Stauffer Mennonite

The Stauffer Mennonites, or "Pikers", are a group of Old Order Mennonites. They are also called "Team Mennonites", because they use horse drawn transportation. In 2015 the Stauffer Mennonites had 2,010 adult members.^[1]

History[]

The original church was founded in 1845 when a split occurred in the Lancaster Mennonite Conference in Lancaster County, PA. The more conservative group formed a new church called the Piker Mennonites because their meeting house stood near the “pike” U.S. Route 322 in Earl Township near Hinkletown. In 1916 the original "Pikers" split into the Stauffer Mennonites and the group around bishop John A. Weaver, called , who are less conservative. The schism from the Bowman group in Pennsylvania was about the extent of shunning and divided the congregation 101 to 102. While the Weaver Pike Mennonites decreased in numbers and many intermarried into the Wenger Mennonites, the Jacob Stauffer side grew. Nowadays the Weaver Pike Mennonites are just a remnant group of about 10% of their starting numbers: in 2014 there were only 5 or 6 members remaining.

The Stauffer Pike Mennonites and Weaver Pike Mennonites continue to share the same church building, alternating every Sunday. The original church building, built in 1840, was demolished and replaced in 2015 with a nearly identical building 75 yards farther from Route 322 due to noise.^[2] However, a very small section of stone wall that was part of the original structure remains standing indicating where the historic structure once stood. On the same ground the Stauffer Mennonites still use a century-old horse barn beside their normal sheds. This building is the only left over from the past.

Today the name "Stauffer Mennonite" in a broad sense can refer to at least nine different groups, all descending from the church that was founded in 1845. The groups are named after the bishop who founded the group: Jacob Stauffer, Phares Stauffer, Joseph Brubaker, Noah Hoover, Titus Hoover, Aaron Martin, Allen Martin(dissolved), Martin Weaver, and Jonas Weaver groups. Today the Noah Hoovers are mostly counted as a separate group.

In general all of Pike Mennonite groups up to 2016 held to orthodox Mennonite beliefs, strictly Plain dress and forbade cars and modern farm machinery. Shunning was practiced in a stricter way than among other Old Order Mennonite groups.^[3]

In 2016 the main Pike Mennonite group, the Stauffer Old Order Mennonite group (as named in an 2020 May article), had a split culminating over the issue of insurance. Bishop Arthur Martin of Snyder County was the leading person in helping deepening the split among the membership, after being expelled and reinstalled itself by a supporting Missouri bishop. He wasn't willing and reluctant to deny the cup of wine for (expelled) members who still had a certain insurance, many supported him. Other issues certainly played a role too, especially the English language.

The Arthur Martin movement is still a loosely connected group of sympathizers of more liberal church policies, but some of them even going so far to get cars, some even moved away, but also some went later back to the Stauffers, and some worked together with the newly formed Midwest Old Order Mennonite Conference (a Wenger Mennonite split-off from 2018) and united with them in Illinois. The Arthur Martin movement is therefore a church on its way to a separate identity. The main Stauffer Mennonite church has taken a long time to use shunning on members who drifted to this side, in the hope of their return. Their liberal trends show itself also in their way to preach some or even half English and sing English songs during worship, which would separate them rather from other conservative minded groups and sounds rather of leaving the Old Order Pike path at all. The biggest group of them, starting from the Riverview Old Order Stauffer church in Snyder County was already called "Riverview Mennonite Fellowship", its preaching style and doctrines come very close to Fellowship churches among the Mennonites. It is currently not even predictable if this movement will survive as Old Order group, the general tendency is to Conservative Mennonitism. In Snyder County this movement got almost between 40-50 % of the membership, but they are losing out somewhat to other groups as many people are drifting over to other car-permitting groups. In Illinois they already lost most who joined the Wenger Mennonite split-off Mid-West Conference.

Customs and beliefs[]

As of 2010, these groups are among the most conservative of all Mennonites of Swiss and south German ancestry outside the Amish. They stress strict separation from “the world”, avoid excommunicated members (shunning), wear very plain clothing, and do not have electricity or running water. Stauffer Mennonites in general do not wear beards, with the exception of the Noah Hoover Mennonites, who are now considered not to be part of the Stauffer Mennonites in a narrow sense, but of the larger Horse and Buggy Old Order Mennonite movement which formed from later schisms.

Stauffer Mennonite youth are oftentimes known as "wilde Pikers", as there is a higher tendency among them "sowing their oats" before joining church or not joining at all. The local term "Rumspringe" (meaning "jumping around, running around") oftentimes associated with the Amish youth in the same age, defines also for them a time when young people are not baptised yet, but almost adults and have to decide between joining the church (after some experience of the so-called world) or not joining at all. The young Stauffer Mennonites are known to have a higher degree of people not joining church and getting cars while young people and finally leave their upbringing church. Other Old Order Mennonites in the same area, especially Wenger Mennonites are rather known as "tame" young people (zahme, junge Leit). These descriptions are very much valid for the Lancaster County settlement.

Dresses of Stauffer Mennonite women very much resemble Amish unicolor dresses, in many cases even identical, but normally they are small flowered in comparison to Wenger Mennonite women´s bigger flowered dresses. Hat brims of men are broader.

Congregations and baptized members[]

In 1936 the Stauffer Mennonites had 161 baptized members. In 1959 there were 2 congregations with 218 adult members. In 1977 there were 382 members and in 1990 about 700.^[4] In 2008 there were 13 Stauffer Mennonite congregations with about 1300 adult members.^[5] In 2015 there were 17 Stauffer Mennonite congregations with 2010 baptized members^[6] and a total population of 4,260.^[7]

According to the newest Stauffer Mennonite church Directory of 2020 their numbers are as follows:

Source: Records of Members of the Stauffer Mennonite Church at the Present Time, 2020

That means in actual numbers the Arthur Martin movement led to a loss of 520 persons (2015 to 2020), in regard of members minus 369 (2015 to 2020), but taking normal annual growth´ numbers of population and memberships in consideration the numbers must be higher (because up to the time of the split the church grew in numbers). The Stauffer Mennonite Directory of 2015 does include all people, even later leaving ones, but not growth from 2015 to 2016.

For actual numbers one should know how many people and members the Stauffer Mennonitengemeinde had just before the exodus of hundreds, or who were later shunned, as the church was hesitant in practising it immediately.

See also[]

• Groffdale Conference Mennonite Church

Literature[]

• Scott, Stephen (1996), An Introduction to Old Order and Conservative Mennonite Groups, Intercourse, Pennsylvania: Good Books, ISBN 1-56148-101-7

References[]

External links[]

• Stauffer Mennonite Church in Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online