Administrative History

On September 26, 1966, six people met to found the King Road Mennonite Brethren Church. They were unhappy that the South Abbotsford MB Church decided on August 29, 1966 to end services in the German language. In total 55 people left to join the King Road church. Many of these people were post World War Two immigrants to Canada from Russia and Germany. They bought a vacant church building from the United Church and formed an new independent church.

The first service had 73 people in attendance and Rev. Jacob Dueck of the Clearbrook Mennonite Brethren Church served as guest speaker. After serving as guest speakers for two Sundays the Duecks consented to assume leadership of the group, and on December 11, 1966, Rev. C.D. Toews officially installed Rev. Dueck as pastor.

In spring of 1967, the small congregation took another step of faith and launched a building project. By the time of dedication on October 15, the building was fully paid for.

In November 1967, Heinrich Loewen and family emigrated from Paraguay and he served in the preaching ministry at King Road. He also served as assistant leader for a number of years. Unfortunately, due to failing health, Rev. Dueck was forced to give up leadership in 1970. Thankfully, Jacob Franz, who had retired from a missionary assignment in Paraguay, declared willingness to assume leadership of the church. He served faithfully from 1971–1978, when the Lord called him to Himself in November 1978. Peter C. Penner and family were then asked to assume leadership of the church.

Due to growth, an addition to the building was built in 1976, but the church continued to grow and in 1979 an additional two acres were purchased to provide parking space. In 1978 the church became affiliated with the Mennonite Brethren Conference.

As the emigrants became acculturated, the youth Sunday school, as well as some of the children’s Sunday school classes were held in English. The question of conducting at least part of the morning worship service in English was placed in the agenda in 1981.

When A.J Klassen and family assumed the pastorate in August of 1981, the local fire inspector informed him that the overcrowded conditions were a fire hazard. Undertaking a building project in the middle of a depression seemed inadvisable, but due to low visibility in the annex and having to take turns sitting in the basement, the majority of the congregation voted in favour of building. On April 4, 1982, after a joyful baptismal service, the groundbreaking took place, and a public dedication of the building took place on January 16, 1983. Since then, a short English meditation has been added to the service to meet the needs of the young people and children.

Those to have led the congregation include Jacob Dueck (1966–1970), Jacob Franz (1971–1978), Peter Penner (1978–1981), A.J. Klassen (1981–1984), Abe Konrad (1985–1994), Frank Peters (1994–1997), Alvin Enns (1997–2002), Andrew Dyck (2002–2007), Harry Heidebrecht, Interim (2007–2009), Don Petker (2009–2016?), Leonard Klassen (2017?–2020), Paul Siemens (2020– ).