Notes from the Corner - Hospitality Series No. 7 - Anabaptists Missions

Source: Wikimedia Commons

In Mt 10:9-11, Jesus sends out his disciples as the first missionaries with these words: “Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at that person’s house until you leave.” He instructed them to follow in his footsteps, to depend on on hospitality just like the one who “has no place to lay his head” (Mt 8:20).

The first Anabaptists lived Jesus’ words: they depended on the welcome of strangers as they spread the good news. Driven at times by persecution and always by passion to obey their Great Commission, Anabaptist missionaries wandered all over 16th century Europe. Menno Simons lived on the run, going from town to town, wherever folks would welcome him. But Menno was one of a multitude of itinerant witnesses who traveled wherever the Spirit willed and hearts were open. We could tell the stories of Hans Hut, Pilgram Marpeck, Leonhard Schiemer, and Margaret Hottinger. For our ancestors, hospitality was a means for mission.