Breaking the Silence | The Secret Strength of the Amish Church | Joseph J. Graber | Lester Graber

and since we call them the Amish shunning modern advancements they drive horses and buggies and live without electricity where do they come from are they a culture a religion what made them who they are this film series explores the inner workings of the Amish church as told by some of their own who no longer wear black hats in bonnets for 300 years the Amish have been known as the silent in the land now a growing number of them are breaking the silence [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's a quarter to 9:00 on a Sunday morning and the Old Order Amish in the local community are gathering for their church services as the families arrive the men form a familiar semicircle out by the barn and the ladies leave their bonnets cloaks and shawls in the summer kitchen and move into the house where the benches are already set up the usual lively chatter is somewhat subdued in honor of the occasion outside the men unhitched the horses and put them in the barn they speak to each other in low tones mostly about the weather the harvest and other events of the past several weeks recently one of the families in the next community over lost their house to a house each man finishes putting his horse up in the barn and joins the other men outside he shakes each of their hands and they greet one another with a holy kiss on the cheek the younger boys stand with their fathers the older boys and single young men wait in a separate location this is just one example of the accepted way of doing things that every young Amish person quickly learns these traditions have been handed down generation after generation and give the Amish their distinctives such as clothing that helped them stay separated from the world around them the Amish are well known for working together to provide the things they need church is no exception the families take turns hosting church services in their homes the ladies come together and help clean the house of whoever is hosting the men of the place clean up the barn in outside areas in preparation for the big day the old order amish only meet for church services every other Sunday unless there is a visiting minister then they will make special services for him on the in-between Sundays they gather in the afternoons in each other's homes for food and fellowship [Music] in the United States there are Amish communities in 31 states there are certain characteristics they all share but to the practiced eye of an Amish person their clothing looks very different from community to community because the Amish make all their own clothes to community specific guidelines a visitor can be quickly spotted by the difference in the cut of the clothes or the style of the men's hat with a ladies cap and bonnet when it is time the bishop or lead minister starts toward the house the other ministers follow him in the order in which they were ordained the deacon always walks last on their way in they shake the hand of all the single young ladies who are waiting for the right time to go inside removing their hats the ministers enter the house where they shake hands with all the ladies who are already seated and waiting inside the house the subdued conversation ceases once the ministers enter a somber silence prevails accented by the sound of people finding their seats and shifting on the wooden benches in many communities the wooden benches are owned by the families each family making sure there is enough seating for themselves and a few visitors often the benches are stored in a bench wagon that moves from house to house with the church services the rest of the men enter the house in order of their age the oldest to the youngest the young boys sit with their fathers the Amish have used the same Osman hymnal for hundreds of years each family contributes enough hymnals to the church for their family and one or two extra as the men are entering the deacon hands out the hymnals in preparation for the service after the men and boys are seated it is time for the single young people to file in and find their seats at a word from the bishop or lead minister the song leader gives out the hymn a church service begins as they all join in a slow Gregorian chant of an old German him [Music] [Music] [Music] this was my childhood Sunday morning at church I'd be in there I'd be singing those songs my dad would be getting ready to preach so many good memories all wrapped up in this [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] my name is Joseph graver I'm the director and host for this film series I grew up Amish my father was an Old Order Amish minister and for the first fourteen years of my life I wore the plain clothes we went everywhere in horses and buggies all of that and a little bit I'm gonna take you and show you some more of the Amish church service but first I want you to meet my parents I remember DOS morning standing out in front of the barn with the other men waiting for church you know I had my big hat on my hat that I had a wider rim and everybody asked about it minister I love the Amish ways when the armies have Church at their house then the neighborhood ladies come together and help them clean their house and while the ladies are cleaning the children plate and we had so much fun playing and I mean the whole house was clean from top to bottom everything was cleaned and gone through and the ditches were scarred and everything was gotten ready for them great their church that was so special in church was at your house as you drive through Amish country you will see horses and buggies black hats and bonnets and you may even see the community coming together for an Amish barn raising right now there are two hundred and ninety thousand Amish people they double in size every 20 years and they say by 2050 there will be a million Amish in America most families particularly the conservative groups it's not uncommon for them to have ten or fifteen or in some cases of more than 20 children I grew up in a family of 10 my mother grew up in a family of 15 my dad grew up in a family of 13 so when my husband and I married we only had seven so that was downsizing that's what we always thought people on the outside are intrigued by their large families and the way they seem to live closer to the land gardening and farming and living without electricity how have them Amish maintain this lifestyle over so many generations and how has this culture remained untouched by all the modern inventions around it what holds the Amish together the answer to this question cannot be easily seen from the roadside as one drives by in fact for centuries this secret has been hidden within the Amish church service where those on the outside are seldom allowed to go but come with me discover the secret as I take you through an Amish church service and a traditional Sunday at the borntreger farm the church service is in progress and they're just coming to the end of the second son of the morning the Amish used three languages at home they speak a dialect of low German called Pennsylvania Dutch at school they learn English to be used in their interactions with the outside world but in church all of their songs scriptures and church writings are written in an old high german that they have been handing down for 300 years the german they use in church is their least used language and many of them struggle to understand it right now they're singing the low blade it's page 770 in the old Elland hymnal they've used this hymnal for hundreds of years and for almost the same amount of time they have always sung this song as the second song of every church service during the first song of the church service the ministers will leave and go to upload a place a part where they can take counsel for the day it is during this time that they decide who is preaching that day and in what order they'll preach after they've made these decisions that will have a time of silent prayer and then they will rejoin the congregation usually toward the end of the low bleed once the low bleat is finished the first minister will stand up and he will preach the off on the offing is the beginning message so leave the reader Schwester mostly 11 to 15 minutes of us what the ruleset he's supposed to just speak from his heart The ministers when they're preaching are not allowed to actually read from the Bible they're just supposed to preach from memory one tiny lieblick American pryzen would Andy Das Keyboard hold into animal or a arrogant angry minor North America naughty Peterbilt at the end of his 15 minute message he will then kneel with the corrugation and lead them in a prayer that he'll read from the Christians belief prayer book after the prayer they will all rise and the Deacon or the second minister will then read the first scripture of the day awesome eerie and indeed fancy brew there's a certain scriptures every Sunday that you read every year on this Sunday you read this scripture next year on that same Sun you read the same scripture then he would sit down then the third preacher they always had three parts in the Amish church the third preacher he would get up he will preach what is called to Matt and ale or the main message of the day in a high card or to imagine it was still the Samba and the shadow dog Grillo Tomiko in and then your main sermon would last for about 45 minutes to an hour hour and a quarter it would depend one of my favorite memories of the Amish church service would happen whenever the main minister got up to preach the lady of the house would pass around some snickerdoodles or Amish sugar cookies for all the younger children to have a snack as an Amish preacher I learned to preach without a microphone and I was conscious of the fact that sometimes we had large houses large groups or in a shed or barn where it was a long way orders in Deadwood Misrata I so wasn't doing the plots were seeing now the mothers to lease in a cannon and such Deb Tuesday : so TMS Keller and said I lost me at humber asked me I'd at the end of his message he will then pick up the Bible and he will read the second scripture to the americolor highly an elite the Heron serenity offered to over CAD differentiators notice resets in his ride Santa Steven summers and yeah I can veer home and Eve earliest in Greece I mute then he would sit down and ask for at least three other men's customized regarding how he said my name is tardes my name is Edison when I'm off to Tigers go in me about Amman give me Saladin for no longer meet the other world so so Dumbarton here on De Niro's frightening it's an EGD rarity with you reckon all the waters here and also your nose and even if you very private what would donate its energy but it wasn't and we're done right - hey Kendra so how does he cannabis don't open D can you be kind of you're getting no good as one saying battle dude say Avenger then he will lead in one more prayer everyone will kneel and again he'll be reading the prayer from the Christians believe prayer book oh dude here pump answer here good deeper Hemnes your father Derrida once an anomaly kinder get Danny get informatica deep if it is in your side two devices one on safety line D sailors died forgetting to skim he gave in Hajj hunter pottering and him o dining nomicon attend right coming ivy-league ashamed of in him O once or take a protein one-sided forgiving Center showed behavior on just show them forgave an appearance a cheaper so Saturnalia since when enabled and on it just right he crafted a holy God yes and every guy once the prayer is finished they will rise to their feet and the minister will lead them in a benediction side forthcoming trash that I have done less in science it's a severe cut during evenness potatoes made ice on Samantha bish nice buffet LeMay mid-iron good sign board and a dirty hunt on that's here does everybody doing sentence and Evonik garbage Garrigan during the 100 nada de ferran system sale again and docile as you know jury is in Christian actually benediction there will be an announcement about where church will be the following Sunday and then the song later gives out the final song and I sing one more song [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] once the last song is finished and churches over the children will all go outside to play the men will take down the benches and set them up as tables and the women will start getting the food ready and plating on the tables and within 15 minutes you can be feeding a bunch of people your typical Amish Sunday dinner [Music] I have some very fond memories as a boy sitting there and waiting for my father but one of the other lead ministers to make the announcements that that it's time to eat I need this for this in almost deal how did some good bad fish boys never steal holitzer Magoo beard once the lead Minister shuffled his feet or cleared his throat we knew the silent prayer was over and we could start eating every Sunday we had peanut butter and jelly and there might be pickled beets and pickles and all sorts of other things but the main meal for most of my growing up years at the Amish church service who is peanut butter and jelly and it wasn't just any kind of peanut butter we used peanut butter that had been mixed with maybe corn syrup and marshmallow cream so it was a deluxe bread [Music] well I guess they hung over the hot anger in the afternoon everything slows down men will sit around and chat for a while ladies will clean up the food and children will be playing outside and one by one families will hitch up their horses and leave to go home to take care of their chores and their animals one or two of the families may decide to stay over for the young people singing that night and in the evening the young people get together they sit at this long table then they have all have these little books and then we sing German and in the church services the women never leave but in the evenings that the girls are allowed to be so the girl can pick a song and say the number today I want sex and asti and then they leave and and the way the Amish Swit sing is you said the first person who sits it gave out the song would always say the first word of every line and so everybody would sing a line everybody would pause you would sing the first word then everybody joined in single line then everybody would cause and again the Amish young people singing is the official place where Amish romances start during the singing the boys will sit on one side of the table and the girls will sit on the other side of the table so there is naturally a jockeying for position to be closest to the one that you're trying to attract at that time growing up Amish and then going to the young folk singing a Sunday night we thought the big thing was always afterwards you know we talked about the girls and see who was second who the young men will either ask a girl or send someone to ask the girl if they can take them home that night if the couple is already going steady then the young man will just go harness his horse and get ready and then he'll come and pick up the girl and together they will head off for the traditional Amish date the young man will take the girl to her house where they will both go inside and spend some time talking possibly eating a snack and then later in the evening the young boy will go back to his father and so another Amish Sunday comes to a close there's a busy week ahead there is so much beauty in the Amish culture and for those of us who were privileged to grow up in it we have many fond childhood memories as a child everything seemed right with the world as long as all the grown-ups were sitting in there and singing the songs the preachers were getting up to preach everything seemed right safe and secure you get older you realize that uniformity is not unity I didn't know that underneath those sort of studied faces there was a lot of turmoil going on growing up there were issues that I struggled with is here was born and raised for the first six years of my life in Middlebury Indiana a very you know much more liberal community than we ever lived in after that then we moved to clock Missouri which was quite a conservative community still is today we moved from Clark Missouri to brunson Michigan was 15 years old and four years later we actually moved back to LaGrange Indiana we're dead kind of made us full circle came back to Indiana what it presented to me was the fact that there were so many different kinds of Amish in one community we'd say chainsaws are worldly but the next community they were fine we used one community gas lights were worldly for the next community everybody Houston wine community they washed clothes by hand because they wouldn't have the Briggs & Stratton there or some kind of engine to run their washing machine because it was worldly some places it was against the rules to have more than six mama cells you know the race hogs you know you shouldn't look more than 12 cows the next community down the road or the next community or the next state or whatever any other community could use they might have a totally different set of rules you know there were some things that we all had in common like horses and buggies when I was 15 we moved to Tomah Wisconsin and that is where my Amish world started shaking to pieces up till then I love being Amish I thought Amish was the only way I was a very loyal Amish person whenever we move we would have to sell some of our livestock but when we were going to move to Tomah Wisconsin my dad said he's going to sell all the ponies ever since I could remember growing up but we always had at least one pony and most of time two and three ponies that we children could write part of my life was leaving I said why and he said it's against the rules of the church there and I thought I can't the rules of the church he said what it's too much like just for pleasure okay he said in some places they have bicycles and ponies are just a next thing devices and bicycles are definitely worldly we can see that so if we see the connection there then we should know that yeah ponies could be bad for the Amish okay so I had to swallow that and be my that my in pony's goat trying to understand why some things all right in one community but not an another one churches there's another church does that if I had left in one community all of my life you'd have accepted that and never thought much of it but we did move around and I kept asking my uncle you know why do we do certain things why do they Amish you this where do you get all the the basis for all the rules that we have and he really didn't have any good answers it was never let's go to the Bible and here's the basis of what we do the answers I kept getting were well back in 55 a decision was made by a group of Amish and that's why we do this this way in 1955 over a hundred Old Order Amish bishops ministers and deacons met in Holmes County Ohio for a conference on unity within the Amish each of their churches had slightly different rules and now some churches were becoming more and more modern how could they know that they could fellowship with a church without somehow being in sin with them so after three days of deliberation they came up with the vinegar Jesus basically was an agreement that said that any church that agrees with the ordinance letter from the ministers conference in 1917 Holmes County that church we can fellowship with especially with article 11 of the 1917 ordinance letter the ban and shunning shall be practiced by the ministry and lay members and so this created a large amount of uniformity among the older Amish church while leaving a lot of room for creativity and slightly diverse rules because their unity was based on their both agreeing on the letter from 1917 and while bishops and some Amish ministers might know what the best loose of 1955 said most Amish people didn't really know so they were agreeing on something that they didn't even know what it was [Music] because unity and fellowship was enforced by the ban and shunning that was necessary for every church member to know and promise to keep all the rules [Music] baptism day is is the biggest day in your life next to your wedding day because baptism day is the day that you are brought into the church before you are baptized you make a vow on your knees making a promise to the church that as long as you live you will keep the ordinances follow the rules and traditions of the forefathers and this vow will be held against you for the rest of your life as long as you live in my community we got baptized at the age of 17 before you could be baptized you have to go through a process of sitting with the ministers every Sunday and they would explain to you why it was so important for your clothes and your lifestyle and and everything about you was to be within the guidelines of the turk's all the members of the church were to watch you and make sure that nothing would deviate from that ordinance letter before they can be baptized that vote has to be taken among the congregation to make sure that they're keeping all the rules I was always a stickler if I knew what the rules were I did him to a tee because I was gonna be a good Amish girl and I mean and I love my dad and I thought in my dad's Amish and it must be good it must be right so I will do it to the best of my ability but when they took a vote and then they came to tell us the bishop has told me that something came up against me I remember I just started shaking I couldn't believe that what were they gonna tell me what had I done wrong what in the world was it and he said that there's a pin there you put a pin in the back of your collar in the Cape and that should not be there that shows pride and you put an extra Pender the other girl that was trying church with me and going to get baptized her sister told the bishops that I had this pin in there and I thought why didn't she tell me instead of going and telling the bishop I had no clue that that was against the rules another thing that happened before I was a church member was one week my mom and dad decided to go on a trip so I wanted to do something to surprise them when they came home and I thought you know it would be great to have a porch swing because we had a nice front porch and in the shop there was a whole bundle of these little it looked just like the things I've seen I'd seen porch swings made up so and I knew how to use the skill saw and everything and and and I made the neatest little porch swing and it was actually strong my sisters were so surprised they said you actually made they could sit on two people could sit side-by-side and everybody was enjoying this porch swing so I was anticipating when my dad came home and see what he would say you would be so delighted and I was really let down when I saw the look on his face when he walked on the porch I thought what did I do wrong didn't I make a good job of it he took me aside he talked he said that's a really good job and we'll put it on the sale and it'll probably bring a really good price and for your workmanship but he said it's against the rules of the church to have a porch swing Oh what is wrong with this community I seemed like there were more rules than you could shake a stick at every way I turned there was something why does it matter that every community has slightly different rules and why would my mom be so distressed that she had inadvertently broken some of the rules here at last we come to the core of what holds the Amish together every spring and fall there are two church services are dumb and gross Khmer gross Khmer is communion sunday an ordinance Khmer is the dreaded council meeting that happens two weeks prior to communion in council meeting you have Church like any other Church you would start the same way with a minister who led the main sermon would preach for up to three hours then you have the members meeting of them the bishop you know it's his responsibility gets back up and then he'll read the standard the ordinance believe or standard is the letter with all of the rules for that community as the bishop reads the letter to the congregation each member has to make sure that they're keeping all of the rules if they've broken any of the rules they need to make a confession before the church if you do a sin against the Amish rules in church then you need to make a confession in church the preacher asked just the members to say everybody goes out and then he tells them what this person wants to confess and then he asked all the other members are you willing to forgive this person and let him free of it and so then they'll take a vote they'll go along and everybody has to say yes I agree yes or they have a little German thing that they say yeah I've been any me at the far far lot yeah I've been a team at the frosh lock everybody has to say that even the women get to speak then but they had to say what they're supposed to and a lot of times you could have council meeting that would last before five o'clock than you mean depends in the long long church all of this is done in preparation for gross community the communion service that comes two weeks later grows Kamiya is another epic all day long church service the preaching goes on for hours there is no lunch break but food is prepared in another room and a few people at a time will leave the main service to go over and eat a quick silent meal while the preaching continues in the main part of the house the communion service itself consists of a round loaf of bread that is cut in a special way and then broken and handed out to each of the members by the bishop after the bread the bishop then passes around a shared cup of wine to each member and at the end of all this comes a time of foot washing two men at a time will go to the foot washing station and wash each other's feet while the ladies are washing their feet at another station [Music] if any of the members does not measure up to the standard they cannot participate in communion this is called being put in the band sometimes is the short band which lasts for several weeks to give the person time to make things right but if it is the full band then the community will also practice shunning when a person is being shunned the members are not supposed to eat with them and they're discouraged from associating with them the ban and shunning have become the trademark of Amish church discipline for most Amish being in good standing with the church is their only hope for salvation I remember one day in the one of the chicken houses a fellow out there asked me are you really born again are you just guys just religious and I'm like well how could you and asked that of course were born again were Amish growing up what did you learn about how to get to heaven the way I understood it was that you would need to be baptized and you know when you made that confession that you believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and if you you know if that verbally comes out of your mouth and then also the rules that the church has and those are to be followed agree to the rules and obey the rules and there's lots of himself and therefore that that should get you to heaven should but was it guaranteed no it was not guaranteed it was just a wishful or a a hope hoping of going to heaven but not knowing that you can go to heaven but it's the hope that lives amongst the Amish people and how they believe in what they do and how our forefathers did what our parents did what our ancestors did that's the hope that we have to do what they did it wasn't a living hope it was basically a false hope well you know saved in German is sailing there's no such thing as saved in the Amish eyes most Amish eyes especially from where I come from I can't speak for all the Amish but Perfector where I come from there's no such thing as saved and there's no such thing as a subject about talking about being saved don't even think about it don't talk about it don't even look about it cuz it's no such thing that's the preacher of the word in the Amish church you're not concerned about people getting saved were you ever told in a specific way you can go to hell growing up yeah we were told if you leave the traditions that you've been taught that you're just headed for hell if you happen to die and the other one was the wrong spring of the wild stages of life if you're if you were a kid and you had a car and you had an accident and and died you were automatically headed to help one Sunday morning I just remember coming to church and my great uncle's wife was just weeping and crying and the other ladies would go to her and they would just all be sobbing and weeping and crying and I thought what is wrong what happened I didn't know that anybody died but then one of the young girls said Mary ran away she went to the English and that was their teenage girl and it just went through me like oh my goodness how did she dare and now she's going to go to hell doesn't she know that and everybody just knew that this girl was gonna help because she left the Amish she ran away with it to the English and if you're disobedient to the church if you don't come to Communion and a and and and agree with the rules and walk by them and you die hell is for you if you want to go to heaven you have to be able to participate in communion which means you have to be a member in good standing which means you have to keep the rules and that is why my mom would get so nervous and upset if she found out she was inadvertently breaking the rules because it could keep her from going to heaven a porch swing could keep her from going to heaven a pin in the wrong place could keep her from going to heaven she wanted to go to heaven but her only peace was in trying to keep all the rules being a member in good standing no doubt in my mind that excommunication and shunning is the fabric that holds the culture together take that away and you don't have an Amish culture it holds it together it has held it together all these years [Music] I've realized that much of the values that they hold on to today come out of heavy persecution for generations it made them a beautiful culture but what has happened over the years is that as the outside world has progressed and got more involved in technology and cars and electricity in all of those things they started the whole back they begin to make these little fences and before long all these low man-made rules became the focus of what makes me right with God is when I follow the rules by the church that are man-made rather than the commandments of God when I was Amish and I dated this girl in Davis County one of one of the issues I knew that's gonna be coming up and that is they had devotions read the Bible every morning the term enviable every morning while I was there I read it with them I knew that's gonna be miss you with my people from where I come from when he goes we didn't do that you know it was dangerous in us it was dangerous to get into deep too deep with the Bible's what we felt like if you get too deep into the Bible you might not stay Amish is what we were afraid of after I left the Amish I went back to my dad and I I asked him how do you become a child of God how do you become a child of God and I was just very kindly knelt with one knee in front of dead and I gave him the German Bible I wanted him to translate it for me to German Bible I said how do you become a child of God well he didn't even let he didn't even read it I just started him to read let him read he closed the Bible he jerked it away and he turned away he just sat like this look the other way you would not he would not he was too scared that the Bible would convert his thinking it'd be too dangerous is too dangerous the Amish church service that we just saw is filled with Scripture the hymns that they sing are saturated with it the prayers are full of it and they actually read the Bible in the church service several years ago one of my aunt's wrote me a letter and she was very frustrated because in her community they had started really stressing that everyone needed to read the Bible only in German at the same time they had stopped teaching German in their schools if the Amish church service is based on Scripture why wouldn't they want their children to read the Bible [Music] what would actually happen if an Amish man started studying the Bible what if he was an Amish minister join us next time for my parents story [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Vision Video

Views: 1,551,596

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Keywords: Christian Videos, Christian Films, Christian Movies, Religious Movies, Films, Movies, Entertainment, Amish, Amish struggles, rejected by Amish heritage, Breaking the Silence, Amish culture, Amish church service, Lester Graber, Rebecca Graber, history of the Amish, Joseph J. Graber, Joe Keim, Breaking the Silence The Secret Strength of the Amish Church, The Secret Strength of the Amish Church

Id: aaHIEZkeTF4

Length: 42min 32sec (2552 seconds)

Published: Fri May 01 2020