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Mennonite Fellowship of Bloomington
The Mennonite Fellowship of Bloomington meets for worship in the Roger Williams Room of the First United Church, 2420 E. 3rd Street, every Sunday evening at 5 p.m. They gather to share their lives, listen for God, and consider together what it means to follow Jesus. Wherever you are in your spiritual life, whatever you have been feeling about faith, God, and religion, if this sounds like a place that might be helpful, they would be honored to have you join them.
Worship
On Sunday evenings they spend an hour or so in informal worship that includes hymns, Scripture, liturgical reading, prayer, and discussion.
They take turns leading worship—-sometimes the leader offers a meditation, a story, or a question to discuss. Sometimes the service is contemplative, in the Music Taizé style. Services include a time for the kids in the circle, followed by a separate Sunday School during the rest of the service. They have coffee and tea every week during worship and stick around afterward to talk. On the second Sunday of each month they have a soup-and-bread dinner after worship. On the fourth Sunday, they have a potluck dinner.
Community
The group looks for ways to gather between its Sunday worship services. They get together for cookouts, game nights, hikes, and such. They have “adopted” a stretch of highway that we clean up every few months. Some of them meet in smaller prayer or support groups.
Lately, they've been talking more deliberately about whether they are called to organize as a church. They've been meeting in smaller committees to plan how they might structure some of our efforts: hospitality, worship, social justice work and financial stewardship.
They're glad for new voices in these conversations. They'd like to hear how they might help you out, and how your gifts might help.
Peacemaking
Bloomington Mennonites stand in the tradition of Anabaptist Christians who hear the gospel as an invitation to live in grace and seek the peace that God intended for creation. They're committed to being agents of peace in both Bloomington and the world. They try to do this as a church, as families, and as individuals.
Although they're not always sure what this work should look like, they try to make our gathering a time of encouragement, discussion, and prayer about living peacefully, compassionately, and courageously.
Mennonites
The Anabaptist movement began in 16th century Europe when believers broke from the Protestant Reformation to practice adult baptism. The Dutch leader Menno Simons and those who followed him distinguished themselves from other Ana-baptists by their commitment to peacemaking.
Today some Mennonites have old-fashioned lifestyles, like the Amish, while others have more modern lifestyles. All of us, though, hope to make our allegiance to Christ more important than fitting into the mainstream culture.
Around the world, Mennonites are involved in many justice and peace efforts, including sustainable development, disaster relief, conflict resolution, and the Ten Thousand Villages fair trade stores.
The group in Bloomington includes some who grew up in the Mennonite tradition and as many others who haven’t. They're all interested in what this heritage has to say about taking care of each other and ourselves. Many of their discussion services circle around these sorts of questions.
Contact
The fellowship meets in the Roger Williams room of First United Church, 2420 East 3rd Street, about halfway between College Mall Road and High Street.
Our mailing address:
Mennonite Fellowship of Bloomington P.O. Box 2718 Bloomington, IN 47401
References
- Mennonite Fellowship of Bloomington
- Third Way Cafe: stories, ideas, and history
- Mennonite Central Committee: international relief, development and peacemaking
- Mennonite Church USA
- Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference
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