Mennonites and Missionary efforts

There is no one position on evangelical work among others among Mennonites. There's pretty much a whole gamut of beliefs, like there is generally in Christendom.

The church I grew up in taught that "a light on a mountain" could not be hidden and "by their works ye shall know them." Proselytising was not common. It was believed that if you lived the way a Christian ought to live, people would see that, and come to you for clarification, not that you would go to them.

What proselytising there was was on the level of looking after people's immediate needs in the name of Christ. There is no point in witnessing to a starving person. First you have to feed him bread. A good example of this is the work that the Mennonite Central Committee does, sometimes together with other Christian relief organizations.

However you have to keep in mind that traditionally, in the areas of the Soviet Union where Mennonites had settled for centuries, they were farmers and their language set them apart from those around them. There were groups like the Mennonite Brethren that formed precisely because of their emphasis on evanglisation and full-body baptism.

After the Revolution turned Mennonites of all denominations into refugees, and the resultant flow of immigrants to the US and Canada, under democracy, they were obviously unable to segregate themselves the way they had in Russia and other ideas crept in. But evanglisation itself, among most churches, was unheard of, in part because our pastors were generally farmers who had been chosen by lot to be the pastor, and the women, in those days, hardly made it off the farm, having their hands busy with farming and children and everything else.

My grandmothers, in spite of being second generation Canadians, barely spoke English. They didn't associate with non-Mennonites. It wasn't a plan to separate themselves the way the Amish do to this day, but a combination of factors, such as work and the lack of a common language. And as refugees, the first generations, were busy trying to provide for their families. Marrying outside the faith usually resulted in excommunication, and almost definitely alienation from family, even if it was another Christian denomination. The church I grew up in basically did not like the idea of its members marrying someone from another Mennonite congregation - that's how far they took the idea of not being unequally yoked.

In Russia, where many Mennonites had servants who weren't Mennonite, those were often introduced to the faith aspect/beliefs of Mennonites because they were there - in the field or in the kitchen.

Mennonites have always believed there is only one way to God and that is through his Son, Jesus Christ. They have never believed in the intervention of saints or priests as necessary to approach nearer to God.

As to my ideas about evangelisation - I am in favor of feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, those in jail, and giving a glass of water to a little child and seeing the face of the Saviour in each person. The subject of my religious beliefs either comes up naturally or doesn't come up at all. Not in a million years will I go around asking people about their faith or lack of it.

I believe that there is only one way to God, and that is through Jesus, but at the same time I also don't believe that those who don't know about God go straight to Hell and never pass go. I believe they are judged on their works, and their lack of belief, is due to lack of knowledge, not to deliberately turning their backs on God.

Layla