Discerning "why" Seekers come

[Karstan78]

So styles vary. My church is a mix of the scarf and lace mantilla styles. Some wear theirs tied to the front and some at the back.

[Sudsy]

Thanks Karstan78. I appreciate that response and links.

How is this group doing at reaching the unchurched and other ethnic people in North America ? Sounds they promote evangelizing and I'm curious how they evangelize. Do they mingle with the world and share their faith ? How are they doing at holding their youth ?

And to the thread topic - do outsiders generally find 'fitting in' hard or do they get discouraged and soon leave ?

[temporal1]

So styles vary. My church is a mix of the scarf and lace mantilla styles. Some wear theirs tied to the front and some at the back.

many thanks. i was not finding anything online.
(online, it appears the Nazarenes are not veiling at all.)
i appreciate the insights you’ve shared with Wade, above, esp about seekers joining.

when one thinks of the history, many things are so much easier to understand.
as you described, for groups that suffered persecution, naturally, they would be shy to trust.
i believe all new relationships require time to properly develop. there is no replacement for time.

[Karstan78]

Thanks Karstan78. I appreciate that response and links.

How is this group doing at reaching the unchurched and other ethnic people in North America ? Sounds they promote evangelizing and I'm curious how they evangelize. Do they mingle with the world and share their faith ? How are they doing at holding their youth ?

And to the thread topic - do outsiders generally find 'fitting in' hard or do they get discouraged and soon leave ?

Sorry it’s hard for me to write out so much as English is not my first language so please bear with me.


In my personal opinion, some are reluctant to reach out per se. With persecution still very close to their minds (my own great uncle was shot and his wife tied to the cart and dragged through the street because he refused to bear arms, this is just one story of thousands) it is hard for many to open up and go out evangelising when still to this day some churches in Europe still need to practice secret baptisms due to the government banning them.

Each church sets its own kind of outreach. My home church will welcome anyone visiting and really make the effort to include the seeker. But we do not go out and evangelize. The next church over will have impromptu accapella singing at the local shopping car park, another will hand out statement of faiths or other booklets our church has made eg. “Ye must be born again”, yet another church raises money and redirects it to the outreach in West Africa our church has established. Even though my home church isn’t as outwardly expressive as these few mentioned, we do concentrate a lot of our time and funds into helping the communities in Eastern Europe that are still recovering from the fall of communism.

For the youth many churches hold CFG, women’s/men’s and youth groups, Bible studies, camps, many will go and help serve for a season in the orphanages in South America/Mexico, building a new church in Romania, Hungary, Ukraine, the church owned nursing homes or various other needed projects. We have various “sings” and instrumentals throughout the year. This is true for North America, however, European and Australian churches are extremely conservative in their youth programs and sometimes to the detriment of their churches. They will hold instrumentals and sings, picnics and church “invitings”, most baptisms are closed though and I believe this to be so important for any seeking soul to witness.

When a woman wears her covering outside of the home it is often one of the few channels outsiders can engage in conversations and be directed to the Gospel. Likewise a man removing his hat before praying for his meal.

As we don’t get drunk, party/dance, wear jewellery, date, go to cinemas, have televisions (although in North America many do), listen to secular/Christian rock/ anything non church, listen to outside preachings or literature, marry outside the faith etc, it can be a bit hard for people not brought up this way to understand. That being said and despite the distrust some of the members perceive outsiders, we still do have quite a few who come and are fully accepted. One thing with our faith is that we all sing from the same hymnal. Almost every church from Japan to Croatia to Australia to Israel will have identical services. You feel like you’re at home with family in every single church. Since we usually have sings at someone’s house almost every week, many have come to the Lord through hearing the old hymns which is a big attraction for the older generation who miss singing the songs of their youth. People are also intrigued that ministering brothers do not prepare their sermons. They randomly open a scripture and will preach from the read portion. One thing seekers do appreciate is the separate seating and singing in 4 part, they feel much more part of the church family.

Lastly, there seems to be a small trend that in their youth children of believers will go out into the world and live the majority of their adult lives in the world, only coming in the 11th hour and repenting and seeking baptism. These are the children of WW2 who grew up “hearing” about the horrible persecution and knowing in their hearts which was the right way, but enjoying the rich, western world their parents had escaped to. Their spouses and children cannot understand the change and many spouses refuse to continue living with the converted soul.

Eta, for anyone interested in reading more into the WW2 religious persecution this is a free ebook. http://www.lulu.com/shop/kathleen-nenad ... 48096.html
There’s a Hungarian book on the recent communist persecution, however I don’t think there’s an electronic and I don’t believe many can read Hungarian

[temporal1]

Your English is very good, it’s a pleasure to read. May i ask about your first language? Your writing offers no clues!

i read what i can about Hungary, the little available describes them as Christian, and trying to maintain their conservative Christian beliefs and values, while feeling pressures from bordering countries (?) .. possibly in ways similar to Poland (?) To repeat, i do not see enough to feel confident in my perceptions about either country.

Thank you for the link to the ebook.

[steve-in-kville]

I think this topic got off track.

I think I will start a thread of my own later. I don't want to detract from this one.

[Sudsy]

Again Karstan78, I appreciate your efforts to share this church background here. You have better writing skills than I do. Looking forward to more of your posts.

I have one more question as I'm not sure I understand this comment - "most baptisms are closed though and I believe this to be so important for any seeking soul to witness." Can you explain what you mean by being "closed" regarding baptisms ? Are you saying the public (non church members) are excluded from attending a water baptism and you think this should be more open to seeking souls to witness ?

[ohio jones]

Speaking of cars, it would be interesting if CA's had car makers, much like there are buggy makers. Simple and modest cars, sedan model for basic transport, a van model for families, and maybe a truck for farmers. Although this isn't very realistic due to federal safety laws I'm sure. I didn't mean to go off topic, just random thoughts..

We do, it’s called “Chrysler”

Even after their divorce and remarriage?

[francis]

There's an article that Cory Anderson wrote here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1rkXBO ... zsYKwOHytK specifically about seekers

[francis]

Here's another article about people joining the old German Baptist brethren
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2 ... ation.html