The Drama of a Rural Community’s Life Cycle

“With pastoral learnings and prophetic vision, Kaufman crafts an excellent case for restoration in rural communities. Through careful examination of a place he knows well, he unveils intertwining insights from land history, Indigenous people, immigrant/settler challenges, agricultural systems, cultural dynamics, ecological issues, theological underpinnings, and concepts of renewal. Kaufman’s approach, analysis, and hope-filled vision create an integrative model that will benefit people who take seriously the regeneration of communities in many settings.”


—Luke Gascho, Executive Director Emeritus of Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College





“Roy Kaufman’s vision for the renewal of agrarian communities is grounded in a close study of his Anabaptist ancestors on the American Great Plains. Rejecting populist nostalgia, Kaufman calls for a reckoning with the imperial dynamics that have both enabled and degraded rural Anabaptist life. This insightful work of contextual theology raises issues for congregational mission that should be given serious attention by church leaders and theologians.”


—Jamie Pitts, Associate Professor of Anabaptist Studies, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, and Director of Institute of Mennonite Studies





“Pastor Kaufman maps his place and people compassionately and critically, exploring what in our work we call ‘landlines, bloodlines, and songlines.’ Kaufman’s fulsome portrait of a particular historic legacy of ‘Anabaptist agrarianism’ offers lessons for contemporary resistance to ‘imperial monoculture.’”


—Elaine Enns and Ched Myers, authors of Healing Haunted Histories: A Settler Discipleship of Decolonization