George Jay Lapp (May 26, 1879 – January 25, 1951) was an American missionary to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

for the

Mennonites 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 ...

. He was ordained in 1905 and became a Bishop in 1928 while in India. Lapp served as interim president of

Goshen College Goshen College is a private Mennonite liberal arts college in Goshen, Indiana. It was founded in 1894 as the Elkhart Institute of Science, Industry and the Arts, and is affiliated with Mennonite Church USA. The college is accredited by the High ...

from February 1918 until June 1919.

Biography

Born May 26, 1879, in

Juniata, Nebraska Juniata is a village in Adams County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 744 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Hastings, Nebraska Micropolitan Statistical Area. History Juniata was named by the Burlington Railroad for a river in P ...

, George Jay Lapp was one of Samuel W. and Sarah Gross Lapp's eight children. He attended the Elkhart Institute in 1901 and Northwestern University for two years after that. Lapp earned a B.A. from

in 1913, and an M.R.E from Bethany Seminary in 1930, and a B.D. at Goshen Biblical Seminary in 1947. George Jay Lapp died 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 ...

on January 25, 1951. George Jay Lapp served as a missionary in the Central Provinces of India from 1905 to 1945 with several extended furloughs. He founded the Mennonite Bible School in India in 1910 and served as its director until its merger with the

Dhamtari Dhamtari is a municipal corporation and headquarters of the Dhamtari district in the state of Chhattisgarh, India, which is part of the Mahasamund Lok Sabha constituency formed on 6July 1998.. The district is home to 3.13 percent of Chhattisg ...

Christian Academy in 1931. Ordained in 1905, George Jay Lapp was made a bishop while in India in 1928. While Lapp is best known for his mission work, he also served on the Mennonite Board of Education and the Mennonite Publishing Board. Lapp was a prolific essayist in the Mennonite press, particularly the ''Gospel Herald'', the denominational newspaper of the "Old" Mennonite Church. Lapp also wrote two books about his Christian service in India: ''Our Mission in India: A Brief History of the American Mennonite Mission at Dhamtari, C.P., India, Together with Facts Throwing Light upon India as a Mission Field'' (1921), and ''The Christian Church and Rural India : a Report on Christian Rural Reconstruction and Welfare Service by the Christian Forces of India and Burma'' (1938).

References

External links

Mennonite Church USA Archives listing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lapp, George Jay 1879 births 1951 deaths American Mennonites People from Adams County, Nebraska American Protestant missionaries Protestant missionaries in India Mennonite missionaries American expatriates in India People from Dhamtari district