Ultra Conservative Mennonite Churches

[cmbl]

Are Ohio Wislers the only constituency in this group that does not have Sunday School?

[Ernie]

Yes as far as I know.

However they use outdated Sunday School quarterlies at their mid week meetings, but they call it Bible study instead of Sunday School. It's cheaper and more personally satisfying to do it this way.

[Josh]

Ernie,

You have said that the more conservative families in the various ultra constituencies won’t send their children to the various Bible schools. Could you elaborate on that?

[Ernie]

Most parents in the Washington/Franklin Conference would not encourage their children to attend Numidia or Messiah Bible Schools. Some would not want their children being exposed to less conservative influences. They wouldn't want their children coming home from Bible School wishing that their church would have prayer meetings, wishing they wouldn't have to wear hats, and bonnets, etc. Some rarely attend meetings outside of their own conference. Some feel that three weeks away from home in a youth setting is not wise, living in a dormitory with other youth, etc.
Others in the conference would think that all this Bible School stuff is rather trendy and unnecessary. Better to stay at home and read one's Bible and work hard and fill one's role in the church and community.Z
Still others wouldn't want to be caught taking too much interest in spiritual things. These folks wouldn't want to carry a large Bible, wouldn't answer in Sunday School, wouldn't attend church meetings where attendance is not "mandatory", etc.

In the Nationwide Fellowship, there are quite a number of congregations in the Brotherhood churches who would not encourage their youth to attend Messiah Bible School for many of the same reasons as above. They have their own week long Bible school in which youth stay in homes and they feel better about such an environment.

[Ernie]

Where can I read about the origin of the Little Flock Mennonite Churches? Or maybe someone knows something about their origin.

[JohnH]

Where can I read about the origin of the Little Flock Mennonite Churches? Or maybe someone knows something about their origin.

The “Tennessee churches”?

[Ernie]

Where can I read about the origin of the Little Flock Mennonite Churches? Or maybe someone knows something about their origin.

The “Tennessee churches”?

yes, I think so.

[Elmer]

Where can I read about the origin of the Little Flock Mennonite Churches? Or maybe someone knows something about their origin.

The “Tennessee churches”?

yes, I think so.

https://www.academia.edu/44241697/The_E ... Costa_Rica

Cory & Jennifer Anderson in the 2020 MQR wrote an article titled "The “Evangelization by Colonization” Movement and the Amish-Mennonite Migration to Costa Rica" which includes the following:

"The many visitors to Arenal also provided a regular source of opinions and updates on how alignments were unfolding within the complex world of plain people in North America. Throughout the 1970s, Amish-Mennonites were almost constantly realigning and dividing due in part to an influx of ex-Amish impacted by the mission movement. Beyond
Amish-Mennonites, the non-conference Mennonites were withdrawing from more liberal Mennonites and trying to organize new affiliations. 172 In 1964, Denver Yoder, an older brother to Galen and Gerald, moved from Montezuma, Georgia, to Tennessee to join two other non-conference
Mennonite families, including Henry Yoder, a deacon who was leaving the Lancaster Mennonite Conference. In 1968, the Denver Yoder and Henry Yoder families started a new community in a mountain hollow outside Altamont, Tennessee, with bishop Ira Headings of Fairfax, South Carolina, providing oversight. Several Wisler Mennonite families from Ohio who wanted a “more Scriptural Fellowship” soon joined them. Thus began the so-called “Tennessee churches,” a branch of the non-conference movement that practiced “Scriptural avoidance [i.e. shunning], fuller coverings, smaller farming, simpler living, not removing the beard, and a few other points.” 173 The group especially stressed economic simplicity, with the church setting limits on such details as the number of employees one could hire or the number of cows one could milk. Denver Yoder was eventually ordained as a bishop, and his brothers in Costa Rica, who sympathized with the Tennessee church model, desired to have Arenal and San Pedro part of this fellowship." Pages 183-184

[cooper]

A number of families from the Washington-Franklin Conference moved to Altamont in the late sixties or early seventies. I can think of four families, and think there may be a few more. I think some were critical of the large businesses owned by some Washington-Franklin members. There was also a prominent minister who engaged in sexual misconduct around this time, and there was a lot of fallout from that. These Tennessee churches had lots of church problems as you could expect for such a group of people. I know several of these former W-F families moved to a congregation that's part of Mennonite Christian Fellowship.

[eccentric_rambler]

These Tennessee churches had lots of church problems as you could expect for such a group of people.

What characteristics of the people or group are you suggesting caused the problems?