Surprise

Today was the halfway point through our two-week orientation. For the first week, those of us doing international assignments were joined by volunteers and salaried workers that were going on to positions in North America, whether doing development in Appalachia or overseeing student exchange programs in Winnipeg, that kind of stuff. Last night we saw them off. This morning, after our first session, we were told there would be a big announcement. We all looked at each other, confused, as about 50 staff members filed into the room and sat down. Then, we heard an announcement that Rob Davis, the Executive Director of MCC had resigned.

We were all pretty shocked, both the staff and the orientees. Rob was an incredibly charismatic guy who had come to speak to the orientees on a couple of occasions. MCC's a great organization and gets a lot of respect, but it's been around since the 20s, and so it doesn't change very quickly. They hired Rob about 18 months ago. He's not ethnically Mennonite (nor are most of the volunteers) and was seen as a good choice to push MCC in a more radical direction. I, for one, was pretty impressed by him. He had done a bunch of traveling in that time, and seemed to be making bold moves. For one, he hosted a meeting of American religious leaders with the president of Iran. Apparently, not even the Quakers were willing to get involved in this, but Rob felt willing to take that first step and meet with someone who is considered an enemy of the state. Read about it here if you're interested.

But there were two things he said that really got my attention. First, that the goal of MCC should be to change the North American church. Second, that he chose not to call himself a "Christian" because of all the baggage associated with that word; instead, he considered himself a follower of Christ. It's pretty badass for the director of a major Christian relief organization to say loud and clear that there's something deeply wrong with the church, so much so that it's almost worth losing the "Christian" title altogether. I couldn't agree more.

So what happened? Why did he quit? And why so suddenly? Hard to say, but it seems like he just chafed against the very established culture of MCC a little too much for comfort. From what we could all gather later on, it wasn't so much his vision, but personality differences that broke the camel's back. And as much as I liked him and hated to see him go, this was a relief. If he had been pushed out for making controversial statements, I would have to reconsider spending three years with MCC.

Sorry if this was a boring post.