Lancaster Mennonite Conference

[cooper]

Thread to discuss Lancaster Conference (now LMC). The thread about EPMC and the use of power by bishops led me to read some history. I found it interesting that in 2007, a proposal to allow female ordination just missed the 2/3 threshold. In 2008, the bishops changed the policy to allow female pastors. https://anabaptistworld.org/over-decade ... -expanded/

[Josh]

Lancaster has a strong episcopal model - and really is the source of strong conference structures in conservative Mennonite circles. Nobody else has as strong of conference structure and episcopal hierarchy as Eastern.

An open question is where it came from. My personal opinion is that Lancaster imported a lot of ideas from Methodists.

[HondurasKeiser]

Lancaster has a strong episcopal model - and really is the source of strong conference structures in conservative Mennonite circles. Nobody else has as strong of conference structure and episcopal hierarchy as Eastern.

An open question is where it came from. My personal opinion is that Lancaster imported a lot of ideas from Methodists.

I wanna say I read the history of the origins of the conference structure and strong bishop board in John Ruth’s history of Lancaster Conference but I can’t quite remember.

[JayP]

Should it surprise anyone that anything could be passed by LMC today? It is simply in a race to becoming another bland, meaningless general mainline Protestant church that eventually everyone dies off, leaves, or is barely Christian

[Josh]

Should it surprise anyone that anything could be passed by LMC today? It is simply in a race to becoming another bland, meaningless general mainline Protestant church that eventually everyone dies off, leaves, or is barely Christian

I would describe it as a mainstream evangelical Protestant church, not mainline, much like Global Methodist Connection. I would describe MC USA as a mainline Protestant church, much like United Church of Christ.

[Jazman]

Should it surprise anyone that anything could be passed by LMC today? It is simply in a race to becoming another bland, meaningless general mainline Protestant church that eventually everyone dies off, leaves, or is barely Christian

I'm curious JayP... Do you attend or have you attended an LMC church lately? Do you have close acquaintances who do so?
Your claim may have some merit in some corner or place somewhere...
I happen to be a member at an LMC church and in my corner, your claim doesn't come close to reality. I would actually welcome some (but not all or much) influence / trend towards mainline Protestant in our midst... it might be a good corrective to the much more prevalent, insidious influences of the hyper-charismatic, mega-churchianity, performative spirituality, and the restless consumerist, individualist spirit of our age which bedevils our young people and guts our churches... The threat, "bland, meaningless general mainline Protestant" you posit is, at least in my area/district has pretty much 0 change of even getting a toenail in door... The only thing I can assume from your claim is that you have a much different connection with a much different entity than I do. I can only assume you don't know anyone from my church or district or bishop etc and therefore have this different viewpoint.

Finally, maybe we're the only ones as an individual church (but highly doubt the only one...), but our leadership recently and quite publicly staked our flag in the 'complementarian' camp, in clear opposition to the 'egalitarian' / women-can-be-pastors wing... so in reality it's not so clear cut as you claim.

[Josh]

I'm guessing JayP confused "mainline Protestant" with "evangelical Protestant".

[Jazman]

I'm guessing JayP confused "mainline Protestant" with "evangelical Protestant".

If so, then yeah, I would agree with most of his point.

[JayP]

Please excuse me. Obviously experience and where you sit on the spectrum deeply biases even the definitions we use

I do recognize, if I think hard and patiently, the differences between mainline and evangelical Protestantism.

Unfortunately, for me, with my prejudices, they are both so bland and far where I would ever want to be, the blur into the same

My point, and I regret it is a bit unkind, is mainline Mennonites are simply marking time until they are indistinguishable from those Protestant groups. I regret because I do not mean to be condemning per se.

I value those parts of the Anabaptist tree, such as the Amish and conservative Mennonites, that still hold to elements that I would characterize as neither Catholic nor Protestant. I personally do not include LMC in that. I recognize there are probably many folks in say LMC or Franconia doing a much better job of being a Christian than I am. But I can still say there church groups/admin/place is just on the road to Protestant land. Just not sure how far down the road they are.

Again, please do not interpret my blunt speaking as mean. Just trying to express it clearly. Perhaps I should not be so lighthearted about LMC. I am sure I have been influenced in my view of LMC by having been in Eastern.
If you are asking where I fit in, I am a practicing Catholic who predominantly attends Latin Mass.
I was raised in a community that had plenty of contact with lots of Plain People.
For a number of years my wife and I left the RCC and were members in Eastern.

I still have many friends in Conservative Mennonite churches, Old Order Mennonite, and OOA groups
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