The Mennonite Hour was the official broadcast of the Mennonite Church (MC) through the Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities (MBMC). It formally began in June 1951, under a private organization of Mennonite men, largely at Harrisonburg, Virginia, who formed the Mennonite Crusaders to take over the half-hour Sunday broadcast of a male quartet from Eastern Mennonite College called "Crusaders for Christ," which had begun in March 1951 over the local Harrisonburg station WSVA. In January 1952, B. Charles Hostetter became the radio pastor, a position he still held in 1957. In June 1953 the Crusaders entered into an agreement with the MBMC, whereby the planning and promoting of the broadcast became a cooperative venture under an administrative committee of the Board called "Radio Evangelism Committee." The Crusaders, who had been incorporated in Virginia June 1952, continued to operate and finance the broadcast, however, and did so until 1956, when its name was changed to Mennonite Broadcasts, Inc. The Mennonite Hour was a half-hour program, basically of worship and preaching. The radio pastor delivered a ten-minute sermon, and music was provided as a cappella singing by the Mennonite Hour Chorus, composed largely of community people and students of Eastern Mennonite College (EMC). The program director in the 1950s was Norman Derstine, a local Mennonite minister; music director, Earl Maust of the EMC faculty. The international English version was called "The Way to Life." In early 1957 the Mennonite Hour was broadcast over seventy stations in the United States and foreign countries. Of this number, 56 were in the United States, two in Canada, plus broadcasts in Ceylon, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Jamaica, Liberia, Tangier, Panama, Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Vietnam. The weekly listening audience was estimated in 1957 at five million.  The program was self-sustaining, supported largely by voluntary contributions from the listening audience. The Mennonite Hour Informer was published monthly 1952-1967, and the Mennonite Hour Prayer Guide monthly after 1953. The Mennonite Hour ceased broadcasting in 1979.

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 630. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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