MennoNet.com

Biblical Anabaptist wrote:

Josh wrote:Yes, all of that is on their website.

Promoting the Scofield “Bible” is hardly Anabaptists.

Many in Eastern, Pilgrim, and Hope Fellowship are strongly dispensationalist. It could be questioned how Anabaptist they really are.

Mike Atnip discussed this problem in his Farewell editorial when he was retiring from Remnant. I found this article in http://www.charityministries.org/.

I know these folks well.

Yes, they would consider themselves Mennonite or Anabaptist. They are listed in the CLP directory as Beachy.
Chad became a Baptist preacher at age 17 and still thinks a lot like those folks. He did not first spend time in a Mennonite church before starting his own Mennonite church. Had he done so, he might have lost a few of the emphases that he currently has.
About fifteen years ago this church sought fellowship with our Beachy church in AR. Chad went to a Beachy ministers meeting and expressed desire to be part of that fellowship network. I'm not aware that he has attended since but he still has a good relationship with the Beachy church I used to attend.
At one point I asked him if he wanted their church listed in the CLP directory as "Beachy" and he was in favor.
Some people encouraged us to help them grow their church in the early years by moving there, and I did like their zeal, but I could not have embraced their confession of faith and practice as it was way too Fundamentalist for me.

Ernie wrote:I know these folks well.

Yes, they would consider themselves Mennonite or Anabaptist. They are listed in the CLP directory as Beachy.
Chad became a Baptist preacher at age 17 and still thinks a lot like those folks. He did not first spend time in a Mennonite church before starting his own Mennonite church. Had he done so, he might have lost a few of the emphases that he currently has.
About fifteen years ago this church sought fellowship with our Beachy church in AR. Chad went to a Beachy ministers meeting and expressed desire to be part of that fellowship network. I'm not aware that he has attended since but he still has a good relationship with the Beachy church I used to attend.
At one point I asked him if he wanted their church listed in the CLP directory as "Beachy" and he was in favor.
Some people encouraged us to help them grow their church in the early years by moving there, and I did like their zeal, but I could not have embraced their confession of faith and practice as it was way too Fundamentalist for me.

Thank you, Ernie. This is helpful.

Is there a vetting or registration process that a fellowship must submit before declaring themselves Anabaptist/Mennonite/Beachy, etc? Do they have to partner with an existing fellowship for that label? Or do they just "set up house"?

MaxPC wrote:Is there a vetting or registration process that a fellowship must submit before declaring themselves Anabaptist/Mennonite/Beachy, etc? Do they have to partner with an existing fellowship for that label? Or do they just "set up house"?

Signtist and Pastor Rich are the gatekeepers. If you can get one of them to do a sign for your building or RV that says you are what you say you are, you're good to go.

ohio jones wrote:

MaxPC wrote:Is there a vetting or registration process that a fellowship must submit before declaring themselves Anabaptist/Mennonite/Beachy, etc? Do they have to partner with an existing fellowship for that label? Or do they just "set up house"?

Signtist and Pastor Rich are the gatekeepers. If you can get one of them to do a sign for your building or RV that says you are what you say you are, you're good to go.

Seriously: when looking closer at the LCF website, it seems he decided to just start a fellowship without previous exposure or training in the Anabaptist charism. So how do these fellowships do this? By partnering with an established congregation or do they just "set up shop"?

MaxPC wrote: Seriously: when looking closer at the LCF website, it seems he decided to just start a fellowship without previous exposure or training in the Anabaptist charism. So how do these fellowships do this? By partnering with an established congregation or do they just "set up shop"?

If you use the writings of Menno Simons as a guide on this (and I haven't read near everything he wrote), Menno would have allowed for any church "to become part of the true church" as long as they followed the scriptures, had "right doctrine", excommunicated members who live in the words/deeds of the flesh, etc. The criteria for being part of the true church is all over the early Anabaptists writings.

But as far as being accepted into a particular fellowship, I really don't know much about that. I don't think Menno Simons would have agreed with the very concept of all the fellowships/denominations we have going on today, but one could argue that it was an inevitable outcome due to variations in belief coupled with the Anabaptist's desire to have right doctrine and disfellowship with anyone that doesn't teach their idea of right doctrine.

The way I understand it, the very term Anabaptist wasn't something the Anabaptist's themselves adopted, at least not in the early days. They just wanted to be known as "The Church of God" -- no other labels.

There is nothing to keep someone from simply setting up shop and adopting the label Beachy, or Mennonite. If they decide they want to join other church fellowships or conferences, then they would need to be accepted as a sister church by the group they wish to join.

But there are lots of independent churches that would fit and fellowship with churches that are affiliated, but choose to remain independent. As you move from ultra conservative to more liberal, you might even see an affiliated church that has a much closer relationship with a nearby independent church than with its official sister congregation that is far away.
Official affiliation doesn't tell the whole story. Caveat emptor.

MaxPC wrote:Seriously: when looking closer at the LCF website, it seems he decided to just start a fellowship without previous exposure or training in the Anabaptist charism. So how do these fellowships do this? By partnering with an established congregation or do they just "set up shop"?

Anabaptism is a movement. It is not a church or an organization. It is similar to a term like "Emergent church" or "Protestant".
There are churches and conferences that identify themselves as Anabaptists but there is no central authority like one would find in the Catholic Church or in an Orthodox Church that would dictate how these things need to happen.

RZehr wrote:There is nothing to keep someone from simply setting up shop and adopting the label Beachy, or Mennonite. If they decide they want to join other church fellowships or conferences, then they would need to be accepted as a sister church by the group they wish to join.

But there are lots of independent churches that would fit and fellowship with churches that are affiliated, but choose to remain independent. As you move from ultra conservative to more liberal, you might even see an affiliated church that has a much closer relationship with a nearby independent church than with its official sister congregation that is far away.
Official affiliation doesn't tell the whole story. Caveat emptor.

Thank you, Rzehr: that's helpful.

Ernie wrote: Anabaptism is a movement. It is not a church or an organization. It is similar to a term like "Emergent church" or "Protestant".
There are churches and conferences that identify themselves as Anabaptists but there is no central authority like one would find in the Catholic Church or in an Orthodox Church that would dictate how these things need to happen.

Coming from a "central authority" church, I sometimes forget this and need the reminder. Thank you, Ernie.

CADude wrote: If you use the writings of Menno Simons as a guide on this (and I haven't read near everything he wrote), Menno would have allowed for any church "to become part of the true church" as long as they followed the scriptures, had "right doctrine", excommunicated members who live in the words/deeds of the flesh, etc. The criteria for being part of the true church is all over the early Anabaptists writings.

But as far as being accepted into a particular fellowship, I really don't know much about that. I don't think Menno Simons would have agreed with the very concept of all the fellowships/denominations we have going on today, but one could argue that it was an inevitable outcome due to variations in belief coupled with the Anabaptist's desire to have right doctrine and disfellowship with anyone that doesn't teach their idea of right doctrine.

The way I understand it, the very term Anabaptist wasn't something the Anabaptist's themselves adopted, at least not in the early days. They just wanted to be known as "The Church of God" -- no other labels.

It's interesting how the Anabaptist movement has evolved through the centuries. Thank you, CA.

Biblical Anabaptist wrote:

Josh wrote:Yes, all of that is on their website.

Promoting the Scofield “Bible” is hardly Anabaptists.

Many in Eastern, Pilgrim, and Hope Fellowship are strongly dispensationalist. It could be questioned how Anabaptist they really are.

Bear in mind there was significant diversity in the eschatology of historic Anabaptism. Not sure its really all that fair to deny/affirm someone as Anabaptist based on a specific eschatology. Just a thought.