Beliefs

Beliefs
Author: John D. Roth
Publisher: Herald Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2005-02-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780836192704

Ask any person randomly on the sidewalk what they know about the Mennonites and chances are their answer will include Mormons, black clothes and buggies, or general confusion. This short, engaging book gives a brief account of what Mennonites believe. From the beginnings of the Anabaptist (or Mennonite) movement in the 16th-century, to biblical interpretation, baptism, understandings of the church, ethics, and the complex question of denominationalism, John D. Roth provides a solid framework for on-going conversations about faithful discipleship in the Mennonite church today. Free downloadable study guide available here.

Latino Mennonites

Latino Mennonites
Author: Felipe Hinojosa
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2014-04-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1421412837

The first historical analysis of the changing relationship between religion and ethnicity among Latino Mennonites. Winner, 2015 Américo Paredes Book Award, Center for Mexican American Studies and South Texas College. Felipe Hinojosa's parents first encountered Mennonite families as migrant workers in the tomato fields of northwestern Ohio. What started as mutual admiration quickly evolved into a relationship that strengthened over the years and eventually led to his parents founding a Mennonite Church in South Texas. Throughout his upbringing as a Mexican American evangélico, Hinojosa was faced with questions not only about his own religion but also about broader issues of Latino evangelicalism, identity, and civil rights politics. Latino Mennonites offers the first historical analysis of the changing relationship between religion and ethnicity among Latino Mennonites. Drawing heavily on primary sources in Spanish, such as newspapers and oral history interviews, Hinojosa traces the rise of the Latino presence within the Mennonite Church from the origins of Mennonite missions in Latino communities in Chicago, South Texas, Puerto Rico, and New York City, to the conflicted relationship between the Mennonite Church and the California farmworker movements, and finally to the rise of Latino evangelical politics. He also analyzes how the politics of the Chicano, Puerto Rican, and black freedom struggles of the 1960s and 1970s civil rights movements captured the imagination of Mennonite leaders who belonged to a church known more for rural and peaceful agrarian life than for social protest. Whether in terms of religious faith and identity, race, immigrant rights, or sexuality, the politics of belonging has historically presented both challenges and possibilities for Latino evangelicals in the religious landscapes of twentieth-century America. In Latino Mennonites, Hinojosa has interwoven church history with social history to explore dimensions of identity in Latino Mennonite communities and to create a new way of thinking about the history of American evangelicalism.

A Shared Understanding of Ministerial Leadership

A Shared Understanding of Ministerial Leadership
Author: MC Canada Editor
Publisher: Herald Press (VA)
Total Pages: 80
Release: 2017-04-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781513801629

How does your congregation understand church leadership? What are the shared understandings about how to work with the various levels of leadership? What are theological and ethical understandings of how to call leaders? how can leaders faithfully lead? Building upon the work A Mennonite Polity for Ministerial Leadership (1996), this resource frames the task of leadership through a missional lens in order to more fully become the church God is calling us to be. It reflects biblical roots and Anabaptist theology through contemporary expressions of best practices and shared understandings of church leadership. This is an effective tool for leadership training or church-wide discussion. 80 Pages.

Mennonites, Amish, and the American Civil War

Mennonites, Amish, and the American Civil War
Author: James O. Lehman
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 390
Release: 2007-11-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780801886720

Explores the moral dilemmas faced by various religious sects and how these groups struggled to come to terms with the effects of wartime Americanization-- without sacrificing their religious beliefs and values.

Mennonites in Dialogue

Mennonites in Dialogue
Author: Fernando Enns
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 505
Release: 2015-07-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1498203639

Ecumenical dialogue is not an end in itself. It serves as an indispensable instrument to overcome the divisive, mutual misinterpretations of the past. Ecumenical encounters pave the way toward healing painful memories and lead to a deeper understanding of the church's given unity, thus becoming a more credible witness of that truth. Mennonites in Dialogue is a collection of all conversation texts involving Mennonites on international and national levels, covering forty years of encounters with Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Reformed, Baptists, and Seventh-Day Adventists, among others. The texts illustrate growth in agreement as well as identify the remaining convictions that still divide. Several texts appear here for the first time in English. An introductory essay provides an overview of the motivations for dialogue, the challenges faced--both in the processes of dialogue and in their substance--as these conversations evolved, the achievements gained, and the prospects for the future. A detailed index enables a more effective comparison of the topics and issues throughout the collection. Mennonites in Dialogue is an indispensable resource for anyone seeking to understand the process of identity formation within the Christian tradition through encounter with the other, as well as a rich introduction to the theology of that global peace church--the Mennonites.

Mennonites in Early Modern Poland and Prussia

Mennonites in Early Modern Poland and Prussia
Author: Peter J. Klassen
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2009-05-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 0801891132

Klassen brings them to light and life by focusing on an unusual oasis of tolerance in the midst of a Europe convulsed by the wars of religion.

The Anabaptist Vision

The Anabaptist Vision
Author: Harold S. Bender
Publisher: MennoMedia, Inc.
Total Pages: 29
Release: 1960
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0836197224

The Anabaptist Vision, given as a presidential address before the American Society of Church History in 1943, has become a classic essay. In it, Harold S. Bender defines the spirit and purposes of the original Anabaptists. Three major points of emphasis are: the transformation of the entire way of life of the individual to the teachings and example of Christ, voluntary church membership based upon conversion and commitment to holy living, and Christian love and nonresistance applied to all human relationships.

Old Order Mennonites

Old Order Mennonites
Author: Daniel B. Lee
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 180
Release: 2000
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780830415731

Lee focuses on the Weaverland Conference of Old Order Mennonites, a group formed in 1893 and now consisting of over 5,000 members. A large concentration of Weaverland Mennonites live in upstate New York near Seneca Falls, and Lee focuses his easily readable sociological study on that community. Individual chapters deal with the worship, rituals, rules, and discipline of the group, and with a number of recent defections to a more mainstream Mennonite Church located in the same area. Lee argues that Weaverland Mennonites are held together by their practices alone, rather than by a common underlying set of beliefs. --Choice Magazine

Baptism, Peace and the State in the Reformed and Mennonite Traditions

Baptism, Peace and the State in the Reformed and Mennonite Traditions
Author: Alan P. F. Sell
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2012-12-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0889208816

What are the most significant points at issue between the Reformed and Mennonite communions–Baptism, peace and church-state relations? Is there a way forward? In the hope that there may be, the contributors to this book attempt to clear the way to closer relations between Reformed and Mennonites by careful scholarly discussion of the traditionally disputed questions. The papers gathered here were presented at the second phase of the international dialogue between the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (Presbyterian and Congregational) and the Mennonite World Conference. There are Reformed and Mennonite studies of the topics, together with the responses of a philosopher of religions, a sociologist, a systematic theologian and a church historian. In the Introduction the dialogue is set in its historical and contemporary ecumenical context, and the Conclusion, drafted by the dialogue participants, has been forwarded to the two world bodies for their consideration and action. This important work will be relevant to all future scholarly research into the growing debate between Reformed and Mennonite communions.

Anabaptist/Mennonite Faith and Economics

Anabaptist/Mennonite Faith and Economics
Author: Calvin Wall Redekop
Publisher: University Press of America
Total Pages: 452
Release: 1994
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780819193506

The continuing conflict between the Anabaptist/Mennonite community and the expanding industrial culture of the modern world has not been investigated. This book addresses the issues which fuel that conflict, focusing on the implications of subordinating an economic system to the theological framework of a Christian society. Contributors: Gregory Baum, Lawrence J. Burkholder, Leo Driedger, Kevin Enns-Rempel, Norm Ewert, Jim Halteman, Leland Harder, Al Hecht, Jim Lichti, Jacob A. Leowen, John Peters, Cal Redekop, Walter Regehr, T.D. Regehr, Jean Seguy, Robert Siemens, Arnold Snyder, Willis Sommer, Mary Sprunger, and Laura Weaver. Co-published with the Institute of Anabaptist and Mennonite Studies.