Posts by VMC Staff
iCLT News: Will this boat float?
I like sailboats. I own a small sailboat. I was watching a video featuring a fairly prominent New England boat building rummaging through a boat yard commenting on derelict and abandoned sailboats. To me they looked like lost causes. And at least one of them was. However, for most of them his comment was, “We…
Read MoreMennonite Disaster Service: Where faith meets action
Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) is a volunteer network through which various constituencies of the Anabaptist church can respond to those affected by disasters in Canada and the United States. While our main focus is on clean up, repair, and rebuilding homes, this activity becomes a means of touching lives and helping people regain faith and…
Read MoreVolunteering as a spiritual discipline
I believe the virtues of volunteering one’s efforts on behalf of another are deeply embedded in our spirit. Genesis 1:31 says, “God saw all that he had made, and it was good.” God designed us for relationship with God and with each other. Intrinsic to our biological, relational and spiritual nature is the desire to…
Read MoreTwo reflections from the SENT 2019 Conference
Reflection by Clyde G. Kratz I had the privilege of traveling to Denver with a number of church planters in Virginia Mennonite Conference, April 26-28, 2019. Mennonite Mission Network planned and hosted the event for church planters at the Beloved Community Mennonite Church, an intercultural church plant in Mountain States Mennonite Conference. Because Virginia Mennonite…
Read MoreAcross boundaries and divisions, being “Neighbors: Strangers No More”
I bind my soul this day to the neighbor far away, to the stranger near at hand in this town and in this land. (Verse 2 of I Bind My Heart This Tide) In a landscape of walls and fences, of separation and alienation because others may look, sound, and act different from us, delegates…
Read MoreNews release: VMC actions since DSA report
Virginia Mennonite Conference (VMC) is actively pursuing the recommendations that were presented to us by Mennonite Church USA (MC USA) based on the D. Stafford & Associates report (DSA). The DSA report, received January 2017, contains the findings from the investigation associated with VMC leadership responses to the knowledge of Luke Hartman’s inappropriate activities. The…
Read More“Neighbors: Strangers No More” at Conference Assembly
Register for Conference Assembly by July 3.
Read MoreHelping pastors develop intercultural competence
The term “white privilege” was not in my vocabulary or understanding while living in a neighborhood for 18 years, where whites were in the minority. In my faith community as a child, my Sunday School teacher and classmates were non-white. It wasn’t until I thought about attending Hesston College that I recognized it was more…
Read MoreRegister for the pre-Assembly Pastor’s Summit
Virginia Mennonite Conference will again host a Pastoral Summit on Thursday, July 20, at Shady Oak (Weavers Mennonite Church) before Conference Assembly begins. This resourcing event is for all credentialed leaders in VMC. The theme, presented by Lonnie Yoder, is “Challenging/Difficult People in Congregational Life…including Ourselves.” Every congregation includes individuals or groups who, from a…
Read MoreLeaders gather for Celebrating Congregational Life Seminar
Lay leaders and pastors gathered for a one-day seminar on April 22, 2017, to be better equipped for the missional impulses that nurture congregational life and the mission of the church. Celebrating Congregational Life was a resource event about disciple-making, the mission of God and the mission of the church. Speakers and workshops gave tips…
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