Progressive Conservative Mennonite Churches

[Ernie]

Does anyone know the current BMA membership?

And what about current membership with Bible Mennonite Fellowship in Oregon?

[Heirbyadoption]

I really think this might be a significant factor in the movement of conservative groups toward assimilation. Families that keep a very discipline family structure, that is supported and expected by the community they are in, will maintain a stability. I think Progressive Conservative groups and other open-minded groups would do well to think about this and make teaching and discipleship on home life in the Anabaptist tradition a priority in their church.

I'm not necessarily in disagreement, but it is important to consider that there are different aspects (or maybe even types) of "stability", and they may not all have the same spiritual value.

[Josh]

Does anyone know the current BMA membership?

And what about current membership with Bible Mennonite Fellowship in Oregon?

The last I spoke with someone, they were figuring out when to decide official numbers due to a large influx of churches (Martindale District, formerly a part of LMC, is courting BMA), alongside some departures.

What are some constituent churches of bmf?

[Josh]

Mrs.Nisly,

Your observations about the Amish-Mennonite background inevitably being associated with change hit home. After joyfully being a part of 2 Amish-Mennonite churches, what strikes me now that I am a part of a just-Mennonite, mostly Dutch, not Swiss background, church, is how the approach to change is so different.

For example, the more conservative voices tend to be the younger people (20s and 30s) and younger ministers (30s). The older voices often are far more “open minded” and progressive. This is in contrast to my A-M experience, where the younger generation seemed to be patiently waiting for the older generation to die off, but also tolerated very old fashioned things the older generation wanted.

It would be interesting to compare A-M vs Mennonite background churches within Progressive Conservative Anabaptists. BMA essentially represents this with it being partly former CMC and partly former Lancaster Conference. The two groups might as well be from different universes.

[Haystack]

Does anyone know the current BMA membership?

And what about current membership with Bible Mennonite Fellowship in Oregon?

What are some constituent churches of bmf?

According to GAMEO, BMF has two congregations; Brownsville Mennonite Church and Sheridan Mennonite Church for a total of 122 members. I'm not sure how current that is however. I've also read that there was a congregation that loosly affiliated with them but were not apart of BMF. Maybe RZehr knows more as this is in his area.

[Josh]

I did not know Brownsville affiliated with anyone. I have a friend who attends there and she isn’t aware of it being anything other than independent.

[Haystack]

I did not know Brownsville affiliated with anyone. I have a friend who attends there and she isn’t aware of it being anything other than independent.

Unless they left BMF recently (within the last few years) I'm not sure. GAMEO states Brownsville joined BMF in 1968.

[RZehr]

My understanding is that BMF is basically disbanded. I think at one time BMF was Sheridan,Winston, Brownsville, Hopewell and maybe Wickenburg AZ.
There is no Mennonite church at Winston any longer.
I believe Hopewell and Wickenburg ceased to be a part of BMF many, many years ago. (If in fact they ever were.)
Sheridan and Brownsville are not part of BMF as churches.
Instead there are a handful of individual people from Sheridan and Brownsville that are members of BMF. There is a non-profit Mennonite retirement home near Sheridan and as I understand it, the board members for this retirement home are pretty much the only members of BMF left. If the retirement home went away, BMF would be gone.
At least that is my understanding.

[Ernie]

This is a thread to discuss Fundamental-Conservative Mennonite Churches as categorized by Stephen Scott in his book, An Introduction to Older and Conservative Mennonite Groups.
I've titled this thread "Progressive Conservatives" since many people are confused by the term "Fundamental". Stephen Scott calls them Fundamental since they like to think of themselves as sticking with fundamental Biblical values and don't like to have extra-biblical standards.

This designation would include churches who would be similar to Biblical Mennonite Alliance (BMA).

What other churches would be part of this constituency? (Similar standards, sharing pulpits, partnering in ministries and Bible Schools, etc.)

Perhaps you all could start listing congregations that are not part of some other affiliation but would associate with BMA...

RZehr - Which of the above congregations would be similar to BMA today?

[Josh]

Gospel Haven (Holmes County / Millersburg, Ohio) and its affiliates would all be like minded to the A-M side of BMA.

Some Charity-background groups would be comfortable with BMA and indeed share pulpits, send them youth to DNI, and so forth. Grace Christian Fellowship (Columbiana County / Lisbon, Ohio) comes to mind.

Some people in CMC churches tell me they are generally associating with BMA churches and youth groups, not other CMC. Dayspring Mennonite (Bealeton, VA) comes to mind.

I would argue that some of these groups represent something that sits between theologically conservative and progressive conservative.