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Blog Post
As Christians, we are people who let Christ’s grace soften our grip on our lives in order to open ourselves to God’s life working in us. Releasing our desire for control enables us to welcome God’s future — that the Spirit of God would produce life in and through us, and that the life of the gospel would flow through our congregations and conferences, through our agencies and denomination. The Future Church Summit (FCS) assembled people from across our church to discern how our Anabaptist faith produces life for our world and us, here and now, bearing witness to Christ’s...
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Mennonite Church USA staff ORLANDO, Florida (Mennonite Church USA) — The delegate assembly re-convened Saturday morning at the Mennonite Church USA 2017 convention in Orlando, overwhelmingly voting to accept the final report and outcomes of the Future Church Summit (FCS) as a guide for discerning the church’s ongoing work and ministry. Executive Board (EB) member Samuel Voth Schrag presented the EB’s proposed resolution stating that the delegates “receive the FCS Theme Team’s report as the direction of our national body.” In response, delegates expressed various concerns, including the need for more time, a lack of specifics in the FCS Outcomes...
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ORLANDO, Florida (Mennonite Church USA) — Filled with conversation, music, laughter, “audacious visions” and Mennonite “quirks,” the second day of the Future Church Summit at the Mennonite Church USA convention shifted the focus from past to future and from internal to external. The day started by re-visiting the discussion of church history and experience from the previous night, asking what needs to be lamented and what should be affirmed. Participants then examined questions about diversity, evangelism, being a peace church, the central challenges the world faces, what it means to follow Jesus as Anabaptists and what kind of church God...
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Español As Christians, we are people who let Christ’s grace soften our grip on our lives in order to open ourselves to God’s life working in us. Releasing our desire for control enables us to welcome God’s future — that the Spirit of God would produce life in and through us, and that the life of the gospel would flow through our congregations and conferences, through our agencies and denomination. The Future Church Summit (FCS) assembled people from across our church to discern how our Anabaptist faith produces life for our world and us, here and now, bearing witness to...
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ORLANDO, Florida (Mennonite Church USA) — The long-anticipated Future Church Summit kicked off Thursday evening at the Mennonite Church USA convention, inviting delegates and additional stakeholders to “imagine an Anabaptist future” for the church. Moderator Patty Shelly began the evening session by encouraging participants to “surrender outcomes of this process to God.” Referencing the Purposeful Plan of the church and its “Vision, Healing and Hope” statement, she said it would be a time to “think about and dream about how to live out” those documents while gaining “further discernment and counsel to … re-examine our call as Mennonite Church USA.”...
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Blog Post
The Future Church Summit (FCS) will take place July 6-8, at the Mennonite Church USA convention in Orlando. It will be a generative, open space for denomination-wide conversation — to dream together, reset priorities and engage one another in answering the question: How will we follow Jesus as Anabaptists in the 21st century? Leading up to the summit we invite you to reflect on our shared history, what being Anabaptist means for you and your hopes for the Future Church Summit. Jennifer Delanty is a member of Seattle Mennonite Church and mother of four young adults, all in their 20s....
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Blog Post
Glen Guyton is chief operating officer for Mennonite Church USA. There are days when I feel that Mennonite Church USA is on edge of a dark Sabbath. Not the most hopeful thing that a church leader can say, but maybe it is a prophetic warning of what will happen if we forget that Christ and the Word of God are at the center of our identity. Since the beginning of the planning process for the Future Church Summit, there has been a sense of distrust from some of those that are part of this body. The so called “progressives” might...
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Blog Post
Dr. Luke Gascho is the executive director of Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College. He and his wife, Becky, live in Goshen, Indiana, and are members of Waterford Mennonite Church. He assisted in the founding of the Mennonite Creation Care Network and serves on the Anabaptist Coalition for Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery. Luke regularly studies, teaches and speaks on the concepts of creation care theology and ethics, leadership, ecological systems and the intersection of the three. He enjoys gardening, native landscaping, photography and woodworking as hobbies. Being connected to the Mennonite Church is a stream that runs deeply through my life. My heritage has long roots in the...
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Blog Post
The Future Church Summit (FCS) will take place July 6-8, at the Mennonite Church USA convention in Orlando. It will be a generative, open space for denomination-wide conversation — to dream together, reset priorities and engage one another in answering the question: How will we follow Jesus as Anabaptists in the 21st century? Leading up to the summit we invite you to reflect on our shared history, what being Anabaptist means for you and your hopes for the Future Church Summit. David Boshart is executive conference minister of Central Plains Mennonite Conference and moderator-elect of Mennonite Church USA. Last June,...
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Blog Post
Glen Guyton is cheif operating officer and director of Convention Planning for Mennonite Church USA. The Vision In Elijah 19, the prophet Elijah was in despair because of an uncertain future. Jezebel was on his tail. Elijah was afraid and seemingly alone. Elijah found a solitary tree to sit unearth and prepared for his death. Then God said to Elijah, “Get up and eat.” God helped Elijah increase his strength for the journey ahead. Then God showed Elijah that he would not be alone, there would be seven thousand strong people with him. The Future Church Summit is not necessarily...
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Blog Post
The Future Church Summit (FCS) will take place July 6-8, at the Mennonite Church USA convention in Orlando. It will be a generative, open space for denomination-wide conversation — to dream together, reset priorities and engage one another in answering the question: How will we follow Jesus as Anabaptists in the 21st century? Leading up to the summit we invite you to reflect on our shared history, what being Anabaptist means for you and your hopes for the Future Church Summit. Chantelle Todman Moore is co-founder of unlock Ngenuity a consulting, coaching and therapy business. She is also a qualified...
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Note: This report initially appeared in The Mennonite. By Hannah Heinzekehr KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Mennonite Church USA) — In their penultimate meeting of the biennium, members of the Mennonite Church USA Executive Board (EB) took time March 30-April 1 to reflect on denominational developments over the last two years and to look ahead to new trends that are emerging for the future of the church. Preparing for Orlando The board spent time reviewing the “Seeking Peace in Israel-Palestine”...
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Blog Post
The Future Church Summit (FCS) will take place July 6-8, at the Mennonite Church USA convention in Orlando. It will be a generative, open space for denomination-wide conversation — to dream together, reset priorities and engage one another in answering the question: How will we follow Jesus as Anabaptists in the 21st century? Leading up to the summit we invite you to reflect on our shared history, what being Anabaptist means for you and your hopes for the Future Church Summit. Iris de León-Hartshorn is director of Transformational Peacemaking for Mennonite Church USA and a member of the design team...
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Note: This article first appeared in The Mennonite. By Hannah Heinzekehr ELKHART, Indiana (Mennonite Church USA) Eschewing their usual agenda, members of the Constituency Leaders Council (CLC) spent their last meeting of the biennium testing a large-group visioning process that will be used at the Mennonite Church USA Convention in Orlando this July. Around 70 attendees, representing area conferences, constituency groups and agencies of Mennonite Church USA met March 16-18 on...
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Blog Post
The Future Church Summit will take place July 6-8, at the Mennonite Church USA convention in Orlando. It will be a generative, open space for denomination-wide conversation — to dream together, reset priorities and engage one another in answering the question: How will we follow Jesus as Anabaptists in the 21st century? Leading up to the summit we invite you to reflect on our shared history, what being Anabaptist means for you and your hopes for the Future Church Summit. Ken Burkholder has been pastor at Deep Run East Mennonite Church, Perkasie, Pennsylvania, since 2005. He is married to Karen...
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