drew moser: Mennonite Links You Should Know About...

journal : : field notes

Mennonite Links You Should Know About...

04 January 2007

I've been researching the internet for some helpful Mennonite links to try to gauge what's 'emerging' in Anabaptism in the West. If found some under-appreciated gems that you should know about:

1. Check out my del.icio.us links on the topic HERE.
2. You can check out a list of famous Mennonites HERE (#1 on the list is J.C. Chasez of N'Sync. I'm hoping that the list is in no particular order...Please don't let it be in any particular order of importance!)
3. The Mennonite Central Committee, the relief and development arm of North American churches has a great website. They publish a great little 6x/year publication, A Common Place, which highlights their work, promoting peace and justice. You can subscribe to the mag for FREE HERE.
4. I also found a Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online HERE. Great online resource, especially for leaders, historical issues, etc. (Related: Were my ancestors mennonites? Quite possibly, as evidenced HERE.)
5. The Third Way Cafe has an abundance of online resources on mennonite/anabaptist distinctives.
6. Finally, of course, the Mennonite entry in Wikipedia.
Why will these links, and others to come, important to an emerging/missional discussion? Because, mark my words, you all will soon see a resurgence in anabaptism. The radical discipleship, emphasis on community, justice, and peace all resonate with a postmodern world. In researching for a paper on Newbigin that I'm working on, I came across this fantastic bit of wisdom:

Prominent missiologist David Bosch, as noted by Michael Goheen, saw a link between Newbigin’s thought and Anabaptist resurgence: The Anabaptist tradition “has been gaining tremendous ground in the North American context especially among those who, following Newbigin, are calling for a missionary encounter with Western culture.”[1]

Huh.

[1] Goheen, Micahel, “The Missional Calling of Believers in the World: Lesslie Newbigin’s Contribution,” in A Scandalous Prophet: The Way of Mission After Newbigin (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 37.

Labels: emerging church, mennonite, newbigin

comments:

Drew

As a fellow Taylor University grad (CE, Bib Lit, 2001) and a former professional pastor who now is testing the waters of amature pastoring as I've left the ministry, gotten a job, and covenented with a historically Mennonite Brethern in Christ Church (www.bic-church.org) in the city of Philadelphia, I absolutely agree - discipleship, community, justice and peace are what we as anabaptists are all about - and it resonates with me unlike anything I've ever experienced.

You might be interested in checking out our local body of believers called Circle of Hope (www.circleofhope.net) - a non-Emergent emerging church that's been around for a little over 10 years. And if you're ever in this neck of the woods, please stop on by.

I enjoy your blog (and wish I had known you during the 3 years we wandered the same campus).

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