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[The following is a history of Choctaw Christian Church compiled by Pastor Jordan Kanagy from old newspaper clippings, meeting minutes, interviews with former leaders and dedicated members of Choctaw Christian Church, as well as current members of Choctaw Christian Church. The history is incomplete and bound to have some errors or completely false recollections, owing to the fact that it was all compiled by somebody that, up until 2017, was from the outside.]

In the 1950s and 60s, the height of the Civil Rights Movement, racial tensions were high between white people and Choctaw people. Choctaw people ended up having to live stuck in the same places (in this case, Mashulaville, MS) for their whole lives as sharecroppers due to a system of favoritism for white people. White people wouldn’t sell their houses to the Choctaws. They only liked to sell to other white people. But during the ’50-60s, the Holy Spirit moved among Mennonites all across the United States to proclaim the Good News of Jesus to the Choctaw people, even in the midst of a culture of violent racial injustice and prejudice.

In 1959, those Mennonite missionaries established Mashulaville Mennonite Chapel, or what some now call the “Old Post Office Church,” because rather than build for themselves a new sanctuary for church services, the missionaries instead used the Mashulaville post office to meet for church. This church was established to make disciples among the Choctaw people in Mashulaville. The congregation has since quit meeting there, and the building has fallen into decay. In its place, two new churches were established: Noxubee Mennonite Church and Choctaw Christian Church.

Eventually, the Old Post Office Church became overfilled with the white Mennonite missionaries; meanwhile, the government passed laws that enabled Choctaws to seek better opportunities, and so they started moving toward the Nanih Waiya community in Winston County for job opportunities. The Old Post Office Church began to look less like the mission (a congregation of Choctaw disciples) and more like something new.

Some of the missionaries clearly noticed the movement of the Holy Spirit in two different directions, so the Mashulaville congregation moved more inward of Noxubee County with mostly white families and called it Noxubee Mennonite Church (now called Cornerstone Community Church). Meanwhile, God saw fit that some missionaries pursue the original mission of the Old Post Office Church, which is to make disciples among the Choctaw people—and that mission continues today in the form of Choctaw Christian Church.

Dave Weaver, Sr. of Alabama, one of the missionaries of the mission in Mashulaville and at one time the pastor of the Mashulaville Mennonite Chapel, was the first to notice the Choctaws leaving the Mashulaville area to move west into the Nanih Waiya area in Winston County due to the end of the racist system. So, Pastor Dave Weaver, Sr. stepped down as pastor of Mashulaville Mennonite Chapel to focus on continuing to make disciples among Choctaw people in 1972.

Originally, the land that is now the Crystal Ridge Community was Dave Weaver, Sr.’s farm. Many Choctaw folks couldn’t find anywhere to live, because no one would sell homes to them. So, he felt God was telling him to do something about the situation and after much prayer, he met with the Choctaw Chief and sold the farmland to the Tribe. Then, he used the money to buy the 1.8-acre property currently used for Choctaw Christian Church. The farmland he sold to the Tribe is now the Crystal Ridge community, the community in which God has called Choctaw Christian Church to proclaim the Good News and make disciples.

After leaving the pastoral ministry at the Old Post Office Church, Dave Weaver Sr. began focusing on leading Bible Studies in the homes of some of the Choctaws members in Winston County. The first Bible Studies began in 1971, but by 1973 the numbers had grown to up to 42 attendees.[1] Those 42 attendees agreed that they needed a new place to worship, so they raised the funds themselves and called on a series short-term missionary groups to help them build a new sanctuary. On May 18, 1975, Choctaw Christian Church held a dedication service for their new sanctuary, five miles north of Crystal Ridge on J Williams Road.

Choctaw Christian Church was set to go on to continue the mission of the Old Post Office Church: to make disciples of the Choctaw people—not in Mashulaville, anymore, but in the Nanih Waiya area. But unfortunately, Dave Weaver, Sr. had to leave and retire to his hometown in Alabama sometime after the late ‘70s.[2] Records for the church between 1984 and 1988 are lost, so it is unclear what exact date he left. What is clear, however, is that by 1988 a Choctaw member named Jesse Ben stepped into the role of pastor for a year. 

After 1988, where our records begin again, the church struggled to find leaders and committed attendees. They had many meetings about the lack of commitment of the members to help with the Sunday School ministry. The congregation’s attendance was declining fast. During the late 80s and 90s, leaders had many discussions about what to about their troubles. They discussed calling another missionary from a Mennonite congregation up north to help with the congregation. The congregation began discussing the possibility of Ethan Good serving as pastor of both Nanih Waiya Indian Mennonite Church and Choctaw Christian Church. In February 1991, the church drafted a covenant (a statement of faith and commitment to the church); only 13 people signed the covenant; apparently, the congregation at this point had gone down from 42 in 1973 to 13 in 1991. In 1993, the church called Gary Tubby to serve as pastor for a year.

On August 26, 1997, a meeting was called among Choctaw Christian Church leaders and a few key leaders of the Gulf States Mennonite Conference. At that point, the church only regularly had between 5 and 15 attendees, with most of them being children. At that fateful meeting, the leaders offered the few members left the options to either begin attending Nanih Waiya Mennonite Church, or let their Pastor Ethan Good help with services once a month. A follow-up meeting was scheduled for August 31, 1998, but the church has no record of that meeting ever taking place. Evidently, Choctaw Christian Church either did not survive to make it to that meeting, or the meeting “officially” closed the church, and no record was made.

In 2001, Dave Weaver Jr., at that point a leader of Gulf States Mennonite Conference on his own, met with Earline Willis and Mary Bucher, committed members of Choctaw Christian Church. It had been several years since the church had “officially” been closed. During the meeting, he uncovered a few stunning revelations: while the church had been “officially” closed, 1.) the members of Choctaw Christian Church were keeping the church grounds clean and in good condition; 2.) without any help from any other governing church leaders, the church had put on an Easter event that saw over 100 people in attendance (note: the church is only supposed to be able to house about 50 people); 3.) finally, despite being “closed” they were having services anyway on Sunday evenings starting in 2000, even though Gulf States Mennonite Conference “officially” shut the church down. At that time, Dave Weaver Jr. offered some suggestions to get the church started back up again. All along, however, the church never actually “closed.” In fact, at least one member had been attending the church by themself to pray and listen to tape recordings of sermons.

In 2005 it was decided that Earline Willis’ niece and her husband, Kim and Louis Ferris, would step up and lead the “officially” reopened church. Louis and Kim have served as lay leaders until they could call a pastor for the first time since the church reopened. In 2009, they called missionaries Doug and Candi and their family to help with the congregation and look for a pastor. During this time, their main goal to find a pastor. Their qualifications for a pastor were 1.) A man committed to serving long term; they did not want interim pastors, although they did accept guest speakers; 2.) they did not want an outside, missionary pastor; they wanted a Choctaw pastor.

In the meantime, they focused on keeping the church running and meeting every Sunday, and also focused much of their ministry efforts on teaching the children of Crystal Ridge. Every Sunday morning, the church van would run around Crystal Ridge to pick up children and take them to Sunday morning service. Every Sunday evening the church van would run again to take them to their sister church Cornerstone Community Church for AWANA. During this time, many missionaries would come to help around the church during the summers, doing service projects for the church facilities or community, and also hosting Vacation Bible Schools.

In November 2017, Choctaw Christian Church called a man from their sister church—the other church that was formed from the Old Post Office Church, Cornerstone Community Church—to serve as their pastor, Jordan Kanagy.

TODAY, Choctaw Christian Church still receives short-term missionary teams throughout the year. But now, the church also acts as a missionary team of its own to the Crystal Ridge community, hosting board game nights, cook outs, and other outreach events both at the church grounds and the reservation grounds.

[1] Since 2010, Choctaw Christian Church has had 42 attendees for a Sunday morning service 8 times.

[2] Conflicting information indicates that he may have stayed in Mississippi until sometime after 1984.