Isaac Villegas offers a sermon, “Empire and the Power of Withdrawal” in the opening worship of a mini-conference on “Christian Witness in, but not of, the Empire.” Isaac Villegas is the pastor of Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship in North Carolina, and he teaches seminary classes in prisons with Project TURN.

Conference planners Brian Gumm and Aaron Kauffman describe the conference in this way:

“Anabaptism at its best has been a series of attempts both to live into God’s in-breaking occupation and to faithfully occupy the empires of this fallen age, signaling the shalom to come. Anabaptists have gone about this work by imaginatively patterning their worship and witness after the New Testament communities of Jesus. Come explore ways in which the Anabaptist tradition can help inspire faithful occupation in today’s world. Interdisciplinary academic presentations will be infused with worship and testimonies to open our minds and spirits to where God is calling us into mission in the midst of empire.”