Administrative History

On New Year’s Day 1931, twenty-four men and women met and unanimously decided to organize a Mennonite Brethren Church in Greendale. The following Sunday, an organizational meeting was held and the Sardis Mennonite Brethren Church (later Greendale Mennonite Brethren Church) came into being. Rev. Henry G. Dueck was elected as leader with Rev. Jacob B. Harder as assistant leader.

With the exception of one family, all original members had immigrated to Canada from Russia. In 1931, the members decided to construct a church building on property donated by Henry and Justina Dueck. By the end of 1939, the membership had more than doubled and a larger church building was being planned.

After the economic stress of the 1930s, the church experienced much growth. They accepted 417 new members during the 1940s and reached a record of 499 members in the mid-1940s. The second church building, which had been dedicated in 1940, no longer offered adequate space for the congregation, and the members were again ready to share their wealth to acquire more room.

Unfortunately, everything was halted due to the 1948 flood when, in a matter of hours, the muddy waters of the Fraser River flooded most of Greendale. But in spite of being homeless and scattered, the congregation met on Sundays in a ground level hayloft to worship and pray. As an answer to prayer, both the provincial and federal governments provided financial assistance to the flood victims, which enabled residents to reconstruct their homes completely. Due, however, to loss of crops and so on, some families moved to Vancouver to seek employment or establish businesses, and some who had work in Chilliwack, transferred their membership to the Broadway Mennonite Brethren Church. In total 227 members transferred to other Mennonite Brethren churches in the 1950s.

At this same time a generation gap had begun to surface and threatened the unity of the church. The ministers and the older people of the church communicated in German while the younger people had already adopted English. The church wanted to bring about harmony, so they hired Rev. Henry Unger – who was comfortable with the English language – as their first part-time salaried pastor in 1959. A smooth transition from German to English then took place in 1960.

In 1965, the church voted to conduct all church business meetings in English, and Sunday morning services were to have a German and English message. By 1968, two services were planned. One English and one German. They also decided to renovate the sanctuary rather than construct a new building. This was undertaken in 1966.

In 1965, they also elected their “native son,” David Froese, as pastor. He served the church as pastor until 1971. Harry E. Heidebrecht was then appointed as pastor. In 1977, they decided to construct a building that would accommodate more church-related activities and social events. The facilities were completed in 1979 for the approaching 50th anniversary of the church, which was planned to take place in June 1981.

In 1985, the church had 242 members; in 2000, there were 289 members; and in 2015, there were 250.

Those called to pastor the church include the following: H.G. Dueck (1931–1933, 1934–1941, 1944–1952), Abram Redekop (1933–1934), Willy Wiens (1934), J.B. Harder (1941–1943), Henry J. Unger (1952–1957), William Thiessen (1958–1959), Rudy Janzen (1959–1963), Jacob Franz (1964–1965), David Froese (1965–1970), Harry Heidebrecht (1971–1981), Len Doerksen (1982–1991), Gary Badker (1993–1995), Reg Toews (1997–2017), Alex Dixon (2018– ).

The language of worship is English.  The transition from German occurred in 1965.