Bible Fellowship Church

Heritage

The Bible Fellowship Church descends from the Evangelical Mennonites of 1858, Pennsylvania Mennonites warmed by revivalism, who joined the Mennonite Brethren in Christ in 1883; the Pennsylvania conference of that body took the present name in 1959. In the decades since, it has moved doctrinally from its Arminian-holiness inheritance to a confessionally Reformed evangelicalism — believers' baptism retained, elder-led congregations, particular redemption taught — an unusual, deliberate journey the body has documented itself.

Theological family

Reformed evangelical with a believers'-church inheritance: the doctrines of grace held together with believer's baptism and a gathered-church membership.

Who decides what

Elder-led congregations cooperating in a conference that holds ministers to its confession of faith.

What a first-time visitor would find

A visitor finds sober, Scripture-centered worship — expository preaching at the center, hymns and contemporary songs — in congregations mostly across eastern Pennsylvania.

What it has always cared about

Doctrinal seriousness; catechesis and church membership meaning something; and steady local-church ministry over movement-building.

Its gift to the wider church

A case study the wider church rarely sees: a denomination that changed its doctrinal mind slowly, openly, and on paper — conviction by study rather than by split.

Commonly confused with

With Mennonite bodies, from which it came but which it no longer resembles; and with independent Bible churches, whose look it shares but whose connectionalism it does not.

Range of views inside it

Modest range on worship style and ministry method; the confession holds the center.

Where Bible Fellowship Church churches are on the map

2 Bible Fellowship Church congregations appear on The Church Map, across 1 states.

• Pennsylvania — 2