Our Mission

Mennonite Mission Network exists to lead, mobilize and equip the church to participate in holistic witness to Jesus Christ in a broken world. We envision every congregation and all parts of the church being fully engaged in mission - across the street, all through the marketplaces and around the world.

Our priorities

• Engage people and cultures with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• Start and cultivate missional congregations.
• Foster a missional identity in the church.

Our Heritage

Highlights of our heritage include:

• Ministry among native peoples in North America since 1860.
• Evangelism efforts in the United States since 1882.
• Urban mission efforts since 1893 in Chicago.
• International ministries since 1899 in India.
• Church-planting (and seeing mission as rooted in local congregations).
• Accompanying the broader Christian church in international contexts.
• Providing voluntary service alternatives since 1944 in Chicago.
• Using mass media to engage culture since the early 1950s through Mennonite Media.
• Finding creative ways for mission in countries with limited access since the 1950s.
• Working in collaborative mission partnerships with other groups and denominations since the 1950s.

Our Name

Mennonite Mission Network prefers to be known by its full name. If you want to shorten the name, please refer to us as the Mission Network or the Network, rather than by an acronym. We want to be known more for the connections we make than the institutional claims we stake.

"The name signals our intent that the Mennonite Mission Network build a resource network throughout the church that will equip congregations and all parts of the church to do God's mission," said Stanley W. Green, executive director of the Mennonite Mission Network. "We see God's mission as the blood that pulses through the veins and arteries of the Mennonite Church. Our congregations, conferences, seminaries and denominational offices are the many parts of the body, each with its vital function, in carrying out God's mission. At the Mennonite Mission Network, we see our function as the circulatory system, ensuring that God's mission flows to all parts of the church."

The name also seeks to respond to the post-modern environment in which we live, an ethos in which people distrust institutions, according to Burton Buller, director Mennonite Media in Harrisonburg, Va., and chair of the inter-agency Mission Identity Project Team. "People do not support institutions and agencies with as much loyalty as they do 'networks' that come together around a common interest," Buller said. "By making use of the name Mennonite Mission Network, we are signaling a community where there is room for exploration, learning and sharing around the theme of mission."