On The Road
—Journal of the AAANZ—

On The Road was published by the AAANZ between 1998 and 2018.

The editors in 2015 wrote about the journal:

Throughout our history Anabaptists have made use of the day’s popular forms of publication. For the earliest Anabaptists—those who suffered intense persecution from both Protestants and Catholics—this meant embracing the recently invented printing press. The Anabaptists’ opponents could kill their bodies, however because of the proliferation of printing they could not kill their ideas. And the ideas spread; through tracts and pamphlets and other printed materials designed for the average person, their witness about Christ-centred faith and discipleship spread all over Europe.

If today there was an analogous form of publication to the tract, surely it is the blog. In terms of its potential to reach an audience, the blog is quite unprecedented. And so we feel it makes sense for us to adopt this format at this new stage in the life of OTR.

The shift in On The Road‘s format also implies that we believe it is a project that is worth carrying on. In a world that seems to be growing increasingly violent, unequal and divided, and where the church (at least in places like Australia and New Zealand) seems to take an increasingly accommodationist approach to the world’s dislocation, the Anabaptist witness of embracing the radical call to follow Jesus is more relevant than ever.

This does not necessarily mean all Anabaptists agree on everything. Indeed, we [Matt and Doug] already have disagreements with some of the articles we’ve published (and we’ve only just launched)! But Anabaptism is diverse, and we expect such disagreements. More than that, we embrace the diversity of voices that will appear in OTR, and hope to learn from all of them, even those with whom we disagree.

We pray that the writing and reflection that is to come on OTR—the work of all kinds of different folks who share a commitment to the Anabaptist vision—will be faithful to the Way of Jesus, and that it will help you and your networks to more faithfully follow the Way in the midst of a broken world.