Growing Up Mennonite

[notofworks]

Originally Posted by yisroelm

Well, Brother we are only here on the Lord's errand . Grandmother looks like she is doing a good job dress wise except we admonish against no stockings
and we also admonish against 3/4 length sleeves( we wear full sleeves) . Please do not misunderstand me we do not "bash people " as they come through the door with this. We also believe in long hair uncut hair worn modestly up accompanied with the material head covering.
Well all I can say is that your Grandmother would feel at home among us. May the Lord add His Blessing to these comments is my prayer.

Muslims cover up more than you do, as do Sikhs. You seem liberal to me.

[mfblume]

Hoovie, ever hear of GERALD DERSTINE?

As a young minister decades ago, he was Mennonite, and was filled with the Spirit and saw awesome miracles in Strawberry Lake, Minnesota. Young people were Spirit filled and saw visions and prophesied of angry parents who were actually driving towards the church to retrieve their children as the youth prophesied they were doing so. Amazing miracles. God prophesied through one youth that the Mennoite brethren would reject this experience at the time, but later would begin to see it. He lived to see them accept him back and some of them received the truth of Holy Ghost baptism.

His daughter wrote a book about it called FOLLOWING THE FIRE.

http://geraldderstine.org/index.php?...d=51&Itemid=59

http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/C4602ME.html

In 1954 and 1955 Gerald Derstine, pastor, and a number of young people of the Strawberry Lake Mennonite Church (MC), Ogema, Minnesota, experienced unusual signs of the Spirit, such as speaking in tongues and being slain in the Spirit. Conference officials asked Derstine to say that at least some of the activities were of the devil, but he refused. In 1956 the conference withdrew his ministerial credentials and he left. In 1977 the officials apologized for what they had done to Derstine and welcomed him back into the Mennonite Church. He continued his independent ministries from Christian Retreat Center, Bradenton, FL. Other pastors and members had the "baptism with the Spirit" during the 1950s and 1960s, often without revealing it publicly. In 1970 retired missionary Nelson Litwiller experienced the baptism with the Spirit in a Catholic charismatic prayer meeting in South Bend, Indiana. He exercised significant leadership in the charismatic movement in the Mennonite Church until his death in 1987.


The official response of the church came in several ways. In 1972 a consultation was held on the person and work of the Spirit at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, Harrisonburg, Virginia. Festivals of the Spirit were held at Goshen College in 1972 and 1973 with an attendance of several thousand persons. In 1974 the General Board (MC) appointed a task force to develop a statement on "The Holy Spirit in the life of the Church" to be brought to Mennonite Church (MC) General Assembly in 1975. The assembly commended the statement to congregations for study and to return counsel to improve the statement. With some changes it was adopted in 1977 as a resource for teaching throughout the church, giving a favorable response to the charismatic movement.

1979 newspaper article:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?ni...g=4087,6006030

[Hoovie]

Very interesting read.

I would not have recognized the Derstine name alone. Though I am aware of the charismatic revivals that went through many of the more progressive Mennonite churches.

Those revivals made very few inroads into the Old Order Horse and Buggy Mennonites and Amish.

[ILG]

Hoovie,

How does your family feel about bringing their children to your house? Does it cause a lot of questions?

[Hoovie]

They know we will respect their beliefs when they come over.

It doesn't happen that often, and when it does we keep the videos and electronics to a minimum. I did see some teenagers had turned on MR Bean in the school yesterday. They were dying laughing!

[missourimary]

Your family sounds like lots of fun.

I lived in NE MO not far from an Amish settlement for seven years, and read as much as I could about Amish faith, culture and heritage as I could during that time. I have a lot of respect for the people from the group of Amish I met.

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to visit a Mennonite church, though, and got quite a surprise: not only did the women wear jeans and cut their hair, but members also played a wide variety of instruments during service (I assumed the music would be acappella) and the woman pastor preached about baptism and at one point made it clear that infant baptism was perhaps not her preference, but still acceptable. Have you heard of that, or do you know how prevalent that is in the more liberal Mennonite groups? I was as surprised by that as I would be to hear tongues and interpretation in a Southern Baptist convention! (Which is one thing I haven't seen yet, BTW!)

[Hoovie]

Originally Posted by missourimary

Your family sounds like lots of fun.

I lived in NE MO not far from an Amish settlement for seven years, and read as much as I could about Amish faith, culture and heritage as I could during that time. I have a lot of respect for the people from the group of Amish I met.

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to visit a Mennonite church, though, and got quite a surprise: not only did the women wear jeans and cut their hair, but members also played a wide variety of instruments during service (I assumed the music would be acappella) and the woman pastor preached about baptism and at one point made it clear that infant baptism was perhaps not her preference, but still acceptable. Have you heard of that, or do you know how prevalent that is in the more liberal Mennonite groups? I was as surprised by that as I would be to hear tongues and interpretation in a Southern Baptist convention! (Which is one thing I haven't seen yet, BTW!)

This is why I refer to my people as "Plain People" of which many are Horse and Buggy Mennonites like the Amish). The larger majority of Mennonites do not fit into that category. There are some that have relaxed the dress standards and othes that have become exceedingly liberal - trading doctrines of pacifism for peace activism, and even confession of faith for universalism. Most of these churches have long ago departed from the plain lifestyle and have not really been a part of a conservative conference for over fifty years.

[yisroelm]

Originally Posted by Hoovie

I did not say shunning... Official excommunication of the church though, is no small thing whether accomapied by shunning or not.

According to the history that I have studied : Since the division between Jacob Amman ( Sp?) and Hans Reist concerning the application of shunning of unrepentant church members ( I Cor.5) there have been a couple of strains that would have identified with Hans Reist ( Mennonite ) that do practice shunning with excommunication. The Stauffer Mennonites these are horse and buggy folks under this heading falls several divisions including the Hoovers now in Scottsville KY and Upper Barton Creek Belize and the remnants from the Amish group in Paraguay S.A. that united with the Noah Hoovers.
The Gorrie Canada Mennonites ( Horse and buggy)
The Reformed Mennonites ( cars)
The Church of God in Christ ( Mennonite) , car group, founded by John Holdeman.

[yisroelm]

Hoovie ,
Just by some of your family photo s I would say that your family was from the Wenger Mennonites. Is this a correct assumption?

[Hoovie]

Yes Isro, Wenger Mmennonites.

You really know your stuff. You are correct some mennonites do practice the "ban" or shunning. They are however in a small minority. The largest of those groups are likely the Church of God in Christ Mennonite which you mentioned.

Blessings, Steve Hoover