The Contemporary Relevance of the Anabaptist Faith 1

I’ve been reading “The Contemporary Relevance of the Anabaptist Faith,” a fantastic article from Brethren in Christ History and Life (August 2000). The author of the article is Myron S. Augsburger, an evangelical Anabaptist and Mennonite scholar. Augsburger begins the article by asking a question so many of us are still asking today, some eight years after the article was published in BIC History and Life. He writes, “In a time described as post-modern and post-denominational, we ask the question: what is the particular value in any given heritage?”

It’s a big question. It’s a question many of us are asking today. It seems that most of those who are asking it are children and grandchildren of baby-boomers. Many of us are wondering if our leaders from the boomer generation have all but abandoned the most important aspects of our heritage, tradition, and history for “whatever-seemed-good” or “whatever-worked-best” at the time. Our fathers, it seems, were not only perched perpetually on a constant look-out for the “next big thing,” but also actually tried everything and anything that remotely hinted of popularity, success, or surface-level growth. So, the children of boomers are inheriting churches that are more often than not built upon something that is actually experienced as severely disconnected. It is disconnected from the larger religious or spiritual community towards which the heritage, tradition, and history cumulatively point, and it is disconnected from the experienced spiritual need we all observe in contemporary society and culture. This is not even close to acceptable. Many, many young adults are passing straight through the contemporary expression of church and they are setting out on an exploratory, Spirit-laden journey all their own. This journey is leading many of us back the very best of our heritage, tradition, and history, while it simultaneously challenges us to re-interpret this faith in relevant ways that resonate deeply within the present culture.

It is an interesting shift. It is also a shift that is only now beginning; there is so much more to come. If you don’t - or can’t - see this shift now, you will see it later.

Augsburger intentionally positions and expresses the faith in the midst of the shift, and cites heritage, tradition, and history as very, very important aspects of any contemporary expression of Anabaptism. He does a wonderful job articulating the theological specifics of the value inherently available in this heritage, tradition, and history, and how these relate and resonate contemporarily. He does so with clarity, honesty, and passion. He offers those of us who know what the next generation of believers is searching for a thorough and clear presentation that will be more than helpful as we offer young adults and families a real alternative to the generic church they are renouncing en masse. There is, as Augsburger would call it, a “Third Way.”

Augsburger’s advances for contemporary Anabaptist relevancy are offered via several chrono-numeric points, and with a poetic suggestion that within them can be found “open windows of meaning for a larger world.” I would wholeheartedly agree, of course. I will cite and commentate on each of these seven points in individual posts. I will cite and address the first point in this post, and the second, third, fourth, etc., in future posts to follow over the course of a few days.

Augsburger’s first point follows:

1. Recognition of Christology as the Full Self-disclosure of a Reconciling God.

I can not even begin to emphasize the importance of this statement for believers today! This first statement is all about identity. It’s about our deep identity as Christians who are now living deep within our Christ because God desired and provided reconciliation. God is a reconciling God. This reconciliation is - and should be - the absolute center of our faith. This, says Augsburger, results in a “personalistic” rather than “privatistic” expression of faith. He goes on to explain the point in a remarkable way, by writing:

For example, regarding at-one-ment, reconciliation means that the redeemed belong to the Redeemer. On salvation we focus not so much on confessing guilt as on confessing Christ and our identifying with him. On the Christian life we do not simply emphasize a guarantee of our future but emphasize walking with the Spirit today. On the church we do not emphasize sacramentalism as a way of scheduling a “keeping up to date” with the Lord; rather worship is the gathering of those who walk with God all week who come together to worship and fellowship.”

Incidentally, one of the most obvious characteristics of the Emerging Church Conversation is a dedication to walking with the Spirit today (orthopraxy), rather than narrowly focusing upon salvation as merely “the way to get into Heaven.” There is an entire generation that desires to walk with and experience the Spirit today as much as they desire to see Heaven.

Augsburger continues:

A Christological center stands over against a conceptual outline of doctrines. We constantly think in terms of relating to Jesus and following him in life, of walking in discipleship. This is a different dynamic than answering primarily to doctrinal confessions.

When we honestly understand and embrace Jesus as God’s full self-disclosure of reconciliation everything changes. It all changes! We no longer bend the transformative experience of salvation around guilt or fear; we no longer ignore this life to focus solely upon Heaven; we no longer go to church just to check in with God; we no longer embrace doctrinal confessions as if they were God themselves. No! God’s full disclosure of reconciliation transforms it all! We lovingly embrace God in Christ because we were first embraced by God in Christ. We embrace God in relationship, out of love and thanksgiving; we focus upon this life as much as the life to come because in this life we meet, interact, and experience God; we embrace relationships rather than checklists of rules because Jesus offered us relationships rather than rules. It’s all about Jesus.

A faith built upon anything other than Jesus will go awry. Our classic Anabaptist expression is built upon God’s full disclosure of reconciliation in Christ Jesus. A contemporary expression of this classical Christological center will change the way we live and the way we “do” church. Here’s the surprise: It’ll change it in ways that will seriously resonate with the growing number of young adults and families who are leaving - or refusing to enter - the churches built by our fathers and upon what they thought was the next-big-thing.