This process is not just about organizational change—it’s about renewing our shared calling as followers of Jesus. Your participation will help shape the future of Mennonite Church USA, grounded in faith, community, and hope.
Quick Links
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- Project Charter: MC USA Structure Review Committee [English | Español]
- Small Group Discussion Resources
- Project Timeline
- Meet the Team
- Reimagination Book List
- News & Articles
Want to know more about how this Reimagination Process began? Read Glen Guyton’s reflection, “The Future of Mennonite Church USA,” to see the vision and heart behind this journey.
Small Group Discussions
These small-group sessions are designed to help congregations reflect on who we are, what we value, and how we can grow together as a community of faith.
Each of the four videos features special guest John Register and offers a short reflection to spark conversation about change, hope, and God’s ongoing work among us.
Discussion Questions
There are discussion questions to accompany each video. Use the questions to help your group explore the reimagination themes and connect them to your own experiences as a congregation.
In this conversation, MC USA Executive Director Glen Guyton sits down with John Register, a Paralympian and speaker whose journey through loss and transformation reminds us that every barrier carries the seed of hope. John shows that we don’t simply “overcome” change—we adapt, innovate, and rediscover what remains at the heart of who we are. As MC USA reimagines its future, this story invites us to reflect on pain, possibility, and the enduring values that guide us forward in faith.
In this conversation, John Register and Glen Guyton reflect on how courage and connection sustain us through change. John’s story of loss and renewal reminds us that true courage isn’t the absence of pain—it’s choosing to move forward in faith and community. As we breathe life into one another, we discover that connection is both the source and the expression of hope.
In this conversation, John Register and Glen Guyton explore what it means to live with purpose when the familiar no longer fits. John reminds us that renewal requires humility, curiosity, and courage to enter the unknown unknown—the place where new ideas and possibilities begin. As MC USA reimagines its future, we’re invited to give ourselves space and grace to grow and to see difference not as division, but as the spark of creativity God uses to make all things new.
In this closing conversation, John Register and Glen Guyton name a simple truth: what we don’t know can cost us the gold—unless we learn, revise, and act. Faithful futures are forged when we return to our mission, invite diverse voices into the unknown unknown, and choose courage over comfort. As stewards, we plant and water while trusting God to give the growth—so let’s step forward together with prayer, participation, and hope.
Structure Review Process Timeline
Dates are Subject to Change
Questions About the Structure Review Process?
Your questions and feedback are important as we seek to discern together how our denominational structures can best serve the church and its mission.
September – October 2025
- Form structure review task group
February 2026
- Process development and framing work with the consulting team
March 2026
- Research and Interviews
April 2026
- In-Person workshop with structure task group
May 2026
- In-person workshop with structure task group
June 2026
- Recommendations due to MC USA Executive Board
September 2026
- Confirm final recommendations for CLC review
February – May 2027
- Preparation information for Delegate Assembly
July 2027
- Present the final outcomes and progress updates at the Delegate Assembly, focusing on how the new structure supports MC USA’s mission and vision.
Meet the Team
About The Houston Foresight Program
The Houston Foresight program is the world’s longest-running graduate program solely focused on foresight. It offers education and training in futures thinking and methodologies in a variety of formats that are customized for different learners with different needs – from virtual “boot camps” to a four-course graduate certificate to a full Master’s degree. It also performs research on futures-oriented projects to benefit the community and business, government, education, and non-profit organizations.
Our vision is to be widely recognized as the premier training ground for professional futurists and for those seeking to futurize their lives and their organizations. Our mission is to serve aspiring professional futurists and the world by providing high-quality foresight training to help individuals and organizations in business, government, education, and non-profits realize their preferred futures.
For more information, visit https://www.houstonforesight.org/; for specifics on our research program see https://www.houstonforesight.org/work-with-us/research-portfolio/
Houston Foresight Project Team
Dr. Andy Hines is Associate Professor and Program Coordinator for the University of Houston’s Graduate Program in Foresight and is also speaking, workshopping, and consulting through his firm Hinesight. His 30+ years of professional futurist experience includes a decade’s experience working inside first the Kellogg Company and later Dow Chemical, and consulting work with Coates & Jarratt, Inc. and Social Technologies/Innovaro. His most recent book (just released) is Imagining After Capitalism. Other books are The Knowledge Base of Futures Studies 2020, Thinking about the Future (2nd edition), Teaching about the Future, ConsumerShift: How Changing Values Are Reshaping the Consumer Landscape, 2025: Science and Technology Reshapes US and Global Society. His dissertation was “The Role of an Organizational Futurist in Integrating Foresight into Organizations.” He was Founding Chair of the Association of Professional Futurists.
Nicci Obert is the Research Director for the University of Houston Foresight Program, where she coordinates research projects, conducts client foresight training, and coaches students in using the Framework Foresight methodology. Her path to strategic foresight emerged from nonprofit crisis work, where repeated cycles of reactive response revealed the limits of short-term intervention. Her research focuses on prosocial futures, specifically using encounters with the future to cultivate agency and orientation toward equitable, thriving futures.
Amanda Rounsaville Welsh works to transform systems by helping organizations, networks and groups of stakeholders connect strategy to impact. Her experience spans strategic philanthropy, social impact networks; strategic communications, experience design and policy change. She has expertise in collective leadership, early childhood development, climate adaptation, food systems, education, public interest technology and health policy. Amanda has a BA in Architecture/Design of the Environment from the University of Pennsylvania and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Foresight at the University of Houston.
Brandon Bond began his professional career as a contract handler for a catering company in college. After graduating with a B.S. in Criminology and graduate certificates in Mediation and Professional Dispute Resolution from University of North Texas, he began working at Citigroup as an Operations Analyst managing the banks digital collections strategies. After 9 years, he left Citigroup and has worked in various strategic and operational capacities across the legal, media, and entertainment industries. He is currently an Assistant Vice President of Digital Risk Strategy for U.S. Bancorp and is pursuing the Master’s degree in Strategic Foresight at the University of Houston.
Structure Review Committee Members
Paula Snyder Belousek — Conference Minister of Ohio Mennonite Conference
Michael Danner — Associate Executive Director for Church Vitality
Iris de León-Hartshorn — Associate Executive Director for Operations
Trey Ferguson — Pastor, The Intention Church
Amy Gingerich — Executive Director, MennoMedia
Susan Hart — MC USA Executive Board Member
Hyun Hur — ReconciliAsian Co-Director
Randall M. Justice — Mennonite Mission Network Board Chair
Mitchell Kingsley — MC USA Executive Board Member
Heidi Regier Kreider — Conference Minister of Western District Conference
Todd Lehman — MC USA Executive Board Moderator-elect
Luke Litwiller — Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Eastern Mennonite University
Alicia Maldonado-Zahra — Structure Review Committee Member
Christina Manero — Congregational Pastor
Mahlet Mamo — Young Adult Program Coordinator for MCC Central States
Eric Massanari — Executive Conference Minister of Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference
Nelson Okanya — Interim Pastor
Matt Pritchard — Associate Conference Minister for Emerging Communities of Faith
Rosetta Landis — MC USA Executive Board Member
Marisa Smucker — Executive Director, Mennonite Mission Network
Benjamin Sywulka — Assembly Mennonite Church
Jerrell Williams — MC USA Executive Board Member, Pastor of Shalom Mennonite Church
Amy Zimbelman — Conference Minister of Mountain States Mennonite Conference
Books to Read
As Mennonite Church USA explores what it means to reimagine our structure, we invite you to pause and reflect on our shared mission and commitments: following Jesus, witnessing to God’s peace, and experiencing the transformation of the Holy Spirit. The resources below offer historical insight, theological grounding, and creative imagination to help us discern how our structures can better serve our calling today.
Use these readings to pray, discuss, and dream about what it means to be church together rooted in our Anabaptist story, yet open to the Spirit’s leading into the future.
What Is the Church and Why Does It Exist?
At a time when the church in the US is losing credibility and cultural privilege, Fitch calls us to embrace historic Anabaptism as a model for thriving as God’s people in our own time and place.
Divine Gravity: Sparking a Movement to Recover a Better Christian Story
God is calling us to do a new thing. Are we paying attention? How are we listening to God rather than structures?
This is God’s Table: Finding Church Beyond the Walls
A book that articulates a way to do and be church that is different than what we are used to
When We Belong: Reclaiming Christianity on the Margins
From a person of color about where the church has excluded and done harm
Stuck Together: The Hope of Christian Witness in a Polarized World
How to be the church in a polarized world
The New Anabaptists: Practices for Emerging Communities
A model out of the UK in a post-Christian society for what Anabaptism looks like there
All Our Griefs to Bear: Responding with Resilience after Collective Trauma
Written for pastors after COVID but I think relevant here too because the people in this group will be rethinking church after significant losses of membership and models. Offers a model for responding to the loss/trauma of all these churches leaving as we think about where to go from here.
Tongue-tied: Learning the Lost Art of Talking about Faith
Have we forgotten how to talk about faith? Could equip people in the process to talk about their own faith journey?
Born Again and Again: Jesus’ Call to Radical Transformation
Not on the church but on personal ongoing transformation. Suggested because I think it speaks to renewal and being open to new ways of faith/church
An Untidy Faith: Journeying Back to the Joy of Following Jesus
On personal transformation.
