The Mennonite Faith
New Creation Fellowship Church is part of Mennonite Church USA (link). Mennonites believe that Christians are called to the following four practices:
- community: being baptized upon confession of faith into a discipling, nurturing congregation
- nonconformity: being citizens of the kingdom of God, choosing the way of Jesus rather than the way of the world around us
- peacemaking: actively pursuing peace while resisting violence in personal and national life
- evangelical mission: spreading the good news of Jesus, including this fourfold witness, through word and deed
The Mennonite church has its roots in the 16th century, the time of the Protestant Reformation. In the book Prairie People: A History of the Western District Conference, David Haury writes, “The Protestant Reformation gained its impetus from a vigorous desire to reform the Catholic Church. ... The reform movements of Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli and John Calvin sought to overcome the corruption and worldliness of the church.”
Our spiritual ancestors, called “Anabaptists” (people who baptize again) ... agreed with these Protestant reformers in many respects, but they also desired more thorough changes. The leader of the first Anabaptists was Conrad Grebel. He and several others were eager to institute the reform called "believer’s baptism," replacing the baptism of children.
On Jan. 21, 1525, “Grebel, Felix Manz, Georg Blaurock, Wilhelm Reublin and about a dozen others met for prayer and study in defiance of the Council’s order. During this intense session, Blaurock asked Grebel to baptize him. Grebel, though not a priest, complied with the request, and Blaurock then baptized the others who were present.”
Word got around, and Grebel, Blaurock, Manz and other other leaders were soon imprisoned. Manz refused to recant or change his position and was drowned on Jan. 5, 1527. Others met the same fate of martyrdom. In spite of the adversity, Anabaptism spread rapidly, “including to the Netherlands. Here a Dutch priest named Menno Simons came to believe strongly in the reformations of the Anabaptists. Though some extremist Anabaptists of his day turned to violence, Menno “sought to shepherd the Anabaptists in a peaceful direction. He spent the final two decades of his life visiting, counseling and baptizing small groups ... who soon were called Menists or Mennonites. Although a fugitive with a price on his head, Menno avoided the bloody and relentless persecution, and the churches he shepherded grew and spread, becoming the various branches of today’s Mennonite churches.”
For more information about Mennonites see,
- Third Way Cafe
- Mennolink Mennonite Information Center
- Mennonite Connections on the World Wide Web
- Mennonite Church USA home page
- Mennonite Central Committee home page
- The Mennonite a magazine