What it means to me to be Mennonite

[haithabu]

Mennonites cover such a range of beliefs and practices that one might wonder if there is any common core left. I see two common elements though which I think still apply to most groups:

1) The tribal glue which is (almost literally) the spilled blood of the our forefathers and their shared experience of persecution, abuse, exclusion and exile. This folk memory is transmitted down to many of us through family stories and histories and it is a very strong binding element, to many even more significant than their forebears' actual faith.

2) Jesus as the new Moses - in spite of its sometimes convoluted ramifications our orthopraxy ultimately centers around the Sermon on the Mount.


I share those elements though I have been worshipping outside the Menno community for the last 19 years. One thing I do NOT do though is refer to the "Mennonite" faith. Mennonites should be seen as Christians pure and simple though with a unique set of normatives.

[Josh]

Mennonites cover such a range of beliefs and practices that one might wonder if there is any common core left. I see two common elements though which I think still apply to most groups:

1) The tribal glue which is (almost literally) the spilled blood of the our forefathers and their shared experience of persecution, abuse, exclusion and exile. This folk memory is transmitted down to many of us through family stories and histories and it is a very strong binding element, to many even more significant than their forebears' actual faith.

Since my forefathers weren't Mennonites, this doesn't mean very much to me. My forefathers went and fought in World War II, and before that, in European conflicts.

Whereas my wife can trace her ancestry to a Swedish mercenary who heard the gospel message whilst on vacation in (I think) Friesland, decided to be baptised, and eventually became a deacon. That was in the 1700s and the legend is still told today.

2) Jesus as the new Moses - in spite of its sometimes convoluted ramifications our orthopraxy ultimately centers around the Sermon on the Mount.

That is much closer to my experience.

I share those elements though I have been worshipping outside the Menno community for the last 19 years. One thing I do NOT do though is refer to the "Mennonite" faith. Mennonites should be seen as Christians pure and simple though with a unique set of normatives.

Yet Mennonites and "Christians" are obviously not the exact same thing, and such is obvious to others, particularly when dealing with conservative Mennonites. (And having formerly been in non-Mennonite circles where some ex-plain people decided to be, even ex-plain people bring a unique and distinctive outlook with them, one that is quite off-putting to those of who are not ex-plain at all.)

[mennonitemom1]

I think of Mennonites as having the true gospel as being carried out through time from the Apostles to the early church fathers to the Waldenses to the radical reformation to where we are now… I was pleasantly surprised when I did my family tree to find my ancestors were AnaBaptist that came here to avoid persecution in France….

I also think that the congregation I’m in now is just how conservative Christians were before they quit covering and started dressing immodestly…,

I think the Holdemans in particular are very reminiscent of Paul’s epistles as it’s the only church I’ve been to that has the layman’s evening where one person brings a song, and then another shares a story, someone else may have an experience to share etc etc… people are given liberty to address everyone as they feel the spirit leading…. The energy is wonderful, and I love church!

[mennonitemom1]

Jesus said “people will know you’re my disciples by the love you have for each other…” and that’s how to really recognize his disciples to this day….

[Bootstrap]

Mennonites cover such a range of beliefs and practices that one might wonder if there is any common core left. I see two common elements though which I think still apply to most groups:

1) The tribal glue which is (almost literally) the spilled blood of the our forefathers and their shared experience of persecution, abuse, exclusion and exile. This folk memory is transmitted down to many of us through family stories and histories and it is a very strong binding element, to many even more significant than their forebears' actual faith.

2) Jesus as the new Moses - in spite of its sometimes convoluted ramifications our orthopraxy ultimately centers around the Sermon on the Mount.

I share those elements though I have been worshipping outside the Menno community for the last 19 years. One thing I do NOT do though is refer to the "Mennonite" faith. Mennonites should be seen as Christians pure and simple though with a unique set of normatives.

Good list. I would add:

3) Centrality of the Sermon on the Mount.
4) Focus on the Kingdom of God.
5) Centrality of love for God and love for neighbor.

[Neto]

I'm still trying to figure out how I ended up taking a Biblicist approach to determining doctrine, but something in this thread rang an old bell for me. I remember now how, as a fairly young teen, I got interested in eschatology. Well, it WAS all the rage in the early 70's.... Anyway, I began reading a lot of my Dad's old commentaries, talking with my pastor, etc. What I found was that the common views changed drastically after 1948, when Israel became a nation, the thing that no older commentator seemed to have thought remotely possible. It wasn't long before my own study lead me to believe that even if the Scripture DOES teach that Israel will be a nation again, it was doubtful that the events of 1948 were the fulfillment of this. (I became nearly certain of this by the mid to late 70's, so it is no recent conclusion for me.) The reason I mention this in connection with Biblicism is that their error, I believe, is being too quick to interpret current events as the fulfillment of prophecy.

I was in some sense pretty much an "Evangelical" Mennonite at that stage, but I do remember reading an article in Christianity Today back in that era that brought me to the startling realization that I really WASN'T an Evangelical.

So for me, the one thing that drew me in beyond being Mennonite in name & heritage only was the tenacity with which Menno Simons held to the maxim that Scripture is our authority for all matters of faith and practice, but with I Cor 3:11 as his "life verse" - There is No foundation at all beside the one that has already been laid down for us - which is Jesus the Christ of God. It is Scripture which tells us who Jesus was, and IS. So w/o Scripture, we cannot know him. But yet Scripture (if personified) does not become self-focused or puffed up about that, but ALWAYS turns it's focus onto the Christ. That, to me, is what it means to be Mennonite.

[Ernie]

But yet Scripture (if personified) does not become self-focused or puffed up about that, but ALWAYS turns it's focus onto the Christ. That, to me, is what it means to be Mennonite.

And to me... The underlined states what it means to be a Christian. Anything else is an imposter.

[Josh]

But yet Scripture (if personified) does not become self-focused or puffed up about that, but ALWAYS turns it's focus onto the Christ. That, to me, is what it means to be Mennonite.

And to me... The underlined states what it means to be a Christian. Anything else is an imposter.

I hesitate to say that everyone who doesn’t live by Anabaptist principles isn’t “Christian”.

[mennonitemom1]

It is Scripture which tells us who Jesus was, and IS. So w/o Scripture, we cannot know him.

John 14:21
“He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”

[haithabu]

I share those elements though I have been worshipping outside the Menno community for the last 19 years.

And now I am back in the Mennonite community - sort of. Since moving to Calgary my wife and I have started attending an Evangelical Missionary church which was a Missionary Church of Canada congregation prior to the denomination's merger with the Evangelical Church. So it has Swiss Brethren roots. However it gets more convoluted than that. This particular congregation which was aging out secured a new lease on life by fusing with a Pentecostal church plant about 20 years ago. It retains dual membership in both the Evangelical Missionary Church and the Apostolic Church of Pentecost Canada.

Today it is a vibrant, Bible-centred, evangelically oriented church with a strong multicultural flavour. It has gained a lot of new attenders since it reopened from lockdown and was packed out last Sunday. But I have yet to meet anyone with a "legacy" Mennonite family name.