Mennonites are members of the Mennonite Church, an Anabaptist Church with a strong emphasis on community connections, public service, and pacifism. They believe in a return to scriptural authority and the early church as a model. Mennonites are known for their disaster relief efforts and involvement in peace and social justice issues. They seek to live a simple life and contribute to their Church and community. Some Mennonites prefer to keep to themselves, while others are happy to discuss their faith and religious beliefs.
A Mennonite is someone who belongs to the Mennonite Church, an Anabaptist Church that has been in operation since the 1500s, or who grew up in a church community. These individuals can be found all over the world, often in close-knit and very friendly communities, and their religious traditions place a strong emphasis on community connections, public service, and pacifism. As with many Christian sects, members express their beliefs in a wide variety of ways; some Old Order Mennonites, for example, strive to live simply by rejecting modern technology and dressing simply, while Moderates live relatively ordinary lives, with nothing outwardly to distinguish them from friends and neighbors.
The Anabaptist movement in the Church was part of a greater upheaval in the Christian community known as the Reformation. The policies of the Reformation were extremely complex, but essentially boiled down to a difference of opinion with the dominant Catholic Church, leading to the creation of numerous other Christian sects. Many of these sects, including the Anabaptists, emphasized a return to scriptural authority and the early church as a model.
Anabaptists were called by this name because of their beliefs about baptism. They felt that instant indoctrination into the Church at a young age with baptism was contrary to early church customs, when people came to the church later in life, making an active choice to embrace Christian values. Mennonites share this belief, using baptism as a believer’s confession and modeling their behavior on that modeled by the early Christian church. This branch of the community takes its name from Menno Simmons, a religious leader who lived in the 1500s; in the late 1600s, the Mennonites experienced a deep split that led to the creation of the Amish community.
Many people are familiar with Mennonite organizations that offer disaster relief, and members of this church have become world-renowned for their rapid response to things like hurricanes, earthquakes, and wildfires. Many are also involved in issues of peace and social justice, as a natural extension of their non-resisting, pacifist values. They also seek to live a simple life, contributing to their Church and community and refusing the accumulation of material wealth and possessions.
In areas with a strong Mennonite community, Church-run schools can be found, and members are often very active in their religious community and in the wider outside world. In other regions, Old Order Mennonites prefer to keep to themselves, and some very conservative sects will ostracize people who choose to reject the church after being baptized. Many members are happy to discuss their faith and religious beliefs with curious people, and some churches welcome people who are exploring their faith at services and social events.
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