Pilgrim Mennonite Conference current events

[cmbl]

I heard the other day that Pilgrim Mennonite Conference may soon be disintegrating into several different groups and that their next annual conference will be their last one. Does anyone know whether this is in fact the case?

Yes, this is the case. It has been under discussion for some time. At my church this past Sunday, we were given a conference report on the "PMC Branching." There will now be 3 conferences - the Lancaster/Lebanon/central PA churches will still be named "Pilgrim Conference." The Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, northwestern Virginia churches will become a conference. The southern Virginia, Georgia, Florida, New Mexico churches will become another conference.

Various of the conference activities will either be carried on jointly, or one of the 3 new conferences will take charge of the work.

[Ernie]

I heard the other day that Pilgrim Mennonite Conference may soon be disintegrating into several different groups and that their next annual conference will be their last one. Does anyone know whether this is in fact the case?

Yes, this is the case. It has been under discussion for some time. At my church this past Sunday, we were given a conference report on the "PMC Branching." There will now be 3 conferences - the Lancaster/Lebanon/central PA churches will still be named "Pilgrim Conference." The Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, northwestern Virginia churches will become a conference. The southern Virginia, Georgia, Florida, New Mexico churches will become another conference.

Various of the conference activities will either be carried on jointly, or one of the 3 new conferences will take charge of the work.

So some PA churches may not be part of Pilgrim?

[cmbl]

I heard the other day that Pilgrim Mennonite Conference may soon be disintegrating into several different groups and that their next annual conference will be their last one. Does anyone know whether this is in fact the case?

Yes, this is the case. It has been under discussion for some time. At my church this past Sunday, we were given a conference report on the "PMC Branching." There will now be 3 conferences - the Lancaster/Lebanon/central PA churches will still be named "Pilgrim Conference." The Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, northwestern Virginia churches will become a conference. The southern Virginia, Georgia, Florida, New Mexico churches will become another conference.

Various of the conference activities will either be carried on jointly, or one of the 3 new conferences will take charge of the work.

So some PA churches may not be part of Pilgrim?

Right; the churches in Altoona & Tyrone will be going with the Ohio/Michigan/MD/northern VA group.

[Pelerin]

I heard the other day that Pilgrim Mennonite Conference may soon be disintegrating into several different groups and that their next annual conference will be their last one. Does anyone know whether this is in fact the case?

Yes, this is the case. It has been under discussion for some time. At my church this past Sunday, we were given a conference report on the "PMC Branching." There will now be 3 conferences - the Lancaster/Lebanon/central PA churches will still be named "Pilgrim Conference." The Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, northwestern Virginia churches will become a conference. The southern Virginia, Georgia, Florida, New Mexico churches will become another conference.

Various of the conference activities will either be carried on jointly, or one of the 3 new conferences will take charge of the work.

Why are Ohio/Michigan and Maryland/Northern Virginia together? Geographically MD/VA seem like a closer fit for Lancaster/Eastern PA. Is there some sense that they fit better together ideologically and/or culturally?

[cmbl]

I heard the other day that Pilgrim Mennonite Conference may soon be disintegrating into several different groups and that their next annual conference will be their last one. Does anyone know whether this is in fact the case?

Yes, this is the case. It has been under discussion for some time. At my church this past Sunday, we were given a conference report on the "PMC Branching." There will now be 3 conferences - the Lancaster/Lebanon/central PA churches will still be named "Pilgrim Conference." The Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, northwestern Virginia churches will become a conference. The southern Virginia, Georgia, Florida, New Mexico churches will become another conference.

Various of the conference activities will either be carried on jointly, or one of the 3 new conferences will take charge of the work.

Why are Ohio/Michigan and Maryland/Northern Virginia together? Geographically MD/VA seem like a closer fit for Lancaster/Eastern PA. Is there some sense that they fit better together ideologically and/or culturally?

I would think it's related to bishop districts (all churches are keeping their current bishops) and making the new conferences of roughly equal size.

[Soloist]

Yes, this is the case. It has been under discussion for some time. At my church this past Sunday, we were given a conference report on the "PMC Branching." There will now be 3 conferences - the Lancaster/Lebanon/central PA churches will still be named "Pilgrim Conference." The Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, northwestern Virginia churches will become a conference. The southern Virginia, Georgia, Florida, New Mexico churches will become another conference.

Various of the conference activities will either be carried on jointly, or one of the 3 new conferences will take charge of the work.

Why are Ohio/Michigan and Maryland/Northern Virginia together? Geographically MD/VA seem like a closer fit for Lancaster/Eastern PA. Is there some sense that they fit better together ideologically and/or culturally?

I would think it's related to bishop districts (all churches are keeping their current bishops) and making the new conferences of roughly equal size.

Wife: Supposedly, there are people on both sides of some of random ideological debates being put together in Pennsylvania, so I think it’s just location.
New Mexico? I didn’t hear that one. Mississippi’s one of them. where is the church in New Mexico? for some reason, I think somewhere like that should be paired with wherever Idaho went.

[mike]

I'm curious what people see as the pros and cons of a larger versus smaller conference.

Also it seems to me that the more relevant metric is total number of members in the conference, rather than total number of churches.

An ordained man from the "Southern District" of Pilgrim told me he would sit in ministers' meetings where issues were being discussed, and he could not relate to the discussion because the issues they were facing were not the same as the issues being faced in other parts of the church. Where you have a conference with a large geographic footprint it is hard to make "one size fits all" directives.

Wife: also, imagine getting anything done with 100 ministers in a room. They told us that by the end of the talks, just about everybody could understand the need for dividing the conference, and the vote was nearly unanimous. The way ministers meetings have been described to me, it takes forever just to get through anything (which might be great if you’re a sleeping preacher).

The NT pattern is of locally governed gatherings of believers, with the exception of the apostolic role. The Jerusalem conference and Paul's missionary journeys and letters are examples of the apostles exercising their broad role as Jesus' personal emissaries, a role which ceased to exist after the apostles were gone.

Obviously local churches anywhere can group themselves together with other likeminded churches and operate in sync for utilitarian purposes. But it is nice in my opinion when churches treat those sorts of systems as something to be laid aside just as well as to be assembled and built to the heavens. Churches should in my view be led by local leaders who are servants of the congregation.

[Judas Maccabeus]

An ordained man from the "Southern District" of Pilgrim told me he would sit in ministers' meetings where issues were being discussed, and he could not relate to the discussion because the issues they were facing were not the same as the issues being faced in other parts of the church. Where you have a conference with a large geographic footprint it is hard to make "one size fits all" directives.

Wife: also, imagine getting anything done with 100 ministers in a room. They told us that by the end of the talks, just about everybody could understand the need for dividing the conference, and the vote was nearly unanimous. The way ministers meetings have been described to me, it takes forever just to get through anything (which might be great if you’re a sleeping preacher).

The NT pattern is of locally governed gatherings of believers, with the exception of the apostolic role. The Jerusalem conference and Paul's missionary journeys and letters are examples of the apostles exercising their broad role as Jesus' personal emissaries, a role which ceased to exist after the apostles were gone.

Obviously local churches anywhere can group themselves together with other likeminded churches and operate in sync for utilitarian purposes. But it is nice in my opinion when churches treat those sorts of systems as something to be laid aside just as well as to be assembled and built to the heavens. Churches should in my view be led by local leaders who are servants of the congregation.

And distant leaders are likely to be perceived as illegitimate, since they have no relationship with the people they purport to lead.

[Soloist]

And distant leaders are likely to be perceived as illegitimate, since they have no relationship with the people they purport to lead.

I suppose it really depends on what the role of a bishop is. Come in for communion, baptism and ordinations? Or to lead the church…

[mike]

And distant leaders are likely to be perceived as illegitimate, since they have no relationship with the people they purport to lead.

I suppose it really depends on what the role of a bishop is. Come in for communion, baptism and ordinations? Or to lead the church…

Another issue I have with the whole conference model is how it results in local leaders not really leading. When faced with any issue of importance, there's always a hesitation because they need to check back with the conference or district bishop before giving advice, opinion, or direction. It ends up not really being that important who the local leaders are, because their actions are largely governed by set tradition and the hierarchical conference structure.