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News archive
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| New MMA president named |
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| Larry D. Miller |
Incoming executive chosen for visionary leadership qualities
Goshen, Ind. MMA, the stewardship agency of Mennonite Church USA, announced Oct. 30 that Larry D. Miller was named as its new incoming president and CEO. Miller will begin leading the 60-year-old stewardship organization in January 2007, taking over from Interim President Steve L. Garboden.
“MMA’s board is enthusiastic and unanimous in our support of Larry for this role,” stated Arlan Yoder, chair of MMA’s Board of Directors. “He has proven visionary CEO leadership experience, deep expertise in niche financial services, and commitment to the Anabaptist life and service to the church.”
Commenting on his appointment, Miller said, “I care very deeply about the church and am very committed to serving Anabaptists with financial services that relate to their faith values. It is this commitment to serving the church that now leads me to MMA.”
“We believe Larry will continue to build on MMA’s excellent leadership legacy left by presidents like Jim Kratz, Howard Brenneman, and most recently Steve Garboden,” said Pat Swartzendruber, chair of MMA’s Presidential Succession Committee, which managed the candidate selection process.
Work and personal background
Miller is president and CEO of Mennonite Financial Federal Credit Union in Lancaster, Pa. He has 35 years of experience in the retail banking and financial services industry, serving as CEO of Mennonite Financial for the past 16 years.
Previously he served as vice president of Hawkeye Bank and Trust, Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and as president/CEO of two Federal Land Bank Associations in Iowa.
He is a graduate of Hesston College, Hesston, Kan., as well as Iowa State University.
Miller is active in the church community, including Lancaster Mennonite Conference (finance committee chair, strategic planning steering committee member); Mennonite Central Committee (finance committee member); and The Mennonite magazine (board member and treasurer).
He also is board chair of the Impel Consulting Group; board member of the Pennsylvania Credit Union Service Centers, Inc.; and member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Credit Union Advisory Committee.
Miller and his wife Wilma are members of Landisville Mennonite Church where he participates on its leadership board and teaches Sunday school.
He and his wife are parents of two adult children, Laurie and Andy, both married.
Wilma is employed part-time as assistant manager of the Ten Thousand Villages store in Ephrata, Pa. She also operates a home computer-embroidery business.
Recent interim period
Steve Garboden has been serving as interim president of MMA for the past year. Long-term senior veteran of MMA, Garboden also serves as senior vice president of health and administrative services.
Background on Steve Garboden (Note to editors: Find this release in the News at MMA section of www.mma-online.org and you can link to more information whenever you see these underlined sections in the release.)
Under Garboden’s leadership, MMA has continued to pursue long-term plans for the organization’s direction through 2009. Customer relations have remained strong during this interim period.
The organization’s primary focus is on customer growth. MMA is actively pursuing a number of key strategies that include strengthening its distribution network and enhancing product development.
The organization’s 2006 customer satisfaction survey (recently conducted in September 2006) indicates that MMA continues to be perceived in a positive light by the majority of its members. These results are virtually unchanged from the last survey in 2004. The survey indicated that MMA is considered a “trustworthy” institution (78 percent respondents strongly agree; 18 percent agree somewhat).
About MMA
MMA helps people manage resources in ways that honor God through its professional expertise in insurance and financial services. Rooted in the Anabaptist faith tradition, MMA offers practical stewardship education and tools to individuals, congregations, and organizations.
Founded: 1945
History and timeline
Primary products and services:
Group and individual health insurance
Mutual funds and annuities
Trust and estate planning and administration
Charitable giving plans
Educational resources
More complete listing in 2005 annual report
In-depth product descriptions can be accessed off MMA home page.
Customers: 79,000
Personnel:
Staff (237 in Goshen and 75 in field offices): 312
Counselors (field representatives, not including staff): 105
Board, management and other MMA personnel
Assets: $1.6 billion under management, primarily on behalf of individuals and institutions
2005 financial overview
For more information, contact: Judy Martin Godshalk, (800) 348-7468, Ext. 514,
(574) 533-9515, Ext. 514, e-mail judy.godshalk@mma-online.org
MMA (Mennonite Mutual Aid), 1110 North Main St., P.O. Box 483, Goshen, IN 46527
www.mma-online.org
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| Commentary: Mennonites and Pentecostals share insights on mission |
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By Thomas Finger
When Christian mission is effective, at least two things occur. First, it is empowered by God’s Holy Spirit. Second, mission forms and sustains communities distinct from society and provides alternative ways of living. Mennonites often do well in the second task but look for help with the first. In contrast, Pentecostals emphasize the role of God’s Spirit. Yet some Pentecostal leaders worry that their congregations and their behaviors are becoming more like that of mainstream society. Most Pentecostals have forgotten, and few Mennonites know, that Pentecostal churches were peace churches when they began.
To learn from and mutually strengthen each other, 20 representatives from Mennonite Church USA and the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), a Pentecostal denomination, gathered for a Consultation on Mission at Reba Place Church and Fellowship in Evanston, Ill., Sept. 8 through 10. It was the second organized encounter between these denominations. A preliminary discussion among three members from each group took place in Cleveland, Tenn., in May 2005. Conversation with Pentecostals is one of four on-going priorities for the Interchurch Relations work of Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership.
This meeting provided plenty of time for getting acquainted, times of laughter and several surprises, such as when Church of God representatives found Pentecostal influences in worship at Reba Place. All participants preached at Mennonite congregations or participated otherwise in their worship Sunday, Sept. 10.
The major discussion times focused on the two issues mentioned above: the Holy Spirit’s role in the missional church and the forming and sustaining of alternative communities. Participants took a tour of one such community, Reba Place Church and Fellowship, which hosted the event.
The consultation concluded by recommending three proposals to the respective executive bodies: 1) that several COG and Mennonite Church USA congregations share resources and undertake joint projects, and perhaps even exchange a few members temporarily, during the next year; 2) that another consultation occur in about a year, of approximately the same size and among many of the same people to deepen relationships; 3) that a conference on holiness and salvation be held in 12 to 18 months involving scholars, pastors and other church leaders.
All the participants expressed gratitude for the consultation and a desire for more such deliberate conversations among Pentecostals and Mennonites. Encounters between Mennonites and Pentecostals are happening in many other settings. In March, for example, the Mennonite World Conference devoted a substantial portion of its council meetings in Pasadena, Calif., to a symposium on “Global Anabaptists and Global Pentecostals: Creating Understandings.”
Participants in the consultation from Mennonite Church USA included Jonathan Brown, Tom Finger, Gilberto Flores, Alan Kreider, Esther Martinez, Jim Schrag, Gerald Shenk, Zenobia Sowell-Bianchi, Blanca Vargas, Virgil Vogt, and Sally Schreiner Youngquist, recorder.
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| From left, Mennonite participants Virgil Vogt, Alan Kreider, Esther Martinez, Zenobia Sowell-Bianchi and Pentecostal participant, Pastor Tony Richie engage in conversation during a recent Mennonite-Pentecostal Consultation on Missions. |
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| Mennonite Church USA seeks better access to healthcare for pastors |
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SYRACUSE, Ind.When Mennonite Church USA delegates passed a healthcare access resolution at Charlotte 2005 Delegate Assembly, they put priority on providing better access to healthcare for pastors and church workers.
Representatives of six insurance pools providing healthcare insurance for Mennonite Church USA workers and volunteers came to the same conclusion when they met in Syracuse, Ind., Oct. 25 to 26, to talk about ways they can cooperate and learn from each other.
The six insurance pools represent educators, healthcare agencies, camps, mission workers and Mennonite agency staff as well as pastors. All six pools rely on MMA for health insurance-related services including medical management, plan administration and access to drug and provider discounts.
As representatives of the six insurance pools shared with each other, they found some common themes – affordability, commitment to mutual aid, equity and fairness, promoting wellness, the appropriate degree of cost sharing with employees and a desire to serve their constituencies. And they agreed that each pool had a stake in the success of all pools.
Participants said they wanted to educate their workers to make good choices that promote healthy living. They agreed that the complex system of healthcare administration needs to be simplified. And they said they wanted to promote mutual aid so that our practices more clearly reflect what we say we believe.
The clear call at this meeting was to find ways to provide access to healthcare for employees of congregations and organizations related to Mennonite Church USA who now lack it. Under the existing healthcare system, providing healthcare access mean providing healthcare insurance.
After reviewing the gaps in healthcare access in the churchwide system, representatives identified two groups that need further attention – pastors (and other congregational employees) and workers in Mennonite institutions at the lower end of the pay scale. In agreeing to focus first on pastors and church employees, insurance pool participants noted that these workers are part of the mission of the church as well as the infrastructure.
Covenant Mutual Benefit Plan (COMB) currently provides health insurance for pastors and congregational workers in ten of the 21 area conferences in Mennonite Church USA. While the plan currently is in a good financial position and a recent survey showed that satisfaction for the program is high, the pool of participants needs to grow in order to be sustainable long-term.
More than half the congregations in Mennonite Church USA have less than 60 members. These congregations are often unable to hire a full-time pastor, much less provide adequate healthcare coverage. In addition, many immigrant congregations and other Racial/Ethnic congregations in urban areas simply are not able to afford basic healthcare coverage.
Insurance pool representatives will meet again in February 2007 to consider ways to expand healthcare insurance coverage for pastors and church workers. A report on this effort will be presented to the San José 2007 Delegate Assembly next summer.
Glen Miller, a retired medical doctor and church worker, continues to lead the Mennonite Church USA response to the delegate action on healthcare access. In addition to expanding healthcare coverage for church workers, his work, with assistance from Mennonite-related agencies, includes promoting the congregational study, Healing Healthcare, encouraging wellness and developing healthcare access guidelines for public policy.
To use Healing Healthcare in your congregation, contact Glen Miller at GlenM@MennoniteUSA.org or check www.MennoniteUSA.org/healthcare.
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| Historical Committee essay winners announced |
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| Elizabeth Miller |
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John P.R. Eicher |
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Scott S. Janzen |
GOSHEN, Ind. (Mennonite Church USA) – Three examinations of Mennonites and fundamentalism in the first half of the 20th century took the top honors in the 2006 John Horsch Mennonite History Essay Contest, sponsored by the Mennonite Church USA Historical Committee.
“Moody, Fundamentalism and Mennonites: The Struggle for Particularity and Engagement in Illinois Mennonite Churches” by Elizabeth Miller of Goshen College earned first place in the undergraduate student category. Second place went to “Suspicious Minds: Fundamentalism and the First Mennonite Church of Berne, Ind.” by John P.R. Eicher of Goshen, while third was claimed by “A Church Divided: Fundamentalism and Bethesda Mennonite Church, Henderson, Neb.” by Scott S. Janzen of Bethel College, North Newton, Kan.
“The three on fundamentalism and its impact on different Mennonite groups could and should be edited and pulled together into a helpful little book,” suggested judge Mark Metzler Sawin, associate professor of history at Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Va.
Other judges were Rachel Waltner Goossen, associate professor of history at Washburn University, Topeka, Kan., and Walter Sawatsky, professor of church history and mission at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Ind.
The contest is open to student entries in the categories of high school and graduate school/seminary as well as undergraduate. No high school and graduate school/seminary awards were made this year. First-place winners receive $100 and a one-year subscription to Mennonite Quarterly Review. Seventy-five dollars is awarded to second place and $50 to third place. All entrants receive a one-year subscription to Mennonite Historical Bulletin.
The annual contest is named in honor of John Horsch (1867-1941), the German-American historian and polemicist who did much to kindle new interest in Anabaptist and Mennonite studies in the 20th century.
The deadline for next year’s contest is June 15, 2007. See the Historical Committee’s Web site (www.mennoniteusa.org/history) for more information. |
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