Brotherhood Meeting

February 14, 1932  Sunday.  We went to church and brotherhood meeting.  In the afternoon we went to John H. Reimers.  C. A. Reimers came over in the evening. 

Mennonite congregations were largely autonomous and were run by a brotherhood meeting.  All males, young and old, who had been baptized had an equal vote in the decision-making.  Women did not attend the brotherhood meeting (and I doubt any of them ever thought that they should).  A brotherhood meeting was held several times a year, and it was an important event because (at least in theory) all members were equally responsible for the running of the congregation.

One duty of the brotherhood meeting, one which did not have to be done each time, was to elect the leaders of the congregation.  These included an elder, several ministers or preachers, and deacons and songleaders.  These men served for life, unless they resigned due to ill health or were removed for moral transgressions.  Thus it was not every year that a new leader had to be elected.

Second, the brotherhood meeting made decisions about the life of the church, after prayer and consulting the Scriptures.  These included weighty issues such as when the congregation had moved from Russia to Nebraska in 1874.  And it included daily issues such as helping members of the congregation who were poor or widowed or orphaned.

Finally, the brotherhood meeting was responsible for church discipline issues. 

One thing that they had very little responsibility for was the church budget – because there hardly was a church budget.  The church was built and maintained by donations of the members.  The elders, ministers, and song leaders were farmers who volunteered their time to the ministry.  There was no electricity, so no utilities had to be paid.  They met during daylight, so no kerosene was even needed for lamps.  If work need to be done on the building, the members did it themselves.  There was a scheduled rotation of families who cleaned the church each week and started the fire in winter.  The bathrooms were outhouses, and new holes were dug occasionally for those.  The preacher spoke loudly, and several hundred people sang in four-part harmony, so no sound system was required.  Back then Mennonites knew how to run a very inexpensive operation!