Living Water Fellowship (Greeley, Colorado, USA)
The Mennonite Church of Greeley (Colorado) held its first official meeting on Sunday morning, 12 July 1964, in the home of Howard and Marge Yost. An organizational meeting was held that afternoon at the Greeley Community Building with nine charter members. The congregation’s purpose was to provide for fellowship and witness outreach in the north-central Colorado city – an agricultural center, seat of Weld County, and the home of the University of Northern Colorado. Glenn B. Martin, a chaplain of Colorado General Hospital in Denver, served as pastor of the new congregation for one year. On 20 June 1965, the first resident pastor, Wesley Jantz, was installed and served in that capacity until 1973. The congregation began meeting in a Seventh Day Adventist Church, but in 1968 the Rocky Mountain Mennonite Conference provided the church with funds to purchase four building lots in the city’s Highland Hills section. In 1971 the congregation bought a former Evangelical United Brethren church building and parsonage at 12th Avenue and 12th Street and thereafter disposed of the previously purchased lots.
Shortly after his arrival to serve as pastor of the Mennonite Church of Greeley in October 1979, John T. Kreider was approached by Gerald Mininger, pastor of the Majestic View Mennonite Church, about the prospects of an eventual merger. Majestic View, a former Church of God in Christ Mennonite (Holdeman) congregation which had been established in Greeley in 1968, was received into the Rocky Mountain Mennonite Conference as an associate member in 1978 and as a full member in 1981. This congregation and the Mennonite Church of Greeley conducted a joint Bible School in 1982 and began holding joint worship services in February 1983. The two congregations, each having approximately 45 members, merged in June 1983 to establish the Greeley Mennonite Church. On 5 June Kreider was installed as pastor of the new congregation, and on 30 June "Articles of Consolidation" were signed to complete the organizational merger. The merged congregation began using and continued to use the former Majestic View facility at 4th Avenue and 11th Street. That congregation had purchased the building from a Lutheran church in 1969; the Mennonite Church of Greeley's former building was subsequently sold. During 2006 the Greeley Mennonite Church purchased a property in west Greeley.
Under the pastoral leadership of Curt Kuhns, who became pastor on 15 March 2010, the congregation, which then had 57 covenanted members, worked at determining its mission in Greeley. A Spanish language congregation used the church facility three nights per week.
In 2015 the Greeley congregation withdrew from the Mountain States Conference. This move was part of a larger realignment of Mennonite congregations in the 2010s that were formerly part of Mennonite Church USA. These congregations were unhappy with Mennonite Church USA's failure to take stronger disciplinary actions against area conferences and congregations who expressed openness to the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons.
In 2017 the congregation joined the Fellowship of Evangelical Churches and took the name Living Water Fellowship.
Bibliography
"FEC welcomes Living Water Fellowship." Fellowship of Evangelical Churches. 14 September 2017. Web. 14 December 2020. https://fecministries.org/fec-welcomes-living-water-fellowship/.
Unrau, Harlan. D. In Pursuit of Land, Health and Mission: A History of Mennonites in the Mountain States Region. Printed in Canada by Blitzprint Inc. 2007.
Zook, Darrell. comp. A 30 Year Story: Mennonite Church of Greeley, 1964 -1983/Majestic View Mennonite, 1968-1983, Greeley Mennonite Church, Est. 1983. Greeley, Colorado: 1994.
Additional Information
Address: 402 11th Street, Greeley, Colorado 80631
Telephone: 970-353-7224
Website: http://livingwatergreeley.org/
Denominational Affiliations:
Fellowship of Evangelical Churches
'Greeley Mennonite Church/Living Water Fellowship Pastors
| Name | Years |
|---|---|
| John T. Kreider | 5 June 1983-February 1986 |
| Paul Holdeman (Interim) | 1 July 1986-30 June 1987 |
| Art Zward (Interim) | Fall 1987-Spring 1988 |
| Darrel Zook | 19 June 1988-26 May 1996 |
| Roger Hochstetler (Interim) | 4 August 1996-1 June 1997 |
| Ron & Char Roth | 29 June 1997-31 July 2005 |
| Will Schertzer (Interim) | February 2006-Spring 2007 |
| Ron Blough | March 2007-22 August 2008 (death) |
| Orlan Koehn (Interim) | 1 September 2008-1 March 2010<be />2015-present |
| Curt Kuhns | 15 March 2010-August 2015 |
| Mike Hodgin | 2019-present |
Maps
Map:Greeley Mennonite Church (Greeley, Colorado)
| Author(s) | Harlan Unrau |
|---|---|
| Samuel J. Steiner | |
| Date Published | December 2020 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Unrau, Harlan and Samuel J. Steiner. "Living Water Fellowship (Greeley, Colorado, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. December 2020. Web. 30 Oct 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Living_Water_Fellowship_(Greeley,_Colorado,_USA)&oldid=169583.
APA style
Unrau, Harlan and Samuel J. Steiner. (December 2020). Living Water Fellowship (Greeley, Colorado, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 30 October 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Living_Water_Fellowship_(Greeley,_Colorado,_USA)&oldid=169583.
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