What Do You Regret Is Gone From MD?

[Wade]

Yes. I am personally seeing it have a very negative effect on seekers who find these misrepresentations of what following Christ is and how that relates to a person's walk as a conservative Mennonite.

To quote another ex-transplant (who didn't last as long as I did)... "the conservative cape dress, bonnet, black hat * suspenders way isn't the "Little House on the Prairie" lifestyle that the conservative Anabaptist church tries to sell itself to be to outsiders."

Josh- this isn't a path you want to go down with some of us here on MN. Trust me. I personally don't have an axe to grind. I forgave a lot of people who will never be sorry. That said, don't expect to attract people from "the world", then treat them different because of their pedigree, or hold them to another standard, and then wonder why they leave with a reason to have an axe to grind.

Sorry,,, post like these can be hurtful. I mean no disrespect to Josh and the other members here MN in the same position.

Your fault lies in misrepresenting CA churches "selling" themselves the way you say. This is a generalization that is NOT true from my experience. Sorry you experienced that but I would also not consider such people as CA's that you speak of. Conservative means to conserve and Anabapatist stems from the beliefs and practices of those original Anabapatists that lived in the 1500's. What that means to me personally are lives that more relate to what people like John D. Martin and David Bercot describe as CA's or kingdom Christians. There are many misguided groups that get wrongly labeled and there are also many groups that are growing in their walk with Christ. Some people on here are also repeating things that were true 20 or 30 years ago but since those people may have repented of.

I too have seen the ugly side of things with a negative church experience. I just think it would be wise to realize that each local body IS going to be different even if you think they look and act like your bad experience.

I think a person looking for faults will always find many wherever they go. And a sincere person will naturally be drawn to others that are more sincere and will not look to hide things but will look to build up.

[Szdfan]

I remember an argument that the old MD was also an inadequate and insufficient tool to appeal to seekers. So I guess some things haven’t changed.

[Sudsy]

I try to stay away from regrets as I have many in my life and I find it too easy to just get looking back and not ahead. Sometimes us older folk get into these better times conversations and it sounds like heaven back then, but in reality it wasn't, as we tend to dismiss much of the bad stuff when comparing to the current when we are dissatisfied.

I think MD is what you make it to be in your spiritual life. Some areas of interest to others are temptations for me that can draw me into all kinds of worldly concerns that take me from my interests in Kingdom living. So, to participate here I must chose what threads will be of benefit and which are not. And sometimes I make the wrong choice. We sometimes talk about filters we place on our Internet and TV access but a filter on a forum is quite limited and requires our own filtering by just not getting involved in some topics.

I supported the Politics filter we have but Current Events for me is just as bad at times and I have concluded that it is a matter of self-control for me to stay away or bail out when works of the flesh become obvious. I notice others will just say 'nuf said' (paraphrase ) when the disagreements are deemed not worth further pursuing. I think that is good and we should respect others when they need to draw that line.

Anyway, back to some threads that suit what I chose to think about.

[temporal1]

I remember an argument that the old MD was also an inadequate and insufficient tool to appeal to seekers.
So I guess some things haven’t changed.

There were lots of complaints on MD. So many, a private subforum was created. Evidently, it didn’t work.

Most have a vision of what they want to see or do not want to see.
Few have the capability of developing and monitoring a successful, ongoing, active forum.

The virtual graveyard of failed attempts, forums, blogs, et al., must be enormous.

MD/MN has lasted YEARS+YEARS longer than the original teens ever dreamed! (i read some of their early posts/threads, they discussed and speculated “how long” their fun MIGHT last.
i believe they were hoping for 1 calendar year, and not confident they would see it.
there was no intent to start a church, or a scholarly place for sober study. but those things were allowed. it was about informal discussion. fun. comradery. testing out new technology.

.. they were welcoming to me, very sweet and interested, encouraging, i was obviously not one of them, still very rattled by the illness and death of my husband. this was the common reception for new members. so precious.

as a new member, i was impressed with their discussions of various passages from scriptures. this was unlike anything i’d witnessed before. impressive, and interesting! this was part of the purpose, a GOOD purpose, not THE purpose.

There is a gift of appreciating what you have, for the time you are blessed to have it.
Most often, once it’s gone, it’s gone.

The experimenting CM teens stumbled onto a basic formula that has survived. Admin+mods have continued their framework.
It’s well to give credit where credit is due.

[temporal1]

.. they were welcoming to me, very sweet and interested, encouraging, i was obviously not one of them, still very rattled by the illness and death of my husband. this was the common reception for new members. so precious.

on MD, new members were encouraged to begin with a personal introduction thread. it was open-ended.
some were brief, as found on MN’s 2-step intro process.

but, often, new members would begin with quite a lot of detail about where they were coming from, what troubles they might be facing, what they hoped to find on forum. some of these threads would receive pages of response. i was fascinated with many of the responses, esp from a CM pov.

so, that’s something i miss from MD.

Mrs Nisly (MD’s anabaptistenigma) began an Introductions thread:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=17&p=207#p207

[Valerie]

I really miss the conservative Mennonite women who posted so much. I held them in high esteem..
Having come to the MD forum as a seeker, referred to it by our Orthodox friend, I really only have been familiar with Amish and former Amish but not Mennonites.

[steve-in-kville]

MN is like any other relationship in life: you will get out of it what you put into it.

[temporal1]

I really miss the conservative Mennonite women who posted so much. I held them in high esteem..
Having come to the MD forum as a seeker, referred to it by our Orthodox friend, I really only have been familiar with Amish and former Amish but not Mennonites.

This. ^^^
And, MD had frequent new seekers who arrived with sincere questions and open hearts for conservative Anabaptists.
They came from all over the world, even Moscow Russia! (Most were in the U.S./Canada)

i can’t remember well, anymore, but there was a way of inviting personal introductions of new members that initiated lots of communication. Some would describe a little about themselves, some quite a lot, some arrived with specific questions or problems, most seeking the cA perspective. Some of these received specific, tangible help. It was interesting to witness.

It was encouraging to read from folks with new interest.

oops. i’m repeating my post from last September.

[temporal1]

I really miss the conservative Mennonite women who posted so much. I held them in high esteem..
Having come to the MD forum as a seeker, referred to it by our Orthodox friend, I really only have been familiar with Amish and former Amish but not Mennonites.

This. ^^^
And, MD had frequent new seekers who arrived with sincere questions and open hearts for conservative Anabaptists.
They came from all over the world, even Moscow Russia! (Most were in the U.S./Canada)

i can’t remember well, anymore, but there was a way of inviting personal introductions of new members that initiated lots of communication. Some would describe a little about themselves, some quite a lot, some arrived with specific questions or problems, most seeking the cA perspective. Some of these received specific, tangible help. It was interesting to witness.

It was encouraging to read from folks with new interest.

oops. i’m repeating my post from last September.

i’d like to add.
New members interested in cA are arriving! Total members now at 5077! Many briefly describe their initial interest.
Few post. Some post once or twice.

How to engage new members?

[ohio jones]

It would be wise to determine how conservative the new member is before investing in a ring, since they might reject it.