Overheard about the Holy Spirit

“If we don’t give the Holy Spirit an open and enthusiastic invitation in the life of our congregations we are going to be sowing in sterile soil and we will neither be able to evangelize nor give an effective peace and justice testimony.”

—Peter Stucky, MWC executive committee member for Latin America, in a November 2007 presentation on the Holy Spirit in Anabaptist history

“A spiritual gift is not my own property, but belongs to all believers, to the whole church.”

—I.H. Janzen, “The Holy Spirit: his gifts,” MB Herald, Aug. 21, 1964

“We confess that the Holy Ghost is a true, real and personal Spirit, as the Church Fathers called Him, and this in a divine sense, like as the Father is a real father and the Son is a real son.”

—Menno Simons, quoted in the 1902 MB Confession of Faith

“God’s Spirit is not bound by or to tradition.”

—A.J. Klassen, “The Nature of the Holy Spirit,” MB Herald, June 14, 1963

“Scripture recognizes a distinction between the indwelling presence of the Spirit and His fullness. In salvation the believer is the passive recipient of the Spirit. But we are commanded to be actively involved in attaining His fullness.”

—A.J. Klassen, “The Nature of the Holy Spirit,” MB Herald, June 14, 1963

“Correct theology, even Anabaptist theology, without experiential knowledge of Christ through the Holy Spirit leaves the Church impotent.”

—John B. Toews at the 1967 Mennonite World Conference