Mennonite Church USA Ervin Stutzman, executive director of Mennonite Church USA, and his wife, Bonnie, spent 13 days in Indonesia in September with Sunoko Lin, pastor of Maranatha Christian Fellowship (an Indonesian Mennonite congregation in Northridge, Calif.), and Natalie, his wife. The first part of the trip consisted of ministry visits; the Stutzmans and Lins spent four vacation days together at the end. What was the purpose of the trip and your hopes for the... read more →
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Planning ahead makes all the difference By Tim Yoder We typically make plans for the future – for marriage, vacation, retirement. But it’s harder to prepare for the end of life. As a funeral director, about half of the families I meet with have preplanned and prepaid funerals, saving a surviving spouse or children from significant guesswork. I often hear from someone who’s preplanning, “I am doing this so our family won’t have to.” That’s planning driven by love. Preplanning can control expenses. Without it, decisions must be made quickly and during a highly emotional time. That’s not a good... read more →
What if each household came up with 12 Scriptures they believe to be most formative for Christian life today? (En español) By Cindy Snider (Mennonite Church USA)—Cincinnati (Ohio) Mennonite Fellowship (CMF) was one of the first congregations to engage the Twelve Scriptures Project after it was introduced in the March 2012 issue of Mennonite Church USA’s online newsletter, On the Way. The project invites congregations to identify their 12 most important Scripture texts. Keith Lehman, a member of CMF’s worship committee, says that the congregation’s leaders didn’t want the discernment process to be “heavy”. “We have plenty of opportunity to do... read more →
By Laurie Oswald Robinson Mennonite Church USA—In the centuries-long flow of the Anabaptist story, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) staff members believe that the decision to transfer MCC’s archival collections from the Mennonite Church USA Archives in Goshen, Ind., to the MCC U.S. offices in Akron, Pa., is a short-term stirring of the waters for long-term benefit. However, some Anabaptist historians and archivists are concerned that the relocation of a major portion of MCC’s historic... read more →
Mauricio Chenlo discusses the benefits of pastors of new church plants maintaining a second job [versión en español] By Wil LaVeist ELKHART, Ind. (Mennonite Mission Network/Mennonite Church USA)—If you feel called to plant a church in these tough economic times, it’s a good idea to maintain another job. It’s likely that a small church of less than 100 members—Mennonite Church USA recommends having at least four to five households to begin a church plant—will not be able to support a full-time pastor. However, holding a second job... read more →
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By Nancy Kauffman Every spring, my mother would assign me the task of cleaning out the closets in our home. It was always amazing in one short year, the amount of items that would find their way into our closets. The content ranged from treasures to junk. Some items were stored for future use. Some items were stuffed in the closet because no one knew what to do with them and so delayed the decision of their fate. Some items were broken, but maybe fixable if... read more →
“Racing Toward Possibilities,” the theme of the Mennonite Health Assembly held in Louisville, Ky., March 1–3, invited 258 participants to peer into the future to discern trends they might implement in a variety of health-care settings. A plenary session moderated by Emerson Lesher, president of Messiah Lifeways, Mechanisburg, Pa., and titled “From Possibility to Practice,” illustrated current innovations in providing in health and human service ministries. Assembly participants learned about cutting-edge programs from representatives of Landis... read more →
By Andrew Clouse ELKHART, Ind.—Mennonite Mission Network is using a Mennonite Men JoinHands grant to help three churches in Latin America make their dreams... read more →
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By Terry Shue Introduction There is something within each of us that resists change. And yet there are few things which are more certain in life. In fact life is a process of growth which is inherently about change. Seasons in ministry, as in life, move from beginning, to growth, and finally to an end. The task of ending a pastorate well, unlike many jobs out there, is much more than making an announcement. It is a process which takes months to prepare for and... read more →
Lea este artículo en español: http://mennoniteusa.org/2012/02/13/se-abren-las-oficinas-de-la-iglesia-menonita-de-ee-uu-en-elkhart/ Mennonite Church USA Mennonite Church USA Elkhart office building opens By Annette Brill Bergstresser ELKHART, Ind.—The new Elkhart office building of Mennonite Church USA is now open for business. Employees began moving into the building at 3145 Benham Avenue, adjacent to the campus of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS), during the week before Christmas. The new building is one of several Mennonite Church USA centers for creative work, training, global communication, and... read more →
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(Appeared first in February 2012, The Mennonite. Reprinted with permission.) By Ervin Stutzman Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.—Matthew 28:19 TNIV Wouldn’t it be great if your congregation suddenly had an influx of mature believers who were generous givers, who humbly served as volunteers in much-needed church roles and whose convictions were aligned with your church’s deepest beliefs and practices? Perhaps it’s difficult to even dream of such... read more →
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(Appeared first in January 2012, The Mennonite. Reprinted with permission.) By Ervin Stutzman Jesus said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”—Mark 16:15 TNIV At the delegate session in Pittsburgh last summer, André Gingerich Stoner remarked that many Mennonites “love service, flirt with peace and are allergic to evangelism.” Many felt he hit a home run with that comment. That means we have a ways to go to become a missional church. Service, peacemaking and evangelism are all needed in order... read more →
MennoMedia Nearly 100 churches report on their singing MennoMedia urges participation in song survey By Steve Shenk HARRISONBURG, Va., and WATERLOO, Ont.—Nearly 100 congregations in Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada are reporting on the songs they sing. They are helping to determine what the next collection of music for the church will look like. But the planners of the next hymnal or song collection are looking for more churches to participate in the current song survey. There are three easy ways to complete the survey found at www.MennoMedia.org/worship: (1) fill out the online survey each week; (2) download... read more →
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By Mary C. Roth In early November, I gathered with twenty women from Goshen College and the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary for an evening of story-telling and conversation about women in the church. The gathering emerged from an ongoing initiative by Mennonite Church USA—the Women in Leadership Audit—to identify what realities keep women from... read more →
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We welcome receiving sermons you have preached or found meaningful on interchurch relations and the call to Christian unity. If you have a sermon to share, e-mail Andre. From Larry Rohrer, Belmont Mennonite Church, Elkhart, IN, May 24, 2009 John 17:6-23 For the past several weeks, we have been celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, first putting ourselves in the stories of those early skeptical witnesses to the risen Christ, and then increasingly coming to understand -- post-resurrection -- the new life and new relationships that Jesus modeled for his disciples. Just as those first disciples slowly but surely... read more →