Resource highlight: Anabaptism and mission: an online bibliography

“The relationship of Anabaptism and mission is a hot topic, and the field continues to expand to include a number of disciplines and sub-disciplines emerging which attempt to integrate a vision that is both missional and faithful to the Anabaptist message – and to wrestling with what precisely that means!” 

Our principal preoccupation as a Mission Commission is exploring and implementing ways to strengthen Anabaptist communities in their witness and service to God’s mission.  

What are the best ways to do that?  

• Through printed and on-line resources?  
• In-person gatherings?  
• Virtual conversations?
• Storytelling? 
• Preaching? 
• Bible studies? 
• Seminars? 
• Testimonies?  

We want to hear from the global community which of these is most helpful!  

In the meantime, however, we need to remind ourselves that we are not the first to carry out this task. From the earliest days of the “radical reformation” nearly 500 years ago, Anabaptists were impassioned with the desire to share their faith and model what the church should look like in serving others.  

Many of these efforts exist only in oral form and currently remain out of reach to the broader faith community. Others have been recorded in written form and are scattered around the world in archives, church libraries, and personal collections. 

In 1984, a first attempt was made to compile a published list of some of these written materials by and about Anabaptists in mission. Later editions in 2002 and 2012 updated the list. It now includes several thousand entries in multiple languages of journal articles, books, book reviews, unpublished documents, dissertations and conference papers. 

This is an incredibly important resource to God’s Anabaptist-people-in-mission. And it is available to the global community in digitized form on the MWC Mission Commission webpage: mwc-cmm.org/resources/anabaptism-and-mission-online-bibliography-1859-2011.  

I refer to this bibliography on a regular basis in my research.  

But I am also aware that we need to update it once again to make the list searchable and inclusive of more diverse voices from the MWC family around the world.  

We will work on this as a Mission Commission over the next few years. In the meantime, enjoy this valuable resource and stay tuned for updates!  

To offer your feedback to the mission commission, please comment below or write to info@mwc-cmm.org.  

—James R. Krabill, Mission Commission chair 

Like the chambers of a heart, the four commissions of Mennonite World Conference serve the global community of Anabaptist-related churches, in the areas of deacons, faith and life, peace, mission. Commissions prepare materials for consideration by the General Council, give guidance and propose resources to member churches, and facilitate MWC-related networks or fellowships working together on matters of common interest and focus.