A program at aimed at helping persons to explore their potential and gifts for pastoral ministry is moving ahead.

A "Culture of Call" initiative at the seminary, being funded by a Lilly Endowment grant, is helping congregations who have agreed to participate in the ministry effort to in turn tap potential participants for the program.

In stage two of the three-stage effort, leaders in pilot congregations are identifying young people or those in mid-career who have pastoral leadership gifts and inviting them to serve as ‘interns’ on their leadership team.

The initial stage involved holding a series of vocations banquets and a "Ministry Sunday" emphasis in several Mennonite district conference settings.

The seminary also held a two-day retreat/workshop in December 2003, at Laurelville (Pa.) Mennonite Church Center that involved 45 church leaders representing 15 "pilot congregations" from the four cooperating Mennonite conferences – Franconia, Lancaster, Ohio and Virginia.

Merlin L. Miller, pastor, Landstown Community Church, Virginia Beach; Randy Coblentz, pastor, Williamsburg (Va.) Mennonite Church; Harry Jarrett, associate pastor, Harrisonburg Mennonite Church; and Ed Heatwole, pastor, New Beginnings, Bridgewater, Va., interact at the gathering of current and prospective "pilot congregations" in the "Culture of Call" program.
Photo by Jim Bishop

Owen Burkholder, conference minister for Virginia Mennonite Conference, met at the seminary on Dec. 10, 2004, with representatives of five of the six pilot congregations that had attended the Laurelville meeting. Also present were three more congregations who are considering getting involved in the program.

Participating Virginia Conference congregations represented at the meeting were: Harrisonburg Mennonite; Landstown Community, Virginia Beach; Park View Mennonite, Springdale Mennonite, Waynesboro; Williamsburg Mennonite and Zion Mennonite, Broadway. Congregations present that are exploring mentor/intern relationships were: New Beginnings Mennonite, Bridgewater; Charlottesville Mennonite and Stephens City Mennonite.

According to Del Glick, director of church partnerships at EMS, a major portion of the time together was spent hearing reports from those congregations who have an internship plan in place. The group also discussed key ingredients of planning and implementing a congregational intern plan and listened to concerns and ideas from those considering taking part, he noted.

Randy Coblentz, pastor at Williamsburg Mennonite, shared his congregation’s experience in identifying an intern from within the congregation. This person will serve an eight-month internship in a variety of roles – preaching, visitation and outreach and administration.

"I see this pilot program being a discernment tool – is this person being called to the ministry," Coblentz said. "We need a fresh approach to identifying pastoral leaders and assisting them in spiritual formation and equipping for leadership before the need arises for a new pastor."

"The next step is to bring together participants in the 2003 events as cohorts for a training process," Dr. Glick said. "We also plan to invite more congregations to join this three-year commitment of calling forth persons from their congregations to serve as interns on the leadership teams and to train them accordingly.

"The resources and training are not programs imposed on them by the seminary," Glick noted. "Rather, what emerges will be based on mutual partnerships driven by needs identified by the conferences and congregations."

For more information on the "Culture of Call" program, please call (540) 432-4698 or email churchpartnerships@emu.edu.

A newly-formed Church Partnerships leadership team has been established at to administer a variety of programs aimed at strengthening relationships between the seminary and its supporting constituencies.

Del Glick, who became director of church partnerships at EMS in 2002, will head the four-person team.

Dr. Glick works with Mennonite district conferences to call forth and train new persons for ministry. He helps plan special seminars that introduce persons to seminary programs, sets up special summer course offerings at EMU and direct other projects and activities aimed at helping people to seriously explore God’s call on their lives, with pastoral ministry as a vocational option.

Jill K. Landis will serve as associate director of church partnerships. She will assist in developing partnerships between Eastern Mennonite Seminary and its supporting churches and help administer the Culture of Call and LEAP initiatives.

Jill K. Landis and Gievanne M. Gonzalez

Gievanne M. Gonzalez has been appointed associate director of the LEAP program. Her responsibilities include developing and coordinating the summer LEAP program and year-round tasks of recruitment, marketing, mentoring and networking. Ms. Gonzales, with roots in Puerto Rico, Chicago and New York City, is a 2004 graduate of EMU with a major in communication.

Gonzalez succeeds Richard Pannell, who served as LEAP director from April 2003 through May 2004. Pannell provided primary leadership for the summer 2003 LEAP trip to Zimbabwe and Mennonite World Conference involving 50 high school youth and 11 adult leaders. He also helped create a LEAP website and connected this leadership initiative with urban centers of New York City and Philadelphia.

Ms. Landis, a 1999 EMU graduate with a major in philosophy and religion and a minor in youth ministry, is from Goshen, Ind. As part of her assignment, she has become director of the Congregational Resource Center at Eastern Mennonite Seminary. She previously served as staff assistant for Virginia Mennonite Conference.

Joe Dugan, the vice principal of Philadelphia Mennonite High School, has been named associate director of Philadelphia LEAP. He is responsible to implement the technology and video teleconferencing connections between Philadelphia Mennonite High School and EMS.

Rev. Dugan, a graduate of Biblical Theological Seminary, is an ordained minister in the Christian Missionary Alliance denomination. He will work out of his school setting in Philadelphia; Landis and Gonzalez from the seminary. Glick will divide his time between offices in Washington, D.C., and the seminary.

Major programs under the umbrella of the office of church partnerships include the "Culture of Call" and LEAP, both funded by Lilly Foundation grants.

LEAP, which stands for "," is a broad-based seminary effort to encourage ministry inquiry among high school youth. Up to 50 participants will spend four weeks in July on the seminary campus for orientation, off-campus "classroom in the world" learning experiences in both urban and rural cross-cultural settings.

"The ‘Culture of Call’ initiative is working to create a climate and environment that creatively discerns, invites, nurtures and equips gifted persons, young and older alike, for pastoral ministry," Dr. Glick said. "Efforts include planning special events related to pastoral ministry as a vocation, working with churches on setting up pastoral internships, compiling resources to help equip interns and their mentors and holding events at the seminary and on location for pilot congregations," he added.

"I’m pleased that this team models a balance of gender, age and enthnicity," Glick noted "I believe it reflects the seminary’s commitment for involvement of multi-cultural personnel, models an urban, diversified seminary office mentality, provides more connection between EMS and Philadelphia Mennonite High School and will strengthen the ‘Culture of Call’ effort."