Sunday,
July 6, 2003
|
||||||
 |
|
|
Convention-Goer for life: Johns
By Michelle Wade
Goshen College Sunday, July 6, 2003
The evolution of the conference into a major five-day convention prompts a question: Who at Atlanta 2003 has ventured to more gatherings than anyone else? When 83-year-old Galen Johns of New Paris, Ind., wandered into the mPress newsroom on Friday and shared that he has attended all conventions since 1951, he just might have provided the answer. Johns has observed many changes in Mennonite meetings in his lifetime. Attending Atlanta 2003 during this inaugural year of the Mennonite Church –while staying at a campground about 18 miles away – represents another personal milestone. Johns attended his first conference in Goshen, Ind., “because it was close to home.” While attending national church meetings for so many years is impressive in and of itself, his attendance is also unique in that he has almost always camped since 1963 when he and his wife used a first recreational vehicle for the first time. Johns didn’t stay at a campsite in 1987 when the assembly was at Purdue University. For that meeting he served as a coordinator, a role that required him to be present at all times. Before 1971, Johns said, the meeting was not referred to as General Assembly, but was simply known as the General Conference. Johns also recalled that the 1983 convention in Bethlehem, Pa., was the first one at which adult delegates from the Mennonite Church and General Conference Mennonite Church met together in combined sessions. A member, and the first pastor, of Benton Mennonite Church, Johns served as the secretary for the Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference for 28 years. Johns was a delegate to the official sessions from 1953 until 1985; now the retiree participates in the worship services and workshops. He keeps coming to the conventions because he “enjoys it.”  |
|
|
|
