Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

National News

Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership welcomes news service coordinator

by

On April 21, Annette Brill Bergstresser will join the Executive Leadership Communications team in the position of News Service Coordinator.

In this role Bergstresser will be responsible for streamlined news gathering and reporting for Executive Leadership, Mennonite Education Agency, Mennonite Mission Network, MMA, Mennonite Publishing Network and constituency groups. She will collaborate with these groups through regular meetings and will serve as copyeditor for the news that is distributed.

Bergstresser said she was attracted to the position because “it involves communicating about what God is doing across Mennonite Church USA, building relationships with different parts of the church, and extending the church’s witness to the wider world.”

Bergstresser has a bachelor’s degree in magazine journalism from the University of Kansas in Lawrence. For the last seven years, she has served as communications coordinator for Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference in Goshen, Ind. In this role she has developed a deeper understanding of the congregations in the conference—their diverse histories, unique cultures, strengths and challenges. And during that time her connection to the wider church has grown, as she and her co-workers have sought to link the various parts of Mennonite Church USA to their constituents.

Bergstresser is a relatively new Mennonite who did not grow up attending church. Soon after choosing to make a public commitment to Jesus Christ in 1997, she discovered Peace Mennonite Church in Lawrence, Kan., where she was baptized on May 31, 1998. As she became more involved in her congregation, one of the ways she sought to deepen her understanding of the Mennonite Church was by reading denominational publications; she remembers this as a faith-forming experience.

Before joining Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference, she did service learning for half a year in the publishing division of the Latin American Anabaptist Seminary in Guatemala City, as well as a term of voluntary service in Chicago. Following those experiences she studied for a year at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS), Elkhart, Ind., where her sense of call to church communications work was strengthened.

Currently Bergstresser and her family live in Goshen and are part of Faith Mennonite Church. She also works part time as communications assistant for AMBS, and plans to continue in that role.

Franconia Conference Review Steering Committee invites additional members

by

Stephen Kriss

The Franconia Conference Review Steering Committee received nearly 80 nominations for the available sixth position on the recently formed committee. In consultation on April 8, 2010, at the Mennonite Conference Center in Harleysville, PA, the committee moved to increase its numbers and to adjust its members based on feedback from conference constituency.

Additional committee members include:
• Mike Derstine, pastor, Plains Mennonite Church at Hatfield, PA
• Beny Krisbianto, pastor, Nations Worship Center, Philadelphia
• Joy Sutter, Salford Mennonite Church at Harleysville, PA
Previously named member Gerry Clemmer, lead pastor, at Souderton (PA) Mennonite Church has removed himself from the committee to allow space for additional members to represent broader conference constituency. The committee of seven now includes three Franconia Conference board members and four representatives from the Franconia Conference constituent community.

The committee is set with the task of establishing patterns of communication, discernment and decision-making for the upcoming report on the conference-wide review, currently in process under the leadership of LaVern Yutzy, consulting associate with Mennonite Health Services Alliance. The report is intended to shed light on recent events in Franconia Conference; to provide better understanding of issues that will need further processing and to find a path toward a hopeful future while not intending to answer all questions. The report will be available to delegates and constituency by mid-May. The committee intends to have a full report posted at www.mosaicmennonites.org

Yutzy expects to complete his final day of open listening sessions on April 21, 2010, at the Conference Center in Harleysville. To schedule a conversation with LaVern, contact Carla or Melissa, at the Conference Center at 267-932-6050 or email office@mosaicmennonites.org Postcards with questions for perspectives and comments have been sent to all conference delegates and congregations. Postcards should be returned or responses emailed to feedback@mosaicmennonites.org by April 24, 2010. All responses are confidential.

MC USA Executive Leadership welcomes new staff and new roles

by

The month of February brought staffing changes in Executive Leadership.

Ervin Stutzman announced a move to a slightly different arrangement for executive staff which will replace the Associate Director role with two positions:

  • Director of Churchwide Operations and
  • Director of Denominational Support Services

Stutzman has appointed Marty Lehman to serve as director of churchwide operations. In her new position, Lehman will have responsibility for communication, development, convention planning, and church relations. She will also continue to give leadership to Historical Committee, finance/administration and The Corinthian Plan. In the long term, finance and administration will move to the new support services position. Lehman will continue to have her office in Elkhart and Kathryn Rodgers will serve as executive assistant.

On February 1, Leanne Farmwald began quarter-time with Executive Leadership as director of the Executive Leadership communication team along with her role as director of marketing and communication for Mennonite Mission Network. Following the denominational ministry model, we are excited about this new opportunity to collaborate and share leadership. This is an interim arrangement and will be reviewed in the coming months.

On February 22 we welcomed Deidre (Summerton) Bias to the Executive Leadership staff. She joins the convention planning team in the role of convention communication coordinator.

Bias is responsible for writing all external print pieces related to convention promotion and marketing. She will also be working with the children and junior youth gatherings and taking on other logistical planning responsibilities as needed.

Bias is a Goshen/Elkhart native, a Goshen College graduate and attends College Mennonite Church. Most recently she worked for First Steps as the family outreach and public awareness coordinator. Her responsibilities included promoting the state-wide program which works with children, birth to three, who have special needs and their families. She loves to read and travel, and is always in the midst of planning the next adventure for her and her family. We are grateful for the energy and expertise that Bias brings to the convention planning team.

MCC U.S. invites applications for transitional executive director role

by

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) U.S. is seeking a transitional executive director to provide vision and oversight for all MCC programs in the United States during a time of significant organizational change.

The assignment is expected to begin on July 1 and continue for two to three years. The full-time, salaried position involves extensive travel, mostly in Canada and the United States. The director will lead MCC U.S. forward in a time of organizational restructuring while a long-term executive director is found. The transitional executive director will not be considered as a candidate for the executive director position.

The transitional executive director is responsible for general oversight of program planning, development and coordination; budget management and staff supervision. The director will focus on implementing organizational change in cooperation with executive directors of MCC and MCC Canada and other provincial and regional MCC leaders. New Wine/New Wineskins, MCC’s new shared vision and restructuring process, will guide the organizational change. More information is available at newwineskins.mcc.org.

Qualified candidates will uphold MCC U.S. values of faith in Christ, peace, justice, service, anti-racism, anti-sexism and anti-oppression; will be a member in good standing of a church that is a part of MCC’s supporting constituency; will exhibit a commitment to personal Christian faith; and will be committed to the teaching of nonviolent biblical peacemaking. Women, minorities and other underrepresented individuals are encouraged to apply.

Interested candidates should send a resume and letter of interest no later than April 1 to MCC U.S. Board Executive Search Committee, 234 South Main Street, Suite 1, Goshen, IN 46526. E-mail submissions can be sent to MCCUSEDSearch@mhsonline.org. Individuals wanting to recommend a candidate may also contact the search committee.

MCC, a worldwide ministry of Anabaptist churches, shares God’s love and compassion for all in the name of Christ by responding to basic human needs and working for peace and justice. MCC envisions communities worldwide in right relationship with God, one another and creation.

Urban leaders take first steps toward forming global network

by

by Linda Espenshade

A newly formed network of urban Anabaptist leaders, facilitated by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), is developing organically. Person by person, they are gradually connecting with each other because they share the commonality of engaging the city as Anabaptists.

The formation of the network is based on one founding principle – Anabaptist leaders who are committed to caring for the cities they live in can benefit from relating to urban Anabaptists from all parts of the world. Once connected, they will better understand how they can support each other in their efforts.

“We have Korean Anabaptists longing to be in relationship with other urban Anabaptists,” said Joe Manickam, Asia director for MCC. “We have urban Anabaptists in London who are longing to be in relationship with other urban Anabaptists. The same can be said for Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Vancouver and the list goes on.

“So this initiative is here to give credence to this voice coming out of the city,” said Manickam, who together with the Rev. Leonard Dow, pastor of Oxford Circle Mennonite Church in Philadelphia, birthed the idea. MCC’s role is simply to connect the urban voices. Dow is vice chair of the MCC U.S. board of directors.

“We want it to remain very organic,” said Manickam. “We want it to evolve as the people want it to evolve without outside pressures telling it what it should be.”

The first steps of the network took place in August when a group of urban leaders, most from Philadelphia, flew to Seoul, South Korea, where they were hosted by the Korea Anabaptist Center (KAC). Starting with these two groups was logical because KAC already participates in MCC’s exchange programs and was interested in more interaction, and Philadelphia is home to the largest group of MCC urban constituents on the East Coast.

For participant Ron Tinsley, communications director at Philadelphia Mennonite High School, the most valuable experiences of the trip were the personal discussions and times for reflection that were amply built into the schedule. Tinsley is a member of Oxford Circle Mennonite Church.

“Sometimes we get so busy looking at programs that we don’t get a chance to understand where (the other leaders’) hearts are at and listen to their dreams and fears,” Tinsley said, adding that a prophetic sense can emerge from these kinds of conversations.

Some of the discussions, including those about stereotypes and racism, were difficult, Tinsley said. Instruction by Jeff Wright, an urban missiologist from Southern California, revolved around “theology of place” or building of intentional community in the city.

The Philadelphia guests also visited two Anabaptist churches and learned about several peacemaking organizations. KAC teaches peace-building skills to North Korean defectors and South Korean young people. The organization also works with other peace groups to create understanding of past hurts among people from South Korea, Japan and China.

When KAC Administrator Kim Kyong-Jung paid a return visit to Philadelphia and then to Los Angeles in November, he was glad to witness urban churches at work within a multicultural society. South Korea, which once was predominantly homogeneous, is becoming increasingly diverse.

“This means that many different types of conflict issues exist, which makes churches’ jobs harder,” he wrote in an e-mail after his visit. “The churches’ missional approaches are being challenged as they look to this kind of social phenomenon.”

Encouraging young people to serve in cities around the world through MCC’s Global Service Learning program is important to this emerging network. For example, Korean Jung Joo Park, who is a participant with MCC’s International Volunteer Exchange Program (IVEP), is working with Oxford Circle Mennonite Church and its community partners.

“Here in the U.S., I am valued as Asian, adding to the cultural diversity of Philadelphia, and it does not seem to matter that I am a foreigner,” Park said. “Once I go home, I hope to introduce a deeper understanding of and respect for diversity in South Korea.”

Making these kinds of “flesh and blood connections” between Anabaptists from different cities is exactly what Ruth Keidel Clemens, executive director of MCC East Coast, hopes will happen as the network develops. “Urban Anabaptist churches are a priority for MCC East Coast, and bringing its leaders together with those from other countries strengthens all involved, as we seek to engage the cities together as Anabaptists,” she said.

Clemens and Manickam are discussing possibilities for holding a conference of urban Anabaptist practitioners as another way to bring people together to learn from each other. Until then, the conversation will continue, person by person.

Michael King named EMS Vice President and Seminary Dean

by

by Laura Lehman Amstutz

Michael A. King, a long-time writer, editor, publisher and pastor from Telford, Pa., has been named the new vice president and dean of Eastern Mennonite Seminary, Harrisonburg, Va.

Dr. King will begin his new role July 1, 2010. He succeeds Ervin R. Stutzman, who held the position nine years. Dr. Stutzman has begun serving as the new executive secretary of Mennonite Church USA. Dr. Sara Wenger Shenk is interim dean.

The vice president and seminary dean provides leadership and oversight for all seminary programs and faculty.

“Michael’s years of pastoral experience, academic preparation and passion for preparing church leaders will serve us well in his new role,” said Loren Swartzendruber, EMU president. “We anticipate his contributions to EMS as dean and to the entire university as he joins the leadership team.”

“Michael King comes to us from a distinguished career as a pastor, scholar and publisher,” said Fred Kniss, EMU provost. “He is a serious scholar with a pastoral orientation and will provide a clear Anabaptist voice in conversation with diverse Mennonite and Methodist constituencies and other audiences. Michael is committed to the mission of our university and especially to the seminary’s key role in training the next generation of church leaders,” Dr. Kniss added.

King is the owner, editor and publisher of Cascadia Publishing House, an Anabaptist-Mennonite publisher supporting examination of faith, history and contemporary life from an Anabaptist perspective. Cascadia publishes theological and scholarly volumes under the Cascadia label and popular books through the DreamSeeker Books imprint.

He has been a pastor at Germantown Mennonite Church in Philadelphia, Pa.; Salford Mennonite Church, Harleysville, Pa.; Zion Mennonite Church, Souderton Pa., and most recently Spring Mount Mennonite Church, Schwenksville, Pa. He has been an adjunct professor at EMS Lancaster and Messiah-Temple in Philadelphia.

Books he has authored include “Trackless Wastes and Stars to Steer By: Christian Identity in a Homeless age” and “Preaching about Life in a Threatening World.” He has also edited multiple volumes including “Anabaptist Preaching: A Conversation between Pulpit, Pew and Bible.”

“Church, culture, and seminary education all seem to be undergoing tremendous ferment and transition,” King said. “This places seminaries in the center of much of the important action in our day. I look forward to journeying with seminary students, staff and faculty as together we seek to discern how the Holy Spirit is speaking in the thick of it all.”

He received a BA degree in Bible and philosophy from EMU in 1976, an MDiv degree from Palmer Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and a PhD in rhetoric and communications from Temple University.

King is married to Joan Kenersen King, owner of Joan Kenerson King Consulting and Counseling, through which she provides public behavioral health consulting services. She is also a family therapist. They have three daughters – Kristina, EMU 2003, Katelyn, EMU 2006, and Rachael, an EMU senior.

Eastern Mennonite Seminary, a graduate program of theological studies on the EMU campus seeks to educate leaders to serve and lead in ministry in a global context.

Eastern Mennonite Seminary offers cross-cultural seminar in United Kingdom

by

Eastern Mennonite Seminary at Lancaster (PA) is offering its first ever cross-cultural experience to the United Kingdom.

“Struggle and Hope in Post-Christendom,” led by Stephen Kriss and Stuart Murray Williams, will explore Christian presence and witness in Bristol and London, England.

Kriss is director of communication and leadership cultivation with Franconia Mennonite Conference in eastern Pennsylvania and an adjunct instructor for EMS Lancaster, and Williams is a trainer and consultant with the Anabaptist Network in the United Kingdom.

“Post-Christendom is a new understanding of the place of the church and Christian life in a world of multiple faiths, multiple perspectives and spirituality that is not tied to a particular religion,” said Kriss.

“We want to give people a glimpse into both the possibilities and awkwardness that exist in post-Christendom context,” he continued. “What I have learned from my connections in the United Kingdom is that there is the real possibility for Anabaptism to thrive as church is decentralized.

“I hope that by listening to the stories of leaders in the United Kingdom the class would gain a sense of the possibilities in our present and future.”

Orientation for the course will begin May 1 at EMU Lancaster. The group will travel in the United Kingdom May 16-24. The group will reassemble June 25-26 to reflect on their experience and to discuss how to apply what they’ve learned to congregations in the United States.

Students may earn three hours of graduate credit. Travel, lodging and fees cost $2,750; credit tuition is $1,100 and non-credit tuition is $495. Priority will be given to students taking the course for credit. The deadline for registration is Mar. 15, 2010.

For more information, visit www.emu.edu/lancaster/seminary/cross-cultural or contact Mark Wenger, director of pastoral studies, at (717) 397-5190 or wengermr@emu.edu.

Planners for Mennonite Church USA Convention 2011 choose theme

by

Planners for the Mennonite Church USA Convention 2011 focused on their mission and setting during the convention planning committee meetings as they met for the first time Jan. 14 to 16 in downtown Pittsburgh, Pa., site of the next national gathering. Youth and adult planning committees joined together to discern the theme and initiate other convention plans.

After two-and-a-half days of prayer, reading Scripture and small group brainstorming, “Bridges to (the) Cross,” and 2 Corinthians 5:16-20 surfaced as the theme and Scripture text for the next convention. Convention dates are July 4 to 9, 2011.

Pittsburgh, known as the City of Three Rivers, is connected by many bridges. Planners agreed on the importance of being missional within one’s context and surroundings and used the bridges and rivers idea to connect with their theme.

“The committee recognized that the theme is twofold. First, as instruments of Christ’s reconciliation, we too have many bridges to cross. Second, God calls us to shape our culture as ambassadors for Christ, instead of continuing to have our culture shape us. We are called to serve as bridges to Christ,” Rachel Swartzendruber Miller, director of Convention Planning for Executive Leadership, said.

A high point of the weekend included discussion of a proposal from the Intercultural Relations Reference Committee that suggested convention include a day of showcasing and celebrating the gifts and talents of racial/ethnic members and congregations. Planners welcomed this proposal with excitement and affirmation.

Another high point came after learning that the David Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, where the Mennonites will gather, is one of the largest green buildings in the United States. It is certified with a Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Building Rating System rating by the U.S. Green Building Council.

“We want to challenge our attendees to partner in our attempts to be the greenest convention this center has ever seen,” said Stephen Kriss, Philadelphia, Pa., adult committee member and Franconia Mennonite Conference staff.

Planners hope the churches within a few hours of western Pennsylvania will be willing to sponsor those at a distance. “The majority of our constituents live fewer than four hours from Pittsburgh,” noted Marty Lehman, director of administration and advancement for Mennonite Church USA. “This majority will have decreases in travel costs to convention. It is our hope they will consider giving 10 percent of their fund-raising dollars to other groups hesitant to attend convention due to cost and distance.”

Committee members encouraged staff to tell the stories of youth and adults who have been sponsored at past conventions.

“I was able to attend San Jose, and I promised to never miss another convention,” Olufemi Fatunmbi, Los Angeles, Calif., adult committee member and a pastor in Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference, said. “However, I am from a small congregation and need financial help in order to bring more participants from my church.”

Committee members ended the weekend with prayers of thanks and praise for the Lord’s leading and for the opportunity to be involved in this work for the broader denomination.

Each committee includes 12 volunteers from across the denomination, including several from Pennsylvania, the hosting state. Rachel Swartzendruber Miller chairs both committees.

Members of the committee planning adult sessions and activities are Darrell Baer, Chambersburg, Pa., Marilyn Handrich Bender, Pittsburgh, Pa., Erin Clymer, Pittsburgh, Pa., Sue Conrad, Lancaster, Pa., Tory Doerksen, Denver, Colo., Olufemi Fatunmbi, Los Angeles, Calif., Makmur Halim, Highland, Calif., Karen Howard, Pittsburgh, Pa., Paula Killough, Elkhart, Ind., Stephen Kriss, Philadelphia, Pa., Donna J. Mast, Leola, Pa., and Donna L. Mast, Scottdale, Pa. Executive Leadership staff on the adult committee include Marty Lehman, Carol Epp, Ken Gingerich and Nancy Kauffmann.

Members of the committee planning youth sessions and activities are Marisa Aleman-Cantu, Rock Island, Ill., Alyssa Cable, Johnstown, Pa., Joy Cotchen, Johnstown, Pa., Thomas Dunn, Kidron, Ohio, Andrew Gordon, Lansdale, Pa., She’ Tenique Hall, Hampton, Va., Jon Heinly, Lancaster, Pa., Shelly Miller, Walnut Creek, Ohio, Clark Oswald, Newton, Kan., Grace Pam, Corona, Calif., Jason Widmer, Wellman, Iowa, Derek Yoder, Cassopolis, Mich. Jeremy Ours of Kalona, Iowa will serve as worship logistics coordinator and Tonya Keim Bartel of Hesston, Kan., as seminar coordinator. Executive Leadership staff members Glen Guyton and Scott Hartman are part of the youth committee.