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What is the Believers Church Tradition?

The term Believers Church (BC) as such dates back to Max Weber, who in 1904 (in the first edition of his Der protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus) introduced this English term, defining it “solely as a community of personal believers of the reborn, and only these”. He linked it to the (Ana)Baptists and it is mainly within Mennonite and Baptist circles that this tradition is studied and reflected on since the fifties of the 20th century.  A classic work is The Believers’ Church. The History and Character of Radical Protestantism (1968), written by the Church of the Brethren historian Donald Durnbaugh, defining it as “the covenanted and disciplined community of those walking in the way of Jesus Christ.” As such it is a distinctive ecclesiological type, seen as a third type of church, next to ‘catholic’ and ‘protestant’, also known under other names as Free Church and Gathering Church, or as ‘pentecostal’ (Newbigin, The Household of God, 1953) or ‘baptist with a small “b”’ (McClendon, Ethics, 2002). According to Durnbaugh these names are not so much to classify as to clarify (The Believers’ Church, 24).

The story of the Believers Church Conferences

Beginning in 1967 in Louisville (Kentucky), U.S.A., Believers Church Conferences (BCC) have been held every three to four years at different places in the U.S.A. and Canada. The 19th conference was held in Raleigh (North Carolina) in January 2023 on the topic of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Global Witness of Believers Churches. From its beginning the BCC had two main objectives: to reflect on the concept of the Believers Church and to contribute to the ecumenical ecclesiological debate.

  • 1967

    The Concept of the Believers’ Church

    Louisville, Kentucky, USA | Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
  • 1970

    Is There a Christian Style of Life in Our Age?

    Chicago, Illinois, USA | Chicago Theological Seminary (United Church of Christ)
  • 1972

    Believers Church Conference for Laity on the Sermon on the Mount

    Laurelville, Ohio, USA | Laurelville Mennonite Church Center
  • 1975

    Restitution, Dissent, and Renewal: Concept of the Believers’ Church

    Malibu, California, USA | Pepperdine University (Churches of Christ)
  • 1978

    The Believers’ Church in Canada

    Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada | Canadian Mennonite Bible College
  • 1980

    Is There a Believers’ Church Christology?

    Bluffton, Ohio, USA | Bluffton College (Mennonite)
  • 1984

    Believers’ Baptism and the Meaning of Church Membership: Concepts and Practices in an Ecumenical Context

    Anderson, Indiana, USA | Anderson School of Theology (Church of God)
  • 1987

    The Ministry of All Believers

    Oak Brook, Illinois, USA | Bethany Theological Seminary (Church of the Brethren)
  • 1989

    Balthasar Hubmaier and His Thought

    Fort Worth, Texas, USA | Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
  • 1992

    The Rule of Christ : Church Discipline and the Authority of the Church

    Goshen, Indiana, USA | Goshen College (Mennonite)
  • 1994

    The Meaning and Practice of the Lord’s Supper in the BCT

    Ashland, Ohio, USA | Ashland Theological Seminary (Church of the Brethren)
  • 1996

    The Believers Church: A Voluntary Church

    Hamilton, Ontario, Canada | McMaster Divinity College (Baptist)
  • 1999

    Apocalypticism and Millennialism: Shaping a Believers Church Eschatology for the 21st Century

    Bluffton, Ohio, USA | Bluffton College (Mennonite)
  • 2002

    Legacy of Yoder

    Notre Dame, Indiana, USA | University of Notre Dame (Roman-Catholic)
  • 2004

    God, Democracy and US Power

    Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA | Bridgewater College (Church of the Brethren) & Eastern Mennonite University
  • 2008

    Congregationalism, Denominationalism and the Body of Christ

    Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada | Canadian Mennonite University
  • 2016

    The Tendency Towards Separation. Come-outers Among the Believers Churches: Historical Realities and Ecclesial Concerns in the Continuing Dissenter Tradition

    Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada | Acadia Divinity College (Baptist)
  • 2017

    Word, Spirit, and the Renewal of the Church: Believers' Church, Ecumenical and Global Perspectives

    Goshen, Indiana, USA | Goshen College (Mennonite)
  • 2023

    Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Global Witness of Believers Churches

    Raleigh, North Calorina, USA | Shaw University (Baptist)
  • 2025

    Radical Renewal Witnessing to a New Heaven and a New Earth

    Amsterdam and Elspeet, Netherlands | Vrije Universiteit (Mennonite and Baptis)