Anabaptism and Mission

by Wilbert R. Shenk (Editor)

What is mission and what are the distinctives of the church in mission? As we look at the twenty-first century church continuing the mission for which it was commissioned by its Lord, a conference designed to pick up and learn from the vision for mission of the 16th century Anabaptist movement was held at the International Baptist Theological Seminary, Prague, Czech Republic. Participants from the current free church tradition studied many models for contextualized mission and the strategies and implementations which were tested in the 19th and 20th centuries, with the goal of discovering what has been done so they could ponder what could be learned from the past. The recent history and presence of Anabaptists, to which tradition many evangelicals claim to belong, was carefully studied. Cases were presented in order to find answers for how the church of this post modern world can and should continue to participate in the mission of God.

340 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1984

About the author

Dr. Wilbert R. Shenk, who is well known both as an international missiologist and as a specialist in the area of Anabaptism and Mission, has been the main speaker. He has edited a book with the same title, that is still a classic in this field. Until 2005 Shenk served as professor of mission history and contemporary culture at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California/USA. He lives in Elkhart, Indiana/USA. Dr. Peter F. Penner is Director of the Institute of Contextual Missiology at the International Baptist Theological Seminary (IBTS) where he has served since 2001 in different capacities. Prior to this, he was involved with the St. Petersburg Christian University (SPCU) in St. Petersburg, Russia six years as Rector and four years as Academic Dean as a missionary of the German Missionary Fellowship (Deutsche Missionsgemeinschaft). He is married to Katharina, who was actively involved at SPCU and presently continues to serve with him at IBTS. They have two children and live in Prague, Czech Republic.

Reviews

[Daniel Friesen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bit of a tedious read at times, nevertheless it has some incredible insight into Anabaptist history I've never thought of before. I especially appreciate the essay written by Yamada, a Mennonite from Japan, his insight on Anabaptism from a non-Anabaptist view was thought provoking. A necessary book for the times.