14.

Missions and

New Churches,1920-1945

The steady growth of missionary interest among Ohio churches took a new turn after 1920. This date is important since it marked the beginning of organized mission work by the Ohio Mennonite Conference. It was in May of this year that the newly formed Ohio Mennonite Mission Board had its first meeting at Oak Grove in Wayne County.

Definite plans for a mission board originated in 1919 while Ohio Mennonite and Amish delegates were attending the Mennonite General Conference sessions at Harrisonburg, Virginia. As a result of their deliberations a constitution was adopted by both the Ohio Mennonite and Eastern A.M. conferences. (Previous to this a resolution favoring an Ohio Mission Board had come to the floor of the Ohio Conference in 1918.' ) The Harrisonburg meeting was only a preliminary one and was followed by another in December of the same year at Elida, Ohio, where further organization was carried forward and the following officers elected: A. J. Steiner, president; J. S. Gerig, vice-president; S. E. Allgyer, secretary; Eli D. Yoder, treasurer; and E. B. Stoltzfus, field worker.

Membership on the board was "to consist of one member elected by each congregation for every regular established place of worship they may have." It was also made clear that as a conference board the Ohio Mennonite Mission Board would not work independently of the churchwide board, the Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities.

The launching of this board was a climax to missionary labors that had gone on during previous decades. As early as 1903 the Ohio Mennonites had participated in missionary activity in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and in 1910 had promoted similar work at Lima, Ohio.

The new board saw several directions in which it felt it might

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