Pleasantview Mennonite Church (Brethren, Michigan, USA)

Pleasantview Mennonite Church, near Breth­ren, Manistee County, Michigan, had its origin in 1903, when William Lantz, the first Mennonite to locate in the area, settled here. Other settlers followed, mostly from the Howard-Miami Amish Mennonite (now MC) congregation near Kokomo, Indiana. E. A. Mast, bishop of the Howard-Miami congregation, organized the Manistee Amish Mennonites into the Pleasantview congregation on 9 September 1904. In­cluded among the first members was Joseph S. Horner (1864-1945), a preacher. The new congre­gation in Manistee County worshiped in a log cabin until 1906, when a church building was erected in Brown Township. Four years later, in December 1910, Horner moved back to his home congrega­tion, Howard-Miami. At about that point the mem­bership was 48. But soon a decline set in as families moved away. Finally only one family remained. In 1917 the church building was sold to the Church of the Brethren, only to revert later to Mennonite ownership. Two years later, in May 1919, C. C. Culp was placed in the Pleasantview congregation by the district mission board to serve as pastor and mission worker. He served there until his death in 1953. Lester Wyse also served as a minister in the congregation for a number of years until his removal to Ohio. In 1957 the minister was Warren Shaum, with a baptized membership of 30.

The congregation declined and was under the control of the Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Mission Board for a number of years. It was last listed in the Mennonite Yearbook in 1974 with seven members.

Around 1975 minister Richard Near and his family from New Era, Michigan began attending at Pleasantview once or twice a month. In 1976 he asked Victor Miller, the bishop at the Seney Mennonite Church for assistance. In fall 1977 Victor Miller baptized two persons and served communion. They were taken in as members of the Seney congregation.

In 1984 Victor Miller and Philip Miller left the Seney congregation, then part of the Midwest Mennonite Fellowship. At that time the Pleasantview group became an independent congregation, and continued as an unaffiliated Mennonite congregation. In 2003 it became part of the Nationwide Fellowship Churches.

In 2014 the church had 41 members and was a member of the Nationwide Fellowship Churches. The ministerial team included Bishop David A. Miller and Minister Gene D. Stutzman.

Bibliography

Directory of the Northeast Fellowship. Aylmer, Ont.: On Eagles' Wings Publishers, 2017: 149.

Mennonite Church Directory (2014): 109; (2018): 117.

Additional Information

Address: 11025 Kerry Road, Brethren, MI

Phone:

Denominational Affiliation:

Nationwide Fellowship Churches

Ordained Pastors at Pleasantview Mennonite Church

Name	Years of Service
Victor V. Miller (Bishop)	1984-1997
David A. Miller (Bishop)	1990-2009 2009-present
Gene D. Stutzman	2006-present

Author(s)	John C. Wenger
	Sam Steiner
Date Published	November 2018

Cite This Article

MLA style

Wenger, John C. and Sam Steiner. "Pleasantview Mennonite Church (Brethren, Michigan, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. November 2018. Web. 24 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Pleasantview_Mennonite_Church_(Brethren,_Michigan,_USA)&oldid=162464.

APA style

Wenger, John C. and Sam Steiner. (November 2018). Pleasantview Mennonite Church (Brethren, Michigan, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 24 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Pleasantview_Mennonite_Church_(Brethren,_Michigan,_USA)&oldid=162464.

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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 192. All rights reserved.

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