Mennonite, USA

[ratchet30]

Would you say that Mennonite, USA is mainstream and not conservative? Please tell me of any spiritual issues you think the church must deal with. I'd greatly appreciate this.

Also, are Mennonites similar to Arminian and Wesleyan teachings?

 

[MrJim]

Would you say that Mennonite, USA is mainstream and not conservative? Please tell me of any spiritual issues you think the church must deal with. I'd greatly appreciate this.

Also, are Mennonites similar to Arminian and Wesleyan teachings?

Congregations vary but yes by and large MennoniteUSA is mainstream...and yes they generally have much in common with Wesleyan teachings.

Whatever spiritual issues are being dealt with in other mainstream denominations are the same as MennoUSA...particularly homosexuality issues.

 

[childofdust]

Dear ratchet30,

I think it is dangerous when people try to give things political labels like “conservative” or whatever instead of trying to understand what a particular perspective is and the reasons for it. The reason I say that is because most often, the use of these political labels has only one purpose—by assigning a label to a perspective, one either says that it is acceptable or not acceptable depending on which side they think they belong to—so something is accepted or rejected merely on the basis of its assigned label.

So to put that into a larger picture: if you were a Jew in the time when Jesus came and if you were basing your judgment of Jesus on whether what he said was “conservative” or not, you probably would have rejected Christ.

Mennonite Church USA is not a denomination. It is a loose coalition of various groups that have their own definitions, policies, and retain their own authority structures. No one MC USA church will be the same as another. No one MC USA church tells the others what to do. But they do have points of convergence that enable them to stand together just like the ancient Jews and Gentiles in the early church.

Spiritual issues... These will range from church to church like any other. I think the big one for MC USA is the erosion of the old tradition of separateness from the world. MC USA churches tend to accept and adopt the ways of the world a lot easier than others as it ceases to be a culture outside and apart from the world. It can become more like Protestantism in that it tries to get involved in politics and government. Sometimes it can develop the individualism of Protestantism and lose some of the discipleship and community aspects.

Generally speaking, they are like any other churches who are trying their best to live according to the word and command of their Lord and Master. And like all other churches, they will fail in some important respects where others do not and where others fail, they will succeed. There are conservatives, mainstreams, liberals, and everything in-between and outside within the MC USA churches.