The ban is that thing in the Anabaptist closet. Stories abound of this severe and condemnatory method of church discipline—its use and mostly its misuse. But what was it that Anabaptists intended and is there a redemptive way to employ the ban?  

In the world, but not of it, has been a particular challenge for Anabaptists who isolated themselves early in their history and still carry some of that culture. Guests today acknowledge the strengths but also challenge some of the assumptions we may make about things like holiness, our culture and our role in the world.

Is the body just a helpful analogy of how the church functions together or is it more than that? Is it expressing something more real? And if that is true, is the connection between baptism and membership more important than we may think?

After looking at the beginning and at the end, we’re back to the centre of the gospel story—Jesus—born and raised with a human body like everyone else on earth. What does that fact—something that’s so basic it’s easy to overlook—mean for how we live as Jesus' followers? What does it mean for a believing community?

In the second part of the question of why it is important to talk about community, hosts Jesse and Andrew focus more tightly on anabaptist communities specifically. Community is universal to the church—something the church the world over is grappling with. However, it has been particularly important to anabaptists historically.

Join Jesse and Andrew as they interview Layton Friesen, Stuart Murray, Meghan Larissa Good and Steve Bell on why community is worth talking about.