Why Some Movements Made Inroads into Plain Anabaptist Communities...

[mike]

Why did Pietism, Revivalism, Restorationism, Holiness, Fundamentalism, Evangelicalism, Non-Denominationalism make inroads into Plain Anabaptist communities, but Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Sacramentalism, and Calvinism have not?

And then we have things like Puritanism, Moravianism, Modernism, Charismatic thinking, Emerging Church, and Prosperity Gospel teaching that perhaps influenced some smaller break away groups but didn't really influence Plain Anabaptists as a whole.

I don't know if this dovetails perfectly with your list or not, but my observation is that we tend to view our churches as "dead" and are attracted to movements with life, excitement, spiritual fervor, etc. We are not attracted to more ritualism, or rigid structure because we have enough of that already.

This is not original with me, it may be from The Earth is the Lord's: The Mennonites do a good job of creating spiritually sensitive people, who are then attracted to these movements.

They also do a good job of creating people who are used to faithfully supporting established structures, which makes them an attractive mission field for other denominations. They make good converts in many cases.

[JohnL]

Why did Pietism, Revivalism, Restorationism, Holiness, Fundamentalism, Evangelicalism, Non-Denominationalism make inroads into Plain Anabaptist communities, but Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Sacramentalism, and Calvinism have not?

And then we have things like Puritanism, Moravianism, Modernism, Charismatic thinking, Emerging Church, and Prosperity Gospel teaching that perhaps influenced some smaller break away groups but didn't really influence Plain Anabaptists as a whole.

I don't know if this dovetails perfectly with your list or not, but my observation is that we tend to view our churches as "dead" and are attracted to movements with life, excitement, spiritual fervor, etc. We are not attracted to more ritualism, or rigid structure because we have enough of that already.

Is it an emotional appeal from these other groups then? I've seen a lot of that in my lifetime. They try to do happy clappy good time entertainment evangelism to attract converts.
I personally don't see the point of their church if it's not emphasizing Jesus and the Bible. It must appeal to some though.

[JohnH]

I don't know if this dovetails perfectly with your list or not, but my observation is that we tend to view our churches as "dead" and are attracted to movements with life, excitement, spiritual fervor, etc. We are not attracted to more ritualism, or rigid structure because we have enough of that already.

This is not original with me, it may be from The Earth is the Lord's: The Mennonites do a good job of creating spiritually sensitive people, who are then attracted to these movements.

They also do a good job of creating people who are used to faithfully supporting established structures, which makes them an attractive mission field for other denominations. They make good converts in many cases.

Yes, a number have figured this out, including the Mormons and JWs.

[barnhart]

... I've seen a lot of that in my lifetime. They try to do happy clappy good time entertainment evangelism to attract converts.
I personally don't see the point of their church if it's not emphasizing Jesus and the Bible...

To understand it you must start from a salvation that is individual and truly meaningful only after this life. Then the gospels and their message of following is minimized to a brief prelude to the conversion event and the real scripture becomes the portions of the Epistles where theology is discussed (how you should think or feel) but not so much the portions on how you should live (generally considered culture). Once the gospel is defined as a thinking process or an emotional state, Jesus and the Bible may not be the most effective at reproducing it and entertainments rise in status.

This is a harsh critique and somewhat overstated for clarity but I think it is a noticable pattern.

[JohnH]

I generally tune out anyone who acts like “happy clappy” worship is a bad thing by. Is there something wrong with people who jubilantly worship the Lord?

[Ken]

It occurs to me that there is probably also something of an urban/rural split going on here as well.

Anabaptists (and especially plain Anabaptists) tend to be rural, at least historically. And so will come into contact with and have more affinity for other religious movements that tend to be rural.

Orthodoxy and Catholicism tend to be more urban in the US because the waves of immigration that brought them tended to settle in big cities (Irish, Polish, Italian, etc.) and so tend to be more urban religions in the US. That is why, for example, that most Catholic universities are in big cities while Anabaptist colleges tend to be located in small towns. And, of course, historically Anabaptism defines itself in opposition to Catholicism and Catholic practice (infant baptism) so there's that as well.

[JohnL]

... I've seen a lot of that in my lifetime. They try to do happy clappy good time entertainment evangelism to attract converts.
I personally don't see the point of their church if it's not emphasizing Jesus and the Bible...

To understand it you must start from a salvation that is individual and truly meaningful only after this life. Then the gospels and their message of following is minimized to a brief prelude to the conversion event and the real scripture becomes the portions of the Epistles where theology is discussed (how you should think or feel) but not so much the portions on how you should live (generally considered culture). Once the gospel is defined as a thinking process or an emotional state, Jesus and the Bible may not be the most effective at reproducing it and entertainments rise in status.

This is a harsh critique and somewhat overstated for clarity but I think it is a noticable pattern.

Yep I can see it. I'd add to your pattern that entertainments are then used to pull in donations too. That whole Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker effect. $$$$$$$$
An old buddy of mine retired to Spartanburg, SC. They started going to this church called Free Chapel. I went online and under ministries they have "production" and it sounds like the movie industry. https://freechapel.org/spartanburg/production. I couldn't find a statement of faith anywhere on their site. My impression is that it's a bunch individual groups under an umbrella called Free Chapel kind of like a college with different academic majors.

[JohnH]

It didn't take too much to find it, JohnL:

https://freechapel.org/about

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