A CHRISTIAN TRADITION AT THE TABLE
Jesus at the center, community in daily life
A discipleship tradition emphasizing believer’s baptism, shared discernment, reconciliation, service, and enemy-love.
JESUS · SCRIPTURE · OBEDIENCE
Anabaptists regard Scripture as authoritative, read with Jesus Christ at the center, under the Holy Spirit, within the gathered church, and with an expectation of obedience.
Communal interpretation does not make a congregation automatically correct. It asks believers to pray, listen, speak honestly, remain accountable, and ask not only what a passage means but how Christ’s people must live because it is true.
VOLUNTARY FAITH · COVENANT
Anabaptists ordinarily baptize people who personally confess faith and commit themselves to following Jesus within the church. Pouring and immersion are both used across different bodies.
Governance ranges from congregational meetings and delegate assemblies to elders, bishops, and regional overseers. Authority is often covenantal—shared locally and with conferences rather than entirely centralized or independent.
PEACE · SIMPLICITY · SERVICE
Historic Anabaptism takes the Sermon on the Mount, love of enemies, truthfulness, and reconciliation with particular seriousness. Many reject killing and military service, though present practice varies.
Simplicity may mean communal property, visible limits on technology and dress, or contemporary commitments to generosity and ethical living. The underlying claim is that possessions, power, and culture must remain under Christ.
ACCOUNTABILITY · RECONCILIATION
Church discipline is intended to be redemptive, beginning with direct conversation and seeking confession, forgiveness, protection, and restoration. Major disputes may also involve conferences, delegates, mediation, or separation.
In practice, discipline has sometimes become shunning, secrecy, coercion, or protection of leaders. Mutual accountability must be distinguished from domination, and reconciliation from pressure placed on people who have been harmed.
‘Mennonite’ can describe communities with sharply different leadership, worship, dress, technology, peace practice, and contemporary theology. Name the body whenever possible.
GIFTS TO DISCOVER
Voices Together, created through a partnership involving Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada, includes 42 languages. Its music brings together four-part harmonies, chants, rounds, and other forms of song from different places and centuries.
Mennonite Church USA · Voices TogetherAt Oregon’s Mennonite Relief Sale, Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches join friends of other faiths to auction quilts and handmade goods. The community gathering supports Mennonite Central Committee’s relief, development, and peace work.
Oregon Mennonite Relief Sale · About the gatheringMennonite World Conference invites worshippers to give the cost of a lunch in their own community on Anabaptist World Fellowship Sunday. This simple, locally meaningful gift supports connections and shared resources across the global Anabaptist church family.
Mennonite World Conference · One Lunch OfferingHONEST DIFFERENCES
STAYING AT THE TABLE
READ THE TRADITION IN ITS OWN WORDS
These sources combine global shared convictions with several North American expressions. They do not speak for every Mennonite, Amish, Hutterite, or Anabaptist-related church.
A global Anabaptist summary centered on Jesus, community, and reconciliation.
Teaching and dialogue resources from the global communion.
A contemporary Mennonite confession.
MC USA’s peace-church teaching.
An evangelical Anabaptist body’s teaching.
A distinct Mennonite conference’s convictions.