DownloadFeb. 8 issue
Comfortable with the unconventional
Lancaster church celebrates 25 years
By Marichelle Roque-Lutz The Lancaster NewsPage:
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LANCASTER, Pa. — The conventional red-brick building at 328 W. Orange St. houses a Mennonite church that’s anything but conventional.
Its 350-plus attendees, which include 237 adult members and 119 children, come from Mennonite as well as non-Mennonite and non-Christian backgrounds.
Pastor Chad Martin says the congregation, Community Mennonite Church, has an “ability to relate to people who find themselves on the fringes of the church at large.”
CMCL began its 25th anniversary celebration Jan. 24.
From its founding in 1985 as a church plant of Akron Mennonite Church, it has always been somewhat rebellious.
“We used to call ourselves ‘lost sons and daughters of Menno,’ ” said Merv Stoltzfus, a member of Lancaster Church Planting Fellowship, or LCPF. “We were comfortable with Mennonite theology but [disliked] some practices, like restrictions of dress and a strict hierarchy.”
In opposition to hierarchy, Stoltzfus said LCPF decided everything unanimously, “a long, tedious process that got everyone involved.”
Levina Huber, LCPF’s first church elder together with Rod Houser, remembers how they would walk the city streets between meetings looking for suitable space in which to worship.
LCPF found the Lancaster Opera Workshop on West King Street. There, in January 1985, the small congregation, soon to be renamed Community Mennonite Church of Lancaster, held its first service.
In 1986 CMCL purchased its present building from AT&T, thereby saving the pink-colored 1877 structure from demolition.
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Comments
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Having experienced the hospitality, vibrancy and artistry of CMCL, I believe this congregation models much of what the Mennonite Church will be in years to come. Thank you, CMCL, for existing and following through with your creative vision.
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