The ancient global treasure of EMC faith

Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash

We’re sitting on a gold mine. The world is gasping for it, and we have it, though we don’t always grasp its biblical beauty.

It’s called Evangelical Anabaptism. It’s the unique form of Christianity the EMC is known for.

This form of faith was conceived in the monasteries of medieval Europe, born in the caves of 16th-century Anabaptists, nurtured in the small-group Bible studies of Pietists in the 17th century, unleashed in the field preaching of 18th-century evangelical revival and set on fire by Pentecostalism in the 20th century. It’s catholic in its commitment to historic Christianity, Anabaptist in its mystical union with Christ’s obedience; Pietist in its concern for personal spiritual devotion; evangelical in its entrepreneurial, evangelistic passion; Pentecostal in its reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit. But it’s one thing.

Anabaptism by itself has been shown, historically, to be unstable and deficient. Alone it ends up in two related dead ends: on the one hand it produces a dead, moralistic legalism with little inner delight in the Lord. This tendency can be seen in conservative Mennonite groups in South and Central America. On the other hand, on their own, more modern Anabaptists blend in with the current ideology of the world, and thus become moralistic in the latest fashionable ethic. We can see this sometimes with non-evangelical Mennonite groups in North America and Europe. They can have little to distinguish them from secular left-wing ideology and thus have little resistance to current secular trends in abortion, sexuality, gender and euthanasia.

Evangelicalism by itself is just as unstable and deficient. Alone, it has a historic tendency to juvenile gimmicks, sensationalism, emotionalism and cheap sales tactics in evangelism. It’s given to fits and starts, shot to the sky by the latest revival, then moribund and lethargic. Historically, it has a genetic weakness when it comes to ethics. This stems from an inadequate doctrine of salvation focused on grace merely as divine favour and not also as divine power. All Christians struggle to live like Jesus, but evangelicalism alone struggles to come up with a coherent practice of moral formation to guide Christians on their path to holy living. Evangelicalism alone has also struggled to form a solid theology of the church.

But note, I said alone for both Anabaptism and evangelicalism. Both these traditions have grasped profound and beautiful truths no one else in the church sees with quite such clarity. But neither are broad and stable enough to be their own tradition, alone. Both need the other to be truly catholic, that is fully, broadly, and penetratingly Christian in all respects.

This is why I say, Anabaptist evangelicalism is an ancient, global treasure. It’s the beauty that comes from bringing different facets of Christ’s body back together to form a larger jewel. We are a child with two parents and multiple grandparents. We stand where many tributaries stretching back thousands of miles come together to form a single stream. Anabaptist evangelicalism is Christ’s ethics, bathed in the gracious forgiveness of our sins, powered by the anointing of the Spirit, rooted deep in the ancient creeds of the church, and lived out intentionally in congregational life. It’s a beautiful thing!

Let’s commission theologians, pastors, artists, and mystics to uncover this treasure. Let’s send out apostolic workers to carry these gems to a waiting world.