About Us

In 1855 Bishop Joseph Goldsmith moved near Trenton, Iowa and organized a church in homes, later to be known as Sugar Creek Mennonite Church. As this congregation grew, there was interest in establishing two churches in the Henry and Washington County area. Two separate organizations were formed with Bishop Goldsmith at the head of both. Joseph Von Gunden and Peter Tschantz served as ministers for the Henry County church, and Joseph Wittrig and Christian Bechler served as ministers for the Washington County church. Disagreements became more marked. Even though each congregation was probably evenly divided between progressive and conservative members, a break between the Washington County and Henry County churches did finally occur in 1874. 

In 1871 the first church building was built two miles southeast of the town of Marshall, now Wayland, near Sugar Creek. Sebastian Gerig (minister, later bishop) had suggested among his family and friends that Sugar Creek would be a good name for the church since the church building was located near a creek by that name. He brought the matter to the church and it was adopted. In 1872, one year after the church was built, the congregation organized its first Sunday School. 

During, World War I the church had a severe trial because of its non-resistant stand. During World War II the local community was more tolerant of the non-resistant stand than it had been during World War I. Twenty-one young men in the church served in Civilian Public Service camps and units across the United States. 

In 1949, the congregation was asked to give prayerful thought to the important work of additional help in the ministry. In December a vote was to be taken to ordain either Vernon Gerig or Vernon E. Roth. As the Sugar Creek Church was considering building another church north of Wayland due to lack of space, it was suggested to ordain both men. In the evening meeting on December 18, 1949 both men were ordained for ministry. 

In 1950 the new congregation, Bethel Mennonite Church, was established and the four ordained ministers began a “round-robin” preaching schedule. Vernon Gerig was ordained to the office of bishop in 1953 which led to a new preaching plan. Vernon Roth served only at Bethel, Willard Leichty served only at Sugar Creek and Vernon Gerig and Simon Gingerich alternated. This stayed in effect until 1958 when Vernon Roth became the logical choice to serve as pastor of the newly formed Eureka congregation (later called Washington Mennonite Church), and Bethel called Willard Leichty to serve as pastor. After many transitions, Vernon Gerig became the single minister for Sugar Creek Mennonite Church.

Joseph Goldsmith   1852-1876

Joseph Wittrig   1856-1862

Christian Bechler   1860-1874

Peter Tschantz   1860-1885

John von Gunden   1861-1887

Joseph K. Roth   1863-1882

Joseph Schlegel   1867-1879

Sebastian Gerig   1869-1924

Stephen T. Miller   1879-1893

Martin Eicher   1882-1884

Christian R. Gerig   1887-1904

Daniel Graber   1893-1930

John Wagler   1904-1920

Simon Gingerich   1908-1957

Chris L. Graber   1922-1924

Ellis Zook   1928-1933

Willard Leichty   1935-1958

Vernon Roth   1949-1958

Vernon Gerig   1949-1971

Robert Hartzler   1962-1969

Orie L. Roth   1971-1980

Carl Smeltzer (Interim)   1979

Edmond Miller   1980-1988

Murray Krabill (Interim)   1988-1989

Dean Swartzendruber   1989-1993

Ruben Chupp   1990-2000

Roger Farmer   1993-2002

Sharon Wyse Miller (Interim)   2002-2003

Robert Hartzler (Interim)   2003-2004

Nathan Luitjens   2004-2020

Rachelle Luitjens   2014-2022

Kent McDougal (Interim)   2022-2023

Pam Gerig Unruh (Interim)   2023-Current