| | Provide Feedback on the electronic version of Equipping
January 2009 Equipping the church onlineAll of these resources (and I haven’t even mentioned our schools or resources in the areas of Christian education, stewardship and mission) help bind us together as a people. That’s an issue we’re taking a closer look at right now, following up on the Delegate Assembly resolution on national identity more than a year ago. Upcoming resources will ask congregations to consider both the promise and peril of living faithfully as Christians in the United States. A worship planning resource has been prepared that will prepare your congregation to think more about following Jesus in a world that is not. Perhaps you’ve seen the Call to Prayer in The Mennonite recently. You’ll find many more resources at www.MennoniteUSA.org/identity. The Feb. 3 issue of The Mennonite will feature many of these articles, stories and worship resources as well. You may want to order extra copies of this issue by calling 1-800-790-2498. Wouldn’t it be wonderful, if by sharing these resources together, we could learn more about giving first allegiance, both our heads and our hearts, to Jesus Christ? If it happens, it won’t be because we did it individually but because we opened ourselves to each other.  The well known chorus asks the Lord to bind us together with love so tightly that our connection with each other cannot be broken. Sounds like a tall order, but then I think about the Rejoice devotional I read this morning based on Isaiah 46, titled “God will do it!”
Ron Byler
Associate executive director
Mennonite Church USA 
Bind us together Lord, bind us together, with cords that cannot be broken,
bind us together Lord, bind us together, bind us together with love. In Equipping, you can find resources in one place on a regular basis from across the church. Equipping has recently gone online and you can get it e-mailed directly to you and to other leaders in your congregation by clicking on the “Subscribe” button. (If others in your church aren’t already subscribers, use the “e-mail this page to a friend” tool and suggest they subscribe.) Printed resources will still be mailed to you on a quarterly basis. I think this is a great way to get the resources of the church into the hands of more people. Another great place for worship resources is Leader magazine. I especially appreciate the common experiences that Advent, Pentecost and Lent resources can give our congregations. This past Advent, a team from Ohio Mennonite Conference developed resources on the theme, “Let your face shine.” Resources for the coming Lent season were written by a team from Pacific Southwest Conference. What a great way for congregations and conferences to share their experiences and gifts with each other and help build our understanding of whom we are as a church. Or perhaps there’s a Mennonite-created book or poster that you’ve been trying to locate for your congregation. All you need to do, for virtually all churchwide resources created, is go to MennoSource, the online resource network, at www.os.mennoniteusa.org. This network, sponsored by the four churchwide agencies and Executive Leadership, also includes a network of advocates, one for each conference, to help share new resources with congregations. To find your conference resource advocate, click here. back to top The new Equipping 
Once you’re on the site, you can link directly to featured resources and mosey through the newly designed Mennonite Church USA Web site, if you haven’t done so already. What about the hard-copy samples you used to get? Congregations will still receive envelopes full of catalogues, brochures and other samples four times a year. We’re saving paper, tons of postage costs and the hassle of churches sorting through extra mail by eliminating six Equipping mailings a year. All of this while actually increasing the total number of issues we publish, which means you’ll actually be getting more information than you did with the old publication schedule. If you still have questions, contact Executive Leadership’s communication team by calling toll-free at 1-866-866-2872 or e-mailing Communications@MennoniteUSA.org. You’ve come to trust Equipping as a valuable tool to keep connected with resources from across Mennonite Church USA and other Mennonite organizations. And when something you’ve become familiar with changes, it’s only natural to wonder about how well it will function in the future. Executive Leadership is working with Mennonite Church USA’s churchwide agencies (Mennonite Education Agency, Mennonite Mission Network, MMA and Mennonite Publishing Network) to ensure Equipping becomes an even more accessible and practical tool for pastors and leaders across our church. So, how should you use Equipping now that it’s online? We suggest you continue using it the same way you did the hard-copy packets that were mailed 10 times per year. You’ll get e-mail reminders once a month to let you know Equipping has been published. These reminders will have a link to the Web site and highlight some of the resources and information featured in the packet, so you can have direct access to what you think will be most helpful to you. From the site, you can link directly to other Mennonite Church USA organizations’ Web sites as well as print and e-mail articles to the people you normally would have placed a Xeroxed copy in their church mailboxes. And did we mention it’s free and your e-mail address as an Equipping subscriber won’t be shared with others? back to top New coloring/activity book focuses on stewardship Samples were shipped to congregations in the hard-copy packet. To see sample pages of the book, click here. Congregations were sent sample copies in the hard-copy packet. Copies should be available soon from the MennoSource Web site. Suggested donation is 50 cents per book. Come Aboard The StewardShip is a new coloring/activity book designed to help parents and congregations teach children about what it means to be a steward. The book features true stories of Mennonite children who find unique ways of being stewards on the StewardShip and can be used in a variety of settings including children’s time, Sunday school, worship packets or in one-on-one conversations with parents or guardians. back to top Convention 2009 registration information Important dates to remember while preparing for Convention 2009 include April 30 as the deadline for early registration and May 22 as the deadline for medical release forms, purchasing meal packages and making lodging reservations. Financial aid for Convention 2009 registration costs is available on an as-needed and first-come, first-served basis. The deadline for financial aid applications is March 31. Application forms may be downloaded here. For more information or to request a hard copy, call Carol at 574-523-3048. Online registration for Convention 2009 began at 8 a.m. EST Dec. 1, and more than 2,600 people registered for the June 30 to July 5, 2009, event in the first 24 hours registration was open. By Christmas, more than 3,000 people had registered. Paper registration forms (available in English and Spanish) are now being accepted and can be either faxed to 574-293-1892 or mailed to Executive Leadership’s Convention Planning team, attention to “Registrar,” at P.O. Box 1245, Elkhart, IN 46515-1245. back to top | |
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