Click here to read Press Release for the documentary.

cultivating a relevant community through conversation

Bikemovement is a group of young adults that rode bicycles across the USA from July 10 to August 25, 2006 as an initiative to engage open conversation regarding their visions and perspectives for the church.  “Our vision is to provide a responsive, relevant and bridge-building space for young adults to engage open conversation,” states project coordinator David Landis of Harleysville, PA.

Touring participants creatively recorded and summarized the group’s conversations with individuals and congregations en route on a dynamic website, inviting others to respond and dialog.  Persons were welcome to join the touring group at any time, which will stopped at various Mennonite churches across the country, sharing and engaging transformative conversation.  The journey began at Bay City, Oregon and traveled through Mennonite population centers including Kalona, IA, Elkhart, IN, Bluffton and Orrville, OH, Lancaster and Souderton, PA as well as major urban areas like Portland, OR, Omaha, Chicago and Philadelphia, ending at Ocean City, New Jersey.

Participants hope to inspire through movement and conversation within national and global church communities.  The journey was a call for the church to reemerge as a movement rather than an institution.   Sarah Thompson, of Elkhart, IN and student at Spelman College in Atlanta, explains, “Our future in the church is linked to the future of the church globally.  We aim to connect groups of young people across the country and the world to think about how they conceptualize church and the message of Jesus in their lives.”  Thompson cycled with bikemovement as the AMIGOS representative from North America.

The Global Youth Summit at Mennonite World Conference (MWC) in Zimbabwe 2003 was a platform for conversation within the diverse youth of the global Anabaptist church.  Bikemovement’s goal is to support emerging young leaders as they gather for broader conversation at the next summit in Paraguay 2009.  Working with the MWC AMIGOS committee, bikemovement participants hope to raise $50,000 of the $100,000 goal.  This money will bring Anabaptist youth from the global south to share their visions for the future of the international church.

May 12, 2006
Updated September 14, 2006