Central District Conference (Mennonite Church USA)

The Central District Conference was the second largest district of the General Conference Mennonite Church in the United States It was created by a merger of the Central Conference Mennonite Church and the Middle District (GCM) at a joint session in Normal, IL, 27 April 1957. It had 41 congregations from Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri, and a membership of 8,361. Its original purpose, to promote unity, offer guidance, and provide a channel for the united mission efforts among its constituent churches, continued to be a focus of the conference in the late 1980s.

Each member congregation had one delegate vote for every 30 members. Delegates met yearly for a three-day session of business, worship, seminars, and fellowship at various locations around the district. An elected president, president-elect, treasurer, secretary, and two members-at-large made up the board of directors. Forty other elected people made up the standing committees: Ministerial; Program; Historical; Missions; Education and Publication; Camp Friedenswald ; and Peace, Service, and Justice. A nominating committee was appointed. The district also elected six Bluffton College board members, three General Conference commission members, and five board members of the Chicago Mennonite Learning Center. The district board and committees guided ministries in church planting and evangelism, prison and law offenders, youth, Christian camping, teacher training, marriage and family, leadership development, worship and music, and peace education. The budget for 1987 was $242,000. The Reporter, the monthly conference paper, was published 11 times each year.

The following have served as conference ministers: Raymond L. Hartzler, 1957-64; Gordon Dyck, 1964-69; Jacob T. Friesen, 1970-75; Stanley Bohn, 1975-79; and Mark Weidner, 1980-. Membership in 1987 was 62 congregations with 8,247 members. Twenty-six of the congregations were also affiliated with other conferences, primarily those of the Mennonite Church (MC).

In 2002 the Central District became part of Mennonite Church USA as a result of the merger of the Mennonite Church and the General Conference Mennonite Church.

In 2016 the following congregations were members of the Central District Conference:

Congregation	City	State
Agora Ministries	Columbus	Ohio
Ames Mennonite Church	Ames	Iowa
Ann Arbor Mennonite Church	Ann Arbor	Michigan
Asian Mennonite Community Church	Lombard	Illinois
Assembly Mennonite Church	Goshen	Indiana
Atlanta Mennonite Fellowship	Atlanta	Georgia
Chicago Community Mennonite Church	Chicago	Illinois
Cincinnati Mennonite Fellowship	Cincinnati	Ohio
Columbus Mennonite Church	Columbus	Ohio
Community Mennonite Church	Markham	Illinois
Covenant Mennonite Fellowship	Sarasota	Florida
Eighth Street Mennonite Church	Goshen	Indiana
Emmaus Road Mennonite Fellowship	Berne	Indiana
Evanston Mennonite Church	Evanston	Illinois
Faith Mennonite Church	Goshen	Indiana
First Mennonite Church	Sugarcreek	Ohio
First Mennonite Church	Wadsworth	Ohio
First Mennonite Church	Bluffton	Ohio
First Mennonite Church	Chicago	Illinois
First Mennonite Church of Champaign-Urbana	Urbana	Illinois
Florence Church of the Brethren-Mennonite	Constantine	Michigan
Grace Mennonite Church	Pandora	Ohio
Hively Avenue Mennonite Church	Elkhart	Indiana
Joy Fellowship Mennonite Church	Peoria	Illinois
Lima Mennonite Church	Lima	Ohio
Madison Mennonite Church	Madison	Wisconsin
Maplewood Mennonite Church	Fort Wayne	Indiana
Mennonite Church of Normal	Normal	Illinois
Milwaukee Mennonite Church	Greenfield	Wisconsin
Morning Star Church	Muncie	Indiana
MSU Mennonite Fellowship	East Lansing	Michigan
North Danvers Mennonite Church	Danvers	Illinois
Oak Grove Mennonite Church	Smithville	Ohio
Open Table Mennonite Fellowship	Goshen	Indiana
Paoli Mennonite Fellowship	Paoli	Indiana
Shalom Community Church	Ann Arbor	Michigan
Shalom Mennonite Congregation	Harrisonburg	Virginia
Silverwood Mennonite Church	Goshen	Indiana
Southside Fellowship	Elkhart	Indiana
St. Paul Mennonite Fellowship	St. Paul	Minnesota
Trenton Mennonite Church	Trenton	Ohio

Bibliography

Central District Yearbook, annual reports, conference minutes, directory, and statistics.

Handbook of Information, General Conference Mennonite Church (1988): 111-12, 139-40.

Pannabecker, Samuel F. Faith and Ferment: The History of the Central District Conference. Newton, KS, 1968.

=== Archival Records === Minutes, correspondence, records, etc., are retained in the Bluffton College Archives, Bluffton, Ohio.

Author(s)	Mark Weidner
Date Published	July 2010

Cite This Article

MLA style

Weidner, Mark. "Central District Conference (Mennonite Church USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. July 2010. Web. 18 Dec 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Central_District_Conference_(Mennonite_Church_USA)&oldid=136751.

APA style

Weidner, Mark. (July 2010). Central District Conference (Mennonite Church USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 18 December 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Central_District_Conference_(Mennonite_Church_USA)&oldid=136751.

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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 5, pp. 130-131. All rights reserved.

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