Men's Fellowship (Fellowship of Evangelical Churches)
The Men's Fellowship (Evangelical Mennonite Church; later Fellowship of Evangelical Churches) founded simultaneously in 1950 in several congregations, by 1953 was organized on the conference level. The original intent was fellowship, mutual encouragement, personal evangelism, and service involvement. The first major joint service project was a plan to provide housing for missionaries on furlough. In 1959 an "Adventurer" program was organized, the purpose of which was to underwrite financially the Evangelical Mennonite Church church extension program. The Christian Service Foundation, a subsidiary corporation of the denomination, sold $42,000 in debentures, designating the proceeds for church extension projects. The men's "Adventurer" program paid the interest and retired the debentures over a ten-year period. New churches that benefited, upon becoming financially capable, paid back the principal amount of the benefit to the Christian Service Foundation which converted the money into a revolving fund, interest-free, to other newly founded churches. Charitable estate money was added to the interest-free money, which thus became a permanent resource fund for beginning churches.
Additional projects of Men's Fellowship included sending short-term work teams to the mission fields of the Dominican Republic and Burkina Faso. There was an annual retreat during the winter months for reporting, seminars, and specialized learning. Other special projects included purchasing pews for extension churches, work days at Miracle Camp, Lawton, MI, and responding to specific requests for involvement on the conference level.
Bibliography
Regular reports in Annual Report and Directory of the Evangelical Mennonite Church (Fort Wayne, IN: Evangelical Mennonite Church).
| Author(s) | Reuben Short |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1987 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Short, Reuben. "Men's Fellowship (Fellowship of Evangelical Churches)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1987. Web. 19 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Men%27s_Fellowship_(Fellowship_of_Evangelical_Churches)&oldid=58533.
APA style
Short, Reuben. (1987). Men's Fellowship (Fellowship of Evangelical Churches). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 19 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Men%27s_Fellowship_(Fellowship_of_Evangelical_Churches)&oldid=58533.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 5, p. 553. All rights reserved.
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