History
"New Holland Mennonite Church is situated within a small town in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Within borough limits, the congregation emerged as a unique Mennonite expression in contrast to the surrounding rural Mennonite environment. New Holland Mennonite provides a setting to find God's Spirit at work in the midst of sociological, cultural, and even theological changes."
1900-1920: Mennonites moved into town
1910: Mennonite meetings began in the New Holland Methodist Episcopal Church building on Sunday evenings
1913: Women organized a sewing circle with a new emphasis on concern for the lost, materially and spiritually.
1915: Sunday School established on Sunday afternoons.
1922: Services begin on Sunday mornings in a newly built church on Roberts Avenue.
November 18, 1923: A group of fifty-five people voted unanimously to organize as a congregation and call a minister from among the active participants. Noah N. Sauder received the call as pastor.
1934: Mahlon Witmer associate pastor
1941-1947: Daniel Sensening associate pastor
1958-1977: Frank Shirk pastor
1947: James Martin associate pastor
1970-1977: Daniel Sensenig associate pastor
1974: New larger building was finished on Western Avenue and New Holland Spanish Mennonite Church bought the building on Roberts Avenue.
1975: Bob A. Martin associate pastor
1980: C. Nevin Miller became the first fulltime paid pastor
1981: James Musser, half-time youth pastor
1981: A Day Care was started as a ministry of the church. "In an age of broken homes, single parent households, and increasing stress on family life, we believe we have the responsbility as a church to assist families in the care of children."
1983-1988: Charles S. Good served as pastor
1989-2002: Clyde Kratz served as pastor
1990's: A joint yearly worship service and congregational fellowship meal started with New Holland Spanish Mennonite Church.
1993: Outdoor Community Worship services followed by a picnic meal began.
2000: Congregation begins support of Beryl Forrester in West Africa.
2002-2013: Ron and Judy Zook served as pastors
2004: The youth groups from New Holland, Groffdale, and Village Chapel merged. (The Spanish Mennonite youth joined a few years later).
2009: Jenn and Wade Esbenshade took the youth group from New Holland and other district churches to Guatemala.
2014: Dawn Ranck-Hower hired as pastor.
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2016: Congregation joined Atlantic Coast Conference: A Conference of Mennonite Church USA.
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2019: The Congregation moved from traditional membership to an Annual Membership Covenant. First Covenant Sunday was on February 24, 2019.
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2019: A Community Garden was planted. Expanded in 2020.
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2021: Benches removed from sanctuary
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2023: New Core Values adopted / LGBTQIA Statement Adopted
— Excerpts until 1997 taken from "A People on the Way: History of the New Holland Mennonite Church: Seventy-Five Years 1922-1997" by Darvin L. Martin
