Questions about Mennonite denominations

[barkhausen102]

Hi barkhausen102,
I have confidence God will direct you, he truly is the good shepherd who knows how to guide his sheep. I have some advice that I would give to nearly everyone joining most churches, join to be formed by the church not the other way round. A pick and choose consumer approach is not healthy for the "consumer" and not good for the existing church either. One of the benefits of being formed by the church is it can unlock gifts that lie within undeveloped and often unknown.

Thank you. That is a good point. Maybe it is best to just choose the closest one and acclimatize myself to the congregation.

[JohnH]

I go to a Holdeman church and my brother goes to a Mid-West church.

Thank you. Do you happen to know what the Midwest fellowship believes on eschatology? For example are they premillenial or amillenial? My understanding, and please correct me if I am wrong, is that the Holdeman church is amillenial in eschatology?

Midwest churches require no specific position. In a congregation, you might find some people with amillennial views, another person with 7 age dispensationalism, and another person who believes in Zionism.

[JohnH]

Thank you for your input. The plautdietsch churches I was considering are some of the ones located in Seminole, Texas. They offer services in both english and plautdietsch. However, my understanding, and please correct me if I am wrong, is that these churches have no dress code, no head covering, and divorce is considered permissible. So it appeared to me that they are typical evangelical protestant churches, but with plautdietsch services.

Nothing against those congregations but generally speaking you will find a congregation like that to be rather ethnically bound. I am not saying they are not welcoming, but it is pretty much infeasible to learn a language that mostly exists as a spoken home language, as a foreign adult, and there's not really any point because you and the person you're talking to will be better able to communicate in English anyway. It's analogous to if I tried to move to Wales and learn Welsh - every single Welsh speaker I would encounter is going to be able to speak English just as well.

The nationwide seems very good but that would be a real challenge for me to give up the internet. Especially for shopping, banking and online books.

Thank you for your input and suggestions.

One thing in a congregation like that is that they have found a way to live life without the Internet or whatever they restrict. So they may have their own community library, church library, and someone in their church will run a bookstore. Thus no need for online books. Some of the most interesting books I have read come from an Amish fellow who runs a tool shop that also has a small bookstore in it.

Likewise, banks can do a lot of banking in branches, bills can be paid with checks, and so forth.

In an area with many Nationwide churches, Amish, etc., there will be more in-person shopping opportunities because the demand is there.

[Neto]

I am Plautdietsch, but grew up in a Mennonite Brethren congregation, and they switched to all English during WWII, due to intense suspicion and distrust in the English-speaking community in that time period, and for decades after. But there is also a very wide range of conservative vs modern within what is more commonly referred to as 'Russian Mennonite' congregations, going from those who avoid the use of automobiles to those that most people could not identify as Mennonite at all, from their outward appearance.

I have never visited a Nationwide congregation - none even in this area as far as I know - but I have a business relationship with a non-Mennonite background member who is a computer programmer. He lives in another state, so I've never met him in person. I can just say that he DOES have email, but does not use other forms of internet service, except that he has some sort of upload process whereby I am able to download his program installers.

Thank you for your input. The plautdietsch churches I was considering are some of the ones located in Seminole, Texas. They offer services in both english and plautdietsch. However, my understanding, and please correct me if I am wrong, is that these churches have no dress code, no head covering, and divorce is considered permissible. So it appeared to me that they are typical evangelical protestant churches, but with plautdietsch services.

The nationwide seems very good but that would be a real challenge for me to give up the internet. Especially for shopping, banking and online books.

Thank you for your input and suggestions.

I am not familiar with those specific congregations. (I grew up in north east Oklahoma, with grandparents in west central Oklahoma - north of Enid.)

I would be surprised if a congregation that conducts services in Plauutdietsch had no guidelines for dress styles, but as I said, I am not familiar with those ones. Plautdietsch was not traditionally ever used in services. It is the language of our ethnicity, and was the language of the home & the community, but High German became the language of services during our time in Prussia (now a part of Poland).

Regarding divorce and remarriage, the traditional view is that it is only permitted in the case of an innocent party whose spouse is involved in persistent and unrepentant marital unfaithfulness. (A single time, followed by repentance, does not "qualify".) Some groups of Mennonites of Plautdietsch extraction are much more permissive now. Without consistent teaching things get out of hand.

[ohio jones]

https://www.bethelks.edu/article/story- ... ites-lives

In March 1977, an Old Colony Mennonite bishop from Mexico purchased a ranch southwest of Seminole, which led to the immigration of others living in Mexico, as well as Canada. The latter sought tax relief and freedom to organize their own schools while those from Mexico wanted affordable land, isolated enough to encourage separation from 'the world.'

The Old Colony Mennonites who came to Texas from Mexico in early 1977 had been falsely led to believe that buying land would allow them to enter the United States as legal immigrants. But in July 1977, the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) ordered 43 Mennonite families to be deported. Some 250 families that had planned to emigrate instead stayed in Mexico. Without their assistance, the original group was unable to pay its mortgage and their land was sold at auction in 1979. The plight of these Mennonites received widespread publicity, and in 1980, the U.S. Congress legalized the status of 653 colonists.

However, the Mennonites in Seminole have been unable to realize their original dream of building a colony of up to 40,000 people. Nevertheless, a number of the original families have remained, making a living on individual farms off the harsh, west Texas land, as well as through successful businesses in carpentry and auto mechanics, among others. There are five churches in the area, representing Old Colony (Gaines County Mennonite), Reinlander, Evangelical Mennonite (Kleinegemeinde in Mexico), Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference and Sommerfelder Mennonite.

GAMEO will likely have more information on each of these groups.

[Thomas_muntzer]

Hello I am in the process of looking for a Mennonite church to join that is more on the conservative side. There are a few churches near me that I am considering. The 3 churches I am considering to visit are part of the Midwest fellowship, Nationwide fellowship or Holdemans. I am wondering if anyone knows whether the Nationwide fellowships allow internet use? Or is internet use strictly forbidden in that fellowship? Especially for things like online shopping or online banking or e-mail use?

The use of internet in the nationwide churches varies from church to church I dare say that if the decision were completely in the hands of the members, it would be completely prohibited, but smartphones and the internet have been so disruptive that it's difficult to prohibit internet use, especially among younger people

Most churches use internet access control apps like www.qustodio.com. Others prohibit internet use at home but allow it for work. Thus, each local church makes the decision it deems most appropriate regarding the internet

[Thomas_muntzer]

Is it correct that the Plautdietsch churches are more modern and less conservative?

The only plautsietsh speaking churches i know are from belize and they are super conservative and regarding technology they usea technology from before the industrial era to plow the field they use horses and oxen

[Soloist]

I go to a Holdeman church and my brother goes to a Mid-West church.

Thank you. Do you happen to know what the Midwest fellowship believes on eschatology? For example are they premillenial or amillenial? My understanding, and please correct me if I am wrong, is that the Holdeman church is amillenial in eschatology?

Wife: I will let John H answer on the Holdeman, but I am guessing you are right about them. Nationwide is amillennial or doesn’t care. I wouldn’t be surprised if Midwest is also, it seems like most of the fellowship churches are or at least don’t get too into end times prophecy. Some people might be pre-millennial, but not actually too concerned about pre/trib post trib ect and agree to disagree

Pilgrim, (which is now subdivided into smaller conferences) eastern and north eastern would tend to be pre-trib premillennial, and if you were to hear an eschatological sermon that would be the view shown, although I do know that at least in Pilgrim it’s not a universally held view, although the people and ministry that don’t hold that view mostly keep their mouth shut.

I haven’t really seen any churches that require you to hold a certain view on the end times, although it seemed almost like eastern might

[Ernie]

I haven’t really seen any churches that require you to hold a certain view on the end times, although it seemed almost like eastern might

Its the opposite.

I'm guessing it is about 50/50 in Eastern and they have some preachers that preach the one and other preachers that preach the opposite.

I don't know of any Plain Anabaptist churches. There are many Evangelical churches that do.

[eccentric_rambler]

I'm guessing it is about 50/50 in Eastern and they have some preachers that preach the one and other preachers that preach the opposite.

I know there are congregations that are primarily amillennial, and perhaps I don't get out enough, but I would probably put this at 70/30 (60/40 just sounds too low, but maybe) with the majority pre-trib premill. The problem is that the amillennial preachers generally don't preach on the subject, and some of the premill preachers like to bring it up regularly. Perhaps that fact skews my perception and it is closer to 50/50.

although it seemed almost like eastern might

Its the opposite. ... I don't know of any Plain Anabaptist churches.

Agreed, EPMC does not dictate which you believe. Depending when you went to Bible School and who else was there that might be hard to believe. Seventeen- to nineteen-year-olds have all the answers.

Just for fun, I recently heard this from a former schoolteacher "I loved to hear my 9th and 10th graders discussing prophecy. They had all the answers. Then we had literature class, and I realized again, they had no idea how figurative language works."