Reformed Mennonite Church
Reformed Mennonite Church belongs to the Anabaptist family of churches.
Governance: congregational.
Reformed Mennonite Church reports 7 congregations in the United States (RCMS 2020 (ARDA national table), 2020).
A very small, very quiet Mennonite body from 1812, holding the old discipline with a gentleness that asks nothing of the world but peace.
Heritage
The Reformed Mennonite Church was organized in 1812 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, under John Herr, among families convinced that the Mennonite church of their day had drifted from Menno Simons' teaching on discipline and separation. It has remained deliberately small and inward: plain in dress, strict in avoidance of the excommunicated, and abstaining from voting, office, and war. RCMS 2020 counted 7 congregations.
Theological family
Anabaptist in the strict Menno Simons line: believers' baptism, nonresistance, nonconformity, and church discipline including avoidance, held as obedience to the plain words of Scripture.
Who decides what
Congregational, served by unsalaried ministers and led by its bishops; the small body acts as one fellowship.
What a first-time visitor would find
Worship is plain: unaccompanied singing, prayer, and preaching among plainly dressed members. The church does not evangelize publicly or seek attention of any kind.
What it has always cared about
Consistency in the old discipline; peace with all; and contentment with smallness.
Its gift to the wider church
A reminder that faithfulness is not measured by growth charts — this body has kept its understanding of obedience for two centuries without asking the world to notice.
Commonly confused with
With other plain Mennonite and Amish groups; the Reformed Mennonites are a distinct body, and the word Reformed here does not connect them to the Calvinist Reformed family.
Range of views inside it
Little public variation; the body is small and uniform in practice.
A note from the mapmakers: Nothing here may be asserted of a specific congregation. This record is deliberately minimal: the body is tiny, publishes little, and does not seek converts, and we describe it only as far as the public record allows. Sentences drawn from it hedge as "Reformed Mennonite congregations typically…".
Sources: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online — Reformed Mennonite Church (GAMEO) · 2020 U.S. Religion Census (ASARB)
Where Reformed Mennonite Church churches are on the map
1 Reformed Mennonite Church congregations appear on The Church Map, across 1 states.
- Ohio — 1
More of the Anabaptist story · Find these churches on the map