CHAPTER IV
GENERAL CHURCH ACTIVITIES
The three leading activities the Church as at present constituted are the missionary, educational, and publication work. The Mennonite Church has an organized Board to look after each of these three lines of service, besides a number of General Committees which we shall notice briefly in this chapter.
MENNONITE BOARD OF MISSIONS & CHARITIES
Looking through the archives of the Mennonite Church of a former generation, mention is made of J. M. Brenneman being the forerunner of evangelism in that body. The first series of meetings held in a Mennonite church in America was at Masontown, Pennsylvania, in 1873, conducted by Daniel Brenneman (brother of the afore mentioned J, M.) and John F. Funk. But the real pioneer in this work who more than any one else was instrumental in opening up the Church to evangelistic work was John S. Coffman, formerly of Virginia but later of Elkhart, Indiana.
The Mennonite Evangelizing and Benevolent Board was organized at Elkhart, Indiana, in the year 1882. The amount contributed during the first year was twenty-six dollars and thirty-six cents. But the work continued to grow, Evangelistic work became common, and later on mission stations were established in Chicago and other cities.
The great field opening to missionary effort in
