Lancaster House Church Network

[Judas Maccabeus]

Believe it or not, there appear to be two Lancaster House Church Networks. It is unknown yet if there are switches or routers between them.

But wait, there's more!

The Lancaster Network of Microchurches recently joined the Rosedale Network of Churches (we may eventually be a network of networks). As far as I can tell, it's not one of the ones previously mentioned, but I don't know much about it otherwise.

Is Rosedale ok with that kind of stuff? Every time I have seen it in my former circles it turned out badly, especially if one of the leaders consider themselves a prophet/apostle.

[Josh]

Believe it or not, there appear to be two Lancaster House Church Networks. It is unknown yet if there are switches or routers between them.

But wait, there's more!

The Lancaster Network of Microchurches recently joined the Rosedale Network of Churches (we may eventually be a network of networks). As far as I can tell, it's not one of the ones previously mentioned, but I don't know much about it otherwise.

Is Rosedale ok with that kind of stuff? Every time I have seen it in my former circles it turned out badly, especially if one of the leaders consider themselves a prophet/apostle.

Just to be clear, this is different than either the plain group running Lancaster house churches and also different than the charismatic ex-Mennonite group running Lancaster house churches.

It appears that anyone seeking a micro church, house church, nano church, or megachurch in Lancaster is going to be well-served. They can choose from plain, ex plain, formerly known as CMC, or ex-not plain Mennonite.

It is interesting to see the old chestnut of “house churches” finally becoming a fad again in Anabaptist adjacent circles. This was a popular fad with evangelicals in the mid 90s/2000s; my family suffered through several from 1992-2002 or so. My experience is microchurches eventually turn into a monadchurch with a membership of one.

[HondurasKeiser]

But wait, there's more!

The Lancaster Network of Microchurches recently joined the Rosedale Network of Churches (we may eventually be a network of networks). As far as I can tell, it's not one of the ones previously mentioned, but I don't know much about it otherwise.

Is Rosedale ok with that kind of stuff? Every time I have seen it in my former circles it turned out badly, especially if one of the leaders consider themselves a prophet/apostle.

Just to be clear, this is different than either the plain group running Lancaster house churches and also different than the charismatic ex-Mennonite group running Lancaster house churches.

It appears that anyone seeking a micro church, house church, nano church, or megachurch in Lancaster is going to be well-served. They can choose from plain, ex plain, formerly known as CMC, or ex-not plain Mennonite.

It is interesting to see the old chestnut of “house churches” finally becoming a fad again in Anabaptist adjacent circles. This was a popular fad with evangelicals in the mid 90s/2000s; my family suffered through several from 1992-2002 or so. My experience is microchurches eventually turn into a monadchurch with a membership of one.

I'd forgotten about that fad but you're right. A small group of families, tending to be on the hippier/"open to new ideas" end of our church, decided to House Church while remaining in fellowship with us sometime during the early 2000's. It ended as I think most of them, both stopped fellowshipping with us and each other by about 2008. Yet another group, even more "Open" than the other tried to do the same in attempt to be more "missional" to the artsy/college student scene in our town. The started calling their group "Valley Mosaic". They remained members at our church and most attended regularly but more and more of their time and energy focused on that small group. Very quickly it went from being overtly Christian to being "an artsy coffee house with some vague spiritual themes". The group disbanded after a few years and most of the people brought into the Church as a result have since left organized religion altogether.

[Josh]

Frank Viola and Gene Edwards wrote books on these topics, which were popular for a while. Wayne Jacobson (of The Shack fame) was trying to help the “refugees” of these movements for a while.

[Jazman]

The “Dove” churches down here tend to the Pentecostal side. Don’t know if that is .universally true.

That's an important part of their DNA. There are a lot of charismatic churches that were formed in the 1990s by former Mennonites and Dove appears to be part of that movement. Around this time the MC-USA merger was happening and there was controversy over homosexuality and this issue along with a Charismatic approach were the stated reasons for these Mennonites leaving their former denominations. Several churches split off from the Mennonites in Franklin County in the early 200s.

LMC seems to have lost a lot on both its conservative end and it’s charismatic end in the 1990’s. The other charismatic group that I recall leaving was the Harvest Fellowship of Churches led by (I think) a former LMC bishop, Henry Buckwalter. Another bishop, Enos Martin also left to form a more charismatic group but for the life of me I can’t remember which. In my home district, North Penn of the LMC, a few of the churches north of Williamsport left en masse to form their own group under the direction of Jason Denlinger and his son-in-law Mike Gaiotti, the later of which still leads that group. What’s curious to me is that, from what I know, a number of those “stealth Mennonite/Anabaptist Charismatics” are today nearly indistinguishable from your run-of-the-mill, non-denominational style church. To me it’s all very sad to look back on.

Well, my church (and district because of top leadership) has not lost its charismatic leanings... we are certainly a mix of opinions and styles but that's more by accident than by intention (of some top leadership / major influencers). There's still a sizable and influential segment, who seem to believe that borderline extreme charismatic spirituality (just short of health&wealth gospel) is the only way to save us from our 'traditional deadness"... The main "mission" option for our youth or that comes across as the main option, is YWAM; minus some exceptions, that is mostly in the clutches of extreme, signs&wonders worshipping, NAR type charismatic ideology/spirituality (Presently one of our youth is globetrotting for a few years now with a problematic outfit (imo) called Circuit Riders which in turn seems to be wholly in bed with the Todd White/Lou Engle foolishness... This youth exhibits all the signs of being completely captured by this. I pray they mature someday out of this...it's pretty cringe-worthy sometimes; although they project a spiritual high and power! and fire! that in their minds is way above the rest of us old fuddy-duddies warming our pews back home... We've been exhorted to emulate this person... hmmm I struggle with that; there are few things/types I would much prefer Not To Be Like and what I've observed would put them near the top of such a list...
I'll admit a pretty strong bias against charismatic/revivalist spirituality/practice and that colors my comments... (this bias stems from personality, experiences in upbringing and observation over the years)

[HondurasKeiser]

That's an important part of their DNA. There are a lot of charismatic churches that were formed in the 1990s by former Mennonites and Dove appears to be part of that movement. Around this time the MC-USA merger was happening and there was controversy over homosexuality and this issue along with a Charismatic approach were the stated reasons for these Mennonites leaving their former denominations. Several churches split off from the Mennonites in Franklin County in the early 200s.

LMC seems to have lost a lot on both its conservative end and it’s charismatic end in the 1990’s. The other charismatic group that I recall leaving was the Harvest Fellowship of Churches led by (I think) a former LMC bishop, Henry Buckwalter. Another bishop, Enos Martin also left to form a more charismatic group but for the life of me I can’t remember which. In my home district, North Penn of the LMC, a few of the churches north of Williamsport left en masse to form their own group under the direction of Jason Denlinger and his son-in-law Mike Gaiotti, the later of which still leads that group. What’s curious to me is that, from what I know, a number of those “stealth Mennonite/Anabaptist Charismatics” are today nearly indistinguishable from your run-of-the-mill, non-denominational style church. To me it’s all very sad to look back on.

Well, my church (and district because of top leadership) has not lost its charismatic leanings... we are certainly a mix of opinions and styles but that's more by accident than by intention (of some top leadership / major influencers). There's still a sizable and influential segment, who seem to believe that borderline extreme charismatic spirituality (just short of health&wealth gospel) is the only way to save us from our 'traditional deadness"... The main "mission" option for our youth or that comes across as the main option, is YWAM; minus some exceptions, that is mostly in the clutches of extreme, signs&wonders worshipping, NAR type charismatic ideology/spirituality (Presently one of our youth is globetrotting for a few years now with a problematic outfit (imo) called Circuit Riders which in turn seems to be wholly in bed with the Todd White/Lou Engle foolishness... This youth exhibits all the signs of being completely captured by this. I pray they mature someday out of this...it's pretty cringe-worthy sometimes; although they project a spiritual high and power! and fire! that in their minds is way above the rest of us old fuddy-duddies warming our pews back home... We've been exhorted to emulate this person... hmmm I struggle with that; there are few things/types I would much prefer Not To Be Like and what I've observed would put them near the top of such a list...
I'll admit a pretty strong bias against charismatic/revivalist spirituality/practice and that colors my comments... (this bias stems from personality, experiences in upbringing and observation over the years)

I share the same bias myself, in part because the congregation I was raised in, being on the fringes of LMC (both geographically, theologically and Mennonite-ness) leaned so heavily towards Charismaticism. I recognize the type of youth you're describing and even when I worked with EMM, saw a lot of similar things from the leaders there.

[Josh]

The exact same scenario Jazman described played out circa 2009-2012 in the Ohio Mennonite Conference affiliate near me.

There was a wave of unchurched background people (or perhaps minimal culturally Catholic), high school age, who came into that church then. Within a few years they were caught up in the YWAM/DTS/NAR/Bethel/et al type of stuff. An open question is “why”.

[Jazman]

But wait, there's more!

The Lancaster Network of Microchurches recently joined the Rosedale Network of Churches (we may eventually be a network of networks). As far as I can tell, it's not one of the ones previously mentioned, but I don't know much about it otherwise.

Is Rosedale ok with that kind of stuff? Every time I have seen it in my former circles it turned out badly, especially if one of the leaders consider themselves a prophet/apostle.

Just to be clear, this is different than either the plain group running Lancaster house churches and also different than the charismatic ex-Mennonite group running Lancaster house churches.

It appears that anyone seeking a micro church, house church, nano church, or megachurch in Lancaster is going to be well-served. They can choose from plain, ex plain, formerly known as CMC, or ex-not plain Mennonite.

It is interesting to see the old chestnut of “house churches” finally becoming a fad again in Anabaptist adjacent circles. This was a popular fad with evangelicals in the mid 90s/2000s; my family suffered through several from 1992-2002 or so. My experience is microchurches eventually turn into a monadchurch with a membership of one.

I share similar observations, but I don't want to begrudge the trying of this option. I think it depends what the goal is; I think too often it's a way to duck accountability, but there would be other reasons and some of those might be successful at times. With only a tiny bit of insight based on proximity, I'm guessing the Dove affiliated house churches/micros might be on commendable footing because of the close ties to a structure/oversight entity (even though I may disagree with its charismatic leaning) As for the other network(s) referred to in this thread, be they ex-Amish, plain Menno adjacent et al, I would have no idea what kind of accountability they're connected with or what the original goal/intent is.

[HondurasKeiser]

That's an important part of their DNA. There are a lot of charismatic churches that were formed in the 1990s by former Mennonites and Dove appears to be part of that movement. Around this time the MC-USA merger was happening and there was controversy over homosexuality and this issue along with a Charismatic approach were the stated reasons for these Mennonites leaving their former denominations. Several churches split off from the Mennonites in Franklin County in the early 200s.

LMC seems to have lost a lot on both its conservative end and it’s charismatic end in the 1990’s. The other charismatic group that I recall leaving was the Harvest Fellowship of Churches led by (I think) a former LMC bishop, Henry Buckwalter. Another bishop, Enos Martin also left to form a more charismatic group but for the life of me I can’t remember which. In my home district, North Penn of the LMC, a few of the churches north of Williamsport left en masse to form their own group under the direction of Jason Denlinger and his son-in-law Mike Gaiotti, the later of which still leads that group. What’s curious to me is that, from what I know, a number of those “stealth Mennonite/Anabaptist Charismatics” are today nearly indistinguishable from your run-of-the-mill, non-denominational style church. To me it’s all very sad to look back on.

Well, my church (and district because of top leadership) has not lost its charismatic leanings... we are certainly a mix of opinions and styles but that's more by accident than by intention (of some top leadership / major influencers). There's still a sizable and influential segment, who seem to believe that borderline extreme charismatic spirituality (just short of health&wealth gospel) is the only way to save us from our 'traditional deadness"... The main "mission" option for our youth or that comes across as the main option, is YWAM; minus some exceptions, that is mostly in the clutches of extreme, signs&wonders worshipping, NAR type charismatic ideology/spirituality (Presently one of our youth is globetrotting for a few years now with a problematic outfit (imo) called Circuit Riders which in turn seems to be wholly in bed with the Todd White/Lou Engle foolishness... This youth exhibits all the signs of being completely captured by this. I pray they mature someday out of this...it's pretty cringe-worthy sometimes; although they project a spiritual high and power! and fire! that in their minds is way above the rest of us old fuddy-duddies warming our pews back home... We've been exhorted to emulate this person... hmmm I struggle with that; there are few things/types I would much prefer Not To Be Like and what I've observed would put them near the top of such a list...
I'll admit a pretty strong bias against charismatic/revivalist spirituality/practice and that colors my comments... (this bias stems from personality, experiences in upbringing and observation over the years)

Jazman, just out of curiosity, which congregation in LMC are you a member of?

[barnhart]

Often groups adopt practices to authenticate their faith identity. Plain Mennonites put a lot of thought and energy into extending cultural and lifestyle practice, when that is missing maybe charismatic expression fills the void. I have a friend from the Young , Restless and Reformed movement of the early 2000's and he talks about the fascination (addiction) to theology and certainty with little or no interest in discipleship or spiritual discipline.