Membership & Baptism Exploration
Our Church:
The Mennonites
For our session on July 2:
- Go to the Bible Project YouTube channel and choose a video (or two or more) to watch.
- Mentor Prompt: Choose one church activity to do with your mentor some time in the next few weeks: Sunday Worship Zoom, Tuesday noon gathering, Wednesday night Bible Study/topic discussion. Then schedule a phone or Zoom call to talk about it.
- Do at least two of the suggestions below under “Head.”
- Choose at least one activity from each of the other categories: Heart, Hands, and Spirit.
Use the comments section below to share what you are doing and what you learn!
Head
things to think about
Check out the Third Way website for a very basic introduction to Mennonites.
Here is a brief time line of Anabaptist history.
Choose a name or event from the time line or video above to look up in GAMEO (Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online).
Watch this 8-minute video about “The Spread of the Anabaptists”.
Who are the Mennonites? A short video introduction.
Check out Menno Media’s “Claiming the Faith” series. Choose one or two of the videos to watch.
Listen to one of these podcasts produced by The Mennonite, Inc.
Read an article (or 2 or 3) from The Mennonite magazine and consider signing up for their email newsletter, TMail.
Read this brief article on the “Mennonite peace witness.“
Learn more about the conference we are part of: Western District. Check out their web page and consider signing up for their weekly email newsletter.
Read about Mennonite Church USA’s efforts to #BringThePeace and watch the video of our executive director, Glen Guyton, preaching at MennoCon19.
Heart
ways to reach out
Interview an older friend or relative who grew up in the Mennonite church. Ask them what they remember about church, what rules their family had, what they appreciate most about being Mennonite, and anything else you are curious about.
Submit a piece of writing to The Mennonite. You can find the most recent call for submissions on their web page.
Watch this video about Mennonite Disaster Service. Consider sending them a card of encouragement:
Mennonite Disaster Service
583 Airport Road
Lititz, PA 17543
Hands
things to do
Make a recipe from the More with Less or Simply in Season cookbook or from the “Mennonite Girls Can Cook” website.
You can do this activity with your mentor or a parent. Talk about what you believe related to one (or more) of these topics: God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, the Bible, creation, sin, salvation, and peace. Then look at what the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective says about that topic. To what extent do you agree?
*Are you missing Camp Mennoscah, or just wonder what it looks like? Take this virtual tour of camp. (And contact Joanna if you are interested in this summer’s “camp in a box.”)
Spirit
ways to connect with God
Watch this video on “Exploring Spiritual Practices” from Mennonite pastor April Yamasaki. Choose one practice she mentions to try for yourself.
Join with other Mennonites in praying from the Anabaptist Prayerbook any weekday morning at 8:30. (Contact Joanna for more information and a link.) Or download the app and pray by yourself or with your family.
Listen to (and maybe sing along with!) some songs from the new Mennonite hymnal. You can find recordings of songs from the Spring Sampler and Advent hymns on YouTube.
Worship with our “sister denomination,” Mennonite Church, Canada.
Sing some songs from Hymnal: A Worship Book–or one of the hymnal supplements. If you don’t know a song, you can likely find it on YouTube. If you’d like to borrow a hymnal from the church, contact Joanna.
Peace Mennonite Church 
I checked out the third way website, I watched the”who are the Mennonites” video. I watched the MDS video. I listened to some songs from the spring sampler. And I talked looked at the confession of faith in the Mennonite perspective and saw that my belief that God is against isms was echoed there.
Hi, Ben. I’m glad you found some resonance between Mennonite teachings and your own beliefs. I’m looking forward to our group conversation on Thursday.