Mennonites and CoC
January 3, 2007 § 8 Comments
I just read a letter someone from one of my Yahoo groups wrote to his Church of Christ brethren, exhorting them to look at some of the practices of the Mennonites. It was quite interesting.
Cultured Mama
Cultured food, cultured thoughts, cultured life…
Cultured Mama 
Huh… interesting. Know who wrote this, by the way? I didn’t see a name on it. Just curious since I’m CoC and it actually might be someone I know… (we’re small in number and I went to a CoC college where several CoC Bible scholars are from 😉 ).
Can’t say I agree with everything he says in the article, but he does make some very valid points.
His name’s Dan Tiller. I think he lives in Massachusetts. I know him from my yahoo group, Early Christians Today. We have fun conversations. hehe
Amazingly enough, I’ve never heard of the name. Though I can imagine the conversations 🙂
Ehhh… the Pharisees “walked the second mile towards purity,” too, and Jesus had some interesting things to say to them. I’m not knocking the Mennonites, and the guy does have some good points… but more of what he says just makes me deeply uneasy.
I think his main point is that if you are claiming to get back to true “primitive Christianity” which is i think what CoC claims, there are several places where they have stopped short, and the Mennonites have gone farther.
What made you uneasy?
True enough… CoC is typically big on saying, “The first century church did ______, so we should too!” And true, that doesn’t always happen as stated.
I raised eyebrows at several things, but he concludes with “their errors [are] theological… while our errors are sinful.” As if to say, “If you don’t do these things, you are sinning (or needlessly flirting with sin), but you’re safe if you do them.” As if to say no possibility exists of sin from over-strictness or the effects thereof, when examples like the Pharisees plainly stand to the contrary.
Sorry… that just struck a chord in me. I’m done soapboxing now. Thanks for bearing with. 🙂
We can’t use musical instruments because the first century church didn’t. But apparently the first century churches used powerpoint presentations, microphones, electric lighting, and central heating and cooling.
Basically I don’t buy much into the ‘first century church did _______” thing just because last I checked, we weren’t meeting in secret on Sunday morning in catacombs. Though that would be friggin awesome! XD
lol, no problem.
Yeah, that statement stuck out to me too. While I have a thing or two to say about some of his statements– in regard to dress and perhaps even entertainment (though not strong statements about the entertainment thing) over all, i think he had some valid points.
Don’t get me wrong, the Mennonites are dried up and stale in many ways. They may have service to the poor, and may be outwardly closer to walking righteously than most out there, but they have lost much of the love, joy, and spark that comes from growing and living in the Spirit.
Once again, another example of different denominations holding pieces of the puzzle.