By Cherelle Dessus   March 13, 2018

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Seventeen faith leaders from Brethren in Christ, Mennonite Brethren and Mennonite Church (MC) USA congregations advocated for better immigration policies at 30 congressional offices representing eight states, in late February.

The faith leaders told legislative aides about problems that current immigration policies are causing in their communities. They also urged their legislators to support a “clean” Dream Act – a bill to give undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children a path to citizenship without allocating money for more border walls or more deportations.

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) U.S. Washington Office hosted the group on Feb. 27 and 28. MCC staff prepared participants for meetings on Capitol Hill, supported them as they spoke to legislative staff members and debriefed afterward.

The event was financed and planned jointly by the Washington Office and MC USA, and it was coordinated by Danielle Gonzales, immigration project coordinator for MCC U.S. A similar delegation came to Washington, D.C., in 2013.

“Working with the MCC Washington Office to organize a second delegation of MC USA leaders gives the church a chance to share our stories as both immigrants and leaders,” said Iris de León-Hartshorn, who serves as director of transformative peacemaking for MC USA and helped plan the delegation as a continued response to MC USA’s 2014 Churchwide Statement on Immigration.

“My hope and prayer are that hearts will be open to hear the stories and have the moral courage to do what is right,” de León-Hartshorn added.

On the first day, Tammy Alexander, senior legislative associate for domestic affairs for the Washington Office, reviewed immigration legislation and described expectations for meetings with legislators. The group also discussed how federal immigration policies were affecting each of their communities.

“People in my community are being deported. I don’t know what’s going on in this world. I am angry,” Esmirna G. Maldonado de Martins of Salem Mennonite Church in Wooster, Ohio, told other group participants. “Almost everyone in this country is an immigrant [or descended from immigrants], but they treat us like we’re nothing.”

Many faith leaders shared that immigrants make up a large percentage of their communities. Some churches are experiencing deportations within their congregations while others are offering “sanctuary” – housing an undocumented immigrant who is at risk of deportation.

“They came for one person, but they took two families,” said Sandra Montes-Martinez about people from her church, Iglesia Monte Horeb in Grand Prairie, Texas, who were deported recently.

Participants discussed the critical need for immigration policies that provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, embrace refugees and treat immigrants with dignity and respect.

Alexander reminded participants of immigration policies of past administrations.

“Anti-immigrant policies are not something new,” she explained, referencing the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations. “Hundreds of miles of U.S.-Mexico border wall have already been built and mass deportations were happening long before President Trump.”

Some of the faith leaders were initially anxious about the congressional meetings, but as they prepared their talking points and gathered personal stories to share, their confidence rose. The leaders felt called to pray for policymakers as they discussed issues important to their congregations and communities.

In addition to their desire to support immigrants in their communities, the faith leaders attributed their core convictions for these meetings to recognizing the injustice of current immigration policies and understanding that much of this injustice stems from racism and fear.

As the faith leaders returned to the Washington Office after their Capitol Hill meetings on Feb. 28, many reported that their meetings were positive. Some said their legislators support a “clean” Dream Act. Others mentioned that, while their legislators did not agree with their policy positions, their aides, nevertheless, listened to their recommendations earnestly.

Most of the leaders shared that they felt more confident and equipped to meet with their legislators back in their home districts to continue the dialogue about immigration policies and how those policies are impacting their congregations.

“I got over a barrier. I’m sure I will continue in-district. We have to be vigilant. We can’t lose steam,” said Rodney Eugene Schmucker of Hope for the Broken Mennonite Church in Los Fresnos, Texas. Schmucker also appreciated the time for faith leaders to talk with one another and learn from each other. “For pastors to get around the table to share on these issues is invaluable.”

MCC continues to push for fairer and just immigration policies, but many more voices are needed. Learn more about immigration at the MCC Washington Office website and by subscribing to monthly immigration updates.

Participants included:

Heidi Regier Kreider, Western District Conference of MC USA, Newton, Kan.; Izaete Nafziger, North Goshen Mennonite Church, Goshen, Ind.; Isaac Villegas, Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship, Chapel Hill, N.C.; Marty Lehman, College Mennonite Church, Goshen, Ind.; Melissa Florer-Bixler, Raleigh (N.C.) Mennonite Church; Hyun Hur, co-director of ReconciliAsian, Pasadena, Calif.; Kristina (Tina) Schlabach, Shalom Mennonite Fellowship, Tucson, Ariz.; Joel Miller, Columbus (Ohio) Mennonite Church; Suhelen Irene Cazares, Iglesia Mennonita Casa Betania, Newton, Kan.; Richard Lee, Homestead (Fla.) Mennonite Church; Rhonda Dueck, North Fresno (Calif.) Mennonite Brethren Church; Jeanne Assinthe, Homestead (Fla.) Mennonite Church; Sandra Montes-Martinez, Prairie Grand, Texas (Iglesia Menonite Hispana); Esmirna G. Maldonado de Martins, Salem Mennonite Church of Wooster, Ohio; Rodney Eugene Schmucker, Hope For The Broken, a Mennonite Church, Los Fresnos, Texas; Juan Sebastian Gallo, Holy City Church (Brethren in Christ), Hollywood, Fla.; Samuel Resendez, Iglesia La Roca (Mennonite Brethren), Sanger, Calif.

Mennonite Central Committee: Relief, development, and peace in the name of Christ

GOSHEN, Ind. – Everence donated over $205,000 in January to 265 charitable organizations and congregations through its MyNeighbor program.

With the MyNeighbor program, individuals and businesses generate reward dollars for their favorite nonprofits every time they use their MyNeighbor credit cards from Everence Federal Credit Union. In January, Everence writes and sends checks to the charities the cardholders selected.

“The MyNeighbor card is our newest way to help spread generosity between our members and our communities,” said Ken Hochstetler, President and CEO of Everence. “Since only April of 2017, our members generated over $205,000 for local and global charities – that’s a significant impact!”

With MyNeighbor, each time you buy groceries, pay bills or make other purchases, Everence will donate 1.50 percent of the purchase total to the charity of your choice.

For more information about the MyNeighbor program, visit everence.com/MyNeighbor or call (800) 451-5719.

Everence helps individuals, organizations and congregations integrate faith with finances through a national team of advisors and representatives. Everence offers banking, insurance and financial services with community benefits and stewardship education. Everence is a ministry of Mennonite Church USA and other churches. To learn more, visit everence.com or call (800) 348-7468.

Everence offers credit union services that are federally insured by NCUA.

For more information:

Allison Schrock, Marketing Manager
allison.schrock@everence.com
(574) 533-9515 ext. 3301; (800) 348-7468, ext. 3301

Singer-songwriter leads interactive “Reading the Bible with Jesus” workshops

by Annette Brill Bergstresser

(Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary) — Bryan Moyer Suderman believes that paying attention to Jesus as interpreter of Scripture can transform how we, too, engage Scripture and each other.

The singer-songwriter and Bible teacher from Kitchener, Ontario, experiences this firsthand as he leads interactive “Reading the Bible with Jesus” workshops for congregations across the U.S. and Canada — since 2016 as a teaching associate of the Church Leadership Center of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) in Elkhart, Indiana.

In the workshops, Moyer Suderman facilitates a process of exploring how the New Testament Gospels portray Jesus as interpreter of Scripture as he taught and healed those around him and joined in the hot-button conversations of the day.

“It’s often an aha moment for people when they realize how much Jesus draws upon what we call the Old Testament — constantly, and in all kinds of ways,” he said. “There can be a kind of stereotype about the Old Testament: ‘We’re so glad we have Jesus and don’t need to bother with all that Old Testament stuff.’ Well, if you pay attention to Jesus as interpreter of Scripture, you’re very hard pressed to make that case.”

A shared process of discovery

The workshops bring together Moyer Suderman’s passion for biblical scholarship, creative musical expression and contextual ministry. He has spent the last 25 years finding creative ways to engage diverse communities in what he likes to call “the ongoing scriptural story of God’s love for the world.” Having worked in various ministry roles with churches in Colombia and Canada, since 2001 he has focused on writing Scripture-based songs for people of all ages. Songs from his eight studio albums have found their way into curricula, conventions and congregational singing throughout North America and beyond.

In 2011 Moyer Suderman began to study Gospel accounts of Jesus’ use of Scripture, which resulted in invitations to share his learnings and prompted him to complete a Master of Theological Studies at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ontario, writing his thesis on the topic. The “Reading the Bible with Jesus” experiences he now facilitates are one of the fruits of this study.

During the workshops, Moyer Suderman leads participants in mapping out Jesus’ interactions with those around him in a selected Gospel story. He then invites them to observe how Scripture is coming into play in the conversation, and together they flip back to the corresponding Old Testament texts and spend time exploring them. After that, they return to the Gospel story and consider how what they’ve learned informs their understanding of the text.

He’s heard people comment, “All those notes I see in the margins in my study Bible that identify different passages — I’ve never known what they’re for, but they’re there for a reason!”

Participants then repeat the process with different Gospel stories, looking for patterns in Jesus’ approaches. And along the way, Moyer Suderman plays his guitar and weaves music into the conversation to engage the group and encourage reflection. For example, he pairs a musical setting of Psalm 119:105 (“Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path”) with a song he wrote titled “Wrestling with the Scriptures” as a way of acknowledging people’s varied experiences with the Bible.

“It’s fruitful to have people in the group approach the text in different ways,” he reflected. “When we express the experiences we bring to the text, we can approach the process together with trust and confidence that God has something here for us.”

The participatory nature of the work is a key factor for him: “It’s a process of exploration and discovery together, and my role is to guide and resource and shepherd that. The group owns it. At the end, there’s a sense of, ‘We did that. My idea is on that piece of paper.’”

He said he’s found that paying attention to Jesus as interpreter of Scripture is a new approach for many people.

“It opens things up for people, and it equalizes — giving a sense that we’re all discovering, whether you’ve studied Scripture a lot or if it’s your first time doing a Bible study,” he said. “People at all kinds of levels of experience are getting something they can take forward with them.”

And, he added, the interactive process can also connect people who might not agree theologically, focusing on their common desire to grow as disciples of Jesus and helping equip them for the ongoing interpretive task.

Jewel Gingerich Longenecker, AMBS dean of Lifelong Learning, is excited about the seminary’s partnership with Moyer Suderman and appreciates his “boundless energy for travel and working in the church.”

“Bryan’s teaching ministry connects biblical scholarship with the life of the church and fits well with AMBS’s mission of preparing leaders who are rooted in the Word and growing in Christ,” she noted.

Digging into the Word in a fresh way

In January 2017, Reba Place Church in Evanston, Illinois, hosted Moyer Suderman for a workshop, joined by North Suburban Mennonite Church in Libertyville, Illinois, and Illinois Mennonite Conference. Reba Place Lead Pastor Charlotte Lehman said that while the event happened to be on the same weekend as the presidential inauguration and the Women’s March on Washington, D.C., it was well attended, drawing around 40 people. Participants came from the sponsoring groups as well as Living Water Community Church in Chicago and Evanston (Illinois) Mennonite Church.

Lehman described Moyer Suderman’s process of exploring the Gospel of Matthew with them as “a wonderful and enlightening exercise” that revealed that as Jesus joined into the conversations of his time, he did not just apply the Scriptures in the way they seemed to be in their original context.

“He was, as a rabbi might, adding his own insights and current applications to the text … as opposed to using Scripture in a more ‘flat dead rulebook’ sort of way,” she said. “Bryan also helped us see that these conversations continued after the time of Jesus and that we’re continuing to be part of them now; it’s not like a topic was frozen at the time [Jesus] talked about it.”

Lehman observed that participants responded well to the combination of Moyer Suderman’s enthusiasm and deep knowledge of Scripture.

“Some folks who had been finding that the perspective of the Bible they had grown up with was not so satisfying to them anymore — but who hadn’t really known how to reengage Scripture in a meaningful way — felt that Bryan’s approach really helped them with that,” she said. “It was a really good time of digging into the Word in a fresh way.”

“Where do we go from here?”

Like the Illinois congregations, three congregations in the Goessel (Kansas) Ministerial Alliance partnered to host Moyer Suderman for a workshop in April. According to Phil Schmidt, lead pastor of Tabor Mennonite Church in Newton, Kansas, where the event was held, about 50 people participated from Tabor Mennonite, Alexanderwohl Mennonite and Goessel Mennonite.

Schmidt said he and Katherine Goerzen (MDiv 2015), associate pastor at Tabor, had heard Moyer Suderman present at Pastors Week at AMBS in January 2016 and had begun looking for a chance to invite him to their area.

“It was a new and unique opportunity for us to get together across church boundaries and study Scripture together; that was definitely a highlight,” Schmidt said, noting that participants from along the theological spectrum connected with Moyer Suderman’s leadership style and way of incorporating music into the study of a passage.

Schmidt said he especially appreciated the last workshop session, in which participants identified repeated themes and asked, “Where do we go from here?”

The Tabor congregation didn’t hesitate to apply what they’d begun learning. They used some of Moyer Suderman’s songs for their Bible school in the summer — songs Schmidt describes as “singable, theologically rich and in tune with Scripture, from an Anabaptist perspective.” He noted that he and other leaders have also sought to keep the “reading the Bible with Jesus” mindset in their Scripture reading together.

Also, three people from local churches are in the process of creating a curriculum based on Moyer Suderman’s “Detectives of Divinity” song, which encourages listeners to watch carefully for signs of God’s activity all around them. At Tabor, this curriculum is being used for the congregation’s weekly Wednesday evening ministries, which draw about 75 children through junior high age from around the community.

Moyer Suderman has also been lined up to lead “Reading the Bible with Jesus” at Western District Conference’s 2018 Annual Assembly on July 27–28 in central Kansas. In preparation for the assembly, Schmidt says the Tabor congregation hopes to do a corresponding worship series.

Hosting a workshop

Since 2016, Moyer Suderman has led experiences of “Reading the Bible with Jesus” with communities in eight states and two provinces. In January/February 2018, he will present further workshops in Kitchener-Waterloo and Niagara, Ontario; Goshen, Indiana; and Kidron, Ohio. In April, he’s planning a trip to the Pacific Northwest (Hubbard, Oregon), followed by a retreat with Central Plains Mennonite Conference pastors and leaders in Schuyler, Nebraska. He’s also scheduled to lead a workshop with pastors of Mennonite Church Alberta in mid-September.

Moyer Suderman noted that when congregations invite him to lead a workshop, he has also often participated in Sunday morning worship (speaking, singing, teaching) and given an all-ages community concert — offering the congregation and community multiple ways to engage Scripture together.

To learn more about “Reading the Bible with Jesus” workshops or to book an event (in English or Spanish), see www.ambs.edu/workshops.

Located in Elkhart, Indiana, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary is a learning community with an Anabaptist vision, offering theological education for learners both on campus and at a distance as well as a wide array of lifelong learning programs — all with the goal of educating followers of Jesus Christ to be leaders for God’s reconciling mission in the world.

This article also appears online:
www.ambs.edu/news-events/news/1627259/what-can-we-learn-from-how-jesus-used-scripture

AMBS-Bryan-Moyer-Suderman-46-Credit-Jace-Longenecker.jpg

Bryan Moyer Suderman, teaching associate for the Church Leadership Center of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, leads a “Reading the Bible with Jesus” workshop in November 2016 for Walnut Hill Mennonite Church, Goshen, Indiana, at Amigo Centre in Sturgis, Michigan. (Credit: Jace Longenecker)

You are invited to join SENT 2018: a gathering of Mennonites planting Jesus-centered communities…

Be SENT. Join a gathering of more than 100 Mennonite mission-minded, Jesus-following leaders for a two-day church planting summit in Chicago, II.  There will be church planters, groups testing the call, missional entrepreneurs, outreach experimenters, pastors, missiologists, and conference leaders.

Be a part of something greater. Be part of a national Anabaptist church planting network that is continuing learning and collaborating together.  This gathering will explore how to grow missionally-driven communities that move beyond the maintenance mode.

Be inspired. Share your church planting experiences (the good, the bad, the ugly). Together, we can learn to form Jesus-shaped communities in a variety of contexts.  We will reflect on Anabaptist/ Mennonite church planting experiences (both success and failings) and we will again hear Jesus’ words to us, sending us into many different contexts to form Jesus-shaped communities.

I hope to see you there!

Mauricio Chenlo,
Church Planting Minister
Mennonite Mission Network

What you need to know!!

Meetings location
Living Water Community Church
6808 N Ashland Blvd, Chicago, IL 60626
Phone: (773) 764-5872
https://livingwatercommunitychurch.org/

Meeting dates and time

• Friday, May 4, Registration being at 1:00 PM, event starts at 2:30 pm – Sunday, May 6 after lunch with Living Water Community Church
• We will have room for luggage since the hotel check-in doesn’t start until 4:00 PM

Registration

• Early-bird registration is  $65 from January 10 through February 15
• Registration is $75 from February 15 through April 5
• Registration will be closed after April 5
• There are scholarships available based on need, please email Mauricio Chenlo at MauricioC@MennoniteMission.net

Hotel, for those needing lodging

• Hotels are pricey and difficult to find in this area. It is not to your advantage to wait and schedule your own – we have blocked group rate rooms at:

Hampton Inn Chicago North Loyola Station
1209 W. Albion Ave., Chicago, IL 60626
872-302-4481 F | 312-896-5990
Online Virtual Tours:  Hampton Inn Loyola Tour <https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=7MBk11oML8B>

• Hotel group rate is $199 a night per room plus taxes. All rooms include 2 queen beds which means $99 a night per person if you share a room (we highly encourage that). This rate and reservation is based on a minimum stay of two nights
• We have blocked 50 rooms at this rate, please indicate on the registration form if you would like to reserve a single room at $199 or if you would like to share a room at $99.5 per night, per person plus taxes.
• Please pay for the room as part of your registration. Mennonite Mission Network will add your name to the hotel guest list and pay the hotel on your behalf.
• A few rooms could be made available for Thursday or Sunday night at the same rate – Please make sure to mark that on the registration if you need a room for either of those nights
• Check in at 4:00 PM- check out at 11:00 AM

Please follow the link below to register
https://www.regonline.com/MMNsent2018

Questions can be directed to Haiam Gendi (Mennonite Mission Network) logistics coordinator 1-866-866-2872 (Toll-free), ext. 23074 or HaiamG@MennoniteMission.net <mailto:HaiamG@MennoniteMission.net>  
We look forward to seeing you on Friday, May 4th!

Hosted by Living Water Community Church, Chicago, IL
Sponsored by Mennonite Mission Network and Everence

www.MennoniteMission.net/sent <https://www.mennonitemission.net/events/Sent-2018-conference-We-are-church-planters>

Jan 8, 2018 by Tim Huber and Mennonite World Review

Beginning January 2018, credentialed and active pastors from any churches affiliated with Everence are eligible to receive a Pastoral Financial Plan Grant toward the cost of a first-year Everence comprehensive financial plan. Many of those affiliated churches can be found online at everence.com/who-we-serve.

This new grant is in addition to the Everence Pastoral Financial Assistance Program, a financial planning subsidy initiative for Mennonite Church USA and Conservative Mennonite Conference pastors that was funded, in part, by a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc.

“Pastors face unique and often challenging financial circumstances, which can put stress on their personal and ministerial health and wholeness” said Ken Hochstetler, Everence President and CEO. “That’s why we believe in the importance of helping pastors address their financial needs and goals. When our pastors are healthy, our congregations also benefit.”

That’s why we believe in the importance of helping pastors address their financial needs and goals.

Ken Hochstetler
Everence President and CEO

With Everence comprehensive financial planning, qualified professionals can help pastors and other individuals develop plans that address their needs and goals, and help them stay on course. Clients also get access to online tools that help them organize their cash flow and closely track their savings and investments.

“We are committed to helping pastors align their financial decision-making with their purpose,” continued Hochstetler, “to help increase their sense of confidence as it relates to finances and empower them to engage in these conversations with their congregations.”

Due to a conflict with AMBS Pastors and Leaders week, the Healthy Boundaries training schedule for March 1 has been moved to February 1.  If you are a credentialed leader in need of this training, please check your schedule to see if the February 1 date works. The location is Living Water Community Church in Rogers Park, Chicago, IL. More details are online at illinoismennonite.com <http://illinoismennonite.com>   To register for this event, please email Holly Mason at hmason@mennonite.net by January 15. 

ELKHART, Indiana (Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary) — Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS), Elkhart, Indiana, will honor the legacy and racial justice work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., with two events on Jan. 14 and 15 under the theme, “No Church in the Wild: Christianity, White Supremacy, Black Liberation and Hip-Hop.”

The featured speaker will be Daniel White Hodge, Ph.D., associate professor of intercultural communications at North Park University in Chicago and a recognized urban youth culture expert and cultural literacy scholar.

He is the author of The Soul of Hip Hop: Rims, Timbs and a Cultural Theology (IVP 2010) and Hip Hop’s Hostile Gospel: A Post Soul Theological Exploration (Brill Academic 2017); his next book, Homeland Insecurity: A Hip-Hop Missiology for the Post-Civil Rights Context (IVP Academic), will be released in June.

Hip-hop music and culture have a complex place in American society, observes Nekeisha Alayna Alexis, Intercultural Competence and Undoing Racism coordinator at AMBS and an organizer of the AMBS events.

“On one hand, they have become lucrative products that influence global trends in fashion, music and everyday language,” she says. “Yet hip-hop’s origins are from predominantly Black, economically marginalized communities — communities that remain pressed to the fringes and do not receive the recognition or the benefits they deserve for their contributions.”

Responses to hip-hop within and outside of the church can also be complicated, Alexis says. While some people uncritically dismiss it, others carelessly appropriate it. There are also debates among those who embrace it about how it has developed, where it’s headed and what needs to change. For this reason, she is grateful for the insights that Dr. White Hodge brings to the table.

“One of the things he adds to the mix is the ability to look at hip-hop as a valuable, critical and important cultural resource that we can learn from,” she says. “I’m excited to host an educator, thinker and leader who approaches the genre as a source of wisdom, who honors the creativity behind the form and recognizes its value in our society — and even to the practice of faith in the way of Jesus.”

Alexis also notes the connection to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who as a pastor and Christian leader fought against injustice within a movement that drew strength from singing, music and storytelling.

The events, to be hosted by AMBS’s Intercultural Competence and Undoing Racism team, include:

• Free public lecture: “The Soul of Hip-Hop and the Church in America”
  Sunday, Jan. 14, 2–3:30 p.m. at the Historic Roosevelt Center, 215 E. Indiana Avenue in Elkhart.
  AMBS is also hosting a book drive for the Tolson Community and Youth Center at the event; new and gently used non-religious books for diverse youth in grades 3-7 are especially welcome.
• Interactive workshop: “Intercultural Competencies in an Era of Trump and Fake News”
  Monday, 15, 8:30 a.m. – noon at AMBS, 3003 Benham Avenue in Elkhart.
  Registration is required for the Jan. 15 workshop (limited to 30 participants); see description at ambs.edu/mlkday.

For information about the types of books that are desired for the book drive, as well as the events, see: ambs.edu/mlkday

 Located in Elkhart, Indiana, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary is a learning community with an Anabaptist vision, offering theological education for learners both on campus and at a distance as well as a wide array of lifelong learning programs — all with the goal of educating followers of Jesus Christ to be leaders for God’s reconciling mission in the world.