Popular Posts

These are the posts my readers connect with the most based on views and comment engagement

Theology, Pornography and the Holy Spirit

By Asher Witmer Interviews, Popular Posts, Spiritual Formation
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Most of the readers on this blog are (or at least come from) “conservative Anabaptist” background. And most of these readers find themselves in dynamic time of life.

Dynamic because there is a lot of motion in the conservative Anabaptist church world today. Deep, unspoken questions people are wanting to find answers to. Few people are as aware and tuned into these questions (even frustrations) as brother Frank Reed. 

Recently, I got to ask Frank some questions about the Anabaptist church world, today. Following is the interview.

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When People Leave the Mennonite Church

By Asher Witmer Popular Posts, Spiritual Formation
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Most people who have commented on this series so far have strong opinions one way or the other. There is a wide vacuum of people who are silent. People who don’t want to cause conflict. People who, like me, have had a good experience in their Mennonite upbringing, but also see areas of weakness that need radical change. Only, they’re at a loss for how to change it because either they’re written off as a rebel, or their questions and comments are hijacked by people with an agenda for the opposite of the Mennonite tradition.

Allow me, if for a moment, to wrestle aloud with the questions of someone who identifies with his friends who are leaving, but is concerned with whether we’re finding anything better.

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To Be Mennonite, Or a Disciple of Christ?

By Asher Witmer Popular Posts, Spiritual Formation
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If the early Anabaptists were alive today, I am quite certain the Mennonite church would run them out of their congregations.

I realize that’s a pretty strong statement, and not altogether fair. But I’m willing to stand by it, nonetheless.

You see, the early Anabaptist leaders, such as Grebel, Manz, Blaurock, Sattler, and others, began to question the status quo of the institutionalized church. Should the church really baptize infants? Should a believer take oaths or go to war? Even more, they questioned the ruling of a council as being more authoritative than the Spirit’s leading in people’s lives, as was commonly accepted in their day.

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Waking Up Mennonite

By Asher Witmer Popular Posts, Spiritual Formation
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Everyone spoke in hushed tones. Mom cried silently, dabbing her eyes with a Kleenex. What was going on?

Moments before, I sat in the back row, behind the Vinar family, copying the gibberish I saw in a hymnbook onto a blank piece of paper my older sister had given me. Now, everyone was huddled into groups, solemn, and praying. Something important was happening. Something big!

Is this my church?

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9 Ways You Accidentally Make Your Husband Feel Little

By Asher Witmer Personal Wholeness, Popular Posts

I suppose it is only fair, after writing about how we men make our wives feel ugly, that I address how women make their husbands feel little. Not because I want to hit women over the head with how they’re failing us husbands. Rather, just as women can feel ugly from small gestures on our part, we sometimes feel little by seemingly innocent actions from them.

In my last post, I talked about nine ways husbands accidentally make their wives feel ugly. Here I’ll share nine ways wives accidentally make their husbands feel little. As a lady wants to feel beautiful and wanted, a man wants to feel capable and needed. These are nine subtle ways wives undermine their husbands.

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9 Ways You Accidentally Make Your Wife Feel Ugly

By Asher Witmer Popular Posts, Relationships
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Before getting married, I thought being a good husband was about “being ahead of the curve.” In an effort to do so, I devoured as many books on marriage and women as I could possibly find. And I learned a lot!

But there were a many things I never learned about in any of those books. One things was the many ways I accidentally make my wife feel ugly. Maybe one could change the word ugly for small or unwanted, but the point is after five years of marriage I am slowly waking up to the ways I unwittingly make my wife feel like mush.

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No, You Don’t HAVE to Read the Bible

By Asher Witmer Popular Posts, Spiritual Formation
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What if the modern approach to Scripture isn’t what God intended for it? What if saying you can only know God through knowing the Bible cripples people from knowing Him at all?

Today, more than ever we need to be grounded in Truth, but the way we worship the black, white and leather of the Bible doesn’t help us become anymore grounded.

When we put the Bible on a pedestal it was never supposed to have, we actually cultivate contempt for Truth and turn people away from God. In this post, I expose the wrong way to use the Bible, explain the right way, and share how to tell the difference.

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Nonconformity: A Dangerous Alternative

By Asher Witmer Popular Posts, Spiritual Formation

Until our relationships accurately represent Christ, our doctrines will always be held in suspect.

Not everyone is rebellious, wanting to do their own thing. Many know the Bible and the God of the Bible and how He relates in love and grace, and when that isn’t being lived out in a community that focuses so much on trying to be like Christ, we feel something is missing.

But what if we’re chasing relationships at the expense of faithfulness? What if in our desperation for Christ, we completely miss Him?

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What This Generation of Anabaptists Really Want

By Asher Witmer Popular Posts, Spiritual Formation
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There is a lot of uncertainty in Christianity today, especially among the younger generation. Church is frustrating, whether you come from a more traditional background or a progressive one. Either it’s full of ritual and stringent practice or obsessed with growth and modern advances.

People want more; but they’re scared. Unless you’re willing to come under suspicion, it’s best to keep your questions and desire for change secret.

So what do you do when things feel remarkably out of order? How are you supposed to handle it when church is not as you are studying about in the Bible? Do you sit passively by and accept the status quo? Do you campaign for reform, start a radical movement, and subject yourself to critical suspicion? Or do you simply walk away?

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