Shirley and her husband Kenton last year at commencement when Shirley was awarded her Master of Divinity degree at Eastern Mennonite Seminary.
Photo by Jim Bishop

The Salem, Ore., native, a 1966 graduate of 草莓社区, has been involved in ministry in various settings for at least 20 years. After retiring as associate pastor at Park View Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg, Va., in 2001, she went on to interim pastoral assignments in Mississippi, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Harrisonburg. She has also done short-term mission assignments in Israel, Oregon and Lithuania.

“Looking back over my life, I realized have always worked for the church in some way – education, administration and pastoring. I cannot think of any better employer to have worked for,” Yoder Brubaker said.

It took her 26 years to complete her master of divinity degree.

“Life kept interrupting my studies,” she said, “but I was committed to finishing that degree. It was a wonderful way to keep myself immersed in the Word and to maintain awareness of what was going on in the broader church.”

Yoder Brubaker’s vision for Virginia Mennonite Conference centers around her commitment to the unity of the church.

“Some of Jesus’ last words to his disciples in John 17 ask that we followers be one, just as he is one with his Father,” Yoder Brubaker said. “That is a major task for us, because we believe tenaciously and passionately, and rightly so. Consequently, we struggle to feel unity with other believers who believe differently from us.

I am slowly learning to trust the work of God’s Spirit in my fellow believers,” she continued. “God is bigger than what my human mind can grasp and works sometimes in ways I do not understand.”

Yoder Brubaker is succeeding Beryl Jantzi, a 1991 MDiv graduate of EMS, in her three-year term as moderator. She has a part-time interim assignment on the pastoral team at Community Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg. It is her second interim position with the congregation. She is married to Kenton K. Brubaker, professor emeritus of biology at EMU.

Eastern Mennonite seminary prepares men and women to serve and lead in a global context. To learn more about programs at Eastern Mennonite Seminary visit www.emu.edu/seminary or call the office of seminary admissions 540-432-4257.

Abridged by permission from article in October 2010 issue of “Connections,” published by Virginia Mennonite Conference.

Three staff persons from 草莓社区 were among eight Harrisonburg area people who worked together to create resource materials for a 2005 Easter to Pentecost worship series.

The materials, titled "Unbound!", with a different subtitle for each Sunday, are intended for use by pastors and other congregational leaders and will soon be available in "Leader" magazine, published by Faith and Life Resources, a division of Mennonite Publishing Network.

At the invitation of Marlene Kropf, director of the Office of Congregational Life, Elkhart, Ind., the group gathered last winter at Park View Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg for a weekend to begin the planning process. The work was completed individually and in small groups through the spring and summer months with Shirley Yoder Brubaker of the Park View congregation as local team coordinator.

"The Office of Congregational Life has coordinated the development of worship resources for Advent and for Lent, but this was the first time to develop worship resources for the Easter to Pentecost church season," noted Brian Martin Burkholder, EMU campus pastor and a group member.

Other EMU employees on the planning team were Jill K. Landis, associate director of church partnerships at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, and Kevin Clark, part-time instructor at the seminary.

Other committee members included Kris Shank Zehr, Edie Bontrager, Gloria Diener and Lucinda Swartzendruber, all from the Harrisonburg area.