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“Anabaptism and the Emerging Church” Andrew Jones

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mwkruse
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Tall Skinny Kiwi (Andrew Jones): Anabaptism and the Emerging Church

Anabaptists and the emerging church. Horse and carriage? Chicken and egg? Chalk and cheese? It has been suggested by some (Don Carson, Scot McKnight) that the emerging church in USA gravitates towards and resembles the early Anabaptist movement. I have mentioned this before. I generally agree with this and my own spiritual history contains strong Brethren (NZ) and Baptist leanings so it works out in practice for me.

Anabapist connections around the globe take different forms. …

I think there is a lot of truth in this. Growing up in a pietistic quasi-Anabaptist holiness environment, I see strong evidence. Interestingly, the Emerging Church is all the rage at the Church of the Nazarene Seminary here in Kansas City. While I value several things from my upbringing, the "come ye apart and be separate from the world" stuff has never connected with me and was a primary reason I moved out of that stream as a young guy. It is part of my ambivalence toward large swaths of the American emerging church scene.

Comments

4 responses to ““Anabaptism and the Emerging Church” Andrew Jones”

  1. neil Avatar
    neil

    “While I value a number of things from my upbringing, the “come ye apart and be separate from the world” stuff is something that has never connected with me and was a primary reason I moved out of that stream as a young guy. It is part of the same ambivalence I have toward large swaths of the American emerging church scene.”
    Can you say some more about how you see this in the emerging church scene?

    Reply
  2. Michael W. Kruse Avatar
    Michael W. Kruse

    Neil, I don’t know if you have ever been in for counseling but the counselor I worked with would often ask “Does this feel familiar?” Mostly what I can say is “this feels familiar” to this quasi-Anabaptist upbringing of mine. 🙂
    There is clearly a stream of Emergent types who are political action oriented (though overwhelming toward agendas traditionally identified with the left.) There are the conservative Reformed types like Mark Driscoll’s group. So I am not saying this Anabaptist thing is all encompassing.
    I sense it most in things like the fascination with “new monasticism” and intentional communities. The avenue for addressing issues of empire is not to engage, enter, and redeem the empire but to exit it and be a prophetic voice in the wilderness. I sense it in the utter dearth of attention given to things like how we can become more effective stewards of God’s resources in creating health and prosperity through the economy. We are to drop out of the economy instead of redeeming it. I sense a strong inclination toward philosophy and the vita contemplativa, and nearly a disdain at times for the vita activa.
    I don’t have this fully formulated in my mind. Does this impressionistic ramble help?

    Reply
  3. Jarrod Saul McKenna Avatar
    Jarrod Saul McKenna

    Great artilce on this at:
    http://gatheringinlight.com/2007/05/13/open-anabaptism-and-a-community-of-inoutsiders

    Reply
  4. Michael W. Kruse Avatar
    Michael W. Kruse

    Jarrod, thanks for the link! Helpful discussion.

    Reply

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