Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Plough Quarterly • Summer  If the church’s task is not to ensure social stabil- ity, then what is it? You’ve famously described the church as a colony. We were just speaking of Eberhard Arnold, who used a similar image: that of the embassy, based on Paul’s words that “we are ambassadors for Christ” (2 Cor. 5:20). He wrote in 1934: “In the residence of the ambas- sador, only the laws of the country he represents are valid. We are ambassadors of the kingdom of God. This means that we do nothing at all except what the king of God’s kingdom would himself do for his kingdom.” What’s your take? I like this. I have high regard for ambassadors in the State Department because they are, in a certain way, hostages we sent out, having to negotiate a world in which they are not in control. I understand they’re surrounded by Marines and so on. Nevertheless, we send them out to be peaceful representatives of the United States, and oftentimes by having to learn to live in a foreign country they become sympathetic with the people they’re coming to know, people who are different from ourselves. In this way they come back and teach us what these folks are about in a way that helps us not to demonize them. So Arnold’s words touch on a very interest- ing way to think about mission. We could put it this way: as Christians, we are establishing embassies around the world in which some of our brothers and sisters are being held hostage–so that we might learn better who the folks are that we want to tell about Jesus. And that’s the church’s mission? The church doesn’t have a mission. The church is mission. Our fundamental being is based on the presumption that we are witnesses to a Christ who is known only through witnesses. To be a witness means you bear the marks of Christ so that your life gives life to others. I can’t imagine Christians who are not funda- mentally in mission as constitutive of their very being–because you don’t know who Christ is except by someone else telling you who Christ is. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit. Therefore it is the task of Christians to embody the joy that comes from being made part of the body of Christ. That joy should be infectious and pull other people toward it. How many of us have actually asked another person to follow Christ? In my experience, far too few. Politics and Marriage What is the church’s witness in the public square in an election year? Should Chris- tians be organizing politically? Should we be voting? I think voting is way overvalued. One, you forget that voting is a coercive activity. It’s where 50.1 percent get to tell 49.9 percent what to do. People forget that voting is not supposed to be an end in itself. Instead, it is a means to force conversation between people that other- wise would not happen. And that’s great. Of course I take it that at the Bruderhof and other intentional communities the majority doesn’t win–I mean, you’ve got to talk it out. That’s right, there’s no majority rule, at least if we’re living as we should be, and no minority rule either. Our aim is to make decisions unani- mously. That’s why we pray for the Holy Spirit. Exactly. And that means that oftentimes, given the divisions within the community, you simply can’t make a decision. You have to be patient. The church doesn’t have a mission. The church is mission.