Multi-Menno

My wife and I stopped by a couple of church gatherings yesterday to meet some other Christians in the area and see what God was doing in their assemblies. Both of them were ostensibly Mennonite (we have a TON of Mennonites in the area along with the large Amish population, they seem to go together) but they were “night and day” different.

The first gathering we stopped at, our intended destination for the morning, was a place I had come across on the webpage of the Conservative Mennonite Conference. That turned out to be odd because it quickly became apparent that they were neither especially conservative nor much interested in being Mennonite! Now we haven’t been in a traditional Western church service in a while so we were a bit rusty but about half an hour after we started there had been lots of talking about a variety of business items and birthdays. Nothing resembling traditional worship and nothing particularly edifying. Then at last the “worship leader” went up front. Thinking we were going to sing a few songs, we were taken aback at what he was “led” to do. In lieu of leading a few prepared hymns, he called on the congregation to express themselves however they felt led to do. All at once.

Without being overly critical, what was going on was kind of a chaotic scene of a few of the leaders of the group randomly spouting off songs, Scripture and prayers while the vast majority of the rest of the gathering stood in uncomfortable silence. All I could think of was 1 Corinthians 14. While I am an advocate of participatory meetings, I am also an advocate of some semblance of orderliness and people taking turns so that the participation is edifying. I am all for the congregation participating but when you try to force participation in the midst of a traditional church scene, you are going to get predictable results. What was going on was not a movement of the Spirit, it was pure and simple showmanship and stagecraft. I know that sounds harsh and judgmental but that is what I saw going on.

That is when we did something I am pretty sure I have never done before. Got up and walked out. As I helped my wife put on her coat in the foyer, a man from the assembly walked over to us to apologize after following us out of the “sanctuary”. It sounds like things have been changing and many of the Christians who gather in this assembly are unhappy and uncertain what to do. The "leadership team" has a vision and the rest of the assembly is being dragged along for the ride. He seemed desperate to talk to someone and we plan on stopping by his home at his invitation and we will also praying for the brothers and sisters at this gathering. They are headed for an ugly split.

So rather than drive home, we went to one of the other Mennonite gatherings in town. They were in the middle of their meeting but one of their elders was out in the foyer with his baby son so we got to speak with him. This group is a lot more of what I expected to find. Very simple, very plain. Humble, unassuming people in a humble, unassuming building. Because they were finishing up, the elder invited us back for the evening meeting which we happily told him we would come to. So around six we went back and had a very nice time. A brother from Goshen, Indiana came down with a pretty awesome testimony. Afterward we spent almost an hour and a half just hanging around talking with the brethren.

One brother we spoke with used to be an Amish bishop but came to understand the gracious nature of the Gospel that cannot be earned or kept by works of righteousness. We also met a wonderful brother who is leaving in a week from tomorrow with his wife and three very small children to go to Haiti to help construct homes. They will be staying in Haiti for three months which is a far cry from my brief visit last week. Several couples invited us to their homes which we plan on taking them up on.

I still plan on having a simple, likely home based fellowship in our new house with our new neighbors. That of necessity must include getting to know our neighbors, something my wife is doing a much better job of than I am. Many of the brethren we met Sunday evening live very close to us (close in a rural sense), fellow believers we would not have met if we hung around our house waiting for a house church to spring up. So I expect we will spend time meeting with other Christians, not in the hopes of luring them away from their local church but in the hope of developing relationships with them. I am not sure yet how this will all look but I am excited to see what God has planned for us.