Youth Worship

Worship Leaders

Peter Eberly is the husband of Natalie, father of three great kids ages 4 and younger – Evan, Olivia and Isaac. He strives to be a passionate follower of Christ in all things. He lives in Harrisonburg, Va., and has served as youth pastor for Harrisonburg Mennonite Church since 2003. He is a graduate of Eastern Mennonite Seminary in Harrisonburg, Goshen (Ind.) College and Iowa Mennonite School. Before serving as pastor, he taught elementary school and coached soccer in the Dominican Republic and Elkhart County, Ind. Peter loves being with his family, the beach, the smell of cinnamon rolls and seeing God actively working with and through his most prized creation, us!

Anna D. Hinojosa Gomez works as a psychotherapist with children, adolescents and women. Along with her husband of 18 years, Albert, and their two beautiful children, Isabella (11) and Santiago Alberto (2), she resides in Los Fresnos, Texas, and attends Iglesia Menonita del Cordero. She has served as a youth sponsor in her congregation for five years.

Music

Jeremy Kempf is a recruitment coordinator at Mennonite Mission Network, the mission agency of Mennonite Church USA. He and his wife, Erin, live in Goshen, Ind. In his spare time, he enjoys biking, basketball, spending time with friends and playing and creating music with his guitar. Jeremy graduated from Hesston (Kan.) College and Greenville (Ill.) College with a degree in contemporary Christian music and spent several years as lead guitarist in the Christian rock/worship band thirstborne. He continues to perform and lead worship across the country.

See the list of songs for youth worship here.

Songbooks. If you have your own copies of Sing the Story, Sing the Journey or The Hymnal: Worship Book, please bring them to Mennonite Church USA Convention 2009.

In an effort to conserve our natural resources, Mennonite Church USA Convention Planning will not be providing separate songbooks or including music in the program books. However, the words for the songs sung will be available on the screen. If you wish to purchase any of these songbooks they will be available at the Mennonite Publishing Network exhibit.

Speakers

Tuesday Evening
Title: Celebrating the Spirit!
Speaker: Brenda Matthews
Text: John 20:21-22
Purpose: This service will be a simpler message, highlighting the fact that we are here to worship God. There will be a challenge to open ourselves to what the Holy Spirit could do.

Brenda Matthews, affectionately known as Momma Brenda, is a poet pregnant with purpose. That purpose is to plant seeds of change in the hearts of those who have fallen through the cracks. She has traveled throughout the country and Africa to deliver her message of change to the “least of these.” Momma Brenda’s poetry passion has been widely recognized. A two-time featured poet of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam Chicago, she has shared the stage with The Last Poets, Vanessa Bell Armstrong, Malcolm Jamaal Warner and Albertina Walker, among others. Momma Brenda has written and produced through her production company, Imani Nia, two CDs – A Piece of My Soul and Tapestry of the Heart. Imani Nia, through Taproots, Inc., a nonprofit organization, uses spoken word as a tool to teach life skills, alcohol, tobacco and HIV prevention in Chicago Public Schools. She has performed in the independent film Love Your Momma and in the 2001 production of Dance Africa Chicago.

Wednesday morning
Title: God’s Awesome Power
Speaker: Shane Hipps
Text: Genesis 1:1-2; Psalm 18:1-19; Revelation 5:13, 7:10-12
Vision: The breath of God has covered life since its very beginning and will forever. We are called to tap into that breath, our first and last breath.

Shane Hipps is the lead pastor of Trinity Mennonite Church, a growing, urban, Anabaptist community of faith. Before this he was a strategic planner in advertising where he worked on the multi-million dollar communications plan for Porsche. Shane is a sought after speaker and author of Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith. He lives with his family in Phoenix. For more information, visit www.shanehipps.com.

Wednesday evening
Title: Face Our Fears
Speaker: Jessica Schrock-Ringenberg
Text: John 20:19-22
Vision: To identify with the fears of the disciples and name our own insecurities. (Fear of being real and raw, disciples’ despair, insecurities, big and small.)

Jessica Schrock-Ringenberg is the pastor of youth, young adults and Christian education at Zion Mennonite Church in Archbold, Ohio, where she was ordained in 2007. She is a 2002 graduate of Hesston College, a 2004 graduate of Goshen College and is currently studying at Associate Mennonite Biblical Seminary. She and her husband, Shem, live in Bryan, Ohio. Jessica is an avid “fun-raiser,” a seasonal jogger, an amateur weightlifter and a passionate snorkeler, with a minor fear of jellyfish and a major fear of sharks.

Thursday morning
Title: Emptied
Speaker: Leonard Dow
Text: John 12:1-8
Vision: Come, humble yourselves and acknowledge that we need to be emptied of what gets in the way of our relationship with God.

Leonard Dow is a 1987 graduate of Eastern Mennonite University. He is a former banker in both Souderton and Philadelphia, Pa. His professional experience also includes serving with Mennonite Central Committee East Coast as service program administrator. Leonard lives in Philadelphia where he is senior pastor at Oxford Circle Mennonite Church. He serves on the boards of Mennonite Central Committee U.S., Oxford Circle Christian Development Association, Singing City of Philadelphia, and Kingdom Builders, a network of Anabaptist churches in the Greater Philadelphia area. He is married to Dr. Rosalie Rolon-Dow, an associate professor at the University of Delaware in Newark, Del., and they have three children, Carmela, Marcela and Lorenzo.

Thursday evening, Joint Worship
Title: Centered in the Spirit
Speaker: Mandy Yoder Schrock, June Alliman Yoder
Text: Psalm 121
Vision: Discover our shared identity to show that we are on a journey together. We have influenced, and continue to influence, each other.

June Alliman Yoder recently retired from 27 years of teaching at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary. She lives with her husband, John Yoder, in Goshen, Ind., and enjoys reading, participating in a lectionary Bible study group and spending time with her grandchildren. June is a member of College Mennonite Church in Goshen.

Mandy Yoder Schrock is on the pastoral team at Belmont Mennonite Church in Elkhart, Ind. She lives in Goshen with her husband Jon Schrock and their two young children. Mandy enjoys swimming, reading and spending time with her family.

Friday morning
Title: Filled as a New Creation
Speaker: Shane Claiborne
Text: II Corinthians 5:16-21
Vision: When we have the Holy Spirit, we are sent as Jesus was sent. Jesus’ mission was reconciliation, so our mission is also reconciliation.

Shane Claiborne is the author of books including The Irresistible Revolution and Jesus for President. He is a founding partner of The Simple Way, a faith community in inner city Philadelphia that has helped to birth and connect radical faith communities around the world, many of whom have become known as a “new monasticism”, which produced the book Schools for Conversion.

Shane graduated from Eastern University in St. Davids, Pa., and did graduate work at Princeton (N.J.) Seminary. His ministry experience is varied, from a 10-week stint working alongside Mother Teresa in Calcutta, to a year spent serving a wealthy mega-congregation at Willow Creek Community Church outside Chicago.

During the recent war in Iraq, Shane spent three weeks in Baghdad with the Iraq Peace Team (a project of Voices in the Wilderness and Christian Peacemaker Teams). As a member of IPT, Shane took daily trips to sites where there had been bombings, visited hospitals and families, and attended worship services during the war.

photo by Vada Snider

Saturday morning
Title: Inspired to Live
Speaker: Storytellers (Dustin Galyon, Katie Boyts, Cyneatha Millsaps, Hugo Saucedo)
Text: Romans 8:1-17
Vision: To show what it might mean to live a Spirit filled life.

Katie Boyts is a massage therapist, writer and speaker residing in Portland, Ore. Her interest and passion in the topic of healing and bodywork is rooted in her studies at Goshen College where she earned her degree in peace and justice studies in 2005, having focused on the healing vector of peacemaking, specifically around post-traumatic stress. Her work has included providing bodywork to returning veterans from the Iraq war, giving trainings for bodyworkers on working with clients with post-traumatic stress, writing and speaking on healing and relationship to the body for both youth and adult audiences and advocacy work with victims of domestic and sexual violence in the shelter, court and hospital settings. Katie is a member of Portland Mennonite Church.

Dustin Galyon is an energetic young speaker, coach and photographer who is passionate about putting Christ first in all he does. Dustin grew up in Sterling, Kan., and found his passion for living a Christian life at a very young age. “My mentors are my family,” Dustin says. “I have a mom and dad who have shown - not talked - but lived what it means to be a hardworking, Christ-centered. and positive family.” Dustin is the head men’s basketball coach and Kan. area admissions counselor for Hesston College. He loves meeting with prospective college students and motivating players, but also enjoys his work as a self-employed photographer with Galyon-Bartel Photography. A student once described Dustin by saying, “The Energizer Bunny has NOTHING on this guy.” He has spoken at many youth events, leadership seminars, sports camps, churches, businesses, and more. Dustin is a graduate of Hesston College and Eastern Mennonite University.

Cyneatha Millsaps, Lead Pastor of Community Mennonite Church in Markham, Ill., completed her undergraduate study at Bethel College in Mishawaka, Ind., in 2000 with a double major in Psychology and Sociology. Cyneatha graduated from Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind. with a Master in Divinity May 2008.

Cyneatha formerly worked for iFiT: individuals & Families in Transition Inc. (formerly known as Family Services) for ten years. In January 2006 Cyneatha was named the President/CEO of Family Services of Elkhart County Inc./ YSB. During her time at Family Services, Cyneatha spent several years working directly with victims of domestic violence. Cyneatha has trained specifically in the area of dating and family violence.

Cyneatha is very active in her local community. Cyneatha is the founder of BAPS (Black American Princesses) a mentoring program for young African American females between the ages of 13-19. BAPS was started in 1998 with 8 young ladies.

Cyneatha is a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., and Kiwanis International. She is a community activist and advocate on the needs of women and children in the areas of violence, education, and spiritual development.

Cyneatha is married to her loving husband of fifteen years, Steven. Together they have seven children and fourteen grandchildren.

Hugo Saucedo has been involved in youth ministry for many years. His experience includes working with the SALSA program for 11 years, the DOOR program for several years, and teaching high school social studies for five years. He is currently the director of Mennonite Voluntary Service for Mennonite Mission Network. He has lived in San Antonio, Texas, for the past 18 years but grew up in Brownsville, Texas. He is married to Danielle Miller, and they have one son, Gabriel.

Saturday evening
Title: Empowered with the Spirit
Speaker: Greg Boyd
Text: John 20:21-22; Acts 2:14-39
Vision: The Holy Spirit empowers us to go out of our comfort zones to be disciples of Christ.

Greg Boyd is a former atheist who surrendered his life to Christ in 1974. After his conversion, he discovered that the faith he embraced failed to address many questions and objections to Christianity. Greg’s search for a well-grounded and intellectually defensible faith led him to study philosophy at the University of Minnesota (B.A.) in Minneapolis, followed by studies in philosophical theology at Yale Divinity School (M.Div) in New Haven, Conn., and Princeton (N.J.) Theological Seminary (Ph.D). He then became a professor of theology for 16 years at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minn., and is currently the senior pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul. He has authored or co-authored 18 books, as well as written many articles for academic books and journals. His books include the best-selling and award-winning Letters From a Skeptic and The Myth of a Christian Nation.

Sunday morning
Title: Taizé service
Speaker: Janeen Bertsche Johnson

Sunday morning’s worship will be modeled after the worship of the Taizé community, an ecumenical Christian community in eastern France. Since 1940, the Taizé community has welcomed Christians from around the world, both Protestants and Catholics, to join a group of about 100 brothers in worship, Bible study, and the work of reconciliation.

The worship of the Taizé community is meditative in style, and includes Bible passages read in many languages, intercessory prayers, periods of silence, and beautiful songs. The simple songs are repeated, giving the feel of both ancient chant and reflective contemporary Christian choruses. Almost twenty Taizé songs are printed in Hymnal: A Worship Book, Sing the Journey, and Sing the Story, including: “Eat this bread,” “Jesus, remember me,” “O Lord, hear my prayer,” and “Come and fill our hearts.”

Worship leader Janeen Bertsche Johnson is campus pastor at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, and is a member of the Executive Board of Mennonite Church USA. She has been leading and teaching Taizé-style worship for 20 years. She visited the Taizé community in 1991, attended North American Taizé gatherings in 1992 (where she was trained as a cantor) and 1998, and hosted Taizé founder Brother Roger at AMBS in 1997.