Yellow Creek Mennonite Church (Goshen, Indiana, USA)
Mennonites (as opposed to Amish) began to settle in Harrison Township, Elkhart County, Indiana, in about 1840. Bishop Martin Hoover's family arrived in 1845. Two ordained ministers, Jacob Christophel and Jacob Wisler, both from Mahoning County, Ohio, became part of the settlement in 1848. On 1 June 1848, they held the first worship service in a log schoolhouse and later in homes and barns.
In 1849, the group built a log meetinghouse. It expanded the building after a fire, which required extensive rebuilding. In 1861, the congregation built a new frame meetinghouse on land where the later Yellow Creek Old Order and Wisler Mennonite meetinghouse stands. As the congregation was quite dispersed, it held services on varying Sundays at multiple locations. Some of these became independent congregations in 1867, like Holdeman, Olive, Christophels, Blossers, and Salem.
Between 1866 and 1874, Yellow Creek suffered two major divisions that were also reflected in the larger North American Mennonite community. Daniel Brenneman and John F. Funk, a minister and publisher based in Elkhart, Indiana, since 1867, promoted greater use of the English language and the introduction of Sunday schools into Mennonite churches. Bishop Jacob Wisler strongly resisted these innovations and, on 6 January 1872, withdrew with about 100 members, or a fourth of the congregation, to form what became called the Wisler Mennonites, or later, Old Order Mennonites. Ministers Christian Bare and John Weaver left with Wisler.
Daniel Brenneman, however, sought even more change. He was attracted to the evangelical assurance of salvation of groups like the Evangelical Association (German Methodists), favored prayer meetings in which non-ordained people, including women, spoke. He also advocated emotional evangelistic services and innovations like four-part singing. This became too much for his fellow ministers, and Brenneman was disfellowshipped in 1874. Again, many Yellow Creek members followed Brenneman into what was initially known as the Reforming Mennonite Church (later Mennonite Brethren in Christ).
Sunday school began at Yellow Creek as early as 1869. In 1892, John S. Coffman held evangelistic meetings at the church, which resulted in 25 converts. What became Young People's Bible Meetings also began that year. Eva Wenger helped initiate a women's sewing circle in 1916. Literary societies began in 1920.
The Yellow Creek Wisler Mennonite congregation and the Yellow Creek Mennonite shared the 1861 building until the Yellow Creek Mennonites built a new brick meetinghouse in 1912. They enlarged and remodeled this building in 1948. By the late 1960s, the space was again too small. The congregation decided to preserve the existing structure for Sunday school rooms and build a new sanctuary attached to the original building. The new building was dedicated on 13 September 1970.
Yellow Creek helped create the Waterford Mennonite Church as a daughter congregation in 1959.
In 2018, Yellow Creek Mennonite Church withdrew from the Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference of Mennonite Church USA. It joined LMC: a Fellowship of Anabaptist Churches.
Bibliography
Preheim, Rich. In Pursuit of Faithfulness: Conviction, Conflict, and Compromise in Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference. Harrisonburg, Va.: Herald Press, 2016: 30-33, 104, 151, 312
Wenger, John Christian. The Mennonites in Indiana and Michigan. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1961: 60-66.
_____. The Yellow Creek Mennonites: the Original Mennonite Congregations of Western Elkhart County. Goshen, Indiana: Yellow Creek Mennonite Church, 1985.
Additional Information
Address: 64901 County Road 11, Goshen, Indiana 46526-9426
Telephone: 574-862-2595
Website: Yellow Creek Mennonite Church
Denominational Affiliations:
Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference (Until 2018)
Mennonite Church USA (Until 2018)
LMC: a Fellowship of Anabaptist Churches (2018- )
Pastoral Leaders at Yellow Creek Mennonite Church
| Name | Years of Service |
|---|---|
| Martin Hoover (c. 1760-1850)(Bishop) | 1845-1850 |
| Jacob Christophel (1782-1868) | 1848-1865 |
| Jacob Wisler (1808-1889) (Bishop) |
1848-1851 1851-1872 |
| Benjamin Hershey (1814-1888) | 1850-1860 |
| Daniel Moyer (1812-1864) | 1850?-1864 |
| John Bare (1810-1855) | 1850?-1855 |
| Joseph Rohrer (1801-1884) | 1850?-1860s? |
| John Snyder (1807-1886) | 1856-1872 |
| Christian Bare (1816-1904) | 1857-1872 |
| Daniel Brundage (1812-1895) (Bishop) |
1858-1869 1890-1895 |
| Daniel Brenneman (1834-1919) | 1864-1874 |
| John F. Funk (1835-1930) | 1867-1871 |
| John Weaver (1821-1907) | 1868-1872 |
| Noah Metzler (1854-1907) | 1885-1903 |
| Jonas Loucks (1853-1938) | 1886-1938 |
| Jacob W. Christophel (1856-1937) (Bishop) |
1893-1918 1918-1937 |
| Allen B. Christophel (1892-1932) | 1924-1932 |
| Virgil C. Weaver (1907-2002) | 1935-1942 |
| Ralph R. Smucker (1894-1975) | 1942-1947 1950-1951 |
| John H. Mosemann (1907-1989) | 1947-1950 |
| Peter B. Wiebe (Bishop) |
1951-1954 1954-1959 |
| Clayton L. Swartzentruber (1928-2010)(Assistant) | 1956-1958 |
| John D. Zehr (1922-1966) (Bishop) |
1958-1960 1960-1966 |
| Mahlon D. Miller (1931-2014) | 1966-1974 |
| Aden J. Yoder (1925-2023)(Interim) | 1974-1975 |
| J. Robert Detweiler (1929-1989) | 1975-1989 |
| Wesley J. Bontrager | 1986- |
| Clare Schumm (Associate) | 1991-1995 |
| Kent Miller (Youth) | 1996-2001 |
| Harold J. Yoder (Spiritual Nurture) | 1997-2015 |
| Katherine "Katie" Cunningham (Visitation & Seniors) | 2000-2013 |
| Ben Reinheimer (Youth) | 2001-2006 |
| Jason Mark Ramer (Youth) | 2008-2020 |
| Emily Hostetler (Worship & Community Life) | 2016-2019 |
| Doug Gerber (Associate) | 2019- |
| Kory Kern (Youth) | 2022- |
| Lorae Smith (Children) | 2023- |
Yellow Creek Mennonite Church Membership
| Year | Members |
|---|---|
| 1862 | 300-400 |
| 1896 | 129 |
| 1908 | 140 |
| 1920 | 195 |
| 1930 | 220 |
| 1940 | 254 |
| 1950 | 303 |
| 1960 | 355 |
| 1970 | 300 |
| 1980 | 425 |
| 1990 | 516 |
| 2000 | 508 |
| 2009 | 550 |
Original Mennonite Encyclopedia Article
By John C. Wenger. Copied by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, pp. 1002-1003. All rights reserved.
Yellow Creek Mennonite Church (Mennonite Church (MC)), located in Goshen, Indiana, is a member of the Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference. The first meetinghouse used by the settlers who began coming into the area in 1845, led by the aged Bishop Martin Hoover (ca 1761-1850) of Medina County, Ohio, was a log building one-half mile north of the village of South West, a short distance south of the present Yellow Creek Church of the Brethren. In 1849 the Yellow Creek Mennonites built a log meetinghouse 26 feet square on the plot where the old cemetery now is located on the east side of the road. This was later enlarged. In 1861 Andrew and Lydia Bigler sold two acres to the "Old Mennonite Church" for $200.00. This is the site of the present Wisler meetinghouse across the road from the 1849 meetinghouse. On this lot the congregation built a frame meetinghouse 40 x 60 ft.
When John F. Funk attended the annual fall conference at Yellow Creek in 1862 he estimated the Elkhart County Mennonite membership at 400-500. A visitor, Deacon Frederick A. Rodes of Virginia, estimated the capacity of the meetinghouse at 500-600, but Bishop John M. Brenneman, who served as moderator of the conference, estimated the number of the communicants at 300-400. On this occasion in 1862, 46 members were baptized. After the new meetinghouse was built in 1861 the 1849 meetinghouse was moved to the northwest corner of Section 16 of Union Township, where it came to be known as Blossers Church and served as a sort of outpost of the Yellow Creek congregation, along with Shaums (Olive), Holdeman, and Christophels. After the Wisler division (1872) the Wisler and Funk groups alternated in the use of the Yellow Creek, Blossers, and Shaums meeting houses. In 1907 the Wisler group split into two groups, which together bought the meetinghouse of the "Funk Congregation" (MC) at Yellow Creek in 1912. The Funk group then built the present brick meetinghouse a short distance to the north of the frame meetinghouse, and enlarged it in 1948.
In 1874 the Brenneman (Mennonite Brethren in Christ) schism occurred when Daniel Brenneman, a progressive younger minister, was discharged, and his wing organized the Bethel Church 1.5 miles northwest of the Yellow Creek meetinghouse. The membership of the Yellow Creek congregation (MC) was reported as only 80 in 1890 (J. F. Funk) and 129 in 1896 (Deacon Jacob G. Long). These low figures are accounted for by the schisms of Jacob Wisler and Daniel Brenneman in 1872 and 1874 as well as by the full congregational organization of what had originally been Yellow Creek outposts: Shaums (Olive), Holdeman, Salem (merger of Blossers and Christophels), and the Prairie Street Mennonite Church in Elkhart.
In 1958 the membership at Yellow Creek had grown to 326, and the bishop-pastor was Peter Wiebe. Yellow Creek is the center of the large Mennonite (as contrasted with Amish Mennonite east of Goshen) settlement west of Goshen.
| Author(s) | Samuel J Steiner |
|---|---|
| Date Published | September 2024 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Steiner, Samuel J. "Yellow Creek Mennonite Church (Goshen, Indiana, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. September 2024. Web. 6 Sep 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Yellow_Creek_Mennonite_Church_(Goshen,_Indiana,_USA)&oldid=179557.
APA style
Steiner, Samuel J. (September 2024). Yellow Creek Mennonite Church (Goshen, Indiana, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 6 September 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Yellow_Creek_Mennonite_Church_(Goshen,_Indiana,_USA)&oldid=179557.
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