Apostolic Christian Church

[Josh]

Thanks for clarifying, Josh. Klopfenstein mentions no ACCA congregations anywhere near Athens, WI in the book Marching to Zion. Perhaps there was a Nazarean congregation once but I have never come across a mention of an ACCN congregation in the region neither. Or it was simply ACC(N) background folks moving up there and for want of an ACC(N) congregation they joined the charity type congregation? Perhaps you can ask the Rufener brother

I still don't quite have the whole story on how so many of them ended up in the area. The Athens church basically ended up being a church that had the goal of being like Charity, but in practice, had so many ACCA and ACCN (East - conservative) background people that it acquired a distinct AC flavour.

[Ernie]

Here are some resources about the Apostolics

https://kb.osu.edu/bitstream/handle/181 ... pp1-25.pdf

http://www.plainnews.org/wp-content/upl ... -rev-5.pdf

[daigi212]

Josh said:
I still don't quite have the whole story on how so many of them ended up in the area. The Athens church basically ended up being a church that had the goal of being like Charity, but in practice, had so many ACCA and ACCN (East - conservative) background people that it acquired a distinct AC flavour.
1 x



I'm not aware of any ACCN (eastern conference) that moved to Athens.

[Josh]

Josh said:
I still don't quite have the whole story on how so many of them ended up in the area. The Athens church basically ended up being a church that had the goal of being like Charity, but in practice, had so many ACCA and ACCN (East - conservative) background people that it acquired a distinct AC flavour.
1 x



I'm not aware of any ACCN (eastern conference) that moved to Athens.

One person was from Vista. Another person is of Doroslavac (spelling? - Christian Nazarene Church or whatever it’s called) background.

[Swiss Bro]

One person was from Vista. Another person is of Doroslavac (spelling? - Christian Nazarene Church or whatever it’s called) background.

Vista is a "regular" ACC Nazarean church (Eastern Conference).

The Doroslovac group is a conservative split off the Eastern European Nazarene denomination in 1948 in Serbia. The official name of the Group in the US is Nazarene Christian Congregation. The NCC has split around 2002. Check this source (which is a tad more accurate that the plainnews one posted by Ernie upthread) for all ACC split related questions.

https://kb.osu.edu/bitstream/handle/181 ... p26-60.pdf

By the way, there is another thread called "Apostolic Christian Church" (http://forum.mennonet.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1089) and one called "ACC & ACC-N" (http://forum.mennonet.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1901) on the fascinating topic of the Fröhlich faith.

[JoshScott]

My wife and I attended an ACC in the San Diego area for a time. They are basically Anabaptist in doctrine. The sisters cover their head with lace headcoverings in church. The preaching style is unique. The minister would flip the Bible open to a random page, roulette style, and preach extemporaneously from that passage without making any prior preparation other than general Bible study. This was a requirement of Sam Froelich from the beginning, I understand, who was a university man who was concerned to keep academic liberalism out of the church. This worked amazingly well some weeks and less so other weeks.

In the church we were in, regular military service is not permitted but non-combatant service is.

We sang from Zion's Harp. Most people were immigrants from Eastern Europe - Serbia, etc. Nice Christian people.

[Fidelio]

My wife and I attended an ACC in the San Diego area for a time. They are basically Anabaptist in doctrine. The sisters cover their head with lace headcoverings in church. The preaching style is unique. The minister would flip the Bible open to a random page, roulette style, and preach extemporaneously from that passage without making any prior preparation other than general Bible study. This was a requirement of Sam Froelich from the beginning, I understand, who was a university man who was concerned to keep academic liberalism out of the church. This worked amazingly well some weeks and less so other weeks.

In the church we were in, regular military service is not permitted but non-combatant service is.

We sang from Zion's Harp. Most people were immigrants from Eastern Europe - Serbia, etc. Nice Christian people.

In Detroit ACCA we sing from Hymn's of Zion/Tabernacle Hymns (two hymnals combined) and Zion's Harp.

I read that during the Vietnam War Apostolic Christians (ACCA) served in the Army and would do anything but carry a gun. Some were medics on the battlefields and some died as a result. The were far braver than I am.

[Swiss Bro]

My wife and I attended an ACC in the San Diego area for a time. They are basically Anabaptist in doctrine. The sisters cover their head with lace headcoverings in church. The preaching style is unique. The minister would flip the Bible open to a random page, roulette style, and preach extemporaneously from that passage without making any prior preparation other than general Bible study. This was a requirement of Sam Froelich from the beginning, I understand, who was a university man who was concerned to keep academic liberalism out of the church. This worked amazingly well some weeks and less so other weeks.

In the church we were in, regular military service is not permitted but non-combatant service is.

We sang from Zion's Harp. Most people were immigrants from Eastern Europe - Serbia, etc. Nice Christian people.

This was most likely the Vista ACC Nazarean congregation wasn't it?

The practice of randomly flipping the bible open as the Spirit leads and then preaching the passage without preparation is fascinating.

As you say, Fröhlich did want to keep out academic liberalism of his congregation. This is also why there are only lay ministers in the Fröhlich congregations. On the other hand, Fröhlich himself did actually prepare his sermons and a lot of them are available here: http://www.acpublications.org/Froehlich-Library.html If you scroll down you can download the whole set of Fröhlich writings for free. The package contains some sermons. Fröhlich was actually preaching through the books of the Bible quite systematically.

[Swiss Bro]

Check my new thread with the worldwide Fröhlich congregations maps:

http://forum.mennonet.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2310

[JoshScott]

This was most likely the Vista ACC Nazarean congregation wasn't it?

The practice of randomly flipping the bible open as the Spirit leads and then preaching the passage without preparation is fascinating.

As you say, Fröhlich did want to keep out academic liberalism of his congregation. This is also why there are only lay ministers in the Fröhlich congregations. On the other hand, Fröhlich himself did actually prepare his sermons and a lot of them are available here: http://www.acpublications.org/Froehlich-Library.html If you scroll down you can download the whole set of Fröhlich writings for free. The package contains some sermons. Fröhlich was actually preaching through the books of the Bible quite systematically.

Escondido I think? It's been a while. That's interesting about Fröhlich's sermons. I'll have to check that out.