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.

Possible Treatment for the Allergy to Missions

Hippolyto Tshimanga from Mennonite Church Canada began his session at Mennonite World Conference with an anecdote about a friend who has an “allergy to missions.” I have to admit I found myself getting a little irritated just listening. Indeed, I was having an allergic reaction. Having recently returned home from Mennonite World Conference, I saw […]

Read more

The Global Church Challenges North Americans to Move beyond Negative Associations with Mission

The following is an excerpt from Nelson Kraybill‘s Schrag Lecture at Messiah College on March 26, 2015. The Lecture was titled “Alternating Currents and Multi-Directional Ministry: Global Anabaptism and its Challenge to the North American Church.” The full transcript will be published in Brethren in Christ History and Life journal in the fall.  Growth of the […]

Read more

MWC Reflects Rich Diversity of Anabaptist Witness

I arrived at Harrisburg 2015 at the end of my two-year term in Ecuador as a mission worker, traveling straight to Pennsylvania before going to my home area. This meant enjoying the event with other colleagues or leaders I worked with in Ecuador (Ecuadorian, Chilean, Colombian, and US American), as I transition to life back […]

Read more

A South African Reflection on Mennonite World Conference

God is a missionary. Jesus is a missionary Lord. The Holy Spirit is a missionary empowerer. The entire Bible is a missional book. The whole church is a missional people. – overheard at the Mennonite World Conference Mission Commission meetings The halls of the Harrisburg Farm Show Complex in the capital of Pennsylvania are abuzz […]

Read more

What Can We Learn from the Mormons?

The conversations started in the Anabaptist Witness print edition don’t end there. We continually publish new work on our blog and website that build upon and diversify the current issue’s theme. The following piece is a continuation of the April issue’s theme of encountering the religious “other,” taking a look at aspects of the Mormon […]

Read more

Colombian Mennonite Peace Worker Receives Death Threat: Agustín Jiménez’s Story (Español/English)

La siguiente nos recuerda que, a pesar del proceso de paz en Colombia, los discípulos de Jesucristo que trabajan por la paz todavía encuentran oposición. Peter Stucky es un pastor en la Iglesia Cristiana Menonita de Colombia. Después de su texto hay una traducción al inglés por el co-redactor de Anabaptist Witness Jamie Pitts. The following […]

Read more

Book Review – “Jesus and the Resurrection: Reflections of Christians from Islamic Contexts”

In the following book review – a for-the-blog exclusive piece – John F. Lapp explores a concept central to the topic Theology of Religions: interfaith dialogue. It makes for an interesting read alongside an online article by Jim Pankratz, “Jesus Plus:Plus Jesus“, which was released today and also considers the significance of Jesus in other […]

Read more

Missiological Reflections for Christian-Muslim Engagement

The following is an excerpt from Alain Epp Weaver’s presentation at the Council for International Anabaptist Ministries gathering in January 2015. The entire presentation is available as a PDF download [at the bottom of the page]. The presentation is an historical overview of inter-Anabaptist consultations on Christian-Muslim encounter since the 1960s, and is based on […]

Read more

Gravestones and Light

The following is a series of poems written in the aftermath of Freddie Gray’s death. This event, like several before it, has brought the deeply ingrained racial tensions and injustices in American society – especially in its vulnerable urban areas – into light. In reacting to these events, Harold Recinos bears witness to the suffering […]

Read more

Yom Ha’Shoah

sometimes I go back to the candy store on Broadway to see the old man with numbers on his forearm who tried explaining how he was ripped from his mother’s arms beneath a moon lit sky and taken to a place to weep, to starve, to see many only find death at the end of […]

Read more