Arthur Mennonite Church (Arthur, Illinois, USA)
The East Bend Mennonite Church first explored the possibility of a Mennonite Church (MC) congregation 50 miles away in the Arthur, Illinois, area in 1926. At that time, the Arthur community included a large Old Order Amish settlement. Bishop Joseph A. Heiser again explored the idea in 1929. Finally, in 1936, the Obie Bontrager family moved to Arthur from Nappanee, Indiana. They opened their home for Sunday afternoon services for the eight local members of the East Bend congregation in October 1936.
In Spring 1938, the small group began using the former Union Prairie Church southwest of Arthur. In October of that year, Henry J. and Ann King moved to Arthur from Harper, Kansas. H. J., an ordained minister, served as pastor of the Arthur group, which had grown to 38 members. The congregation began to draw many of its members from the local Old Order Amish, causing conflict with the Amish leadership and caused them to shun the Arthur Mennonite Church, though this only increased defections. This continued until the Conservative Mennonite Conference established the Arthur Conservative Amish Mennonite congregation in 1945, providing a less dramatic cultural shift to families leaving the Old Order. Arthur Mennonite Church formally organized as a separate congregation in 1940.
The congregation grew rapidly. In October 1939, it purchased and soon expanded a former Pentecostal church in Arthur, with further expansion in 1946. Already by 1943, the congregation purchased a plot of land for a new church building it dedicated on 1 May 1949. In 1956, internal dissension led to the withdrawal of 35-40 members over issues of nonconformity. Some began the Quinn Chapel Conservative Church, and others joined the Arthur Conservative Amish Mennonite Church.
In November 2014, the congregation opened an MCC thrift shop in Arthur.
In May 2019, the congregation voted by 88% to withdraw from the Illinois Mennonite Conference and Mennonite Church USA, and join LMC: a Fellowship of Anabaptist Churches and the Evana Network.
Bibliography
"Congregational vote results." Arthur Mennonite Church. 2019. Web. 7 March 2024. https://www.arthurmennonite.org/congregational-vote-results/.
History of the Arthur Mennonite Church, Arthur, Illinois. Arthur, Ill.: The Church, 1958.
Smith, Willard H. Mennonites in Illinois. Studies in Anabaptist and Mennonite History, 24. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1983: 141-142, 164-165, 212-213, 542.
Additional Information
Address: 710 East Park, Arthur, Illinois 61911
Phone: 217-543-2781
Website: https://www.arthurmennonite.org/
Denominational Affiliations: LMC: A Fellowship of Anabaptist Churches
Evana Network
Pastoral Leaders at Arthur Mennonite Church
| Name | Years of Service |
|---|---|
| East Bend ministers | 1936-1938 |
| Henry J. "H. J." King (1891-1981) (Bishop) |
1938-1949 1949-1958 |
| Richard Yordy (1922-1995) (Bishop) |
1948-1950 1960-1965 |
| Theodore Wentland (1917-2003) | 1954-1959 |
| Paul C. Sieber (1921-2019) | 1965-1977 |
| Glenn A. Richard (1916-2011)(Interim) | 1978-1979 |
| Wayne Hochstetler | 1979-1983 |
| Willard D. Conrad | 1984-1988 |
| Wayne D. King (1931-2021) | 1989-1995? |
| Phil Schrock | 1996-2001? |
| Gary E. Martin | 2001?-2006? |
| Glen Rhodes | 2002- |
| Tony Chmeil | 2004?-2006? |
| Clara King | 2004?-2006? |
| Lamar Miller | 2006?-2014 |
| Jeff Marner | 2006?-2022? |
| Lynn Marner | 2006?-2011 |
| Matt Lane | 2012-2014 |
| Ashley Litwiller | 2015-2020 |
| Nancy Kuhns | 2022?- |
| Emily Kauffman | 2022?- |
Arthur Mennonite Church Membership
| Year | Members |
|---|---|
| 1936 | 8 |
| 1940 | 57 |
| 1950 | 211 |
| 1960 | 207 |
| 1970 | 233 |
| 1980 | 234 |
| 1990 | 155 |
| 2000 | 229 |
| 2009 | 241 |
Original Mennonite Encyclopedia Article
By Henry J. King. Copied by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 172. All rights reserved.
The Arthur Mennonite Church had its beginning in October 1936 when a group of workers from the East Bend congregation near Fisher, Illinois, began services in the Obie Bontrager home in Arthur. The first series of meetings was also held there in December of the same year by J. A. Heiser. In the fall of 1938 H. J. King and family moved to Arthur from Harper, Kansas, and took charge of the work. In the spring of 1948 Richard Yordy and wife came to assist in the work. The group was organized into a congregation in the Illinois Conference of the Mennonite Church on 15 September 1940, by Bishops C. A. Hartzler and J. A. Heiser, with a charter membership of fifty-six. The 1953 membership was 241. A new church was dedicated in May 1949. The group at that time was almost entirely of Old Order Amish background and drawn from the neighboring Amish community.
| Author(s) | Samuel J Steiner |
|---|---|
| Date Published | March 2024 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Steiner, Samuel J. "Arthur Mennonite Church (Arthur, Illinois, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. March 2024. Web. 30 Oct 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Arthur_Mennonite_Church_(Arthur,_Illinois,_USA)&oldid=179675.
APA style
Steiner, Samuel J. (March 2024). Arthur Mennonite Church (Arthur, Illinois, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 30 October 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Arthur_Mennonite_Church_(Arthur,_Illinois,_USA)&oldid=179675.
©1996-2024 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.