Participants came from 13 states and two countries, and represented nine denominations, including Mennonite, Quaker, Church of the Brethren, Disciples of Christ, Church of God of Christ, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian and United Church of Christ.

Hurst and the planning committee selected Mark 4:35-41 as the guiding scripture.

“Navigating these times as followers of Jesus and church leaders does feel like charting unknown waters in a choppy and stormy sea,” Hurst said in her welcome. “The biblical story found in Mark 4 of the disciples crossing the story sea with Jesus seemed appropriate for our repeated hearing and reflection over these days.”

Maren Tyedmers Hange, co-pastor of Charlottesville Mennonite Church, painted a special piece of art, featuring an empty boat floating in storm-swept seas, for contemplation. The boat is “intentionally empty as a invitation to join Jesus there,” said Veva Mumaw, seminary admissions director and member of the planning committee.

Expanded worship opportunities throughout the three days led the gathered through interpretation and reflection on the scripture passage. Keynote addresses were provided by David Evans, associate professor of history and intercultural studies and the director of cross cultural programs at Eastern Mennonite Seminary; Sue Park-Hur, denominational minister for leadership development and transformative peacemaking for Mennonite Church USA; and John Pavlovitz, author and Methodist pastor.

Pavlovitz provided three keynotes, addressing parts of the scripture each day. A pastor for two decades, writer and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina, Pavlovitz blogs about. His books include A Bigger Table: Building Messy, Authentic, and Hopeful Spiritual Community (Westminster John Knox Press, 2017) and HOPE and Other Superpowers: A Life-Affirming, Love-Defending, Butt-Kicking, World-Saving Manifesto (Simon & Schuster, 2018).

In an “upsidedown world” that corrodes hope and faith, followers of Christ – seeking to embody the compassion modeled by Jesus, “to intercede on the behalf of people in need” – often feel anger and disillusionment.

“You have the eyes of Jesus and the heart of Jesus that moves you towards people who no one else knows, who everyone else avoids, who no one else hears,” Pavlovitz said. The “collateral damage” of moving with empathy towards those has to be acknowledged, but at the same time, the movement is the heart of the Gospel.

“Muslim bans, health care repeals, ICE raids, Nazis in the street, debating the value of a black life,” he said, “I feel completely inverted spiritually. I feel profoundly disoriented as a Christian…but disorientation means your faculties are intact, your mind is right, your heart is working properly, and your soul is keeping you human in profoundly inhuman times.”

Pavlovitz suggested that the challenge for ministers and people of faith is “how to take that natural anger and channel it in to something redemptive and constructive … Can we find a transcendent Jesus? … Can we create a community where the full Jesus can be on display? I think we can. We have to embrace the activist, compassionate heart of Jesus with people who we would not otherwise be with, in places we would not think to be.”

Acknowledgements

In addition to Brenda Martin Hurst and Veva Mumaw, the planning committee included Dale Detweiler, pastor, Birch Grove Mennonite Church, Port Allegany, Pennsylvania; Peggy Packard, pastor of Weyers Cave United Methodist Church, Weyers Cave, Virginia; Dawn Ranck-Hower, pastor of New Holland Mennonite Church, of New Holland, Pennsylvania; and Danilo Sanchez, co-pastor, Ripple-Allentown, and associate pastor, Whitehall Mennonite Church, Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The worship planning team included Perry Blosser, Maren Tyedmers Hange, Matthew Hunsberger, Robert Michalides, Veva Mumaw and Ryan Scarberry.

The Jan. 14-16, 2019, event will highlight the Mark 4:35-41 narrative of Jesus’ crossing the stormy sea with his disciples, and feature keynote speakers John Pavlovitz, Sue Park-Hur and David Evans, plus seminars, facilitated conversation circles and luncheon discussions.

In addition, participants are invited to join in worship and sharing, a church leaders/pastor appreciation breakfast with President Susan Schultz Huxman, and a story slam competition in which participants can volunteer to tell humorous stories from their ministry experiences.

The deadline for early registration is Friday, Nov. 30.

“Church leaders and pastors are keenly aware of the needs in their congregations,” said SLT coordinator Veva Mumaw. “Like other years, this will be a chance for them to find strength to thrive, to be inspired along with other ministers, and to become renewed in their calling to serve.”

This year, financial assistance is available through the Thriving in Ministry Lilly grant for pastors whose continuing education funding is insufficient or who as bi-vocational pastors face financial constraints.

“The seminary’s 50-year commitment to offering School for Leadership Training reflects its steadfast commitment not only to training women and men for ministry but also to supporting and nurturing pastors in the years following their seminary training,” said EMS Thriving in Ministry grant director Brenda Martin Hurst, who led the SLT planning committee from 2002-07 and is on the committee again this year. “For the next five years, this grant will support EMS in offering SLT, focusing on helping pastors to thrive and to navigate the transitions they experience in ministry.”

Keynote speakers

Pavlovitz will present three keynote addresses. A pastor for two decades, writer and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina, Pavlovitz blogs about and has published A Bigger Table: Building Messy, Authentic, and Hopeful Spiritual Community (Westminster John Knox Press, 2017) and HOPE and Other Superpowers: A Life-Affirming, Love-Defending, Butt-Kicking, World-Saving Manifesto (Simon & Schuster, 2018).

Park-Hur will provide the first keynote address. The denominational minister for leadership development and transformative peacemaking for Mennonite Church USA, Park-Hur is co-director of the Los Angeles peace center specializing in conflict transformation and restorative justice for immigrant churches. She served as co-lead pastor of Mt. View Mennonite Church in Upland, California, and co-church planter of Church for Others in Temple City. In addition, she taught theological English to pastors from overseas at Fuller Theological Seminary. She is trained in Intercultural Development Inventory and sexual abuse investigations, and is a Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience practitioner.

Evans will present the fourth keynote address. An associate professor of history and intercultural studies and the director of cross-cultural programs at EMS, Evans focuses his teaching and research on the braided identity categories of race, religion, and nation. He is the co-editor of Between the World of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Christianity (Cascade, 2018), and practices a local “eco-lutionary” lifestyle that promotes an ecologically just future for the diverse people of the Shenandoah Valley watershed. He is a United Methodist.

Themes reflect change

Past themes reflect SLT’s developing and persistent engagement with issues facing church leadership, from 1971’s theme of “The Church in the 70’s” to 1982’s “Creating a Resourceful Ministry” to 1993’s “Which Way Worship?”

“Over the years the themes became more relevant and interesting as opposed to purely academic lectures,” said Linda Alley, an ordained minister and spiritual director who from 2006-16 was involved with SLT as an assistant or director and in previous years participated with her pastor husband and as a seminary student.

Increasing diversity among the attendees led also to a widening array of workshops that met various needs in church leaders: for networking within and across denominational boundaries, for meaningful continuing education, for a chance to experience worship not as leaders but as participants, Alley said.

Its name’s evolution suggests a broadening understanding of leadership in congregations: The event first took place in 1970, with the name “Ministers Week.” In 1983 the name expanded to “Minister Week: School for Leadership Training.” By the mid-90s it had transitioned to just “School for Leadership Training.”

“It truly was a refreshment to the soul for many busy leaders who needed time for self-care and renewal,” Alley said. She continues to follow the works of two past SLT lecturers in particular, Tilda Norburg () and Ruth Haley Barton (the ).

Learning and sharing in 2019

This year’s SLT includes a variety of seminars, facilitated conversation circles and luncheon discussions.

Seminars will include:

• “Building resilience and practicing self-care as pastors” with Park-Hur;
• “Embracing the Beauty of Failure” with Pavlovitz;
• “Such time as this?” with Victor Gomez, Virginia United Methodist Church Harrisonburg district superintendent;
• “Gather up the Fragments: An Ecclesioculture for Thriving Small Churches” with Bradley Roth, pastor of West Zion Mennonite Church, Moundridge, Kansas;
• “‘The Thundering Silence’: Hearing and Ministering to Combat Veterans suffering from PTSD and Moral Injury” with Darin Busé, pastor of Riverside United Methodist Church, Fulks Run, Virginia.
• “It’s always been about bodies” with EMS instructor Mary Thiessen Nation and Harrigan McMahan Bowman, an elder at Early Church in Harrisonburg; and
• “Reading the Clouds” with Maren Tyedmers-Hange, co-pastor at Charlottesville (Virginia) Mennonite Church.

Facilitated conversation circles will include:

• “The Loneliness of Leadership” led by Sue Cockley, EMU dean of graduate and seminary;
• “Pastoring in Polarizing Times” led by Todd Friesen, pastor of East Chestnut Street Mennonite Church, Lancaster, Pennsylvania;
• “Help, I’m a solo pastor! Things I didn’t know I would have to do” led by EMS Professor Lonnie Yoder; and
• “Bats in the belfry” led by Jeff Mumaw, a former mental health worker.

Luncheon discussion options will be “Ministry in Anabaptist Churches” for students, leaders and conference ministers to network, and a “Women in Ministry Gathering” led by Hurst.

"Come, all you who are burdened and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest."

For busy and often harried church leaders, that scriptural promise should put music in their ears and a spring in their step, but reality may prove something else for many.

The concept of "Embodying God’s Wholeness in a Frenzied World" also happens to be the primary theme of the 2006 School for Leadership Training, Jan. 16-19 at .

This year’s is designed to help pastors and church leaders pay attention to their own well being," said , assistant professor of practical theology at EMS and SLT coordinator. "Pastors will have opportunities to slow down and to pray with and for each other. Meaningful worship times will again be a highlight," she added.

Primary resource speaker, Duane Beck, will draw from his own experience of wrestling with and seeking to embody wholeness in the midst of his ministerial calling. He has been lead pastor of Belmont Mennonite Church, Elkhart, Ind., since 1984 and previously served a church in Ohio for 13 years.

Belmont is a mission-oriented congregation that is made up of two culturally diverse worshiping groups and is actively involved in responding to its neighborhood and to the city of Elkhart.

Participants will be able to select four of 16 special interest classes being offered on such topics as "Praying the Scriptures," "Finding a Wholeness Balance in Ministry and Family/Relationships," "Jesus at the Movies" and "Lay of the Land: Mennonite Women in Ministry."

A new feature this year is recreation night on Tuesday evening, Jan. 17. A variety of activities are planned to relax, rejuvenate and invigorate church leaders – everything from line-dancing to volleyball to a Rook card tournament. Persons are encouraged to check the SLT web site for updates at .

Each day’s events will open with worship and music. Other activities include a forum with seminary dean Ervin R. Stutzman, a pastors and church leaders forum and a special dinner and program sponsored by the alumni and church relations offices. The conference will conclude the morning of Jan. 19 with worship and communion.

A "Pre-SLT" workshop is being offered 1:45-5 p.m. Jan. 16 on "Health and Wholeness in a Frenzied World" led by Ingrid Friesen Moser, stewardship of health manager at Mennonite Mutual Aid, Goshen, Ind.

Persons may register on-line at . The registration deadline is Dec. 31, 2005. After that date, $15 of the registration fee is non-refundable.

All registered participants are asked to check in from 12:30-1:45 p.m. or 3:45-5 p.m. on Jan. 16 in the gathering area on second floor of the seminary building.

For more SLT information, call Cindy Smoker at (540) 432-4597 or e-mail: churchrelations@emu.edu.