Beginnings: Our church was established on January 6, 1935. It is a church belonging to the Mennonite Brethren denomination with about 100 churches in BC and churches all over the world.
The Mennonite Brethren Church (MB) had it’s beginning in 1860 in Ukraine during a time of revival among the Mennonite villages. This revival was a movement of repentance of sin, recognizing a need for a personal relationship with Jesus, honoring the Bible as God’s word for faith and life. It also included fellowship and communion of believers, singing, preaching, teaching the word of God and welcoming the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.
The Mennonite church itself was birthed in the European Annabaptist revival of the 1500’s which included a call to honor the word of God, practice believers baptism/communion, recognize a clear separation of church and state, (including followers of Jesus renouncing the use of force/power to advance and protect the church) For this stance, many were persecuted by the state church and some even were put to death.
Back to Black Creek: During the Russian revolution in the 1920’s, many Mennonite people lost their homes/farms and were terrorized in many ways resulting in a mass migration to Canada, USA, Mexico and Paraguay. A number of Mennonite refugee families decided to homestead in Black Creek arriving in 1930’s. One of the first tasks was to build a meeting place (church) for Christian worship and fellowship. Our church has been led by around 10 Pastors/church leaders over the last 92 years. Some were volunteer, some part time and some full time. (Johnnie Falk’s book Memories and More)