History was never my best subject in school, but I have been really enjoying teaching a series on Anabaptist History to the High School Sunday School class. What has really captured my imagination as I prepare and lead lessons on these stories is something that Joel alluded to in the Children’s Time a few weeks ago. He told the story of that first “re”baptism, but first he set the scene by giving some context for what the world was like 500 years ago:

• new technology was enabling the spread of information in new ways
• disease had ravaged the region not that long ago
• the divide between the rich and the poor was continuing to widen as tensions grew
• there was general discontent with and distrust of religious authorities 

Teaching history is never just about looking at the past. When we tell the stories of early Anabaptists, we are not only remembering their courage and conviction—we are also asking what their witness means for us today. Their world was in the middle of a grand societal reforming, and they responded not by retreating into old certainties but by stepping boldly into something new. Our context is very different from Europe in the 1500s, yet there is much that overlaps and much that we can learn from these stories about what it means to seek God’s Spirit for our own time. 

Today we are also living in a time of transition. Just as the early Anabaptists gathered in homes and caves to discern what it meant to follow Jesus in their time, perhaps we too are being invited into new ways of being the Church today. There is a growing sense that we may be in the midst of another reformation. The way forward is not always clear, but one thing seems clear from my meager understanding of history: movements of renewal begin when people gather in small communities, listen for the Spirit together, and find ways to support one another in living into a new way of life. 

To explore these ideas more, I want to invite you to join a short-term small group that will be reading Divine Gravity: Sparking a Movement to Recover a Better Christian Story by Meghan Good. This book challenges us to consider whether we are living in another pivotal moment of church history and suggests ideas for what it might look like to “rediscover” what forms of faith are waiting to be born anew. 

We will meet Sunday evenings from 7:15-8:30pm on Zoom during Lent, starting March 9. We will discuss the book, share our own experiences, and discuss together where the Spirit might be leading us. If you are interested in joining, let me know.