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BULLETINS

In March 1958, the congregation purchased five reams of 24# paper for bulletins. On June 6, 1964, Ellen Hostetler mimeographed a bulletin. But the only bulletins that survive are from the series that started March 6, 1966. Starting February 1980, bulletins included a Volume number and Issue number. The bulletin from February 7, 1980 was identified as “Vol. 15 No. 7”, indicating that the bulletins from 1966 were volume 1 (ignoring the bulletins that were issued with the 1958 paper and what Ellen Hostetler mimeographed in 1964).

In 1966, the LaGrange youth group asked the youth group at the Donmoyer Avenue congregation in South Bend IN to suggest worthwhile projects. John Clayton, then the leader of the Donmoyer Avenue youth group, suggested the LaGrange youth publish a regular bulletin for the congregation. Thus, the 1966 bulletins were started as a project of the young people, who searched for or wrote articles with the help of Earl Gieseke, the preacher and their youth group leader. The first of these bulletins was dated March 6, 1966. This bulletin included an article on “Lent” by teenager Ruth Wilson and a related article on Easter and fasting by Earl Gieseke. Dean Hoggatt’s diary records that Earl Gieseke and Devon Hostetler ran off the bulletin at his house on March 1, 1966. Before long, the bulletin was taken over by the adults, so it never really had a chance to take hold as a “youth project”.

Through June 19, 1977, the bulletins were produced under the title of “The Exhorter” or “Exhorter”. The bulletins were then produced without a title, until August 1987, when preacher Roy Noble published “The Transformer” bulletins.

Bulletin content has varied over the years. Some bulletins, especially before 1970, had little information about what was happening in the congregation. They were primarily comprised of articles either selected from other publications or written by Earl Gieseke or Dean Hoggatt. Later bulletins began to include more information about upcoming events, baptism announcements, new or moving members, prayer requests, etc.

These bulletins, accumulated by Dean Hoggatt over the years, were scanned by Dean’s son Brian in 2008. The originals were returned to Dean, who placed them in the attic above the classrooms at the church building for storage.