“We seek and desire with yearning ardent hearts, yea at the cost of our life and blood, that the holy Gospel of Jesus Christ and His apostles, which alone is the true doctrine and will remain and will remain until Jesus Christ will reappear in the clouds, may be taught and preached throughout all the world, as the Lord Jesus Christ commanded His disciples in the last words He addressed to them on earth.”
“To this end we preach as much as opportunity and possibility affords, both in daytime and by night, in houses and in fields, in forests and wildernesses, in this land and abroad, in prison and bonds, in water, fire and the scaffold, on the gallows, and upon the wheel, before lords and princes, orally and by writing, at the risk of possessions and life, as we have done these many years without ceasing.”
These were the words of Menno Simons in the 16th century. Yet here is how one speaker described the people called Mennonites when they first settled in North America:
“In 1683 the first Mennonites came to America – the light of the world coming to this new-founded country; the land of freedom and liberty, the land where they were invited to live according to the dictates of their hearts and conscience. Many of them settled in Pennsylvania, and they were known by the attitude they took as the “quiet in the land.” They settled down and became tillers of the soil. Perhaps in taking this attitude, even the Mennonites have lost their responsibility, the vision of evangelizing the world. settling down in this attitude and becoming tillers of the soil, perhaps not reaching out according to the commandment of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to go into the world and preach the gospel, much decay came into this church known as the Mennonite Church.” (This is a condensed excerpt of a talk given by minister Albert Unruh at the centennial of the Church of God in Christ, Mennonite in 1959.)
Do we recognize in our day, that being the “quiet in the land” is not a symptom of retaining the original Anabaptist-Mennonite faith, but is rather one of the main causes of a decay of that faith?
Flatlander Faith 
You have a point there,Bob. and now we don’t have enough missionaries.Somehow we have to get past the “should haves”or “should not haves” and start in the NOW. You and I are past our fourscore years!!
I’m of your generation….but I totally disagree with this discourse……the church is stronger than ever because of the younger generation seeing the legalistic and detrimental side of the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s (and early 2000’s) version of the Mennonite faith.
I am almost 69 years old and totally enjoying the robust and eager young spiritual mindset of the people God has put in charge of the progression of our beloved church……..because, they follow a deep spiritual realm rather than the fathers of old (some od whom) have lost the vision on trying to hold on to customs and culture.
Do you realize what it would be like if we could rub our hands together gleefully and announce that all mission fields have been filled??? Because we are human and fall short of the Glory of God, there will always be a cry from the wilderness for more help…until we take our last breath.
Thank you!
I’m not Anabaptist, but sincerely appreciate their willingness to put into practice the teachings of the Bible. So, what do you mean by legalism? When I hear that word, it normally just means that the so-called legalist just has a little higher standard than the one accusing legalism. For example I hear the term used in arguments to defend borderline public nudity, tattoos, and women pastors etc. I’m sure my experience and perspective is not the same as yours though.