Category: Anabaptism
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Women Talking: A Review
If a Hollywood studio executive had asked me as a student of Mennonite culture, history and theology, which of our stories should be told on the silver screen, I would have offered a long list. “We” have many beautiful stories with compelling characters that ask and speak to important questions. If they had asked, instead,…
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The Fresno Fiasco
A lot of talk has been happening in the Mennonite twitter world (which is a pretty weird overlap of two very different realms) in the last few days about changes in a Master’s program at Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary. Mostly connected to this article. Since I am a student in that program, I thought I…
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TV show review: PURE (CBC)
Back at the beginning of the year, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation released a new TV show called “Pure.” It was set in a Mexican Mennonite community in southern Ontario, similar to mine in a lot of ways (and different in some key ways too). It’s a rare privilege to get that kind of media attention,…
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Witness 2: The Reawakening
The relationship between Mennonites and the entertainment industry hasn’t always been a good one. On the one hand, “we” (and I use that term loosely) haven’t always been happy with the morality of what appears on our screens. On the other hand, we are often used as characters in their storylines that misrepresent us. Today’s…
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An Anabaptist Pilgramage (and no, that’s not a typo)
My theme of “(Re)Discovering Ancient Spiritual Practices” at the Mennonite Church where I serve as the pastor seems a little odd to some. Those religious rituals having little to no bearing with our Radical Reformation past. In fact, our spiritual ancestors would likely reject many of these activities as human creation and therefore unhelpful in…
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Is missional thinking based in Christendom?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of missional thinking. I love the challenge to ask how the church can join God’s ongoing mission rather than asking how we can get God to bless our church programming. I love the emphasis on developing a sense of belonging before the rigid requirements of belief. But there…
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A Tale of Two Meetings
I would like to talk about two meetings with some obvious differences and some profound similarities. The first is a series of meetings that took place across Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba in the early 1920s. Members of various conservative, traditional Mennonite churches were gathering to discus how to respond to recent government policies put in…
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What makes a Mennonite?
Mennonite is a term that can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. Many of those meanings can be summed up in three categories; Mennonites are known by seed, by deed and by creed. … by seed. – Mennonite is primarily a faith position, but throughout time and in many parts of the…