Administrative History

The founding groups of Elim Bible Institute were the Bergthaler Mennonite Church of Manitoba and the Blumenorter Mennonite Church. The first classes opened in 1929 in Gretna, Manitoba in the Mennonite Collegiate Institute with instructor Johann H. Enns. Various difficulties, such as the Great Depression, led to the closing of the school from 1931–1936, after which P. P. Tschetter from Freeman, South Dakota, reopened the school.

In 1940, the school was moved to Altona, Manitoba where it continued under the direction of Abram A. Teichroeb until 1963. The school was strongly undergirded by a board led for most of this period by David Schulz, Elder (Aeltester) of the Bergthaler Mennonite Church. Its constituency expanded to include the Whitewater Mennonite Church, the Rudnerweide Mennonite church (now the Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference, EMMC), and a number of other congregations. A society of sponsoring churches came into being in 1951.

George Neufeld, originally from the Whitewater Mennonite Church, became the principal in 1964, introducing new programs including two-year diploma courses with majors in Christian education and church music. The school’s name changed to Elim Christian Education Centre in 1972; however, in 1974, low enrolment caused the school to close. When it reopened again in 1975 under its original name, Elim Bible Institute, it was under the umbrella of the Conference of Mennonites in Manitoba. It moved to new facilities in western Altona in 1983 and continued for another dozen years until it closed due to low enrolment in 1988. The school’s principals beginning in 1975 included Victor Kliewer, Phil Bender, Dan Zehr and, for an interim period, Ike Froese.