Re: Conservative Anabaptist Church Finder & Information
Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2023 12:22 pm
Let’s give an example.
Two of my nieces (in law) came from a broken home, dad long ago abandoned them and eventually ended up in prison. Mom needed help and sent them to her sister to live.
They needed a good school due to several years of educational neglect (possibly the school district’s fault). I spoke with the school board at a moderate conservative church’s school (with a school board stacked with people who had left and gone to an RNoC church) and to my own Holdeman school board and made an appeal for them to be admitted there, and was successful. The girls thrived and after a year or so both are performing well academically.
Eventually my brother and his wife appreciated the good Christian education and that school and started attending services. It was a big change in their life and they both had an experience of being either born again, or born again a second time. Eventually they yielded to church membership and were baptised and became members.
The girls quickly adapted to “plain” life, leaving their old ways of watching TV, wearing worldly clothes, watching videos on a tablet, etc. behind them. Eventually one of them felt convicted to wear a covering and after several years, she is seeking baptism and church membership herself.
Now comes the dilemma: they are in a moderate-conservative church, but people keep leaving to go to a CMC/RNoC church where the youth pastor teaches against the covering and against wearing skirts/dresses. Some youth ignore church rules and are moving in a BMA sort of direction.
This is rather confusing for these dear young souls. After all, if they wanted to live a worldly life with worldly clothes… they could have just stayed in their old situation. (They did attend church in their old home.) It would make no sense at all to them to “transition” back to their old life. They have always believed in Jesus, but in a plain church, a lot of Christianity became real: families that stay together, a church that supports Christian education for families that need it, and a strong Christian lifestyle to prevent things like dad going to prison or mom leaving dad. That stuff really does matter.
Now my brother and his wife are evaluating Amish districts to move to so they can get away from this transitional mess. Of key concern is influences on young people. They don’t want their children around the CMC/RNoC youth pastor who teaches against the covering and against nonresistance, for example.
Two of my nieces (in law) came from a broken home, dad long ago abandoned them and eventually ended up in prison. Mom needed help and sent them to her sister to live.
They needed a good school due to several years of educational neglect (possibly the school district’s fault). I spoke with the school board at a moderate conservative church’s school (with a school board stacked with people who had left and gone to an RNoC church) and to my own Holdeman school board and made an appeal for them to be admitted there, and was successful. The girls thrived and after a year or so both are performing well academically.
Eventually my brother and his wife appreciated the good Christian education and that school and started attending services. It was a big change in their life and they both had an experience of being either born again, or born again a second time. Eventually they yielded to church membership and were baptised and became members.
The girls quickly adapted to “plain” life, leaving their old ways of watching TV, wearing worldly clothes, watching videos on a tablet, etc. behind them. Eventually one of them felt convicted to wear a covering and after several years, she is seeking baptism and church membership herself.
Now comes the dilemma: they are in a moderate-conservative church, but people keep leaving to go to a CMC/RNoC church where the youth pastor teaches against the covering and against wearing skirts/dresses. Some youth ignore church rules and are moving in a BMA sort of direction.
This is rather confusing for these dear young souls. After all, if they wanted to live a worldly life with worldly clothes… they could have just stayed in their old situation. (They did attend church in their old home.) It would make no sense at all to them to “transition” back to their old life. They have always believed in Jesus, but in a plain church, a lot of Christianity became real: families that stay together, a church that supports Christian education for families that need it, and a strong Christian lifestyle to prevent things like dad going to prison or mom leaving dad. That stuff really does matter.
Now my brother and his wife are evaluating Amish districts to move to so they can get away from this transitional mess. Of key concern is influences on young people. They don’t want their children around the CMC/RNoC youth pastor who teaches against the covering and against nonresistance, for example.
