Leadership Clinics
Leadership clinics are daylong in-person workshops for pastors, lay leaders, youth leaders, and those forming faith in their community. You don’t need to be ordained or in a ministry role to take advantage of this opportunity to learn!
2026 Leadership Clinics
Leadership Clinics will take place in person on Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, prior to the start of Pastors & Leaders 2026. You can register for a Leadership Clinic by itself or in addition to Pastors & Leaders.
Leadership clinics run 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. ET, unless otherwise noted.
–Click on a clinic title to view the description–
Caring for Immigrants and Congregations in Times of Crisis | Instructor: John Garland
Pastor John Garland and his congregation, San Antonio (Texas) Mennonite Church, have been on the front lines of supporting and caring for immigrants and refugees in their city for more than a decade. Learn from their experiences and gain insights into how trauma-transformation can help congregations support and protect immigrant communities and themselves.
Faith Formation for Families in Anxious Times | Instructors: Malinda Elizabeth Berry, Joyce Peachey Lind, Lisa Weaver
We are all too aware of the turmoil and upheaval that are creating uncertainty, anxiety and fear in our families, our communities and our world. In this clinic, participants will receive a framework for helping families — especially those with children in grades K–8 — stay rooted, grounded and growing in God’s love in these chaotic times. All three leaders bring their experience and expertise as parents, pastors and educators to this clinic.
- Learn to use a framework that celebrates and expands on Anabaptist-Mennonite faith formation values and practices.
- Join us for inspiration, space to breathe and companionship for the journey ahead.
Healthy Boundaries 101 | 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. | Instructor: Ed Kauffman
Maintaining healthy boundaries not only protects congregations and congregants from clergy abuse and trauma, but also protects pastors from burnout and misuse of their power and position. Using videos, group discussion and reflection, we will explore issues of power, relationships and maintaining health. This training meets Mennonite Church USA’s requirement for Healthy Boundaries training for all pastors.
- Understand power dynamics inherent to positions of authority.
- Learn ways of ministering that maintain the integrity of the ministerial relationship while also protecting those who are vulnerable.
- Gain awareness of risk factors for crossing boundaries.
- Understand the difference between crossing boundaries and boundary violations.
Reflections on Blackness and Teaching Peace | Instructor: Regina Shands Stoltzfus
Regina Shands Stoltzfus will share from her new book, Resistance, Resilience, and Radical Love: Reflections on Blackness and Teaching Peace (Tehom Center, 2025), in which she explores how to sustain the work of liberation and resistance to oppression in a world marked by longstanding anti-Blackness and unrelenting injustice. Attentive to history, trauma and the sustaining power of community, she names both the weariness and hope that shape justice work.
- Learn from Regina’s perspective and experiences as a Black woman with decades of teaching and scholarship in peace studies, theology and ethics.
- Reflect together on what it looks like to remain engaged for the long haul.
- Consider how resilience, care and collective vision can make transformation possible.
Your Voice in Worship | Instructor: Allan Rudy-Froese
This clinic is designed for preachers, storytellers, Scripture readers and worship leaders. Participants will be led through a progression of vocal exercises, games and discussion on voice in worship settings. Wear loose-fitting clothing so that you can stretch and move comfortably; we will be physically active!
- Learn how to use your voice as a full-body instrument and how to warm up your body and voice for worship.
- Strengthen your projection and clarity in speech.
- Gain insights into stage fright and how voices can reveal and conceal.
Registration
- The early registration cost is $75 USD when you register by Jan. 26, 2026.
- The registration cost after Jan. 26 is $90 USD.
- The final registration deadline is Feb. 16, 2026.
- Lunch in the dining hall is $12 (optional).
The registration cost for AMBS students is $10 before Jan. 26 and $20 after.
Questions? Contact us
Send an email to churchleadership@ambs.edu or call 574.296.6269 or 800.964.2627
Meet the instructors
Malinda Elizabeth Berry, PhD
Malinda Elizabeth Berry is Professor of Peace Theology and Director of the Faith Formation Collaborative at AMBS. She expresses her commitment to Anabaptism in the Mennonite tradition in her approach to an array of current topics and concerns: Christian social responsibility; environmental stewardship — with an emphasis on human ecology; and renewing congregational life in its structural and spiritual dimensions. Malinda enjoys engaging conferences and congregations, providing resources and services to meet the diverse demands they face today. She is a graduate of Goshen (Indiana) College, AMBS and Union Theological Seminary in New York.
John Garland, MDiv
John Garland of San Antonio, Texas, became pastor of San Antonio Mennonite Church in 2016 during an immigration crisis that has dramatically shaped the church and its ministry. He’s currently doing doctoral work on communal trauma, spiritual resilience and the Psalms. His applied theology interprets Christianity as a trauma-transforming faith movement; he reads Scripture as divinely inspired through and for traumatized communities; and he understands hospitality, story and prayer-centered community as powerful tools of healing. He is the National Association of Social Workers’ Texas 2020 “Public Citizen of the Year.”
Ed Kauffman, MDiv
Ed Kauffman of Elkhart, Indiana, has been leading Healthy Boundaries trainings since 1996 and has worked with situations of clergy misconduct as a pastor, member of ministerial committees, conference minister, investigator and consultant. He pastored four congregations in the U.S. and Canada over 32 years and served as Conference Minister for Central Plains Mennonite Conference for nine years. Ed is a graduate of AMBS and has taken specialized training in Clergy Misconduct Prevention and Healthy Boundaries with FaithTrust Institute. He and his wife, Gay, serve as resident Volunteer Coordinators at AMBS.
Joyce Peachey Lind, MDiv, MAT
Joyce Peachey Lind of Harrisonburg, Virginia, serves as Staff Curriculum Editor for the Shine curriculum. Prior to that, she pastored at Community Mennonite Church and taught first grade for 10 years at Eastern Mennonite Elementary School, both in Harrisonburg. Joyce holds a Master of Arts in Teaching in Early Childhood Education from James Madison University in Harrisonburg and a Master of Divinity with a major in Christian Faith Formation from AMBS. An ordained minister in Mennonite Church USA, she also has formal training in spiritual direction.
Allan Rudy-Froese, PhD
Allan Rudy-Froese serves as Associate Professor of Preaching and Voice at AMBS. He teaches Preaching, Biblical Storytelling, and Spiritual Practices: Voice & Identity. Allan graduated with a Ph.D. in theology and homiletics from the Toronto School of Theology in 2012. Allan’s research interests include comedy in the book of Jonah, Anabaptist preaching worldwide, and the psychophysical aspects of the human voice. He incorporates Kristin Linklater’s (1936-2020) voice method and practice into his courses at AMBS, as well as his workshops with preachers, worship leaders, and scripture readers. Allan graduated as a Designated Linklater Teacher (DLT) in the summer of 2023.
Regina Shands Stoltzfus, PhD
Regina Shands Stoltzfus of Goshen, Indiana, is Professor of Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies at Goshen College. Her courses include Race, Class and Ethnic Relations; Personal Violence and Healing; Peacemaking; and Transforming Conflict and Violence. Regina co-founded the Roots of Justice Anti-Oppression Program and has worked widely in peace education. She holds a Master of Arts in Biblical Studies from Ashland (Ohio) Theological Seminary and a PhD in Theology and Ethics from Chicago Theological Seminary. She is co-author of Been in the Struggle: Pursuing an Antiracist Spirituality (Herald, 2021) and author of Resistance, Resilience, and Radical Love: Reflections on Blackness and Teaching Peace (Tehom Center, 2025).
Lisa Weaver, MA
Lisa Weaver is Director of Children’s Ministry and Music for Bethany United Methodist Church in Madison, Wisconsin, and an active member of Madison Mennonite Church. She also taught for 25 years in public schools and English-as-a-Second-Language programs. Lisa holds a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Goshen (Indiana) College and a Master of Arts In Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She has authored three picture books for children (Praying With Our Feet, Stitch by Stitch, Three For Me) and several resources for adults (including Living the Anabaptist Story and Let the Children Come to Me).
