Anabaptist Witness Blog

Welcome to our blog, a forum to foster discussion and share ideas from different corners of the Anabaptist world. It is regularly updated with short reflection pieces, reactions to articles, comments on current events relating to mission, and more. If you are interested in contributing, please review our guidelines and contact information.

Systematically Building the Community of Faith

By Johannes Reimer | Posted on January 23, 2025

500 years and Now What? Time and again, I hear Mennonite pastors in Christian congregations complaining about the entrenched structures, inflexibility, and traditional ineffectiveness of their congregations. “If only I could start all over again,” I soon hear the quiet sigh. “That’s done all the time these days,” I reply, “it’s called re-planting or re-founding.”[1] […]

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Wonderfully Protected by Good Powers

By Johannes Reimer | Posted on December 31, 2024

The gloomy year 2024 is coming to an end Hand on heart—we haven’t experienced a year as dark as 2024 in the Western world for a long time. What on earth was going on? The forces of nature kept people on tenterhooks: hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and, unfortunately, wars and cries of pain. Millions of people […]

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Response to Kampen

By André Gingerich Stoner | Posted on December 4, 2024

This blog post responds to John Kampen’s article An Earnest Effort Falls Short from Anabaptist Witness 11.2. The author also has a piece in the same issue detailing his own perspective on the 2017 resolution discussed by Kampen. Note that Kampen comments on this response below. I want to respond to key matters John Kampen addresses in […]

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God’s Reconciling Work in Development: The Development Theology and Practice of Meserete Kristos Church (MKC) in Ethiopia

By Kebede Bekere, Desalegn Abebe Ejo | Posted on November 21, 2024

Introduction The Meserete Kristos Church (MKC) is one of the Christian evangelical denominations in Ethiopia established by the North American Mennonite missionaries in 1951. The Mennonite missionaries entered Ethiopia to assist Ethiopia in the 1940s in reconstruction after the five-year occupation of the Italians. One of the strategies the missionaries used to engage in God’s […]

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The Spirit, Mission, Peace, and “Global Anabaptist Theology”

By Anicka Fast | Posted on August 7, 2024

This post is from a series of responses to our “Mission and Peace in Ethiopia” issue that were first published on Facebook. I picked up my copy of the special issue of Anabaptist Witness, “Mission and Peace in Ethiopia” during a trip to the US in June (unfortunately, it was not possible to purchase it […]

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Peacebuilding in Our Beloved Historical Countries

By Karl Stutzman | Posted on August 7, 2024

In his article in Anabaptist Witness volume 11, no. 1, “Mission and Peace in Ethiopia” (April 2024), Yimenu Adimas Belay states, “Peacebuilding in Ethiopia needs to be considered a crucial element of every Christian community in order to transform the situation of our beloved historical country” (p. 23). I really love this expression. It not […]

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Decolonial Faith

By H. J. Recinos | Posted on March 4, 2024

I wonder how often God sees us laughing about disobeying the foolish thoughts of white theologians that find nothing more than faults with the faith of invisible people in barrios they never visit.  I would like to know whether Jesus took the time to pray for the Boricua boy shot in the back last week […]

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Acting on Gaza from Germany

By Anonymous | Posted on January 24, 2024

How do people in Germany act in the face of apartheid and massive violence in Israel-Palestine, recognizing the weight of German history? As a US-American international worker with a peace organization in Germany, it has surprisingly felt more comfortable to engage in advocacy and work on Israel-Palestine here than in the US. This is perhaps […]

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The Church as Sacrament for the Working World

By Urbane Peachey | Posted on September 29, 2023

Most people who attend church on Sunday mornings are employed in so-called “secular” professions and public institutions like hospitals and schools during the week. Younger people are under pressure from school or academic life. They all come to worship on Sunday mornings with lived realities of work, home, neighborhood and personal journey on their minds. […]

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South African peace leaders determined to be nation’s light

By Wil LaVeist | Posted on April 10, 2023

Front: Rev. Shiela Hlobelo, Mama Eulanda Mabusela, Mama Phinah Phokanoka, Rev.Nicky Motsepe, Steve Wiebe-Johnson. Back: Toto Nzamo, Moora Letsoalo, Amukelani Mkwanazi, Pastor Lwazi Macingwane, Oscar Siwali, Mulalo Mahori, Pastor Gosiame, and Bishop Mtshali. Mennonite Mission Network — The four-hour power outage that occurred just seconds before the conflict mediator training session began added irony that illuminated the […]

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