Mennonite Weekly Review

Denominations don’t matter anymore, surveys say. Whatever draws people to church, a name brand isn’t it.

What does this mean for Mennonites? Our brand occupies a narrow niche. It’s splintered into dozens of pieces. Outsiders misunderstand it. Insiders disagree on whether the Mennonite name is a burden or a blessing.

It’s time to claim the blessing. Mennonites’ unconventional identity is an asset — even, or perhaps especially, in a time of waning denominational loyalty.

Several years ago a pastor wrote about switching his ordination credentials from Mennonite to Methodist. After the ceremony that formalized the transfer, a Methodist pastor told him, “Don’t ever stop being a Mennonite. If you stop being a Mennonite, you won’t do us any good.”

The Methodist pastor was right. If we forget who we are, we’ll just blend in with American evangelical Christianity. Our unique witness will be lost.

Yes, nondenominational and mainline Christians are doing a lot of good too. The point is, Mennonites can be different in a positive way, influential beyond our numbers. We can be leaven in the loaf, salt that adds savor. We shouldn’t trade that gift for the comfort of conformity.

Baptist pastor and theologian Greg Boyd calls this cherishing your treasure. He believes countless Christians and spiritual seekers hunger for the kind of faith Anabaptists discovered centuries ago: one that imitates Jesus, that rejects violence and loves enemies, that bears each other’s burdens, that lives by values in contrast to the world’s, that places loyalty to the kingdom of God above allegiance to any nation.

People like Boyd are rooting for us to keep on swimming against the cultural tide, not dive into the mainstream.

How will others notice this treasure? How can we be vessels worthy of carrying it? Perhaps like this: Mennonites, in addition to the attractive qualities listed above, could be known as people who live together in harmony.

That would play against type. We’ve earned our reputation as splitters. Mennonite subgroups have mushroomed to more than 50. When we accomplished a rare merger — of the Mennonite Church and General Conference Mennonite Church in 2002 — dozens of congregations dropped out. Conflicts over homosexuality and women in ministry continue to expose the tension between congregational freedom and conference authority.

Twenty years ago in Normal, Ill., MC and GC delegates voted to explore a union, completed 13 years later in the founding of Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada. They voiced a hopeful vision: “We believe it is the will of God to heal the part of our history which is a story of division and conflict.”

That spirit of healing needs a revival. It begins individually and locally. Churchwide harmony grows from the ground up. Oneness at every level depends on putting Christ at the center. Eph. 4:16 describes a body joined in Christ “as each part does its work.” Each of us — every person, every congregation — has a unique role in maintaining the body’s bond of peace.

A church that can do that is a denomination that still matters.