The students are rising junior Jeremiah Knott and rising seniors Daniel Barnhart, Rachel Schrock and Wes Wilder.

“I’m excited about the unique gifts and talents of each MIP student, and about the opportunities for experiential learning they will encounter,” said , MIP director and instructor of at EMU. “Ministry gifts and skills are best tested and learned within the context of real life, not simply in a classroom. MIP provides a safe way for students to explore their interest in ministry.”

More than 300 students have participated in the MIP program, a partnership that includes the student’s respective Mennonite college, the student’s home congregation, the student’s home and host area conferences, the congregation where the student is in ministry, and Denominational Ministry.

At the end of the program, each student receives a scholarship of up to $2,000 toward tuition costs at a Mennonite college or seminary for the next academic year, along with a $500 stipend for living expenses from the host congregation.

A student’s placement depends on “his or her own interests in size and type of congregation, the availability of a congregation and pastoral mentor, and a fit between the intern and the host congregation,” said Schrock-Hurst.

Taking action on their calling           

This summer’s MIP participants include three students enrolled in religious studies at EMU.

Daniel Barnhart, from Grottoes, Virginia, is a congregation and youth ministries major who will serve with his home congregation of in McGaheysville. He has been interning this last semester with , a United Methodist faith community in Harrisonburg.

Barnhart says he is participating in MIP “for the simple reason that I feel this is a call from God, but like any of us, I am tempted by the outside world,” he said, adding that this summer will “help me determine if I want to be a pastor.”

He looks forward to returning to his home church with the new intellectual skills and knowledge he’s acquired at EMU, he said, and with a new interest in liberal and conservative biblical views.

Wesley Wilder, of Hesston, Kansas, is a double major in psychology and Bible and religion. The firsthand experience he’ll gain at in South Hutchinson, Kansas, will help him discern his path, he says. Wilder knows he’ll be working primarily with youth, joining them for the trip to the Mennonite Church USA convention in Kansas City, Missouri.

“I look forward to preaching a sermon and jumping into whatever the congregation asks of me,” he said. “I am most looking forward to finding my own niche in ministry and learning more about what I have to offer the church.”

His home congregation is in Hesston.

Jeremiah Knott, of Elkton, Virginia, will serve at his home congregation, , as well as the church he was raised in, Bethel United Church of Christ. For many years a professional musician, Knott plays guitar, sings and writes songs on the Faith Alive worship team.

A Bible and religion major who plans on going into the ministry and pursuing graduate studies, Knott says the MIP opportunity appeared while he was waiting to visit a professor during office hours.

“I saw the flier [for MIP] and I had a hunch and I listened to my hunch,” he said. “I’ve always known since I was about 13 that I was supposed to go into ministry, so I’ve had a calling, but now I’m taking action on a calling.”

Fresh lens in a spiritual setting

Rising senior Rachel Schrock, an art major, says her interest in MIP came from a “Divine moment,” while speaking during a winter break church service about her cross-cultural experience.

“It felt electrifyingly right,” Schrock said, adding that the decision to explore ministry was encouraged by her family and close friend Hanna Heishman, who participated in MIP last summer.

Schrock will head to her home state of Iowa, dividing her time between in Washington and her home congregation of of Iowa City.

“It will be a new experience for me – entering a community that I am already familiar, with a fresh lens,” she says. “I want to see the ins and outs of leadership within a spiritual setting.”

Schrock looks forward to mentorship from two female leaders she already knows well, the spiritual director at the camp and the pastor of her home church. She’ll spend her summer organizing a children’s peace camp, working in the office, giving a few sermons, and making visits to people in hospitals, retirement homes and home care.

Released on Veterans’ Day, Nov. 11, the free six-week course focuses on biblical reflections and insights about trauma with significant input from a third source.“Returning Veterans, Returning Hope: Seeking Peace Together” was created by and the and .

Evan Knappenberger, an Iraq War veteran studying at ��ݮ���� in Harrisonburg, Va., spent the summer researching and writing as part of a nontraditional .

“I did a lot of coordinating with veterans in the Mennonite world,” he said. “In almost every little Mennonite community there is one or two, if not more. There are a lot more in the Brethren in Christ church in Pennsylvania.”

The idea for the curriculum was hatched when Knappenberger crossed paths with MCC U.S. peace education coordinator Titus Peachey and PJSN coordinating minister Jason Boone at .

The group sees the materials as a relatively new field — addressing how Christian pacifists can embrace returning warriors. For this, Knappenberger looked on his own experience.

As an intelligence analyst for the Army, he developed doubts about the military’s role and actions after joining out of high school three days after the war started in 2003. When the Army tried to “stop-loss” him for two years of active duty beyond his required time, he managed to secure a general discharge — later upgraded to honorable.

“I didn’t consider myself as a peace person until I was out for a couple months,” said the .

New kind of analyst

Since his discharge, Knappenberger enrolled at EMU, where he is finishing his bachelor’s degree and planning to enroll at next year. He has attended in Harrisonburg for more than two years and has enjoyed getting to know the broader Mennonite church.

His experience in two worlds most people consider quite different brings a fresh perspective.

“There are a lot of potentially good things that veterans can offer churches,” he said. “There are good qualities of soldiers and veterans. Gandhi was a veteran; Tolstoy was a veteran. The people who teach us nonviolence, many of them wore a uniform.”

He said both veterans and Mennonites have stories of trauma.

“Any time you can connect the experience of trauma in a community that is focused on wholeness like the Anabaptists are, that’s helpful for both sides,” he said.

“ . . . Veterans are very mission-oriented people. That’s part of our indoctrination — mission first — and that’s also a value of at least some parts of the Mennonite world. There’s also a big focus in the military on community.”

Making community isn’t always easy. Knappenberger acknowledged fundamental differences could lead to misunderstandings and misconceptions, but that’s not a reason to avoid each other.

“I think the thing to remember is that it is going to be messy,” he said. “But I think if it’s done in the spirit of love, the messiness won’t override the intention, which is good.”

The curriculum is available at no cost online at ���ǰ���.

Courtesy of Mennonite World Review, Dec. 15, 2014

Heishman, a junior majoring in at ��ݮ����, was part of the of . She spent 11 weeks at in a stately old church shared by three congregations and numerous ministries. She got a taste of what it would be like to be a pastor by participating in the day-to-day activities of church ministry.

Was Heishman still intimidated by the end of the summer? “No,” she said, “I was pleasantly surprised by how well we all got along.”

“Hanna brought new energy to our church office,” said Pastor Lorie Hershey. “She values self-awareness, listening and learning, and brought that into her tasks and responsibilities, such as facilitating a weekly women’s group.” Hershey, who is a 2005 graduate of ���ѱ�’s , said she enjoyed her many in-depth conversations with Heishman.

Three other EMU students participated in the 2014 Ministry Inquiry Program:

Nathanael Ressler, a junior major from Mount Vernon, Illinois, was a pastoral intern at in Goshen, Indiana. “My father is a pastor, so I had some idea of what to expect,” he said. His duties included visitation, planning and leading worship, writing for the newsletter, attending meetings and even preaching. “But I found that the life of a pastor is filled with miscellaneous jobs as well,” said Ressler, a transfer student from two-year in Kansas.

Chris Parks, a senior major from Philadelphia, was a pastoral intern at in Maryland, just outside Washington D.C. He spent time with the youth in their various activities, led worship and singing, preached, worked at a soup kitchen and met individually with members. One day a week he volunteered at the . “I learned that in order to truly follow God, I need to serve on my knees, live in God’s abundant gifts and grace, and ‘waste’ my life for the Kingdom,” he said.

Evan Knappenberger, a senior major from Charlottesville, Virginia, had a different kind of experience. He interned with the peace education director of and the peace/justice coordinator of Mennonite Church USA. He helped build a “prayers for peace” resource, worked on a Sunday school curriculum, wrote web content, and interviewed military veterans who are members of Mennonite Church USA or involved in the .

“This summer project was interesting both from a veterans’ community point-of-view and from a Mennonite point-of-view,” said Knappenberger, an Iraq War veteran who is now a pacifist. “My long-term project is the founding of the field of veterans’ studies.”

The Ministry Inquiry Program is typically funded by Mennonite Church USA, the participating colleges, area conferences, the students’ home churches and the host congregations. Heishman, Ressler and Parks each received a $2,000 scholarship for application to their fall semester. Their host churches provided housing and a $500 allowance. Knappenberger’s internship was funded differently, through Mennonite Central Committee, the peace office of Mennonite Church USA, and EMU.

“Through this program, students experience first hand what ministry is, and they test their gifts and sense of call,” said , the EMU coordinator of the program and instructor in the .

Her experience reflects the new ways and new places that education takes place these days for EMU students, including , , grant-funded research and practicums, and being part of a cohort at a site to which EMU faculty come for classes.

Enns, from Winnipeg, Canada, lived in the nation’s capital at . While taking two courses at the center, she worked at , an interfaith coalition that seeks to end anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. As an intern with the organization, she used her experience as co-editor of , ���ѱ�’s student newspaper, to produce a bi-weekly newsletter, compile fact sheets, and otherwise pitch in on the group’s various initiatives.

An internship through ���ѱ�’s Washington center is more than just a taste of real-world work and an opportunity to develop contacts, ideas, and credentials for life after college. It’s also a launching point for deeper examination of the relationship between faith, values, and career.

“How do we as Mennonites engage the state, and how much do we build our alternative systems?” asked Enns, whose great-grandparents were part of the mass migration of Mennonites from Russia to North America during the turbulent years after the Bolshevik Revolution.

What relationship, exactly, should a person of faith hold toward advocacy in a secular environment, she wonders. Doesn’t faith like hers, one that prescribes action on behalf of “the least among us,” require this sort of entanglement with the wider world? But does this very entanglement with the wider world undermine the foundations of her faith?

Enns doesn’t have answers to her questions yet, but she knows she would like to continue doing faith-based advocacy after she graduates this spring. In fact, her plans at this point are to join .

During her four-year career at EMU, Enns took advantage of other non-traditional ways of learning.

Soon after she arrived on campus as a first-year student, she took an optional field trip with her Restorative Justice and Trauma class to a penitentiary, where she participated in three days of a Quaker-developed “Alternatives to Violence Program” with inmates.

In her sophomore year, Enns satisfied ���ѱ�’s cross-cultural requirement by creating her own semester-long study experience in the African nation of Chad, where her parents were serving with .

For 10 weeks between her junior and senior years, Enns was part of a offered at EMU that gives college students a chance to be an intern, mentored by a pastor, in a congregational  setting. Her assignment was at .

EMU offers a variety of other new ways and places for students to pursue their education.

More and more graduate students are taking their courses online, usually studying from their homes. The was the first unit at EMU to offer distance learning, and now most of ���ѱ�’s also offer courses online.

Nurses who are studying for a master’s degree in nursing leadership and management don’t have to come to campus very often (or to .).  The program is designed for working nurses who need to maintain family commitments and remain on the job. Jeanette Nisly ’96, for example, is and raising two children with her Guatemalan husband.

Sometimes the students are surprised to see that online learning actually offers more interaction with class members and professors than a traditional classroom. A faculty advisor provides ongoing support for students and helps with logistics, technology questions, and other issues. Students also receive support from staff, graduate writing tutors, and library staff.

Other non-traditional learning opportunities at EMU:

• , which offers a mix of study through the annual Summer Peacebuilding Institute at EMU and experiences in the students’ home countries. The first group, in 2012, included 12 women from Africa and the South Pacific. They were selected from more than 100 applications. Funds for the program are provided by USAID and the German development organization, EED/Bread for the World.

• . The latest example, announced in February, is a $20,000 grant from the United Service Foundation that will send eight undergraduates to foreign locations (Colombia and Iran in 2013), supervised by an EMU-linked mentor. The grants are for peacebuilding and development majors, who are required to complete off-campus practicums.

• . Many of the students enrolled in ���ѱ�’s programs run from Lancaster, Pa., don’t actually go to classes at the center’s facility in a business park. Students in the pastoral studies program, for example, attend classes this spring at Lancaster Mennonite Conference offices or sites in Philadelphia, Hatfield, and Morgantown. The three-year program, called , is for new pastors or prospective pastors.

• Taking trauma courses all over the world. In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, established a program to help community leaders deal with the trauma of disasters and conflict. Called , the program has trained more than 7,000 people worldwide. The training seminars take place at EMU, across the United States, and all over the world in places like Lebanon, Haiti, and Mexico.

Funded in part by Mennonite Church USA, the MIP gives students an opportunity to explore their gifts for ministry and to test their possible calling to longer term service work for the church.

“The opportunity for students to test their gifts and to be mentored by seasoned pastors is truly invaluable,” said , instructor in the and director of MIP at EMU.

“The insights that these students then bring back to the classrooms in the fall greatly enrich the learning environment on campus”

Participating students

• Erika Bollman, a second-year student in and a member of Emmaus Christian Fellowship in Boise, Id., will intern at in Philadelphia, Pa. Bollman will work with an inner city congregation that worships in three languages: English, Spanish and Indonesian.
• Jossimar Diaz-Castro, a junior major and a member of the Early Church in Harrisonburg, Va., will intern with Iglesia Discipular Anabaptista in Harrisonburg. Diaz-Castro has the opportunity to “go deeper into the areas of teaching, preaching and working with the youth,” said Schrock-Hurst.
• Rebekah Enns, a junior , and major and member of River East Mennonite-Brethern Church in Winnipeg, Manitoba, will intern at Fourth Street Community Church in Washington, D.C. Enns will be working with the homeless population, providing meals and legal counseling. In addition, Enns will host youth groups from suburban Korean congregations who come to the city for an immersion experience.
• Rose Jantzi, a sophomore major and member of Iglesia Discipular Anabautista and Harrisonburg Mennonite Church, will intern with Highland Retreat in Bergton, Va., serving as staff chaplain and Christian nurture coordinator. Jantzi will be involved with pastoral care, teaching and worship planning with both staff and campers.
• Joel Nofziger, a junior and major and member of Pilgrims Mennonite Church in Akron, Pa., will intern with the Washington Community Fellowship Center in Washington, D.C. Nofziger will be working with a multi-denominational evangelical congregation affiliated with the Virginia Conference of the Mennonite Church located near the Capitol.

Hands-on experience

At the completion of their 11-week placement, students in the MIP program receive stipends towards their continuing education at a Mennonite college. In addition to Mennonite Church USA, funds come from EMU, the host congregation and conference, and the student’s sending congregation and conference.

“The MIP program is a win-win for the denomination, local congregations, students, participating colleges and for the broader church,” said Schrock-Hurst.

This summer, Mennonite Church USA anticipates having over 20 students in the MIP program from five Mennonite colleges participating in the program.

For more information on the Ministry Inquiry Program visit .

“There are more options out there for today’s students,” says Dula. “Rather than joining a traditional church structure, they sometimes choose to search for something even more Anabaptist.”

The emerging church movement and New Monasticism have created alternatives to traditional church that draw from and can inform an Anabaptist perspective, says Dula, a 1992 graduate.

“New Monasticism focuses on prayer, communal life and reaching out to the poor… Ideas that are rooted in the Christian tradition, but in a way Anabaptists can recognize as their own. It is an interesting time to teach and think about Anabaptism.”

Embracing the change

Instead of resisting alternatives to traditional worship, Dula and , a 1981 EMU graduate and Bible and religion instructor, see an opportunity to embrace alternatives and use them to engage and inform students.

“Our goal is to equip students to engage in shaping the future of the church,” said Schrock-Hurst, who also serves as co-pastor at Immanuel Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg, Va. “All these ideas are available to this generation and we can create space for them to explore and figure out what works in their faith journeys.”

���ѱ�’s Bible and religion department tries to continually learn from students, says Dula. “Many of them are way out ahead of us as teachers.” We want to be a “meeting place,” he notes, where Mennonite and students from diverse backgrounds can share ideas on faith and God’s calling in their lives.

“Some of our best students enter EMU without a background in Anabaptism or the Mennonite church,” said Dula. “They find here, however, a space to own, appropriate and transform what they learn in our classrooms in ways that manage to be thoroughly Anabaptist.”

, professor of Bible and religion added, “I find that sometimes the students who are not from Mennonite backgrounds add a kind of new-discovery freshness when they embrace the peace position. Other times, we get challenges to pacifist assumptions born out of different ways of thinking about the Bible and Christianity.”

More than a classroom

���ѱ�’s provides an alternative classroom for many Bible and religion students with profound results. The experience, led by , professor of culture and mission and his wife, , showcases the history of the Bible while exploring current conflicts. Students are immersed in language and cultural studies while living in Palestine and Jerusalem.

After spending a semester in the Middle East, senior Jamie Hiner, from Culpeper, Va., observed, “I can connect to the stories [of the Bible] on a completely different level. I understand who Jesus was on a human level, and I have a connection to the land, people and cultures.”

In addition to the Middle East cross-cultural program, EMU is the only higher-education institution offering a major in . , associate professor of , says that while Catholics and Protestants have a long academic tradition in philosophy, Anabaptists are important contributors “because our own history of having been marginalized, our understanding of concrete embodied community, and our commitment to peace and reconciliation.”

Senior Ben Bailey, from Simsbury, Conn., found his knowledge of the Bible to be “limited compared to my peers at EMU.” A double-major in and , Bailey says his studies have provided him with a “comprehensive base knowledge to build upon.

“I continually feel the need to understand and question the Bible and theology on a deeper level.”

Hiner, a major with a minor in , added, “I’ve learned so much from personal relationships with my professors. I love having real conversations with them outside the classroom.”

Looking ahead

Bible and religion department faculty envision their department’s influence expanding across campus and in the community through dialogue with campus ministries and local churches. Interest in the department’s is growing as opportunities to explore internships outside of “traditional” pastoring arise. The very definition of “pastor” and “church” is changing; students are interested in how they intersect with these concepts.

“Students have an advantage with on campus, in addition to and numerous Mennonite churches nearby to integrate and connect with pastors, leaders and teachers,” Schrock-Hurst says.

Dula agrees, adding, “The goal is to make the discussion and debates that occur in our classrooms become the heart and soul of campus. This will encourage growth not only in the department and across campus, but in the broader church.”

Read more…

Soon it will be four months since I left my summer Ministry Inquiry Program experience in the Midwest. Before I left last May, I was never so positive, so sure about a decision in my life. The pegs fit perfectly in the holes, both squares. It was a done deal, and I was about to have the benefit of spending my summer days working in an invigorating setting.

The experience wasn’t easy for me, though. I was a circular peg and I didn’t fit the square hole. I often hear of people who struggle with doubts and feelings of anger towards God after difficult or episodic experiences. I think that’s reasonable and healthy. In my case, how I invoke or call upon God is evolving. But what I am realizing is that my experience this summer will forever impact my images of God and the church.

While working with the church this summer, I realized that I like liturgy. It’s beautiful how the Eucharist blurs our economic inequalities by letting us share together without reserve. But we mess it up when we believe that what results from liturgy and worship forms is a God that we can use on our own terms to control our own reality or even to control the community itself. If we’re not careful, our forms of worship become formulaic and thus we expect God to respond accordingly. We think we have our God made in the right traditions, the right words, rightly done ritual.

I find myself believing in and worshiping a God who surprises us. Maybe more than we are comfortable with at times. After all, God does have a sense of humor, God does laugh. So why wouldn’t God surprise us? Is it not surprising that South Philadelphia is home to our conferences fastest growing congregations? This summer I was moved by listening to a student stumble through the words of a text of the Old Testament Prophets. It was the surprise of hearing a young person’s voice that shattered my images of perfect worship and opened space for God to move.

By invoking God in hopes of surprise and mystery and diversity, we make space for God to lead us into places we otherwise might not journey. We don’t need to have a flawless worship service and attempt to invoke God by doing everything "the right way." It becomes less about what we’re doing and more about what God’s doing, and what God is doing is going to surprise us in mysterious ways.

My suspicion is that invoking the God of surprise will ultimately lead us to unity, not uniformity. I think we are on the right path. My hope is that we can continue to walk that path and that the path begins overflowing with the people journeying alongside us, the gifts God continues to surprise us with.

This reflection is reprinted from the Franconia Mennonite Conference blog:

Emily Derstine, a JPCS major at EMU, with her supervisor, Kirk Hanger, an EMU alumnus, at Nueva Esperanza/New Hope Fellowship in suburban Washington, D.C.

A record-setting 10 students have begun internships with congregations through Franconia Mennonite Conference as part of Mennonite Church USA‘s (MIP). The group includes three EMU students.

Two EMU students will intern with congregations in the Midwest:

• John Tyson, a sophomore at EMU and a member at Souderton (PA) Mennonite congregation, will intern at Christ Community Church in Des Moines, Iowa;
• EMU sophomore Jordan Good, a member of Bally Mennonite congregation, will spend 11 weeks with the Walnut Hill congregation in Goshen, Ind.

Emily Derstine of Plains Mennonite congregation, Lansdale, Pa., an EMU sophomore, will spend her summer in suburban Washington, D.C. with Nueva Esperanza/New Hope Fellowship, a “Partner in Mission” congregation with Franconia Conference.

Hands-on Experience

The Ministry Inquiry Program is an 11-week internship traditionally available to any student attending a Mennonite college. Students interested in a specific area of ministry – usually, but not limited to, pastoral ministry – gain hands-on experience by working alongside a supervisor in their respective discipline.

The inquiry program is offered year-round but is most popular in the summer, and all participants are given a stipend for their work.

This year, through a grant from Eastern Mennonite Seminary, three Franconia Conference students attending non-Mennonite institutions will participate in MIP.

• Tim Moyer, a sophomore at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia from the Blooming Glen (PA) congregation;
• Felicia Moore, member at New Beginnings Community Church in Bristol, Pa., who is in her second year at Indiana University of Pennsylvania;
• Philadelphia Praise Center attendee and first-year Penn State University student, Andrew Liemon.

Moyer will work with Franconia Mennonite Conference, while Moore and Liemon will assist with ministries at their home congregations.

Several students will work with congregations on the East coast:

• Jessica Cassel, a sophomore at Bluffton University, will work in youth ministry at her home congregation, Souderton (PA) Mennonite;
• Peter Koontz, a member at Assembly Mennonite and Goshen College junior from Elkhart, Ind., will intern with Oxford Circle congregation in Philadelphia.
• Mercy Oyana, a Goshen College sophomore from West Philadelphia Mennonite Fellowship, will work alongside managers at Spruce Lake Camp in the Pocono Mountains.
• Krista Ehst, a Goshen College junior and member at Perkasie (PA) Mennonite congregation, will work alongside Tim Moyer at Franconia Conference headquarters in Souderton.

All participants are beginning their work at the end of May and will finish towards the beginning of August. Eight of the students are college sophomores.