Three Defining Traits of Anabaptist Mission

By Aaron M. Kauffman

Five hundred years after its founding, Anabaptism is still going strong. What started as a renewal movement among Swiss reformers in 1525 is now a worldwide family of two million believers in 80 countries.

From the beginning, Anabaptism was a missionary movement. Converts saw the Great Commission as central to their baptismal vows, and shared their faith boldly, often at great personal cost. In response to intense persecution, quietism came to characterize succeeding generations. But the 1850s saw a resurgence of Anabaptist missional fervor. A truly global Anabaptism today is a direct result.

What is an Anabaptist approach to mission? Over 25 years ago, Wilbert Shenk, long-time mission practitioner and professor, summed it up in “ten defining themes.”1 Here’s my take on Shenk’s summary, transposed to a trinitarian key.

1. Mission starts with God. In Shenk’s words, “God is shown to be a missionary God: the one who initiates, comes to the world seeking and wooing, calling and restoring” (p. 5) We don’t own mission, nor does its success depend wholly on us. That should infuse our missionary endeavors with tremendous humility and free us from a preoccupation with results. Yet it should also instill us with confidence, since we know that one day, “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. 2:14, NRSV).
2. Mission looks like Jesus. To quote Shenk again, “God’s missionary intention for the world is entrusted to Messiah, the one called Suffering Servant” (p. 6). That means the measure of our missionary work is the character and example of Jesus, who “became flesh and lived among us” (John 1:14). We not only ask, “What would Jesus do?” We assess our efforts based on what Jesus actually did. He is both the model and the message. As his apprentices, we heed and extend his call, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people” (Mark 1:17).
3. Mission follows the Spirit. The early church did not launch as a worldwide movement immediately after the resurrection. It waited upon the Holy Spirit, who, as Shenk says, “released into the body the power and grace of Jesus the Messiah” (p. 14). We dare not rely on merely human efforts and strategies. We depend on the Holy Spirit, and that means prayer and patience are essential to our work. Yet we know the ends of the earth are the eventual destination, for as God promised through the prophet Joel, “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh” (Acts 2:17).

Mission starts with God, looks like Jesus and follows the Spirit. This is not merely an “Anabaptist” approach to mission. It’s one all Christians would do well to consider.
 

1 “Forging a Theology of Mission from an Anabaptist Perspective,” Mission Insight, Elkhart, IN: Mennonite Board of Missions, 2000.