John Holdeman

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John Holdeman (born January 31, 1832 in New Pittsburgh , Ohio , † March 10, 1900 ) was a Mennonite preacher and founder of the Mennonite congregation movement Church of God in Christ, Mennonite (Church of God in Christ, Mennonites) .

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Holdemann came from a Pennsylvania German farming family in Ohio . The ancestors of the family had immigrated from Switzerland as Anabaptists as early as the 18th century . Already in his youth he got to know through his father the strongly evangelistic church movement of Maryland preacher John Winebrenner. Around 1844 Holdeman himself was probably a guest at a larger gathering of the Baptist and Methodist movement, which was also known as the Winebrennerians or Church of God . Holdemann himself was baptized Mennonite like his parents. On November 18, 1852, he married Elizabeth Ritter.

But already in the first year of his marriage he experienced a spiritual crisis with a series of dreams and visions. From then on, Holdeman dealt intensively with the Bible as well as the Martyrs Mirror and the writings of the early Anabaptists. This led to an increasing criticism of the community life of the established Mennonite communities. Holdemann developed a strongly restitutionist attitude, which was mainly based on the early Anabaptists. He criticized, among other things, the increasing secularization of the North American Mennonites from his point of view . In January 1858 he began to preach himself and in April of the following year he finally formed a separate congregation in his parents' house, which still exists today as the Church of God in Christ, Mennonite as an independent Mennonite denomination in North America . Between 1862 and 1879 he went on numerous preaching trips and published a number of tracts and articles in German and English. However, his extensive activities led to financial crises several times. During this time he made his living mainly as a farmer . In spite of his work as a preacher and publicist, his congregation remained isolated within the Anabaptist movement in North America, which at the time was mainly influenced by Pennsylvania German. His criticism found little response. This only changed with the immigration of Russian-German Mennonites from 1874, when Holdeman's criticism fell on fertile ground in part. His movement found new strength and was able to spread. In 1883 he moved with his family and congregation to Jasper County in Missouri and finally in 1897 to McPherson County in Kansas , where a number of Russian-German Mennonites converted into a regional center of the new movement. In June of the same year he founded the magazine Ambassadors of Truth , of which he remained editor-in-chief until his death.

Holdeman died on March 10, 1900 at the age of 68. His wife survived him by 32 years and was 98 years old.

The Church of God in Christ, Mennonite , founded by Holdeman in the context of the revival movements of the 19th century, still exists today, is now completely Anglicised and can be assigned to the spectrum of conservative-evangelical Mennonites.

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personal data
SURNAME Holdeman, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Mennonite preacher
DATE OF BIRTH January 31, 1832
PLACE OF BIRTH near New Pittsburgh , Ohio , United States
DATE OF DEATH March 10, 1900