The five hundredth anniversary of Anabaptism in 2025 gives the church a unique opportunity to celebrate and dream. To celebrate the Spirit’s calling together of diverse people across all boundaries of culture and geography. To dream about how more people can be invited into and participate in leading and shaping Anabaptism’s future. To celebrate how young people have made faith their own for centuries, and to dream how young people today can become even more deeply engaged and empowered to help lead the Anabaptist movement into the future. To celebrate all the ways God has been faithful, and to dream about how we can mend what’s been broken.
MennoMedia invites you to celebrate and dream with us as we embrace the hope and possibility created by this momentous anniversary.As our world continues to evolve and change, the church needs to increase our capacity to offer creative, imaginative resources that inspire people to commit to and grow in Christian faith. MennoMedia’s vision is to lead the way in helping North American Anabaptist Christians experience spiritual renewal by creating fresh, forward-looking resources for Anabaptism’s quincentenary celebration. Each resource will offer spiritual inspiration, connection, education, and invitation to the Anabaptist community and to the broader Christian church.
FAQ: The Anabaptist Community Bible Project
The easiest way to participate is to form a study group in your Anabaptist faith community and register your participation online.
Yes! Multiple groups from the same church can participate.
Yes! We have used the language of “faith communities,” but this can be defined broadly. Participants include groups from Anabaptist retirement centers, high school Bible classes, and online family Bible studies.
Yes! Although this project is focused primarily on Anabaptist faith communities within North America, we would be delighted if groups outside of North America also choose to participate. The insights, reflections, and questions submitted by the study groups will be translated into English.
The best thing is to register as soon as possible. But the final registration deadline for study groups is April 1, 2023.
When you register your study group, the Anabaptism at 500 staff will send you a study group leader’s guide, with instructions for how to organize your study group, along with a participant guide for members of the group. We will also send you a list of three passages of Scripture—Old Testament; New Testament; and Psalms/Proverbs—for your group to study and respond to.
No. We have divided the entire Bible into five hundred groups of scriptures, each consisting of a passage from the Old Testament, the New Testament, and Psalms/Proverbs. The passages are assigned in order as groups are registered.
Study groups are free to use the translation that you feel most comfortable with. The Anabaptist Community Bible, however, will appear in the Common English Bible translation, so groups might consider using this translation for their study.
The Anabaptist Community Bible will be printed in English. Bible study groups are welcome to submit their Bible study notes in Spanish, French or Bahasa Indonesian.
The final deadline to submit the notes is June 1, 2023. We encourage all groups to submit their insights and reflections to us within two weeks of their last Bible study session. Submit notes online or email AnabaptismAt500@MennoMedia.org.
Further questions?
Contact JohnDRoth@MennoMedia.org.
