A Malfunctioning Machine
The Brethren—or more specifically, the many churches that make up the Church of the Brethren—are in a crisis of identity, and have been for a long time now. If the church is thought of as a car, it is broken down; the tires of the car are flat; the engine is smoking, having burned through most of its oil; perhaps worst of all, the driver is absent. In short, if the Brethren are to function, they are in need of a radical reconstruction of the vehicle itself, as well as a recovery of the driver.
These three pieces of a vehicle—the tires, the engine, and the driver—may be understood as follows:
First, the only part of the vehicle which actually touches the outside world: the tires. These are the observable actions the Brethren intentionally abstain from or take part in, such as the various Brethren ordinances, or their peace witness. Second, behind the tires is an animating, active force, a powerful engine whose energy is transformed by the tires into movement or interaction with the outside world. This is the Brethren hermeneutic: their particular way of reading and applying Scripture. Third, above the engine sits the driver, intimately connected yet totally separate from the vehicle itself. The driver is the reason the vehicle is going anywhere in the first place, and of all the parts of the Brethren vehicle, this is the most neglected, yet most essential. The driver of the Brethren vehicle is the desire for spiritual fruit at any cost. Alternatively, the driver of the vehicle may be thought of as the “cause,” the engine the “means,” and the tires the “effect.” [1]
The Compelling Cause: Why The Brethren Exist – Fruit and Sacrifice
The disarray of the Church of the Brethren is common in mainline Protestant churches in our day. A large part of that disorganization stems from a church’s inability to understand itself, distill a compelling portrait of what it means to be that church, and then communicate that identity either internally or to outsiders.
For example, one of the common mistakes in identifying the Brethren is to begin by saying something like “We’re a little like the Mennonites or Amish”, or to identify the church as “Anabaptist-Pietist.” This is akin to rattling off the measurements of the tires on one’s vehicle when submitting a missing vehicle report: this information is true, but unhelpful. Alternatively, some seek to begin with some of the activities of the church: “We have a strong peace witness, some interesting ordinances, and do things like Brethren Volunteer Service.” This is also a dead end to understanding the Brethren, as it merely describes the interface the church has with the world. One may as well say that “My car has tires! Not only that, they’re rubber and have a tread!” The same is true of nearly every other car on the road.
Nor can the identification of the church escalate up to the engine-level. A historically-informed approach to the power of the Brethren movement might say: “The church pursues obedience to Christ through a unique, community-centered hermeneutic, drawing on influence from the early church.” This begins to approach the truth, in much the same way that one may identify the engine of a vehicle and make a good guess as to what the function of the vehicle is. But it is still not enough.
No matter how powerful or pristine the engine, or how new the tires, without a driver the vehicle will go nowhere on its own. If we wish to repair the Brethren vehicle, we must first understand the driver of the vehicle and where they were trying to get in the first place. Therefore, we will begin with the driving “cause” of the Brethren.
Why, then, do the Brethren exist?
The early Brethren did not write about their desire “To be Jesus in the neighborhood,” nor to “Continue the work of Jesus peacefully, simply, together.”
Rather, the enduring identity of the Brethren, their reason for existence was—and is—to sacrifice everything in order to bear spiritual fruit in keeping with repentance.
Visually, this is represented in the Mack Seal, which has come to symbolize the Brethren movement as a whole.
George N. Falkenstein puts it this way in History of the German Baptist Brethren Church:
“The entire combination constitutes a remarkable index to the character of its owner. In the center is the cross, which means sacrifice; the heart means devotion, and placed on the cross, further means sacrificed in devotion; the branches of the vine, mean fruit-bearing. Thus the seal reads: a devoted, fruit-bearing, sacrificed life.”[2]
This is in keeping with the beliefs of the founder of the church, Alexander Mack Sr:
“Again, the dear Jesus said to His disciples: ‘“‘He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers” (John 15:4-6). The church of the Lord Jesus must have this mind and no other.” [3]
Classically, the fruit has been identified with that found in Galatians 5:22-23, though it is of course not an exhaustive list: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
To the first generation of Brethren, this pursuit of producing spiritual fruit had to be a whole-life commitment. As Mack puts it:
“If you have learned from Him the teaching as it is outwardly commanded in the Testament, so that you will remain steadfast in it, and resolve yourself to sacrifice your life, your property, family, yes, all that you have in the whole world—rather than waver from His teaching—you must become used to taking His cross upon yourself daily with denial of your will. Otherwise, you cannot be a disciple of the Lord Jesus, much less an heir of His Kingdom (Luke 14:27).”
That word “sacrifice” is significant. The early Brethren understood that you cannot have something for nothing. To accept Christ was to surrender all. Once a Christian has accepted the “everything” of Christ, it is impossible to possess the “nothing” of the world at the same time. Brethren give up the nothing that the world sees as something to grasp the everything that is Christ. Out of this comes the continually fruit-bearing life. Dale R. Stoffer summarizes the driver of Brethren faith this way:
“Though affirming that salvation must be based on faith in Christ, Mack shared with Pietists in general the conviction that salvation is a state which must be continually evidenced in a believer’s life by the fruit of the Holy Spirit (obedience and works).” [4]
It is this idea of fruit-bearing self-sacrifice growing from a heart set on Christ that is captured in the Mack Seal.
Everything else about the Brethren flows from this singular goal of bearing fruit from a root of repentance. This identity of obedience will not be agreeable to everyone, and that’s alright. Not everyone needs to be Brethren. If, however, this cause is compelling, the means of accomplishing this goal come into play.
The Means of Obedience: How the Brethren Operate – The Brethren Hermeneutic
Having set forth that the driver or cause of the Brethren is to bear fruit at the cost of any personal sacrifice, the question becomes, how do Brethren go about cultivating fruit? Or, to continue the car metaphor, what engine powers the Brethren vehicle?
If the fruit of repentance is what the Brethren seek, it is fruit that only grows from the trunk of the tree of obedience, rooted in love. This tree is the specific way the Brethren go about reading the Bible, the Brethren hermeneutic.
This distinctive hermeneutic has three parts. All are historically grounded, yet more relevant than ever.
First, the Brethren hermeneutic is community-centered.
It is notable that the Brethren are not called “Mackians” or “Alexandrites”. From the beginning, though Alexander Mack acted as the leader of the Brethren movement, he was careful not to become its focus. We do not even know who baptized him in the Eder river. The Brethren as a movement emerged from a small group Bible study, and, at its best, continues in the same way today. Instead of some singular “holy prophet” there is the priesthood of all believers. As the Brethren Encyclopedia notes,
“Brethren have stressed the importance of the community of believers studying the Bible together. Alexander Mack, Sr., criticized those who pursued partial, private interpretations of Scripture and urged submission to the biblical counsel of Christ’s body. Michael Frantz depicted the gathered community seeking truth in this way: “When they come together in the meetings they display among themselves a childlike, simple humble reverence in order to . . . be taught by Him and not by men. It is Christ who speaks through them; therefore it is not the word of man but rather the word of God… . Thus one serves the other with the gift which he has received, they are subject one to the other in the fear of God, and hold fast to humility.” This corporate quest to discern the Word of God is evident in the plural we that abounds in the letter of the first eight Brethren explaining to Palatine Pietists the biblical rationale for baptism. Though later Brethren did not avoid the influence of modern individualism, most still concur that all individual insights into Scripture need to be tested in and by the community.” [6]
For the Brethren, Bible study was no abstract or academic endeavor, however. Therefore, as the community came across calls to obedience in the word, they responded to these imperatives together.
Thus, the second element of the Brethren hermeneutic is to be obedience oriented.
Brenda B. Colijn writes that “The Brethren did not just go to Scripture and then obey what they found; rather, they searched the Scriptures for commands to obey: “Warm, fervent, steadfast, obedient attachment to Christ is the very heart of their approach to the New Testament— And so the Brethren combed the New Testament for the commands of Jesus and His apostles, looking upon each imperative as a new opportunity to express love and loyalty to Him who meant more to them than all the world.”[7]
From the root of love, Brethren sought obedience for the sake of producing the fruit desired by God. They understood that “a good tree produces good fruit.” [8] For examples of what this sort of life-change looked like, they turned to the example of the first followers of Christ, seeking to follow in their footsteps.
The third part of the Brethren hermeneutic, then, is an emulation of the early church.
The basic reasoning of the Brethren is blindingly simple: the best way to live as disciples of Jesus is to live like the disciples of Jesus did. Because of this, the Brethren Encyclopedia notes that “Brethren have approached the Bible with a desire to recover and emulate primitive Christianity. Alexander Mack, Jr. wrote that the first Brethren “felt powerfully drawn to seek again the footsteps of the first Christians” and so consulted “trustworthy histories” and the New Testament itself for guidance on baptism.” [9]
The effect of this impulse was so deep that the Brethren became people misplaced in time, sojourners of a different era. Colijn stresses that “The early Brethren felt more kinship with the early church than with their own culture. Vernard Eller notes: ‘They did not, as did S. K. [Kierkegaard], talk about contemporaneousness with Christ; they did, rather often, talk as if they were contemporaneous with Christ.” In this spirit, Peter Nead refers to “brother Paul’s remarks” as if the apostle were his contemporary. Their commitment to nonconformity reinforced this tie to the early church as opposed to the culture.’” [10]
In a sense, Brethren are to be comfortable with being uncomfortable in the world. In the Brethren hermeneutic, it is not that the Brethren are out of step with the world, but that the world is out of step with the kingdom of heaven.
This emulation of the early church was not blind, however. They did not try to dress as the early church did, nor seek to move back to the Middle East. Colijn continues:
“The early Brethren were aware that culture and church practice had changed since apostolic times. This awareness, however, alienated them from their contemporaries rather than from the apostles. For example, Mack declared that “a great darkness now covers all of the people and the entire world” regarding the teachings of Christ.” [11]
What this hermeneutic led the Brethren to do is the final part of the puzzle.
The Visible Effects: What the Brethren Do – Ordinances and the “Nons”
So far, we have seen that the great cause or driver of the Brethren is to produce spiritual fruit at any cost. The means of this is the peculiar Brethren hermeneutic. But what does it look like where the “rubber meets the road?”
Or, put another way, what do Brethren actually do to cultivate fruit?
This is typically where Brethren default to when asked “what does it mean to be Brethren?”
“We’re a nonresistant, noncreedal, nonswearing, peace church…”
Or, “We emphasize simplicity and peace, anoint the sick, practice love feast, wash each other’s feet…”
The reality is that the Brethren ordinances and practices come from the Brethren hermeneutic in the same way that the power of a car’s wheels comes from the engine.
In a somewhat lengthy quote, Alexander Mack Jr offers a powerful description of what the Brethren hermeneutic looked like in action. See if you can spot the various elements of the Brethren hermeneutic at work:
“Therefore, some felt powerfully drawn to seek again the footsteps of the first Christians. They passionately yearned to avail themselves in faith of the ordained testimonies of Jesus Christ according to their right value. At the same time, it was emphatically opened to them in their hearts how necessary is obedience in faith if a soul wishes to be saved. This opening brought them immediately to the mystery of water baptism, which seemed to them a door to the church after which they yearned. However, there were great differences of opinion among the Pietists about baptism, which sometimes grieved the truth-loving souls.
Finally, in the year 1708, eight persons agreed together to establish a covenant of a good conscience with God, to accept all ordinances of Jesus Christ as an easy yoke, and thus to follow after their Lord Jesus— their good and loyal shepherd—as true sheep in joy or sorrow until the blessed end…
They found in trustworthy histories that the early Christians during the first and second centuries were planted into the death by crucifixion of Jesus Christ, according to the commandment of Christ, through trine immersion in the water bath of holy baptism. They therefore diligently searched the New Testament, and found that everything agreed with this perfectly. They therefore had an ardent desire to be furthered through this means, practiced by Christ himself and commanded by Him, for the fulfillment of all righteousness, according to His saving counsel…
After they were thus prepared, the said eight went out to the water called the Eder in the solitude of the morning. The brother upon whom the lot had fallen, first baptized that brother who wished to be baptized by the church of Christ. When the latter was baptized, he baptized him who had first baptized, and then the other three brethren and the three sisters. Thus all eight were baptized in an early morning hour. After they had all emerged from the water, and had dressed themselves again, they were all immediately clothed inwardly with great joyfulness. This significant word was then impressed on them through grace: “Be fruitful and multiply” [Genesis 1:28]. This happened in the said year, 1708. However, they have left no record of the month of the year, or of the day of the month, or of the week.” [12]
The Brethren cause (to produce fruit) and its accompanying means (the Brethren hermeneutic) has both primary and secondary effects.
The primary effects, affirmative, positive actions, can be seen above: the institution of the ordinances. Over time, the Brethren likewise instituted the love feast, footwashing, the holy kiss, and the other ordinances as their practices following a similar examination of Scripture.
The secondary effect is the recognition that there are therefore things Brethren ought to abstain from. This is where the “nons” (nonresistance, nonswearing, noncreedalism, etc.) come from. Yet even these are the shadow of the Brethren belief that they represent the kingdom of heaven here on earth, which the world itself is out of step with. [13]
These effects, both primary and secondary, were obvious to outsiders. As C.S. Lewis notes in Reflections on the Psalms, “all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise,”[14] and for the Brethren, this meant a joyful sharing with others of the peace they had found in obedience to Christ both after the baptism of 1708 in Europe, and in the American baptisms of 1723. Like the European Brethren, the Brethren in America were called together for the sake of worship and baptism, which prompted a great joy, culminating in evangelism.
This should perk up the ears of any who doubt the efficacy of obedience. According to Vernard Eller, “This caused a remarkable awakening, especially among the young people, of revival proportions. The occurrence was shortly before the Great Awakening. One informed observer writing later suggested that the Brethren activity represented the first of the many waves of revivals which were to affect the German population in the colonies.” When each part is working, the Brethren vehicle can go at a remarkable speed.
Taking the Vehicle for a Spin
These are some of the practical ways the Brethren have decided to live out their convictions. Of course, each of these evolved over time. The core pattern remains, however; the driver, or the cause of the Brethren, is to sacrifice all of oneself for the sake of bearing spiritual fruit. The means of this, the engine of change, is seen in the Brethren way of reading scripture, , which is community centered, obedience oriented, and seeks to emulate the early church. The effect of this is to supply power to the wheels of the Brethren vehicle, resulting in the various activities of the Brethren and the movement of the vehicle as a whole.
As you go, receive this blessing from Alexander Mack, Sr, and consider the questions at the end:
“Now, may the Lord Jesus bless our soul, and strengthen your faith, and let his simple instruction grow within you and bear fruit which will remain for life eternal. We will together praise and glorify our God forever. Amen.”
Questions for Readers
If you are Brethren, could you articulate what it means toBrethren to someone who is not Brethren?
Do you suppose those people find explanation worth buying into?
Do you find the vision of being Brethren as presented in this essay compelling? Why or why not?
Notes
[1] This model owes much to Simon Sinek’s excellent TedTalk on “Finding Why”. Here, Sinek’s “Why” corresponds to the driver, or “Cause” (the goal), the “How” to the engine or “Means” (the Brethren hermeneutic), and the “What” to the tires or “Effect” (the Brethren ordinances and activities). Find Simon’s TedTalk here: https://youtu.be/u4ZoJKF_VuA?si=-ECjuYJ4zHS4Fsa6
[2] George N Falkenstein, History of the German Baptist Brethren Church (New Era, 1901), 71.
[3] Alexander Mack and William R. Eberly, The Complete Writings of Alexander Mack (Winona Lake, Ind.: BMH Books, ), 77.
[4] Dale R Stoffer, Background and Development of Brethren Doctrines, 1650-1987 (Philadelphia, Pa.: Brethren Encyclopedia, 1989), 76.
[5] Ephesians 3:17-19.
[6] Carl W Bowman and Donald F Durnbaugh, The Brethren Encyclopedia (Brethren Encyclopedia, Inc., 1983), 134.
[7] Brenda B. Colijn, “Incarnational Hermeneutics: The Brethren Approach to Scripture,” Brethren Life and Thought 36, no. 4 (1991), 252. {Original footnote: [45] Chalmer E. Faw, “The Brethren and the Book of Books,” in The Adventurous Future, comp, and ed. Paul W. Bowman (Elgin, 111.: Brethren Press, 1959), p. 106. Besides obedience, Faw discusses the Brethren’s Christocentrism and their belief in the continuing activity of the Holy Spirit (pp. 105,104).}
[8] Matthew 7:17-20.
[9] Bowman, 134.
[10] Colijn, 257.
[11] Colijn 256-257.
[12] Donald F Durnbaugh, European Origins of the Brethren (Elgin, Ill., Brethren Press, 1958), 120-121.
[13] Nonswearing, for example, is from the Brethren’s reading of Matthew 5:33-37, and especially verse 37: “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” In the kingdom of heaven, no oaths are needed. Nonresistance is from Matthew 5:38-40, especially verse 39: “But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” This passage, as well as verses 43-48 offer the basis for the modern Brethren peace witness. In the kingdom of heaven, there is no need for self-defense, nor war of any kind. Nonconformity is drawn from the entire Sermon on the Mount. Rather, the Brethren strive to “be conformed to the image of Christ.” (Romans 8:29). In the kingdom of heaven, all become like him. Notably, noncreedalism finds no such basis in the Sermon on the Mount, and may in fact be contrary to the early creed found in 1 Corinthians 15, so it may be time to do away with the creed of “no creed.” However, Brethren committed to obedience will need to discern that together.
[14] CS Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1948), 94.
[15] Mack, 103.
Bibliography
Bowman, Carl W, and Donald F Durnbaugh. The Brethren Encyclopedia. Brethren Encyclopedia, Inc., 1983.
Colijn, Brenda B. “Incarnational Hermeneutics: The Brethren Approach to Scripture.” Brethren Life and Thought 36, no. 4 (1991): 246–70.
Durnbaugh, Donald F. European Origins of the Brethren. Elgin, Ill., Brethren Press, 1958.
Eller, Vernard, Dale W Brown, Warren F Groff, Edward K Ziegler, Desmond W Bittinger, Roger E Sappington, and Merle Crouse. Church of the Brethren Past and Present. Brethren Press, 1971.
Falkenstein, George N. History of the German Baptist Brethren Church. New Era, 1901.
Lewis, CS. Reflections on the Psalms. London: Geoffrey Bles, 1948.
Mack, Alexander, and William R. Eberly. The Complete Writings of Alexander Mack. Winona Lake, Ind.: BMH Books,.
Stoffer, Dale R. Background and Development of Brethren Doctrines, 1650-1987. Philadelphia, Pa.: Brethren Encyclopedia, 1989.