The emerging "Delano" Anabaptist movement

[nett]

I ask because the following criteria is either very helpful or extremely hypocritical depending on what "seeker" refers to in the quoted context, referring to high-proportion members and inclusion in leadership.

Explain?

[Praxis+Theodicy]

I ask because the following criteria is either very helpful or extremely hypocritical depending on what "seeker" refers to in the quoted context, referring to high-proportion members and inclusion in leadership.

Explain?

If seeker means, for example, someone from a different Christian setting (like LMC, Baptist, Brethren, Presbyterian, etc.), they seem to be a church growing by attracting people who are seeking a different expression of their Christian faith. At the same time, they are extremely resistant to other expressions of the Christian faith.

If "seeker" means a non-Christian, this is a sign of a healthy, flourishing church who is evangelizing the world the way the apostles did in the book of Acts. If "seeker" means mostly Christians from other affiliations, they are growing by Christian migration. This isn't wrong in and of itself, but if they are extremely welcoming to immigrants and at the same time extremely disdainful of emigrants, that's a sign of a toxic culture.

[JohnH]

I ask because the following criteria is either very helpful or extremely hypocritical depending on what "seeker" refers to in the quoted context, referring to high-proportion members and inclusion in leadership.

Explain?

If seeker means, for example, someone from a different Christian setting (like LMC, Baptist, Brethren, Presbyterian, etc.), they seem to be a church growing by attracting people who are seeking a different expression of their Christian faith. At the same time, they are extremely resistant to other expressions of the Christian faith.

I don’t see what’s wrong with people from apostate churches with false doctrine returning to the true faith.

And yes, we should be very resistant against false doctrine and apostasy.

If "seeker" means a non-Christian, this is a sign of a healthy, flourishing church who is evangelizing the world the way the apostles did in the book of Acts. If "seeker" means mostly Christians from other affiliations, they are growing by Christian migration. This isn't wrong in and of itself, but if they are extremely welcoming to immigrants and at the same time extremely disdainful of emigrants, that's a sign of a toxic culture.

We should be disdainful of the behaviour members who leave plain Anabaptism to join apostate denominations such as Catholicism, Orthodoxy, evangelicalism etc

[nett]

I ask because the following criteria is either very helpful or extremely hypocritical depending on what "seeker" refers to in the quoted context, referring to high-proportion members and inclusion in leadership.

Explain?

If seeker means, for example, someone from a different Christian setting (like LMC, Baptist, Brethren, Presbyterian, etc.), they seem to be a church growing by attracting people who are seeking a different expression of their Christian faith. At the same time, they are extremely resistant to other expressions of the Christian faith.

If "seeker" means a non-Christian, this is a sign of a healthy, flourishing church who is evangelizing the world the way the apostles did in the book of Acts. If "seeker" means mostly Christians from other affiliations, they are growing by Christian migration. This isn't wrong in and of itself, but if they are extremely welcoming to immigrants and at the same time extremely disdainful of emigrants, that's a sign of a toxic culture.

I really have no frame or reference to understand what you're saying. The vast majority of professing Christians in the US have no visible or discernable signs of a Christian faith. For them a move to a Delano type church would mean that almost everything about day to day life is oriented towards a practical living out of a real faith. How in the world could you describe that as hypocritical.

Just to be clear, the majority of their growth is from large family sizes. They are, however, very committed to remaining open and welcoming to seekers, even giving some beloved traditions like german church services in order to realistically able to integrate people from a non-german background.

[barnhart]

If "seeker" means a non-Christian, this is a sign of a healthy, flourishing church who is evangelizing the world the way the apostles did in the book of Acts. If "seeker" means mostly Christians from other affiliations, they are growing by Christian migration.

I agree this is an important distinction.

[JohnH]

If "seeker" means a non-Christian, this is a sign of a healthy, flourishing church who is evangelizing the world the way the apostles did in the book of Acts. If "seeker" means mostly Christians from other affiliations, they are growing by Christian migration.

I agree this is an important distinction.

Personally I think recruiting Christians from affiliations that teach false doctrine and helping them return to the true faith is a good thing.

The apostles in the book of Acts largely evangelised people who were devout Jews, which is pretty much the same thing.