Olive Mennonite Church (Elkhart, Indiana, USA)

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The Shaum Mennonite Church, located in Olive Township, Elkhart County, Indiana, five miles (eight km) north of Wakarusa, one mile (1.5 km) south of Jamestown, and eight (13 km) miles southwest of Elkhart, was an outpost of the Yellow Creek Mennonite Church. Before 1862, the Mennonites in this area worshipped in a log building almost a mile north of the later meetinghouses, and Yellow Creek ministers served this community.

In 1861 or 1862, the local Mennonites constructed a meetinghouse on the farm of Jacob and Mary Shaum, thus giving the church its name. The Shaums did not deed the one-and-a-half acres of land to the church until 1872, at the cost of $1.00.

In 1867, the congregation established a Sunday school under the encouragement of John F. Funk. The first local preacher was Daniel Moyer, who died in a train wreck in Michigan in 1864. The second local was Daniel Brenneman, who became a prominent evangelist in the Mennonite Church and later in the Mennonite Brethren in Christ after his excommunication in 1874.

The congregation built a new brick meetinghouse in 1888 that it dedicated on Christmas Day. An addition at the west end of the building took place in 1920. The meetinghouse was extensively rebuilt and enlarged in 1949.

After the building of the brick meetinghouse in 1888, the Herald of Truth began to refer to the congregation as "Olive" after the name of the township in which it was located.

The Olive congregation experienced a crisis in the late 1940s when its authoritarian bishop, D. A. Yoder, came into conflict with the deacons and minister Clarence Shank. Ultimately, the Indiana-Michigan Conference intervened at the congregation's request and relieved both Yoder and Shank of their positions at Olive, though they were not silenced from all service. Paul Mininger served short-term as the bishop, and J. C. Wenger provided some pastoral leadership.

In 2019, Olive Mennonite Church withdrew from the Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference of Mennonite Church USA and joined the Evana Network.

Bibliography

Preheim, Rich. In Pursuit of Faithfulness: Conviction, Conflict, and Compromise in Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference. Harrisonburg, Va.: Herald Press, 2016: 30, 212-214, 311.

Wenger, John Christian. The Mennonites in Indiana and Michigan. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1961: 74-78.

Additional Information

Address: 61081 County Road 3, Elkhart, Indiana 46517

Telephone: 574-293-2320

Website: https://www.olivemc.org/

Denominational Affiliations:

Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference (Until 2019)

Mennonite Church USA (Until 2019)

Evana Network (2019- )

Pastoral Leaders at Olive Mennonite Church

Name Years
of Service
Daniel Moyer (1812-1864) 1848-1864
Daniel Brenneman (1834-1919) 1864-1874
Henry Shaum (1826-1892)
(Bishop)
1871-1886
1886-1892
Noah Metzler (1854-1907) 1880-1885
Jacob Shank (1856-1905 1896-1905
William H. Hartman (1875-1939) 1906
David A. "D. A." Yoder (1883-1980) 1908-1910
1910-1949
Clarence A. Shank (1885-1963) 1917-1949
Elno W. Steiner (1924-2009) 1951-1966
John C. Wenger (1910-1995)
(Bishop)
1950
1951-1960
David Brunner (Assistant) 1962
Ivan K. Weaver (1915-2004)(Bishop) 1964-1975
Richard Hostetler 1966-1973
Jason S. Martin (1927-2007) 1973-1982
Stanley C. Shenk (1919-2010)(Interim) 1983
Philip N. Helmuth 1984-1986
Dale Shenk 1986-1993
Peter Buller 1993-1994
William D. Hooley (1928-2019) 1995-2002?
Sampson Woelk (Associate) 1999-2003
Daniel Z. Miller (Interim) 2002?-2003
Robert Martz 2004-2006
Todd Gusler (Associate) 2005-2010
Theodore M. Eash (Interim) 2006-2007
Kevin Yoder (Co-pastor) 2007-2019
Sharon Yoder (Co-pastor) 2007-2019
Veva Mumaw (Children, Youth, Young Adults) 2011?-2016
Philip Leichty (Interim) 2019-2020
Jason Ramer 2020-

Olive Mennonite Church Membership

Year Members
1880 50
1905 51
1915 110
1920 143
1930 195
1940 250
1950 261
1960 253
1970 255
1980 171
1990 167
2000 133
2009 141

Original Mennonite Encyclopedia Article

By John C. Wenger. Copied by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 55. All rights reserved.

Olive Mennonite Church (Mennonite Church), formerly called the Shaum congregation, a member of the Indiana-Michigan Conference, is located in Olive Township, Elkhart County, Indiana, 5 miles (8 km) north of Wakarusa, 1 mile (1.5 km) south of Jamestown, and 8 (13 km) miles southwest of Elkhart. Before 1861-1862, the date of the erection of their first Mennonite meetinghouse in this area, the congregation worshiped in a log building along Baugo Creek about one-half mile north of the present meetinghouse. The first preachers were in the Elkhart County Circuit, the center of which was Yellow Creek. Daniel Moyer (1812-1864), originally of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, moved from Ashland County, Ohio, to a farm west of Jamestown in 1848. He was killed in a train wreck near Hillsdale, Michigan on a preaching trip to Canada on 21 December 1864. Daniel Brenneman served in the Yellow Creek Circuit for ten years, until his expulsion in 1874. In 1871 Henry Shaum (1826-1892) was ordained preacher at Olive, and Henry Christophel deacon. In 1888 a new brick meetinghouse was built, which was rebuilt in 1948. In 1896 Jacob Shank (d. 1905), a son of Michael Shank, a preacher living at Lakeville, St. Joseph County, Indiana and the father of Clarence Shank (ord. 1917), a retired preacher of the congregation, was ordained preacher at Olive. In 1908 the congregation imported D. A. Yoder, a young preacher, from the nearby Holdeman congregation to serve as pastor. In 1910 he was ordained bishop. In 1951 J. C. Wenger, in the North Goshen congregation, was called as pastor and ordained bishop here in place of D. A. Yoder, who was retired at that point, and Elno Steiner, the pastor in 1957, was ordained to the ministry. The membership in 1957 was 260. In 1933 the Olive Mennonite Church established a mission outpost at Crumstown, which later became independent, and in 1950 at Hudson Lake near New Carlisle, Indiana. The deed for the land on which the church stands was granted by Jacob and Mary Shaum to "The Old Menonite Church" in 1872, ten or more years after the erection of the meeting house. Olive is said to have had the first Mennonite Sunday school in Indiana, the organizer being John F. Funk.


Author(s) Samuel J Steiner
Date Published July 2024

Cite This Article

MLA style

Steiner, Samuel J. "Olive Mennonite Church (Elkhart, Indiana, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. July 2024. Web. 15 Oct 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Olive_Mennonite_Church_(Elkhart,_Indiana,_USA)&oldid=179554.

APA style

Steiner, Samuel J. (July 2024). Olive Mennonite Church (Elkhart, Indiana, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 15 October 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Olive_Mennonite_Church_(Elkhart,_Indiana,_USA)&oldid=179554.




©1996-2024 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.