Widening the Circle: Experiments in Christian Discipleship

Words…Words… Words New Monastic

Emergent

Catholic Worker

Christian Anarchist

Neo-Anabaptist

Naked Anabaptist

House Church

Discipleship Community

What is a discipleship community?Discipleship is rooted in the biblical call to follow Jesus as expressed in solidarity with the poor, creative

peacemaking, the inclusion of the excluded (due to identifiers such as

race, class and gender), and the formation of alternative communities.

These communities, committed to the journey of transformation through

discipleship, generally work for renewal from the margins and engage ecumenically with other like-minded groups.

Widening the Circle Seth McCoy

Chapter Fifteen

Early Anabaptists

Widening the Circle of conversation From the Intro by Ched Myers and

Elaine Enns:• Dis-illusionment• Dis-establishment• De-centering

How does this relate to your experience and context?

Widening the Circle Themes engaged through personal narrative:

• Racism and racial identity• The American “dream”• Being “the quiet in the land” and political activism • Seeker-sensitive worship and discipleship orientation• Militarism and peacemaking• Economic injustice• Women’s experience and sexism• Solidarity with/as the oppressed• Environmental justice• Immigration• Health care• Life-cycles of a community—birth, death, rebirth

Widening the Circle Andrea Ferich

Chapter Fourteen

Movements and Institutionsin relationship

Movements and Institutionsin relationships

Discussion What does it look like for the

Mennonite church to see these experiments as kindred groups?

Where have you seen mutual relationships and mutual transformation?

Widening the Circle:Experiments in Christian Discipleship

Celina VarelaChapter Three