Mennonite Weekly Review

Ever had to explain to a non-Mennonite what one is? Most often in my experience, I have found answering this question difficult because I don’t know where to start, what details to include or what to leave out. Do I start with Menno Simons? Persecution? Pacifism? Hymn singing?

Krabill

It would be an interesting exercise to explain the relationship between the following three words: Mennonite, Anabaptist, Christian. In fact, I think this should be part of the job description for all church leaders and a discussion in every Sunday school class.

How you articulate the relationship between each word reveals a lot about how you tell the Mennonite story.

Let me explain.

There could be any number of ways to reconcile these terms. But my guess is that many of us “ethnics” get bogged down in telling the story to the point that one of the details we leave out, intentionally or not, is the word “Christian.”

I could be wrong, but I feel like some of this ambiguity about the term “Christian” is indicative of the experience of some in my generation of young adults who would claim a Mennonite identity but not necessarily a Christian one.

And here is my point. This isn’t just an oversight on our part. It reflects deep-seated historical tendencies toward counterculturalism and is indicative of a crisis in mainstream North American Mennonitism.

Part of the problem is that we can be so thoroughly Mennonite that we are no longer Christian. Culturally, this is actually possible, since Amstutzes, Yoders and many others represent ethnic clans with historical ties to Europe.

Theologically, however, this is a serious problem. Mennonites are sometimes so inherently oppositional that we define ourselves over against the rest of the Christian family, to a point where our “distinctives” (peace and justice, etc.) become the only story we tell — or at least they are disconnected from central Christian convictions.

Put another way, in faithfully being neither Catholic nor Protestant, we adopt an isolationism that has the potential to distance us from our Christian roots altogether.

So, for example, while we may affirm a value such as peace, we may not be so sure how it relates to core Christian affirmations such as “Jesus is the Son of God” or “Jesus is Savior.” We may affirm justice but not know what it has to do with the crucified Christ or the hope of the resurrection.

The result is clear distinctives but an impoverished faith, behavioral values without the firm foundation upon which nothing else can be laid.

Being at the Mennonite World Conference assembly in Paraguay in July reminded me that newer members of the global Mennonite family can help us retell the story in a way that integrates being Mennonite, Anabaptist and Christian.

Here I offer a few thoughts as to why that might be:

• Many are first-generation believers and do not conceive of their faith in ethno-cultural terms.
  

• They start the story by affirming their relationship with Jesus.

• Choosing to be Mennonite flows directly out of their Christian convictions.

• The early Anabaptists, despite persecution, continued to passionately share their faith with others.

• Sixteenth-century Anabaptism roots them in the Christian family, provides a model for following Jesus and empowers them for engaging their culture with the gospel today.

Matthew Krabill, of Pasadena, Calif., wants Mennonites to be more Christian and Christians to be more Mennonite.