Doing Good to All People: Amish Relief and Development Ministries

Abstract

The Old Order Amish church is experiencing a vibrant new chapter in its American experience as it gains agency in the areas of Christian relief and development ministries. Scholars have described the energetic and highly successful entrepreneurial spirit among the Amish over the past decades. This paper documents how the Amish are building on their success as sophisticated business leaders in creating Christian relief and development ministries. The Amish community has leveraged the lessons learned as entrepreneurs toward nonprofit ministries serving people well beyond their own Anabaptist communities. Three case studies—Gifts for Relief and White Horse Relief Center, Mennonite Disaster Service and Amish Storm Aid, and Plain Community Agricultural Exchange—serve as examples of the nascent Amish agency of doing good deeds for people beyond their own Anabaptist communities and of Amish conceptualizing and actualizing Christian relief and development ministries. These three ministries are only the beginning of what likely will be many more Amish-led relief and development ministries. The paper also notes that non-Amish relief and development ministries who seek to partner with the Amish will need to move from an often-paternalistic relationship to a peer-to-peer partnership with the Amish.