Shady Pine Church (Willow Hill, Pennsylvania, USA)
The Shady Pine Mennonite Mission began as an outreach of the Pleasant View Mennonite Church in Mountain Green, an area west of Willow Hill, Pennsylvania. Walter H. Lehman and five others led the first open-air meeting on 17 July 1948 in front of Simon Neil's store. In October, they began to use the store building, which had closed. They held the first Summer Bible School in 1949, in a tent next to the store/mission. In October 1949, the Washington County (Maryland) and Franklin County (Pennsylvania) Mennonite Conference took over leadership of the mission.
The workers soon enlarged the mission building and dedicated it on 29 May 1950. This, too, proved inadequate, and a new concrete-block meetinghouse was dedicated on 12 June 1955.
In 2017, when the Franklin Mennonite Conference voted to become a bishop district of the Lancaster Mennonite Conference, Shady Pine Mennonite became part of that conference.
By the late 2010s, the congregation frequently identified itself as Shady Pine Church or Shady Pine Community Church.
Bibliography
Burdge Jr., Edsel and Samuel Horst. Building on the Gospel Foundation: The Mennonites of Franklin County, Pennsylvania and Washington County, Maryland, 1730-1970. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 2004: 567-572.
Oswald, Laurie L. "Mountain boy becomes Mennonite minister." TheMennonite" 7, no. 12 (15 June 2004): 21.
Additional Information
Address: 14620 Shady Pine Road, Willow Hill, Pennsylvania 17271
Telephone: 717-349-7672
Website: https://www.facebook.com/groups/206947892717156/
Denominational Affiliations:
LMC: a Fellowship of Anabaptist Churches
Mennonite Church USA (Until 2017)
Pastoral Leaders at Shady Pine Mennonite Church
| Name | Years of Service |
|---|---|
| Walter H. Lehman (1901-1980) | 1948-1952 |
| Howard F. Lehman (1902-1997) | 1952-1971 |
| Samuel B. Sollenberger | 1971-1996? |
| Marlin A. "Butch" Neil | 1992-2020 |
| Glenn Joseph "Joe" Martin | 2020s?- |
| Dennis Stutzman | 2020-2025 |
| Nick Robinson | 2025- |
Shady Pine Mennonite Church Membership
| Year | Members |
|---|---|
| 1950 | 1 |
| 1960 | 21 |
| 1970 | 36 |
| 1980 | 79 |
| 1990 | 71 |
| 2000 | 80 |
| 2009 | 100 |
Original Mennonite Encyclopedia Article
By Melvin Gingerich. Copied by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 509. All rights reserved.
Shady Pine Mennonite Church located at Willow Hill, Pennsylvania, member of the Washington-Franklin Mennonite Conference, is a mission congregation under the district mission board. It was established in 1948, and had 25 members in 1957, with Howard Lehman as pastor.
| Author(s) | Samuel J Steiner |
|---|---|
| Date Published | March 2026 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Steiner, Samuel J. "Shady Pine Church (Willow Hill, Pennsylvania, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. March 2026. Web. 15 Apr 2026. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Shady_Pine_Church_(Willow_Hill,_Pennsylvania,_USA)&oldid=181867.
APA style
Steiner, Samuel J. (March 2026). Shady Pine Church (Willow Hill, Pennsylvania, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 15 April 2026, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Shady_Pine_Church_(Willow_Hill,_Pennsylvania,_USA)&oldid=181867.
©1996-2026 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.