In this message, Benji Grant challenges us as men to consider the most important vocation we could pursue: giving our lives and time to raise up a godly offspring. This may mean a radical change of lifestyle or even willingness to give up what we might consider a normal job.

Though initially caught up in his own vocation and sports, Benji felt God’s call to forsake these things for a higher vision—the vision of a godly home and family.

This chorus of 150+ youth attendees of KFW 2026 praised the Lord in song together.

The story of Mark’s life & marriage, a story of mistakes and failure, is also a story of God’s grace and mercy. Everyone has hurts and things that are not pleasant. Many Bible characters have gone through much pain from others—there are those that have been put through many different situations that they themselves could not help.

Forgiveness, Repentance and Acceptance are God’s way of dealing with hurts and wrongful situations whether of our own doing or otherwise. If we will embrace these qualities we will find God’s grace to be sufficient for our healing and His mercy to be beyond our deserving.

In this panel moderated by Ken Miller, three long-married couples who wed as teenagers share lessons from a combined 149 years of marriage.

Merle Burkholder describes learning to communicate through weekly talk nights, monthly dates, and anniversary retreats where he and Edith planned for each child’s growth. Mark Brubaker explains that personality differences are God-given and, when valued, sharpen and enrich a marriage. Donald Brechbill presents marriage as a picture of Christ’s grace-filled covenant, urging spouses to let marriage change them and to make time to get away together.

In the Q&A, the panel addresses child discipline, in-law tensions, why couples marry later today, supporting singles, spanking and gentle parenting, meeting a spouse, the timing of children, and healing past wounds.

Their closing advice: enjoy each stage of marriage, listen to understand, let husbands take responsibility, and fight Satan together through shared prayer rather than fighting each other.

God has a reason for everything He allows in our lives. Grant Bontrager tells the story of his conception, birth, and adoption. When he was twelve years old his father told him the truth about his life and how he came to be. For many years Grant couldn’t understand why God permitted him to experience the things that he did and what to do with all his questions and pain.

Finally, through some biblical counseling Grant was able to work through his pain and bring his questions to Jesus! It was during this time that he heard a calling from God to go share his story in prisons and churches.

Speaking to women on the role of a godly wife and mother, Ann says her real focus is simply being godly, which she frames as living “a testimony of grace.” She shares her story: married to Mark at nineteen, she faced eight dysfunctional years after he left God for sin, yet she held onto hope. His deep repentance ultimately strengthened their marriage, and those years gave her compassion for others.

She admits fresh trials, including a lawsuit and chronic pain, and draws on Paul’s thorn in 2 Corinthians 12 to argue that our “if onlys” are opportunities to display God’s strength. Such a testimony matters because we exist to glorify God, wield real influence, and should make Jesus attractive. She encourages women to love their roles, see the Proverbs 31 woman as attainable through fear of the Lord, and “just be sweet.”

She closes by urging honesty with God, obedience, and meekness as paths to peace.

The Bible is the story of God working through men who took God at his word and ordered their life accordingly. Men whose lives are ordered by God have altered the course of human history. The eyes of God run throughout the whole earth to find one whose heart is perfect. What does it mean to be a man who lives by Kingdom values in a world that is averse to the ways of God? How do we resist modern feminism? By being men of God and the leaders God has called us to be!

In this message our speaker explores several Biblical principles that define men of the kingdom, specifically as pertaining to the home and marriage.

God has a special place in His heart for widows and orphans. Throughout the Bible we see many important people raised as adopted children. Moses, Samuel, Esther, King Joash, and many others. God has adopted us into His family and we should be prepared to do foster care and adoption too. There is no person or child that God doesn’t have a plan for.

Merle tells a personal story about a child they took care of and Edith’s continued prayers for her even after she left their home. The power of a praying mother cannot be completely comprehended.

Driven by a youthful fascination with airplanes, Vince fulfilled his dream to be an Air Force pilot. But his focus on his career led to a tragic disruption of his marriage.

However, through Jesus Christ, he found salvation and the restoration of his marriage. He and his wife Charlette’s long search for a Biblical church was fulfilled in an Anabaptist community. His desire to serve led him to the Christian Aid Ministry’s SALT program which paved the way to share the Gospel in eleven countries.

His unique life’s story is captured in the book entitled Committed.

It is possible to do a lot of good things, humanly speaking, with the arm of the flesh. But it takes the power of Christ to live the Christian life. God wants us to come to the place that we cry out to Him. We must start out on the foundation of faith in God.

The problem of the ages is not immorality or money but rather those that are trying to live the Christian life without power. Those who get desperate, like Blind Bartimaeus, those who cry out, will find Jesus!

Brother, sister, respected friend, have you paused to examine carefully this faith that is being highlighted again and again over these days?

This message will take a fast flight over human history from the book of Genesis until now and look again at the foundations of this FAITH! The just shall LIVE by faith… and that wasn’t just the idea of Luther and the reformers, it IS the Word of God! But wait, LIVE by faith? Is this a concept… or a life changing reality? And, as the old song states: will it “do when I am dying?”

Fallow ground is unprepared, unseeded, and unattended. It is both neglected and hardened, unable to reach its full potential. Fallow ground speaks of missed purpose, lukewarmness, apathy and slothfulness. Count on it… fallow ground never leads to abundant fruitfulness.

The call to break up fallow ground was not given to the heathen nations, but to God’s people. Repentance was the first message of Jesus as He began His preaching ministry. It is more than a one-time experience in becoming saved. Repentance is a way of life for those living in the light and are bearing glorious fruit for God.

This chorus of 150+ youth attendees of KFW 2025 praised the Lord in song together.

The theme of the panel discussion is taken from 1 Corinthians 16:13.

“Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.”

—1 Corinthians 16:13, KJV

Each panelist focuses on one phrase, then wrestle through questions. Following are the four topics:

• “Watch Ye” by Harold Troyer, Belleville, PA
• “Stand Fast in the Faith” by Brandon Byler, Shippensburg, PA
• “Quit You Like Men” by Harry Argo, Virginia Beach, VA
• “Be Strong” by Kai Steinmann, Burkesville, KY

Tradition is a system of beliefs or expected behaviors passed down within a group of people with symbolic meaning or special significance…customs, ethics, values, norms, heritage and culture are nearly synonymous terms.

Traditionalism refers to a profound distrust of anything that would alter or interfere with maintaining traditions. In the extreme, this behavior becomes “reactionary,” that is, an opposition to (and rejection of) any and all innovations that cause traditions to be modified or lost.

Anabaptist commitment to a cultural heritage has been a two-edged sword. It has been a tremendous blessing… insulating our churches from many damaging societal influences… “a friend to grace to help us on to God.”

Clearly, though, an unhealthy preoccupation with the past can diminish our ability to portray the glory of Christ. It can distract us (and the watching world) from His Gospel. It can damage our compelling portrayal of His kingdom.

This sermon will attempt to consider an answer to Francis Schaeffer’s pressing question: “How, then, shall we live?”

As the focus of this conference will include the inspiring history of some courageous young men in the 1500s who took a tough stand for clear principles of the Word of God, this message for youth will jump back a few centuries earlier and gain courage and inspiration from a boy in the Bible. This boy stood firmly with faith in his God in a very absorbing and challenging cultural setting that was not entirely unlike ours today. Will you?

Asked what 500 years of Anabaptism has retained or lost, Kai Steinmann says he can't judge that for his audience. Instead he uses the Schleitheim Confession as a baseline for their self-examination, urging them out of the "middle of the road" and into God's will. On baptism, he insists there is no true baptism without faith, death to self, and incorporation into Christ's body, the church.

On excommunication, drawing on Menno Simons, he argues that neglecting the ban is a failure of love. It must be a function of the church, reserved for the unrepentant, follow biblical timelines, and aim at restoration rather than serve as a weapon.

He calls for clear separation from the world, rejects "freedom in Christ" as license, and describes ministers as servant-protectors.

Finally, citing Münster, Mennonite support for Hitler, and rising nationalism, he warns that political entanglement always harms the church, asking whether Anabaptists kept the name but lost Christ.

Marking Anabaptism's 500th anniversary, Chester Weaver traces the shared roots of the Swiss Brethren (including the Amish), Dutch-Russian Mennonites, Brethren, and Hutterites. He argues that the movement's core is wholeness: when the Holy Spirit works freely, faith and life, belief and practice, are united.

This rejects both Catholic sacramentalism and a Protestant faith that leaves life unchanged. Drawing on Michael Sattler, he contrasts servile obedience with filial obedience and warns that many churches have settled into fear-driven fundamentalism. He highlights gelassenheit, the yielded spirit that made martyrs' deaths compelling, and recounts Hans Landis forgiving his executioner. He also confesses shameful chapters, including Münster, Mennonite complicity with Nazism, and separating money-making from faith.

After reviewing key leaders and migrations, he names shared essentials: Christ and Scripture as authority, believers' baptism, discipleship, church-state separation, and two-kingdom theology. He fears these, especially two-kingdom theology, are eroding and urges their recovery.

In this message, Harry Argo shares how reading the Bible brought him to conviction and a changed life, then asks whether Christians are missing the Holy Spirit. He argues that the Spirit’s work is not emotional manipulation, spectacular experiences, or mere knowledge, but lasting conviction that turns people toward Jesus.

Warning that false spiritual claims cause real harm, he recounts a cancer patient confused by a false prophecy and points to Acts 5 on the gravity of lying to the Spirit. Surveying the Gospels, he shows that John the Baptist and Jesus promised the Spirit as a comforter who abides with believers and testifies to Christ. The Spirit’s central work is to reveal Jesus.

Argo criticizes “check-the-box” conversions and easy-believism, which can produce imitation without transformation, and contrasts them with the repentance and bold witness seen at Pentecost. He closes by urging honest, obedient prayer that seeks Christ and the Spirit’s renewed work.

What would come to be called the “Radical Reformation or Anabaptism” began in a time of unrest and upheaval. The medieval traditions and the authority of the established church were being challenged by many voices and ideas.

How could someone know the truth in such a chaotic and confusing time? If the traditional medieval church model was corrupted, should it be reformed or completely rebuilt? How should the Scriptures be interpreted and applied to give the right direction? By what process would believers determine God’s direction for their lives and how would they counsel other believers?

Those decisions were important, because they would live, and perhaps die, by what they believed and by whose voice they chose to follow.