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
David and Leann Augsburger are two semi-retired people who co-lead a home base church (Peace Mennonite Church, Claremont, California) and volunteer to welcome, care, and connect people in the San Gabriel valley. May, the time when we may experience spring, when we may pick fresh flowers, may kneel and pray as we pull weeds, may enjoy […]
A place I found healing
Jennifer Delanty is a member of Seattle Mennonite Church and mother of four young adults, all in their 20s. She enjoys writing, cats, traveling, African-American history and counting the many blessings of her three-generation household. This post originally ran on the Menno Snapshots blog of Mennonite Church USA. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the […]
Love is a Verb: Virtual Bible study series with Michele Hershberger
The Mennonite, Inc. is teaming up with Michele Hershberger, a Bible professor at Hesston (Kansas) College, to offer a series of four virtual Bible studies for Junior and Senior High youth groups. Whether your group is headed to the Mennonite Church USA convention in Orlando this summer or not, they’ll be sure to benefit from Michele’s […]
Seven (or eight) questions with Alison Brookins and Ted Swartz
Names: Alison Brookins and Ted Swartz Roles: Collaborators on the new play, Discovery: A Comic Lament Interview conducted by Hannah Heinzekehr. 1. Alison, you’re a seminary student and Ted, you’re a veteran actor and playwright. How did the two of you meet? Alison: I tell the story this way. I saw a show of Ted’s […]
Remembering Alan Kreider: Three reflections
Alan Kreider was Professor Emeritus of Church History and Mission at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana. He passed away on May 8, 2017. You can read a full account of his life and work here. Below you will find three reflections on Alan from three co-workers and co-sojourners. The reflections appear in alphabetical order […]
May recipe: Roasted strawberry rhubarb oven jam
The Hungry Hounds is the food blog of Paul and Rebecca Shetler Fast, Country Representatives for Mennonite Central Committee in Haiti. Learn more about MCC Haiti at their new blog: www.haitimcc.org. Every year, in the hot months of summer, my Oma would make oven jam. My Opa would buy her bushels of fresh apricots and plums […]
Keep gospel songs in the new song collection
I’ve led music at church for almost 30 years and I always include gospel songs for Sunday worship because our congregation loves to sing them. To the committee selecting music for our new collection, I ask that a good number of gospel songs be included. Young and old sing them, we know the words and the […]
History for the sake of mission: A tribute to Alan Kreider
Alan Kreider was Professor Emeritus of Church History and Mission at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana. He passed away on May 8, 2017. He is pictured here speaking at the 2016 AMBS commencement ceremony. From left to right in background, President Sara Wenger Shenk and Dean Rebecca Slough look on. Photo credit: Melissa Troyer/AMBS. Jessica Schrock […]
Eyes wide open
I grew up in southern Ontario, just a short distance from Canada’s Wonderland, the largest amusement park in Canada and one of the most popular places for family fun during the summer in southern Ontario. It has dozens of thrill rides and rollercoasters, and if you find a day when the lines aren’t too long, […]
Confession of Faith roundtable: Discipline in the church
The Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective was developed in 1995, and is the most recent systematic statement of belief for Mennonite Church USA. Over the course of the next several months, we will be releasing “roundtable posts”, featuring two to three members of Mennonite Church USA congregations reflecting on an article from the Confession of Faith and […]
A prayer for crossing barriers
This prayer originally appeared in the Mennonite Women USA e-newsletter, “A Postcard and a Prayer.” The June issue of The Mennonite magazine will focus on stories of Mennonite women’s movements in honor of Mennonite Women USA’s centennial celebration. God, We confess to being closed to your people as we go about our daily tasks. We admit […]
Songline: When music is like breathing
Photo: Debra Detweiler Brubaker conducts the Women’s World Music Choir at Goshen (Indiana) College. Photo from Goshen College Record. Halfway through their spring semester, the Goshen (Indiana) College Women’s World Music Choir was crammed into a rehearsal space, preparing for a tour along the East Coast. Students looked beaten down by homework, lack of sleep and […]
For such a time as this: Reflections on Mennonite Church USA at 15
Dorothy Nickel Friesen is a member of Bethel College Mennonite Church in North Newton, Kansas, and a former conference minister and pastor. This article originally appeared in the May issue of The Mennonite magazine. I moved nearly 875 miles west to answer a call from the church about 15 years ago. From a pastorate in Ohio […]
Divergent: A way forward
Glen Guyton is Chief Operating Officer for Mennonite Church USA. This article originally appeared in the May 2017 issue of The Mennonite magazine. You can read the full May issue online and subscribe to receive more original feature articles and columns like this one. If Mennonite Church USA was a young adult dystopian novel, I would be […]
Where we’ve been, where we’re headed: MC USA at 15
Back in 2001 in Nashville, Tenn., I watched as delegates of the General Conference Mennonite Church and the Mennonite Church voted to merge the two denominations and create Mennonite Church USA. That new body officially came into existence on Feb. 1, 2002. Now, 15 years later, we decided to look back on what Dorothy Nickel […]
Why church?
People need a community, a group larger than themselves, in which to give and receive the possibilities of a fuller life. It can be called a matter of survival, and on one level it is that, but much more. Whatever it means to be human, to be alive and growing, can be discovered only in […]
Who is Jesus?
Ryan Alghrim is pastor at First Mennonite Church in Richmond, Virginia. Who is Jesus? The answer, for many Christians, is obvious: Jesus is the Son of God. But there are two problems with that answer. First, most Christians do not know what “Son of God” means. Many think it means that Jesus is the offspring […]
Congolese Mennonite resiliency
John D. Roth is professor of history at Goshen (Indiana) College and director of the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism. This article originally appeared in the May 2017 issue of The Mennonite magazine. You can read the full May issue online and subscribe to receive more original feature articles and columns like this one. In […]
The loss of a loved one
As we celebrate Easter, I am thinking of lost loved ones. Before Christ was risen, he first had to die. Anyone would be sad to lose a loved one, especially when faced with the reality that we will not see our loved ones on this earth again as they leave us to appear before the Creator. […]
Better Together
In the summer of 2015 I attended the Mennonite Church USA Convention as a youth sponsor for Bethel College Mennonite Church in North Newton, Kansas. I was spending my summer under the loving and guiding hand of Heidi Regier Kreider as a Ministry Inquiry Program intern, where I was given the opportunity to learn by […]
Living God’s great Shalom
Stephen Kriss is Executive Conference Minister of Franconia Mennonite Conference. Here he reflects on his experience at the recent Constituency Leaders Council meeting in Elkhart, Indiana. This piece originally ran in the March 16 edition of Intersectings. In our commitments for credentialing as pastors within Franconia Conference we agree to giving and receiving counsel. This week […]
