Re-Envisioning Service

How do the Historic Peace Churches, specifically the Mennonites and Church of the Brethren, respond when confronted with the ravages of twentieth-century wars? Re-Envisioning Service, this third volume of ACRS (the Anabaptist Center for Religion and Society) memoirs reporting on The Geography of Our Faith, focuses on service.

The metamorphosis of Mennonites and Church of the Brethren in the second half of the twentieth century—like a monarch butterfly wiggling its way out of its cocoon—should not pass unnoticed. What are we seeing? What are we witnessing?

 

These sixteen memoirs lead to new appreciation of transformative yet understated service. Servants seeking little more than to address the suffering of their day return to their cocoons to find they have been changed in ways no longer easily accommodated.

Editors are Ray C. Gingerich and Pat Hostetter Martin.

Authors  include Bertha Beachy, Emmert F. Bittinger, Earle W. Fike Jr., Margaret Jantzi Foth, Daniel Hertzler, Carl S. Keener, J. Kenneth Kreider, Earl S. Martin, Pat Hostetter Martin, Edgar Metzler, Paul W. Roth, Paul M. Schrock, Kenneth L. Seitz Jr., H. D. Swartzendruber, R. Jan Thompson, Dale V. Ulrich.

"I pray this text will bless generations yet unborn as these accounts spur them and us to become agents of healing and hope." —Stanley W. Green, Executive Director, Mennonite Mission Network, in the Foreword

"Along the way, these humble servants came to understand and demonstrate that service, for followers of Christ, is not simple. . . . Their examples of leaning in to the needs of the world inspire us. For that we thank them, and we ask for their blessing and encouragement for the Anabaptist Christian service callings of the twenty-first century." —Nancy Heisey, Professor of Biblical Studies, Eastern Mennonite University; Associate Dean, Eastern Mennonite Seminary, in the Introduction