Learning from our History

1. Learning from our History Constants in Context Prepared for Strassburg Church – Jan 2016 By Allan Jarvine and Edmund Reinhardt

2. Goals & Agenda • Quick overview of our history • Focus on origins • Initial vitality • How we handled cultural clashes • An overview of stages of a movement • Examples from other parallel movements

3. Between Remnant and Renewal • Remnant Emphasis: The Faithful Preserving-Tendency of Anabaptism • Positive: Values heritage, collective wisdom and experience. • Negative: Can become rigid, unyielding, legalistic • Renewal Emphasis: The Kingdom advancing – Embracing Change • Positive: Values creativity, Cultural Contextualization • Negative: Uncritically applied, can result in loss of identity or core values

4. Introduction • In 1830’s new Neo-Anabaptist movement began in Switzerland. • Neutäufer numerically outnumbered Alttäufer in homeland of Switzerland • Spread through German-speaking Western Europe as Evangelish Taufgesinnter • Nazarenes through Austria-Hungary – first major Anabaptist movement to cross into other ethnic groups • Apostolic Christian renewal movement among Amish-Mennonites in America

5. FroehlichSpiritual Influences • State Church Education • bankruptcy of Rationalism, familiarity with Reformed • Theophil Pasavant – pietist leader of Bible study • His questions led to conviction & conversion • Ami Bost – mentor, baptizer • Moravians, French Reveil (Awakening), • English Baptist Continental Society • Anabaptists (3rd Journey - Emmental Swiss Mennonites) • Strict Baptists (London)

6. Beliefs - Conversion • Busskampf = repentance + struggle • conversion after period of soul-searching • Knowledge of lost sinful state, conviction, sorrow for sin • Genuine repentance to God through Christ • Concluded by assurance of salvation as experienced as peace with God Froelich’s primary revival/renewal message Franke (1663-1727)

7. Compare with Henry Michel 1948 We don’t want in this way to make Christians quick and easily. Sometimes just the signing of a Bible or a Testament or raising of a hand is a proof that they accept Christ as their personal Savior. We are not in agreement with this. We think there is more behind the “New Birth” than just a moment of emotion where, under the stirring up of a private teaching, we stretch out the hand and say “We accepted Christ.” It is a trend of the time to have such quick and spectacular results. We believe in the slower, more difficult ways of going through repentance, through confession, and so on.

8. Fröhlich's Theological Synthesis • Reformed • Inability of people to help their own sinful condition • Absolute reliance on divine grace • Word of God can be objectively understood 2. Pietist/Radical Pietist • Heartfelt conversion experience; soul searching, self-knowledge (Busskampf) • Human heart and will can be renewed, overcome sin 3. Anabaptist • Church Order and Communal Discipline; Discipleship, Non-Resistance, ethical commands of Jesus • No disembodied church, covenanted relationship with visible body, set apart from world

9. Church = Covenantal Brotherhood • The core common traits of Anabaptist & Neo-Anabaptists are1: • “Covenantal” sense of peoplehood/brotherhood, a visible and distinct social body in the world, bonded through communal accountability and discipline, based upon New Testament principles1 • Disciplined and “covenanted” body of believers, the Church1 • Fröhlich believed that baptism and conversion must of necessity involve a covenanted relationship with a distinct and visible corporate body of believers on earth1

10. Covenant -> loyalty, integrity • The Brethren in Christ (2014 Manual of Doctrine & Government) states: • We are a covenantcommunity vowing before God and fellow members to live a holy life, to remain loyal to the church, and to foster oneness within the body of Christ. Our understanding of this covenant is expressed in a commitment to the local congregation, where the integrity of our discipleship is lived; to the denomination, where relationships with a wider fellowship of God’s people are realized; and to the body of Christ throughout the world, by which we fulfill the prayer of Jesus that we all may be one5

11. Relational, Collegial Flat Heirarchy Nevertheless, the Neutäufer movement never developed centralized structures, as had other Neo-Protestant movements of the day. The movement would always remain egalitarian and collegial at the core of its identity. Its polity was essentially relational: congregations elected from their own ranks Aeltester or “Elders” (the equivalent of a bishop or overseer in Mennonite and Amish polity structures), who were then confirmed by other Elders, and who related collegially through a network of neighboring Elders and congregations.

12. Froehlich’s diligence • in one year • held up to 450 meetings, generally consecutively, chapter for chapter, verse for verse, of various books of the Bible. • many children's instruction meetings, • 200 to 300 letters (in duplicate) annually • Maintained diary from which we have the bulk of his teachings • undertook visitations and tiring journeys,

13. Ch. 3 Nazarenes in Eastern Europe • Denkel & Kropacek: Hungarian apprentices • Lajos Henscey main Hungarian evangelist • Spread rapidly in second half of 1800s, despite intense persecution • Early 1900s: Nazarenes number 15,000 • Possibly reached 25,000-30,000 with over 200 congregations • First time an Anabaptist group crossed ethnic boundaries to others

15. Orthodox “Complaint” "While our nuclear families are torn apart by disputes and even our strongest extended families broken up, impoverished and dilapidated, among the Nazarenes, unrelated people got together and in their community, they till the soil, buy common meadows and engage in common hay making. The Nazarenes keep joint melon patches, houses for smoking meat, wind, water and even steam mills. In community they grow apples, and other fruits, distil plums for brandy, feed pigs and cattle all just to become better off. While among us, brother pits himself against brother, and sons rebel against their fathers, Nazarenes, as complete foreigners, join together and live and work as brothers sincerely, openly and full of confidence.

16. Orthodox envy Looking to one side at the vanishing piety and morals in our people, their vices and expensive customs, material destruction and unrestrained wasting, which even follows all church rituals, and to the other side the fanatic piety and religious zeal among the Nazarenes, their life full of morals, peace-loving and mutual solidarity, is it not enough that in the eyes of many the value of our holy Orthodox faith is declining while the respect for Nazarene delusion is growing !?" Boyan Aleksov - Religious Dissent Between the Modern and the National: Nazarenes in Hungary Serbian Orthodox priest Simeon Aranicki Srpski Sion, 1900/25, p.416

17. Nazarenes among Serbs “It is quite extraordinary and interesting to note that the Nazarenes, which up to now only attracted Germans and Hungarians, are recently spreading among Serbs of Greek-Eastern confession, as evident by reports from the Serbian Congress in Carlowatz. Serbian people were up to now immune to all foreign religious influences, especially, since their confession was believed to be the guardian of their nationality and as such defended.” - German Newspaper, Jan 6, 1870

18. Ch. 4 Early American Experience 1847-1890 • Began as Anabaptist renewal movement exclusively among German-speaking Amish-Mennonites • German language barriers (maintained untilWorld War I, when American nationalism and nativism challenged German American culture) exclusively narrowed the evangelistic focus of the American church to recent Swiss and German immigrants (many of them Amish-Mennonites), while at the same time ensuring a long-standing isolation from mainstream Anglo-American culture. • Initial leaders, very fervent itinerant preachers

19. German vs Hungarian Immigration

20. The Great Mustache Controversyc. 1890-1911 Fröhlich: “The insistence upon externals and forms is the best weapon for the destruction of the congregation of God, and what the foe cannot do by means of outward force and persecution, he succeeds in doing by such sly artifices, whereby one runs after a shadow and fights about words and loses the substance.”

21. Early 20th Century: 1920-1945 • Transition from German to English: New Translation efforts • Legacy of Braun Brothers • Recognized need for faith concepts to be expressed in English language and American cultural idiom. • Zion’s Harp and Selected Writings of Frohlich and AC HistoryTranslated. • Splintering off of “German Apostolic Christian Church.” • Braun’s sought to reinforce traditional AC doctrinal distinctives, while allowing for some cultural accomodation. • Periodicals Circulate: the Christian Visitor (ACCN) and The Silver Lining (ACCA).

22. 1948 Brother Meeting – Anton Betz Myself coming to this country from Europe, realizing some of the situations, where some were born here and do not realize it, but the minute we try to introduce and bring in such as we were used to, as you and I had been brought up in, we no longer can do this upon our own children. We no longer can say we will bring up our children the same way as you and I were brought up. Now we are living in a different continent ­different surroundings. We have different means and different methods. Therefore, let us cope with the problems as they are -not as they used to be and where we came from. There is not one father in our midst today who would bring up his children as he was brought up. But in Christianity we want to do the same thing as it was done forty or fifty years ago. "It was good enough for my father." Haven't we moved along w1th Christianity as we have moved along in our daily conduct? What I mean by that is that we no longer live like you lived in Europe in those conditions. Things have changed. So automatically we look at life different. We do things differently because there are differences.

23. Lessons learned from Parallel Movements • Neo-Anabaptists as Movements of Radical Renewal • Quakers • Schwarzenau Brethren (become Grace Brethren) • Brethren in Christ (River Brethren) • Mennonite Brethren in Russia

24. Renewal within the New Testament • However radical it might be, this new community that emerged around Jesus and his apostles represented a renewal of Jewish identity for a new time and era, as the first followers attempted to understand the faith of their ancestors in light of the new revelation of Jesus Christ. • Even so, another renewal of identity had to occur as the new Jewish Messianic communities engaged the non-Jewish gentile cultures and made converts.

25. Core Elements of Renewal Movements • Emphasis on the “new birth” • Intensity of “personal religious experience” • Focus on personal piety, holiness, and discipline • Emphasis on Scripture • Primitivism in contrast to established churches Common to Pietism, Moravianism and Methodism, 3 post-Reformation renewal movements Howard A. Snyder Signs of the Spirit: How God Reshapes the Church

26. Primitivism • Restoring the church to its pristine primitive state • From “Constantinian fall” • Church is “convenantal”, • visible and distinct body in the world • Bonded through communal accountability • Disciplined according to New Testament principles

27. Quakers • 17th century - Dutch Mennonites = • 130 yr old tradition, • political privilege and economic prosperity, • divided from strict traditionalists, to liberal factions • Quakers came from England = renewal, plainness, devotional piety, missionary endeavor • Move to Pennslyvania, settle, institutionalize • By mid-18th century, loss of Quaker plainness, simplicity • No interest in those outside of membership • Legalistically enforced behavioural boundaries • By 1775 decimated – isolationist period of Quietism • In 19th century 3 way split • liberal “Hicksites” pursuing “inner light • Old sectarian “Conservatives” • Those renewing earlier missionary impulses from current Christian sources

28. Church of the Brethren (Schwarzenau/German Baptists/Dunkers) • Early 1700s, Germany, Alexander Mack leader of Radical Pietism • Rather than individualistic spiritualism, drew upon Anabaptist tradition of Mennonite neighbours, strongly evangelistic • Sectarian period came after passing of original charismatic and creative generation of leaders • “Brethren lived with Brethren, interacted with Brethren, married Brethren, and died Brethren. Theirs was a Brethren world.” • By 1850 isolation removed by western expansion • By 1880 3-way split – cling to old ways, partake liberally of movements around them, proceed forward cautiously • 20th century erodes separation, plain dress, discipline, now resemble other denominations

29. Brethren in Christ (River Brethren) • Late 18th century, Southeast Pennsylvania, Mennonite had become too formal, forgotten necessity of New Birth, transformation of will • Drew from German Pietism and Wesleyan Revivalism, and Anabaptist convictions of believers baptism, convenanted brotherhood • 1880 brought a crisis due to westward expansion • Adapted to dress, music, Sunday School, missions • However eventually lost doctrines of sanctification, conditional salvation, non-resistance

30. Renewed or supplanted? • Keefer, for example, argues that Brethren in Christ were less keen on critically engaging evangelicalism in the 20th century, which has caused it to supplant, rather than renew, much of what has been the center of Brethren in Christ identity, especially traditional doctrines of sanctification, conditional salvation, and non-resistance.

31. Mennonite Brethren in Russia • After 250 years, ironically Mennonite citizenship = church membership • Mid 1800s emerged from Mennonite colonies in Russia, due to neo-pietist Eduard Wüst • Synthesis of Orthopathy (true hearfelt faith) with Orthopraxis (Anabaptist discipline and rigor) • 1870 large migrations to Kansas • Ethnic isolation until WW1 pressure to Anglicize and Russian Revolution, Public Education, Urbanization • Move to congregational vs interdependence model • Now debate as to name and identity and relevance

32. Parallel Movements Summary Compromise (Loss of Identity) Renewal in new context

33. Stages of a MovementVision to Consolidation • 1st generation has a fervent Vision and is able to spread it in a culturally relevant way – it speaks to the condition of the heart & the state of man manifested in the culture of the day2 • The movement eventually seeks to define itself by codifying its beliefs and drawing distinctions from “others” – it is an indirect means of protection and preservation. This is called the Consolidation stage2

34. Stages of a MovementInstitutionalisation to Fossilisation • Consolidation leads to Institutionalisation, where the movement creates structured leadership and organisation for expediency2 • Fossilisation eventually takes place in the movement, and may be described by the proverbial “we have always done it this way…” This stage in the movement is where “living out a Christian life” is replaced by “doing things a certain way” – the movement becomes rigid & inflexible – has lost the vision (lost sight of Eph 4)2

35. Stages of a MovementRevitalisation • Revitalisation is the stage where the movement “collectively” begins to ask itself, “have we lost something of our original vision?” This occurred explicitly in 1948 at the Brother’s meeting in Mansfield, OH2 • The movement looks back at its origins and seeks to return to that initial vision. This leads to a renewal of the movement and a rephrasing of the Gospel in a way that is once again relevant to culture of the day2

36. New vision Founder Formative period Recognition of irrelevance Ensure relevance/ optimal effect Difficult to maintain vision & vitality esp. if Founder Dead “The Hardening of the categories” (Hiebert)

38. Questions for Reflection • Given historical perspective of our own and parallel movements • We are at identity crisis / cultural clash stage • How we respond will determine the future of our denomination • Need to re-examine our history through lens of Constants in Context? • How can authentic valuing and preservation of heritage be balanced with Missional Adaptation? • How do we regain the fervor and personal spiritual experience with God that energized the first generation? • How do we reintegrate, rearticulate our Pietist and/or Anabaptist convictions for the current generation? • How will History judge our generation?

40. Solution • Brokenness • Yieldedness • Die to self • Comfortable retreat to familiar • Arrogant dismissal of heritage • Fast and pray and be open to direction (Acts 13) • Also Hernnhut (Moravians), Argentina (Esteban) • Allow leadership to creatively lead

41. RemnantDefinition • Faithfully preserving the truth, the heritage that is passed on to us2 • It values heritage, it values collective wisdom and experience2 • It says, “we have a good heritage passed down to us from those that have gone on before us, and we want to hold onto that, and not throw it away for the flavour of the day”2

42. RenewalDefinition • Moving past old forms, old ways, to new understandings, fresh connections, and fresh ways of reaching out to the world in a missionary-minded way2 • The Renewal is the kingdom of God advancing in the world, adjusting to connect with the world where it is2 • It’s creative. It’s culturally appropriate – it meets the culture in relevant ways. It speaks to the world in its own language, wherever the different contexts are2

43. Remnant & RenewalIn a Healthy Tension • Remnant and Renewal need to be held in tension, without going more to one side or the other, for a movement to remain vibrant and relevant – it’s difficult, a real challenge!2 • Extremes on both sides are seen with the Old Order Amish & the Emergent Church Movement • To keep the two in balance, we need not just Contextualisation, but “Critical” Contextualisation