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I wanted to start a new thread on a subject I raised before. The recent “friendly, planned” splitting of Pilgrim Conference.

I know folks say this was planned all along, but some elements seem odd to me.

According to their website, it split into three groups but their church locator function shows 25 with Pilgrim, 12 with Daystar and 5 with Living Hope. If that is accurate (and please correct if I am reading that wrong) that does not seem like an even division.

Also, this may have been planned, but if it were due to size, I would have thought to see it BEFORE the development of Northeastern group, not after. Did not Pilgrim get smaller due to the Northeastern development.

I confess I am no longer close enough to many in Pilgrim to really know what’s going on.

Does anyone know what Northeastern does for Bible school? Since so many of their members came out of either Eastern or Pilgrim I would think that they are locked in to the idea of sending youth to Bible school?

Does anyone know where Franklin and Wash folks tend to go now? I know when I was in Eastern we saw many at Numedia.?
And the new small Appalachian group, I would not think they would choose Eastern’s Bible school?

Wife: There’s actually currently six, about to be seven churches for Living Hope. The south is pretty spread out as far as churches go, and there’s sections of the southern United States that don’t even have a Mennonite church nearby, let alone one from that conference. It’s probably going to be a bit of a pain for the Virginia/New Mexico churches when there’s preacher exchange or large conference meetings. I’m guessing population density has more to do with the difference in conference size for the three groups.

As far as Bible school, I have no idea. I don’t think northeastern goes to pilgrim Bible school. The current Bible school setup for Pilgrim had some division by area of the United States anyway.

A few Washington Franklin go to Messiah Bible School and even fewer go to Eastern's bible schools the last I knew. Most do not go to any Bible school and are content with taking in their own 12 week winter Bible studies in churches.

Ernie wrote: ↑Fri Jun 13, 2025 10:26 am A few Washington Franklin go to Messiah Bible School and even fewer go to Eastern's bible schools the last I knew. Most do not go to any Bible school and are content with taking in their own 12 week winter Bible studies in churches.

Ernie, do they have a printed curriculum with textbooks they follow when they do their own Bible studies? Or do they write their own?

JayP wrote: ↑Fri Jun 13, 2025 9:56 amDoes anyone know what Northeastern does for Bible school? Since so many of their members came out of either Eastern or Pilgrim I would think that they are locked in to the idea of sending youth to Bible school?

Does anyone know where Franklin and Wash folks tend to go now? I know when I was in Eastern we saw many at Numedia.?
And the new small Appalachian group, I would not think they would choose Eastern’s Bible school?

Both Northeast and Appalachian use our conference's Bible school building (Ebenezer Bible School, Hope Mennonite Fellowship).

JayP wrote: ↑Fri Jun 13, 2025 9:56 am I wanted to start a new thread on a subject I raised before. The recent “friendly, planned” splitting of Pilgrim Conference.

I know folks say this was planned all along, but some elements seem odd to me.

According to their website, it split into three groups but their church locator function shows 25 with Pilgrim, 12 with Daystar and 5 with Living Hope. If that is accurate (and please correct if I am reading that wrong) that does not seem like an even division.

Also, this may have been planned, but if it were due to size, I would have thought to see it BEFORE the development of Northeastern group, not after. Did not Pilgrim get smaller due to the Northeastern development.

I confess I am no longer close enough to many in Pilgrim to really know what’s going on.

The Pilgrim people I talk to, which isn't that many, don't seem to see the conference split as a big deal. It's been in the works for a long time, and maybe the only big surprise is that it finally actually happened. I'm supposed to teach a summer Bible school class at one of our sorta local Pilgrim (Not sure what its new affiliation is - Daystar maybe) congregations next week.

mike wrote: ↑Fri Jun 13, 2025 10:48 am

JayP wrote: ↑Fri Jun 13, 2025 9:56 am I wanted to start a new thread on a subject I raised before. The recent “friendly, planned” splitting of Pilgrim Conference.

I know folks say this was planned all along, but some elements seem odd to me.

According to their website, it split into three groups but their church locator function shows 25 with Pilgrim, 12 with Daystar and 5 with Living Hope. If that is accurate (and please correct if I am reading that wrong) that does not seem like an even division.

Also, this may have been planned, but if it were due to size, I would have thought to see it BEFORE the development of Northeastern group, not after. Did not Pilgrim get smaller due to the Northeastern development.

I confess I am no longer close enough to many in Pilgrim to really know what’s going on.

The Pilgrim people I talk to, which isn't that many, don't seem to see the conference split as a big deal. It's been in the works for a long time, and maybe the only big surprise is that it finally actually happened. I'm supposed to teach a summer Bible school class at one of our sorta local Pilgrim (Not sure what its new affiliation is - Daystar maybe) congregations next week.

Isn’t it really just organizing into regional conferences due to sheer size? And much as districts interact with other districts now, the conferences will interact with other conferences.

JohnL wrote: ↑Fri Jun 13, 2025 10:30 am

Ernie wrote: ↑Fri Jun 13, 2025 10:26 am A few Washington Franklin go to Messiah Bible School and even fewer go to Eastern's bible schools the last I knew. Most do not go to any Bible school and are content with taking in their own 12 week winter Bible studies in churches.

Ernie, do they have a printed curriculum with textbooks they follow when they do their own Bible studies? Or do they write their own?

The winter Bible Study teachers (ordained men) get together in advance and make up lesson sheets with 10-12 questions per lesson based on a text. It may be a scriptural text or some other book. Youth are expected to put significant time into researching and answering the questions ahead of the weekly Bible study. At the end of the Bible Study, the teacher calls for 2 or 3 youth to submit their lesson sheets for him to review. Noone knows when their sheet will be called for, so until they have turned theirs in for that winter, they need to keep doing good work in case their paper is called for.

mike wrote: ↑Fri Jun 13, 2025 10:48 am The Pilgrim people I talk to, which isn't that many, don't seem to see the conference split as a big deal. It's been in the works for a long time, and maybe the only big surprise is that it finally actually happened.

Pilgrim has become known for doing things outside of the box, which is why Northeastern separated from Pilgrim.

Pilgrim and Hope Fellowship are both intermediate conservatives and are similar in many ways. But Hope is much more traditional minded over all (doing things the way we've always done them), even though they are a notch more "liberal", whereas Pilgrim that is a notch more conservative, tends to be more innovative in missions and other ecclesiastical matters.

Mike, you can correct me if I am wrong on anything.

Ernie wrote: ↑Fri Jun 13, 2025 2:22 pm

mike wrote: ↑Fri Jun 13, 2025 10:48 am The Pilgrim people I talk to, which isn't that many, don't seem to see the conference split as a big deal. It's been in the works for a long time, and maybe the only big surprise is that it finally actually happened.

Pilgrim has become known for doing things outside of the box, which is why Northeastern separated from Pilgrim.

Pilgrim and Hope Fellowship are both intermediate conservatives and are similar in many ways. But Hope is much more traditional minded over all (doing things the way we've always done them), even though they are a notch more "liberal", whereas Pilgrim that is a notch more conservative, tends to be more innovative in missions and other ecclesiastical matters.

Mike, you can correct me if I am wrong on anything.

Sounds about right.