The Beachy Amish Mennonites   

Mennonites   

Beachy Ministers’ Meeting 2013

The Beachy Amish Mennonites hold an annual three-day meeting of the constituency’s ministers to share in fellowship and exchange ideas, receive reports from Beachy agencies, and vote on constituency decisions if any are brought forward.

· The 2009 meeting was held in Sarasota, Florida. (meeting page)

· The 2010 meeting was held in Goshen, Indiana. (meeting page)

· The 2011 meeting was held in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (meeting page)

· The 2012 meeting was held in Plain City, Ohio (meeting page)

· The 2013 meeting was held in Holmes Co., OH (April 2-4)

· The 2014 meeting will be held in Stuarts Draft, VA

 

The Holmes County Beachy churches hosted the meetings at the Fairlawn Mennonite Church in Apple Creek, OH. The program committee included men from Beachy churches outlying Holmes County, including Jonas Beiler, Joel Gingerich, Dan Hostetler, Kenny Kuhns, Eli Schrock, Sylvan Weaver, and Elmer Yoder. Committees met starting on Monday and continued through Thursday. Seven ministers presented messages and 20 led discussion workshops.

Facts, Figures, and

For the Record

Merle Beachy of Virginia preaching

 

 

Beholding God’s Glory

 

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John U. Glick of Pennsylvania sharing

 

Being the Good Shepherd’s Shepherd

 

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David Yoder of Kansas on

 

 

The Doctrine of Salvation

 

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MEETING DOCUMENTS (download)

· Official Minutes & Committee Roster

· Complete meeting transcript (except business session)

· Meeting Brochure

· Peace & Service / C.A.S.P. documents

· Bishop committee document

· Missions Interest Committee financial statement

· Calvary Bible School financial statement

· Penn Valley Christian Retreat materials

· RECORDINGS are available via Victory Music Services (Lavern Yoder).

 

BUSINESS MEETING HIGHLIGHTS

1) Eighteen men introduced themselves as newly ordained (or ordained as bishop).

 

2) Calvary Bible School is looking towards renovations of the main building later this year or else into next year and are seeking funds and support.

 

3) The liability statement proposed at last year’s meeting by FMH is now simply going to be a letter to churches informing them of the liability situation (rather than a request for a commitment of support).

 

4) AMA is working towards more independence among the Belizean missions through local ordinations.

 

5) One of the AMA clinics in Paraguay is closing in June; supplies will be auctioned off.

 

6) The Comeragh boys’ camp in Ireland has been in full operation since November 2012; they presently have three boys with two more arriving soon.

 

7) The Amish-Mennonite Historical Association is establishing an archives at the Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center (Behalt) in Holmes County. Churches should appoint a representative/liaison to work with AMHA in collecting materials. AMHA is now prepared to accept financial donations and materials.

 

FOR THE RECORD: NEW AND OLD

More book vendors (six) were present than in prior meetings. They lined the walls around the cafeteria.

 

In the 2009, 2010, and 2011 meetings, coffee or snacks were served during breaks. The 2012 meeting did not include refreshments, aside from bottled water. The 2013 meeting included coffee as well as bottled water, but only water could be taken into the sanctuary.

 

Historically, meetings have included gender segregated seating. The 2010 and 2011 meetings included mixed seating, though some in the front sat separately. In 2012, one daytime session was gender segregated while evening meetings were mixed. In 2013, there was no separate seating.

 

 

Covering Styles

for Ministers’ Wives

Three tallies were taken of women’s covering styles, one during a daytime women’s session when practically all present were ministers’ wives and two in the evening sessions. The tally demonstrates that a strong majority of the constituency’s leaders’ wives have chosen to wear the traditional Beachy covering over cloth styles. The percentage did not change from last year’s meeting.

Cloth styles (hanging veil/doilies, etc.)

Traditional Covering

 Eighty-five years in God’s service: June 26, 1927 — 2012

Ladies’ workshop

Kitchen crew

Front table

Song leader Joel Gingerich

Amish-Mennonite Population Report

The 2012 population report names various figures now published in The Amish-Mennonites of North America. It also includes an essay, “How Population Changes Cause Splits and What We Can Do about It: A Proposal to Strengthen All Churches.” It was available at the 2012 meeting and is offered again here.

Download the report.

John D. Martin of Pennsylvania preaching

 

The Doctrine of Repentance

 

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Donnie Brenneman of Virginia sharing

 

The Doctrine of Transformation

 

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John Mark Yoder of Indiana on

 

 

The Work of the Holy Spirit

 

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The Amish-Mennonites of North America: A Portrait of Our People

by Cory Anderson

   Pgs. 304

   Hard cover / dust jacket

 

Copies may be ordered directly from Ridgeway Publishers for $35+shipping (888-8227894)

 

Copies may be ordered online from the Vision Publishers bookstore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

· Copies may be ordered as an Adobe Acrobat (pdf) file for $5 or the entire issue in print for $10 (including postage) from the Mennonite Quarterly Review website. (Table of contents for the issue is here).

 

If you have not ordered a copy of The Amish-Mennonites of North America, please consider doing so in support of the work on this website.

Daniel Bontrager of Indiana on

 

 

Reflecting His Image

 

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