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Question 2

The quote attributed to Ed Landis was, “Only those churches that have no history have no mistakes”; how does that statement confront the modern impulse to “reinvent the wheel,” and where do you see your own church repeating old Anabaptist problems precisely because it refuses to learn from them?

Another way to ask: How does “only churches with no history have no mistakes” challenge the idea that we should start over from scratch? Where do you see your church repeating old Anabaptist mistakes because it won’t learn from the past?

Direct Answer Dean Taylor uses that quote to challenge the pride of acting like we’re the first Christians to face modern problems; a church that “reinvents the wheel” often repeats old failures because it refuses the humility of learning from history. The transcript suggests we repeat the same identity and community crises when we ignore how earlier Anabaptists struggled in similar “easy” settings.

Support from Transcript:

Dean quotes (attributed to Ed Landis): “Only those churches that have no history have no mistakes.”
He says without history “you also don’t have anything to lean on to learn from.”
He critiques today’s tendency of “always continually reinventing the wheel,” and says he sees it in “your communities as well as…mine.”
He ties past failures to present ones: Dutch divisions remind him of “my own…churches”; politics in Russian Mennonites mirrors “our people” today.
He highlights a repeated problem: “maintain community and mission…we stressed with that all today.”

Discussion Follow-ups What Anabaptist “wheel” have you tried to reinvent—community, discipline, mission, or nonresistance? Where would listening to earlier warnings change how you’re making decisions now?

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