Blainsport Mennonite Church (Reinholds, Pennsylvania, USA)
Blainsport Mennonite Church, Reinholds, Pennsylvania (before 1947 known as the Cocalico Mennonite Mission) was a mission station of the Lancaster Mennonite Conference in northeastern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in the small stone Swamp Union Meetinghouse built in 1865. The Indiantown-Bowmansville ministers held meetings in the vicinity in the 19th century, but not in this building. The Ephrata congregation reopened this house as a mission station in 1926, with Christian H. Mosemann and Daniel Stauffer as superintendents, holding services on Sunday afternoons. Services changed to Sunday morning in 1946.
The congregation built its own brick meetinghouse in 1947 and dedicated it on 8 February 1948. Since the new meetinghouse was close to Blainsport, the congregation began using the name Blainsport Mennonite Church.
Bibliography
Kautz, Bernard B. "Observations." Gospel Herald 30, no. 16 (15 July 1937): 346.
Weaver, Martin G. Mennonites of Lancaster Conference: containing biographical sketches of Mennonite leaders, histories of congregations, missions, and Sunday schools, record of ordinations, and other interesting historical data. Scottdale, PA: Mennonite Publishing House, 1931. Reprinted Ephrata, PA: Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church Publication Board, 1982: 289. Available in full electronic text at https://archive.org/details/mennonitesoflanc00weav_0/page/n3/mode/2up.
Additional Information
Address: 85 South Blainsport Road, Reinholds, Pennsylvania 17569
Telephone: 717-336-3424
Website: https://www.blainsport.org/
Denominational Affiliations:
LMC: a Fellowship of Anabaptist Churches
Mennonite Church USA (Until 2017)
Pastoral Leaders at Blainsport Mennonite Church
| Name | Years of Service |
|---|---|
| Visiting Ministers | 1926-1938 |
| Wilmer M. Eby (1916-2002) | 1938-1984 |
| John W. Eby | 1959-1969 |
| Harold "H. Raymond" Charles (1918-1988)(Bishop) | 1969-1971 |
| Lewis E. Weber (1930-1994) | 1970-1994 |
| Lester "L. Keith" Weaver (Bishop) |
1979-1988 1988-1990? |
| James R. Fahnestock(Lead/Associate) | 1991?-2010s? |
| Kevin S. Smoker (1961-2014)(Associate) | 1995-2003? |
| Eric P. Marshall (Youth/Lead) | 1995- |
| Darren Martin (Associate) | 2010s-2016 |
| David Wise (Associate) | 2010s-2016 |
| Bruce O'Neill (Youth) | 2017-? |
Blainsport Mennonite Church Membership
| Year | Members |
|---|---|
| 1940 | 9 |
| 1950 | 31 |
| 1960 | 112 |
| 1970 | 97 |
| 1980 | 124 |
| 1990 | 125 |
| 2000 | 137 |
| 2009 | 166 |
Original Mennonite Encyclopedia Article
By Ira D. Landis. Copied by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 351. All rights reserved.
Blainsport Mennonite Church (Mennonite Church USA), Reinholds, Pennsylvania (before 1947 known as Cocalico) was a mission station of the Lancaster Mennonite Conference in northeastern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in the old Swamp Union Meetinghouse built in 1865. The Indiantown-Bowmansville ministers held meetings in the vicinity in the 19th century, but not in this building. The Ephrata congregation reopened this house as a mission station in 1926 with Christian Mosemann and Daniel Stauffer as superintendents. The field workers of the Lancaster Mennonite Mission Board and the ministers of the Ephrata-Indiantown congregation preached here until Wilmer M. Eby was ordained for the work in 1938. Levi G. High in 1946 was ordained as deacon. In 1947 a brick church was built near Blainsport, two miles east of the Union House. In 1953 the membership was 63, with a Sunday-school enrollment of 136 and a summer Bible school with an average attendance of 155.
| Author(s) | Ira D. Landis |
|---|---|
| Samuel J. Steiner | |
| Date Published | October 2024 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Landis, Ira D. and Samuel J. Steiner. "Blainsport Mennonite Church (Reinholds, Pennsylvania, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. October 2024. Web. 26 Dec 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Blainsport_Mennonite_Church_(Reinholds,_Pennsylvania,_USA)&oldid=179886.
APA style
Landis, Ira D. and Samuel J. Steiner. (October 2024). Blainsport Mennonite Church (Reinholds, Pennsylvania, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 26 December 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Blainsport_Mennonite_Church_(Reinholds,_Pennsylvania,_USA)&oldid=179886.
©1996-2024 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.