POLLOCK — Sam Burkholder was a member of the Old Order Amish Church when he noticed that some of his Christian relatives were different.
“I saw they had a peace and joy that the Amish didn’t have,” he said. “I knew they had something we were missing.”
He found that something, the Holy Spirit, on the way to becoming an evangelical Christian believer and now a bivocational Baptist pastor.
Burkholder, 66, serves as pastor of Fairview Baptist Church, near Pollock, in northern Missouri. He also operates a lawn-mower repair business in Kirksville.
He and his wife, Barbara, were shunned by the Amish after they made their professions of faith.
Shunning is an Amish practice where those who leave the church are considered apostates and Amish church members are forbidden by their church to have any social contact with those being shunned. Four of the Burkholder’s eight children and their families are not supposed to have any contact with him. Four of them have accepted Christ and are no longer Amish.
Both Sam and Barbara grew up in large families living in Amish farming communities, making a living doing farm work and working on tractors. Ironic as it seems, Sam said he learned to work on tractors in the evening after the farm work was complete by using an Amish lantern (a kerosene light). Tractors are used in some Amish communities but only for belt power, not to pull machinery.
“Different communities have rules and regulations on what the Amish can and cannot do,” said Burkholder. It is a complex set of often confusing and contradictory rules.
“The bishops always warn you not to believe anything else but what they say,” he said.
As a result, the Amish communities become somewhat of a theocracy with the church preachers and the bishop making most of the decisions on what is acceptable in the community and what is not. Anything not approved by the church elders is considered sinful. A hodgepodge of rules and regulations (ordnung in German) dictate whether a particular sect will use telephones, have power equipment on their farms or what color of clothing the members will wear.
Almost all Amish dress “plain,” meaning they make their own clothing. Women wear a bonnet. They pin their clothing together instead of using buttons or zippers. Men wear suspenders. Men also do not shave their beards, but they do not have mustaches. Men are allowed to have buttons.
“I had a cousin say to me at a funeral, ‘I am counting on my Amish clothing to get me into heaven,” said Burkholder.
He said his spiritual search started when a brother-in-law visited their home. He listened to their Christian testimonies and realized all he had been taught about God was not based on Scripture, but on the traditions of the church. Amish religious leaders told him what to think and believe and threatened punishment if he thought differently. They keep order by enforcing rules to only read the Bible in German and many Amish speak “Pennsylvania Dutch” (a dialect) but many Amish people do not understand much German grammar and so they trust the bishops to interpret the Scriptures.
Burkholder has a burden to help Amish people discover the truth of the gospel and be saved.
“It is a great mission field that has not been pursued,” he said.
“It is very hard to penetrate the Amish culture. You must first gain their confidence. The wrong thing to say is that they are wrong. My suggestion is to engage them in conversation and ask questions. Ask them, ‘What does it take to get to heaven?”
He added, “Be sure to answer with what you know the Bible teaches about going to heaven.”
The Amish tend to believe their lifestyle and their community is the key to their salvation. Burkholder said they are depending on a “works-based” theology which is contradicted by the Scripture Eph. 2:9 “… not of works lest any man should boast.”
After the Burkholders left the Amish, they established the ministry Rays of Hope based in Kirksville where they live. Rays of Hope is a speaking and teaching ministry to support the Burkholders as they minister to the Amish and especially those curious about the gospel but conflicted because of their Amish heritage. He welcomes calls and letters so he may dialogue.
The website is: www.raysofhopeonline.org. Contact Burkholder by mail at 811 Benton Way, Kirksville, MO 63501 or by phone at (660) 341-3321. He receives calls from Amish seekers on a regular basis and he often drives to their communities to visit and have Bible study.
Burkholder said witnessing to the Amish is difficult, but not impossible.
“Many are searching for the truth and unfortunately they are not finding answers in their church and communities,” he said.