Community Bible Church (Glendive, Montana, USA)
First Mennonite Church in Glendive, Montana, USA, began after a number of Mennonite families moved to the area by the late 1940s.
On 30 September 1947, the Evangelization Committee of the Northern District of the General Conference Mennonite Church approved launching Bible study and prayer meetings led by George Dick, pastor at the Bethlehem Mennonite Church. Leonard W. Harder, in June 1948, began to give leadership to the group that began to worship on Sunday mornings that month in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Hall in Glendive.
By early December 1948, the basement for a new church building was completed with the assistance of the Bethlehem Mennonite Church. The first service in the new sanctuary took place on 18 December 1949. A new church was built on the corner of Taylor Avenue and Clement Street in 1963, and the congregation built a parsonage in 1966.
The group organized as a congregation on 2 April 1950 with 36 charter members.
The church withdrew from the Northern District and the General Conference Mennonite Church in 1978. This led to a split in the congregation on 4 March 1979. After the division, the name of First Mennonite Church changed to Community Bible Church, and the congregation became a nondenominational community church.
The members who left became part of the White Chapel Mennonite Church of Glendive.
Bibliography
Mennonite Yearbook and Almanac. General Conference Publication Board, Berne, Indiana, 1951.
Schmidt, Diena, ed. The Northern District Conference of the General Conference Mennonite Church 1891-1991. Freeman, S.D.: The Conference, 1991:
Additional Information
Address: 605 East Clement Street, Glendive, Montana 59330
Phone: 406-365-2635
Website: https://www.cbcglendive.org/
Denominational Affiliations: Northern District Conference (until 1978)
General Conference Mennonite Church (until 1978)
Pastoral Leaders at Community Bible Church Church
| Name | Years of Service |
|---|---|
| Leonard W. Harder (1913-1990) | 1948-1955 |
| Eddie Woldt (Interim) | 1955-1956 |
| Randall A. "R. A." Heinrichs (1918-1990) | 1956-1958 |
| Bruno A. Penner (1928-2020) | 1958-1965 |
| Abraham C. Siebert (1905-1991) | 1966-1972 |
| Frank Funk | 1972-1974 |
| Edmund Neubauer (1924-1993) | 1974-? |
Community Bible Church Membership
| Year | Members |
|---|---|
| 1950 | 36 |
| 1960 | 55 |
| 1970 | 57 |
| 1978 | 65 |
Original Mennonite Encyclopedia Article
By Melvin Gingerich. Copied by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 1087. All rights reserved.
First Mennonite Church in Glendive, Montana (General Conference Mennonite Church) had 52 members in 1957, with Randall Heinrichs as pastor. First listed as an organized congregation in the 1952 Handbook, its first Sunday morning worship was held on June 13, 1948. Its church was built in 1948-49.
| Author(s) | Samuel J Steiner |
|---|---|
| Date Published | September 2023 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Steiner, Samuel J. "Community Bible Church (Glendive, Montana, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. September 2023. Web. 26 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Community_Bible_Church_(Glendive,_Montana,_USA)&oldid=177456.
APA style
Steiner, Samuel J. (September 2023). Community Bible Church (Glendive, Montana, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 26 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Community_Bible_Church_(Glendive,_Montana,_USA)&oldid=177456.
©1996-2024 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.