What if your body has a gospel you've been ignoring?

Mine did. I spent 10 years trying to silence it with codependent ministry and religious education. This book is about what I learned when I finally started listening.

How to Treat Your Body Like a Sacred Text takes you through my personal journey from a theologically toxic childhood to pastoral burnout to recovery through listening to my body. Blending trauma theory with progressive religious insights, I offer practical skills for healing from toxic religion. Learn to listen to your body and transform your understanding of religion and trauma.

The Anabaptist Vision, given as a presidential address before the American Society of Church History in 1943, has become a classic essay. In it, Harold S. Bender defines the spirit and purposes of the original Anabaptists. Three major points of emphasis are: the transformation of the entire way of life of the individual to the teachings and example of Christ, voluntary church membership based upon conversion and commitment to holy living, and Christian love and nonresistance applied to all human relationships.

A church begins a nonprofit to assist single mothers in their neighborhood. A baptism takes place in a barrel during a drought in a war-torn country. An urban congregation creates an intentional community of asylum seekers. Published in conjunction with the 500th anniversary of the Anabaptist Christian faith, Faith in Full Color introduces readers to a tapestry of creative expressions of contemporary Anabaptist witness in the world.

This book showcases the intersection of faith and life, showing how congregations, faith communities, and individuals express their faith. Together, these stories written and compiled by Jeanne Zimmerly Jantzi and accompanied by a diverse collection of photos address where we have been and, more importantly, where we are going as Anabaptist Christians: Where do we see God at work in our lives today? How have we seen God's faithful presence in diverse Anabaptist communities? And what does God desire of the Anabaptist movement for the next 500 years?

​The stories and voices in these pages offer wise, inspiring, forward-looking counsel as we celebrate our shared faith and glimpse God at work among us.

John D. Roth's straightforward, accessible narrative invigorates this contemporary introduction to the Mennonite story. Whether readers are new to the Mennonite community or just yearning for a fresh telling of Anabaptist origins, Stories: How Mennonites Came to Be will serve as a compact digest of the church's history for generations to come.

Free downloadable study guide available here.

A unique resource for a generation, the preeminent textbook in its field. Cornelius J. Dyck interacts with the many changes in the Anabaptist/Mennonite experience and historical understandings in this revised and updated edition. This is a history of Mennonites from the 16th century to the present. Though simply written, it reflects fine scholarship and deep Christian concern.

The Upside-Down Kingdom calls readers to imagine and embody the reign of God on earth as it is in heaven. Since its publication in 1978, The Upside-Down Kingdom won the National Religious Book Award and has become the most trusted resource on radical Christian discipleship. In this completely updated anniversary edition, author Donald B. Kraybill asks: What does it mean to follow the Christ who traded victory and power for hanging out with the poor and forgiving his enemies? How did a man in first-century Palestine threaten the established order, and what does that mean for us today? Jesus turned expectations upside down. The kingdom of God is still full of surprises. Are you ready?

Free downloadable study guide available here.

Ask any person randomly on the sidewalk what they know about the Mennonites and chances are their answer will include Mormons, black clothes and buggies, or general confusion. This short, engaging book gives a brief account of what Mennonites believe. From the beginnings of the Anabaptist (or Mennonite) movement in the 16th-century, to biblical interpretation, baptism, understandings of the church, ethics, and the complex question of denominationalism, John D. Roth provides a solid framework for on-going conversations about faithful discipleship in the Mennonite church today.

Free downloadable study guide available here.

Adopted by the General Conference Mennonite Church and the Mennonite Church at Wichita, Kansas, July 1995. The 24 articles and summary statement were accepted by both groups as their statement of faith for teaching and nurture in the life of the church.

Through Fire and Water presents the Mennonite faith story within the sweep of church history. This engaging text uses stories of men and women, peasants and pastors, heroes and rascals, to trace the radical Reformation from sixteenth-century Europe to today's global Anabaptist family. Written in an accessible and nonacademic style, this revised edition updates the story and incorporates new historical research and discoveries.

A superbly written introduction to Anabaptist-Mennonite history in contexts ranging from Kansas to Congo.
--Perry Bush, Bluffton University

An accessible and engaging read for those who know little about Mennonites, and also for those who think they are familiar with this complex story of faith, culture, and action.
--Marlene Epp, Conrad Grebel University College

Captivating personal stories, set alongside an honest portrayal of the Mennonite journey.
--Doug Heidebrecht, Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies

For many years, all Anabaptist groups embodied their Gospel beliefs and values in distinctive cultural norms to which all members were held accountable. We currently hear that such forms are imposed man-made rules that militate against a genuine personal experience with Christ. This booklet investigates the following questions:

• Has God ever endorsed man-made rules?
• Do distinctive cultural norms violate the Gospel?
• Does a relaxing of distinctive cultural norms lead to greater evangelistic success?
• If the past is prologue, what can we learn from groups that relaxed their distinctive practices?

Answering these questions is important, because decisions have consequences, and wise believers base their decisions on the consequences they desire.

When the dust all settles, you can be sure that Aaron is still standing at the same place he has always stood.

Aaron M. Shank had an out-sized influence on the 20^th-century conservative Mennonite church. In this biography, you will discover the leadership he provided with his passion for following Christ, for teaching sound doctrine, and for retaining Scriptural applications historically held by the Mennonite Church. Aaron provided leadership for both the formation of the Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church as well as the formation of the Pilgrim Mennonite Conference. He and Marjorie endeared themselves to many in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, and to many others beyond. His doctrinal teaching and his lifetime of service with integrity helped shape the conservative Mennonite church moving into the 21^st century.

1569: Anabaptist Dirk Willems plots his escape from prison and sure death. He succeeds, only to discover the one thing that will deliver him true freedom.

1875: On the rugged plains of the Llano Estacado, Lt. C.R. Ward leads his exhausted men on an expedition to remove the Comanche, Kiowa, and Cheyenne. They are out of water and near death when his Seminole scouts find a miracle in the desert.

1921: Mennonite Jacob Rempel, holding the same beliefs as Willems, prepares his family to escape an entire country.

Will their journey end the same?

In a true story of faith, hope, and perseverance, Rempel's great-granddaughter, Tina Siemens, reveals the incredible narrative of an event that captivated the hearts of people around the world. From the parched territory of Mexico to the west Texas town of Seminole, Siemens gives a firsthand account of her family's difficult migration... and the people who wouldn't quit.

Experience this vivid saga of a man determined to survive, a people who refused to give up, and the town that fostered it all.

SEMINOLE.

Because miracles do happen.

In the midst of tall castles, warring pikemen, dreadful plagues, church decay, and the superstition and darkness of sixteenth-century Europe, the Anabaptist revival burst into flames. One of the first leaders was a partying university dropout who met Christ and was transformed into a fiery preacher, confronting and challenging the greatest reformers of the day. He became co-founder of the Anabaptist movement, which gave rise to the Amish and Mennonites. Excellent for supplemental reading in a Christian history course

This English edition of Menno Simons' writings contains all the known writings of Menno, including several tracts, letters, and hymns never previously translated. The entire contents of this edition were translated from the Dutch by Leonard Verduin of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and edited by J. C. Wenger, who wrote clarifying introductions to each of Menno's writings. This edition represents a faithful English rendering of what Menno taught and wrote in the 16th century.

The Complete Writings of Menno Simons is issued with the hope that it may serve to strength the Mennonite Church in a dynamic Christian life, to introduce to the Christian church at large a new vision of discipleship, to create in the reader a new loyalty to the Word of God, and to recapture the true Christian spirit in this era of secularism.

Edsel Burdge Jr. and Samuel L. Horst tell the stories of three centuries of faith and life among the Washington County (Md.), and Franklin County (Pa.) Mennonites. From small beginnings in colonial American settlements, issues such as personal spiritual commitment, corporate accountability, nonconformity, and peace have been constants. This history describes in detail the particulars of that struggle as well as recounting stories illustrative of community life in general.

Documents the disturbing history of four pacifists imprisoned for their refusal to serve during World War I.

To Hutterites and members of other pacifist sects, serving the military in any way goes against the biblical commandment thou shalt not kill and Jesus's admonition to turn the other cheek when confronted with violence. Pacifists in Chains tells the story of four young men--Joseph Hofer, Michael Hofer, David Hofer, and Jacob Wipf--who followed these beliefs and refused to perform military service in World War I. The men paid a steep price for their resistance, imprisoned in Alcatraz and Fort Leavenworth, where the two youngest died. The Hutterites buried the men as martyrs, citing mistreatment.

Using archival material, letters from the four men and others imprisoned during the war, and interviews with their descendants, Duane C. S. Stoltzfus explores the tension between a country preparing to enter into a world war and a people whose history of martyrdom for their pacifist beliefs goes back to their sixteenth-century Reformation beginnings.

On a cold winter day in 1527, a group of persecuted Anabaptists secretly gathered in the town of Schleitheim seeking unity and desiring to clarify where they differed from the established state churches. The Schleitheim Confession was born from that meeting and soon became popular and influential among the Anabaptists - even to this present day.

Should it matter to us today what some persecuted Christians believed nearly 500 years ago? Can the convictions they had be backed up Scripturally?

This book examines the Schleitheim Confession in light of the Scriptures. The early Anabaptists lived and died for the faith once delivered to the saints, and we can profit from examining their conclusions, compariing them with the Scriptures, and following Christ as they followed Him.