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History of Big Spring Mennonite Church
♦ A Little Church With A Big Heart
Big Spring Mennonite Church
is an ever-changing congregation which uses the gifts and resources of those who attend to create a unique and ever-changing
worship style and community. Big Spring's orgins date back to the summer of 1956 when a Mennonite minister named Mahlon Horst
moved his family from Pennsylvania to Stanley, Virginia to begin a Mennonite mission in Page County. Horst soon connected
with Leonard and Thelma Sours, a Baptist family who had previously attended Goshen Mennonite Church in Maryland. The Sours
began attending Horst's worship meeting and they quickly became friends. In the late 1950s Thelma began bible
study meetings at her home on Sunday mornings. By 1960 the bible study had outgrown the Sour's house and participants
began looking for a building to house their growing numbers. They located an abandoned 1890 Baptist church building. They
were offered use of the building and with help from local members of the congregation and members of Young Persons Christian
Association from Eastern Mennonite College, it became usable. On Easter Sunday, April 19, 1961, Big Spring Church was born
with its first Sunday morning service in the building. Big Spring has strong history of using its gifts in the area
of mission as many of the people who have passed through the congregation have been sent out to other churches and to mission
work or pastoral vocations. Big Spring maintains involvement in service and ministry to the community in a variety of ways that
has changed over the years depending on the involvement members of the congregation have in the broader community. Big
Spring Mennonite is a little church with a big heart which meets the needs of the community and congregation with
the gifts and resources of its members. With
Permission from Shannon Yoder Roth
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