Forest Hills Mennonite Church

What does this cultural moment call for from us? How do followers of Jesus best engage and respond to a society that seems poised to tear itself to pieces? One possible response may be to actively adopt a posture of care—individual attention to each and every person we encounter. 

Where does the Anabaptist stand within the great story of Christian orthodoxy? Perhaps the richest expressions of Anabaptism are the ones that cling most tightly to historic Christian faith. 

The concept of "empathy" has been at the center of quite a bit of cultural discourse recently, with some people describing it as the "greatest weakness of Western civilization" and others calling it a "sin." The forth poem in Lamentations describes a community utterly bereft of empathy—and challenges us to consider what went wrong. 

The Book of Lamentations emerges from nearly incomprehensible suffering, while challenging us to move beyond simplistic explanations for why suffering exists.

What do you do when your world falls apart? Is there space in the life of faith for the sad, sad songs? The Book of Lamentations offers a roadmap for responding to unspeakable tragedy.

Do you think the world is getting better or getting worse? Does your faith shape how you respond to that question? If the promise of Christian faith is neither the destruction of the world nor its natural improvement, what does our hope look like? 

Understanding God's nature and character is one of the most important aspect of our formation as followers of Jesus.

If all the paths of God's wisdom are peace, what happens when we stray off that path? Drawing from the wisdom of Cyprian (who served as Bishop of Carthage about two hundred years after Jesus' resurrection), we reflect on the wilderness of war. 

The Book of Proverbs personifies wisdom as a thoughtful, warm woman: "All her paths are peace." Angelina Atyam, a midwife in Northern Uganda, offers presents a powerful example of what a life looks like when we follow wisdom—and follow Jesus—in these paths of peace.

Christy and Peter reflect on their work in Central Africa and the ways that Jesus wants to use our small acts of faithfulness to accomplish incredible things.

In the aftermath of the resurrection, two disciples look Jesus right in his eyes—but fail to recognize him. If we're serious about faithfully following Jesus, maybe we need to confront the things that make it difficult for us to recognize him. 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously said that "When Christ calls someone, he bids them come and die." If Bonhoeffer is right, how can we claim that Christian faith is good news? Perhaps it's because Easter changes everything. 

As Jesus enters into Jerusalem, is he acting as an authoritative king or a humble servant? Maybe the paradox of Palm Sunday is that as we follow Jesus, we see that he's both—at exactly the same time. 

The call to follow Jesus involves embracing one of Jesus' central identities—servant. Jesus served. So should we. As profound as this simple truth is, there are complexities to service, too. 

God becomes incarnate in the midst of a world rife with all types of conflict, from interpersonal to religious to political. To follow Jesus means that we are invited to enter into conflicts the way that Jesus did. 

Near the end of his earthly ministry, Jesus calls his closest followers together to call them by a surprising title: friend. To follow Jesus, then, means to be a friend of Jesus—and to deepen our friendships with those around us. 

Who follows Jesus into the wilderness? As much as prioritize walking in Jesus' footsteps and following His example, the journey in the wilderness and the struggle before His execution remind us that Jesus accomplishes things on our behalf that we cannot accomplish for ourselves. 

If Jesus is who He claimed to be, how do we respond to Him? The invitation Jesus offers again and again is simple, yet profound: "Follow Me."

If the author of Ephesians is correct, and there is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one Body, then everyone who gives allegiance to Christ shares in a fundamental unity—one that disrupts every barrier we humans create.

If the church is a body, how is it responding to the environment we find ourselves in? If we're individually members of this one body, how do we structure our relationships together?

What if an awareness of God's goodness and God's presence could empower us to experience the world with curiosity—rather than anxiety? 

Can the hard sayings of Jesus help us respond to our present challenges with greater faithfulness? 

What do we do when we disagree with each other? Can we find some external authority to resolve our disagreements? As we conclude our exploration of the origins of the Anabaptist movement 500 years ago, Pastor Jon considers how the various Reformers interpreted Scripture—and the central role Jesus' teachings came to play within Anabaptism. 

After Christianity becomes not only legally acceptable but required within the Roman Empire, the Church and the State settle into an often uneasy coexistence. At the core of their relationship is the question of violence. Who gets to rightfully wield the sword? In the turbulence of the early 1500s, the Anabaptists propose a radical solution: no Christian should ever engage in violence. It's a shoc...

On January 21, 1525, a group of protestors baptized each other—the first known rebaptism to take place during the Protestant Reformation. Within two years, most of the participants would dead at the hands of the state. What was it about their obedience to Jesus' instructions about baptism that led to such violent reprisal?