What it means to me to be Mennonite

[Neto]

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.

That's pretty far west, so wondering if you are familiar with Russian Mennonite names? If not, you might find that names which are not familiar to you as "Mennonite Background" are, in fact, from the Dutch Mennonite heritage. (Names like Wedel, Thiessen, Classen, Toews, Frantz, Friezen, Berg, Wiebe, Dyck, Dueck, Wolgemuth, Funk, Penner, Winter, Rempel, Grunau, Fast, Goosen, Heinrich, Plett, Braun, Sperling, Quiring, Neufeld, Warkentin, Kroeker, Peters, Epp, Harder, Isaac, Klassen, Ensz, Schroeder, Bartel, Bergen, Wall, Abrams, Willms, Hildebrandt, Richert, Boese, Deutschendorf, Koop, Neufeld(t), and, of course, Buller. That about gets all of my relatives I can think of, although a few of these I do not have in my ancestry.)

[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.

That's pretty far west, so wondering if you are familiar with Russian Mennonite names? If not, you might find that names which are not familiar to you as "Mennonite Background" are, in fact, from the Dutch Mennonite heritage. (Names like Wedel, Thiessen, Classen, Toews, Frantz, Friezen, Berg, Wiebe, Dyck, Dueck, Wolgemuth, Funk, Penner, Winter, Rempel, Grunau, Fast, Goosen, Heinrich, Plett, Braun, Sperling, Quiring, Neufeld, Warkentin, Kroeker, Peters, Epp, Harder, Isaac, Klassen, Ensz, Schroeder, Bartel, Bergen, Wall, Abrams, Willms, Hildebrandt, Richert, Boese, Deutschendorf, Koop, Neufeld(t), and, of course, Buller. That about gets all of my relatives I can think of, although a few of these I do not have in my ancestry.)

Yes, I am familiar with most of them. Spending 23 years in a minute night brother and Church will do that. I even know how to pronounce Rempel.

[haithabu]

Midnight brother and! Hah! Let’s just say MB..

[Bootstrap]

I still think this quote is definitional for me. And it rhymes with the Sermon On The Mount. When we look like this, we are salt and light. When we do not, the salt has lost its flavor.

For true evangelical faith is of such a nature that it cannot lay dormant;
but manifests itself in all righteousness and works of love;
it dies unto flesh and blood;
destroys all forbidden lusts and desires;
cordially seeks, serves and fears God;
clothes the naked;
feeds the hungry;
consoles the afflicted;
shelters the miserable;
aids and consoles all the oppressed;
returns good for evil;
serves those that injure it;
prays for those that persecute it;
teaches, admonishes and reproves with the Word of the Lord;
seeks that which is lost;
binds up that which is wounded;
heals that which is diseased and saves that which is sound.
The persecution, suffering and anxiety which befalls it for the sake of the truth of the Lord, is to it a glorious joy and consolation. [p. 246]

[Neto]

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.

That's pretty far west, so wondering if you are familiar with Russian Mennonite names? If not, you might find that names which are not familiar to you as "Mennonite Background" are, in fact, from the Dutch Mennonite heritage. (Names like Wedel, Thiessen, Classen, Toews, Frantz, Friezen, Berg, Wiebe, Dyck, Dueck, Wolgemuth, Funk, Penner, Winter, Rempel, Grunau, Fast, Goosen, Heinrich, Plett, Braun, Sperling, Quiring, Neufeld, Warkentin, Kroeker, Peters, Epp, Harder, Isaac, Klassen, Ensz, Schroeder, Bartel, Bergen, Wall, Abrams, Willms, Hildebrandt, Richert, Boese, Deutschendorf, Koop, Neufeld(t), and, of course, Buller. That about gets all of my relatives I can think of, although a few of these I do not have in my ancestry.)

Yes, I am familiar with most of them. Spending 23 years in a minute night brother and Church will do that. I even know how to pronounce Rempel.

My paternal grandma was a Rempel. (25 or more of these names are in my known ancestry.)

[JimFoxvog]

To me it's to be a Christian is what counts. To me, this means following the teachings of the New Testament with the focus on what Jesus taught. The Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective does that pretty well. Anabaptist may be a better identification for me-- I may lean more toward the Church of the Brethren, as I think immersion baptism is more biblical and a better symbol than pouring, but the Mennonite churches I've been a member of allow that choice.

Non-violence is central for me. I wondered a long time before I met Mennonites why Christians ignore the command not to swear oaths. Mennonites understand living a life of service to others rather than living for oneself. I appreciate the Mennonite traditions of frugality and simple living.

[Wayne in Maine]

I use the term "Mennonite" to distinguish myself from Amish or Hutterites or other branches of the Anabaptist family tree. Mennonites are not really familiar to folks here in New England anyway. But in any case I'm probably closer in belief to Mennonites (generically) than anyone else. Sorry, I am definitely not "Brethren", though we attended the Church of the Brethren her in Maine for many years, the never "converted" me.