Concern for Church Polity and Discipline

by Laura Schmidt Roberts (Editor)

Overview

CONCERN: A Pamphlet Series for Questions of Christian Renewal was born in the 1950s of shared concerns over a gap between an Anabaptist vision and contemporary, North American Mennonite reality. The initial group views the increasingly hierarchical denominational structure, the emergence of centralized, professionalized, pastoral ministry, and the resultant changes in polity and practice as fundamentally incompatible with a Believers' Church ecclesiology. Essays here present that critique and discussion of the reconfiguration of pastoral and communal authority, as well as the assertion that reclamation of a disciplined priesthood of all believers is the path of Christian renewal. Today the question of what institutional forms best structure the leadership, authority, and shared life of congregations persists, marked by particular concern to attend to the exercise of power within actual communities of faith.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781725261013
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	03/30/2022
Series:	Concern: A Pamphlet Series for Questions of Christian Renewal
Pages:	178
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.38(d)

About the Author

Laura Schmidt Roberts is Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at Fresno Pacific University. She is the lead editor of Recovering from the Anabaptist Vision: New Essays in Anabaptist Identity and Theological Method (2019).

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“The historical essays from over fifty contributors in these volumes reflect diverse and richly textured discussions concerning Christian renewal in the mid-twentieth century. Especially noteworthy are the inclusion of critical and engaging response essays, which point to a developing Mennonite theology on the way, underline the importance of dialogue across differences, and highlight the necessity for raising new questions.”

—Karl Koop, Canadian Mennonite University



“We are indebted to Roberts for her invaluable (and considerable!) labor exhuming, contextualizing, re-presenting, and thus preserving the distinctively Anabaptist Concern pamphlet series, published during the height of the Cold War. These volumes provide snapshots of a then-rising generation of North American Mennonite thinkers ‘workshopping’ important theological, ethical, and ecclesial issues amidst their fraught social and historical moment. An enlightening resource for all of us attempting similar discernment of our own calamitous epoch.”

—Ched Myers, author of Who Will Roll Away the Stone? Discipleship Queries for First World Christians

Editorial Reviews

The historical essays from over fifty contributors in these volumes reflect diverse and richly textured discussions concerning Christian renewal in the mid-twentieth century. Especially noteworthy are the inclusion of critical and engaging response essays, which point to a developing Mennonite theology on the way, underline the importance of dialogue across differences, and highlight the necessity for raising new questions.”

—Karl Koop, Canadian Mennonite University



“We are indebted to Roberts for her invaluable (and considerable!) labor exhuming, contextualizing, re-presenting, and thus preserving the distinctively Anabaptist Concern pamphlet series, published during the height of the Cold War. These volumes provide snapshots of a then-rising generation of North American Mennonite thinkers ‘workshopping’ important theological, ethical, and ecclesial issues amidst their fraught social and historical moment. An enlightening resource for all of us attempting similar discernment of our own calamitous epoch.”

—Ched Myers, author of Who Will Roll Away the Stone? Discipleship Queries for First World Christians

From the Publisher