Anabaptist Brotherhood
Anabaptists coming together to care for our own
*Six men with their teams plow the field of a brother in the church who is laid up with an injury
Anabaptist Brotherhood
Anabaptists coming together to care for our own
*Six men with their teams plow the field of a brother in the church who is laid up with an injury
Our Mission
To promote brotherhood mutual aid by providing Biblical two-kingdom teaching and a structured approach to "caring for our own", thereby preserving the Social Security Exemption.
Mutual Aid Teaching
Anabaptist Brotherhood provides teaching materials, articles, and other resources on social security issues to promote brotherhood mutual aid, the two-kingdom principle, and bearing one another's burdens.
These teaching materials promote an interdependent mindset of mutual aid rather than an individualistic, independent mentality.
Teaching materials are designed to be used by the local church leaders through varied forms of teaching and discussion such as preaching,
Sunday school, and related instructional meetings.
Anabaptist Brotherhood provides a teacher/speaker to help churches understand how the organization’s program intersects with the local church to enable and facilitate “caring for our own.” This includes one or two meetings with a church leadership or congregation to explain the organization’s program features and benefits.
Individual Savings
Stewardship includes taking responsibility to save throughout life for personal financial needs in the elderly years. If such savings are not needed, then they should be used to mutually help others. This program offers an accountability structure for members to save and report their savings annually to Anabaptist Brotherhood.
1 - Members are required to hold an individual savings account at a credible investment organization of their choice. Invested funds can be self-directed IRA funds or regular long-term savings. As an alternative to investing and saving cash, savings can be directed towards extra debt repayment for an appreciating asset such as a home or property. Anabaptist Brotherhood does not hold itself out as an investment organization.
2 - Members are required to save a minimum of 8% of their previous year’s adjusted gross income reported on tax return Form 1040.
3 - Members are required to provide an annual statement from their financial institution to verify the amount of annual savings or extra principal payments made toward an appreciating asset such as real estate.
4 - Savings cannot be withdrawn till sixty years of age, except for hardship cases.
Collective Mutual Aid Fund
Anabaptist Brotherhood manages a mutual aid fund to address the problem of individual churches being unable to financially provide for social-type hardship cases. To resolve this long-standing problem, Anabaptist Brotherhood manages this fund to assist with the following four types of social hardship:
- Widows
- Disabled
- Housing needs
- Catastrophic Healthcare
Parameters of participation:
1. While the program aims to serve social security-exempt individuals, it serves individuals regardless of social security involvement.
2. The mutual aid fund provides 100% support of the need, after Individual (1st) and Family (2nd) and Church alms (3rd) help and do their part.
3. Individuals with preexisting hardships are accepted on a case-by-case basis, but only to the degree that the mutual aid fund can support them.
4. If 80% of members within a local church participate in the program, then any individual with a preexisting hardship is accepted into the program.
5. Churches with the highest percentage of participating members are prioritized to the top of the preexisting hardships waiting list.
Annual Contribution Rate:
The annual contribution rate into the mutual aid fund is approximately 2% of annual income. (See Tier Diagram below.)
Note: Annual contribution rate is reassessed annually to determine if rate should be raised/lowered to align with level of need.
Social Security Exemption
Anabaptist Brotherhood provides information and teaching about the Social Security Exemption, IRS Form 4029. This includes the history of the Amish church’s efforts in appealing to the government and the long journey in obtaining the Social Security Exemption. It answers questions about which types of churches are eligible for exemption, and the expectations and parameters of individuals. We are committed to help churches fully understand their responsibilities and be faithful to the intentions of Social Security exemption.