“The Naked Anabaptist” Core Conviction #5

Today’s look at The Naked Anabaptist brings us to the fifth of seven core convictions. Murray’s fifth core conviction is worded thusly: “Churches are called to be committed communities of discipleship and mission, places of friendship, mutual accountability, and multivoiced worship. As we eat together, sharing bread and wine, we sustain hope as we seek God’s kingdom together. We are committed to nurturing and developing such churches, in which young and old are valued, leadership is consultative, roles are related to gifts rather than gender, and baptism is for believers.”[1] Once again, there is a lot going on in this core conviction, so I want to take a little time to look at some different parts of it more closely.

An integral part of this conviction is that church is a community where believers gather to disciple one another and to work together in mission. From the Anabaptist perspective, church is not something that is limited to an hour or so of worship once a week. Church is community, living together, working together, and serving God together. It requires us to truly know each other and to know God.

Another important part of this statement comes at the very end when Murray states “baptism is for believers.” This has been a central aspect of Anabaptism from the very beginning, and contributed to the very name of the movement. The earliest Anabaptists became convinced that infant baptism was not a valid form of baptism, and so came to the conclusion that they needed to be baptized as adults. Their opponents latched onto this, and claimed that they were being re-baptized, which is the original meaning of the word anabaptism. While our denomination has softened its view on infant baptism for those coming into the denomination from the outside, this understanding that baptism is for believers only still plays an important role in our denomination life.[2]

Murray describes the church as a place where gifts determine the roles that persons play in the church, and not gender. While our local congregation does very well with this, our denomination as a whole continues to struggle with this issue. Events earlier this year at Annual Conference highlight our continued difficulties with the role of women in leadership within the denomination. Ideally, the church should hand out roles based upon gifts and abilities regardless of gender. Realistically, we still have a ways to go with this.

As I look around our congregation in the brief time that I have been here, it is clear that we strive to live up to much that is contained in this core conviction. We are, in a very profound way, a community that supports each other in difficult times and in the good times. We value each member of the congregation, and seek to find ways to get everyone involved in roles that match up with their gifts, abilities, and callings. As we continue to journey together, may we continue to always seek to build each other up, that we may live into the life God calls us to lead.

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[1] Stuart Murray, The Naked Anabaptist: The Bare Essentials of a Radical Faith, Scottdale, PA: Herald Press 2010, 180.

[2] Up to the mid-twentieth century, the CoB required persons joining the church who had been baptized as infants to be baptized anew.