Our Neighbor’s Faith: Mennonite Church by Pastor Doug Givan for St. Andrew’s and Faith Lutheran churches, from a resource of the same name published by Augsburg Fortress.
On any given Sunday you will find people from the Mennonite faith tradition gathered for worship in over 61 countries! They were originally called “Anabaptists” because when they formed in the time of the Reformation they didn’t think Luther (and another reformer Zwingli) went far enough in their reforms. Conrad Grebel, led this group in an attempt to recover this type of faith in the Christian tradition. They didn’t believe in infant baptism nor the “re-baptizing” of adults. Their lives were in danger because of these beliefs.
Persecution scattered these Anabaptists throughout Europe and in the Netherlands a man named Menno Simons (the name for “Mennonites” comes from his first name) joined the movement in 1536. He served the movement as its leader and evangelist for 25 years. The Amish were a part of this original Anabaptist movement, but they left this movement to further withdraw from the world and have stronger church discipline.
Mennonites believe in the inspiration of the entire Bible and use things like the Apostles Creed occasionally in worship. I have, personally, attended a Mennonite church and noticed their joy in singing! They always had a music/singing leader and sang with beautiful harmonies. Holy Communion was once a quarter in this church and consisted of passing around a basket of crackers and one of grapes! Mennonites believe strongly in that Christian living means working together serving Christ’s work in the world. Amen.
For further study: Mennonite Web Site: www.mennonites.org
