Who "owns" the Conservative Anabaptists?

[Bootstrap]

I want to clarify, that I do not feel like Mennonites are synonymous with Plain or Conservative Anabaptists. Far from it.
As a Plain Mennonite, I identify and feel much more comfortable with other non-Mennonite conservative anabaptist people than I do with more liberal Mennonites.

Can you say more about that? Can you describe the things that make you comfortable with a particular group?

[RZehr]

I want to clarify, that I do not feel like Mennonites are synonymous with Plain or Conservative Anabaptists. Far from it.
As a Plain Mennonite, I identify and feel much more comfortable with other non-Mennonite conservative anabaptist people than I do with more liberal Mennonites.

Can you say more about that? Can you describe the things that make you comfortable with a particular group?

I see intermediate conservative mennonites somewhat freely interact and connect with charity people, german baptists, followers of the way, ultra conservative mennonites, moderate conservative mennonites. Depending on the person not all intermediates will interact with all these groups, but I do. I consider the differences between these groups and myself mostly superficial.
If I was in an area with only one of these churches I feel like I could, with a little effort, make myself at home. I would chose any of these over a MCUSA church.
And I think that we see the same going the other way. I forget which church you are a part of now, but it appears to me that you are more comfortable crossing from MCUSA? to where you are now attending, instead of swimming upstream to a conservative Mennonite church.
MCUSA, in my opinion, has much more in common with evangelical churches than with conservative anabaptist churches. I feel like literally the only thing we have in common is the name Mennonite.

[ohio jones]

MCUSA, in my opinion, has much more in common with evangelical churches than with conservative anabaptist churches. I feel like literally the only thing we have in common is the name Mennonite.

I don't think MCUSA has much at all in common with evangelical churches. CMC, BMA, AMEC, and LMC do, but MCUSA seems to have more in common these days with mainline protestant churches than with evangelicals.

[RZehr]

MCUSA, in my opinion, has much more in common with evangelical churches than with conservative anabaptist churches. I feel like literally the only thing we have in common is the name Mennonite.

I don't think MCUSA has much at all in common with evangelical churches. CMC, BMA, AMEC, and LMC do, but MCUSA seems to have more in common these days with mainline protestant churches than with evangelicals.

Okay.

[Bootstrap]

I'm doing my best to let Conservative Anabaptists "own" this thread, so I'll respond about myself over here:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=155&p=3944#p3944

[Josh]

MCUSA, in my opinion, has much more in common with evangelical churches than with conservative anabaptist churches. I feel like literally the only thing we have in common is the name Mennonite.

I don't think MCUSA has much at all in common with evangelical churches. CMC, BMA, AMEC, and LMC do, but MCUSA seems to have more in common these days with mainline protestant churches than with evangelicals.

There's still a sizeable evangelical wing of MC USA amongst congregations that haven't departed for whatever reason. A good deal of Ohio Conference is this way. They are basically holding out to see what happens.

[Wayne in Maine]

I want to clarify, that I do not feel like Mennonites are synonymous with Plain or Conservative Anabaptists. Far from it.
As a Plain Mennonite, I identify and feel much more comfortable with other non-Mennonite conservative anabaptist people than I do with more liberal Mennonites.

Can you say more about that? Can you describe the things that make you comfortable with a particular group?

I see intermediate conservative mennonites somewhat freely interact and connect with charity people, german baptists, followers of the way, ultra conservative mennonites, moderate conservative mennonites. Depending on the person not all intermediates will interact with all these groups, but I do. I consider the differences between these groups and myself mostly superficial.
If I was in an area with only one of these churches I feel like I could, with a little effort, make myself at home. I would chose any of these over a MCUSA church.
And I think that we see the same going the other way. I forget which church you are a part of now, but it appears to me that you are more comfortable crossing from MCUSA? to where you are now attending, instead of swimming upstream to a conservative Mennonite church.
MCUSA, in my opinion, has much more in common with evangelical churches than with conservative anabaptist churches. I feel like literally the only thing we have in common is the name Mennonite.

I had a similar thought when Lester posted his survey where the third category of "Anabaptist" was defined: "3. An Anabaptist by theology, but not plain (pacifist, etc., but not non-conformed in appearance. TV is okay.)". I thought of the folks who post on Menno Nerds or Pink Mennos or Young Anabaptist Radicals and, except by using the broadest definition of Anabaptism (or by admitting that Anabaptism is an ethnicity), I could not see these progressives having a check box on the survey. There are a lot of Mennonites that have much more in common spiritually and theologically with Mainstream Protestantism (in some cases, with Unitarian Universalism!) than with the Anabaptism of their plain cousins (or grandparents). And even many ingrafted radical Anabaptist converts seem not to have a place anywhere on the actual historic stream of Anabaptism. Really, at some point, when your understanding of message and mission of Jesus is informed less by historic Anabaptism and more by Queer theology or Liberation Theology or even Pentecostalism, Calvinism or Catholic Monasticism, you are no longer Anabaptist of any sort.

[temporal1]

i'm glad you included Unitarian Universalism, Wayne.
i don't often hear it named, but i do often see widespread (hallmarks?) of it, as boundaries are blurred and stretched beyond ability to distinguish, across the board.

[Wade]

I want to clarify, that I do not feel like Mennonites are synonymous with Plain or Conservative Anabaptists. Far from it.
As a Plain Mennonite, I identify and feel much more comfortable with other non-Mennonite conservative anabaptist people than I do with more liberal Mennonites.

Can you say more about that? Can you describe the things that make you comfortable with a particular group?

I see intermediate conservative mennonites somewhat freely interact and connect with charity people, german baptists, followers of the way, ultra conservative mennonites, moderate conservative mennonites. Depending on the person not all intermediates will interact with all these groups, but I do. I consider the differences between these groups and myself mostly superficial.
If I was in an area with only one of these churches I feel like I could, with a little effort, make myself at home. I would chose any of these over a MCUSA church.
And I think that we see the same going the other way. I forget which church you are a part of now, but it appears to me that you are more comfortable crossing from MCUSA? to where you are now attending, instead of swimming upstream to a conservative Mennonite church.
MCUSA, in my opinion, has much more in common with evangelical churches than with conservative anabaptist churches. I feel like literally the only thing we have in common is the name Mennonite.

What I highlighted didn't exist in the first few Mennonite churches we attended. However this perspective you share is real important for a new comer to progress. Thank you for sharing. Very helpful for separating conviction, opinion, and preference. Submission can be much easier to understand from this angle.

[MaxPC]

MCUSA, in my opinion, has much more in common with evangelical churches than with conservative anabaptist churches. I feel like literally the only thing we have in common is the name Mennonite.

If MCUSA has become more like the evangelical churches, they might be looking at their future in this article.