What is a Christian?

Today’s post begins a new series: “What Do Mennonites Believe?” There are dozens of different Mennonite groups in the U.S., as well as around the world, but I will focus on the particular group of Mennonites I belong to and know the best: Mennonite Church USA, the largest body of Mennonites in the United States. This blog series is not an official list of doctrines. For that, look up Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective. Rather, these are my own reflections on what makes us unique among Christians.

Let me begin with a simple question: What is a Christian? How should this term be defined? There are many options:

A person who lives in a so-called Christian country and participates fully in its society.

A person who who has undergone baptism (perhaps as an infant).

A person who holds membership in a church.

A person who subscribes to certain key beliefs, such as: Jesus is the Son of God who died for our sins and was raised by God to eternal life.

For Mennonites, none of these definitions is adequate, and some are simply wrong. To be a Christian means to give one’s loyalty to Jesus and follow Jesus. To follow Jesus means to do what Jesus taught: to love one’s neighbor as oneself, to share with those who don’t have enough, to help those who need help, to heal broken relationships, to forgive, to overcome evil with good, to trust God, and to teach others to do the same.

Being a Christian is not an ethnicity, a ritual, a membership, or even a set of propositional beliefs. It is primarily a self-giving commitment lived out in every aspect of life. It is difficult, if not impossible, to do this on our own. So to be a Christian is to do this with other Christians, creating a community of worship, love, and service, creating an alternative society that can guide and encourage one another and bring healing to the larger society.

We use baptism as a public sign that one has chosen loyalty to Jesus and will live this out through a commitment of mutual love, service, and guidance with other followers of Jesus. So we believe baptism is for those old enough to make this choice: generally teenagers and adults. Recognizing that growing in one’s devotion to Jesus often begins with being raised in a Christian home, we also practice infant dedication which is a promise by parents to raise their child in an environment of Christian faith and community.