The Beachy Amish Mennonite Churches

The Beachy Amish Mennonites

About the Webpage’s Author

Background

I was brought up without regular church attendance. At the age of 12, through the preordained direction God had for my life, I started attending a local Baptist church and was baptized at the age of 14. At 17, I worked at Harpers Ferry National Park in West Virginia, where I was first exposed to conservative Mennonite groups, who visited the park. At 18, I began attending a Beachy church in Virginia that I discovered by chance and joined the church a couple years later.

After studying for two years at Eastern Mennonite University, I finished undergraduate study at James Madison University and received a B.S. in Geography with minors in Urban/Regional Studies and Music. At EMU, I enjoyed my time as editor-in-chief of the weekly student newspaper, Weather Vane, for the spring 2004 semester. During my time in Harrisonburg, VA, I worked for Christian Light Publications in the curriculum development department, serving as a reviewer, editorial committee member, and writer of the forthcoming rewrite of the fifth grade social studies text. I still like to poke my head in there from time to time.

I am presently studying at Virginia Commonwealth University, working towards an M.A. degree in Urban and Regional Planning. I received a fellowship to attend VCU, and thus worked part time with Community Housing Partners, an affordable housing nonprofit, for the first year. Currently, I work as a Planner for the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission.

The combination of an interest in the social studies and Christianity has led to the creation of this site. With over 10,000 members yet little research ever done, the Beachy church provides a fertile ground for social investigation into a variety of fields: geography, history, demography, sociology, anthropology, politics, and other minor fields. These studies have proven useful in understanding better the way our Beachy churches function and our spiritual and social character. My senior thesis at JMU is on the geographical distribution and spatial analysis of Beachy churches in the US South. The project, which is ongoing, is published on this site. I am currently developing a thesis on safety issues of Old Order buggy transportation on roads and identifying techniques to mitigate collisions with motor vehicles.

My goal in the studies I do is not to merely produce secular works through vain modern philosophies, but to research who we are so that we may understand ourselves better in our constituency’s walk with God, and hopefully guide us to a closer walk.

Personal Statement of Beliefs

The Love of God: I believe that God exists in a singular form and reigns from His throne in heaven. Yet He is also within His children as the Spirit and also born of Himself as He once walked on earth, and there is none like Him, as everything has come from him. Yet, in order to be glorified, the human race was allowed to corrupt itself through its own desires and decision so that God may prove his great love by turning Himself over to the whims of mankind's selfishness. It is our rebellion even today that continues to pain God, yet he allows Himself to be hurt because of His great love. And it is our privilege and opportunity to return to Him and accept His love for our kind, though we in our own power and strength have done nothing that merits His love. We are inadequate to love as He loves; yet, in sincerity of request and desire to submit and yield, He imparts a segment of His very thought process and wisdom into our souls in order to achieve miraculous unselfishness and sacrifice for others and for His glory. This great love cannot be achieved through our own accomplishment or achievement, but only through God's presence in our lives. It is the Christian's mission while on earth to love others and to love God above self; yet, even as we at times fail to achieve this lofty goal, we strive towards it and ask God to grant us yet a greater portion of His Spirit and will. This surrender to God's will, love, and sacrifice for mankind is the desire of God, will result in an enduring peace in a man's soul, and will one day call the soul to an unspotted eternity with God that is currently beyond comprehension. This peace and promise of eternity is a gift from God and nothing we have earned or deserve no matter how "good" a person we are. The love God imparts is in contrast to the love advocated by humanists, secularists, and false religions, which is a contradictory costume of love.

Universal Opportunity for All to Offer Deference to God: The specifics of this message has been lost in many cultures as time passes and people forget their God. Yet, in concocting their own religions and tales, these people yet prove the existence of God through the similarities in their religion. However, certain practices are detestable within these religions which would call the faithful out of them. God can and has revealed the concept of His love and self-sacrifice to those who have never heard the "Christian story," and the path of a disciple of God can be undertaken even by those who may have never heard the specifics of his message (see Romans 1-2).

Separated Unto God: Followers of God have such a loyalty to His spotlessness, that they feel compelled to segregate detestable practices and patterns out of their life, in order to allow God's Spirit to rest peacefully in their soul and thus guide the life of the servant. God's servants are called out of the ways of this world and to walk carefully in a way that both glorifies God and demonstrates His love through the love we have for others.

This walk calls Christians away from practices that are not in harmony with His love and purity, such as:

-Warfare

-Sarcasm and discouraging remarks

-Partisan politics

-Gossip (No one ever starts a rumor; they just pass it on.)

-Defensiveness

-Covetousness and materialistic focuses

-Idolization of food and beverage

-Easy believism and Sunday-only Christians

-Individualism and independence

-Frequent frivolous pursuits

-Addictive and frequent involvement and consumption of popular culture (including movies, TV, base and shallow secular and ‘Christian’ music whether vocal or instrumental, fashionable and popular dress, modern ‘dime novels,’ web surfing, pop culture "Christianity" icons and thought, etc...)

-Cursing and foul language

-Affluence and the expansion of one's personal monetary kingdom while the work of expanding God's kingdom produces little or unproportionate fruit.

-Lasciviousness

-Fad-following which takes our eyes off the Maker of perfection

-Harshness and coldness towards others

-Hateful or "just don't like them" attitudes

-Pride

-Lust and other disrespectful behavior towards women

-Fornication and other similar self-centered acts

-Immodesty

-Chronic self-centered depression

-Solely emotion-based religion

-Engagement in the turbulent dating idolization of society

-Humanism, Hedonism, Universalism, Pantheism, Pragmatism, Post-Modernism, Materialism, Libertarianism, Environmentalism, Relativism, Asceticism, and Cynicism as core philosophies of life.

-Magic, witchcraft, and like tampering

-Tradition as a basis for spiritual practice

-Form prayers that involve speaking into the air or reciting thoughts in one's heart in a compulsory, cliché manner rather than communicating with God

-Fruitless debates

-Lying

-Impulse shopping

-Eastern religious practices and philosophies

-Interest in competition and professional sports

-Rebellion against worldly and spiritual leaders

-Other behaviors that emphasize self pleasure and gratification over God and the well being of others.

Yet, followers are not just separated from the world, but separated unto God. Thus, a disciple of God will live his life by practicing:

-Deeply embedded love for others

-Charitable speech and regard for fellow men

-An unquenchable interest in utilizing resources to increase awareness of God (e.g. church services, prayer, Bible reading, edifying discussions, etc...)

-Ability to or an interest in being able to understand convictions and practices

-Generosity in giving

-Compassion towards the spiritually and/or physically injured and hurting

-Living for the edification of one's brother and sister in Christ

-Denial of selfish priorities

-Regular study of God's written revelation of Himself (the sixty-six generally recognized books of the Biblical Old and New Testaments)

-Interest in and study of non-canonical literature that glorifies God (including but not limited to the old testament Apocrypha, articles of faith, statements of church belief and practice, the Martyrs Mirror and other testimonies of the faithful, and historic accounts of God's people)

-Interest and perseverance in meaningful, non-cliché prayers

-Humility before God and man

-Boldness with tact to speak of God before other Christians and nonbelievers

-Patience

-Devotion to a collective body of believers

-Recognition and respect of Godly headship order (God->Christ->Man->Woman, see 1 Corinthians 11)

-Humble acknowledgement and appropriate practice and application of God-given gifts

-Fasting (periods of abstinence from all foods and beverages, except water in most cases)

-Confidence in God's deliverance

-Sensitivity

-Marriages that model Christ's love for the church and honor procreation as an essential act that draws two flesh into one by the production of offspring

-The devotion and dedication of time to raising God-fearing offspring, with gentleness, meekness, and humility.

-The idea and practice of a church family instead of a church of families, and the idolization of the institution of marriage and family, as it will pass away in its current form very soon.

-Discernment of God's will when revealed in contrast to the pursuit of one's own course with the assumed blessing of God

-All other courses that are in conjunction with God's guidance and His love.

Elements of the Future: I have faith that God exists in some form, in some way, that is too magnificent to comprehend, and that His love is the very core essence of His being. This faith is confirmed by the peace in my heart when His will is accomplished through my decision to seek His Kingdom first. I hope to one day be rid of this stained flesh and limited understanding that prevents me from experiencing full fellowship with God. Yet, one day the things I have faith in will be an undeniable reality, and the things I hope for will come to pass, and all that will remain is the central being of God, the love that continues to flow from Him and from His faithful creatures.

It is my hope that this document can change over time as evidence that God is proving and refining me further into his image.