Sign in Subscribe

Pete Kauffman

https://petekauffman.org/

Let's begin

Update: About a year and half ago, we decided to take a break. There were some life changes among the writers and editors and a need for some restructuring. We are back and plan to begin publishing again. We will not be posting on a schedule but will be sending

Sacred Work

The happiest man is he who loves his enemies and enjoys his work. -Unknown These are heady times in which it seems anyone who can think and labor simultaneously can stay financially solvent, and by all appearances, even the thinking part is negotiable. Like other modern marvels, it’s easy

Letter from the Editor: A Reset for The Trailhead

Early on May 1, 2020, I hit the “publish” button on The Trailhead’s first essay and we were off. Josh Engbretson and I, both backwoods scribblers, wanted something that could be fun and serious. We wanted a spectrum of writers across Anabaptism. Josh scraped up a disparate selection of

The Flesh of Faith

(Part 2 of 2) Bend the mind with me for a bit, and let’s pretend Christian theological authority was established beyond reasonable doubt to the entire world. All the philosophical, scientific, and historical debates would have been definitively settled. Leaving aside questions as to whether this is possible or

The Bones of Faith

(Part 1 of 2) Granted, most of us aren’t regularly debating atheists or even other Christians. I’m from the hill country of Kentucky where the people we work to reach are not the type to have intellectual problems. Whether or not God is an organism who casts a

The Hunting Christian

We hunted. When I attempt to trace the origins of this part of family culture back to the beginning, I do not know where it began. Perhaps it was because my father told stories of hunting the Tuscarora Mountain in Pennsylvania. How they would arrive at the foot of the

Asceticism, That Christian Virtue

“Asceticism is for the monks,” you say? Fine, I suggest we need some Anabaptist monks so they can give us a report from the outside. “It’s like beating your head against the wall,” I've been told. Beating your head against a wall does burn calories, and it

Keep Thy Internet with All Diligence

The internet has problems a Pollyanna couldn’t miss, but the trouble with human nature is when a problem is embedded into something we like, we have a hard time knowing where to stop. But hope is a virtue—which means we should have it—so I am trying to

To Boldly Go in Ignorance

There is no l in the word chimney. Most people say they remember what they were doing when they heard the news of 9/11; I remember where I was standing when I discovered there is no l in chimney. It was on a box in the basement with the

Why I Still Go to Church

I would make a fabulous hypocrite. It would, in fact, be easier than finding my way among the carnivorous heathen. Growing up saturated in the language of Anabaptism, I know about the Articles of Faith, have listened carefully to the necessity of obedience, and can even share a devotional now