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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...

I'm impressed. I think it is a good thing in a number of different ways, and I'd like to see similar efforts in other networks of churches. The Mennonite Church did this for a long time. John Oberholtzer in 1860, was the first Mennonite to introduce the dealership thing all over North America (Gene...

I think that is correct.
I heard that they decided they didn't want to do the normal thing of a Mennonite conference becoming a humongous, unwieldy organization, that places its own dealerships in every Anabaptist community. I understood they are going to divide regionally.
Hats off to them!

MattY wrote: ↑Wed Apr 17, 2024 8:54 pmCan we take care not to have a reactionary theology?

Just a note to say that I really appreciate this topic and your OP.