Interested in learning about Holdemans

[JohnH]

Are you saying this is an opinion? It didn't sound like that.

Isn’t everything I say an opinion? I mean, I don’t have any force of authority other than my own.

How do you decide what to yield on and what not? And are there things that the Holdeman church yields on in relation to other Christians or is there no such yielding?

I don’t have a set system for figuring this out. I trust my church a lot since it has good fruits and seems to match the NT in many ways. I believe there may be some “spots or wrinkles” even in the truest church

In the conservative Anabaptist churches, we are constantly "yielding" on things as we relate to other church groups. We may have strong convictions about certain things as an individual or congregation, but we don't force others to do like us in order to share pulpits with us or commune with us. (within a certain range of course).

Yes, those are things that basically have been decided they aren’t important. My experience has been such things eventually all fall by the wayside.

It sounds like Holdeman's do the same thing within their fellowship.

Holdemans don’t have wide variance between congregations.

What there is must be purely matter of preference. For example my congregation doesn’t have youth gatherings on Sunday nights. Most other congregations allow such gatherings. This is something that is not considered biblical or a matter of doctrine and practice, but is more like a service start time.

Our general belief is that what is sin in one city is sin in the next, and that there shouldn’t be a long list of things we do purely out of submission to one congregation’s decisions but should have a firmer basis than that.

[JohnH]

Let's say a group of Christians (not Holdeman) would decide to have the same standard and way of conducting church as Holdeman's, except for excommunicating everyone who leaves the church, and rebaptizing everyone who joins the church. How do you think the Holdeman's would relate to such a group?

Then they wouldn’t be the same in doctrine and practice.

[Judas Maccabeus]

For the record, we all (Church, School) got a great deal on a “surplus “ Roman Catholic Church and school complex. We were clearly outgrowing our present site. We just had our fire inspection, minimal work required to get it in service. Almost a full square block of land, a 260 seat church and a three story school with a gym.

Hopefully, will have first service in a few weeks.

Fantastic. I hope to see that someday. My daughter was part of the SMBI team that did some cleaning there a few weeks ago.

They had dinner Friday at my condo.

[Judas Maccabeus]

Now that his church has a pipe organ, I assume music students will be given opportunity to play it, even if it isn't used for worship services.

For the record, we all (Church, School) got a great deal on a “surplus “ Roman Catholic Church and school complex. We were clearly outgrowing our present site. We just had our fire inspection, minimal work required to get it in service. Almost a full square block of land, a 260 seat church and a three story school with a gym.

Hopefully, will have first service in a few weeks.

Wow. What was the purchase amount?

1.8 million for the whole 4 building complex.

https://baltimorefishbowl.com/stories/s ... te-church/

[barnhart]

That's exciting JudasM. I remember you sharing how disappointing it was to turn off the lights for the last time in a previous church house. This must feel very rewarding.

[R7ehr]

That sounds like a great deal.

[joshuabgood]

Wow that is terrific. Good for you all.

[JohnH]

Back on topic, existing churches can be an excellent deal. Some small Reformed denomination put its church up for sale in the Greeley, CO area. A perfectly serviceable church and school facility got acquired for around $400 or $500k. They had been actively using it so it was turnkey - classrooms all ready to go, sanctuary all ready to go.

In central Michigan a Free Methodist church building struggled after COVID and switched to a non-church-building format and the original church and parking lot got sold for $200k. It had enough classroom space to operate the church school out of it too.

Building a new church is generally $1M+, often $2M, and building a new school is north of $3M.

[Kenny1995]

I just joined this chat. Found it interesting to find there’s a thread actively going about Holdeman Mennonites. I was actually raised that way. I would say much of what John has said would be the way I understood their belief. The only difference was I was taught there was a thread all the way from the apostles to the modern day that had been the one true church. I understood Menno Simons and Dirk Phillips also believed that way. However it’s been a long time ago that I learned about that in school so they may not teach that way anymore.

Edit: I might add I kind of turned out to be a black sheep so take me with a grain of salt. I may be wrong. Been lately trying to understand what truth really is which is why I joined this chat. I didn’t really have a problem with the Holdeman’s just didn’t seem to be able to really live it as a youth.

[mike]

I just joined this chat. Found it interesting to find there’s a thread actively going about Holdeman Mennonites. I was actually raised that way. I would say much of what John has said would be the way I understood their belief. The only difference was I was taught there was a thread all the way from the apostles to the modern day that had been the one true church. I understood Menno Simons and Dirk Phillips also believed that way. However it’s been a long time ago that I learned about that in school so they may not teach that way anymore.

Edit: I might add I kind of turned out to be a black sheep so take me with a grain of salt. I may be wrong. Been lately trying to understand what truth really is which is why I joined this chat. I didn’t really have a problem with the Holdeman’s just didn’t seem to be able to really live it as a youth.

Thanks for joining and adding your perspective.