Amish Lifestyle
In traveling through Amish country over the years, eating in Amish homes, and visiting with the Amish people, I’ve come to appreciate more their life-style and faith than many other religious faiths and communities. The Amish are a people of faith, family, and land.
For years I thought Mennonites originated from the Amish, when in fact, it is the other way around. The Amish originated from the Mennonites. I learned this when my wife and I visited a cyclorama in Berlin, Ohio that gives a wonderful and comprehensive history of these two bodies of faith.
(It is one of three cycloramas in the United States -Berlin, Gettysburg, and Atlanta.) Despite their differences, these two groups have two things in common— faith and family.
The Amish meet every other week for worship in a barn or home within a district. Almost everyone who is able within the district will be at worship because there is accountability in this group of believers. They worship on mobile wooden benches that are used for sitting in worship and for eating at the communal meal after worship.
Worship involves singing, A cappella, and lots of preaching. When I say lots of preaching, I mean hours of preaching. I suppose this is how they make allowance for meeting every other week for worship. How long would you be willing to sit on a wooden bench with no back or cushions for a worship service?
After worship, they have their meal for the worshipers. These men, women, and children spend hours, worshipping and fellowshipping with one another. Everyone knows everyone, and their celebrations and concerns, which can only be accomplished in a setting like this.
How many people do you worship with each week with which you have no relationship or knowledge about them? On the Sundays these worshipers do not meet, many spend time visiting family and neighbors. This is a wonderful way to keep bonds between neighbors and kin-folk strong.
All of this is quite natural to a people who place so much emphasis on family. When you work together as a family unit for everyone in the family, when you break bread together three times a day, and when you have Bible time together, each day, you can’t help but be a close-knit family—a family unit that many of us would love to experience in the here and now.
Being an Amish family is not an easy life. They do not have a lot of the conveniences we have; however, they do have a lot more than I ever imagined. Many families have remained close because they value and respect the land on which they live and which provides for their families—another admirable quality of these folks.
I could write much more about what I have learned while visiting and talking with the Amish people, but I have a word-limit to the column. I’ve written all of this to say: I encourage you in this new year to make time for your family at home and for your family at church. Make more time for worshiping and fellowshipping. This is the only way we can truly love one another and help one another through this life-journey.