The story of Kern Road Mennonite Church began in 1959 in a living room on the south side of South Bend. A small group of determined and faith-filled people met togeher. Their vision was to gather a Christian community who would support one another in their faith, reach out to their neighborhoods, commit to serving in the community, and be a beacon of hope and light in the South Bend region. One of the participants was Tobe Schmucker. Tobe had moved his family to South Bend to begin a new ministry, Hope Rescue Mission, several years earlier. He and others felt a call to gather people in the region who would be interested in a Mennonite presence and fellowship in South Bend. After a period of time, the group left the home setting and began meeting on Sunday mornings at Hope Rescue Mission. Ultimately they purchased land and built a church on Kern Road that was dedicated in 1962.

The congregation named itself Kern Road Chapel, signaling their commitment to be open to other-than-born- Mennonite participants. In 1982, still open to those not born Mennonite, the church changed its name to Kern Road Mennonite Church to communicate its desire to be connected to Anabaptists and become the Mennonite presence in South Bend that they had always intended to become. The congregation has grown to be the home congregation of over 500 people with regular attendance averaging about 250 on a Sunday during the church year. 

Connections to other Mennonites in Indiana, Michigan and around the globe

• Swa-Nee Lake Area Council of Mennonites - a regional group of six Mennonite congregations in St. Joe and southwest Elkhart Counties
• Northwest Indiana Cluster of Mennonite congregations - a group of ten Mennonite congregations covering all of Northwest Indiana
• Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference - an area conference covering Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee, this is a denominational group of over 80 congregations
• Mennonite Church USA - We are one congregation connected to almost 1000 other congregations within 21 area conferences, over 111,000 members across the United States.
• Mennonite World Conference - connects MC USA to 95 other Mennonite and Brethren in Christ Churches from 52 countries on six continents. The world total is now almost 1.3 million members with Africa being the leader in numbers of Mennonites worldwide. 

To learn more about Mennonites visit the following websites:

• Third Way Café
• Mennonite Mission Network
• Mennonite Central Committee
• Mennonite Publishing Network
• Mennonite Education Agency
• Mennonite Mutual Aid
• Others from "other agencies" page of MC directory