Why are you a plain Mennonite / Anabaptist?

Christian ethics and theology with an Anabaptist perspective
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Bootstrap
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Why are you a plain Mennonite / Anabaptist?

Post by Bootstrap »

This thread is for plain Mennonites / Anabaptists to share their answers to this question:
Why do you feel a conservative Mennonite / Anabaptist church is the best setting to live out your discipleship to Jesus? What do you about these churches that you do not find in other churches? How would you describe your faith to Christians from other traditions?
Request: I would like those who are not plain Mennonites / Anabaptists to feel free to ask clarifying questions and draw people out, but please do not challenge or debate in this thread, and please do not offer your own opinions. This is a thread for listening.
Last edited by Bootstrap on Mon Sep 18, 2017 12:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Is it biblical? Is it Christlike? Is it loving? Is it true? How can I find out?
Hats Off
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Re: Why are you a plain Mennonite / Anabaptist?

Post by Hats Off »

I was born/raised/baptised and married in a plain Mennonite church and after 50 years I have not seen anything I would prefer to what we have. There are of course some things I would like to change as do many others. However, since we would not choose to change the same things, we keep what we have. Someone, possibly Don Kraybill, but I can't remember for sure, once said that the New Order Amish have "opened the flood gates of change so far that they can't close them again." I think that is something many plain people fear.
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Re: Why are you a plain Mennonite / Anabaptist?

Post by Ernie »

Bootstrap wrote:This thread is for plain Mennonites / Anabaptists to share their answers to this question:
Why do you feel a conservative Mennonite / Anabaptist church is the best setting to live out your discipleship to Jesus? What do you ___________ about these churches that you do not find in other churches? How would you describe your faith to Christians from other traditions?
I will begin by saying that I would only want to live out my discipleship to Jesus in a small percentage of conservative Anabaptist communities. The greater percentage would be very difficult for me. My comments here will reflect the small percentage and not the larger percentage.
In the communities where I would want to live, there is an emphasis on compassion for the lost and the disadvantaged, and an emphasis on holiness of life. There is a strong sense of community. The prevailing sub-culture favors raising children innocent and sheltered from evil and training them in the ways of God. (there is plenty of time for them to learn about evil after they are grown if they need to know at that point.)
Most of the important Biblical doctrines are taught in these communities, and these communities continually offer a ray of hope for the worlds ills.
I like telling people about my faith in God, my belief in Christ, and about the people I have cast my lot with.
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Soloist
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Re: Why are you a plain Mennonite / Anabaptist?

Post by Soloist »

Bootstrap wrote:This thread is for plain Mennonites / Anabaptists to share their answers to this question:
Request: I would like those who are not plain Mennonites / Anabaptists to feel free to ask clarifying questions and draw people out, but please do not challenge or debate in this thread, and please do not offer your own opinions. This is a thread for listening.
Are you requesting only culturally plain, or transplants? and what do you define as plain?
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Bootstrap
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Re: Why are you a plain Mennonite / Anabaptist?

Post by Bootstrap »

Soloist wrote:
Bootstrap wrote:This thread is for plain Mennonites / Anabaptists to share their answers to this question:
Request: I would like those who are not plain Mennonites / Anabaptists to feel free to ask clarifying questions and draw people out, but please do not challenge or debate in this thread, and please do not offer your own opinions. This is a thread for listening.
Are you requesting only culturally plain, or transplants? and what do you define as plain?
I'm going to leave that up to you - if you believe you are a plain Mennonite / Anabaptist, by your own definition, feel free to post. If you think there are interesting things about your definition that should be clarified, feel free to do so. But I hope this will be a thread for sharing what you think is good about your tradition, not for debates about who is plain.
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KingdomBuilder
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Re: Why are you a plain Mennonite / Anabaptist?

Post by KingdomBuilder »

I'm not (yet?) :mrgreen:
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Neto
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Re: Why are you a plain Mennonite / Anabaptist?

Post by Neto »

I consider myself to be 'anabaptist' because, as far as I have seen, no other tradition is so clearly 'biblicist', which is how I define myself.
'Plain' is a little trickier, because I don't dress 'Plain', just 'plain'. (I don't wear broadfalls, or only solid color shirts, or suspenders, but I never wear shorts or t-shirts. Of course lots of Amish wear t-shirts, so there you go. Someone recently told me, when I told them that I am Plaut Deitch, 'Oh, I thought you were probably Russian Mennonite, because you wear plaid shirts.' Interesting! Like the Beachy guy who years ago asked "So you are a part of the Red Race?" I never did figure out what he meant.)
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Re: Why are you a plain Mennonite / Anabaptist?

Post by lesterb »

This is a hard question to answer, in some ways. There are some things in plain Mennonite churches I don't really like. But a person could wander the whole world over and not find a church where he liked everything. There are certain things that I believe are biblical and I don't know of any other group that holds to them.

Like I used to say on MennoDiscuss in the good old days, you need to chose a congregation as a package. If that package results in what you think is right and biblical, then you can live with some things you don't care for. I've seen too many people walk away from the package because they didn't like the color of string it was bound with.
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Re: Why are you a plain Mennonite / Anabaptist?

Post by thebluffs »

lesterb wrote: Like I used to say on MennoDiscuss in the good old days, you need to chose a congregation as a package. If that package results in what you think is right and biblical, then you can live with some things you don't care for. I've seen too many people walk away from the package because they didn't like the color of string it was bound with.

This is brilliant - thanks, I just may use this :)
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Re: Why are you a plain Mennonite / Anabaptist?

Post by steve-in-kville »

Well, let me see... my family attended a Church of God until I was about 12. Then we attended a mid-stream Church of the Brethren. I was there until about 16/17 when I began to form some convictions of my own on the head covering, dress, TV, etc. I started visiting local plain churches (both Brethren and Mennonite). I eventually found a home in the Dunkard Brethren church where I met my wife (we've since moved on, but that's another story for another day!).

So I guess to answer the question: I had formed my own convictions on things like the head covering, dress (both men and women) and TV (there was no web back then!). Yes, I have modified those convictions some, but in almost 25 years they haven't moved much!
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