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Archiver > BRETHREN > 2009-08 > 1250797907


From: "Marilyn Bess" <>
Subject: Re: [BRE] "Council of German Baptist Churches"
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:51:47 -0400
References: <c4e.56dc1806.37befe69@aol.com>
In-Reply-To: <c4e.56dc1806.37befe69@aol.com>


So why did the church's young people go to a Brethren college and not a
Baptist one?
The German Baptist were closer in belief to Brethren than to the American
Baptist. No the roots of the American Baptist conventions not German.
There are many many different Baptist denominations and the American is
formerly the Northern Baptist Convention. The mainline Baptist demonization
spit at the Civil war becoming Northern and Southern Baptist conventions.
The Northern became the American Baptist and the Southern remains the
Southern. Marilyn
----- Original Message -----
From: <>
To: <>
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 3:30 PM
Subject: [BRE] "Council of German Baptist Churches"


> I've long wondered about the history of Ebenezer Baptist Church near Elmo,
> Dickenson County, KS. When I was in school at McPherson College, my
> best
> friend was a farm girl from Elmo who attended Ebenezer. She said that
> even though there were closer Baptist colleges (not to mention Mennonite
> and
> Lutheran) she could have gone to, folks in her congregation felt a
> specific tie to McPherson College, and that's where their young folks,
> including
> her older brothers, went. At the time Ebenezer was officially an
> American
> Baptist congregation, but, she confided, it had originally been a German
> Baptist church.
>
> So why did the church's young people go to a Brethren college and not a
> Baptist one?
>
> Recently she sent me a photocopy of the church's congregational history,
> which includes this statement under the heading "Identity":
>
> "In May, 1880, the church was officially accepted by the
> Council of the German Baptist Churches as a member of
> the Kansas Association.
>
> "In 1946, the name of the denomination was changed from
> The German Baptist Churches of North America to The
> North American Baptist General Conference, and in 1977
> the word 'General' was dropped from the name."
>
> So I'm confused. Was there ANOTHER group known as the German Baptist
> Church? Are the roots of today's American Baptist churches initially
> German-speaking? Or is this a German Baptist Brethren congregation
> which somehow
> lost or discarded its Brethren affiliation? Am I mixing two different
> denominations?
>
> The congregation's actual beginnings are described vaguely:
>
> "By 1879, the Dickinson County Baptist Church
> had grown to around 90 members..."
>
> meeting in homes with three outreach preaching points, including one at
> Lower Turkey Creek, which met in the home of Brother "D. Homfeld." Turkey
> Creek chose the name Der Baptistin Gemeinde Ebenezer.
>
> While Ebenezer's first building was erected and dedicated May 25, 1880,
>
> "The earliest meetings of the church were held in homes or schools.
> In March 1880, land nine miles northeast of Elmo was donated for a
> church site by William Rubin..."
>
> The old building was torn down, and a new building (using the lumber from
> the old one) in 1926. "When the old building was torn down, the remains
> of the report of the beginning of the church (in German) were found."
> Until 1922, all church services were held in German. "In the early
> 1920's Sam
> Eisele started meeting with the young people in a car in the parking lot
> to teach them in English during the Sunday School hour..." English
> hymnals
> were purchased in 1934, says the church history, and by 1935 English was
> used exclusively.
>
> The German family Bible of the Reinhart Rubin family is mentioned as
> having
> been published by "the German Baptist Publishing Society" in 1882.
> Early names include Eisele, Homfeld, Rubin, Zwick, Schmidt, Koch,
> Schoemaker,
> Wolf, Schwendener.
>
> So who were these German Baptists?
>
> Jan T
>
>
>
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