Dear Blooming Glen Friends,  

"By the grace of God, we seek to live and proclaim the good news of reconciliation in Jesus Christ.  As part of the one body of Christ at all times and places, we hold the following to be central to our belief and practice: 

3. As a church, we are community of those who God’s Spirit calls to turn from sin, acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, receive baptism upon confession of faith, and follow Christ daily in life. 

The most recent Anabaptist confession of faith, known as the "Statement of Shared Convictions of Global Anabaptists," was adopted in 2006.  I helped to host the meetings of the Mennonite World Conference General Council in Pasadena, California that adopted a seven-point confessional statement that Anabaptists leaders from national church bodies around the world agreed was a sufficient summary of our common beliefs.  This statement doesn't replace our "Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective (1995)," but it does provide us with a starting point to define our faith identity as Mennonites in relationship with sisters and brothers around the world. 

Discipleship is the point of the church.  Global Anabaptists confess that it is the Holy Spirit of God who draws us into authentic, genuine community for the purpose of living as followers of Jesus.  Community is not the product of us being smart, or good, or privileged.  Community is a gift.  And community exists to lead us toward holy living with Jesus at the center, marked and identified by believer’s baptism on the pathway to discipleship. 

In his 1944 booklet, The Anabaptist Vision, Harold S. Bender said the essential nature of Christianity wasn’t the receipt of grace, nor the inner enjoyment of grace – as important as those experiences are.  The essential nature of Christianity is the transformation of life through follow Jesus daily in life.  The church, Bender went on to say, wasn’t primarily an institution of grace, nor primarily the instrument for the proclamation of God’s grace, nor a resource group for individual piety.  The church is the brotherhood/sisterhood of love in which the fulness of Christ is expressed.  We believe the Anabaptist movement teaches us that God invites us to follow Jesus and has created the church to be the means to make that following more possible as a reality. 

It’s easy to complain about the imperfections of the church, and it’s easy to suggest someone’s quest to be a disciple is incomplete.  Our complaints about the church and discipleship are often true.  But note this, please:  We don’t create community or become community – we are community where God is at work, by the power of the Holy Spirit to help us discover holiness through Jesus, pledge our allegiance to Jesus as Lord, declare our allegiance to Jesus to the world through believer’s baptism, and follow Jesus our Leader on the journey of discipleship. 

Without the Holy Spirit, our claims to follow Jesus are fraudulent at best. Without the church, our claims to follow Jesus are powerless at best.  May the Holy Spirit invade our purpose, and occupy our hearts, daily. 

Love you, Church!
Pastor Jeff
jeff@bgmc.net 

PS - Breakfast on Monday (7:30 am) at the A&N Diner, and coffee on Friday (3:30 pm) at the Broad Street Grind are times I set aside to listen to whatever you want to talk about.  I’m available to listen other times as well … just email me or Gretchen Cook to set up a time to meet. Blessings!