The Mennonite provides Anabaptist content and is a publication of Mennonite Church USA.
Daily News
Friday roundup: Five things worth paying attention to this week
The last several weeks have been flooded with remarkable items to spark passionate conversations; here are the five we have chosen to lift up for special attention. 1. Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump, by Messiah College professor and historian John Fea (Eerdmans, 2018, $24.99). If you don’t have the energy left to […]
Immigration Community Day held in Philadelphia
As I stepped onto the upper floor of Centro de Alabanza, a humble church building in the heart of South Philly, I encountered a flood of color; blue, purple, green and orange hues hung from the ceilings and walls as lively decor, and a spectrum of dark brown to beige smiling faces filled the room. […]
Women claim healthy boundaries
There was beauty in the room as women and girls from 12 different states entered a sacred space July 26-27 in Omaha, Nebraska, to explore and claim healthy personal boundaries. I breathed a prayer of thanks that I could attend “Empowering Women: Claiming Healthy Personal Boundaries,” a collaboration of Mennonite Women USA and Dove’s Nest. […]
Video reflection on “Church Planting”
Lauren Francisco is a blogger for The Mennonite and produces a video reflection for each issue of The Mennonite magazine. This is her reflection on “Church Planting,” the theme for the August 2018 issue. To read the August 2018 issue, click here. Lauren Francisco is a member of Calvary Community Church in Hampton, Virginia.
Friday roundup: Five things worth paying attention to this week
Here are five things worth paying attention to this month. I recommend selecting one or two and jumping in over the next week. There have been plenty of things written about the world cup, but the interaction between Trevor Noah and the French Ambassador is worth paying attention to. While MCUSA continues to grapple […]
3 principles at the core of church planting
This article comes from the August issue of The Mennonite, which focuses on “Church Planting.” Read more reflections online or subscribe to receive more original features in your inbox each month. The Holy Spirit is the architect for new bodies of believers, but it takes people guided by principles to carry out the plans. Calling leaders, sustaining ministry and encouraging multiplication are […]
Discovering a sustainable peace as I age
This is a web-exclusive article on the theme “Aging with Dignity.” For more stories on this theme, see the July issue of The Mennonite, available here. “Great posts on Facebook of your China trip,” my friend said when we met in the grocery store. “Was China on your bucket list?” “Not really” I said. “The opportunity […]
Continuum of care is an answer to prayer
This is a web-exclusive article on the theme “Aging with Dignity.” For more stories on this theme, see the July issue of The Mennonite, available here. Photo: Siegfried Wendt. Photo provided by Landis Communities. Siegfried Wendt and his family experienced the upheaval and violence of World War II. Following the end of the conflict, he was able […]
My father’s journey into dementia
This article comes from the July issue of The Mennonite, which focuses on “Aging with Dignity.” Read more reflections online or subscribe to receive more original features in your inbox each month. Holding out his hand, my 85-year old father beseeched me, “Am I still the same person I was before?” It was a farmer’s hand, weathered and rough from a long […]
When Jesus comes with a whip
This is a web-exclusive article on the theme “Costly Discipleship.” For more stories on this theme, see the June issue of The Mennonite, available here. The authority of Jesus has everything to do with the questions we allow his life to pose to our lives. And what becomes clear as we read through John’s Gospel is […]
When questions of discipleship and parenting collide
This is a web-exclusive article on the theme “Costly Discipleship.” For more stories on this theme, see the June issue of The Mennonite, available here. The candles were lit. The lights were out. The eerie, beautiful voices echoed through the tall ceilings. By candle light, I could make out the same faces I’ve been praying this […]
Doors, not walls: Why LGBTQ inclusion is so divisive in MC USA
I joined the Mennonite church as a teenager. Mennonite Church USA as a denomination was still new, and I found it fitting that I was starting my journey as a Mennonite at the same time this denomination was trying to get itself off the ground. I was pretty convinced this denomination was a perfect fit […]
Three reasons why gay acceptance has been so divisive in MC USA
Since its formation in 2001, Mennonite Church USA has declined from more than 120,000 adult members to about 67,000 adult members today. Most of this loss has been due to congregations, as well as some area conferences, leaving the denomination. Although congregations and conferences have left over a variety of issues, the most prominent one […]
What would Mr. Rogers do with the Muslim travel ban?
I know a thing or two about the power of fear. I was grounded by a fear of flying many years ago. I traveled to Europe twice in a cheap cabin deep in the belly of the Queen Elizabeth 2, near the rumbling engines, because I couldn’t bring myself to get on an airplane. With […]
A place of refuge or oppression?
The recent “zero tolerance” policy that has been conducted by the Trump administration toward asylum seekers along the U.S.-Mexico border has left thousands of families horrified and traumatized as parents and children were detained separately. Such an abhorrent policy does not take into account the vulnerability of these migrant families who have escaped violence and […]
What I learned at the Philadelphia Detention Center
I recently participated in a tour of the Philadelphia Detention Center. After doing a lot of reading about the injustice of mass incarceration in our country, including The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, I feel like my eyes have been opened to a new reality that I had previously ignored or had not chosen to see […]
The cost of not remembering 1525
Two articles previewing an observance of a 500th anniversary of Anabaptism stressed the importance of “right remembering.” Another way to describe it might be “not remembering.” In 30-plus pages, in the January 2017 issues of The Mennonite and Mennonite Quarterly Review, there is no mention of three founders present at Anabaptism’s start, nor a brief […]
