What is a Mennonite?

“Mennonite” is probably the most curious part in the name of our congregation, “Calgary First Mennonite Church.”  Perhaps it is a word that seems kind of exclusive.  Maybe it conjures images of horses and buggies.  Or it might even be a word that you associate with some good local sausage. 

Those aren't unfair associations necessarily, but they would not currently describe our own worshipping community of Calgary First Mennonite Church.  For us, the word, “Mennonite,” is a label that shows how we are rooted in a particular Christian tradition with certain convictions.  Many of those convictions were expressed by a church leader and former Catholic priest, named Menno Simons, who organized and led Christians in the 1500’s (but really, we don’t often refer to Menno Simons or his teachings very often).  So, in this way, a “Mennonite” is simply anyone who belongs to this particular Christian tradition.  

There are many who believe that "Mennonite" describes a kind of genealogy that someone is born into, and can be identified by last name.  Perhaps ironically, it is part of a wider Christian family called “Anabaptism” that fundamentally believes that we cannot simply be born into the church or community of faith.  All Anabaptists, including Mennonites, believe that each person must make a choice to follow Jesus and this choice is demonstrated by water baptism, representing a new birth, a new belonging.  

We believe that our new baptismal belonging as followers of Jesus doesn’t sever us from others or from the world (even though we are convinced that the Church and the State should be clearly separated).  Rather, this belonging invites us to be "in the world but not of the world," and to engage all people - from our families, to our enemies, to even ourselves - in a new way.  It is the way that Jesus engaged all people: the way of boundless love and compassion; the way of truth-telling, repentance and forgiveness; the way of resisting self-righteousness and coercion; and the way of service and self-offering.  We could call this new way that Jesus leads us, “the way of peace.”

None of us in Calgary First Mennonite Church could say that we are perfect in this new Christ-like way of engaging ourselves, our neighbours, and the world.  And we know this way of peace is not smooth or easy.  It actually demands a lot of us.  We are all a work in progress.  But anyone who is curious in this new way - no matter their age, their gender, their race, or their language - is welcome to worship with us and perhaps find a new belonging as a Mennonite follower of Jesus alongside us.