Abstract
Unless a Grain of Wheat celebrates the collaboration of Mennonite missionaries and African Instituted Churches (AICs) from the mid-twentieth to the early twenty-first century. It opens with a few prefatory notes by the editors of the book and contributing scholars, including Andrew Walls and Wilbert R. Shenk, which trace the context, origins, and significance of the book’s contents.
The next eight chapters contain stories and reflections of participant Africans and North Americans, organized according to horticultural themes from chapter one, “Tilling,” to chapter eight, “Harvest.” Each chapter opens with a brief reflection, conveys African and North American stories from this collaboration, and closes with one or two reflections from outside observers including scholars of world Christianity as well as Christian leaders in Africa.
As a tapestry of diverse threads, the stories and ruminations of this book present a warm and personable picture of missionary collaboration between AICs and Mennonites. Each chapter adds new layers of understanding to this history from which the reader can piece together a larger story of Mennonite-AIC collaboration’s waxing and waning from its beginnings in Western Africa to its expansions in Southern Africa and its subsequent retreat. Together, participants helped AIC leaders become more conversant with the Christian scriptures, organize HIV/AIDs support and prevention groups, and begin clergy training schools for AIC members.
Throughout, one is struck by the positive presentation of the missionaries and their partners. Still, authors are frank about their subjects’ uncertainties and challenges while engaging new cultures and peoples. Mennonite writers often reference how much they learned and received from their African peers. Most of the African authors recount with gratitude how the Mennonites served with them without attempting to make Mennonites out of them, and how their efforts dignified them in the eyes of African mainline Christians.
Nonetheless, a few critiques of the Mennonites surface in some of the stories. AIC leaders in Southern Africa grieved the departure of the Mennonite missionaries and hoped they would return. The Mennonites’ efforts to avoid the internal politics of AIC leadership was identified by some as ultimately problematic, although well-intentioned. Some West African AIC contributors discussed how they wanted to become Mennonite, but the Mennonites resisted this (ironically) out of the desire to support African agency.
Clearly yet warmly written, this is an excellent work of pointillist history, informing through its many short stories the larger tale of this interdenominational missionary collaboration. As such, it offers a telling example of postcolonial mission, highlighting both the strengths and potential pitfalls of Western attempts to support indigenous Christians. It raises questions of who gets to define traditions like the Mennonites– North Americans, or Africans who claim its heritage? It also invites further consideration on how missionaries can support local autonomy while participating as albeit distinct members of such congregations. This book is approachable for undergraduates yet with content appreciable by scholars. All interested in Anabaptism, cross-cultural ministry, and missiology will find this an engaging and insightful book.