ACCGuy wrote: ↑Fri Jan 17, 2025 8:56 am
Praxis+Theodicy wrote: ↑Fri Jan 17, 2025 7:06 am
Wow! Super impressive.
The map is very cluttered until I get rid of the historical markers and defunct congregations. Then it thins out a lot
This makes it seem like a very diminished church, but I'm not sure if that is an accurate assessment.
Some of the brothers and sisters in my church are for ACC. I like learning all I can about them. I heard Ready to Harvest is going to do a video on them this year.
I wouldn't say it is diminished, there have been struggles over the years(as most Anabaptist groups know too well) but over all, the church seems to be growing slowly. Early growth in the US was due to a very missions based mindset, combined with Mennonite communities wanting a less legalistic culture, but similar doctrine. As time went on, legalism seemed to tear the church apart with a major split around 1904-1910 revolving around the mustache, and possibly tobacco growth. As time went on, a mostly agricultural community turned to business, and we changed from large rural churches and small city churches, to a larger presence in the cities.
There was also a large change in the early 1900's as the Mennonite church slowly got less legalistic, and members started going back. This all but killed outreach and church plants for decades. Outreach started again in the 80's/90's, and we are seeing more church plants again.
Also, many of the closed churches are plants that did not take off due to various reasons, or small home meetings that did not result in a building and congregation forming. Many plants, such as Weiner Arkansas were doomed to failure at the start due to land not being what was promised by the sellers, and the entire church plant picked up an moved to plant elsewhere. Then you have places like Tremonton Utah where what seemed like a successful church plant was destroyed by the 1904 split.
There are plenty of churches that were closed due to other reasons, but over all, membership seems to be growing, even though some churches have left the denomination, or simply dried up due to members moving, or other factors.
Can speak from the -N side:
Is the church diminished? I would expect if one looked at membership from some decades ago, I would actually expect membership now to be less, for many different factors. I've heard a brother speaking one time about concern for the net reduction in numbers over the years, and apparently some chart was shown that showed the downwards trend. I would speculate the overall downward trend in American churches would be due to a general reduction in birth rate of educated American families, and a fair amount of people getting dissatisfied and going somewheremore modern because they get offended when they see hypocrisy playing out by obedience to the letter of the rules, but not the spirit. (For example: it is not uncommon in some churches to see individuals who obey the prohibition on jewelry and makeup to the letter, but would be wearing designer clothes and a designer bag.) Losing sight of why the standards are there (being examples and practical application of holiness that are supposed to point to Christ, not being Christlike in themselves) and just following the rules can result in hypocrisy that younger generations can see right through and want to have nothing to do with, so they leave to go elsewhere (Little do they know that hypocrisy is very common and something everyone is to some degree, but going somewhere without rules makes the hypocrisy seem less visible)
That said, the most conservative of our churches grow. The Colorado church is expanding, and a recnt Baptism in Ohio had over 500 people present. The youth in these churches tend to be more fancy in attire/lifestyle when young, but post Baptism and as they get older will drop these things and start to live more of a plain and separated lifestyle, creating a strong bond between members. This is less seen in the more liberal churches, where outside of church lifestyles look more or less like mainstream protestant churches. These churches, in my experience, are the ones that will die out eventually because the younger families either move to more conservative churches, or leave the denomination completely to fully embrace protestant worship styles.
I'm not too familiar with the NCC/Doroslovac churches numbers, but overall we absorb many of their members who don't want to abide by their continued governance on lifestyle. Sunday school is worldly and prohibited, and for the most part, those churches would discipline, members who vote, buy/watch TV, and would say a sister is sinning of she doesn't wear her headcovering correctly. People who get influenced enough by mainstream protestant thought will start to buck up against these practices, and come over to the -N side, where they may also have family members who have made the same move prior.
