THE ANABAPTIST VISION
(My Version 2024)
Prior to our congregational meeting on Thursday evening, I was asked what the difference is between being Mennonite and being Anabaptist. Good question. It is a complex question with an even more complicated answer.
Sharon and I have recently returned from what was billed as “The Classic Anabaptist History Tour,” a visit to five countries where the Anabaptist movement began. It was an intense schedule with little room to catch your breath. For Sharon and me, it was a spiritual journey to discover the origins of our faith and those that died to make faith possible.
Just days before we left, I was suddenly filled with fears. Our group consisted of 24 Americans and four Canadians – there were bound to be differences. Many of the Americans came from Mennonite Church USA. Would they be flag-waving patriots? Would they share my faith values? My greatest apprehension about MC USA was their affirmation of the LGBTQ movement. Would there be arguments over this issue? I didn’t want that to be the theme of this trip. These fears were allayed as we got to know these people and found them to be very like-minded about these concerns.
There were disappointments, however. At meals, I often reminded our tablemates that we should pray before eating. Scripture and prayer were rare in the teaching moments. At one cave where the Anabaptists had secretly worshiped fearing their persecutors, I insisted on a specific song and just as the leader was about to dismiss everyone, I loudly recited Revelation 3:7-13. In places where blood was spilled and where baptisms took place, I wanted to kneel and give thanks – but there was no space for that piety.
The greatest disappointment was when one of our hosts made Menno Simons into an ecological icon and a human rights advocate. The second was when I learned that Dirk Willems was considered a hero of the Dutch Resistance.
Our leader spoke of the place of Scripture in the Mennonite faith, but the lack of reading and fervent prayer disturbed me greatly. More important to the leader and the group was their genealogical connection to Swiss Mennonite ancestors. This was a huge warning to me not to make much of my “David Klassen” connection here in Rosenort or of my centuries long heritage as a Mennonite.
I was reminded of the Apostle Paul’s renunciation of his genealogy and Jewish heritage. (Read Phil. 3:3-11). Sharon nudged me several times on this matter, and I am convicted that I need to shed the pride of the Mennonite garment and put on Christ alone.
To be Mennonite has nothing to do with eating perogies and farmer sausage; it has nothing to do with your last name or who you are related to; it has nothing to do with the church you attend. To be Mennonite is to agree with the perspective of faith that Menno had concerning baptism (for believers not for infants). Menno had an Anabaptist understanding of faith in Jesus Christ.
In 1943, Harold Bender presented a paper to the American Society of Church History called The Anabaptist Vision. Last semester, one of my students asked me if I really believed what I taught. In response, I gave my version of the Anabaptist Vision. (I also shared this on the tour bus as part of a devotional). This is what I said:
Christ is the Center of our Faith
I believe that God has revealed himself in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the clearest revelation of what God intends human beings to be like.
This says two things: a) If you want to know God, get to know Jesus, and b) if you want to be a human being, get to know Jesus. “He is the image of the invisible God… in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell…” (15 & 19).
Many people begin with Creation and build a theology around the literal 6 days of Genesis one. That does not make Christ preeminent or central in one’s theology. Paul said that creation was made for him and not Christ for creation “…all things were created through him and for him,” (16c).
The Anabaptist begins with Jesus Christ and views all scripture through him. He is the lens through which we read the Bible. We begin with Jesus and interpret Scripture from the standpoint of Jesus as portrayed in the Gospel. The OT points to Jesus and the NT letters find their meaning in Jesus.
Jesus is everything to me! He is Savior, he is my King, he is my Shepherd, he is my constant Companion, he is my Compass. Menno Simons favorite verse was 1 Corinthians 3:11, “For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
Discipleship is the Goal of our Faith
Is Christianity just about being absolved of my sins through church attendance and taking communion? Is Christianity primarily about saving grace and how it gets me to heaven? Or is it most of all about the transformation of my life through following Jesus in every part of my life?
Being “born again” is important but new birth is a beginning and not an end. In fact, the Bible talks a little about being born again and a whole lot about following Jesus.
Jesus invited men and women to follow him throughout his ministry. To follow him is to be like him, to learn his way of life, to move with him in the rhythms of grace, mercy, compassion, and service. Jesus challenged the crowds who were following him, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me,”(Mark 8:34).
Hans Denck was an early Anabaptist and one who died for his faith in Jesus. He said, “No one may truly know Christ except one who follows him in life.”
Many churches emphasize “getting people saved” and that is an important part of our mission. But are we just trying to rack up the notches of converts? Is saying the “sinner’s prayer” the end of our witness? Bender commented on this saying, “The focus of the Christian life was to be not so much the inward experience of the grace of God, as it was for Luther, but the outward application of that grace to all human conduct and the consequent Christianisation of all human relationships.”
When I shared these four points of the Anabaptist Vision, our leader on the tour bus responded that discipleship is good, but that I missed evangelism. I replied I did not, for in my mind, discipleship is about calling people who don’t know Christ to come and follow us, to experience Jesus through us in hopes of showing them the meaning of forgiveness of sins and life in Christ.
I asked my Theology of Jesus class, what did Jesus come to make? The answer they gave: disciples. Wrong, I said, Jesus came to make disciple-makers. He did not want faith in him to stagnate in “me alone” but to grow faith by sharing it with others in disciple making.
Community is the Life of our Faith
I have heard this a lot in the 2000s and even more since Covid: Salvation is simply a matter of intellectual belief, spiritual laws to be repeated and accepted and lived. Faith is a private matter, one that should not be imposed on others nor impinged upon by others. As a result, in this individualized me-centered society, people are trying to live Christianly apart from the church.
Salvation is not about “a plan,” it’s about relationship – a relationship with God and each other. The NT teaches that every person who comes to faith in Christ be united to his church through baptism.
You were not meant to follow Jesus on your own. Paul wrote that God gave Jesus as head over all things to the church “…which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all,” (Eph. 1:22-23). In other words, in the church the fullness of Jesus dwells. Jesus is most fully realized in the church (not the building, the community). Where does God reveal his wisdom? In the church, “…so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places,” (3:10). It is through the church that God displays his power and work.
That’s the heavy theology. The reality of community is this is where we care for each other. How many times have we heard someone say that they don’t know how people endure through crisis without a caring community like the church. It is not a perfect society or an ideal one because some of you have gone through hurts and not been cared for, but we are not yet made perfect, we will make mistakes. I would rather have an imperfect community of believers than none at all.
Hans Leopold, a Swiss brethren martyr of 1528, said of the Brethren, “If they know of anyone who is in need, whether or not he is a member of their church, they believe it their duty, out of love to God, to render help and aid.” That was the Anabaptist vision of the community of believers.
The church is not an institution, or an instrument for proclaiming God’s word, or a resource group for piety – it is a community (a family – re: brotherhood) of love in which the fullness of Christ may be expressed.
Love is the Expression of our Faith
I have rejected the terms “pacifism” (it can perceived as "passivism" - doing nothing) and “nonresistance” (sounds like we don't resist evil or work for justice) in my own Anabaptist vocabulary because they are too political, too military, and too limiting. I choose instead to speak of “the way of love.”
Jesus lived a life of love. I may not go to war. I am not going to stand in front of tanks or protest at the legislature. The arena of our conflicts in life are the home, the school, the workplace, and the neighborhood. It is here that my resolve to follow Jesus in all aspects of life will be tested.
The question for the Anabaptist disciple of Jesus is this: How would Jesus respond to this issue? This question? This crisis? Winning an argument was not his goal. Besting his opponent was not his game plan. Reconciling this person before him to God was his ultimate purpose.
“And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,” (Col. 1:21-22).
And Jesus has given us this charge of reconciling women and men to God: “…we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God,” (2 Cor. 5:20).
This is the way of love. This is the way of Jesus.
What is the difference between being Mennonite and being Anabaptist? There shouldn’t be a difference. Yet “Mennonite” has come to mean something cultural – Dutch-German-Russian people who eat sunflower seeds and talk funny. It has come to mean something socio-political if, as some do, it relates to affirming unbiblical lifestyles. If being Mennonite keeps non-DGR people from worshiping with us, then we need to shed the moniker and the culture.
I have begun to call myself a Neo-Anabaptist. “Neo” means new, and it refers to those who believe that the Anabaptist Vision without the cultural trappings has something to offer the global church. This vision is:
Christ-centered
Jesus-following
Community-directed
Fueled by love.
I don’t know if you noticed this or not but consider RFC’s mission statement:
Radically following Jesus;
Furthering the Gospel;
Caring for the Community.
Coincidence? Not from where I stand. AMEN
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