Moderate Conservative Mennonite Churches

[appleman2006]

Thank you. Would it be more fair to see this less as a liberal/conservative issue and more of a rural/isolation issue or rich/poor issue?

I am not totally sure it is that easy to draw exact lines. I hesitate to do this but I think to make my point I will. If anything our congregation is more urban or at least small town urban than most in the area. And I would not describe our people as poor. I am guessing that average income would be right up there with any congregation in the area. We have a mixture of farmers, professionals, trades, and a few businessmen. Maybe less business people but more professionals than the average congregation in our area.

Here is the interesting thing though. While we do not have anymore rules or I think, teaching, regarding materialism than any other moderate congregation in the area, I can honestly say that material things do not rate as a high priority among most or any of our members. Their homes and vehicles are modest
almost to a fault.

No one has decreed it has to be this way. It just seems that we attract people with that kind of mindset. In fact couples that have come from ultra conservative settings have commented that that was one of the first things they noticed. That in many ways we were not nearly as conservative but when it came to material things we were much more so even than some of the ultra conservative settings they came from. But not because it was legislated that way. It is why I am somewhat resistant to trying to put groups in boxes.

[Hats Off]

Where do you attend, Appleman?

[RZehr]

Thank you. Would it be more fair to see this less as a liberal/conservative issue and more of a rural/isolation issue or rich/poor issue?

I am not totally sure it is that easy to draw exact lines. I hesitate to do this but I think to make my point I will. If anything our congregation is more urban or at least small town urban than most in the area. And I would not describe our people as poor. I am guessing that average income would be right up there with any congregation in the area. We have a mixture of farmers, professionals, trades, and a few businessmen. Maybe less business people but more professionals that the average congregation in our area.

Here is the interesting thing though. While we do not have anymore rules or I think, teaching, regarding materialism than any other moderate congregation in the area, I can honestly say that material things do not rate as a high priority among most or any of our members. Their homes and vehicles are modest
almost to a fault.

No one has decreed it has to be this way. It just seems that we attract people with that kind of mindset. In fact couples that have come from ultra conservative settings have commented that that was one of the first things they noticed. That in many ways we were not nearly as conservative but when it came to material things we were much more so even than some of the ultra conservative settings they came from. But not because it was legislated that way. It is why I am somewhat resistant to trying to put groups in boxes.

How would you answer these questions? Granted, you obviously are not going to speak for all "moderates", I understand that.

Do moderate conservatives promote and value simplicity in lifestyle at a corporate level?
Or is it present by virtue of inertia?
Or is it not taught?
Or is the concept not much present at a corporate level?

[MaxPC]

My first was a SuperPet. 300 baud modem, text only online. It would likely not even upset the Amish today. The technology has crept up so, that almost no one would consider it the problem it has become now.

J.M.

[img]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore ... ).jpg/[img]

Don't laugh. My first computer usage was on a transistorized computer that took up a whole room.
(I can see you all grinning through the computer screen. Was that a guffaw and a snort I heard?)

[silentreader]

Where do you attend, Appleman?

Grace, near Punkeydoodles Corners.

[Ernie]

Thank you. Would it be more fair to see this less as a liberal/conservative issue and more of a rural/isolation issue or rich/poor issue?

Well... there is a liberal/conservative aspect to it...
Some conservatives (not all) for instance might buy new vehicles, drive new John Deere tractors, buy several farms, and buy their wife some nice china, but they would not build an expensive brick mansion with multiple gables, spend lots on landscaping, eat out a lot, buy a nice boat, go "vacationing", or spend money on interior decorating. They would see the latter things as signs of materialism. A Moderate-conservative might do all of these.

Rural areas close to strong local economies would be more likely affected by materialism than rural areas that are isolated from strong local economies.

For sake of reference, our semi-urban intentionalist church interacts with a lot of Moderate-conservatives, and we live in one of the more prosperous areas of the country, and yet most in our church would not do any of the above. I think that if the average Moderate-conservative church would start an outreach in our area, the people would feel a lot more pressure to keep up with the Jones's. So it is a mindset like AM said I think. Most moderates looking to start an outreach consider the economy of the area and the availability of good paying blue collar work and this is a primary factor in deciding a location. Very few would look at the spiritual needs of the area and choose to live by faith and skimp and save in order to live in an expensive area where it was difficult to provide for one's family.

[Dan Z]

Where do you attend, Appleman?

Grace, near Punkeydoodles Corners.

I would like to live near Punkeydoodles Corners - sounds like an amazing location.

[JimFoxvog]

I have no clear idea what the first computer I programmed on looked like. In my after-school high school class, we programmed the computer and got responses from a teletype machine that worked over a telephone modem. Just knew it was a large main-frame with time sharing.