Engaging Pastors

Attending the Mennonite Convention in Columbus, OH? Check out the Engaging Pastors learning track described below.

Also, check back here on July 13 for a link to the Engaging Pastors blog. If you'd like to receive a notification when the blog is live, send an email to churchleadership@ambs.edu.

Engaging Pastors Learning Track

Friday, July 3, 4:15 p.m.
Saturday, July 4, 10:15 a.m.
Mennonite Convention, Columbus, OH

Authority for Mission: What Pastors and Professors Learned in the Engaging Pastors Project

The Engaging Pastors program recently brought over 250 pastors together with AMBS professors for in-depth conversations about effective pastoral ministry in today's churches across the United States and Canada. Come hear what we are learning about what strengthens and sustains pastors and how seminaries and churches might work together. Be prepared to share whether these learnings resonate with your experience as a pastor and/or church leader.

Presenters:
J. Nelson Kraybill, Jewel Gingerich Longenecker, and Engaging Pastors participants

Jointly Tending to Excellence in Ministry

Engaging Pastors will transform seminary-church connections through sustained interaction between professors and pastors. Our learnings will feed into our formation of pastors and serve as a primary vehicle for AMBS strategic planning even as we support the ecology of ministry.
- Engaging Pastors mission statement

Dear friends,

Join us for a conversation. Contribute your voice to a discussion that will help AMBS and the Mennonite Church learn how to better prepare, support and nourish pastors.

Leadership is vital to the life and growth of the church, yet as Mennonites we have ambivalent feelings about it. We ordain pastors, yet consider all Christians to be ministers of the church. We prize humility. We desire strong leaders, but have difficulty articulating what effective leadership entails. This ambiguity can lead to insufficient support and resources-and even isolation-for Mennonite pastors.

Engaging Pastors is a collaborative initiative involving 10 distinct projects. It creates space for church leaders to work together on these difficult questions. Pastors and seminary professors gather together in conversation about pastoral education and leadership in the Mennonite church. Participants share their skills, collaborating to better serve in the classroom and from the pulpit. Observations and feedback from these interactions are compiled and communicated, helping institutions such as AMBS and the Mennonite Church work toward change to better prepare and support pastors.

Engaging Pastors is designed to create long-term institutional change. Its projects are also an opportunity for church leaders to reflect and learn together and to support and nourish each other. As you browse through our site, explore the specific opportunities that Engaging Pastors has to offer you. We would love to hear your voice in this conversation!