Indiana Conference

By Brian E. Strayer

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Brian E. Strayer, Ph.D. (University of Iowa). Strayer taught history at Jackson (MI) Junior Academy, the University of Iowa, Southern Adventist University, and Andrews University for 41 years. He has written 10 books, 120 scholarly and professional articles, 40 reviews and critiques in French and Adventist history and directed three Adventist heritage tours of New England.  He writes a weekly column (“The Past Is Always Present”) in the Journal Era and shares Adventist history at camp meetings, schools, and churches.

First Published: February 20, 2023

The Indiana Conference is an administrative unit of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Lake Union Conference.

Territory: Indiana

Statistics (October 10, 2022): Congregations, 71; membership, 9173; population, 6,697,000

Origins

The Advent message was first introduced to Indiana in July 1849 when Joseph Bates preached in South Bend. A year later, in July 1850, Joseph and Jemima Catlin of LaPorte became his first Hoosier (a nickname for residents of Indiana) converts.1 In 1857 Bates baptized eight more converts in LaPorte and formed the first Sabbath-keeping group there.2 Other Advent preachers in Indiana in the 1850s included J. M. Stephenson, J. H. Waggoner, H. S. Case, M. E. Cornell, J. N. Loughborough, and Moses Hull.

During the 1860s Ezra Stiles of North Liberty, Indiana, became the first known lay minister in the state.3 The Michigan Conference, formed in 1861, included five northern Indiana counties and the Salem church;4 the conference sent R. J. Lawrence, E. B. Lane, D. M. Canright, and other ministers to preach in Indiana, where they held Quarterly Meetings (communion services) at North Liberty and Salem. In 1868 Adventists in North Liberty built the first meetinghouse and, a year later, hosted the first camp meeting on Ezra Stiles’ farm;5 James and Ellen White preached at the second camp meeting at Tipton in 1870.6

Organization of the Conference

Several developments contributed to the formation of the Indiana Conference. Given the distance from Battle Creek, Michigan, to most local churches in Indiana, the Adventist workers there lacked supervision and efficient coordination of their efforts in baptizing new members, forming Sabbath Schools, and holding quarterly, evangelistic, and camp meetings. Moreover, many felt that Indiana had been much neglected in the past compared to the attention devoted to the work in Michigan. In addition, Adventist Hoosiers were sending their tithes and offerings to Battle Creek, and many felt that if those funds remained in Indiana, they could establish the work more efficiently there.

Therefore, on September 20, 1872, the Indiana Conference was organized with William Covert as president, James Harvey as secretary, and Isaac Zirkle as treasurer, with one licensed and five ordained ministers.7 Margaret Fatic served two terms (1876-78) as conference secretary.8 The Indiana Tract and Missionary (T&M) Society was formed in 1872;9 and the Indiana Health and Temperance Society and the Indiana Sabbath School Association were established in 1879.10 By decade’s end the conference had twenty-six congregations and six new meetinghouses.

During the 1880s, the ministerial force increased to sixteen, the number of congregations grew to twenty-nine, twenty new “houses of worship” were erected, a total of forty Sabbath School groups met weekly, and the conference membership reached over 1,200, including three colporteurs. Each year camp meetings convened at different times and in various locations for evangelistic outreach. The conference started a city mission in Indianapolis,11 a canvassers’ training program,12 and established its first headquarters in 1887 at 175 Central Avenue, Indianapolis.13

Development of the Conference

The 1890s saw the conference reach 1,390 members in fifty churches. The seventeen ministers, twenty-two canvassers, and eight female Bible workers labored largely for “strangers” (a nineteenth century term for non-Adventists) while elders and deacons ministered to local congregations. Both strangers and believers crowded the annual camp meetings, where scores of tents were erected and meat was served until 1893.14 The newly organized National Religious Liberty Association led petition drives against the National Reform Association’s efforts to enforce Sunday blue laws15 as Adventists fasted and prayed. Hoosiers organized cooking schools,16 Young People’s Societies,17 Bible Workers’ Institutes,18 and a city mission in Evansville19 at the peak of the “Holy Flesh” movement there. 20

From 1896 to 1910 the conference printed the Indiana Reporter.21 Articles described the founding of sanitariums in Indianapolis, Lafayette (Wabash), and Connersville (Fayette); a Nut and Cereal Food Company offering twenty-nine health foods; and a Vegetarian Restaurant in Indianapolis.22 Membership topped 2000 in 80 churches, with nineteen ministers, twenty-one Bible workers, seventeen schools with 170 pupils, seventy-eight Sabbath Schools with 1,463 members, and twelve Missionary Volunteer (MV) societies. The newly formed Indiana Association of Seventh-day Adventists (the legal body which conducts financial transactions and holds property titles for the conference),23 located at 515 East 23rd Street in Indianapolis, included offices for Rachel W. McMahan, Education and Sabbath School departments secretary, and Florence Niehaus, missionary department secretary, as well as the first conference auditor (T. A. Goodwin) and revivalist (J. M. Rees). Members now placed their tithes in pink envelopes and dropped them into boxes at church.

During the 1910s, as the conference offices moved around Indianapolis24 and Beechwood Academy moved to Cicero and became Indiana Academy with eleven grades and seven teachers, the conference had twenty ordained ministers, ten licensed ones, three Bible workers, and fifty-seven colporteurs, who in 1918 boosted Indiana to number one in world literature sales.25 The camp meetings still moved around each summer to reach more “unbelievers” (as non-Adventists were then called). The conference had eighteen church schools with 250 pupils, seventy-six Sabbath Schools with 1,435 members, and its first Black church in Indianapolis.26 Across the state, Dorcas societies, MV societies, and Kindergarten Sabbath Schools using the new picture rolls increased. Except for Education Secretary Carolyn Rasmussen, however, the conference leaders were all men in 1914.

There are many reasons for the decline of women in administrative roles after 1914, not only in the Indiana Conference, but also throughout the Adventist Church at large. The death of Ellen White in 1915 removed a key leadership role model for women to follow. During the Great Depression (1929-1939), the General Conference merged several local conferences to save money, reduced the number of conference officers, cut salaries by thirty percent, and limited conference leaders’ tenure (both male and female) to six years. Conferences and unions also replaced single women officers with married men who had families to support. The requirement in the 1930s that all conference officers must be ordained also excluded women, who were denied ministerial ordination and credentials. As a result, the number of credentialed and licensed women workers in the North American Division dropped from around 500 in 1930 to 350 in 1935; the percentage of female conference Sabbath School department leaders fell from 60 percent in 1930 to 15 percent in 1940. Former female church workers were encouraged to become self-supporting canvassers. In Indiana, however, Carolyn Rasmussen, Edith Shepard, and Hazel Baker (see below) were three exceptional women who retained their positions as Sabbath School and education department officers despite the above restrictions on women.27

In 1922 the conference offices moved to Cicero, where Edith Shepard served as education and Sabbath School secretary (1916-1931). The conference now had 2,003 members, fifteen ordained ministers, twenty-nine colporteurs, sixty-seven Sabbath Schools, twenty-two teachers at fifteen schools with 333 pupils, and sent twenty-four workers to foreign missions. The 1920s saw the rise of church-sponsored parent-teacher associations, “Mission Rally Days,” “Big Week” and “Weeks of Sacrifice,” and Home Missionary Institutes. After fifty years of peripatetic camp meetings, the conference in 1929 chose Cicero for all future gatherings.28

Despite the Great Depression, in the 1930s church membership reached 3,072 and attendance in sixty-three Sabbath Schools topped 2,390. In addition, a score of teachers in twenty-five schools taught 400 pupils who every summer attended Camp Juvolinda (“Junior Volunteers Indiana”) at Newcastle, Battleground, Turkey Run, Delphi, or McCormick’s Creek. From their headquarters in Indianapolis, conference leaders supervised sixty churches, fifty Dorcas societies in five federations, and a growing number of branch Sabbath Schools. Meanwhile, to convert “those not of our faith” (the new term for non-Adventists), the conference set soul-winning goals for pastors, Ingathering and offering goals for members, and Investiture goals for children.

In the 1940s all department heads were men except for Sabbath School Secretary Hazel Baker.29 The conference had 4,408 members in eighty-four congregations, fifty-one colporteurs, and 422 pupils in twenty-one schools taught by twenty-six teachers. For the first time, house trailers parked on the academy campgrounds; congregations formed Junior Dorcas Societies, Vacation Bible Schools (VBS), and First Aid, temperance, and Sunshine bands. The Home Missionary Department organized a Bible Correspondence School,30 and Adventists in Lafayette and Bloomington began radio evangelism.31 At camp meeting, attendees lived in tents and twenty-two new cabins. Some 108 youth attended summer camps at Bedford, Tunnel Mill Reserve, Gull Lake, and Indiana Dunes.

During the 1950s the conference sponsored field schools of evangelism, built 195 cabins at Cicero, provided materials for dozens of VBS serving thousands of non-Adventist kids, and encouraged youth in thirteen clubs to hold Pathfinder fairs. Thanks to vigorous evangelistic and Ingathering “efforts” by seventeen pastors, forty-seven colporteurs, and 4,682 members in seventy-one churches, the public flocked to halls, “bubble tents,” and Adventist churches for prophetic preaching, cooking schools, and temperance films. At twenty-seven schools, forty-three teachers taught 694 pupils, while the Indiana Bible Correspondence School enrolled 600 students. Membership reached 4,989, including 1,798 children in seventy-one Sabbath Schools. Two hundred fifty-nine campers and thirty-six staff crowded Skakamak State Park and Camp Reynoldswood every summer.

In the 1960s the conference organized workshops for MV, Pathfinder, temperance, Sabbath School, VBS, and Dorcas leaders as well as conventions for elders, colporteurs, pastors, and teachers. Innovations included collecting canned goods at Halloween, filling Thanksgiving food baskets, Pathfinder camporees, evangelistic “crusades” in Airatoriums, Pathfinder fairs, and the Book and Bible House’s “Bookmobile.” The Conference, with 5,123 members in seventy-three churches and companies, thirty-nine ministers, and twenty-seven colporteurs, supported twenty-six elementary schools with forty-three teachers and 670 pupils as well as a Health and Welfare Mobile Van. It supplied materials for nineteen summer VBS hosting 1,026 children, for Nutrition Instructors’ courses, and for Five-Day Plans to stop smoking and cooking schools.

As membership reached 5,859 in seventy-six churches in the 1970s, the conference had eighteen elementary schools and six junior academies with forty-eight teachers and 602 pupils. Temperance teams used “Smoking Sam and Sue” manikins, Smoker’s Dial Messages, and Wa-Rite (a weight-loss program), while others reached the public through Community Services, Ingathering (Indiana won its first Vanguard Award),32 temperance booths at local fairs, disaster vans at state fairs, and Revelation Seminars. Radio ministries included Voice of Prophecy (five stations) and Quiet Hour (eight stations). The conference demolished ninety cabins to erect new dorms and a cafeteria; camp meeting visitors stayed in 130 trailers, seventy-five tents, and thirty-five dorm rooms.

Conference membership exceeded 6,000 in sixty-seven churches by 1983. Seminars (such as Daniel and Revelation, Faith Action Advance, Church Growth, Time of the End), public evangelism (1000 Days of Reaping, Harvest 90), and forty-one radio stations and seven television channels carrying It Is Written, Faith for Today, Quiet Hour, Voice of Prophecy, and Your Story Hour stirred public interest in Adventism. Meanwhile, summer VBS reached 1,234 non-Adventist kids; student canvassers “blitzed” neighborhoods with literature; and the Adventist Book Center at Cicero sold meat substitutes as well as books. Conference-led Education Fairs instructed 600 pupils from twenty-six schools and their forty-one teachers, while Agape Suppers and Adventist Singles Ministries appealed to young adults.

The 1990s witnessed a sharp increase in evangelistic outreach, including huge televised “crusades” such as Harvest ‘90, NET ’95, NET ’98, and GO ’99 as well as local endeavors such as county fair booths, Family Life Seminars, Community Crusades Against Drugs, VBS, stress management seminars, and Easter celebrations. The 320 pupils and their twenty-five teachers in fifteen schools started Adventurers Clubs, Bible Labs, read-a-thons, and science fairs. The first women’s ministries directors, Janice Pierson and Debbie Wasmer, organized women’s retreats,33 and work among Indiana’s Korean, Hispanic, and other ethnic groups multiplied (see below). Congregations hosted mother/daughter banquets, father/son picnics, and calling/caring and family life seminars.

Evangelism received top priority in the 2000s with networked satellite events such as NET2000 and ACTS2000 Revelation of Hope as well as local outreach events such as Steps to Jesus campaigns, Youth Rallies, Hope for the Homeland, and Share the Light. Healthful living received new emphasis in Health Expos, CHIP (Coronary Health Improvement Project, in 2012 renamed Complete Health Improvement Program) classes, vegan cooking seminars, marathons, and Heartland Health and Wellness conferences. As church membership topped 6,430 in sixty-six churches led by thirty-four pastors, members focused attention on abused women, singles, single mothers, and prisoners, and formed disaster response teams, children’s bell choirs, and Purity Retreats for teens. In seventeen schools, forty-five teachers led children in more community outreach projects.

During the 2010s, evangelism remained strong through such programs as “Operation Outpour,” “Operation Downpour,” Outreach Coalitions, EMMAUS evangelism, CRAVE (university outreach), and Dooms Day Kits34 at county fairs. Emphasis on healthful living spawned Family Health Fairs, CHIP and “Fitness at the Ridge” programs, Health Beginnings, and Lifestyle Expos. Membership topped 8,320 in sixty-eight churches and eight companies led by forty pastors. In fourteen church schools with thirty-six teachers accepting state vouchers, enrollment grew to 472 pupils who learned on Smartboards. Attention was given to homeless vets, domestic violence, and suicide prevention. The conference hired Toni Minikus (Bible worker), Erney Poenitz (Shepherdess Director), and Kyla Spooner (assistant treasurer), and began commissioning female chaplains.35

The global COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-2022 changed everything as masking and social distancing became the law. “Ignite Indiana” with John Bradshaw and Robert Costa of It Is Written, the Impact Indiana Evangelism Rally, and the NAD Adventist Christian Fellowship gathering at IU-Bloomington were reduced in size or became virtual events. While the Pathway to Health Mega Clinic, with 3000 volunteers, convened in Indianapolis, camp meeting, prayer summits, youth rallies, Pathfinder Bible Experience, and Youth Triathlon occurred on-line in 2021. Health professionals held mental health programs to help members cope with the pandemic. For its 150th anniversary in 2022, the conference reopened the campgrounds and the former Adventist Book Center changed its name to Three Angels Natural Foods & Christian Books.36

Ethnic Ministries

Four years after the conference was organized in 1872, Sands Lane established a Swedish Adventist church in Porter County.37 During the 1880s, David Oberholtzer and Battle Creek College student Karl Kunkle, both fluent in German, worked among the German immigrants in Indiana.38

Prior to the organization of regional conferences in the 1940s, the Indiana Conference included both black and white constituents who attended its churches, camp meetings, and various institutions. The Lake Union Herald carried numerous articles about “the colored work” in the 1910s, and the first black church with eighteen members formed in Indianapolis in 1914.39 Two years later, the conference sent funds to a girls’ school in India. In the 1920s, the conference hired African Americans Miss Tibbs and Miss Gillam40 as Bible workers to assist its three black evangelists: J. Marion Campbell, Sidney Scott, and W. D. Forde.41 By the 1930s there were six black churches in the conference; they held their first MV Rally in Indianapolis in 1938.42

At the Voice of Prophecy series in Indianapolis in 1942, however, whites attended meetings in the morning while blacks went in the afternoon.43 A Negro Youth Congress convened in Indianapolis in 1944.44 When the Lake Region Conference (formed in Chicago on September 26, 1944) began functioning on January 1, 1945, it included all Black Adventist churches in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

During the next half century, however, some of the larger Adventist churches in Indiana welcomed not only African Americans who wished to join their congregations, but also increasing numbers of immigrants and other ethnic groups. In 1989, for example, the multi-ethnic and multiracial Cicero, Indianapolis Southside, and Indianapolis Glendale congregations began a joint outreach to immigrants and the homeless in the capital city. By the 1990s, members of the Glendale Adventist church represented seventeen different nationalities. 45

The first Hispanic church was organized at Gary in 1953.46 The first Spanish-speaking camp meeting convened in Indianapolis in 1993.47 Two years later, a Hispanic Church was established in South Bend.48 By the end of the decade several more Hispanic congregations had been formed, mainly in cities. In the early 2000s the Conference had five Hispanic churches and two Hispanic companies. The Glendale church in Indianapolis contained 30 different ethnic groups.49 The Conference also began taking its health van to local Cinco de Mayo (May 5) festivals. By 2011, of the 7647 Adventists in Indiana, 1181 (15 percent) were Hispanics meeting in 21 churches, companies, and mission groups, so Antonio Rosario was appointed as the first Conference Hispanic Coordinator.50 Hispanics began holding their own lay institutes, symposiums, Pathfinder campouts, international food fairs, and camp meetings at Timber Ridge Camp. In 2018 at Evansville, they built Hispanic Riverview Adventist Christian Academy.

Indiana Academy hired its first Asian teacher, Linda Lee of Taiwan, in 1973.51 In 1996 Korean Adventists in Indianapolis were organized into a company.52 During the 2000s, the Conference welcomed many Burmese/Myanmar refugees and sponsored church and school projects in India. In 2016 the first Mizo church was begun in Indianapolis.53 Meanwhile, white congregations began “adopting” (providing financial aid, etc.) Adventist churches in Afghanistan, Malawi, Kenya, El Salvador, and Belize. In 2017 the Conference held the first Burmese lay training seminar for Myanmar refugees in its midst.54 In 2021 the first Haitian and Marshallese congregations were formed at Evansville.55

Headquarters Changes

The Indiana Conference, from its founding in 1872 until 1887, had no headquarters or established offices. The early presidents, who were active, peripatetic evangelists, handled Conference matters on the road, writing letters from wherever they happened to be holding meetings. Business sessions convened at camp meetings in the 1870s and 1880s. But in 1887 the Conference erected a church and “mission” building at 175 Central Avenue in Indianapolis for $10,000.56 In 1907 its offices moved to 240 Indiana Avenue; in 1908 to 515 East 23rd Street; and in 1912 to 521 East 23rd Street. In 1917 the headquarters moved twice, first to 2708 Bellefontane Street and next to a suite of offices at 417-421 Castle Building on 23 East Ohio Street.

In 1922 the offices were moved to downtown Cicero to be near the academy, but in 1930 the Conference moved its headquarters back to Indianapolis at 511 East 22nd Street, only to move again in 1935 to 2004 North New Jersey Street and in 1937 to 310 East 23rd Street. But in 1943 they relocated to 3266 North Meridian Street. Here they remained until 1955 when the new $125,000 headquarters was built at 1405 Broad Ripple Avenue. In 1975 the Conference moved its headquarters for the twelfth and final time into a newly built complex at 15205 Westfield Boulevard in Carmel, a city six miles north of Indianapolis, where it remains today.57

Timber Ridge Camp

After thirty years of renting various campgrounds for summer camps, the conference in 1961 purchased Timber Ridge Camp for $150,000.58 In the 1960s, when boys and girls attended in separate weeks, campers paid $18 a week to swim, ride one of the twelve horses, and worship in the 200-seat amphitheater. In the 1970s, when 300-340 youth came each summer, Opportunity Camps (for 100 non-Adventist kids), Pathfinder Camporees, teen and family camps, blind camps, horse camps, covered wagon camps, and junior academy Bible camps were held there. A camp director’s house was built in 1974. The 1980s witnessed the addition of tween and bike camps, with 289 regular and forty-eight blind campers attending each summer. Thirty of them plus the camp ranger stayed in the remodeled lodge. In the 1990s all fourteen cabins were winterized, new bathrooms installed, and a nature center built. While the 270-300 campers enjoyed new classes such as outdoor living, Indian lore, basketmaking, and welding, the number of summer baptisms also skyrocketed. During the 2000s, eight different camps convened at Timber Ridge each summer: single moms, blind, cub, junior 1 and 2, teen, family, and Outdoor Education School, and it required fifty-four staff members to supervise them in such new activities as wake boarding, the giant water swing, the floating pink shark ride, and rock climbing. By the 2010s, as many as 530 campers each summer attended the eight camps (including Brown County Blowout and winter campouts) at Timber Ridge, enjoying innovations like the banana boat, mountain biking, jet skiing, kayaking, fishing, caving, the zipline, fort building, a petting zoo, and paintball contests. In 2017 the conference installed a new septic system, and built Indian Village and two new cabins. During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, however, Timber Ridge went digital with twenty-two staff members producing short videos of craft classes, campfire stories, and worship talks. The camp reopened for seven different groups in the summer of 2021 with masking and distancing protocols in place.

Hospitals and Health Foods

In 1872 Joseph Waggoner wrote in the Review: “There is no state in which I have labored where there is more need of health reform than in Indiana.”59 Throughout the nineteenth century, Hoosiers, including Adventists, ate not only chicken, beef, venison, and mutton, but also bacon, ham, and pork, and struggled to give up tobacco, tea, and coffee.60 Consequently, there was a real need for health reform among Indiana Adventists.

In 1879 the Indiana Health and Temperance Society was organized at Noblesville with William Hill, president; Sadie Edwards, secretary; and 139 members.61 In the 1880s, most local congregations formed health and temperance society chapters. During the 1890s, some laity and ministers conducted cooking schools to encourage healthful dietary habits, and the 1893 camp meeting in Indianapolis was the first at which meat was not served.62

Sanitariums provided another means of teaching healthful lifestyles. In 1901 the conference spent $6,100 to establish the “Rational Sanitarium” at Indianapolis, directed by Dr. J. R. Ross, and six years later, opened the first vegetarian restaurant in the capital, run by W. H. Nelson.63 In 1907 the Wabash Valley Sanitarium opened at Lafayette, and the following year its staff started a Nurses’ Training School.64 While the Wabash Valley San prospered in the 1910s when its Red Cross First Aid program was very popular, and it received recognition from the American College of Surgeons, during the 1920s it fell into debt and was temporarily placed under the control of the Lake Union Conference. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the conference operated a Penny-a-Dish Café at 205 Delaware Street, Indianapolis, that served between 7,000 and 9,700 five-cent meals to the unemployed every month.65 But the era of conference-operated sanitariums ended when in 1944 the Wabash Valley Sanitarium was sold to a private institution.66 However, in 1953 the Bethel Sanitarium, a privately-operated facility with thirty beds, opened in Evansville.67

With the revival of cooking schools and nutrition instructors’ courses in the 1960s came a renewed interest in health foods. In the 1970s, many local Dorcas Societies that carried canned meat substitutes produced by Loma Linda Foods and Worthington Foods took the name “Health and Welfare Centers.” In 1982 Indiana Academy opened its Nature’s Harvest Store to sell homegrown fruits and vegetables and meat substitutes. The rise of vegetarian and vegan cooking seminars in the 2000s as well as programs like CHIP (Coronary Health Improvement Project, later renamed Complete Health Improvement Program), Life Style Expo Health Evangelism, Heartland Health and Wellness conferences, and the Indiana Healthy Choice Initiative likewise promoted healthy diets and lifestyles. During the 2020s at several Adventist churches and schools, however, the tension between some ethnic groups’ preference for meat in the cafeteria clashed with others’ desire to uphold Adventist dietary standards.68

Education

For the most part, nineteenth-century Hoosier Adventists either sent their children to public schools or educated them at home. But in 1900 Mrs. A. L. Hazelton opened a “mission school” at Wolf Lake, the first church school sponsored by a local congregation.69 In 1902 the conference opened Boggstown Industrial School, renamed Boggstown Manual Training Academy a year later and Beechwood Academy in 1911.70 By 1905 there were seventeen Adventist elementary schools in Indiana with 170 pupils. Rachel W. McMahan was elected the first Conference Education Department Secretary.71 In 1919 the conference moved Beechwood Academy to Cicero and renamed it Indiana Academy.72

When World War I began and Carolyn Rasmussen was education secretary, the conference sponsored eighteen schools with 250 pupils. During the long tenure of Education and Sabbath School Secretary Edith Shepard (1916-1931), the number of schools rose from fifteen with 333 pupils to twenty-five schools with over 400 pupils. By 1949 there were 422 pupils taught by twenty-six teachers in twenty-one elementary schools. The Baby Boom decade of the 1950s witnessed dramatic growth in Adventist education in Indiana with 694 pupils in twenty-seven schools taught by forty-three teachers by 1959. With the opening of six junior academies in the 1970s, however, the number of elementary schools fell to eighteen with forty-eight teachers instructing 602 pupils.

In the 1980s, while the number of schools rose to twenty-six, the number of teachers fell to forty-one and the enrollment dropped sharply to only 431 pupils. Home and School programs, Education Fairs, teachers’ conventions, and Pathfinder camporees brought teachers, students, and church members together. Further declines in numbers characterized the 1990s with only twenty-five teachers at fifteen elementary schools teaching 320 pupils by 1994. Yet creative social and witnessing activities increased, including read-a-thons, science fairs, Adventurer Clubs, Bible labs, mother/daughter banquets and father/son picnics.

During the first decade of the twenty-first century, the number of junior academies fell to two while elementary schools declined to thirteen and the teaching staff rose to forty-five. Students enjoyed a growing variety of activities, including children’s bell choirs, Purity Retreats, Easter celebrations, fundraising for foreign mission projects, and Outdoor Education Camps. Once Conference schools began accepting state vouchers, however, the number of elementary pupils in fourteen schools rose sharply from 401 to 472 in 2011.73 Teachers, who now received Conference Commissioning Certificates,74 instructed their students using Smartboards and Apple iPads, and involved them in health and international food fairs. During the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-22, the 30 teachers at the two junior academies and nine elementary schools continued instructing their pupils remotely, using the Internet and Zoom to keep them connected.

Conference Vision and Mission

The mission of the Indiana Conference is to reach Indiana and the world with the distinctive, Christ-centered Three Angels’ Messages, which lead people to become fully devoted disciples of Jesus. In that light, the conference maintains the following major goals: supporting both Adventist Christian education and evangelism; providing ministry opportunities for youth and young adults; empowering and equipping lay members; and delivering professional, spiritual, and relational growth guidance for pastors and teachers. While being challenged to reach Indiana residents with the gospel at a time of many divisions and distractions, the Holy Spirit provides many wonderful opportunities to empower our leaders and members in these final days of earth’s history.75

Presidents

William Covert (1872-1874), James Harvey (1874-1877), Sands Lane (1877-1884), William Covert (1884-1888), Frank Starr (1888-1894), J. W. Watt (1894-1897), W. B. White (1897-1898), R. S. Donnell (1898-1901), I. J. Hankins (1901-1903), W. J. Stone (1903-1909), Morris Lukens (1909-1911), O. Montgomery (1911-1913), E. A. Bristol (1913-1916), W. A. Westworth (1916-1918), C. S. Wiest (1919-1926), F. A. Wright (1926-1931), M. A. Hollister (1931-1934), S. E. Wight (1934-1940), F. O. Sanders (1940-1943), S. E. Wight (1943-1947), C. M. Bunker (1947-1954), Arthur Kiesz (1954-1960), T. E. Unruh (1960-1963), R. S. Joyce (1963-1969), Robert Dale (1969-1975), G. W. Morgan (1975-1981), Robert Thompson (1981-1985), John Loor (1985-1992), David Walkwitz (1992-1995), Clayton Farwell (1995-2002), Gary Thurber (2002-2010), Van Hurst (2010-2015), Steven Poenitz (2015-2018), Vic Van Schaik (2018- ).

Headquarters: 15205 Westfield Blvd., Carmel, Indiana 46032

Sources

(From over 500 articles read, the following 46 articles have been selected for their focus on key administrative, organizational, and institutional developments in the history of the Indiana Conference from 1872 to 2022.)

Banker, C. M. “Gary Spanish Being Served.” Lake Union Herald, March 31, 1953.

Browne, L. W. “A Church Organized.” Lake Union Herald, August 26, 1914.

“Business Proceedings of the Michigan State Conference.” ARH, October 14, 1862.

Carrier, F. C. “Penny-a-Dish Cafeteria.” Lake Union Herald, May 2, 1933.

“Conference Proceedings.” Indiana Reporter, February 5, 1908.

Covert, Wm. “Indiana State Meeting.” ARH, May 20, 1884.

Covert, Wm. “Indiana State T&M Society.” ARH, October 28, 1873.

Covert, Wm. “Our Preparatory School at Boggstown.” Indiana Reporter, June 4, 1902.

Dunn, Orville. “Indiana Educational Institute.” Lake Union Herald, February 18, 1920.

Earles, Myrna. “Women’s Retreats.” Lake Union Herald, August 1997.

Eaton, Betty. “Chaplain’s Life and Ministry Affirmed at Commissioning Service.” Lake Union Herald, August 2013.

Edwards, W. H. “The Wabash Valley Sanitarium of Lafayette, Indiana.” Indiana Reporter, March 27, 1907.

“Evansville, Indiana.” ARH, May 31, 1898.

“First Spanish Camp Meeting.” Lake Union Herald, August 1993.

Fries, R. S. “Penny-a-Dish Café.” Lake Union Herald, October 18, 1932.

Fries, R. S. “Penny-a-Dish Cafeteria.” Lake Union Herald, December 20, 1932.

Goodwin, S. W., et al. “The Indianapolis Sanitarium.” Indiana Reporter, October 9, 1901.

Griffin, Randy and Kathy. “Indiana ABC Has New Name and Leadership.” Lake Union Herald, March 2022.

Griswold, Scott. “New Mizo Church Established.” Lake Union Herald, August 2016.

Hales, Barbara. “Women.” Lake Union Herald, August 1992.

Hazelton, Mrs. A. L. “Wolf Lake, Indiana.” ARH, January 9, 1900.

Hill, O. B. “Our Academy.” Lake Union Herald, November 26, 1919.

Hill, W. “Indiana H.&T. Society.” ARH, August 28, 1879.

Hurst, Kortnye. “Adventist Education Enrollment Increases in Indiana.” Lake Union Herald, December 2011.

“Important!” Indiana Reporter, June 19, 1907.

“Indiana Conference.” ARH, October 1, 1872.

Indiana Conference Committee. “Indianapolis Meeting-House and Mission.” ARH, May 24, 1887.

Indiana Conference Communication Department. “Marshallese Group Scattered Worldwide

Joins Indiana Congregation.” Lake Union Herald, January/February 2022.

“Indiana State Conference.” ARH, October 20, 1874.

“Industrial School Announcement.” Indiana Reporter, October 15, 1902.

Michel, Debbie. “Haitian Group Organizes at Evansville First Church.” Lake Union Herald, August 2021.

Michel, Debbie. “Indiana and Lake Region Conferences Commission Teachers at Camp

Meeting.” Lake Union Herald, August 2017.

Miller, A. L. “Indiana Tract Society.” ARH, September 29, 1896.

Morgan, G. W. “Indiana Conference Breaks Ground for New Office.” Lake Union Herald, June 10, 1975.

Poenitz, Steven. “The Big Five+ for Indiana.” Lake Union Herald, Quinquennial Report 2016.

Shepard, Edith. “Indiana Church Schools.” Lake Union Herald, September 26, 1928.

Starr, F. D. “Indiana.” ARH, September 12, 1893.

Starr, F. D. “Indiana Conference Proceedings.” ARH, September 9, 1890.

Unruh, T. E. “Indiana Launches Camp Project.” Lake Union Herald, August 1, 1961.

Van Schaik, Vic. “150 Years…Together IN Mission.” Lake Union Herald, May 2022.

“Vegetarian Restaurant.” Indiana Reporter, December 25, 1907.

Waggoner, J. H. “The Cause in Indiana.” ARH, January 16, 1872.

Weis, Vialo. “Indiana Hispanic Churches Receive Stewardship Instructor Training.” Lake Union Herald, January 2015.

Wiest, C. S. “The School.” Lake Union Herald, August 13, 1919.

Wiest, C. S. “The Work in Indiana.” Lake Union Herald, November 5, 1919.

Young, W. A. “A New Legal Body.” Indiana Reporter, April 27, 1904.

Notes

  1. Although the author of the article “Indiana Conference” in the Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, vol. 10 (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1996), 756, asserts that Bates was in South Bend in July 1849 and names his first two converts in 1850, no primary source is provided as evidence for this. However, J. C. Bowles’ letter of August 18, 1849 (Present Truth, September 1849, 32), indicates that Bates was preaching in the Midwest during the summer of 1849. A search of primary documents written by Bates, James and Ellen White, and J. N. Loughborough, as well as an examination of the writings of historians A. W. Spalding, E. K. VandeVere, Richard Schwarz, C. Mervyn Maxwell, and George Knight has also failed to provide corroborative support for this long-held story.

  2. J. M. Cunningham, Letter, January 17, 1858, ARH, January 28, 1858, 95.

  3. Ezra Stiles, “Extracts from Letters,” ARH, August 28, 1860, 119.

  4. “Business Proceedings of the Michigan State Conference,” ARH, October 14, 1862, 157; “Indiana Conference” and “Michigan Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, DC: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1931, 51-52. These five counties—Elkhart, LaGrange, LaPorte, St. Joseph, and Porter—were not returned to the Indiana Conference until 1931 when the West and East Michigan conferences were merged.

  5. Joseph Bates, Letter, November 9, 1868, ARH, November 24, 1868, 253-54; James White, “Owosso Camp-Meeting,” ARH, August 31, 1869, 77.

  6. E. B. Lane, “An Appeal for the Indiana Camp-Meeting,” ARH, September 27, 1870, 119.

  7. “Indiana Conference,” ARH, October 1, 1872, 126; E. B. and S. H. Lane, “Labors in Indiana,” September 6, 1870, 93; “Indiana State Conference,” October 20, 1874, 135; “Indiana,” July 18, 1878, 30.

  8. “Indiana Conference,” ARH, October 5, 1876, 111; “Indiana Conference,” September 5, 1878, 87.

  9. William Covert, “Indiana State T&M Society,” ARH, October 28, 1873, 158.

  10. Dr. W. Hill, “Indiana H.&T. Society,” ARH, August 28, 1879, 79; J. M. Rees, “Indiana Camp-Meeting Sabbath School,” July 31, 1879, 48.

  11. William Covert, “Indiana State Meeting,” ARH, May 20, 1884, 333.

  12. William Covert, “Indiana State Meeting,” ARH, April 5, 1887, 220.

  13. Indiana Conference Committee, “Indianapolis Meeting-House and Mission,” ARH, May 24, 1887, 332.

  14. F. D. Starr, “Indiana Camp-Meeting,” ARH, September 11, 1894, 588; J. W. Watt, “Indiana Conference and Camp-Meeting,” ARH, July 2, 1895, 431; J. W. Watt, “Indiana Camp-Meeting,” ARH, July 7, 1896, 429.

  15. J. M. Rees, “Indiana,” ARH, January 14, 1890, 28; F. D. Starr, “Indiana Conference Proceedings,” September 9, 1890, 556; “Indiana,” July 31, 1894, 492.

  16. “Indiana State Meeting,” ARH, April 21, 1891, 253.

  17. A. W. Bartlett, “Indiana,” ARH, October 11, 1892, 636.

  18. J. W. Watt, “Indiana,” ARH, June 2, 1896, 347.

  19. “Evansville, Indiana,” ARH, May 31, 1898, 353.

  20. S. S. Davis, “Indiana,” ARH, August 23, 1898, 543; “Indiana,” December 27, 1898, 837; S. S. and Elnora Davis, “Indiana,” April 10, 1900, 237; R. S. Donnell, “The Indiana Camp-Meeting,” July 10, 1900, 446; R. S. Donnell, “Indiana,” October 23, 1900, 686-687.

  21. A. L. Miller, ARH, September 29, 1896, 625. However, only copies of the Indiana Reporter [IR] from 1901 to 1910 are extant.

  22. “Health Food Prices,” Indiana Reporter, November 6, 1901, 3; “Nut and Cereal Food Company,” March 26, 1902, 4; “A Vegetarian Restaurant,” December 25, 1907, 2.

  23. W. A. Young, “A New Legal Body,” Indiana Reporter, April 27, 1904, 1.

  24.  “Office Address,” Lake Union Herald, November 20, 1912, 4; “Office Address,” January 24, 1917, 2; “Office Address,” November 7, 1917, 2.

  25. A. N. Anderson, “Indiana Conference Proceedings,” Lake Union Herald, September 21, 1910, 2; “A Conversation,” June 12, 1918, 4.

  26.  L. W. Browne, “A Church Organized,” Lake Union Herald, August 26, 1914, 4.

  27.  Patrick Allen, “The Depression and the Role of Women in the Seventh-day Adventist Church,” Adventist Heritage 11, no. 2 (Fall 1986): 48-54.

  28. F. A. Wright, “Camp-Meeting,” Lake Union Herald, May 9, 1928, 5; F. A. Wright, “Camp-Meeting,” May 1, 1929, 1.

  29. “News Note,” Lake Union Herald, May 7, 1946, 3. Hazel Baker was the last female department head until the twenty-first Century.

  30. “News and Notes,” Lake Union Herald, May 2, 1944, 5; “News and Notes,” October 17, 1944, 6.

  31. Hazel Baker, “Unique 13th Sabbath Program at Lafayette,” Lake Union Herald, July 9, 1946, 9; C. M. Bunker, “News Notes,” May 18, 1948, 4.

  32. Ralph Combes, “Indiana Becomes Vanguard Conference,” Lake Union Herald, January 27, 1970, 8. The Vanguard Award meant every member had reached their $25 goal.

  33. Barbara Hales, “Women,” Lake Union Herald, August 1992, 17; Myrna Earles, “Women’s Retreats,” August 1997, 7.

  34. Dooms Day Kits contained 200 “Dooms Day or Distraction” tracts which were distributed by the “Dooms Day Preppers,” members of the Mitchell Seventh-day Adventist church from their booth at the Persimmon Festival in Mitchell, Indiana, in the fall of 2012. See the Lake Union Herald, December 2012, 27.

  35. “Women in Leadership and Ministerial Positions in the Lake Union,” Lake Union Herald, March 2014, 22. While the Illinois Conference had two women pastors and the Michigan Conference and Lake Region Conference had one each, the Indiana Conference had no female pastors in the 2010s.

  36. Vic Van Schaik, “150 Years…Together IN Mission,” Lake Union Herald, May 2022, 33; Randy and Kathy Griffin, “Indiana ABC Has New Name and Leadership,” March 22, 2022, 35.

  37.  S. H. Lane, “Indiana,” ARH, June 22, 1876, 198.

  38. D. H. Oberholtzer, “Indiana,” ARH, September 6, 1887, 572-573.

  39.  L. W. Browne, “A Church Organized,” Lake Union Herald, August 26, 1914, 4.

  40. “News Notes,” Lake Union Herald, March 30, 1921, 15; F. A. Wright, “Summer Work,” July 11, 1928, 3-4.

  41. C. S. Wiest, “Elder Thompson’s Visit,” May 30, 1923, 4; C. S. Wiest, “A Change,” April 29, 1925, 11.

  42. L. L. Murphy, “M.V. Rally for Colored Youth,” Lake Union Herald, March 22, 1938, 4.

  43. “Indiana News Notes,” Lake Union Herald, November 3, 1942, 6.

  44. W. A. Nelson, “Colored Youth Congress,” Lake Union Herald, February 15, 1944, 3-4.

  45. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, s.v., “Lake Region Conference,” 891-893; “Sabbath School Program Bridges Cultural Differences,” Lake Union Herald, June 1997, 18.

  46. C. M. Banker, “Gary Spanish Being Served,” Lake Union Herald, March 31, 1953, 3.

  47. “First Spanish Camp Meeting,” Lake Union Herald, August 1993, 20.

  48. Carmelo Mercado, “Advancements for Hispanics,” Lake Union Herald, February 1995, 20.

  49.  Gary Burns, “Glendale Church Family Celebrates Renovation and Renewal,” Lake Union Herald, November 2006, 32.

  50. Vialo Weis, “Indiana Hispanic Churches Receive Stewardship Instructor Training,” Lake Union Herald, January 2015, 27.

  51. Cliff Hoffman, “Music Teacher Comes to I. A.,” Lake Union Herald, October 30, 1973, 9.

  52. Clayton Farwell, “It’s Harvest Time in Indiana,” Lake Union Herald, June 1996, 25.

  53. Scott Griswold, “New Mizo Church Established,” Lake Union Herald, August 2016, 24-25.

  54. Debbie Michel, “Refugees Receive Lay Seminary Training,” Lake Union Herald, August 2017, 28-29.
  55. Debbie Michel, “Indiana and Lake Region Conferences Commission Teachers at Camp Meeting,” Lake Union Herald, August 2021, 35; Indiana Conference Communication Department, “Marshallese Group Scattered Worldwide Joins Indiana Congregation,” January and February 2022, 30.

  56. “Indiana Meeting-House and Mission,” ARH, May 24, 1887, 332.

  57. G. W. Morgan, “Indiana Conference Breaks Ground for New Office,” Lake Union Herald, June 10, 1975, 9.

  58. T. E. Unruh, “Indiana Launches Camp Project,” Lake Union Herald, August 1, 1961, 8.

  59. J. H. Waggoner, “The Cause in Indiana,” ARH, January 16, 1872, 37.

  60. D. H. Oberholtzer, “Indiana,” ARH, September 5, 1882, 571; J. P. Henderson, “Indiana,” December 11, 1883, 779; J. S. Shrock and David Overly, “Indiana,” September 2, 1884, 572. See also Brian E. Strayer, “The Cause Is Onward: The History of Seventh-day Adventism in Indiana, 1849-1900,” 55-56, 114-16, 168-170, available on the Indiana Conference of Seventh-day Adventists website.

  61. W. Hill, “Indiana H.&T. Society,” ARH, August 28, 1879, 79; Dr. W. Hill, “Indiana H.&T. Society,” October 23, 1879, 139.

  62. F. D. Starr, “Indiana,” ARH, September 12, 1893, 587.

  63.  S. W. Goodwin, et al., “The Indianapolis Sanitarium,” Indiana Reporter, October 9, 1901, 1; “A Vegetarian Restaurant,” December 25, 1907, 3.

  64.  W. H. Edwards, “The Wabash Sanitarium of Lafayette, Indiana,” Indiana Reporter, March 27, 1907, 6; “Conference Proceedings,” February 5, 1908, 6.

  65. R. S. Fries, “Penny-a-Dish Café,” Lake Union Herald, October 18, 1932, 8; R. S. Fries, “Penny-a-Dish Cafeteria,” December 20, 1932, 3.

  66. S. E. Wight, “Attention!” Lake Union Herald, February 29, 1944, 6.

  67. C. G. Edwards, “Bethel Sanitarium Grows,” Lake Union Herald, June 23, 1953, 6.

  68. Jesse and Susan Landess, interviews by author, 2021-2022. As the director of CHIP, who for several years traveled throughout the Conference giving lectures on diet and healthful lifestyles, Susan is knowledgeable concerning the eating habits of Hoosier Adventists in the twenty-first century.

  69. Mrs. A. L. Hazelton, “Wolf Lake, Indiana,” ARH, January 9, 1900, 29.

  70. William Covert, “Our Preparatory School at Boggstown,” Indiana Reporter, June 4, 1902, 4; “Industrial School Announcement,” October 15, 1902, 1; “News and Notes,” September 2, 1903, 4; “News Notes,” Lake Union Herald, April 5, 1911, 6.

  71. “News and Notes,” Indiana Reporter, September 2, 1903, 4.

  72. C. S. Wiest, “The School,” Lake Union Herald, August 13, 1919, 3; C. S. Wiest, “The Work in Indiana,” November 5, 1919, 3; O. B. Hill, “Our Academy,” November 26, 1919, 8.

  73. Kortnye Hurst, “Adventist Education Enrollment Increases in Indiana,” Lake Union Herald, December 2011, 24; Steven Poenitz, “The Big Five+ for Indiana,” Quinquennial Report, 2016, 34-35.

  74. Betty Eaton, “Chaplain’s Life and Ministry Affirmed at Commission Service,” Debbie Michel, “Haitian Group Organizes at Evansville First Church,” Lake Union Herald, August 2013, 31; Debbie Michel, “Indiana and Lake Region Conferences Commission Teachers at Camp Meeting,” August 2017, 26.

  75. Beth Bartlett, executive secretary to Indiana Conference President Vic Van Schaik, email to Brian E. Strayer, October 14, 2022.

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Strayer, Brian E. "Indiana Conference." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. February 20, 2023. Accessed February 15, 2025. https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=CIO8.

Strayer, Brian E. "Indiana Conference." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. February 20, 2023. Date of access February 15, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=CIO8.

Strayer, Brian E. (2023, February 20). Indiana Conference. Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. Retrieved February 15, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=CIO8.