ABOUT US
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We are small group of Christ followers that Love the Lord and His Word.
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Kenhorst Mennonite Churh got its start at Lichtys Mennonite Church in East Earl, PA in 2021. Our bishop, Clair, asked who would be willing to help with a new church plant. A small group volunteered and so the search began for a location. After lots of research and prayer, God seemed to be directing us to Kenhorst, Pa. Soon after that the property at 22 N Kenhorst Blvd was acquired.
After a complete renovation of the building, we began holding service in May of 2024. We are excited to be present in Kenhorst. All are invited to join us at our services!
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WHO ARE THE MENNONITES?
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Maybe you noticed the word Mennonite in our church name and are wondering why it is there. Mennonites are followers of Jesus Christ. The word Mennonite comes from an Anabaptist leader named Menno Simons and has come to represent a way of understanding the Scripture and approaching Christian living. Some use the terms Anabaptist and Mennonite interchangeably even though Mennonites are a subgroup within the Anabaptist tradition. If you would like to learn more about the history of the Mennonites, click here.
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In 1943 Harold Bender identified three distinctive elements that set the Anabaptist-Mennonite vision apart.
1. Discipleship - Our faith response to Christ is one of obedient discipleship.
2. Community - The church is a separated, redeemed community of believers that mutually support one another.
3. Love and non-violence - Christ's Kingdom is not of this world. Love and non-violence or non-resistance are applied to all human relationships.
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WHO ARE THE ANABAPTISTS?
In 1525, Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, Michael Sattler, and others met discreetly in the home of Felix Manz to discuss their disagreements with Ulrich Zwingli. Zwingli was a primary leader of the Protestant Reformation, which sought to break away from the Catholic Church's practice of selling indulgences, infant baptism, and unity between the church and state. However, Zwingli wasn't taking as conservative a stance as some of his associates wanted. He still wanted to align with the Catholic Church and approve the non-biblical practice of infant baptism. Several of Zwingli's followers simply could not follow this ancient practice of baptism and insisted that Zwingli take a more radical approach. When Zwingli threatened these radicals to conform to his beliefs with the penalty of arrest, they began to meet together secretly. That was why these men and women were meeting - to decide whether to conform to or resist Ulrich Zwingli.
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On that day in January of 1525, the radicals, later named Anabaptists, decided that they must break their ties with Zwingli and follow the teachings of Jesus and the early church as written in the New Testament. The Anabaptists soon received persecution as a result of their beliefs, once the news reached Ulrich Zwingli. Two years later in 1527, a formal statement called "The Schleitheim Confession" was written by Michael Sattler which outlined their beliefs on major church issues. Even though persecution was rampant, the Anabaptist movement continued to spread throughout Switzerland and Germany.
We at Kenhorst Mennonite Church are indebted to these faithful men and women throughout the centuries, for it is out of this movement that our Mennonite faith is based. Ultimately, we seek to follow the Bible as our guide for faith and practice, whose author is God himself. We agree with the stand that the early Anabaptists took in 1525 and uphold the biblical beliefs they outlined in "The Schleitheim Confession." A more extensive, detailed version of this statement was written in 1632 at Dordrecht in the Netherlands. A revised version of the "Dordrecht Confession" was published in 1963 and is known as the "Mennonite Confession of Faith." We at Kenhorst Mennonite Church use the 1963 Confession of Faith as a means of concisely articulating our religious beliefs founded on the principles of Scripture.
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