Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

National News

MC USA releases consultant LaVern Yutzy’s alignment report

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After a sweeping yearlong study, Mennonite Church USA leadership has received a consultant’s report on how the denomination operates and with suggestions to improve its witness. Consultant LaVern Yutzy’s 22-page “Report on Alignment Opportunities for Mennonite Church USA” puts forth recommendations for 15 different areas of church organization, addressing issues such as the role of area conferences, Executive Board composition and the four church-wide program agencies functions and structures.

To introduce his work, Yutzy states, “I consider it a very rare privilege to have had the opportunity to talk with 142 persons… Meeting these persons and participating in a variety of conference and denominational level meetings have underscored the high levels of commitment and competence that are present. There is clear evidence of a strong passion for the church and an appreciation for worship and prayer as an integral part of following Jesus.”

Yutzy observed Mennonite Church USA as a denomination in change and affirmed our ability to live into the future. The alignment effort, he said, must be seen within the vision and commitment of Mennonite Church USA to embody and extend healing and hope. “Alignment efforts are not an end in themselves…if it has any value, this report will support our efforts to faithfully follow Jesus.”

Noting area conferences’ “significant frustration” at feeling marginalized, Yutzy calls for giving them greater prominence in the church. The role of denominational-level activity, he said, should be supporting the 21 Mennonite Church USA area conferences rather than congregations. Serving congregations should then be the conferences’ responsibility.

“In order to identify resources that will facilitate the work of conferences, conferences themselves must be integrally involved in this ongoing conversation,” Yutzy said.

One way to do that, he proposes, is reconfiguring the Executive Board to include five representatives from area conferences as well as one representative from each recognized racial/ethnic group in Mennonite Church USA.

Other recommendations include:

  • Executive Leadership and the four churchwide program agencies sharing support services as much as possible.
  • Adding MHS Alliance as a fifth agency.
  • Implementing a process to identify strategies to address each of the four churchwide priorities.

The Executive Board, which had hired Yutzy a year ago, received his report last month and has since distributed it to other denominational leaders and staff for their consideration. The report and responses will be a major agenda item at the Executive Board’s Feb. 18-20 meeting in Hampton, VA. At that time the board will develop a plan to receive feedback over the next number of months from those potentially most affected by the recommendations.

Executive Director of Mennonite Church USA, Ervin Stutzman, noted that no decisions have been made about any of the recommendations in the report at this time. Each recommendation will be considered on its own merit over the next months in an appropriate forum for discussion and decision-making. Within this process there will be wide opportunity for participation by people who have a stake in the outcome. Stutzman is calling the church to prayer as we move into this period of discernment.

Mennonite Church USA’s Corinthian Plan begins

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by Keith Harder

The Corinthian Plan, the new health insurance plan of Mennonite Church USA, went into effect Jan. 1. A total of 453 congregations and conferences, including 503 credentialed employees and 75 non-credentialed employees, are participating. Also included are employees of MMA, Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership and Mission Network.

“The dream of delegates at the Mennonite Church USA Delegate Assembly in San Jose has become reality,” says Keith Harder. He has given leadership to creating, on behalf of the denomination’s Executive Board, a health plan that makes coverage available to all pastors and church workers. Congregations that cannot afford the full cost of providing coverage are assisted through a mutual aid component that all participating congregations support. It’s called the Fair Balance Fund.

Congregations have pledged approximately $480,000 for the Fair Balance Fund, and so far $414,203 has been committed to assist 57 congregations with the cost of providing health coverage for their pastors.

“We are grateful to the participating Mennonite Church USA congregations and for the way they care for their employees. We are grateful that they also care for those in congregations that cannot afford the full cost of providing health coverage for their pastors,” Harder says.

The new Benefits Board, which will oversee The Corinthian Plan, will meet in Goshen in mid-February. Board members are chair Hal Loewen of Phoenix, Ariz., Steve Garboden of Goshen, Ind., Marlin Groff of Lancaster, Pa., Marco Guete of Tampa, Fla., Larry Miller of Goshen, Ind., Ron Piper of Harrisonburg, Va., Yvonne Sieber of Hesston, Kan., and Dave Weaver of Goshen, Ind.

Harder will continue to serve as director of The Corinthian Plan for Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership.

For more information, contact Keith Harder at 866-866-2872 Ext 34255 (toll-free) or keithh@mennoniteusa.org.

Congregations encouraged to participate in MCC’s Abundant Life Campaign

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by Christina Warner

At West Philadelphia Mennonite Fellowship (WPMF), worshippers considered how personal choices such as shopping, career paths, debt and education affect God’s global community during an October service.

Earlier in the year, the congregation focused a worship service on health care and then took action on the issue. Now, WPMF is preparing to address the issue of housing.

WPMF is one of several dozen Mennonite congregations that have dedicated a Sunday worship service to learning and acting on issues of poverty and economic justice.

These congregations are participating in Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) U.S. Washington Office’s Abundant Life: Economic Justice for All campaign, meant to raise awareness and encourage action on U.S. public policy. They used a variety of easily accessible resources from the Washington Office to help in planning for worship, discussion and action.

The campaign centers around four U.S. policy issues that have the potential to create greater economic justice across the globe: health care, international debt relief, housing and trade. Dates of specific Sundays are suggested as days to concentrate on each topic.

Two more Sundays for prayer and action are coming up, focused on housing (Jan. 31) and trade (April 25). Congregations are invited and encouraged to participate.

At WPMF, 70 to 80 people participated in the worship service with the health care theme on July 19. The service led to a response time during which congregants shared their own stories as health care professionals struggling with the current health care system. Afterward, the congregation sent 40 letters to government representatives, expressing their concerns and desires for future policy.

At College Mennonite Church in Goshen, Ind., the July health care service drew more than 100 participants for a discussion with Anne Krabill Hershberger, retired associate professor of nursing at Goshen College, and Don Yost, of Maple City Health Care Center in Goshen.

“The Abundant Life campaign provides an opportunity for congregations to learn about current economic justice issues and then to respond by making their perspective known to policymakers,” said Rachelle Lyndaker Schlabach, director of the Washington Office.

For more information on the campaign and to sign up for resources, visit the Washington Office website at washington.mcc.org/life.

In addition, the “Washington Memo,” published quarterly by the Washington Office, includes articles and analysis about U.S. policies from an Anabaptist perspective.

Campaign resources in the Washington Memo include worship resources, reflections and prayer, as well as a sample letter to representatives. Featured articles are from both Washington Office staff and other MCC workers who see the direct effect public policies have on MCC partners and their work.

Christina Warner is the legislative assistant for Domestic Affairs at the MCC U.S. Washington Office.

MCC asks for relief kits, comforters, sheets for Haiti

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by Linda Espenshade

In addition to donations of money, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is asking the public to supply 20,000 relief kits, 10,000 heavy comforters and 10,000 sheets to be sent to Haitian earthquake survivors.

The supplies will help relieve the discomfort and suffering of Haitians who are sleeping on streets and open areas because their homes are destroyed or because they don’t trust the safety of the buildings that remain.

MCC’s staff in Haiti and the initial support response team that arrived there Saturday are requesting these supplies as one way MCC can respond to the needs they see around them.

Relief kits include personal hygiene supplies, laundry soap, towels and bandages. People who donate kits are asked to provide complete kits with only the specific items on the list of relief kit supplies that can be found at mcc.org/kits.

The relief kits can be packed in a box or bag and delivered to any of the drop-off locations in Canada or the United States listed at mcc.org/kits/dropofflocations by Feb. 28. MCC will then repackage the kits in new, five-gallon buckets.

Heavy comforters and sheets also are being accepted at any drop-off location until Feb. 28.

MCC asks that the comforters be new and filled with quilt batting or a blanket for extra warmth. Twin-size comforters are preferred, but double/full-size comforters are accepted. Specific requirements are online at mcc.org/kits.

Flat sheets, which also will be used as mosquito netting, can be double-, queen- or king- size. Sheets, with at least a 300-thread count, should be new, cotton and light-colored, which is not as attractive to mosquitoes.

MCC is grateful for the generous financial gifts that people have given to MCC for the people of Haiti, starting just hours after the 7.0 earthquake devastated the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Some of those funds are already at work in Haiti, being used to purchase food and supplies that are available there. MCC is airlifting 70,000 pounds or 31,750 kg of canned meat and 1,000 water filters into Haiti as soon as possible. Another shipment of at least the same amount of meat, probably more, will be sent by sea. MCC is also purchasing thousands of tents and tarps.

MCC is planning a multi-million dollar response over a number of years, focusing on rebuilding homes and livelihoods.

Donations to MCC’s response in Haiti are welcome. They should be designated Haiti Earthquake. Donations can be made online at www.mcc.org or by telephone, toll free, 1-888-563-4676 (U.S.). By mail, donations may be sent to MCC and MCC U.S., P.O. Box 500, Akron, PA 17501.

Shared statements a major step as MCC reshapes its future

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by Gladys Terichow

It was a historic moment when the delegate body at Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Canada’s annual meeting held here in November endorsed seven foundational statements to guide the work of MCC, the final of the 12 MCC entities to do so.

Arli Klassen, executive director of MCC binational (Canada and the U.S.), said the statements represent the first time these 12 entities have expressed a shared vision. “It is a sense of coming together in unity and affirmation of what God calls us to do. The statements bring new clarity that will inspire MCC’s work in the name of Christ. That is powerful, very powerful,” said Klassen.

The statements, also referred to as the “new wine,” were developed through a re-visioning and restructuring process called New Wine/New Wineskins: Reshaping MCC for the 21st Century. They articulate MCC’s identity, purpose, vision, priorities, approaches, values and convictions. The recommendations for the “new wineskins” – a new structure for MCC – are still in the development stages.

New Wine/New Wineskins was a listening and consultation process that involved more than 2,000 people from 50 countries participating in 60 meetings.

One of the core statements is MCC’s purpose – “MCC endeavors to share God’s love and compassion for all in the name of Christ by responding to basic human needs and working for peace and justice.”

“This is the statement that people should memorize,” said Klassen. “This is what we believe God has called MCC to do in its history and in the future. Now we have found shared words to express it.”

Klassen points to two key elements of the purpose statement – that the motivation for MCC’s mission is to share God’s love and compassion for all in the name of Christ, and that MCC intentionally works both to meet basic needs and for peace and justice. She notes that for the first time the words “in the name of Christ,” which have expressed MCC’s Christian witness for decades, are incorporated in its foundational statements.

MCC priorities identified through the New Wine/New Wineskins process are justice and peace-building, disaster relief and sustainable community development. The new statements, explained Klassen, both reflect MCC’s historic commitment to relief, development and peace and clearly state that peace cannot be built without addressing injustice.

MCC does its work in partnership with churches and other partner agencies and builds bridges to connect people and ideas across cultural, political and economic divides. “We don’t do our work just by giving out financial grants – we work at building relationships,” Klassen said.

MCC’s identity as a worldwide ministry of Anabaptist churches is strengthened through including in the statements the “Shared Convictions” of global Anabaptists as adopted by the Mennonite World Conference General Council in March 2006.

This is the first time MCC has had a statement of faith, Klassen said, noting that it has always drawn theology from the churches to which it is accountable. Many churches, she said, expressed strong affirmation for MCC including these shared Christian faith convictions in its foundational statements.

The MCC statements were developed by an Inquiry Task Force of 34 people that was given the task of engaging, listening to and representing the various MCC constituencies through summits and regional meetings. The group synthesized what it heard and offered recommendations. The recommendations were endorsed by a group of 95 people, representing the 12 MCCs and the church denominations they are accountable to in June 2009. The next step in the process was endorsement by the 12 MCC boards, MCC Canada’s annual meeting being the last scheduled.

Klassen said the MCC system-wide endorsement of the “new wine” foundational statements is encouragement for the next step in the process – consensus on a revised structure. The “new wineskins” recommendations are expected to be endorsed in 2011 and fully implemented in 2012.

“There were points of despair or frustration in this re-visioning process, but there also was always a sense of commitment to listen to God through the voices of the faith community. I believe the Holy Spirit has been at work, leading MCC,” Klassen said.

The full MCC foundational statements are at newwineskins.mcc.org.

Schrag offers words of encouragement to denomination as he writes history

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by June Krehbiel

The words of Isaiah 6:8 didn’t impress 13-year-old Jim Schrag at the time. His pastor, Arnold Epp at First Mennonite Church in Newton, Kan., presented “Here am I, send me” to young Jim in 1958 along with similar verses to other baptismal candidates. Only later, when his dad called attention to their meaning, did the young man recognize the significance of the words.

During three decades of church leadership, the Isaiah verse has inspired Schrag, who retired Nov. 30 from his position as executive director of Mennonite Church USA. He has ministered a total of 36 years within Mennonite congregations and in denominational leadership. Beginning in 1996, he served three years as general secretary for the General Conference Mennonite Church, two years as project leader for the team which guided the former General Conference and Mennonite Church toward a merger and, since 2001, at the helm of the fledgling denomination.

Someday Schrag might put stickers on a map to show all the airports he’s been at, especially the last 13 years, while attending denominational and area conference meetings.

His most recent call from God, however, finds him not on the way to a meeting, but writing a book-length manuscript about the years leading up to and including the merger. Faith and culture stand together as his way to describe the coming together.

“God is in the future more than the past, but God is certainly in the past,” he said last month at his office in Newton, Kan. Favorite quotations and Bible verses, including the Isaiah words, hang on the walls. Boxes crammed with paper files cover a table. Three-ring binders fill the shelves. A laptop computer sits on his wooden desk.

He has picked Bethlehem (Pa.) 1983 to begin the retelling. At the time he’d pastored Tabor Mennonite Church near Goessel, Kan., for 10 years and was co-chairing the planning committee for the meetings. These were the first joint delegate sessions of the General Conference Mennonite Church and the Mennonite Church. A statement on inter-Mennonite cooperation was one item discussed in joint sessions—the first step toward a merger between the two denominations.

In 1995 delegates to sessions held in Wichita, Kan., granted approval to integration. By then Schrag had pastored the Oak Grove Mennonite Church congregation near Smithville, Ohio, for 10 years. The next year the General Conference called him to the position of general secretary, and his tenure in churchwide leadership began. Because he was relatively new to the work that had been done on the institutional level, with a smile he describes that time as feeling like he was “thrown into the water and asked to swim.”

The theme Schrag is pursuing in his book is change. Amid the changes the new denomination has experienced lie cultural differences.

“The culture brought us together, and the culture kept us apart,” he says, describing the peoples of both groups. “I used to think that the forces for integration and merger lay basically on an Elkhart and Newton axis. But then I realized that’s just a smattering of the historical pieces that have been trying to bring parts of the church together for decades.”

He’s learning that change within the church is best measured in decades or even centuries. And organizational questions “spiral along,” resurfacing regularly to be talked about again and again.

“Spiritual issues, too,” he says, “draw people together and keep them apart. The experience of being the church is not entirely a spiritual or cultural human experience. It’s both. We get confused when we emphasize one over the other.”

Where is the church headed? Referring to Phyllis Tickle’s book, “The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why,” Schrag believes the church is in another reformation. “About every 500 years since the time of Christ, something has been an important hinge point in the church,” he says.

Just like Protestantism was connected to the fall of feudalism and movement to the cities, the current reformation connects with modernization, science and other changes in society.

“Part of what Mennonite Church USA is, in my understanding, is a logical result of the 150 years preceding. The distinctions between us are blurring—not just between Mennonite groups but also between churches. The question for us today is: What direction is the church pointing from here? Can we be Anabaptist with a different suit of clothes?” Schrag asks.

He hopes Mennonites will seriously consider the call to be missional.

“We used to say, ‘We know who God is. We just need to know what God wants us to do.’ Now the missional understanding calls us to switch those around to say: ‘We want to know what God is doing so we can get an idea who God wants us to become.’ When you switch the two, you emphasize the becoming part and trust the doing part of it to God. That describes the church’s transformation,” Schrag says.

The missional calling of the church is “the best thing we have going for us,” he says. “It takes us from our history of separation for the sake of purity and preservation on a slow odyssey toward engagement with the world where God is active.”

“God has provided some new people, especially from other cultures, who have said to us, ‘We share your understanding of scripture; that’s us too,’ Schrag says.

To the person in the pew, Schrag counsels to “be attentive as we always have, to what God is doing now. Right now, it’s not what God wants us to do, but rather who God wants us to become.”

As Schrag continues writing the history of Mennonite Church USA and following his call, he offers his favorite Pauline benediction:

“Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.” Ephesians 3:20-21 NRSV

Schrag’s writing project began in August. Since then Ron Byler of Elkhart, Ind., has served as acting executive director for Mennonite Church USA. Beginning in January, Ervin R. Stutzman of Harrisonburg, Va., will lead the church as the denomination’s next executive director.

Sara Wenger Shenk named president for AMBS

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Sara Wenger Shenk, Ed.D., associate dean of Eastern Mennonite Seminary, has been named president of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary(AMBS). She will begin the new assignment no later than October 1, 2010, following several months of orientation and preparation.

The AMBS board made the appointment at the October 22–24 meetings in Elkhart, Ind. The Mennonite Education Agency board and the Mennonite Church Canada Christian Formation Council gave their approval to Wenger Shenk as the candidate of choice prior to the decision by the AMBS board.

Wenger Shenk has been a member of the faculty and administration of EMS since 1995. In addition to serving as associate dean, she also is associate professor of Christian practices.

Randall Jacobs, chair of the presidential search committee and new chair of the AMBS board, said, “Dr. Wenger Shenk represents a unique combination of gifts and experiences, including teaching and administration in theological education, cross-cultural ministry, church planting, and writing for both scholarly and popular audiences. Perhaps more importantly, Dr. Wenger Shenk is grounded in Jesus, deeply respectful of the church, and passionate about Anabaptist theological education.”

Her scholarship and commitment to the church are evident in the wide range of books, chapters and articles she has written. This work includes Thank You for Asking: Conversing with Young Adults about the Future Church (Herald Press, 2005), Anabaptist Ways of Knowing: A Conversation about Tradition-Based Critical Education (Cascadia, 2003), Coming home: A thoughtful resource for fathers, mothers, and the rebirth of the family (Good Books, 1992) and Why Not Celebrate! (Good Books, 1987). Her dissertation is Toward An Anabaptist Educational Theory, presented to the faculty of Union Theological Seminary and The Presbyterian School of Christian Education in August 1998. Wenger Shenk has been a frequent contributor to The Mennonite and other publications, including Mennonite Quarterly Review, Leader Magazine, Vision, and Sojourners.

Wenger Shenk believes that worship, our “primary theology,” sustains and grounds all aspects of theological education. One evidence of this is the leadership she and Gerald Shenk, her husband, have given over the last three years to The Table, an emerging Mennonite congregation in Harrisonburg, Va.

In addition, Wenger Shenk is involved in the life of the church at denominational and conference levels. She serves as the Virginia Mennonite Conference representative to the Constituency Leaders Council of Mennonite Church USA, and has recently joined the MC USA Binational Worship Council. For eight years, 1993–2001, she was member-at-large for the Faith and Life Commission of Virginia Mennonite Conference.

“Sara Wenger Shenk’s scholarship, commitment to pastoral theological education, love and passion for the church, and deep spirituality are precious gifts that she brings to AMBS and the wider church,” Carlos Romero, executive director of Mennonite Education Agency, said. “Her experiences as teacher, writer, pastor, administrator, as well as conference involvement have served to prepare her for this calling from the church.”

Ray Friesen, chair of the AMBS board through the October meetings, said, “Sara Wenger Shenk has a passion for Jesus and the church and a vision for what that means in the 21st century that is informed by our history and shaped by our times. Her training and experience have prepared her to lead AMBS into new vistas of pedagogical creativity that are needed if AMBS is to be a seminary for the entire church, particularly for those parts of the church where growth is strongest. She comes with a history that has prepared her to help AMBS move toward being ever more diverse and inclusive.”

Having earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Eastern Mennonite University, Wenger Shenk pursued study at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif., and completed a master’s degree in 1986 at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Ill. She received the Doctor of Education degree in 1999.

From 1977 to 1983 and again from 1986 to 1989, Wenger Shenk and her husband served on a study-service appointment with Eastern Mennonite Missions and Mennonite Central Committee in the former Yugoslavia. While there, she studied Croatian language at the University of Zagreb.

As president, Wenger Shenk will join the other four members of the AMBS administrative cabinet: Rebecca Slough, dean; Jeffrey L. Miller, chief financial officer; Ron Ringenberg, vice president; and Jewel Gingerich Longenecker, associate dean.

George R. Brunk III currently is serving as interim president and will continue until Wenger Shenk begins her new role. Nelson Kraybill had served as president for twelve and a half years, from January 1997 through July 2009.