Visiting the EMB Worship Service

May 3, 1935  Corney and I went to H. L. Friesen.  He fixed the car.  The others did a variety of things.  In the evening we went to the EMB church.  A Mr. John Barkman from Steinbach preached.

There were two Mennonite churches near Meade, the Kleine Gemeinde to which the Siemens belonged and the Evangelical Mennonite Brethren (EMB).  Both were country churches consisting of farmers, but there were a few important differences.  The KG had moved to Meade from Jansen, Nebr., to Meade in 1906-1907 in search of more farm land, while the EMB had moved to Meade shortly after in 1910.  The KG was a conservative congregation that focused on restoring the original Mennonite traditions from the earliest times of the movement and on salvation as a community.  The EMB was a newer, more progressive movement that had started in the 1870s and focused on revival and individual salvation.

Despite these differences, the KG and EMB socialized together and sometimes attended each other’s services.  Later they would cooperate in organizing the Meade Bible Academy.  In fact, with a few notable exceptions, all Mennonite churches recognized the actions of others, such as baptism, ordination, marriage, communion, and excommunication.

Each congregation had about 200-300 members.  But the KG had two church buildings, the north one a few miles southeast of Meade and the south one a few miles north of the Oklahoma line.  The EMB church building was located in the middle, and its members’ farms clustered around it.  The KG were clustered in two groups around their church buildings.

On this occasion the EMB preacher was from Steinbach, Man., so that is why Cornelius would have wanted to go to the EMB worship service.  He was always eager to see people from Canada to exchange news with them.