Todd Lehman
The MC USA Executive Board unanimously affirmed the Leadership Discernment Committee’s nomination of Todd Lehman of Hesston, Kansas, as moderator-elect for the Delegate Assembly cycle beginning July 2025.
Lehman is currently serving his second term on the MC USA Executive Board and is a member of the Executive Committee. He serves on the Executive Board’s finance committee and antiracism task force. He also has helped plan several previous denominational conventions.
Lehman expressed his enthusiasm for his upcoming role and for MC USA, saying, “Our Church is seeking to be present where God is and to follow the movement of the Holy Spirit and that is exciting to me.”
Pending affirmation by the Delegate Assembly, which will meet in Greensboro, North Carolina, on July 11, 2025, Lehman will serve alongside incoming moderator, Marty Lehman (no relation) of Goshen, Indiana.
At the February 8 Executive Board meeting, Iris de León-Hartshorn, staff liaison for the Leadership Discernment Committee, explained that committee begins its comprehensive selection process by reviewing a matrix of gifts and demographics (age, race, gender, geography, etc.) needed for the Executive Board; sifts through nominations from conference ministers, the Constituency Leaders Council and others in the Church; engages in a discernment process to select a nominee, and performs thorough reference and background checks.
Doug Basinger of the Leadership Discernment Committee, said, “We have watched Todd’s growing interest and investment in the well-being of MC USA. His experience and broad knowledge of the denomination have been recognized and endorsed by many, and we are grateful that he has accepted our invitation to serve as moderator-elect.”
Todd Lehman was raised in a Mennonite church in Kidron, Ohio, where he attended with his parents and two older brothers. As an adult, he said he chooses to stay within the Mennonite faith because he “has not been drawn to any other tradition that is more in line with scripture than Anabaptism.”
One of the Mennonite values that is close to Lehman’s heart is restorative justice. Lehman is the executive director of Offender/Victim Ministries, Inc.(OVM), a non-profit focused on community-based restorative justice, where he volunteered for more than 15 years. OVM serves both victims and offenders impacted by conflict, trauma, crime and incarceration through programs such as Immediate Intervention services for juveniles, Restorative Family Programming and its M-2 prison visitation program.
Prior to joining OVM in 2020, Lehman was the campus pastor at Hesston College, a two-year Mennonite liberal arts college in Hesston, Kansas, for 11 years. Before that, he served as a youth pastor for two local Mennonite churches, Trinity Mennonite Church (now closed) and First Mennonite Church in Hillsboro, a shared position that he held from 2001-2007.
Lehman holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Culture, Religion and Missions from Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and a master’s degree in Christian Ministry from Friends University, Wichita. He also has earned a certificate in Faith-based Peacemaking from Eastern Mennonite University and has studied at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana.
Reflecting on his service with the Executive Board, Lehman said a highlight for him was the recent meeting with MC USA’s Racial Ethnic Council in November 2024 (See news release here). “Being part of a body that has varying expressions feels more like how the church is described in scripture,” he said.
Lehman acknowledged that there are challenges ahead for the Executive Board, including discussions about what structures will serve MC USA best moving forward. He explained that these conversations will be impacted by “hyper localization” trends, in which churches of many faiths are increasingly focused on their immediate local community, rather than connecting or reaching a broader regional or national audience.
“If the local church is an expression of the local body, then what role does the denomination play? How important are these relationships?” he asked.
“My perspective,” Lehman explained, “is that we need each other. We need each other’s similarities and each other’s differences. We need to see the reality of Christ’s expression in each other.”
Todd Lehman (right) unicycling across Ohio with this brother.
A former marathon runner, Lehman enjoys an active lifestyle, working on DIY home projects and walking, hiking and biking. He is also an adventure unicyclist, who rides, offroad, several miles at a time with his brothers. His oldest daughter also rides, and his wife and younger daughter are showing interest in exploring the excitement of one-wheel drive.
Lehman and his wife, Julie, have two daughters, ages 9 and 12. They attend Hesston Mennonite Church, which was recently welcomed into MC USA’s Western District Conference.
MC USA is an Anabaptist Christian denomination, founded in 2002 by the merger of the Mennonite Church and the General Conference Mennonite Church. Members of this historic peace church seek to follow Jesus by rejecting violence and resisting injustice. MC USA’s Renewed Commitments state the following shared commitments among its diverse body of believers: to follow Jesus, witness to God’s peace and experience the transformation of the Holy Spirit. Mennoniteusa.org