Posts by VMC Staff
Asheville Mennonite Church volunteers serve veterans
I have been helping to serve dinner at the Veterans Restoration Quarters in Asheville, N.C., with other volunteers from Asheville Mennonite Church. As veterans come through the serving line, interacting with them is enjoyable but usually very hurried and brief. I find that refilling their drinks afterwards allows me to meet them on a more…
Read MorePatchwork Pantry: a ministry of multiple congregations serving the food insecure
Every Wednesday evening, people from many walks of life come together to help provide food to persons who are food insecure in the Harrisonburg/Rockingham County area of Virginia. Patchwork Panty’s mission is to provide a three-day supply of food for its clients. Virginia Mennonite Conference congregations in the local area have been strong supporters of…
Read MoreBuilding frameworks of Christian formation at Huntington
For over six months, the new Christian Formation Team (CFT) at Huntington Mennonite Church has been wrestling with what an Anabaptist Christian formation “framework” might look like. The task assigned to our group comes from newly-formulated congregational guidelines with the following purpose statement: “Building on the foundation of the life and teachings of Jesus, [CFT]…
Read MoreSerious Sunday School
A proposal to bring seminary level content to adult classes I have a proposal for strengthening spiritual formation for adults: let’s make adult Sunday school more like seminary, and let’s get seminary into adult Sunday school! What are the essential classes every Christian should take in order to become a mature and effective disciple of…
Read MoreFaith formation in the congregational life
At 19, I left the farm and my family near Goshen, Indiana, and traveled to Costa Rica, Central America, to engage in voluntary service during the Vietnam War. I was five months into my 26-month stay, crazy homesick, and in a real spiritual crisis. My childhood and youth of attending three church services a week,…
Read MoreMiddle School event: Trust in a God who trusts in you
On a cool rainy Saturday in September, ninety middle school youth and seventeen youth leaders, representing thirteen churches, gathered at Eastern Mennonite High School for a Middle School one-day youth event. Welcomed by Clyde Kratz, Executive Conference Minister, and led in lively worship by Seth Crissman and Greg Troyer, the event featured speaker Rebekka Stutzman.…
Read MoreOur Stories, God’s Story: Mennonite Women of Virginia retreat
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”3″ gal_title=”Mennonite Womens Retreat 2015″] “My story is as sacred to God as God’s story is sacred to me. Nothing is lost on the breath of God,” became a familiar refrain by the end of Mennonite Women of Virginia retreat, October 30-November 1. A crisp fall weekend at Massanetta Springs Resort, near Harrisonburg,…
Read MoreHow VMC is equipping leaders; will you join us?
As I pray and reflect, I can’t help but remember working through the logistics necessary to carry out Executive Conference Minister Clyde Kratz’s vision over the past calendar year: A January “Forum on Prison Ministry,” an effort to collaborate on the issue of overcrowding in the Harrisonburg/Rockingham County Jail, and other issues and ministry opportunities…
Read MorePastoral Consultation meets to engage questions of “Same-Gender Attraction, Relationship, Lifestyle”
One hundred pastors and credentialed leaders in Virginia Mennonite Conference gathered in November at Lindale Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, Va., for a three-day Pastoral Consultation, a time of intentional listening, sharing and discernment on “Same-Gender Attraction, Relationship, Lifestyle.” This was the fifth in a series of five Virginia Mennonite Conference consultations that offered a space for…
Read MoreMennonite World Conference connects father and son
Alberto Othuon, a third generational Mennonite from Tanzania, currently worships at Stephens City Mennonite Church. The 16th Global Assembly of Anabaptists brought his father to Harrisburg, Pa., from Tanzania for international worship and fellowship with 7,500 Mennonites from 65 countries. His father, Bishop John Nyagwegwe, has been walking with God (the Mennonite World Conference theme)…
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