About Conference 2025 - Radical Renewal: Witnessing to a New Heaven and a New Earth - Join us in Amsterdam at the 20th Believers Church Conference!

Background

Believers Church Conferences (BCC) have been held on a regular basis since 1967. The last and 19th was in January 2023 in Raleigh, NC, USA. At that conference it was decided that the 20th conference will be held in Amsterdam in 2025. The choice for Amsterdam has a number of reasons:

Although the first conference in 1967 was in Louisville (Kentucky), USA, the original initiative for these conferences was taken in the early 1960s by the then rectors of the Mennonite and Baptist seminaries in the Netherlands, respectively, Johannes Oosterbaan and Jannes Reiling
The Netherlands in general and Amsterdam specifically play an important role in the beginning of the Anabaptist (Menno Simons) and Baptist (John Smyth) movement
Teun van der Leer (Amsterdam) wrote his PhD on the Story of the Believers Church Conferences in 2021 at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam
Baptists (Unie-ABC) and Mennonites (ADS) in the Netherlands, together with the International Baptist Theological Study Centre in Amsterdam and the Faculty of Religion and Theology (FRT) of the Vrije Universiteit (VU) and its Amsterdam Center for Religion and Peace & Justice Studies in Amsterdam, will host and sponsor the conference, with the Acadia Center for Baptist and Anabaptist Studies in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada, as co-sponsor.

Theme: Radical Renewal?
Witnessing to a “New Heaven and a New Earth”

In times of major crisis and systemic injustices, the question arises, how “radical” the children of the “Radical Reformation” are – after 500 years – in terms of their participation in the promised renewal of all, as imagined in Revelations 21:

„Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ (Isa 65:17) for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ (Isa 25:8) or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” (Revelations 21:1-5a)

New societal, political, digital, and environmental developments are challenging the global human family altogether as well as our different societies in different ways and expressions – depending on the specific contextual situation. BC are present in these contexts and try to witness to the Good News as a counter reality to injustices, violence, and the vast destruction of creation they are part of. Newer theological and ethical reflections, biblical studies, and historical re-visits mirror this movement for renewal. From postcolonial hermeneutics to environmental ethics, from gender studies to new ways of being Church, contributions from the perspectives of the BC around the world re-visit their free-church-tradition in order to contribute to the wider ecumenical debate and to the societal discourses.

The 20th BCC invites these contributions to be discussed and tested among the participants. It is a space for encounter and common discernment, a place for prayer and celebration, a space for touching wounds and healing – North and South, East and West – in the presence of a promised and confessed “new heaven and a new earth”.

Principles and Purposes

Ecumenical

With the starting point of a clear and solid own identity, the BCCs have always been aimed at ecumenical encounter and enrichment. BCCs are ecumenical conferences. Amsterdam 2025 wants to continue this tradition.

International

The BCC in the early decades were predominantly North American with a small European contribution. Sporadically there were also participants from other continents. Amsterdam 2025 focuses on receiving participants from all continents where Believers Churches (BC) are present.

Multi-racial and multi-cultural

While white 40+ male persons covered by far the majority at the BCCs in the first decades, a more divers participation of people of different ages, gender and ethnic backgrounds has grown over the years, particularly in the 21st century. Amsterdam 2025 expressly strives to continue this progression. Young voices from underprivileged contexts and positions will be given priority.

Planning Committee

Dr. Andrés Pacheco Lozano

Research assistant to the Chair of Peace Theology and Ethics at the Faculty of Religion and Theology at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, lecturer at the Dutch Mennonite Seminary,

Henk Stenvers

Medical doctor and former general secretary of the Dutch Mennonite Conference (2001-2020). Secretary of the Deacons Commission of Mennonite World Conference (2012-2022). President of Mennonite World Conference (2022-present).

Prof. Dr. Miranda Klaver

Professor Anthropology of Religion at the Faculty of Religion and Theology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Enoh Šeba

Director of the International Baptist Theological Study Centre (IBTS) in Amsterdam. He obtained his Master's degree from IBTS and subsequently completed his PhD at Spurgeon's College (University of Chester).

Jaap Brüsewitz MA

Born and raised in Utrecht in a Mennonite family. As a pastor’s kid started to study theology at Amsterdam University in 1971.

Prof. Dr. Henk Bakker

Full professor at the James Wm. McClendon Chair for Baptistic and Evangelical Theologies at the Faculty of Religion and Theology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Co-Editor of Amsterdam Studies in Baptist and Mennonite Theology (ASBMT), and author of amongst others Henk Bakker en Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte (eds.), Dan liever dood! Over martelaren en hun religieuze motieven (Amsterdam University Press, 2022)

Prof. Dr. Fernando Enns

Born 1964 in Curitiba/Brazil, ordained in the Association of Mennonite Congregations in Germany, since 2018, Professor for “Peace Church Theology” at the Department for Protestant Theology, University of Hamburg/Germany (Endowed Chair), since 2006 (Founding) Director of the Center for Peace Church Theology. Since 2011, Professor for [Peace-] Theology and Ethics at the Faculty of Religion and Theology at Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam/The Netherlands

Dr. Teun van der Leer

Tutor at the Baptist Seminary, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is the editor of Seeds of the Church: Towards an Ecumenical Baptist Ecclesiology (Cascade, 2022) and the author of Looking in the Other Direction. The Story of the Believers Church Conferences (Pickwick, 2023).

dr. Johannes Riphagen, MA

Rector of the Dutch Baptist Seminary in Amsterdam and a researcher at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He earned his PhD at the VU with a dissertation titled Church-in-the-Neighbourhood: A Spatio-Theological Ethnography of Protestant Christian Place-Making in the Suburban Context of Lunetten, Utrecht.

Believers Church Conference 2025

Background

Theme: Radical Renewal?
Witnessing to a “New Heaven and a New Earth”