One sign of apostolic mission and outreach by all movements of the spirit in earlier Christianity and later the Hutterites is this: while it is the custom of the institutional churches and religious gatherings of all kinds, to prepare their meetings with propaganda and the ringing of church bells and illuminated advertisements, the apostolic messengers follow, from place to place, the active Spirit, who tells them where the expectant and prepared hearts are to be found, where the people are who are moved and touched by God’s Spirit, so that the decisive message may be brought to them. Such men are to be found everywhere. We must be led to them through the Holy Spirit who guides us; they must be led to us through the Holy Spirit who leads them.
- Eberhard Arnold
Selected Reading
Now Is the Time
Eberhard Arnold
Many of us long for a new society, a new awakening of humankind that serves God’s will and his kingdom. But too often we’re distracted by human solutions. In the current political climate, it’s clear that any hope we put in the government is sorely misplaced. So where then does our hope come from?
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The Church Comes Down to Us
Eberhard Arnold
Eberhard Arnold always emphasized Gemeinde – the living congregation of believers – over Kirche, the church as an institution or establishment. In a series of talks given in response to a letter from his friend, the Swiss Religious Socialist Leonard Ragaz, Eberhard talks about this question.
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Letter to His Sister Hannah
Eberhard Arnold
Hannah Arnold worried that through his radical stance her brother Eberhard had denied his faith in Jesus. Arnold answered his sister in a letter which was later published in Die Wegwarte, the community’s periodical. Although he had left the evangelical movement he had never denied his faith in Jesus.
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The Spirit of the Early Church
Eberhard Arnold
The early church was not perfect, nor can it be blindly imitated, admits Eberhard Arnold in this groundbreaking 1926 essay. And yet, never since in church history has the Spirit been so forcefully at work. Why has the example of the first Christians never ceased to fuel renewal and reform?
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Perhaps the kind of mission we should ask for is a mission to the homeless, to those who live in terrible conditions, close to starvation. That would be preaching the Gospel to the poor in a special way. I believe it is our duty to give every Samaritan service asked of us. But I also believe we need special guidance to seek out the destitute, knowing that they may not be called as yet. It needs to be a mission of mercy and compassion.
- Eberhard Arnold, July 1935
The apostolic spirit is the prophetic spirit: his word brings his kingdom. The apostolic mission is a matter of the prophetic embassy of God, which brings the future kingdom to everyone here and now. As prophecy, the apostleship of the church embraces the whole truth of Jesus and his future.
- Eberhard Arnold