Prepared by a Mennonite Church USA reference committee in response to Mennonite World Conference request for perspectives on core convictions
"For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been
laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ”(1 Corinthians 3:11).
The basis of our unity is Jesus Christ, not merely doctrine or tradition.
All our common core convictions are founded in the life, teaching, death,
resurrection, and continuing presence of Jesus in his body, the church.
Through Jesus, the church interprets all of Scripture.
Jesus began his ministry proclaiming, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:15).
In Jesus, God's rule and God's action are becoming known in the world as good news for those who repent. We understand conversion as both an event and a journey. Conversion is a turning from sin, from evil, and from false gods—and a turning to Jesus Christ, who shows us the one true God. This event of covenant and new identity, of which water baptism is the sign in the church, is the beginning of a journey of ongoing conversion. The Holy Spirit, who prepared us for conversion and worked in us in conversion, continues to challenge, change, and renew us throughout our lives as Christians.
With Jesus, we put ourselves completely into God’s hands.
On the cross, Jesus cried out, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23:46).
Those who are converted and regenerated follow Jesus Christ, who put himself completely into the hands of God. This central act of spirituality was known to the European Anabaptists in the sixteenth century as Gelassenheit, which we often translate as “yieldedness.” This yieldedness is not merely passivity, but yielding our will to God’s will, opening ourselves to letting God’s Spirit work through us, seeking first the reign of God and its righteousness, not taking vengeance into our own hands, letting God lead us into risky situations, trusting in God for resurrection beyond death, and depending on God’s final victory in the new heaven and the new earth.
Obeying Jesus, the church gives its worship and allegiance to God alone.
Tempted with the kingdoms of the world, Jesus countered, "Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him" (Luke 4:8).
Beginning with Abraham and Sarah, God has been calling together a people of faith, to give their worship and allegiance to God alone. The Christian church is now that holy nation, the new Israel, meant to give glory to God and to declare the mighty acts of the One who has called us from darkness into light. As God’s people reaching around the world, the church is often called to speak truth to power and to witness to the nations, so that the wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and powers. As the people of God, the church is in the world, but not of the world. The church is called to be holy, to be different from the society around it for Christ’s sake, and yet to be engaged with its society in order to give witness to the gospel. In the United States today, the Christian church is especially challenged to be different from the dominant culture—and to witness to that culture—in relationship to peace and nonviolence, to simple living and just economics, and to understanding what it means to live in the midst of a superpower.
With Jesus, the church prays to be a visible sign of God’s kingdom.
Jesus taught his disciples to pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10).
As the church regularly prays the Lord’s Prayer, this community of regenerated believers commits itself to being a sign of God’s kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.” The church is to be the visible sign of the kingdom in the world, both in its life together and in its outreach. The church is to be the preview, or foretaste, of the age to come. In the presence of Christ in the midst of the church, the reign of God is taking form. The practices and rituals of the church become a sign of God’s kingdom coming, God’s will being done: through baptism and the Lord’s supper, through loving accountability, through Spirit-led decision making, through the intentional formation of disciples, through letting the Scriptures shape us, through hospitality that welcomes the stranger across boundaries of race, culture, gender, and class.
Jesus sends the church to participate in God’s mission.
Jesus commissioned his disciples, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you...Receive the Holy Spirit." (John 20:21, 22).
Jesus now sends the church into the world, just as God sent him. We share Christ’s mission of reconciling the world to God. The church is called to discern its missional vocation, to point to God’s actions in the world, to align itself with what God is doing in the world, to share the good news with others, to guide them to commitment to Jesus’ way, and to both speak and act on our faith. We are assured that, in this mission, the Holy Spirit goes ahead of us and goes with us.
Like Jesus, we teach and practice love across boundaries, even love of enemies.
"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this will everyone know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35).
"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:44, 45a).
Because of God’s great love for us in Christ, we also love. God’s love is so big that we dare not limit it to our friends or to people who seem to be just like us. Our love must reach even to our enemies, to those who hurt us or would even kill us. With Jesus on the cross, we are called to pray for enemies and to forgive them. We understand this love to imply peacemaking, rejecting violence and killing, upholding the sacredness of all human life, overcoming evil with good, striving for justice that restores people to right relationship, and refusing to participate in war in any form.
Salvation and discipleship, knowing Jesus Christ and following him, are closely connected.
"Those who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.” Likewise, “those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them." (John 14:21, 23).
Salvation and discipleship are intertwined. This should not be misunderstood as legalism or salvation by works. Instead, this acknowledges the necessary link between knowing Christ and following Christ. Neither can happen independently. Those who know Christ will keep his word; at the same time, Christ comes to those who follow him and reveals more of himself.
Reference committee members: Myron Augsburger, Lois Barrett (writer), Malinda Berry, Ron Byler (convener), Marco Güete, Nelson Kraybill, Ruth Naylor, John Powell and Jim Schrag
December 1, 2002