British Anabaptist leaders are being thrust into leadership without much training. Author Stuart Murray Williams doesn’t think that’s so bad.

Melanie Hess, Mennonite Mission Network
How are new leaders being trained now? What role do networks, like the Anabaptist Network, play in this training?

Stuart Murray Williams, author of The Naked Anabaptist
The traditional approach of people being sent to seminaries before exercising ministry continues, but often they are not full-time in an institution, but part-time on the job. What we’re beginning to see through some of the emerging churches is that people are finding themselves thrust into leadership. People are exercising leadership before they have training, and they need resources to be delivered in a flexible, relational way.

Leaders are operating in a community where they are well-known, so the leadership is less institutional and more rooted in communities. This seems like a more incarnational approach.

Are there themes of leadership that come up in The Naked Anabaptist?

The title comes from a friend who was visiting with Mennonites in Pennsylvania. They asked, “Why are people in Britain interested in Anabaptism when there’s no Mennonite culture?” and he said, “Oh, you mean naked Anabaptism.”

We’ve needed to produce a book like this for some time, and this title was the catalyst. It’s a straightforward introduction to the Anabaptist tradition as it’s rooted in the British/European context. It’s about being Christian in a post-Christendom world, and lays out Paths to leadership Newly naked 12 n July 2010 the core convictions of the Anabaptist Network, with examples.

One phrase that came from Eleanor Kreider* is “multivoiced worship.” In this book we talk about multi-voiced church: What does it mean to be part of a multivoiced church the way some of the early Anabaptists were, recognizing that leaders should allow for many voices? Another way leadership is discussed is through one of our convictions that roles should be distributed according to gift, not gender.

What about It All Fits Together, the book you’re working on with Mennonite Mission Network’s James Krabill?

It’s still in process, and we hope it will be published at the end of the year by the Institute of Mennonite Studies. Its origins come from recognizing that Alan and Eleanor Kreider have had influence in a lot of places, and the book has about 45 contributions from people across the world in honor of the Kreiders. We invited a variety of people to reflect on the themes of their ministry, and it will be a practitioners’ book—a resource for people to work through questions around these themes.

Stuart Murray Williams began his journey as an Anabaptist in the early 1980s. Involved in a church plant in East London, he began to read about Anabaptistm and then met Alan and Eleanor Kreider, long-time mission workers in the United Kingdom. Murray’s connection with the Kreiders led to a more in-depth exploration of Anabaptism and to his eventual leadership role in the Anabaptist network in the U.K. his most recent book, The Naked Anabaptist, is available through Third Way Media at store.thirdwaymedia.org or through Mennonite Publishing Network at Store.MPN.net. Excerpts are posted at www.thirdway.com.