Using digital media to encourage allegiance to Jesus’ sacrificial Kingdom.
Our Vision
Using digital media to encourage allegiance to Jesus’ sacrificial Kingdom.
Our Mission
- Describe and defend biblical elements of contemporary Anabaptist lifestyle and theology.
- Promote biblical, historical, and theological discussions about social and cultural issues.
- Publish a rich stream of natively digital media in a variety of formats and on a range of platforms.
- Build and maintain a rich online library.
- Facilitate continued interaction around our content that includes both our audience and content contributors.
Our
Conversations
Anabaptist Perspectives presents conversations which explore a variety of topics surrounding God, the church, and radical discipleship.
Read More →Our
Story
In this video our founders, Jaran and Reagan, reflect on the beginnings of Anabaptist Perspectives, and what makes them excited about Anabaptist Perspectives today.
Watch Now →The Topics We Cover
Tools, techniques, and theology of Bible study and interpretation—anything from the history of the biblical text, to the relationship between the old and new covenants, to profiles of specific study tools.
Biblical exegesis—illuminating exposition of a Biblical book, passage, term, or theme.
Life experience—lessons and observations from the author’s life and endeavors in missions, study, church life, business, parenting, education, and in general doing good.
Philosophy and theology—attempts to understand and describe God and his creation through exploring ideas.
History and culture—attempts to understand our past and present context in terms of events, people, practices, and ideas. This may be the specific context of North American Anabaptists, or something as broad as global history.
Lifestyle, practices, and virtues—suggestions for wise living as individuals and communities or discussions of Christian character.
Our Values and Approach
- We represent Christianity as understood and lived by those who
- Focus on the life and teachings of Jesus,
- Attempt to straightforwardly live out New Testament teachings, both individually and as churches,
- And whose allegiance is to the global, upside down, kingdom of Christ, rather than to national or ethnic identity.
- Views expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect an official position of Anabaptist Perspectives. This project is to encourage discussion and contemplation. However, we recognize the need for discretion as our platform has influence.
- Contributors come primarily from moderately conservative Anabaptist circles. We are open to other contributors who share key beliefs, values, and practices.
- We define the center rather than police the periphery. Rather than defining exact boundaries for which contributors or viewpoints are on Anabaptist Perspectives, we focus on pulling the majority of contributors from squarely within the beliefs, values, and practices we represent.
- Contributors should have the experience, knowledge, and maturity needed for their topic. Credible life experience is important for difficult or contentious topics. A potential contributor’s way of engaging with others, including on social media, is a significant factor.
- We approach contentious topics in the most helpful way we can. We do not want to be inflammatory or “answer a fool according to his folly,” but we do believe in helpful dialogue as well as clear statements when clear statements are needed. Furthermore, we welcome productive conversations between differing viewpoints, but not adversarial debates.
- We attempt an honest, realistic approach to problems in and critiques of Anabaptist beliefs and practices, neither whitewashing problems nor exaggerating them.
Our Reach
“
I’m not sure how I stumbled onto your channel, but I have enjoyed learning about Anabaptist history and the unique perspective Anabaptist’s can provide Christians today. I think a lot of Christians are looking for the “third way” these days because of the polarization of American evangelicalism… I always learn something new, and I look forward to your new videos…
”
Executive Team
Reagan Schrock
Reagan is a member of Wellspring Mennonite Church and lives with his wife Patricia in southeast Tennessee. Reagan, along with Jaran, started Anabaptist Perspectives in 2017, and serves in leadership in the organization, in addition to being deeply involved in overseas missions work.
Marlin Sommers
Marlin and Meredith live with their five precious children in southeast Tennessee. Marlin has been trained in philosophy and carpentry, and enjoys pushing into other areas, such as mechanics and biblical Greek. Marlin works at Kingdom Channels and Anabaptist Perspectives in finance, communications, and other roles that are harder to describe. He is slowly endeavoring to put his public brain on his website, marlin.work.
Jaran Miller
Jaran Miller is a resident of Pennsylvania and a native of Tennessee. He received his K-12 education via homeschool, his college education at Lee University, and his most important education through the books he’s read and the human relationships he’s been privileged to have. Jaran enjoys living with his wife Sara. Together they engage in pursuits like playing the piano, reading books, and developing hospitality skills.
Our Board of Directors
Vinson Miller
Vinson is a member of Wellspring Mennonite Church in Athens, Tennessee. He enjoys his occupation as a small engine repair technician and appreciates spending his evening in a variety of ways.
Luke Helmuth
Luke and his wife Stephanie are from Wellspring Mennonite Church in Athens, TN. Luke stays busy doing residential remodeling, and he enjoys the outdoors.
Kevin Shenk
Kevin Shenk is from York, PA, where he resides with his beautiful wife and four lovely children, and a wonderful church community. He has served in a variety of roles in education, nonprofit and for-profit organizations, including IT, marketing, software development, and administration.
Geryll Zehr
Geryll lives with his wife and four children in Meadville, PA, and is a member at Meadville Mennonite Chapel. He is a small business owner (residential and commercial rental properties), and additionally does video and photography work as a side line.
Duane Wadel
Duane lives in Covington, TX with his wife Joyce, and their three daughters. He is involved with various projects at Osceola Christian Fellowship and enjoys all things A/V and IT related.
Chester Weaver
Chester Weaver has been involved in Christian education for almost all of his adult life, serving as full-time Christian School teacher for 34 years and specializing in history and theology. He also has taught 20 years at short term youth Bible schools. Presently, he and his wife, Barbara, parents of eight children, reside in Itasca, Texas, near two of their sons’ families. One son and two daughters with their families live in California while two more children live in Virginia. One son with his family lives in Ireland.
Byron Miller
Byron Miller owns and operates Miller’s Small Engines of Englewood, Tennessee. He and his wife Carmen are members of Wellspring Mennonite Church.
Our Team
Valonna (Miller) Eby
Subtitles Editor
Valonna Eby lives in Athens, TN with her husband, Myron, and attends Wellspring Mennonite Church. In addition to her role as wife and mother, she enjoys good coffee, mountains, music, and reading.
Myron Eby
Technical Support
Myron Eby is from Tennessee. In addition to his work as an IT technician, he enjoys photography and video production.
Krista Mullet
Publications Assistant
Krista has a heart for people and is involved in various ministries in her church and beyond. She is a member of Sandy Ridge Mennonite Church and lives with her husband and daughter in Goshen, IN where she enjoys creating a cozy space for her family and guests.
Dave Eshbach
Essay’s Manager
Dave enjoys the challenge of managing the essays for Anabaptist Perspectives. For his full-time job he enjoys his work as a Quickbooks Consultant. He is married to Fern and they enjoy their 6 year old son and their life in the city.
Benjamin Good
Audio Narrator
Benjamin is an audio narrator for Essays for King Jesus. He is a teacher and choir director at Sharon Mennonite Bible Institute and has been regularly involved in various Mennonite choirs and conservative singing groups. He lives with his wife and children in Harrisonville, PA.
Austin Schrock
Video Editing and Production
Austin lives in Tennessee, that is, when he isn’t traveling. He enjoys learning especially by reading, as well as using his skillsets to reach people through video production.
Our Process
1. Planning
Before an idea becomes an episode, much work goes into planning the content and finding a guest for the conversation.
2. Filming
Once the episode has been planned, our filming team meets with the guest, either in person or remotely.
3. Editing
Here the episode receives hours of editing, review, and preparation to be released on our platforms.
4. Publishing
In this final step, thumbnails, subtitles, descriptions, and SEO are all developed for a smooth release of the episode.
