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Eastern Mennonite Missions (EMM) is a mission agency based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. EMM equips, sends, and supports mission workers in more than 30 countries.
EMM's mission statement: Christ's transforming love compels us to cross cultures, engage the world, and make disciples of Jesus.
In 1894, a group of 12 Lancaster County Mennonites formed a group called Home Mission Advocates for the purpose of aiding in local mission work. Their original outreach took the form of local Sunday school classes and community service projects, but the group also carried a strong global vision. In 1914, the group founded Eastern Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities (EMBMC), with the aim of someday sending mission workers to various international locations.
The early days of EMM ministry established work in the Philadelphia area, the Welsh Mountains of Pennsylvania, Lancaster City, and many rural areas. In 1934, global mission work began when EMM's first international missionaries settled near Shirati, Tanzania. In the 1950s, workers began serving in Latin America, Europe, and Asia. In 1988, work expanded to include the Middle East, and in recent decades EMM has continued to experience growth in missionary sending among its international partner church network.
EMM's mission vision was initially financially supported by several dozen Mennonite churches in Lancaster County and the surrounding areas. As the work grew, the support base also grew and now includes Anabaptist congregations and individuals primarily in the Eastern United States.
The popular name Eastern Mennonite Missions (EMM) was adopted in 1993.
Since EMM's founding, more than 7,440 individuals have served as missionaries and volunteer workers in 21 U.S. states and in over 109 countries.
EMM's core work has always been to multiply disciples across cultures, based on the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19 in which Jesus gives his disciples the charge to “make disciples of all nations.”
EMM personnel work in a variety of ministry areas, including business for transformation, children at risk, discipleship training, education, health and community development, hospitality, leadership training, Muslim ministry, and pioneer witness.
EMM workers have been involved in the formation of Mennonite churches around the world. Thirty-four church groups have formed or developed through the ministries of EMM, and these now comprise over 450,000 baptized members. Some of these include Kenya Mennonite Church, Tanzania Mennonite Church, the Honduran Mennonite Church, Amor Vivente (Honduras), the Vietnam Mennonite Church, Garifuna Mennonite Church (Belize and the U.S.), the K’ekchi’ Mennonite Church (Guatemala), the Peruvian Mennonite Church, Life Enrichment Church (Thailand) and numerous other church plants globally and in the U.S.
EMM's Christian/Muslim Relations Team was founded in 2013 by missionary, author, and professor David W. Shenk. Shenk is a Muslim studies expert and a global consultant for EMM, having authored or co-authored multiple books about Christian-Muslim relations and global missions. These include Surprises of the Christian Way, Journeys of the Muslim Nation and the Christian Church, Anabaptists Meeting Muslims, Creating Communities of the Kingdom, Global Gods, God’s Call to Mission, Teatime in Mogadishu, A Christian and a Muslim in Dialogue, and Christian. Muslim. Friend. Shenk's approach to Christian-Muslim relations is founded on the Anabaptist commitment to pacifism and Christian witness.
Initially a three-member team, the Christian/Muslim Relations Team grew to six members as of 2021. [1] Members act as global missionaries with EMM, traveling together and separately to multiple countries each year. Although the stated mission of the team is to “equip Christians around the world for life-giving relationships with Muslims,” the team also regularly engages with Muslims.
Past EMM presidents include John H. Mellinger (1914–1934), Henry Garber (1934–1956), H. Raymond Charles (1956–1980), Paul G. Landis (1980–1993), Norman G. Shenk (acting president, 1993–1994), Richard Showalter (1994–2011), Nelson Okanya (2011-2018), Gerry Keener [2] (2019–2021), and Marvin Lorenzana [3] (2021–present).
Mennonites are members of certain Christian groups belonging to the church communities of Anabaptist denominations named after Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings, Simons articulated and formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders, with the early teachings of the Mennonites founded on the belief in both the mission and ministry of Jesus, which the original Anabaptist followers held with great conviction, despite persecution by various Roman Catholic and Protestant states. An early set of Mennonite beliefs was codified in the Dordrecht Confession of Faith in 1632, but the various groups do not hold to a common confession or creed.
The Missionary Church is an evangelical Christian denomination of Anabaptist origins with Wesleyan and Pietist influences.
The Bible Fellowship Church is a conservative pietistic Christian denomination with Mennonite roots.
The Conservative Mennonite Conference (CMC) is a Christian body of Conservative Mennonite churches in the Anabaptist tradition. Its members are mostly of Amish descent.
Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) is a private Mennonite liberal arts university in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The university also operates a satellite campus in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which primarily caters to working adults. EMU's bachelor-degree holders traditionally engage in service-oriented work such as health care, education, social work, and the ministry.
The Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM) is an inter-denominational evangelical Christian missionary organization founded by Fredrik Franson. As a global missions agency, TEAM partners with the global church in sending disciples who make disciples and establish missional churches to the glory of God, going where the most people have the most need and proclaiming the gospel in both word and action.
Conference of the Mennonite Brethren Churches in India is the largest Mennonite denomination of India. Its membership exceeds 100,000 persons, in 840 congregations. The Presiding officer for the conference is Dr P B Arnold. The headquarters at Jadcherla, Telangana. It is a member of larger Anabaptist worldwide community Mennonite World Conference.
Amish Mennonites came into existence through reform movements among North American Amish mainly between 1862 and 1878. These Amish moved away from the old Amish traditions and drew near to the Mennonites, becoming Mennonites of Amish origin. Over the decades, most Amish Mennonites groups removed the word "Amish" from the name of their congregations or merged with Mennonite groups.
Lancaster Mennonite School is a private Christian school with three campuses in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. The Lancaster Campus, east of the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, serves students in grades six through twelve. The high school on the Lancaster Campus is known as Lancaster Mennonite High School. The nearby Locust Grove Campus provides pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. To the southwest of Lancaster city, the New Danville Campus offers pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. In 2021, both New Danville and Locust Grove will be sold, and all the students will attend at the Lancaster Campus.
The Haystack Prayer Meeting, held in Williamstown, Massachusetts, in August 1806, is viewed by many scholars as the seminal event for the development of American Protestant missions in the subsequent decades and century. Missions are still supported today by American churches.
The Mennonite Christian Fellowship churches, or just Fellowship churches, are an Amish Mennonite constituency within the conservative Anabaptist faith and tradition. The group is theologically and historically similar to the Beachy Amish Mennonite constituency. They are somewhat closer in thought to the Conservative Mennonites in matters of doctrine and conservatism.
The Beachy Amish Mennonites are an Anabaptist group of churches with Amish roots. Although they have retained the name "Amish" they are quite different from the common idea of Amish: they do not use horse and buggy for transportation, with a few exceptions they do not speak Pennsylvania German anymore, nor do they have restrictions on technology except for radio and television. In the years 1946 to 1977 a majority was transformed into an evangelical revivalist denomination. The traditionalists who wanted to preserve the old Beachy Amish ways then withdrew and formed their own congregations. Today they are known as Midwest Beachy Amish Mennonites or Old Beachy Amish.
Protestants in Ukraine number about 600,000 to 700,000 (2007), about 2% of the total population. Nearly all traditional Protestant denominations are represented in the country. According to Christianity Today magazine, Ukraine has become not just the "Bible Belt" of Eastern Europe, but a "hub of evangelical church life, education, and missions". At present, the country is a key supplier of missionaries and a center of evangelical training and press printing for all the countries of the former Soviet Union, where the legal environment is not so favourable.
The German Mennonite Peace Committee, German: Deutsches Mennonitisches Friedenskomitee (DMFK), is the peace office of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Mennonitischer Gemeinden in Deutschland (AMG). The peace office is financially supported by Mennonite congregations and interested lay persons. Its work is organized by the director, the DMFK board and various peace activists. The DMFK characterizes its vision for the world in the words "divine peace and justice taking on bodily form". The DMFK works with Mennonite and other congregations, seeking to nurture peace practices as well as theological reflections on it. The current director is James (Jakob) Fehr. The offices are located in Bammental, near Heidelberg.
Conservative Mennonites include numerous groups that identify with the more conservative or traditional element among Mennonite or Anabaptist groups but who are not Old Order groups. The majority of Conservative Mennonite churches historically have an Amish and not a Mennonite background.
Berean Academy is a private Christian school in Elbing, Kansas, United States and serves students of grades Pre-K to 12.
The Women's Missionary and Service Commission, previously known as the Women's Missionary and Service Auxiliary and abbreviated WMSC or WMSA, was a women's organization of the "old" Mennonite Church that originated out of the Mennonite Sewing Circle movement. Named the WMSC in 1971, there were many precursor organizations and it has since evolved into Mennonite Women USA, an organization with a much wider scope.
Nelson Edward Kauffman was a bishop, pastor and leader of the (old) Mennonite Church. He served as secretary for home missions for the Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities from 1955-1970, as president of the Mennonite Board of Education from 1950-1970, and from 1934-1956 worked with his wife, Christmas Carol Kauffman, as a missionary in Hannibal, Missouri. He is father of James Kauffman.
Charity Ministries, also called Charity Christian Fellowship, is a network of churches that was formed in 1982 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. In the early years it was more of a spiritual movement than a church. Most members have roots in Plain Anabaptist groups and the network is seen as Anabaptist by Kraybill and Hostetter, even though they do not identify as Mennonite themselves.
Mennonite Brethren Centenary Bible College (MBCBC), Shamshabad, founded in 1920, is a ministerial training institution of the Conference of the Mennonite Brethren Churches in India, a Protestant Church Society headquartered in Jadcherla and is affiliated to the nation's first University, the Senate of Serampore College (University) {a University under Section 2 (f) of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956}with degree-granting authority validated by a Danish charter and ratified by the Government of West Bengal.