Berea Mennonite Community Church (Mennonite Church USA) near Birch Tree in Shannon County, Missouri, began in 1895 when John L. Brubaker moved there with part of the Shelby County congregation of near Cherry Box, Missouri. It has been a small congregation, often without a resident minister, with varying degrees of prosperity and adversity both temporally and spiritually. Besides J. L. Brubaker the ministers who served in the congregation as resident ministers to the early 1950s were J. T. Hamilton, Abraham Unruh, C. B. Driver, Leroy Cowan, Noah Ebersole (d. 1952), and in 1953 Oney Hathaway. The church had a good attendance and a membership in 1952 of 35. Bishops who have served this congregation were Andrew Shenk, Alva Swartzendruber, and W. R. Hershberger. In 2006 the membership was 21 and the pastor was Douglas Brewer.

Additional Information

Address: FF Highway, Birch Tree, Missouri; Meeting Place Directions:  3 miles North on FF Hwy

Denominational Affiliations:

South Central Mennonite Conference

Mennonite Church USA

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 276. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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