MennoNet.com

Here in Virginia, as far as I know a herdshare is the only legal way to get raw milk. It's very similar to the way Josh described it in Ohio. From the consumer's perspective it's very simple, it doesn't feel much different than a direct purchase. You fill out a short application and pay your fee up ...

barnhart wrote: ↑Mon Jan 22, 2024 6:26 pm It has been my experience that a great deal of the things very rich and powerful people want to do turn out to be legal eventually.

Wise words!

I did a quick calculation and it looks like out my high school class and the ones immediately before and after about 30% are still in Southeastern, about 30% are in other Mennonite churches and 40% have left the Mennonites altogether. It would be interesting to know how this compares to other conse...

People are forced to move for a variety of reasons and leave the community they were born into. Sometimes churches collapse, splinter, or otherwise disappear. So making a decision at age 18 about what kind of life you are going to have at age 70 seems fraught with peril. We had some discussion abou...

A little nitpicking here, but I would say pre- 1800's there were organized churches but not church buildings. Maybe, but I don’t think they would have thought of themselves as members of a specific congregation and I don’t think there was much conference level organization back then either. Even in...

I think that is accurate. I know the founding stories of nearly all the congregations in GA and SC, those locations were chosen because there were no Anabaptists there. The Virginia congregations are much older and I don't know as much about their origins. Wesleyb likely knows more about that regio...

So, is it then the case that a percentage of conservative Anabaptists remain such not because of personal conviction but because they are inside a social structure of some sort that incentivizes being part of the community? I.e. a family, local congregation, or church conference. Yes. I think most ...

It's interesting to speculate what would have happened if those original churches that withdrew from VA Conf. would have remained unaffiliated. My guess, assuming they all remained active today, is that they would be spread on a pretty wide spectrum from ultra or intermediate-conservative to mainst...

So if I understand correctly, what we're looking at is a conservative Mennonite conference established in the early 70s that today is perhaps moderately larger in size than it was 60 years ago accounting for its fragmentation into two regional conferences. It's interesting considering the common vi...

I was searching the forum and found this post. In today's schismatic church culture, and individualistic consumer approach to churches...I don't think I know a single person who goes to the church their grandparents were raised in. And that includes large and substantial portions of my extended fam...