What does it mean to be a missional Anabaptist?
Missional. To be missional is to take seriously the great commission in Matthew 28:18-20 to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, and passing on to them the teaching of Jesus. It means that we do so not by expecting people to find their way across the threshold of a church, but going out onto the streets and meet people where they live. Being missional means that we resist the temptation to compartmentalize our lives into church, work, and home and instead seek to be ambassadors for Christ in every arena of life and to see every encounter and every moment as an opportunity to witness to the Kingdom of God.
Anabaptist. To be Anabaptist is to identify with a five hundred year old tradition born out of the radical Reformation in Europe. Some of the core convictions that have withstood the test of time in the tradition include an emphasis on communal identity and mutual accountability; the centrality of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus in understanding Scripture (resulting, for example, in a commitment to pacifism in following the example and teaching of Jesus); and a desire to resist cultural accommodation by valuing faithfulness over effectiveness, loyalty to the Kingdom of God rather than to earthly nations, and discipleship over nominalism.
So a missional Anabaptist...is one who identifies with the Anabaptist tradition and is committed to restoring the original missionary fervor of the early Anabaptists who spread their faith to friends and neighbors, officials and magistrates, and whoever they encountered as they spread across Western Europe and eventually North America and the world. A missional Anabaptist is also someone who does not necessarily regret the decline of Christendom or fear the rise of postmodernism if they provide new opportunities to more faithfully witness to the salvation of our Lord.
Anabaptist. To be Anabaptist is to identify with a five hundred year old tradition born out of the radical Reformation in Europe. Some of the core convictions that have withstood the test of time in the tradition include an emphasis on communal identity and mutual accountability; the centrality of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus in understanding Scripture (resulting, for example, in a commitment to pacifism in following the example and teaching of Jesus); and a desire to resist cultural accommodation by valuing faithfulness over effectiveness, loyalty to the Kingdom of God rather than to earthly nations, and discipleship over nominalism.
So a missional Anabaptist...is one who identifies with the Anabaptist tradition and is committed to restoring the original missionary fervor of the early Anabaptists who spread their faith to friends and neighbors, officials and magistrates, and whoever they encountered as they spread across Western Europe and eventually North America and the world. A missional Anabaptist is also someone who does not necessarily regret the decline of Christendom or fear the rise of postmodernism if they provide new opportunities to more faithfully witness to the salvation of our Lord.