Icon of Dirk Willems ; Graber Designs, Goshen, IN

The Anabaptists or "re-baptizers" were people in the early 1500’s in Europe who were inspired to radically reform the Christian Church as it had come to be.

They got their name because they insisted that water baptism should be reserved for adults only. This conviction led them to baptize one another as adults, even though they had been baptized as infants.

Their desire to be a Christ-centered church, like the early New Testament churches, threatened the political power that the Church had amassed from being so closely tied to governments.

Anabaptists were oppressed and even executed for their visible, vocal public witness to Jesus Christ. ‘Martyrs’ were those killed for their faith; testifying till their dying breath.

Followers of Menno Simons, a priest and second-generation Anabaptist leader,came to be referred to  as “Menn-ists” and, later, “Menno-nites.”

What made these first Anabaptists especially distinctive was the way they sought to integrate faith (believing in Jesus) and practice (following Jesus in daily life). This led them to place a strong emphasis on:

• Christ-centered discipleship
• The church as a voluntary and visible fellowship of born-again believers
• An ethic of love and nonviolence
• Economic mutual aid
• Bold evangelism
• Interpreting Scripture in community through the power of the Holy Spirit.

When we talk about Anabaptists today, we’re referring to the more than 1.2 million Christians in the believers church tradition worldwide who trace their roots back to this 16th-century reform movement: Mennonites, Hutterites, Amish, Church of the Brethren, and Brethren in Christ.