{"id":17149,"date":"2024-11-19T17:39:20","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T17:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/en\/resources\/an-anabaptist-theology-of-service\/"},"modified":"2025-02-05T17:26:30","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T17:26:30","slug":"anabaptist-theology-service","status":"publish","type":"mwcresource","link":"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/en\/resources\/anabaptist-theology-service\/","title":{"rendered":"An Anabaptist Theology of Service"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-yellow-eyebrow\">A teaching resource from the Faith &amp; Life commission<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><em>What does it mean for member churches of Mennonite World Conference to share an Anabaptist identity? What is the value of Anabaptist \u201ctradition\u201d \u2013 and what does that word mean in a global context? What are our Anabaptist understandings of mission and fellowship?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><em>In 2009, the newly appointed Faith and Life Commission was asked to produce three papers that could be used in helping MWC communities reflect on such questions:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"has-small-font-size\"><em>\u201cA Holistic Understanding of Fellowship, Worship, Service, and Witness from an Anabaptist Perspective\u201d by Alfred Neufeld Friesen of Paraguay;<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-small-font-size\"><em>\u201cThe \u2018Anabaptist Tradition\u2019 \u2013 Reclaiming its Gifts, Heeding its Weaknesses\u201d by Hanspeter Jecker of Switzerland; and<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-small-font-size\"><em>\u201cKoinonia \u2013 The Gift We Hold Together\u201d by Tom Yoder Neufeld of Canada.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><em>All three papers were approved as a teaching resource by the MWC General Council in May 2012.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Some weeks ago, I received a request from Bert Lobe to consider describing and reflecting on how the sixteenth century Anabaptists understood diaconal service, and how that understanding and practice developed historically. The idea was that this kind of study might provide a basis for discussion and discernment for the MWC Deacons Commission&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/an_anabaptist_theology_of_service_with_header2.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of an_anabaptist_theology_of_service_with_header2.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-2424eea7-e798-4387-8356-3485fabd47e7\" href=\"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/an_anabaptist_theology_of_service_with_header2.pdf\">an_anabaptist_theology_of_service_with_header2<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/an_anabaptist_theology_of_service_with_header2.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-2424eea7-e798-4387-8356-3485fabd47e7\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-yellow-background-color has-background wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/en\/commissions\/deacons-commission\/\">Deacons Commission<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","network":[360,144,155],"resourcetype":[],"language":[167],"resourcecategory":[314,157],"resourcetheme":[354,311],"eventcategory":[],"class_list":["post-17149","mwcresource","type-mwcresource","status-publish","hentry","network-commissions","network-deacons-commission","network-faith-and-life-commission","language-fr","resourcecategory-reference-document","resourcecategory-teaching-resource","resourcetheme-service","resourcetheme-theology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>An Anabaptist Theology of Service - Mennonite World Conference<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/en\/resources\/anabaptist-theology-service\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An Anabaptist Theology of Service - Mennonite World Conference\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A teaching resource from the Faith &amp; Life commission Some weeks ago, I received a request from Bert Lobe to consider describing and reflecting on how the sixteenth century Anabaptists understood diaconal service, and how that understanding and practice developed historically. 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