Prairie Street Mennonite Church (Elkhart, Indiana, USA)
Citation: Prairie Street Mennonite Church (Elkhart, Ind.) Records, 1872-2001. III-14-002. Box 15, Folder 1.
Mennonite Church USA Archives - Goshen. Goshen, Indiana.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mennonitechurchusa-archives/16403379435/in/dateposted/.
Citation: Prairie Street Mennonite Church (Elkhart, Ind.) Records, 1872-2001.
III-14-002. Box 15, Folder 1. Mennonite Church USA Archives - Goshen. Goshen, Indiana.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mennonitechurchusa-archives/15780904314/in/dateposted/.
Citation: Prairie Street Mennonite Church (Elkhart, Ind.) Records, 1872-2001.
III-14-002. Box 15, Folder 1. Mennonite Church USA Archives - Goshen. Goshen, Indiana.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mennonitechurchusa-archives/16402458602/in/dateposted/.
Citation: Prairie Street Mennonite Church (Elkhart, Ind.) Records, 1872-2001.
III-14-002. Box 15, Folder 1. Mennonite Church USA Archives - Goshen. Goshen, Indiana.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mennonitechurchusa-archives/16377397236/in/dateposted/.
Prairie Street Mennonite Church (Mennonite Church [MC]), Elkhart, Indiana, a member of the Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference, was organized by John F. Funk, a minister who had moved into the city in 1867 and set up a publishing company there. Preaching services had been held in the city every two weeks in the homes of the members since 4 December 1870. The meetinghouse was built at the present site in 1871 and the first service held in it on 26 November 1871. (Elkhart at that time had a population of some 3,000.) The meetinghouse, a frame building, which was enlarged in 1895 and 1901, burned to the ground in 1935 and was replaced by a brick building seating 550. Its membership in 1957 was 288. Two daughter congregations have developed in Elkhart out of mission outposts: Belmont in 1929 and Roselawn in 1949, with (1957) memberships of 100 and 44 respectively, making a total membership in Elkhart of 492. The congregation was organized in 1871.
The Prairie Street congregation has been one of the most progressive and active MC congregations, partly because of the presence of the Mennonite Publishing Company and the early progressive leadership of Funk, who was also bishop of the congregation from 1891 until his removal from that office in 1900. Here the Mennonite Aid Plan was organized in 1882, the Mennonite Evangelizing Committee in 1882, which developed into the Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities, which has always had its headquarters here, and the Elkhart Institute in 1894, which developed into Goshen College in 1903. The first Young People's Meeting (MC) was started here in 1897, and the Mennonite Book and Tract Society was organized in 1894. In the Prairie Street church the first MC foreign missionaries were consecrated in 1899, namely, W. B. Page and his wife and J. A. Ressler. Prairie Street was also one of the first MC congregations to engage a seminary-trained minister and adopt the one-pastor system when it engaged J. E. Hartzler in 1910.
In 1959-60, the church added an annex with a basement and improved the sanctuary. This was an important decision since the community around the church was changing. Prairie Street members decided to stay at their location. An addition in the 1990s on the east side of the building provided offices for pastors and the administrative assistant and a covered drive-through canopy. An elevator was installed to provide access to three floor levels.
In 1969, the church made optional the former requirement that women members wear a prayer veil at church. This followed careful study within the congregation, and was approved by congregational vote.
By 2006, the community around Prairie Street Mennonite had changed considerably. The community was a third African American, a third Hispanic, and a third Caucasian. The active membership at that time remained primarily Caucasian.
Bibliography
Bender, John. "Our story." Prairie Street Mennonite Church. 28 July 2015. Web. 26 July 2024. https://www.prairiestreetmc.org/history/.
Graber, J. D. and John Bender. 100 Years: Prairie Street Mennonite Church, 1871-1941. Elkhart, IN: Prairie Street Mennonite Church, 1971. Available in full electronic text at: https://archive.org/details/100yearsprairies00grab.
Kreider, Andrew. "Prairie Street Mennonite." Gospel Evangel 87, no. 7 (November 2006): 8-9.
Mishler, Dorsa J. and Russell Krabill. The Prairie Street Mennonite Church Story: 1871-1996, edited by John Bender. Elkhart, IN: Prairie Street Mennonite Church, 1996.
Minutes of the Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference 1864-1929. Scottdale, 1929: contains a brief historical sketch of the congregation.
"Prairie Street Mennonite Church (Elkhart, Ind.) Historical Sketch." Mennonite Church USA Archives. Web. 26 October 2013. https://mla.bethelks.edu/archon/?p=creators/creator&id=288.
Archival Records
Mennonite Church USA Archives-Goshen: ID III/14-02.
Additional Information
Address: 1316 Prairie Street, Elkhart, IN 46516
Telephone: 574-293-0377
Website: https://www.prairiestreetmc.org/
Denominational Affiliations:
Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference
Prairie Street Mennonite Church Leading Ministers
| Minister | Years of Service |
|---|---|
| John F. Funk (1835-1930) | 1871-1935 |
| John S. Coffman (1848-1899) | 1879-1899 |
| Joseph S. Lehman (1847-1936) | 1892-1904 |
| G. L. Bender (1867-1921)(deacon) | 1907-1921 |
| John E. Hartzler (1879-1963) | 1910-1913 |
| William B. Weaver (1887-1963) | 1914-1920 |
| John F. Funk, Samuel Yoder, and Jacob K. Bixler (interim) | 1920-1923 |
| J. S. Hartzler (1857-1953) | 1923-1940 |
| John E. Gingrich (1900-1983) | 1940-1953 |
| Jacob B. "J. B." Shenk (1927-2016) | 1953-1957 |
| Howard J. Zehr (1916-1977) | 1958-1964 |
| Russell R. Krabill (1917-2005) | 1965-1977 |
| Philip S. Bedsworth (1950-1993) | 1978-1984 |
| Dorsa J. Mishler (1916-2005)(Assistant) (Interim) |
1979-1984 1988-1990 |
| Charles Cooper | 1985-1988 |
| Harold Yoder (Co-pastor) | 1990-1996 |
| Ruth Yoder (Co-pastor) | 1990-1995 |
| Daniel Z. Miller (Interim) | 1997-1998 |
| Andrew Kreider | 1998-2009 |
| Paula Snyder Belousek (Associate) | 2005-2008 |
| M. Frances Ringenberg (Associate) | 2010-2019 |
| J. Nelson Kraybill | 2010-2018 |
| Carolyn Hunt (Associate) | 2014-2019 |
| Steve Thomas (Transitional) | 2018-2019 |
| Quinn Brenneke (co-pastor) | 2019- |
| Cyneatha Millsaps (co-pastor) | 2020-2023 |
Prairie Street Mennonite Church Membership
| Year | Members |
|---|---|
| 1905 | 90 |
| 1915 | 210 |
| 1940 | 350 |
| 1955 | 290 |
| 1975 | 370 |
| 1995 | 230 |
| 2000 | 203 |
| 2009 | 132 |
| 2020 | 90 |
| Author(s) | Harold S. Bender |
|---|---|
| Samuel J. Steiner | |
| Date Published | July 2024 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Bender, Harold S. and Samuel J. Steiner. "Prairie Street Mennonite Church (Elkhart, Indiana, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. July 2024. Web. 24 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Prairie_Street_Mennonite_Church_(Elkhart,_Indiana,_USA)&oldid=179358.
APA style
Bender, Harold S. and Samuel J. Steiner. (July 2024). Prairie Street Mennonite Church (Elkhart, Indiana, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 24 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Prairie_Street_Mennonite_Church_(Elkhart,_Indiana,_USA)&oldid=179358.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 209. All rights reserved.
©1996-2024 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.