By 1900, a number of Mennonites and Amish Mennonites lived within the village of Middlebury, Indiana. In 1902, they began to seek a congregation within the village rather than travel to rural meetinghouses. They began a Sunday school in homes and in spring 1903, the unorganized group rented space in Prescott Hall. D. D. Miller of the Forks Mennonite Church preached the first sermon on 10 May 1903.

The group purchased Prescott Hall in the fall of 1903 and organized as a congregation on 30 June 1904. Andrew J. Hostetler, who had been a preacher at the Forks Mennonite Church, served as the first pastor. The congregation became known as the Middlebury Mennonite Church and became a member of the Indiana-Michigan Amish Mennonite Conference, which later merged with the Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference.

In 1911 the congregation purchased three lots and built a brick meetinghouse. It dedicated the building on 20 August 1911. The congregation enlarged the building in 1950/51.

The Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference entered a time of turmoil in the early 1920s when some members and leaders resisted increasingly strict regulation of personal dress and tried to slow greater assimilation into the surrounding culture.

In March 1923, the issues climaxed at the Middlebury Mennonite Church when 12 young female members were denied communion for not adhering to the dress code of the Indiana-Michigan Conference. Their sin was wearing a hat instead of a prescribed bonnet. Bishop D. D. Miller did not deny communion to any men. The conference "silenced" (withdrew ministerial recognition) from one of Middlebury's pastors, Simon S. Yoder, in September 1923. Yoder and about 80 former Middlebury members began meeting in a building on Warren Street and ultimately formed the Warren Street Mennonite Church and joined the Central Conference Mennonite Church. This greatly reduced Middlebury Mennonite's membership.

In about 1961, the Middlebury Mennonite Church changed its name to First Mennonite Church.

In 2018 or 2019, First Mennonite withdrew from the Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference of Mennonite Church USA and joined LMC: a Fellowship of Anabaptist Churches.

Bibliography

Author(s)	Samuel J Steiner
Date Published	May 2024

Hartzler, Rachel Nafziger. No Strings Attached: Boundary Lines in Pleasant Places: a History of Warren Street / Pleasant Oaks Mennonite Church. Eugene, Oregon: Resource Publications, 2013.

Martin, Linford. "First Mennonite of Middlebury." Gospel Evangel 87, no. 7 (November 2006): 4-5.

"Pleasant Oaks and First Mennonite of Middlebury reunite after 86 years." Central District Conference Reporter 53, no. 6 (November 2009): 4.

Preheim, Rich. In Pursuit of Faithfulness: Conviction, Conflict, and Compromise in Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference. Harrisonburg, Va.: Herald Press, 2016: 96-97, 299-300, 309.

Wenger, John Christian. The Mennonites in Indiana and Michigan. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1961: 181-183.

Additional Information

Address: 203 East Lawrence Street, Middlebury, Indiana 46540

Phone: 574-825-5135

Website: https://www.firstmennonite.net/

Denominational Affiliations: Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference (Until 2019)

Mennonite Church USA (Until 2019)

LMC: a Fellowship of Anabaptist Churches (2019- )

Pastoral Leaders at First Mennonite Church

Name	Years of Service
Andrew J. Hostetler (1858-1925)	1904-1925
Simon S. Yoder (1878-1943)	1907-1923 1941-1943
Silas Yoder (1868-1943)	1926-1943
Wilbur Yoder (1909-1974) (Bishop)	1936-1961 1961-1968
Harold A. Yoder (1915-2008)(Assistant)	1946-1959?
Samuel J. Troyer	1967-1982
David R. Helmuth (1935-2020)	1983-1995
Joe L. Slabach	1991-1995
Ron Adams	1992-1996
Linford Martin	1996-2011
Jeffrey L. Kauffman (Youth)	1997-2000
Myron Bontrager (Associate)	2002?-2004?
Pamela Yoder (Associate, Pastoral Care)	2002-2011
Paul D. Leichty (Associate, Music)	2004-2006
Daniel L. Yoder (Associate, Youth)	2004-2008
Gary Martin (Transitional)	2011-2013
Steve Thomas (Interim Associate)	2012-2014
Kent Miller	2013-2018
Derrick Ramer (Family Life)	2014-2016
Philip Yoder	2019-
Tim Eash (Associate)	2021-

First Mennonite Church Membership

Year	Members
1904	35
1911	126
1920	211
1930	187
1940	262
1950	345
1960	433
1970	377
1980	389
1990	426
2000	447
2009	319

Original Mennonite Encyclopedia Article

As early as 1868 the Brenneman brothers, Daniel of Indiana and Henry of Ohio, preached to a "large, attentive, and very orderly audience" in Middlebury. But no effort was made to locate a Mennonite meetinghouse in the village before 1902. In that year the Mennonites conducted a Sunday school in private homes. On 10 May 1903 the Sunday school was more formally organized and preaching services were begun in Prescott Hall, with D. D. Miller of the Forks Amish Mennonite Church preaching the first sermon. In 1904 the Middlebury congregation was organized with 32 charter members as a sort of outpost of the Forks congregation. A. J. Hostetler, who had been ordained deacon at Forks in 1896 and preacher in 1898, became the first pastor of the congregation, and D. J. Johns served as bishop. Simon S. Yoder, who had been ordained deacon in the Forks congregation in 1903, joined Middlebury a few years later, and in 1907 was ordained preacher. In 1911 the first meetinghouse was built, a brick structure, on Lawrence Street, enlarged in 1950-1951. In 1923 the congregation, along with several others in Indiana, divided over the issue of how strict the discipline of the church ought to be, and how much direction conference ought to give its constituent congregations. In this division Hostetler remained with the Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference (MC), together with 110 members, while Yoder and about 100 members withdrew and soon joined the Central Conference as the Warren Street congregation. Hostetler's group continued to grow, and by 1956 had a membership of 400. Wilbur Yoder was pastor from 1936. In 1941 Simon S. Yoder was received back into the fellowship of the Indiana-Michigan Conference (MC) following his return to the Middlebury (Lawrence Street) congregation. Paul M. Miller was chosen bishop by the congregation in 1956.

Cite This Article

MLA style

Steiner, Samuel J. "First Mennonite Church (Middlebury, Indiana, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. May 2024. Web. 24 May 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=First_Mennonite_Church_(Middlebury,_Indiana,_USA)&oldid=178907.

APA style

Steiner, Samuel J. (May 2024). First Mennonite Church (Middlebury, Indiana, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 24 May 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=First_Mennonite_Church_(Middlebury,_Indiana,_USA)&oldid=178907.

First Mennonite Church (Middlebury, Indiana, USA)

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