News
Community Mennonite Church is no stranger to MDS
For many years, Community Mennonite Church has participated in recovery missions of Mennonite Disaster Service. These occasions included the memorable storms of Hurricane Andrew, the effects of flooding in New Orleans, and the extreme flash floods of Greenbrier County in West Virginia. Various persons like Terry Burkhalter spent two months in California as crew leader…
Watch video of MDS Partnership Home Project at Assembly
Credit: Video shot and edited by Terry Burkhalter and shown at Virginia Mennonite Conference Assembly, July 19, 2019. VMC member congregations are invited to donate toward the Partnership Home Project. This project is $70,000, however, FEMA has already provided $30,000. VMC congregations are being invited to hold a special offering to raise $40,000. Please consider…
Mennonite 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…
Volunteering 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…
Two 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…
Putting hands and feet to what we believe through MDS
Springdale Mennonite Church “strives to be a growing community of believers that inspires engagement by all, cultivates discipleship, and shares God’s reconciling love and healing with our neighbors and our world.” This is our vision statement that we adopted in 2016. We are attempting to put our words into action through involvement with Mennonite Disaster…
Pastors and leaders to focus on loving neighbors in tense times
ELKHART, Indiana (Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary) — How can church leaders and congregations respond to hate, intolerance and systemic racism in their communities in productive and transformative ways? What does the gospel of Jesus Christ call Christ-followers to do in situations like these? Participants in Pastors and Leaders 2019 — an annual leadership conference formerly…
Meet Michael Danner, Mennonite Church USA Associate Executive Director for Church Vitality and Engagement
About Michael Married to wife Melissa for 28 years Has three adult children, Julia, 27, Nicholas, 23, and Isabelle, 21 Has a BA in Speech Communications from University of Illinois, Urbana; a Masters in Religion from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; a DMin in Contextual Theology from Northern Seminary Pastored at Metamora Mennonite Church, Metamora, Ill.,…
Considering moral distress in the church
What it is and how we can address it Following a recent conversation on moral distress with the Faith and Life Commission, I have been reflecting on ways in which VMC has been impacted by this phenomenon over the past several years. I am convinced that paying attention to the way in which moral distress…
Updating VMC’s understanding of accountability
During the summer delegate session at Conference Assembly, I reported on Conference Council’s commitment to become more transparent and accountable in the work of Conference. This means that we’re committed to providing more opportunities for folks in our churches to share their stories about how they are joining the Holy Spirit’s work on behalf of…
The 3D experience and beyond
Reflections on the Conference Assembly theme and experience If you found yourself wondering what “the 3D experience” means, or are thinking, I get the out part but what’s up? What’s in? And what do 3D glasses have to do with the conference, my congregation or me?— you’re probably not alone! This language might be new…
Being a follower of Jesus has three dimensions
Virginia Mennonite Conference held our Assembly at C3 Hampton (Hampton, Va.) with the theme God’s Kingdom: The 3D Experience. This theme emerged as our Assembly Vision Team sought to bring a new lens to the multi-dimensional nature of being a disciple of Jesus in our time. Our encounter with God through Jesus Each person experienced…