Kauffman Amish Mennonite

The Kauffman Amish Mennonites, also called Sleeping Preacher Churches or Tampico Amish Mennonite Churches, are a Plain, car-driving branch of the Amish Mennonites whose tradition goes back to John D. Kauffman (1847-1913) who preached while being in trance and who was seen as a "sleeping preacher". In 2017 the Kauffman Amish Mennonites had some 2,000 baptized members and lived mainly in Missouri and Arkansas. In contrast to other Amish Mennonites they have largely retained the Pennsylvania German language and other traditions from the late 1800s.[1]

History

Tampico Amish Mennonite adherents
State Adherents
in 2001[2]		 Adherents
in 2010[3]
Arkansas 433 883
Colorado 57 70
Kentucky - 109
Illinois 504 378
Iowa - 103
Missouri 1,159 1,701
Wisconsin 169 207
All states 2,322 3,342

John D. Kauffman started to preach in June 1880, but it took until 1907, when he and some of his followers moved from Elkhart County, Indiana to Shelby County, Illinois, to form their own congregation, Mt. Hermon Church. In the beginning they were without bishop, but later bishop John R. Zook from Lawrence County, Pennsylvania came and ordained Peter Zimmerman as their bishop.[4] Against his will, but at the instruction of the Holy Spirit, Kauffman was also ordained bishop in 1911.[5]

Their first congregation, Mt. Hermon near Shelbyville, Illinois, assimilated to the Mennonite mainstream over the years, but the Fairfield congregation in Tampico, Illinois, which broke away from the Mt. Hermon church in 1933 and moved to Henry County, Illinois in 1938 and to Tampico, Bureau County, Illinois in 1944, preserves the old ways of the Kauffman Amish Mennonite, using German in its services and emphasizing Kauffman's "Spirit preaching".[6][1]

The Kauffman Amish Mennonite later moved to other states, especially to Missouri where about half of them live now and to Arkansas where about a quarter of them live now.[7]

Belief and practice

As descendants from the Amish the Kauffman Amish Mennonites are an Anabaptist Christian group in the tradition of the Radical Reformation of the early 16th century. In contrast to other Amish Mennonites they have retained the Pennsylvania German language, which they also use for church service.

Sermons make frequent mention of Kauffman's teachings, referring to his statements as the preaching with the words "The Spirit taught us . . ." According to Pius Hostetler, the followers of Kauffman saw his preaching as "Spirit preaching", therefore regarded as an authoritative interpretation of the Bible and binding upon his followers.[1]

The dress of the Kauffman Amish Mennonites is similar to the Beachy Amish in many respects although the men normally wear longer beards, and lapel coats are with buttons instead of hooks and eyes.[8] In the mid 1980s men still wore Amish-like beards, hats and suspenders while women wore head coverings, bonnets, capes, aprons and black stockings.[9]

Members and congregations

Year Congre-
gations 		Members
1957 6 540
~1995 11 ~900
2001 ? 1,222
2008 16 1,450
2017 18 2,011

In 1957 the "Sleeping Preacher Churches" had six congregations with a total membership of 540,[1] but only the Fairfield congregation in Tampico, which had 143 members in 1953, did not assimilate into the mainstream.[10] In the mid 1990s the Tampico Amish Mennonites had eleven congregations with about 900 church members.[11] In 2008 they had 1,450 baptized members.[12] In 2010 the "Tampico Amish Mennonite Churches" had 3,342 adherents, including children und young adults who are not yet baptized.[13] In 2017 there were 18 congregations with 2011 baptized members.[14]

Literature

John D. Kauffman and his followers inspired Julia Kasdorf to write her poetry book "Sleeping Preacher", which was published in 1992 and for which she won the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize.[15]

Further reading

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Sleeping Preacher Churches at Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online.
  2. ↑ Donald B. Kraybill and Nelson Hostetter: Anabaptist World USA, 2001, Scottdale, PA, and Waterloo, ON, pages 147, 178, 180, 184, 192 and 207.
  3. ↑ Tampico Amish Mennonite States (2010) at the Association of Religion Data Archives.
  4. ↑ Pius Hostetler: The Life, Preaching, and Labors of John D. Kauffman, Shelbyville, Ill, 1915, pages 7, 29-30.
  5. ↑ Harry H. Hiller: The Sleeping Preacher: An Historical Study of the Role of Charisma in Amish Societ in Pennsylvania Folklife 18 (Winter 1968/69), page 24.
  6. ↑ Fairfield Amish Mennonite Church (Tampico, Illinois, USA) at Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online.
  7. ↑ Steven M. Nolt: A History of the Amish, Intercourse, Pennsylvania, 1992.
  8. ↑ Dress at Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online.
  9. ↑ Stephen Scott: Why Do They Dress That Way? Intercourse, PA, 1986.
  10. ↑ Harry H. Hiller: The Sleeping Preacher: An Historical Study of the Role of Charisma in Amish Societ in Pennsylvania Folklife 18 (Winter 1968/69), page 26.
  11. ↑ Stephen Scott: An Introduction to Old Order: and Conservative Mennonite Groups, Intercourse, PA 1996, page 196.
  12. ↑ Donald B. Kraybill: Concise Encyclopedia of Amish, Brethren, Hutterites and Mennonites, Baltimore, 2010, page 239.
  13. ↑ Tampico Amish Mennonite States (2010) at the Association of Religion Data Archives.
  14. ↑ Membership: Tampico Amish Mennonite Churches at Mennonite World Conference.
  15. ↑ Penn State: The Department of English: Julia Spicher Kasdorf has published her third collection of poems, retrieved 22 May, 2017.
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