Alfred Neufeld - What We Believe Together: Exploring the Shared Convictions of Anabaptist-Related Churches

Acknowledgments

Bible quotes are taken from the New International Version unless otherwise noted. The author has made slight adaptations to some of the quotations.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover and interior design by Cliff Snyder

Print ISBN: 978-1-68099-139-0

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-56148-763-9

What We Believe Together: Exploring the Shared Convictions of Anabaptist-Related Churches is published in cooperation with Mennonite World Conference (MWC) and has been selected for its Global Anabaptist-Mennonite Shelf of Literature. MWC urges its member churches to translate and study the book, in an effort to develop a common body of literature.

Mennonite World Conference is a global community of Christian churches who trace their beginning to the sixteenth-century radical reformation in Europe, particularly to the Anabaptist movement. Today, more than 1.7 million baptized believers belong to this faith family. About 66 percent are African, Asian, or Latin American.

MWC represents 101 Mennonite and Brethren in Christ national churches from 57 countries on six continents.

Mennonite World Conference exists to: 1. be a global community faith in the Anabaptist tradition; 2. facilitate community among Anabaptist-related churches worldwide, and; 3. relate to other Christian world communions and organizations.

MWCs General Secretarys office is in Bogot, Colombia. For more information, visit its website at www.mwc-cmm.org.

Introduction

Can we walk together as sisters and brothers? Does Mennonite World Conference (MWC) have a framework that will help us become more interdependent and accountable to each other? These are the kinds of questions that MWC receives from Anabaptist communities who are exploring joining our global family of faith as members.

Mennonite World Conference is a global community of more than 100 national churches who trace their beginnings directly or indirectly to Anabaptism, a movement of reformation in the Christian church of the sixteenth century. Today this movement, with more than 1.7 million baptized members, is present worldwide in more than 80 countries.

Due to the amazing diversity and pluralism that exists in our global body, the questions mentioned above are more than understandable. The Shared Convictions of Global Anabaptists is a way of responding to those questions. Larry Miller, former MWC General Secretary, explains how this statement came to be:

After MWCs Faith and Life Council gathered confessions of faith from member churches, it compared them. Then the Council organized an international body of seven individuals to write a brief, simply stated document of Shared Convictions.

The statement was digested and discussed by MWCs General Council, made up of representatives from the 97 churches which [at that time] belonged to the MWC community. Over a three-year period, these delegates, often in consultation with their churches, worked persistently and patiently to reach agreement on a statement that each could heartily claim, and which they could also recommend to their local and national churches. This statement was received, discussed, and approved by the consensus of the General Council in March, 2006.

MWCs Shared Convictions are the result of a process that looked for Anabaptist convictions arising from below. These Convictions are offered both as a testimony of our faith walk as a global family, and as a calling . They invite conversation with other traditions, and among members of our own. Through them, we hope to explain with humility and clarity our own experience of following Christ.

In this book, Alfred Neufeld, a theologian and professor from Paraguay, offers historical and theological background for these Convictions, their biblical roots and what it means to practice them today. His rich style and Global-South perspective, along with the study questions prepared by Phyllis Good at the end of each chapter, will help with study, reflection and practice of the Shared Convictions in churches around the world.

Can we walk together? Yesbut not because we share a set of theoretical doctrines that we must confess intellectually. Instead, we share convictions that are the fruit of our walk with Christ, as our forebears of the sixteenth century did. You are welcome to join us.

Csar Garca,

General Secretary, Mennonite World Conference

Bogot, Colombia

General Secretary

Csar Garca

Statement of Shared Convictions

By the grace of God, we seek to live and proclaim the good news of reconciliation in Jesus Christ. As part of the one body of Christ at all times and places, we hold the following to be central to our belief and practice:

God is known to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Creator who seeks to restore fallen humanity by calling a people to be faithful in fellowship, worship, service and witness.

Jesus is the Son of God. Through his life and teachings, his cross and resurrection, he showed us how to be faithful disciples, redeemed the world, and offers eternal life.

As a church, we are a community of those whom Gods Spirit calls to turn from sin, acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, receive baptism upon confession of faith, and follow Christ in life.

As a faith community, we accept the Bible as our authority for faith and life, interpreting it together under Holy Spirit guidance, in the light of Jesus Christ to discern Gods will for our obedience.