New book honors legacy of Alan & Eleanor Kreider
by Mary E. Klassen
News Release
Elkhart, Ind. (AMBS) – “For people who think being a Mennonite or Anabaptist is a disadvantage today, Alan and Eleanor Kreider prove it is not true,” James Krabill said at an event celebrating a new book that honors the mission-worker-and-educator team.
Krabill and Stuart Murray, a leader in the Anabaptist Network in England, hope to extend the Kreiders’ gracious and unapologetic approach to matters of faith with the book they have edited. Forming Christian Habits in Post-Christendom: The Legacy of Alan and Eleanor Kreider is a way to recognize their contributions and to expand on themes important to them, Krabill said.
Alan and Eleanor served in England with Mennonite Board of Missions for 26 years. In addition, they have traveled extensively inNorth Americaand many other countries in their ministry of teaching. More recently, Alan served on the faculty of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary from 2004 to 2009, and Eleanor was an adjunct instructor at AMBS in addition to being involved in Prairie Street Mennonite Church. They have participated regularly in Bridgefolk, often as conference speakers.
“The thing that has been most important,” Krabill emphasized, “is the balance in their approach to engaging people in conversations from a missional perspective. Alan and Eleanor have stayed in conversation with people in high-church groups, with Pentecostals, and with other believers, all with such a gracious spirit.”
This book gives many who have benefited from the Kreiders’ work an opportunity to reflect on the themes in their ministry. Within the primary areas of mission, community and worship are subthemes such as Missio Dei, pacifism, holistic mission, friendship, catechesis and baptism, communion, prayer and multi-voiced worship.
Each chapter begins with an excerpt of previous writing from the Kreiders, followed by several other writers reflecting on these topics. Almost 50 contributors respond from their contexts in France, Korea, Ireland, Indonesia, England,Canada and the U.S. One writer is a farmer-baker, another a bank executive and another the chairperson of an investment company, while many are mission workers, educators and pastors. Some are new believers and some are veterans of the faith.
This variety honors the request from the Kreiders that the book contribute to building up the church. They told the editors they wanted “something that equips and empowers followers of Jesus to live out more faithfully their calling as active participants in God’s reconciling mission in the world.”
The book was copublished by Herald Press and the Institute of Mennonite Studies at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary. On November 10, IMS celebrated the book’s release with students, faculty and friends of the Kreiders.
At this gathering, John Rempel, associate director of IMS, reported that many of the writers note how “Alan and Ellie combine modesty and passion, groundedness and experimentation, mind and soul, in complementary ways.”
In a sampling of the influence of their thinking across denominations and continents, Rempel said, “To the world of evangelicalism they brought social holiness; to movements for social and political change they brought the presence of Christ in their lives. They fired people’s imaginations with the possibility of a pacifist ethic. Several of the authors lay out theological visions and describe transformative ministries that extend Ellie and Alan’s thinking in new directions.”
Krabill explained that both he and Murray have been shaped by the Kreiders’ ministry. Murraywas a colleague of Alan and Eleanor during their time inEngland, when they were serving with the Anabaptist Network. Krabill was a student of Alan’s atGoshenCollegeand later knew Alan and Eleanor as senior colleagues in mission work. With this volume Murray and Krabill are not only giving voice to others who have been shaped by Alan and Eleanor; they are setting the stage for these contributions to inspire even more people for what they call a “kingdom-sized, shalom-shaped, missio-driven, God-breathed Reconciling Project.”
Murray is a training and consultant based inEnglandand working under the auspices of the Anabaptist Network. Krabill is senior executive for the Global Ministries division of Mennonite Mission Network, based in Elkhart, Ind.
Herald Press is the book imprint of MennoMedia, a ministry of Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada.
Forming Christian Habits in Post-Christendom is available from Herald Press by calling 1-800-245-7894 (U.S.) or 1-800-631-6535 (Canada). Price: $22.99 USD/$26.50 CAD.