|
|
News archive
Contact: Laurie L. Oswald (316) 283-5100, E-mail: LaurieO@MennoniteUSA.org
|
MPN consultation shows that fresh breezes of hope revive
ministry. |
 |
by Laurie L. Oswald
PITTSBURGH, Pa. (MC USA) -- In a consultation planned by Mennonite
Publishing Network (MPN) to further develop its joint ministry
through collaborative partnerships, participants from Mennonite
Church Canada and Mennonite Church USA felt fresh breezes
of hope blow through new windows of opportunity.
The work of about 55 consultation participants gathered at
Gilmary Retreat Center on Sept. 19-21 shows that creative
vision is abounding and hope is flowing. Much of this energy
is being unleashed as MPN -- with generous support from the
church and business restructuring - continues to address past
debt (see sidebar), opening the way for an ongoing, vital
publishing ministry.
As participants assessed current resources and dreamt about
creating new ones, they were passionate about helping to shape
a relevant publishing ministry. They expressed hope that future
resources will be grounded in Anabaptist and biblical understandings;
will provide quality educational and theological materials
that serve as Christian formation for people of all ages;
will be packaged for media-savvy 21st century; and will be
developed within a web of partnerships spanning North America.
"I came home with renewed hope about MPN,"
said Marlene Bogard, of Newton, Kan., minister of Christian
nurture and resource library director for Western District,
one of 21 area conferences in Mennonite Church USA. "That
hope was renewed by being together with people whose hearts
and souls are concerned about offering quality resources.
"The freedom we were given at the consultation to dream,
and the quality of the process to imagine new things, also
give me hope. We don't know for sure what the future will
look like, but it felt good to network with others. I came
hungry for that kind of thing, and I spent every meal and
every moment in conversation to share ideas and challenges."
Eleanor Snyder, of Waterloo, Ont., the new director of Faith
& Life Resources, a division of MPN, said, "I feel
we have a new window of opportunity but also feel that we
must seize the moment now to open it. The image I have is
when a butterfly is just ready to emerge from the cocoon.
It's a miracle, but it's also a fragile place. I have a lot
of hope and optimism that it will be beautiful and will fly
high and well."
Participants -- including MPN staff, churchwide agency personnel,
pastors and front-line Christian educators -- seized the moment
to open some windows, as they engaged in hands-on interaction,
discussions and worship, gave recommendations and posed challenges
and concerns. Dana Selzer, longtime educator of Longmont,
Colo., facilitated the sessions.
This consultation is the first in a series of such meetings
planned by MPN to network with and receive counsel from a
cross-section of constituents and leaders. Upcoming consultations
will specifically focus on whether MPN resources adequately
meet the needs of people of color, or special interest groups,
such as church schools. MPN also wants to meet with book publishers
and agencies that may want to explore partnerships.
Searchlight on resources
For this first consultation, MPN staff shone a searchlight
on resources -- what is being produced and what yet needs
to be created in various areas including: worship and music,
spirituality, missions/service, community, interpreting Scripture
through biblical and theological education, leadership for
pastors and laity and stewardship.
Participants also shared what characteristics they felt Anabaptist-focused
materials need in resources that range from books to Web programs
to video series. A concern for many participants was that
the church focuses more intently on training its Christian
educators and providing quality materials that shape Christian
formation for all ages.
Don Rempel-Boschman, senior pastor at Douglas Mennonite Church
in Winnipeg, and a member of Mennonite Church Canada's Christian
Formation Council, said he believes MPN seriously heeded this
concern.
"What struck me most about this consultation is that
MPN invited a lot of front-line educators," Rempel-Boschman
said. "They are really passionate about Christian education.
And that brought a lot of hope to me as lead pastor in a multi-staff
church. I often don't have the time to focus on teacher training.
"The church has spent a lot of time and money on training
its pastors to sort through what is good material and what
is less good. I don't think the church has given the same
sort of sorting skills for its teachers. And I'm encouraged
to see MPN saying that one of its core activities will be
to develop these kind of resources."
Participants encouraged MPN to update and to revamp materials
instead of reinventing them; to create flexible curriculum
that can be cross-referenced in Sunday schools, Vacation Bible
Schools, Wednesday night programs and at home with families;
and to develop some materials geared for the missional church.
"If we are being truly missional, we will attract people
who don't come from a traditional Mennonite background and
could be intimidated by some of the materials positioned for
those who have a Bible or church background," said Gay
Brunt Miller, of
Souderton, Pa., director of administration for Mennonite Church
USA's Franconia Mennonite Conference. "We need to be
creating materials now for the future, when those people who
we're just beginning to reach out to will have come into our
churches."
Participants also encouraged MPN to develop a line of essential
materials, rather than a comprehensive array, and to recommend
resources from other denominations when useful.
Some examples of materials produced by MPN to date include
the Jubilee Sunday school curriculum, Rejoice - a devotional
magazine for adults - and the new Leader magazine that focuses
on the missional church for pastors and congregations and
provides seasonal resources such as Advent. One of Faith &
Life's newest books God's Story, Our Story, written by Michele
Hershberger, Hesston (Kan.) College professor. The book introduces
people to the Christian faith from an Anabaptist perspective
and connects them with their own experience through narratives
and storytelling.
Shaping, celebrating the future
Participants also gave feedback in areas regarding finances,
marketing and distribution, collaborating, multicultural needs
and theological diversity. For example, participants recommended
that MPN create a "one-stop shopping" Web site,
where constituents may find resources and links to other related
materials.
They encouraged the creation of advocacy networks, in which
materials can be dispersed at the local level - such as resource
libraries - and to invite pastors to more explicitly share
MPN materials with their congregations. One group encouraged
MPN to develop expertise in grant writing, to better secure
funding from such sources as the Lilly Foundation. They also
suggested that MPN become more upfront about its ongoing financial
needs with congregations and donors.
The weekend brought much thinking and planning but also much
worshiping and celebrating. Participants focused on God's
grace and guidance by voicing what they celebrated about MPN's
resurgence and by creating their own Sunday morning worship
service woven with themes from their work together.
"It's incredibly gratifying to see how the church in
the United States and Canada has stood behind us," said
Ron Rempel, of Waterloo, the new MPN executive director. "So
many people have said to us that they can't imagine having
a healthy church without having a healthy publishing ministry.
"There's been this massive wrapping of arms around publishing.
Some people, even I at one time, believed that perhaps it
was a foolhardy move to pull MPN out of financial distress.
I've come to believe, as do other constituents, that there
is no way but forward. That hopeful spirit is incredibly visionary
and creative." Photos available
Laurie L. Oswald, news service director for Mennonite
Church USA, wrote this story for Mennonite Church Canada and
Mennonite Church USA.
| |
|
|
Second phase of MPN Barnraising Campaign adds to strong
foundation. |
|
PITTSBURGH, Pa. (MC USA) -- The second phase of Mennonite
Publishing Network's (MPN) Barnraising Campaign -- extended
from Aug. 31 to the end of December -- is adding more to debt
relief that's putting MPN back on solid ground.
Congregations from across Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite
Church Canada were initially asked to contribute by Aug. 31,
the due date for repayment of an MPN loan used to pay former
debenture note holders -- and also the date marked as "Publishing
Sunday" on the churchwide calendar. So far, they have
sent in about $260,000.
"We want to offer a
big thank you for all those who have contributed so far to
the campaign, and we want to emphasize that there's still
time to give," said Ron Rempel, MPN's new executive director.
The due date of the loan has been extended to the end of the
year.
Out of the $5 million debt, $600,000 was repaid in the first
fiscal year - about half from donations and the other half
from operations. Of the $4.4 million debt still remaining
at the beginning of this fiscal year, about $1.7 million was
the balance of the debenture repayment loan.
MPN's goal for the current fiscal year was to raise this $1.7
million through the second phase of the Barnraising Campaign:
$300,000 from congregational donations; $400,000 from operations;
and $1 million from major donors.
"From projections as of mid-September, it looks as though
MPN will be able to pay down about $800,000 to $900,000 of
the $1.7 million in this fiscal year," Rempel said. "In
the next month or so, the MPN board will decide how to address
the remaining debt going forward into the next fiscal year."
Ron Sawatsky, MPN board chair, said, "Retiring a $5 million
debt is a big burden to carry for an organization that has
a $13-14 million budget. But the church has helped a lot to
help relieve some of that burden. ... We've been enormously
encouraged by the response of the church through a heart-warming
show of finances and verbal encouragement at places such as
Atlanta 2003.
"While we've come a long way, there's still that careful
balancing of income versus expenses to deal with that brings
a certain fragility, and that's not easy. But the church support,
along with the way we're doing operations, is helping this
all to work."
Positive operation performances, restructuring that brought
the number of FTE employees down to 37 from 90 in the last
two years and ending the printing operation have also contributed
to MPN's forward movement, Rempel and Sawatsky said.
| |
|
| MPN's
executive director turns from publishing a magazine
to managing a network. |
|
by Laurie L. Oswald
PITTSBURGH, Pa. (MC USA) -- The editorials that Ron Rempel,
the new executive director for Mennonite Publishing Network
(MPN), once wrote about churchwide publishing have circled
back to his desk in the form of jobs for him.
In taking the leap from being a Mennonite journalist to being
executive director for the joint publishing ministry of Mennonite
Church Canada and Mennonite Church USA, Rempel said he's landed
in some challenging landscape.
But the landscape isn't all that unfamiliar to Rempel, editor
of The Mennonite Reporter from 1979 through 1997 and editor
and publisher of Canadian Mennonite from its inception in
1997 until he took his new post. For some of those two and
a half decades, he grappled with issues on paper that he's
now dealing with in person.
"I haven't jumped into something entirely different,
because in some ways there's a lot of continuity with what
I'm doing now," said Rempel, of Waterloo, Ont., former
pastor at his current congregation, Stirling Avenue Mennonite
Church in Waterloo. "As a publisher, some of my instincts
regarding publishing were honed. And in my days of observing
and writing about the church, I gained a broad knowledge of
how it functioned.
"So when publishing issues began to surface, I wrote
editorials that the publishing ministry should go this way
and that. But I have made a big shift from being primarily
an observer to being a hands-on person. Now my hands are on
the steering wheel, and a lot of what I've said is coming
to roost on my desk."
As big as that shift is, he's driving down some of the road
he helped pave -- a road he believes God has called him to
take. But the road into MPN took some twists and turns.
During the turbulence of a financially troubled publishing
ministry, his editorials reflected some wariness about the
churches taking risks to keep publishing alive. However, as
he sensed more and more people declaring that they couldn't
imagine a Mennonite church without its own publishing ministry,
he began to commend people for their bold initiatives.
After his transformation in thinking, the two churches began
a transformation process in publishing. That led to the forming
of a U.S-Canadian publishing transformation team in May 2002.
And when the team came to Canada, it invited Rempel and others
to one of its consultations.
"Even earlier, I had sent out written submissions that
suggested future publishing should organize forums that brought
all the stakeholders together to collaborate more," Rempel
said. "When the team came to our area, I heard many people
were resonating with the same idea of forming partnerships
and networks. We are all beginning to be on the same page."
It took only a few months before being on the same page turned
toward his responding to the sense that God was calling him
to make the page's words come to life through action.
"I remember the moment when I first sensed a call to
work for MPN," Rempel said. "I was sitting in the
Joint Executive Committee meeting in Kansas City in October
of 2002, where the transformation team presented its future
recommendations. All of a sudden, I saw the report in front
of me with two sets of eyes -- the eyes of an observer and
the eyes of someone who God may be calling to make these ideas
reality."
He told no one at the meeting about the Saul-to-Paul experience
and scales falling from his eyes, but he did breach the topic
to his wife, Kaye.
"We both agreed this was a bit far out but that I should
pray about it," he said. "Some time later, people
began shoulder tapping me. I spent whole conversations telling
them why it wasn't a good idea."
After three or four of these conversations, he tested the
idea with a broader group of people regarding why or why not
this position would fit, he said.
"Other people were resonating with ideas I had shared
about where I felt publishing should go. I could see that
there was a critical mass behind this direction. ... And I
realized that the inner nudging I had had that day in Kansas
City was a call that God was inviting me to follow."
Photo available.
Laurie L. Oswald, news service director for Mennonite Church
USA, wrote this story for Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite
Church USA.
| |
|
| New
director of Faith & Life Resources brings pioneering
spirit to her post. |
|
by Laurie L. Oswald
PITTSBURGH (Pa.) -- As one listens to Eleanor Snyder's vision
for pursuing her post as the new director of Faith & Life
Resources, a division of Mennonite Publishing Network (MPN),
one may catch the tone of a pioneer.
Like pioneer women before her, Snyder, of Waterloo, Ont.,
and a longtime educator in the church, seems to balance gazing
toward the horizon with the willingness to undergo the daily
grind to get there. And as she walks into the future, she
wants to care for fellow travelers by offering hardy food
that sustains their walk with God.
"As a longtime educator, I believe I have a sense of
what's cutting edge in the educational ministry in the church,"
she said. "And I want to bring together products that
bring energy and enthusiasm for users.
"I don't mean in a light and fluffy way but in a way
that is very nurturing and that helps people to grow and deepen
in their relationship to God. I don't want people to know
about God. I want people to really know God."
Snyder's longtime interaction with education in the church
has shown her that, while curricula have been sincere and
solid, they can tend toward helping people know facts about
God without connecting with God in their hearts and lives,
she said.
Her passion for developing resources that are theologically
sound but also user-friendly and integrated was shaped by
lots of educational experiences. They've included more than
a decade of curriculum writing and positions at various levels
in the church -- of congregation, area conference and denomination
-- as well as educational and theological studies.
Snyder, who attends Erb Street Mennonite Church in Waterloo,
served from 1994 through 2002 as director of Children's Education
for the former General Conference Mennonite Church. Prior
to that, she served for six years as minister of Christian
Education for Mennonite Church Eastern Canada. In these positions,
she was a resource to Christian educators of children and
adults.
She also completed a doctor of ministry degree (D. Min) in
Christian Education from the Toronto School of Theology and
a master's degree in theological studies from Waterloo Lutheran
Seminary.
"These experiences have reinforced my view that we need
to provide active learning for our children, young people
and adults in our congregations," Snyder said. "People
need to be speaking and talking and interacting as they are
learning. We don't want to just provide curricula for students
but also experiences that integrate knowledge with praying
and journaling and interacting with teachers and each other."
An even deeper passion than charting integrated paths is a
yearning to help children and youth find their way, she said.
"I'm very much an educator and teaching has always been
a love of mine," Snyder said. She was an elementary and
junior high teacher and taught Sunday school since she was
15 years old. After she had her own children, she left teaching
in the secular system and became involved in the church's
educational mission.
That mission is still hers even though it's taken a new form.
And she knows that one doesn't reach the destination alone.
Pioneering takes both courage to be cutting edge and interdependence
within community. That's why she's also searching the horizon
for other travelers who share the same Anabaptist vision,
she said.
In her role, she supervises a dispersed team including editors
and a marketing person and takes the lead in developing affordable
new resources called for by the church. She also sees herself
as a bit of a "talent scout."
"We have a very resourceful church with a lot people
who are committed to seeing that we have great resources,"
Snyder said. "I am looking forward to tapping into the
expertise of many people throughout our congregations.
"I hope people will offer themselves in any way they
can to help supply the resources our church needs. We need
educators, writers, singers, designers, Bible teachers, theologians
and artists. All these gifted people and many more are needed
and wanted. We will be on a talent search to find them."
Photo available.
| |
|
| Mennonite
professor featured in CBS special about peacemakers |
|
Contact: Jeremy Murphy 212/975-4577
jeremy.murphy@cbs.com, manager, Editorial Services, CBS
(212) 975-4577 51 W. 52nd Street NY, NY 10019
"Peacemakers," an interfaith religion special about
the people who work to stop wars, will be broadcast Sunday,
Oct. 12 (8:00-8:30 AM, ET; 5:00-5:30 AM, PT) on the CBS Television
Network.
Peacemakers," a CBS special to air Oct. 12, will
feature John Paul Lederach, Mennonite professor of peace
building at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. He's
worked in West Africa, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Northern Ireland
and elsewhere to provide conflict resolution for people
who are working in difficult circumstances for peace.
Lederach will appear with others who are discussing war
and peace in many places around the world and debating whether
the war in Iraq is a just war. He will help convey that
the more important issue is how to prevent wars, to bring
peace and to extend forgiveness where there has been war.
The broadcast will also present other world peacemakers
and their programs. They include Patricia Ackerman, an Episcopal
priest, and part of the Fellowship of Reconciliation's Iraq
working group. Ackerman also works through this group to
empower and protect the women of Iraq.
William Vendley, Secretary General, World Conference of
Religions for Peace, assists religious communities around
the world to cooperate to end violence. He also works to
promote the role of women within various religious organizations.
Masanko Banda, vice president of Pathways To Peace, who
works for peace around the world using drums, music and
dance. He's taken drums to Sierra Leone and to Croatia's
refugee camps to rehabilitate young people traumatized by
violence.
Whether it's tribes, clans, nations or religions fighting
each other, people are at war and are hurting. The peacemakers
prevent conflicts and to help heal the wounds of conflicts.
The program presents only a few of the world's peacemakers,
their organizations, programs and insights.
John P. Blessington is the executive producer of the special;
Ted Holmes is the producer, in cooperation with The National
Council of Churches, The United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops, The Jewish Theological Seminary and the Southern
Baptist Broadcast Communication Group.
|
