Essays for King Jesus

It's not our job to create unity! In this essay, Marlin Sommers argues we must understand unity as something God already did. Our job is to walk out that unity by bearing with each other, caring for each other, and bringing our full range of contributions to the spectrum of the church.  Subscribe to receive new essays by email!

"As we all know, there are various opinions on how we should relate to the government and the various restrictions that have been put in place. As none of us have any experience with dealing with a pandemic before, we find ourselves in a lot of uncharted territory and with a myriad of thoughts and opinions.  How do we find our way through these trying times and learn what God wants us to lear...

“So you’re a Mennonite! Do you have a garden?”......“Why do the women wear bonnets?”......“If I decide to join your church, could I keep drinking beer?”   Conversations like these resulted from letting those around me see a picture of one particular way that Jesus-centered discipleship can look. Displaying ourselves with all our cultural distinctiveness on the internet is purely optional, how...

“Several years ago, I hit rock bottom. At least in one area of life, and it happened to be one that affected not just me, but my entire family. This area, quite simply, was how to manage a home. I was pregnant with our 3rd baby, half sick from a toxin exposure, …"   In "Directing God’s Resources as a Homemaker,” Robin Wolfer urges women to see the management of whatever space God has ent...

Forgiving doesn’t mean downplaying wrong. True forgiveness is a powerful response to wrong that calls sin what it is, and often involves confronting the wrongdoer. Forgiveness derives from trust in God’s overwhelming competence and care, but it does not ignore the very real harms and wrongs of sin. Forgiveness differs from forbearance precisely in this respect. Forbearance, or bearing with another...

It began for many of us like a rather normal year. There was the usual anticipation of spring and summer. Suddenly it seemed our world had become a quandary of unknowns, and a frantic search for facts and reason. We had witnessed flu seasons before and many of us had already had our turn with what seemed like ordinary winter flu, with some even experiencing it in overdrive. But we had recovered an...

Many Mennonites fought in the Civil War. However, this development roused others to renew the teaching of non-resistance and led to the Mennonite publishing movement. In “Losing and Recovering Non-resistance in the Civil War Era,” Chester Weaver describes prosperity that lead to a “spiritual sluggishness” leading up to the war. Fortunately, men of God realized the trajectory and articulated a reco...

“Why would the descendants of Swiss and Dutch Anabaptist martyrs identify themselves with one of the most evil regimes in human history?  A very good question. The short answer: God has no grandchildren.”  In “Why did the German Mennonites Become Nazis?” Chester Weaver traces cultural and historical moments on the road that led to descendants of Anabaptist martyrs taking up the Nazi caus...

The Ukraine War vividly shows the power of nationalist ideologies. In this long form essay “Nationalism and Christianity,” Mike Atnip argues that the conflict is driven by three distinct nationalist movements. Nationalism is more than patriotism and is rooted in us versus them thinking that exalts one’s own people. Atnip describes the nationalist roots of contemporary practices and calls us t...

How does the concept of sowing and reaping fit with the gospel? The gospel disrupts sowing and reaping; the path to death is interrupted by rebirth to new life. Does the gospel then mean the things we sow in our lives no longer have consequences? Marlin Sommers explores what Scripture says about sowing and reaping for believers. While the warnings are sobering, the promises are exciting and design...

“Although it is true that the eternal state of one’s soul is of utmost importance, and one’s dead, decayed body will ultimately not really matter since there has been promised a new body at the resurrection, Scripture still reveals a clear respect for the bodies of the dead.  Bodies, alive or dead, have been created by God, for His glory, and in His image.”  In "Cremation versus Burial:...

“When I read the New Testament, I am struck by what great lengths the early church went to in order to reach the world with the Gospel. Not only were they committed and bold, they were also quite creative in finding ways to interact with people in meaningful ways.” In Cultivating Spiritual Creativity in God’s Kingdom , Reagan Schrock calls us to face our fears, “orienting our creativity toward wha...

Modesty is a lightning rod word. In “Money Modesty and Body Modesty” Marlin Sommers pulls together some familiar threads and some neglected threads in an attempt at realism.   “Money modesty means we don’t display, flaunt, and call attention to our riches or social position through what we wear. Body modesty means we don’t display, flaunt, or call attention to our bodies, especially in w...

When my father discovered that Marvin was an attorney, he said in his typically blunt manner, “I hear that attorneys do not always tell the truth.” Marvin replied, “We tell the truth according to our clients.” In “Integrity? The Allure of Doubleness,” Chester Weaver explores our terrible tendency to “Tell the truth according to....” and calls us to the "singleness" and integrity of Jesus. Subscrib...

In “The Importance of Christ’s Death and Resurrection,” Milo Zehr challenges a common conception of justification and salvation and calls us to learn from historic Anabaptist soteriology. The interactive, living faith relationship of the believer with Jesus Christ means ongoing participation in the actual life of Christ, death to sin and resurrection to new life, and growth in faith, love for God,...

Are commentaries cheating? Marlin encourages us to keep our attention on scripture and use study aids in a way that brings our attention back to scripture. He describes three stages of bible study that form an “inside-out sandwich.” ·      Stage one: Read and study the text without commentaries or other study helps. ·      Stage two:...

In this essay Dan continues exploring how Anabaptists should understand scripture. When the living Christ reigns in His rightful place, and sits at the center of our understanding of Scripture, this biblical worldview is a pearl of great price, because it beckons us to give all we are and all we have to King Jesus. You see, in the end, it’s not about Anabaptism at all. It’s really about being “a p...

In this essay Dan Ziegler explores the hermeneutic behind the unique set of convictions that define conservative Anabaptists (Amish, Mennonites, Hutterites, Brethren, and related groups). We non-conformed Anabaptists are just regular folk, no more astute or intrinsically spiritual than our neighbors.   So, what drives the uniqueness of the conservative Anabaptist faith?   "I ha...

Most of my most successful international friendships have been in the context of peer-to-peer relationships. As peers we share life together whether in school, at work, or parenting at the same time. Accept their offers of hospitality and advice. You do not need to do everything they say, but listen. As you minister to them, allow them to minister to you. - Beth B.

In this essay, Marlin reflects on topics ranging from chickens, to schooling, to church life. "Philosophizing about knowing (i.e. epistemology) may seem arcane or excessively technical. However, what increasingly strikes me is that our mindset toward knowing and the way we think about knowledge ties into our overall stance toward life. Whether or not we study formal epistemology, we all have a fun...

We want power, but Jesus tells us to serve and humble ourselves like children. In this essay, Chester calls us to gelassenheit (humble yieldedness) which enables the blessing of communing fellowship or koinonia among Christ's servants.

How does one recover from sexual abuse? What could be a truly healing process? This essay provides some helpful resources and encouragement for those who have encountered sexual abuse in various ways and follows up on Amos Esh’s previous essay that defined sexual abuse.

What does the Bible and North American laws say about sexual abuse? How do shame, guilt, honesty, repentance, forgiveness, bold love, and Isaiah 53 all connect to this topic? Amos Esh addresses this sensitive topic in this essay and provides insight into the emotions and perpetrators behind abuse. In Part 2 Amos will talk about recovery, resources and encouragement for those who have dealt with se...

Jesus said the Pharisees cleaned the outside of the cup and left the inside dirty. He talked about tombs that were whitewashed outside and full of bones inside. We may be tempted to think that our actions are part of the outside, but Jesus teaches that our actions, at least most of them, are inside the cup. Marlin Sommers digs into Matthew 15 to explore what it looks like to serve Jesus with our h...

How would you like to copy the Bible by hand? We can thank medieval Jewish scribes for their incredible, detailed work on the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible. This is the third and final essay in Vince Beiler's series "Transmitting the Old Testament: Adventures of the Hebrew Text"