Kingdom Fellowship Weekend 2023

[Praxis+Theodicy]

Is anyone here attending KFW next month? Has anyone been before? Anyone want to meet up to talk about stuff there? My wife and o are planning to attend for the experience but also for networking, as we are looking for a conservative anabaptist church (not necessarily Mennonite) to settle into. Is this a good sub forum to discuss this?

[Soloist]

We were thinking about going but the budget just can’t accommodate it this year. We haven’t gone before but it sounds like a blessing.

Maybe we can make it next year

[Josh]

Is anyone here attending KFW next month? Has anyone been before? Anyone want to meet up to talk about stuff there? My wife and o are planning to attend for the experience but also for networking, as we are looking for a conservative anabaptist church (not necessarily Mennonite) to settle into. Is this a good sub forum to discuss this?

KFW is probably the premier event of Charity type people, leaning towards the more conservative end of Charity. I’ve been there several years but I missed last year.

It started as a way for Charity youth to gather, back when the homeschool “patriarchy” culture was so strong that Charity wasn’t having regular youth gatherings / youth rallies etc. So some crafty youth organised KFW under the guise of a spiritual event they could convince their parents to attend and also lined up some guest speakers. It was a success and the youth enjoyed a way to finally get out and meet other Charity type youth from other places that weren’t their first cousins.

Over time, it evolved into an event that seekers felt welcome to come to, and which often entertained speakers from backgrounds ranging from a variety of Brethren to the Followers of the Way leadership. People who were drifting out of more plain groups into Charity would sometimes come and attend, but the leadership now is not trying to cater to such folk.

Over the years many people have stopped attending church and KFW is the only church type of event they go to all year. About half of the attendees would fit in this category. The leadership in my view is sensitive to the needs of such people and I appreciate their choices of speakers and topics, many of which emphasise the importance of church and local fellowship.

If you are attending or otherwise in Charity circles, this is a great event to attend.

Now for a bit of a personal story: my wife has never spent much time around Charity people or churches before, other than colleagues that frankly were on the worldly end of things so she just assumed they weren’t spiritual. We went to KFW once and she went to the ladies’ prayer circle.

She had two takeaways: one was that the women seemed to be trying to have lots of kids - she’s in her early 30s and women younger than she already had 7 or more. A few women expressed exhaustion with having so many kids and wanted prayer for that. They were also very surprised she only had 1 child at her age, as if nobody ever gets married as late as age 30.

The other surprise for her was she was unaccustomed to the evangelical style of praying long prayers in front of other people and going around in a circle where every person does so. The older Anabaptist style is to pray privately, other than prayers in a group at church as just one, or else short prayers before meals or family devotions. This reveals the evangelical influences of Charity people; their style is very similar to how my parents would pray on a group, given their charismatic background.

Nowadays you would find Keystone, BMA, Mid-Atlantic, German Baptist (New Conference), and the occasional intermediate-conservative sort of person attending as well.

[Praxis+Theodicy]

Thanks Josh, that was very helpful.

Over the years many people have stopped attending church and KFW is the only church type of event they go to all year. About half of the attendees would fit in this category. The leadership in my view is sensitive to the needs of such people and I appreciate their choices of speakers and topics, many of which emphasise the importance of church and local fellowship.

Sounds like many more than you are aware of this. The theme this year is "The Local Church: Faithful and Flourishing." Sounds like a knowing choice to nudge people who have dropped out of church to reconsider that life choice.

If you are attending or otherwise in Charity circles, this is a great event to attend.

We are currently attending a church that was planted by Harmony Fellowship in PA. You tend to always have at least a bit of suggestive tone that charity churches are more liberal/wordly than you'd maybe prefer but so far in my experience they're more conservative/traditional than I'm used to. But not in a bad way; just takes some adjustments. This is probably our differing perspectives. I grew up in slightly-more-conservative-than-average Evangelical churches, and I'm mostly just looking for a church that holds to doctrines like nonresistance, headship order, etc. I don't care much about how often or how long they pray or what kind of songs they sing or what kind of clothes they wear. As long as they can defend their positions Biblically, and they seem to understand the Bible in a similar way to the hermeneutic I've come to understand, I'm not too picky on how "worldly" they are. "Worldly" doesn't automatically equate to "disobedient" or "sinful" in my mind.

[Praxis+Theodicy]

We were thinking about going but the budget just can’t accommodate it this year. We haven’t gone before but it sounds like a blessing.

Maybe we can make it next year

Most everything is by donation. My wife and I are hoping to have some money to contribute, but we're honest about our circumstances at the moment. Just getting jobs again after like 2 and a half years of living on savings; so we are already planning on going, and will pray that we can provide some help towards the cost of putting on the event.

We're paying for a campsite on the location, but that wasn't too much. The gas to get there will be the bulk of the expense.

[Soloist]

Most everything is by donation. My wife and I are hoping to have some money to contribute, but we're honest about our circumstances at the moment. Just getting jobs again after like 2 and a half years of living on savings; so we are already planning on going, and will pray that we can provide some help towards the cost of putting on the event.

We're paying for a campsite on the location, but that wasn't too much. The gas to get there will be the bulk of the expense.

When you consider food, gas and lost wages… it gets very expensive. My normal work week is Wednesday through Saturday and it’s a two day drive just to get there.

[Josh]

We were thinking about going but the budget just can’t accommodate it this year. We haven’t gone before but it sounds like a blessing.

Maybe we can make it next year

Most everything is by donation. My wife and I are hoping to have some money to contribute, but we're honest about our circumstances at the moment. Just getting jobs again after like 2 and a half years of living on savings; so we are already planning on going, and will pray that we can provide some help towards the cost of putting on the event.

We're paying for a campsite on the location, but that wasn't too much. The gas to get there will be the bulk of the expense.

Yes, the only cost is a campsite or paying for a lodge. When I was single the latter would be maybe $10 a night. Last time we went, we stayed with friends in Shippensburg.

The organisers wouldn’t want to see any families not come because of cost. The donations are a free will offering and those with deeper pockets often contribute quite a bit.

[mike]

Is anyone here attending KFW next month? Has anyone been before? Anyone want to meet up to talk about stuff there? My wife and o are planning to attend for the experience but also for networking, as we are looking for a conservative anabaptist church (not necessarily Mennonite) to settle into. Is this a good sub forum to discuss this?

Our family is registered. We went there a couple of years ago as a family and enjoyed it. We attend a conference-style conservative Mennonite church, and I like events such as KFW in order to interact with a wider social group. Quite frankly, many large denomination-sponsored meetings such as conventions and conferences and themed seminars are a bit boring. At events like this you get a lot more varied ideas represented, and I find that appealing. Also, it's likely we will run into friends from all over the place that we haven't seen in years, which is nice. It would be great to meet you while there.

[Josh]

We are currently attending a church that was planted by Harmony Fellowship in PA. You tend to always have at least a bit of suggestive tone that charity churches are more liberal/wordly than you'd maybe prefer but so far in my experience they're more conservative/traditional than I'm used to. But not in a bad way; just takes some adjustments. This is probably our differing perspectives. I grew up in slightly-more-conservative-than-average Evangelical churches, and I'm mostly just looking for a church that holds to doctrines like nonresistance, headship order, etc. I don't care much about how often or how long they pray or what kind of songs they sing or what kind of clothes they wear. As long as they can defend their positions Biblically, and they seem to understand the Bible in a similar way to the hermeneutic I've come to understand, I'm not too picky on how "worldly" they are. "Worldly" doesn't automatically equate to "disobedient" or "sinful" in my mind.

I actually don’t care about particular details too much either. My fellowship doesn’t do stuff like cape dresses and never has. However, they do seem to be able to be consistent over long periods of time, particularly in areas like nonresistance. So what is important to me is being part of a group that isn’t “transitional”.

One positive aspect of KFW is that the organisers often seem to be aware of the problems with transitional groups.

[Soloist]

I actually don’t care about particular details too much either. My fellowship doesn’t do stuff like cape dresses and never has. However, they do seem to be able to be consistent over long periods of time, particularly in areas like nonresistance. So what is important to me is being part of a group that isn’t “transitional”.

One positive aspect of KFW is that the organisers often seem to be aware of the problems with transitional groups.

It is interesting that transitional groups often don’t recognize it.