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I also don’t see it working to try to compose a church / school of people with wildly varying practices. It seems such a congregation lacks unity at a fundamental level. I don't know what you mean by wildly varying, but as I said earlier, there needs to be parameters of course. I'd rather be in a c...

In reality many people from less conservative practice view anything more strict as absurd and almost make it their mission to “convert” them, and mock the more conservative practices. My experience is that absolutely every group does this. I have not found any exceptions (except maybe Swartzies, b...

It’s hard to imagine it working in principle. Could you imagine encouraging Holdemans not to share sermon recordings or listen to acapella gospel music recordings, or take photographs? Sure. I do this sort of thing all the time. With our employees, I try to learn what things their church prefers th...

I heard the other day that Pilgrim Mennonite Conference may soon be disintegrating into several different groups and that their next annual conference will be their last one. Does anyone know whether this is in fact the case? Yes, this is the case. It has been under discussion for some time. At my ...

There is something I have been mulling over now for a few years, and looks something like this... What if churches would help hold each other accountable to whatever standards a church agrees on within the congregation, rather than holding every church accountable to the same standard? (within certa...

Josh wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 7:53 pm My guess is it will become an informal fellowship of conferences who may end up sharing various agencies (mutual aid, missions, etc.)

Given the “issues” with a strict hierarchical conference model, this seems like a very good idea.

I expect the same.

In the moderate-conservative world, it is becoming more common that a church or its leaders will help another church that is looking for assistance or fellowship, without expecting the other church to become part of the same conference/fellowship that the helpers are from. My hat is off to the helpe...

Josh wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2024 9:09 am Is this essentially a criticism of the hierarchical “conference” model? How do you feel about flat fellowship style organisations where no one congregation lords it over anyone else, and there aren’t bishops?

Who was this addressed to? Steve or myself?

LMC and W/F long ago negotiated some deal they wouldn’t intrude on each other’s “turf”. I was not aware of this. W/F congregations were originally under LMC until a new regional conference was formed as more people moved west. As I understand it, since Eastern considered themselves the true success...

This thread is to discuss the pros and cons of Church dealerships and franchises. A church starts a "dealership" whenever it sets up shop (church) in another region, while keeping its headquarters at the original location. Churches become "franchises" whenever churches can join a...