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May 2009

In This Section:

• Urban Leaders Network dinner/gathering at Convention 2009 (open to all)
• Unmarried Couples Living Together is focus of continuing education event
• Revised distance education curriculum reflects changing demographics of the church
• Summer at AMBS
• Coming soon from Mennonite Publishing Network
•  New from Herald Press

Urban Leaders Network dinner/gathering at Convention 2009 (open to all)

Enjoy the July 1 evening gathering/dinner at Convention 2009 in Columbus, Ohio, with urban ministry practitioners: Hear stories of church planting and church revitalization, witness the presentation of the 2009 George and Pearl Kauffman Urban Leader Award, and network and fellowship with each other.   

Keynote speakers Karl McKinney and Sally Schreiner Youngquist will dialogue about their past and present ministries, noting the dichotomy and similarities between church planting, congregational revitalization and missional church engagement. Karl and Sally were the church-planting team that established Living Water Community Church in Chicago. Sally is currently senior pastor of Living Water, and Karl is the senior pastor of Northern Virginia Mennonite Church in Fairfax, Va.

Register on the Convention 2009 registration form at www.MennoniteUSA.org/convention.

Contact Becky Tyson at BeckyT@MennoniteMission.net, 574-523-3076, or toll-free at 1-866-866-2872.

Unmarried Couples Living Together is focus of continuing education event

The Extreme Situations in the Congregation pastoral care series at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary on June 4 will feature an examination of co-habiting couples. This event will examine providing pastoral care while simultaneously addressing the ethical questions and congregational dynamics generated by these situations. The presenter is Irma Fast Dueck from Canadian Mennonite University. For more information and to register, visit  http://www.ambs.edu/couples.

Revised distance education curriculum reflects changing demographics of the church

Thanks to feedback from reviewers representing African-American, Asian, Hispanic and urban perspectives, readers from many different backgrounds will find the curriculum for Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary’s Pastoral Studies Distance Education (PSDE) program more accessible.

The materials have been revised with an eye for what is culturally bound, reports Rafael Barahona, director of leadership programs at AMBS. All five units of the “Leading God’s People” curriculum now better represent the new demographics of the Mennonite Church, reflecting the realities of urban, racial/ethnic churches as well as rural, Eurocentric ones.

PSDE is an undergraduate-level pastoral training program that involves the student with both an instructor and a mentor. It is used by pastors called from within congregations, pastors who have not previously studied Anabaptist-Mennonite history and theology and congregations who want more training for lay leaders. The materials have been translated into Korean and Vietnamese, and the revised version will be translated into Spanish.

For more information, visit http://www.ambs.edu/psde.

Summer at AMBS

Celebrating the Christian Year; Faith, Film and Fiction; and Pastoral Care of Youth and Young Adults are three of the offerings at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary this summer. For a complete list and to register online, visit  http://www.ambs.edu/academics/courses/summer.

Coming soon from Mennonite Publishing Network:

New from Herald Press: