I’ve been dipping again into the Anabaptist record. A piece by Alan Kreider took me particularly hard. He wrote, “The church has nothing to offer to the world other than what it has learned to live in its own ‘domestic’ life.”

It isn’t information; it isn’t principles; it isn’t laws and regulations that’s going to make a difference, but how we live our lives before and with others. And this how we live is largely a product of our reflexes, Alan Kreider goes on to say.

Our reflexes, like our values and deep convictions, are shaped by the people with whom we share at the deepest level and with whom we have the deepest ties.

Who shapes you? Who trains your reflexes? Your church? Your family and friends? Or commercials on TV, films, soaps? If it is your church, does your church shape you to demonstrate— in your individual reflexes as in your common life— the teachings and way of Jesus to the world?

According to a note at the end of the article, Alan Kreider is director of the Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture at Regent’s Park College, Oxford. The whole article, “Is a Peace Church Possible?: The Church’s ‘Domestic’ Life,” is on the Anabaptist Network here.