They came from as close as Macon and Brooksville and as far away as Canada. By Thursday afternoon, nearly 1,000 people — mostly men — had converged upon Trotter Convention Center, and as many as 1,600 are expected today and Saturday.
If that rough estimate proves true, the Church of God in Christ Mennonites’ 70th General Annual Meeting will fill the Trotter’s upper level to capacity, making it one of the largest events to ever take place there — well, since the last time they came to town, anyway.
This is the third time Columbus has hosted the church’s North American convention for ministers and deacons. It attracted the same large crowds when held here in 1999 and 2006.
They’re a welcome sight for Trotter Director Frank Goodman — so much so that he keeps a faded newspaper clipping about their last convention tacked to the wall outside his office.
He chuckled Thursday morning as he recalled how people tried to prepare him for the group’s first convention. Everyone told him to expect a big crowd, but it still surprised him. An average event at the Trotter brings maybe 200 or 300 people. Though the convention center stays booked, the majority of those bookings are for small events like wedding receptions and class reunions.
Casinos are all the rage now, Goodman said. They can offer entertainment, onsite food service and other perks which make it hard for the Trotter to compete.
He said he’s always happy to work with the Mennonites though, not only because of the revenue they bring to the City of Columbus, but also because of their quiet, easygoing demeanor and the amount of planning and attention to detail they put into everything they do.
He pointed out the 20 ushers the group had appointed for the event and the way they set up a valet service to shuttle attendees from the Hitching Lot Farmer’s Market to the Trotter.
“It’s a pretty easy convention to work,” Goodman said. “They do a great job of organizing it.”
A simple existence
Ministers Larry Giesbrecht, of Macon, and Devonn Miller, of Brooksville, sat in Goodman’s office, patiently tolerating questions about their faith. Though there are around 600 Mennonite households in the area — with the largest communities in Macon, Brooksville and Geiger, Ala. — they are still relatively small in number here in the heart of the Baptist-heavy Bible Belt.
The men, with their beards and white shirts and suspenders, and the women, with their long dresses and black head coverings, sometimes draw attention, even when attention is one of the last things they want.
Theirs is a simple existence, designed to keep their focus upon prayer and living their faith.
They don’t watch television or listen to the radio. Over the past five years, some have started cautiously allowing stringent, custom-filtered Internet usage. For those who operate businesses, Internet usage is almost a necessity these days, Giesbrecht said. Still, he maintains, the Internet brings its own set of challenges and pressures, and he believes it’s detrimental to Christian life.
But though they tend to retreat from the world, that doesn’t mean they are shutting people out, Giesbrecht and Miller said, adding that one of the biggest misconceptions is Mennonites are a closed society. On the contrary, he said, visitors are always welcome to attend their worship services, which feature simple a cappella singing — no musical instruments allowed. A few weeks ago, another Mennonite group had a pancake supper which drew what one attendee described as “most of Macon.”
Locally, the Mennonite community in Noxubee County dates back to around the mid-1960s, but historically, their branch — also known as Holdeman Mennonites — dates back to the mid-1800s.
According to the Association of Religion Data Archives, in the U.S. there were 14,493 Church of God in Christ Mennonites and 146 churches in 2008. Mississippi ranked third in the nation for the church populace, while Kansas ranked No. 1.
Next year’s convention will be held in Wichita, Kansas.
The convention is primarily a business meeting, where ministers gather to provide financial reports and discuss activities and missions, like their disaster work and humanitarian aid.
The main thing for people to know is they are Bible-based, Giesbrecht said.
“We try to live and teach the Bible as it is,” he explained. “We try to live it. In the world we live in today, it’s a challenge sometimes. So much is at our fingertips.”
“We’re not perfect people,” Miller said softly. “The faith is precious and pure. We’re humans just like everyone else. We’re led to walk the way Christ has taught us in the scripture.”
Economic impact
There’s no doubt the Mennonite convention equals dollars for Columbus, said Nancy Carpenter, executive director of the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau. Thursday afternoon, the Farmer’s Market parking lot was filled to overflowing, spilling to the new soccer complex still under construction. She said most of the city’s 890 hotel rooms were full.
Between lodging and meals, the visitors could easily spend as much as $300,000 while here, and when you factor indirect revenue generated, she said a convention of that size could easily result in a million dollar weekend.
And there’s an additional bonus to the city as well, Columbus Chief Operations Officer David Armstrong said.
“It’s a great economic benefit, because they spend dollars here,” Armstrong said. “But it also spreads the word about the good things of Columbus, so we’re very fortunate and proud to have them.”
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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