“Born Again” in the Global Church

Nearly five years ago—the exact date was October 26, 2010—I was “born again” … again!

For many years, I, along with my colleagues at the Mennonite Historical Library (MHL), had been conscientious custodians of a long tradition of “scholarship for the church” bequeathed to us by historians like Harold Bender, Guy Hershberger, John Oyer, Theron Schlabach, Shirley Showalter, and Alan Kreider.

These amazingly gifted scholars were committed to bringing their academic disciplines into conversation with the life of the church. Convinced that the life of the mind and spiritual/ ecclesial renewal were intimately related, they offered a model that combined scholarship and teaching with a deep love for the church. In the fall of 1985, when I was facing a difficult decision about where I wanted to teach as a young historian, their example inspired me to accept a call to Goshen College.

In the years since, my colleagues and I have worked hard to be good stewards of their legacy. We greatly expanded the holdings of the MHL, continued to publish The Mennonite Quarterly Review, supported the work of the Mennonite Historical Society, wrote books and articles, organized conferences, hosted lecturers, and preached in many congregational settings.

Along the way, however, something of profound significance was happening within the larger Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. All around the world—but especially in Africa, Asia, and Latin America—churches bearing the Mennonite name were exploding in growth. And as they did so, they were translating the good news of the gospel into the realities of their own cultural context. In dozens of new settings, what it meant to part of this 500-year-old “AnabaptistMennonite” stream was being stretched, challenged, renewed, transformed, and reimagined.

In 2009 I attended the Mennonite World Conference (MWC) assembly in Asunción, Paraguay and witnessed first-hand the astonishing diversity of our global family. I returned to Goshen College convinced that the time had come for a new kind of “scholarship for the church.” After consulting with a wide range of colleagues and friends, the concept of the “Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism” emerged.

On October 26, 2010, Goshen College administrators approved a memo of understanding that formally launched the ISGA. The vision and projects of the Institute have been a part of my daily life ever since.

During the past five years, doors have been opened in ways that have allowed the work of the ISGA to flourish. A host of institutions, foundations, and private individuals have supported our vision with generous financial contributions. For the past four years I have served as secretary of the MWC Faith and Life Commission, a position that has led to dozens of new relationships within our global fellowship and opportunities for partnership.

For the past three years I have been writing monthly columns for The Mennonite and the Mennonite World Review [as of Sept. 2020, these publications merged to become Anabaptist World] focused on some aspect of the global church. My colleagues in the MHL, particularly Joe Springer, have lent their enthusiastic support to the ISGA as we have worked to broaden the scope of our collection. Last year, the addition of Elizabeth Miller as a part-time staff person has been an enormous gift; and more than a dozen Goshen College students have participated in some aspect of our work.

Last month marked a milestone in a major project of the ISGA, and an enormous step forward for another. As you can read in this issue of Rhizome, on July 26-30 nearly 40 Research Associates and church leaders met at Elizabethtown College to analyze the results of the Global Anabaptist Profile— the first major study of faith and practices of Mennonite World Conference churches.

Cross-cultural surveys are enormously challenging (the questionnaire was translated into 26 languages!), and interpreting the results will take time. But the GAP is a pioneering initiative—not just for MWC, but also in the world of global Christian scholarship—and we hope that project will bear much fruit.

The Bearing Witness project, with significant support from the Bruderhof, is also now moving into a new phase, with a strong presence on the internet, an expanding collection of stories (helped especially by a host of interviews at the MWC assembly), and work on a new book of testimonies that will be published later this year.

Clearly there are enormous challenges and possibilities still ahead. We continue to operate on a shoestring budget, spending most of our resources to support the work of others. And I am often behind in my commitments, struggling to find the right balance of priorities. But today, five years after the ISGA was launched, I wake up eager to launch into the tasks at hand and more grateful than ever for the opportunity to continue a long tradition of “scholarship for the church.”

Thank you for your support!

-By John D. Roth, director of the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism