A Mennonite is someone who belongs to the Mennonite Church, an Anabaptist Church which has been active since the 1500s. Mennonites can be found all over the world, often in close knit and very friendly communities, and their religious traditions place a heavy emphasis on community connections, public service, and pacifism. As with many Christian sects, Mennonites express their beliefs in a wide variety of ways; some Old Order Mennonites, for example, strive to live simply by rejecting modern technology and dressing plainly, while Moderate Mennonites live relatively ordinary lives, with nothing on the outside to distinguish them from non-Mennonite friends and neighbors.

The Anabaptist movement in the Church was part of a greater upheaval in the Christian community which is known as the Reformation. The politics of the Reformation were extremely complex, but they essentially boiled down to a difference in opinion with the dominant Catholic Church, leading to the creation of numerous other Christian sects. Many of these sects, including the Anabaptists, stressed a return to the authority of the Scripture and the early church as a model.

The Anabaptists came to be called “Anabaptist” because of their beliefs surrounding baptism. They felt that instant indoctrination into the Church at a young age with baptism ran contrary to the customs of the early church, when people came to the church later in life, making an active choice to embrace Christian values. Mennonites share this belief, using baptism as a believer's confession and modeling their behavior on that modeled by the early Christian church. The Mennonite branch of the Anabaptist community is named for Menno Simmons, a religious leader who lived in the 1500s; in the late 1600s, the Mennonites experienced a profound split which resulted in the creation of the Amish community.

Many people are familiar with Mennonite organizations which offer disaster relief, and the Mennonites have become famous worldwide with their rapid response to things like hurricanes, earthquakes, and wildfires. Many Mennonites are also involved in peace and social justice issues, as a natural extension of their pacifist and non-resistant values. Mennonites also try to live simple lives, contributing to their Church and community and eschewing the accumulation of wealth and material goods.

In areas with a strong Mennonite community, it is possible to find schools run by Mennonites, and Mennonites are often very active in their religious community and in the larger outside world. In other regions, Old Order Mennonites prefer to keep to themselves, and some very conservative sects will ostracize people who chose to reject the church after being baptized. Many Mennonites are happy to discuss their faith and religious beliefs with curious people, and some Mennonite churches welcome people who are exploring their faith at services and Mennonite social events.