In a final presentation, [Seminary President Paige] Patterson revealed the purpose of a conference “focusing on Anabaptism in a Baptist Context” — namely, to “rejuvenate interest in Baptist life concerning the Radical Reformation.” Patterson expressed his “confidence that, while Baptists owe much to the magisterial Reformation, their own ecclesiastical and theological life mirrors that of some Anabaptists far more than that of the magisterial reformers.”

Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., and author of “The Purpose Driven Life,” says that the 16th-century Anabaptists shaped his Purpose Driven model for the church.

More than 500 students, faculty members and guests from around the world attended the “Anabaptism and Contemporary Baptists” conference at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where Warren joined prominent Anabaptist historian Abraham Friesen as a featured speaker.

Known also as the “Radical Reformers,” 16th-century Anabaptists, such as Menno Simons (the namesake of the modern Mennonite church), Pilgram Marpeck and Balthasar Hubmaier, defended the authority of Scripture, the practice of believer’s baptism and religious liberty. Modern Baptists hold these convictions in common with the Radical Reformers, who for their beliefs often faced persecution and death at the hands of both Catholics and Protestants alike.

“What was so radical about the Radical Reformers?” asked Warren, a graduate from Southwestern, during his presentation. “Today, the word ‘radical’ means ‘extreme,’ ‘over-the-top,’ ‘edgy,’ ‘out-of-bounds,’ ‘extravagant’ and maybe even ‘hip.'”

However, Warren pointed out, the word radical means “of the root,” as portrayed in most areas of life: In Botany, for example, “radical leaves” on a tree are closest to the root; in mathematics, “the radical is the root of the equation;” and in grammar, “the radical is the root with all prefixes and suffixes removed,” he said. In most areas of life, Warren said, “radical” does not mean “extreme.”

“It means ‘rooted,'” he said. “And what we need today are radical reformers who are rooted in Christ, rooted in the Word, rooted in the church and rooted in church history, because what we have today is a generation growing up that is rootless. They are fatherless, and they are rootless, so they get blown around like tumbleweed.”

Like the Radical Reformers of the 16th-century, Warren called Christians to return to the root, “to the New Testament” and to the “apostolic church.”

“For 32 years, we’ve been building Saddleback Church on the lessons I’ve learned from the Anabaptists,” Warren said, describing his own discovery of the Anabaptists and the way he has applied the Anabaptist vision to his church. The Anabaptists have impacted him especially with their emphasis upon the Great Commission in Matthew 28.

“The Anabaptists didn’t just believe in the purpose of the Great Commission,” Warren said, but also in “the exact order of the Great Commission.”

Urging churches to fulfill the Great Commission, Warren added, “The Radical Reformers will increase your zeal for evangelism and world missions. … The roots of global mission are in the Radical Reformers,” who themselves sought to follow this New Testament pattern.

Warren described how the Anabaptist vision of discipleship has shaped Saddleback Church and his own view of discipleship. According to Warren, the Anabaptists taught that discipleship is “incarnational,” making men and women like Christ Jesus; “intentional,” requiring commitment; “incremental,” moving from “‘come and see’ to ‘come and die'”; personal; habitual; relational; and seasonal.

Other speakers included Southwestern Seminary president Paige Patterson and associate professor of systematic theology Malcolm Yarnell, as well as Anabaptist historian Emir Caner, president of Truett McConnell College and former dean of the College at Southwestern. Current and previous doctoral students from the seminary also contributed to the conference.

[Editor’s note: This article is incomplete. The source for this document was originally published on Baptist Press—however, the link (URL) to the original article is unavailable and has been removed.]