Adult Worship

Worship leaders

Joel Miller lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with his wife, Abbie, and his two daughters, Eve and Lily. He is pastor at Cincinnati Mennonite Fellowship. Joel is a graduate of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind. Prior to seminary, Joel and Abbie served in Mennonite Voluntary Service in St. Louis where Joel worked with Habitat for Humanity and the Institute for Peace and Justice. In his spare time, Joel enjoys reading, running, playing with his girls and taking on home improvement projects.

Regina Shands Stoltzfus lives in Elkhart, Ind., with her spouse, Art, and their two youngest children Rachel and Joshua. Regina is a co-founder of the Damascus Road Anti-Racism program and continues to serve as a core trainer with Damascus Road. She earned her master’s degree from Ashland (Ohio) Theological Seminary and has previously served as an associate pastor at Lee Heights Community Church in Cleveland, and as a campus pastor at Goshen (Ind.) College. She teaches at Goshen College in the Bible/Religion/Philosophy and Peace, Justice Conflict Studies departments.

Music

Tim Shue

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
Speaker: Juanita Nuñez
Title: Gathered in God’s Spirit
Text: Acts 2:1-11; John 20:19b-21a
Purpose: Celebrating our coming together as the body of Christ, honoring our differences as we worship in one spirit.

Juana F. Nuñez (Juanita) was born and raised in the Dominican Republic. After marrying Eligio Nuñez, they came to live in Miami, Fla., where they had their children, Alexandra, Manuel Elias and Jovanna. Juanita studied theology in a local Orlando Bible Institute and has a bachelor’s degree in theology and arts from the International Seminary in Plymouth, Fla.

She works as a certified part-time chaplain with Marketplace Chaplains USA. She and Eligio are co-pastors at Iglesia Cristiana Ebenezer in Apopka, Fla., where they were ordained into the ministry this past year. Currently, Juanita is moderator of the Iglesia Menonita Hispana and is the associate group’s first woman to be elected as its moderator.

Wednesday morning
Speaker: Jim Schrag
Title: Restored in God’s Spirit
Text: Ezekiel 37:1-14; John 20:19-21a
Purpose: To recognize and confess our brokenness within ourselves and the world and to receive restoration through God’s Spirit.

Jim Schrag is executive director of Mennonite Church USA and has spent the bulk of his career as a pastor. He pastored Tabor Mennonite Church in Newton, Kan., from 1973 to 1985 and the Oak Grove Mennonite Church in Smithville, Ohio, from 1985 to 1996. Jim was called to be general secretary for the former General Conference from 1996 to 1999 and was transformation director from 1999 to 2001, when he took on his current role.

Jim received a master of divinity degree from Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary and is also a graduate of Bethel College in North Newton, Kan. He is married to Judy, who is a part-time teacher of profoundly handicapped youths. They live in Newton and have three grown daughters and three grandchildren.

Thursday evening Joint Worship
Title: Centered in the Spirit
Speaker: Mandy Yoder Schrock, June Alliman Yoder
Text: Psalm 121
Purpose: 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.

Thursday morning
Speaker: Shane Claiborne
Title: Empowered by the Spirit
Text: Ephesians 4:11-16
Purpose: Call forth and affirm mutually the gifts that are given by the Spirit in the Body of Christ.

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.

Friday morning
Speaker: Three people giving testimonies (Marvin Lorenzana, Megan Ramer, and a third person to be identified)
Title: Dwelling in the Spirit
Text: Ephesians 3:14-21, NLT
Purpose: Reminder that daily, ongoing moment by moment engagement with the Spirit is the basis for being prepared to be sent out. This engagement with the Spirit is a time of transformation.

Marvin Lorenzana was born in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. In 1994 after two years of marriage Marvin and his wife Mariana, became missionaries to the third country in the world with the most Hispanics, the United States. Marvin has served as youth pastor, associate pastor, church planter and senior pastor in New Orleans, La., El Paso, Texas, and Miami, Fla. Marvin moved to Harrisonburg, Va., to attend and graduate from Eastern Mennonite University where he is now director of the Multicultural Services Office. He and his family love family gatherings, sports events, the Greenville Book Fair, going to museums, reading, and, yes, having a good time with good friends!

John Powell is Ministry Development Consultant and Interim Director for U.S. Ministries. John helps facilitate a missional church identity in area conferences and congregations by identifying and connecting missional congregations and by equipping them to engage the surrounding culture with the gospel. John believes that congregations are at the center of God’s activity in the world, and is excited when they can encounter their context with the reconciling message of God through Jesus Christ.

Megan Ramer is pastor of Chicago Community Mennonite Church. She lives in the Pilsen neighborhood with her husband, Jon Stutzman. Significant life experiences that have shaped who she is include: growing up in small-town Wakarusa, Ind.; playing big sister to two younger brothers; spending a semester in China while a student at Goshen College; living (and milking cows) in Germany and Switzerland for one year through the Intermenno Program; spending three glorious years in Seattle and exploring all the beauty the city and its surrounding natural landscapes have to offer (including the summit of Mount Rainier!); attending seminary at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, and finding lifelong friends there with whom she played in the Rockies; and, in fall 2005, accepting a call to pastor Chicago Community Mennonite Church, a vibrant congregation on Chicago’s west side.

She is grateful for the beauty of her richly diverse urban home and is daily astounded at the many and varied faces of God. Megan’s interests include reading, cooking for friends, quilting, hiking, camping and all sorts of things that take her outside and away. She also loves going to the theatre to watch her actor husband perform.

Saturday evening
Speaker: Jim Wallis
Title: Anointed with the oil of Gladness.
Text: John 20, Isaiah 61:1-3
Purpose: Send a Spirit-empowered church, proclaiming the gospel in word and deed.

Jim Wallis is a bestselling author, public theologian, speaker, preacher and international commentator on religion and public life, faith and politics. His latest book is The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith & Politics in a Post–Religious Right America (HarperOne, 2008). His previous book, God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It (Harper Collins, 2005), was on the New York Times bestseller list for four months. He is president and CEO of Sojourners, where he is editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine. Jim speaks at more than 200 events a year, and his columns appear in major newspapers, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and both Time and Newsweek online. He regularly appears on radio and television, including shows like Meet the Press, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the O’Reilly Factor, and is a frequent guest on the news programs of CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox and National Public Radio. He has taught at Harvard’s Divinity School and Kennedy School of Government on “Faith, Politics, and Society.” He has written eight books, including: Faith Works, The Soul of Politics, Who Speaks for God? and The Call to Conversion.

Jim was raised in a Midwest evangelical family. As a teenager, his questioning of the racial segregation in his church and community led him to the black churches and neighborhoods of inner-city Detroit. He spent his student years involved in the civil rights and antiwar movements at Michigan State University. While at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois, Jim and several other students started a small magazine and community with a Christian commitment to social justice which has now grown into a national faith-based organization. In 1979, Time magazine named Jim one of the “50 Faces for America’s Future.”

Jim lives in inner-city Washington, D.C., with his wife, Joy Carroll, one of the first women ordained in the Church of England and author of Beneath the Cassock: The Real-life.

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.”