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Friday, August 28, 2009

Question #1

Thanks for all of your fun questions! I love any opportunity to have to reflect on the "how" and "why" of the way I live. I hope I never get to the point where I am just going through the motions! There were a couple questions about my church life, so I thought I'd answer those first.

The questions were:

"Is your denomination or community Amish? Do you consider yourself Amish? How are you accepted or not accepted by those in the very traditional Amish community?"

Honestly, I kind of shiver whenever someone asks me my denomination. I call myself a Christian because I believe the way I live isn't because I'm trying to fit into any specific denomination but because these are the convictions that the Lord has laid on my heart. It is my personal opinion that denominations are a very sneaky way that the devil has found to seperate the church....but that's just my opinion. With all of that being said, the church that I attend is an anabaptist church, more specifically an Amish Mennonite church. But don't let the "Amish" word scare you! When most people think of Amish they think old-order Amish (horse, buggy, no electricity, etc.) We are a conservative group but would still have electricity and other modern conveniences. Theologically, we are very different too. As far as how we are received by other groups...well, I'm not too sure. Amish in general are very friendly and welcoming, at least the ones I've met. There are so many different types of Amish groups that it would probably vary from group to group.

"Do you actually live in a geographic "community" of sorts? Or does everyone in your church just live wherever they want?"

Yes...and no. :) When the first group of people came to Montezuma (which is a very small town) in the 50's they bought up a lot of the land. Simply because they were farmers. Much of that land has stayed within families and as a result of that there is a sort of geographical "community" of sorts. But we have many people who live on the other side of town or a few who even live in neighboring towns. When the tree fell on our house we were blessed enough to have a fellow church member whose brother had just moved recently (his house was on the family farm) and the house was still empty. I think the idea of a geographic "community" comes from the Amish. Since a 20 minutes car drive would take 2 hours with a horse and buggy. But since we have cars it isn't as important that we all live closer.

Those are my answers for today! You have no idea how many times I've wished I could snap a few pictures of our church services just so you could see what it's like. But that might be a tad...inappropriate! :)

While we are talking about my church family can I just take a minute to say how much I truly appreciate them?? I had never, NEVER known what true christian fellowship was until attending anabaptist churches. It is truly beautiful to see the body of Christ taken so seriously. It really is like a family.

Okay. I'm done now. May the Lord bless the rest of your day. And if you think of any more questions, keep them coming. I enjoy sharing what the Lord has done in my life!

Blessings!
~A

3 comments:

Em said...

Thanks for sharing!! How fascinating. My husband was raised in (and his parents still attend) a church that originated from the Anabaptist movement. It's Apostolic Christian. I always look forward to attending services there. I've never met such hard-working, thoughtful, and serving folks!

jenifriend said...

i LOVE knowing you more!!

Michelle Gibson said...

. . . the bloody trail of the anabaptists ~ they were martyred for following the law, or am I confusing them with someone else? Do you follow the law of God, keep Sabbath, etc?