Eighth Street Mennonite Church is a

Mennonite Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...

Church located in

Goshen, Indiana Goshen ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. It is the smaller of the two principal cities of the Elkhart-Goshen Metropolitan Statistical Area, which in turn is part of the South Bend-Elkhart-Mishawaka ...

. It is a member of the Central District Conference of

Mennonite Church USA The Mennonite Church USA (MC USA) is an Anabaptist Christian denomination in the United States. Although the organization is a recent 2002 merger of the Mennonite Church and the General Conference Mennonite Church, the body has roots in the Radi ...

History

Eighth Street was organized by former members of Silver Street Mennonite Church in 1913 and held services in a building on Fifth Street, an avenue which gave the congregation its name until the 1920 construction of a larger building on Eighth Street. In the 1920s, the Eighth Street congregation expanded as much of the College Mennonite Church joined it in the wake of conflicts within CMC and Goshen College. In 1956–57, the church building was remodeled and enlarged. Eighth Street Mennonite was a member of the

General Conference Mennonite Church The General Conference Mennonite Church (GCMC) was a mainline association of Mennonite congregations based in North America from 1860 to 2002. The conference was formed in 1860 when congregations in Iowa invited North American Mennonites to join ...

until it merged with the "Old" Mennonite Church to form

in 2002. Early leaders at Eighth Street Mennonite include: *Jonas S. Hartzler *I. R. Detweiler *A. E. Kreider

Innovations

Eighth Street was one of the Central District Conference congregations involved with the creation of Camp Friedenswald. The congregation was also part of the effort to start Oaklawn mental health facility in Goshen. In 1973, Eighth Street began a preschool program.

Today

In 2011, Eighth Street members donated 600 pounds of vegetables to the local food pantry. Every summer, Eighth Street joins with Assembly Mennonite Church, College Mennonite Church, Iglesia Del Buen Pastor, and Faith Mennonite Church to organize a

Vacation Bible School Vacation Bible School (VBS) is a religious term usually used to represent a week long event in the summer. History The origins of Vacation Bible School can be traced back to Hopedale, Illinois in 1894. Sunday school teacher D. T. Miles, who also ...

References

External links

*{{Official Website, 8thstmennonite.org Goshen, Indiana Mennonite congregations Mennonite church buildings in Indiana 20th-century churches in the United States