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First Mennonite Church
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Join us at First Mennonite Church Sunday Morning for Spiritual Growth and Fellowship
What's Happening @ FMCThursday, March 13
First Mennonite Women Sewing 9-2 Come and join in the sewing and bring a dish for lunch to share Sunday, March 16
2nd Sunday of Lent "The Cross - The Broken Body" Pastor Phil Saturday, March 29
FMC Men's retreat at Hunter Lake (See Newsletter for Details) Saturday, April 26
Trinity Youth Choir (From Kitchener, Ontario) 7:00 pm @ FMC Quick Links:
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Sunday Worship: 9:00 AM (Sunday School following) You are welcome to join us on Sunday, or stop in for a chat! We want to meet you! |
Sermons on YouTubeFollow link above to our church page on YouTube
On the Journey...
The Birth of Anabaptism – 500 Years Ago By Pastor Philip Yoder This year marks the 500th birthday of Anabaptism, from where the Mennonite Church has its origins. And many who are descendants of that movement are busy celebrating this year.
On January 21, 1525, on a cold night in Zurich, Switzerland, a small group of people met for prayer to discern what to do with the city council’s demand that all must submit to infant baptism or be exiled from Zurich and its jurisdiction. A group of people had been meeting for prayer and Bible study, convinced that what it meant to be a Christian was to follow Jesus’ teachings, especially those found in the Sermon on the Mount, not the traditions of the Catholic Church. At this prayer meeting on January 21, at the home of Felix Manz, Conrad Grebel took water and baptized Georg Blaurock on his confession of faith, and a movement was begun; a movement that aligned with Peter’s statement to the Sanhedrin in Acts 5:29, “We must obey God rather than men,” a movement which would become known as “Anabaptism” (re-baptizers), a movement still growing 500 years later. This movement was different from the movements of the other reformers of the day in some very significant ways. The Anabaptists set out, not to reform the church, but to reconstitute the Apostolic first-century church as found in the book of Acts, reclaiming it’s purity, power, purpose, and priorities, and also a willingness to embrace the suffering that came with it. The Anabaptists insisted that there must be separation of church and state, because the state, and consequently the state-church had become thoroughly corrupt, and was full of people who showed no evidence of a regenerated life, and had no interest in following Jesus’ teachings. The Anabaptists had no longing for the worldly powers of the state, they sought instead the power of the Holy Spirit. And furthermore, the guiding vision of the Anabaptist’s church was starkly different from that of the state churches. For the state churches, the issue of focus was on getting their masses into heaven. For the Anabaptists, their focus was on bringing Jesus’ Kingdom and the reign of Jesus onto the earth now. For that reason, the Anabaptist’s Church would be a remnant church, called out and separate from the world, not a church for the masses. 500 years is a long time to keep a movement, or anything else, alive. Most movements lose much of their energy and vitality within one or two generations, and Anabaptism did as well. Because of persecution, the Anabaptists were all too soon, willing to trade their mission fervor for tolerance, and traditions were adopted in an attempt to maintain the ideals of the movement. And yet, 500 years later, the Spirit that first sparked the Anabaptist movement continues to call men and women to follow our Lord Jesus in radical discipleship and obedience, and to a vision of Christ’s Kingdom come on the earth. |