“If you’re conservative Anabaptist, why don’t you use pictures that depict conservative Anabaptist values in your blog posts?”
Periodically, I’ll get this question from someone who reads my blog. The simple answer is that I have yet to find a stock photo website of conservative Anabaptist people doing normal, daily-life things.
But the question goes deeper than that.
Hidden behind this question is the idea that if I am conservative Anabaptist in theology and church tradition, I should not associate with anything else. Even to associate with other types of Christians and peoples is in a way to promote their thought and practice and not Anabaptist thought and practice.
Furthermore, behind this kind of question is the long-held perspective that writers and speakers need to create resources for other Anabaptists.
But that is not my goal.
I do not write so Anabaptists have more Anabaptist material.
We need to hear voices outside our own circles. No one denomination or school of thought has a monopoly on truth—we need to hear and learn from each other.
On one side, that means it’s okay for Anabaptists to get material from non-Anabaptist sources. On the other side, that means it’s okay for Anabaptists to create material for the rest of the world.
I write to add to the Anabaptist voice in the greater Christian world at large.
Yes, I adhere more closely to Anabaptist theology than any other kind of theology. I worship in the context of other people who adhere to Anabaptist theology. And because I believe Anabaptist theology has something of value to give to the Christian world, I write from a conservative Anabaptist perspective for all Christians—not just conservative Anabaptists.
Anabaptists make up roughly 85% of my known audience of about seven thousand monthly readers. Protestants, Catholics, and even a few atheists make up the other 15%.
So in a sense, I mostly write to Anabaptists since they are the majority of my audience. But because I seek to engage other Christians as well, I do not limit my graphics or illustrations to only conservative Anabaptist people.
But let’s back up a little bit.
This concept of not associating with other kinds of Christians has long frustrated people. It’s not unique to conservative Anabaptist churches—it’s typical of churches heavily influenced by fundamentalism.
But something seems to be breaking in my generation of conservative Anabaptists. We’re finally bursting through this mindset. We’re accepting and affirming of other schools of thought and ways of doing church and practicing our Christian faith.
In fact, we’re so accepting of other perspectives and traditions that many of us have let go of the conservative Anabaptist way of life and adapted a more evangelical Protestant way of life.
Once Beachy Amish people are now radically charismatics.
Former Mid-Atlantic youth are now mainline Protestant or even Eastern Orthodox.
Is it typical of every generation of conservative Anabaptists to exchange the unique values their church tradition passed on to them for unique values of other, perhaps more culturally acceptable church traditions?
I don’t think so. As I talk with older men and women, it seems there’s a definite increase of people leaving conservative Anabaptist churches.
There’s an increase of people leaving churches, period.
But I can only address that which I know best: conservative Anabaptist churches.
Over the last four years, I have written quite extensively about how millennial Anabaptists want to be heard without being written off, how they want a more authentic expression of community, how they want a deeper, personal relationship with God, and much more.
These kinds of articles resonate deeply with conservative Anabaptists—especially with my generation. I know this because I have an inbox full of emails from people thanking me for writing and expounding on their own frustrations and concerns.
The number one thing people tell me when they meet me is that I put to words what they feel. They say I’m not afraid of talking about the elephant in the room.
I’m grateful to have played a role in helping people find voice for and sort through their deep unspoken questions and frustrations about church and faith.
But I’ve noticed also a strong uptick in people leaving the values and doctrines we’ve been given by our parents in the conservative Anabaptist tradition.
It seems we have found and are continuing to find the courage to have risky conversations about our questions and concerns. But it also seems that in our conversations something happens that further drives us away from conservative Anabaptist values and practice instead of attracting us toward them.
Do the people we talk with not want to have the conversations?
Are they not giving satisfactory answers?
Do they jump to conclusions about where those asking the questions or expressing the frustrations are coming from (or heading towards)?
Are those of us having risky conversations avoiding the people that might point us back to what we were taught growing up?
I’m not entirely sure why so many of us are letting go of conservative Anabaptist values, but I have a hunch it’s a mixture of all of these reasons.
Personally, I sometimes wonder if we’ve had risky enough conversations.
Have we truly been digging deep into answers to our questions? Have we been digging deep into God’s Word and evaluating whether we’re on the right track or not?
Or is it more that we listen to other, more popular voices and allow them to direct not only the answers to our questions, but the questions we should be asking in the first place?
You see, my wife and I are conservative Anabaptists, and we feel at peace with it. It’s because of our love for Jesus and because of our study of his Word that has led us to continue embracing conservative Anabaptist values.
I’m not saying we’ve put our stake down and have officially decided to be Anabaptist for the rest of our lives. There’s a lot of questions we still wrestle with, things we continue to process.
I mean, I am currently in the middle of a four-year bachelor’s degree from a Protestant school. You better believe we continue sorting through the doctrine we’ve been taught!
But it has been in the sorting through what we’ve already wrestled with that has given us a settled peace about certain things many are deciding to change.
That’s why I’m starting a series called An Open Letter to My Generation of Conservative Anabaptists.
I don’t embrace conservative Anabaptist values because I was told I should if I wanted to be a good Christian. I embrace certain conservative Anabaptist values because I see them in Jesus—I see them in his Word.
We have a world full of Protestant thought, Protestant explanations for why they interpret certain scriptures the way they do. However, we have very little Anabaptist thought circulating the larger Christian world.
And since Anabaptist theology at a high-level view is now becoming somewhat of a trend, we have even less conservative Anabaptist thought.
Most of us have never heard an exegetical explanation from scripture why we don’t go to war, get involved in politics, wear a head covering (or don’t wear one), not follow the fashions of this world, and many other pet beliefs unique to conservative Anabaptist people. And when we ask about it, people either feel threatened and accuse us of being rebellious or they give shallow answers.
But what if there were compelling explanations for some of these traditionally conservative Anabaptist beliefs?
What if conservative Anabaptists had something to offer the greater Christian world at large, just as they have something to offer the conservative Anabaptist world?
Something that burdens me is that as I listen to many of us wrestle through questions, I hear little reasoning from scripture itself for making the changes we do. If we’re going to conclude what we were taught was extra-biblical (not mandated by or accurate of the Bible), don’t we want to make sure our changes also aren’t extra-biblical?
In this series, I’m going to dig into scripture and look at many of the hot-button topics those of us within conservative Anabaptist churches wrestle with. I’m going to open up my own thought processes as I make sense of what I’ve been given, and I invite you to share yours as well.
Other articles in this series include:
Even if you disagree with me.
I’m doing this because I’ve noticed for myself it can be easy to simply listen to popular thinkers, make sense of what they’re saying, see good in their life, and conclude they are as okay (or better) than the far less popular voices in our Anabaptist world and switch to their tradition or way of life without even really digging in to see the good I leave behind.
I say I “wrestle through issues.” But too often my “wrestling” looks like listening to the side of the story I’m already trending towards. It can feel too vulnerable—scary, even—to let those I already know will say things I disagree with speak into my life. But in reality, I need to hear them if I’m going to wrestle well. I need their input to confront my own bias if I’m going to actually find truth.
As I look at my generation, I tend to think I’m not the only one who struggles with this.
Do we challenge ourselves with counter perspectives? What if there is sound, life-giving, Christ-exalting, love-inducing grounds for the conservative Anabaptist doctrines we’ve been taught?
If there isn’t—let’s walk away from it all!
But if there is, do we really want to let it go?
Before going further, we should define a few things. First of all, I call this an “open letter” because I’m writing it as if I was writing to a friend. Only, it’s open to the public.
I’m not even entirely sure how many articles this “letter” will contain, but I know it’s going to address roughly ten different topics.
Furthermore, in being a letter, I welcome response.
In fact, I want response because I know my perspective is but one. I want to hear what others have to say as well.
Secondly, when I refer to “my generation,” I’m referring to those between the ages of 18 and 38.
I’m 28 and have noticed that the majority of my audience falls within that age range. If I try reaching too high (you elderly forty-year old’s), I end up talking to people whose faith was shaped in a completely different cultural terrain than my own. If I try reaching too low (fifteen or fourteen), I talk to people who already face obstacles and challenges I can’t even fathom teenagers facing.
Thirdly, while “conservative Anabaptists” can be a rather broad reference, I’m generally referring to anyone who comes from a church tradition that (1) finds their roots in the Radical Reformation, (2) seeks to take the Bible at face value and shape their lifestyle around what it says, (3) believes in a strong distinction between the church and this world, and (4) agrees for most part with the Mennonite Confession of Faith.
I trust this series of articles will be helpful to anyone wanting to make better sense of their faith.
But as a heads up, we will be focusing especially on conservative Anabaptist struggles my generation faces today.
To be clear, there’s a lot that frustrates me about the conservative Anabaptist church as a whole, and I’ll get into all of that over the course of this series. But there’s a lot I love, as well. And that’s what I’m going to address next.
Why do you think people let go of conservative Anabaptist doctrines or practices? You can share your thoughts in the comments below.
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