Leadership: They gathered on the platform, introduced themselves couple by couple, and blessed us with worthwhile comments and testimonials Twenty-two newly ordained, licensed or transferred ministers, and their wives were consecrated in prayer for ministry.
• Humorous Homiletics: The Conference Sermon was delivered by veteran churchman Wesley Stoltzfus - an extraordinarily colorful communicator. Wesley demonstrated great ability to build rapport with the audience through spontaneous and humorous deviations from the sermon script. After having some difficulty in clearing his throat, Wesley queried, "Have you ever felt like you just swallowed a cotton ball out of a Geritol bottle?" After checking the clock to see how much time he had left, Wesley quipped, "Don't mean nothin, I forgot what time it was when I started." The spontaneous laughter did not distract from Wesley's insightful and edifying exposition of Paul's prayer recorded in Romans 15:23-33.

Who Owns "606"?

Before singing this majestic piece, worship leader Paul Kauffman reminded us that "this is not the 'Mennonite Anthem' it is 'God's Anthem.'" I appreciated that reminder. I wanted my friend Darryl to know that God - and not a man named Menno - is our highest point of commonality. God, rather than the ability to sing this "unique rendition", is what draws us and keeps us together. Something is drawing Darryl. He said, "I'm looking forward to attending next year."

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