Kauffman has extensive local and international mission experience serving most recently as VMM global ministries director and advancement associate since 2011. A seven-member search committee of members began their work in June 2013, and recommended Kauffman to the VMM Board.

Phyllis Miller, chair of the VMM Board states, “We are delighted with Aaron’s selection as president. His unanimous selection by the Board indicates a trust level in his leadership along with a proven track record as global ministries director. We are grateful to God for this servant leader he has given us to lead VMM for this next period of time.”

Kauffman will follow Loren Horst, who has served since 2002 as VMM president. Loren and his wife, Earlene, will be considering future VMM mission assignments after he concludes his current role on December 31, 2013. He states, “I am very pleased with the selection of Aaron Kauffman. Aaron is relationally warm, missiologically sound, and administratively competent. He combines mission passion with a deep faith in Jesus and love for the entire church. Aaron’s mission experience and proven leadership have prepared him well for this additional responsibility. I offer my full and prayerful support.”

Growing up in Pennsylvania, and attending , Mountville, Pa., Kauffman recounts learning a mission-minded way of living through the congregation’s refugee ministry, active youth group and mentoring relationships with church members, including mission leader, David Shenk of . As a result, he eagerly participated in local and international short-term mission experiences while a high-school and college student.

After completing a bachelor of arts in at ˛ÝÝ®ÉçÇř (EMU), he finished a MA in TESOL and bilingual education at Georgetown University in 2003. Following two years as an ESL teacher in , he and his wife Laura were jointly appointed by VMM and and served from 2005-2008 in La Mesa, Colombia, as church youth group leaders, members of a church planting team, and as a teacher and a nurse, respectively, at the local Mennonite school.

Upon returning to Harrisonburg, Va., to attend seminary, he became curriculum coordinator of the at EMU while also teaching university courses in language instruction and methodology. He completed a in 2012. He has since taught undergraduate courses in as adjunct professor at EMU.

Upon his selection, Kauffman notes, “It is truly an honor to be asked to serve Virginia Mennonite Missions in this way. With God’s help and the church’s prayerful support, I look forward to continuing VMM’s legacy of faithful witness to the good news of Jesus Christ. It is an exciting time to be part of what God is doing around the world through the church.”

Aaron and Laura Kauffman are members of , Broadway, Va., a congregation of Virginia Mennonite Conference. They have four children, Abigail, 8, Sophie, 6, Asher, 3, and David, 3 months. Laura Michelle Souder Kauffman completed a at EMU in 2002 and has worked as a maternal health nurse. She is currently a member of a VMM Ministry Support Team and a stay-at-home mother. Their parents are Paul and Donna Souder, Harrisonburg, Va. and Dennis and Rose Kauffman, Lancaster, Pa.

Virginia Mennonite Missions was formed in 1919, with headquarters in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Now with a budget of $2.5 million, its mission is to invite people to faithful living in Jesus Christ by forming and enabling congregations and individuals to continue God’s reconciling work in the world. Approximately 75 persons serve in 16 countries including the United States in the areas of disciple-making and church planting, education, leadership development, deaf ministry, refugee ministry and urban ministry.

Article courtesy Virginia Mennonite Missions, Oct. 21, 2013

“When I was considering seminary I wasn’t really looking for another Mennonite experience,” said Aaron Kauffman, who received his MDiv degree this past weekend from Eastern Mennonite Seminary. “I grew up in Lancaster county, attended a Mennonite middle school and high school and then came to for college.”

New appreciation for other denominations

“But my pastor encouraged me to consider an Anabaptist theological education,” he continued. “And I have been surprised by the exposure to, and appreciation for, the wide range of Christian traditions that I have gained at EMS.”

Kauffman’s graduating class included Mennonite, United Methodist, Brethren, Episcopalian, Baptist, and Lutheran students.

“I now see myself as a convinced Anabaptist and Mennonite with something to offer, and many things to learn, from the wider church,” he said.

Last year Kauffman began an assignment as Global Ministries Director at Virginia Mennonite Missions.

Learning to think theologically

“When I come up against a particular issue we’re trying to work out at I try to think of biblical texts that frame the situation and reflect on them in my decision-making processes.”

Kauffman also has a master of arts in TESL, teaching English as a second language, and bilingual education from Georgetown University in Washington DC. He has taught English to high school students who were new immigrants and non-native speakers in the Rockingham County Public Schools, and has worked as the curriculum coordinator for the at ˛ÝÝ®ÉçÇř. Like many of his fellow seminary students, Kauffman is married and has children.

On April 28, Kauffman joined 14 others in receiving master’s degrees from EMS. Eleven, including Kauffman, received master of divinity degrees, one received a master of arts in religion degree and three received master of arts in church leadership degrees. In addition six students received certificates in ministry studies and two received graduate certificates in theology for peacebuilding.

Embracing the power of God

As the commencement speaker, Rev. Dr Daniel Garrett, an adjunct professor who teaches , urged graduates to locate themselves in “the power and wisdom of God” and to embrace “a holy calling in what the world still sees as weakness and foolishness.”

Garrett traced his own journey as a minister to familial influences. His grandfather challenged him “to try to put everything that I was about to learn into the service of that truth [of the Gospel],” said Garrett.

Then he spoke of how his father tried to incorporate the newest technology of the time, a cassette tape player, into his ministry practice, upon the advice of his son.

Technology does not make ministry

“My father, in the 30th year of ordained ministry, already a wonderful preacher, got a tape recorder, put it on the pulpit one Sunday and recorded his sermon.”

After dinner that night, his father tried to listen to the tape, but a few minutes later fell fast asleep.  Garrett joked that his father may have been the first preacher to be put to sleep by his own sermon.

“Who can predict what technologies will make ministry possible in new ways in the future?,” said Garrett. “I would suggest that you will need some guiding focus for what the church is about – to keep those technologies instrumental to the church’s purposes.”

The graduating class chose the theme “Fools for the Gospel” to guide the commencement weekend, basing the and in Jeremiah 9:23-24a and 1 Corinthians 1:18. Photos of seminary baccalaureate and commencement are.

Brian Gumm and Aaron Kauffman will likely never forget their capstone project at Eastern Mennonite Seminary.

That could be because this will be the pair’s final opportunity to work together, as they have throughout their four years of college. Or it could be because their project’s final activity will call for nearly 50 people to wash each other’s feet.

The students’ project is an interactive academic conference that has already sold out, more than a week ahead of schedule.

It will bring together Christian scholars from various states and denominational backgrounds for one common goal: to learn how to serve one another – and the church – better, even while living in a secular world.

“It feels really great to be wrapping up seminary with Aaron this way,” Gumm said.

Conference Details

The two have been planning the conference, named “#Occupy Empire: Anabaptism in God’s Mission,” since the fall, when national Occupy movements were fully underway.

While one of the event’s speakers was involved with Occupy Harrisonburg, it’s not just about the movement, the organizers said.

“It was more a play on the terminology,” Kauffman said, explaining the theme of the event. “It’s sort of an age-old question in the church – how do we live in the world, but not of the world?”

The theme will tie in with the conference’s final activity, foot washing.

“How are we supposed to occupy the empires of this world? How do we operate in them?” Kauffman asked. “I think we take a servant posture.”

Registration for the two-day conference, scheduled for April 13 and 14 at EMU’s Discipleship Center, has already closed.

“I really wasn’t sure what kind of response we would get,” Kauffman said. “[I was] very pleasantly surprised. I thought we would keep registration open until the day of [the event].”

The maximum capacity, because of limited funding and space, was 40. Those dozens who have signed up are from at least five states – many of them graduate students from other universities.

The conference will feature a mesh of worship services and academic presentations, some followed by formal responses from EMU professors and more casual question-and-answer periods.

There are 10 speakers total.

“Having worship services be part of an academic theology conference was an intentional move on our part to kind of bridge the gap that’s often perceived to exist between the church and the academy,” Gumm said. “We want to close that gap.”

The Theme, Realized

The discussions and presentations throughout the conference will focus on a variety of issues – art, race, alternative forms of theological education and church history, to name a few.

Living and working in what many argue is a largely secular world has become increasingly more difficult for some Christians, and the church as a whole, according to the organizers.

“It’s very challenging to be a church in a very politically polarized environment,” Kauffman said. “It does feel like, in terms of American politics, we’ve become increasingly polarized and ideological in our commitments.”

Even though Christians might belong to the same church, there are more and more people on far sides of the political spectrum, he added. And many let that interfere with church goals.

“Sometimes it feels like their political commitments are greater than their commitment to be in church together, and to me, that’s a problem.”

Young Anabaptist scholars will gather at (EMS) April 13-14 to discuss this at a conference titled, “#Occupy Empire: Anabaptism in God’s mission.”

Brian Gumm and Aaron Kauffman, both in their final year at EMS, are organizing the conference.

“We hope to create some bridges between older and younger scholars, the church and the academy and those interested in evangelical witness and rigorous social engagement,” Kauffman said.

Emerging scholars featured

The conference will feature Isaac Villegas, Chris Haw, Nekeisha Alexis-Baker, and Janna Hunter-Bowman as primary presenters. Respondents will be ˛ÝÝ®ÉçÇř (EMU) faculty, including Peter Dula, chair of Bible and religion department; Mark Thiessen Nation, professor of theology at EMS; and Carl Stauffer, assistant professor at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU.

Kauffman and Gumm wanted to play on and challenge the “occupy” language made popular in the last year by protesters around the country.

“We wanted to reinterpret that word,” said Gumm. “We were thinking about it theologically as part of the incarnation. How can we faithfully inhabit the empire as Christians?”

“We also wanted to turn it [occupy] on its head,” Kauffman added. “We are asking how God’s kingdom occupies us.”

Conference part of MDiv capstone project

Gumm and Kauffman planned this conference as part of their at EMS. Both are master of divinity students in the academic track. Gumm is a dual degree student with the at EMU.

“Planning this conference is part of our continued discernment about the ministerial vocation of education,” said Gumm. “We thought an academic conference like this could help us continue to tease out this call.”

The conference is sponsored by the Anabaptist Missional Project and the John Coffman Center at EMS.  Online registration is available at . Registration will remain open until the conference is full. Cost of the conference is $15 for students and $25 for non-students.

Gumm and Kauffman received a grant from the Orie Miller Global Village Center at EMU to support the conference.

“,” an a cappella ensemble, will present a concert of music that spans centuries and continents but remains relevant to today at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 3, at Park View Mennonite Church, N. College Ave.

Five of the seven group members are EMU alumni – Matt Hunsberger, Aaron Kauffman, Adam Sensamaust, Clay Showalter and Jon Leichty; Stephen Horst and Jared Stoltzfus are currently students at EMU.

Admission to the concert is $7 for adults, $5 for senior citizens, and $3 for students and children. Light refreshments are served after the program.

For more information, visit the group’s website at www.sonsoftheday.com or contact Matthew Hunsberger, 540-437-6434 or or Clay Showalter, 540-833-8349 or .