Mennonite perspective on vocation and calling central to Goshen College conference

 

To view more photos from this conference, go to this photo album.

GOSHEN, Ind. – Three years into Mennonite Church USA’s “Cultivating a Culture of Call” initiative, launched in response to a shortage of pastors, there are 117 congregations looking for a pastor and 38 pastoral candidates on the national register seeking positions, according to Keith Harder and Diane Zaerr Brenneman of Mennonite Church USA Congregational and Ministerial Leadership.

The reality is that distribution, not just numbers, contributes to congregational leadership challenges. During the conference “Cultivating a Culture of Calling: Mennonite Perspectives on Vocation,” hosted by Goshen College on Oct. 20-22, Harder and Zaerr Brenneman said, “There is no shortage of candidates available for Menno-dense areas or for full-time pastorates or large, multi-staff teams. We continue to see a shortage of pastors for small congregations and people who are willing and able to work part-time, bivocational and willing to work in certain geographic areas. You might say we have a ‘distribution problem’ rather than a shortage problem.” There are nearly 1,000 congregations within Mennonite Church USA and 50 percent of those count 60 members or less – which typically means having a part-time pastor.

Harder and Zaerr Brenneman are also interested in more than quantities, stating, “Our concern is more than simply filling pulpits with warm bodies. We would do well to consider what kind of pastors the Mennonite church needs.”

Listing desirable qualities, Harder said, “I believe that God has gifted and is preparing people for pastoral ministry – people who are emotionally healthy, who are risk-takers, who are ready to embrace the challenges of pastoral ministry and leadership in very imperfect congregations. And I believe many of our congregations are ready for different patterns of church life and ministry. My hope is that the Mennonite church will offer a challenging and inviting vision for those who have been gifted by God to help lead us where God wants to take us.”

This context provided a framework for discussion during the conference as more than 100 pastors, college students and professors, and denominational church leaders from nine different states participated in seminars, worship, plenary sessions and discussion.

During the conference’s 36 concurrent sessions, topics included: bi-vocational pastors, women in ministry, the correlation between Mennonite college enrollment and denominational involvement, internal and external calls to ministry, the Apostle Paul’s sense of calling, young adults and the future church and Mennonite camping opportunities.

In a plenary speech by Goshen College Professor of Bible, Religion and Philosophy Keith Graber Miller, titled, “Toward a Mennonite Theology of Vocation,” Graber Miller said, “Anabaptist/Mennonites have had a rather tortured history with the notion of vocation or calling. We certainly didn’t invent the concept, nor did we even embrace it when other 16^th-century Reformers began their innovative explorations of the centuries-old idea. I suspect that in the past five years the Mennonite church has talked about vocation and calling more than the previous 400 years combined.”

Graber Miller noted a number of cultural shifts about vocation among Mennonites in the past century: people are more comfortable making and spending money, farming is no longer the primary occupation for Mennonites, there has been an entry into trades and professions through service work and the arts have slowly gained support within the church.

Yet, “the last thing we need is a theology of vocation disconnected from the lived experiences of Mennonite people,” Graber Miller said. “The next to last thing we need is a theology that simply and uncritically blesses the socio-economic realities of North American Mennonites.”

Graber Miller instead proposed basic understandings in creating a culture of calling from a Mennonite perspective. He said that calling “should be understood primarily and fundamentally as being a follower of Jesus Christ; it should affect the entirety of our lives as individuals and communities of believers; it should include an honoring of the place of called-out leaders in the church; it should honor and bless the ways in which followers of Jesus live out their faith in their occupational, professional and worldly roles; it should give shape to and transform our occupational, business and professional roles; it should link up our God-given, community-nurtured passions with Christ’s mission in the world; and that the primary content of our vocation as disciples of Jesus Christ is to work at bringing healing and reconciliation to God’s good and groaning world.”

Michael Cartwright, who teaches theology at the University of Indianapolis, spoke on “Helpful and Unhelpful Metaphors for Vocation,” specifically addressing how faculty at church-based colleges and universities can work with students and help them to discover their own vocations and callings.

Cartwright said, “The faculty of the church-based university constitute ‘a community of imagination, affirmation and invitation’ for students who are uncertain where they are in the landscape of their pilgrimage. … Our role is not to tell students what their calling is. Our role is more modest but no less valuable – to guide by asking questions to open up possibilities, evoking metaphors to enrich imaginations and engendering courage in the students who dare to consider ‘options’ not previously known and to re-conceive of themselves as persons who are graced with the image of God.

"And when our students leave, we do what a ‘mentoring community’ should do, we join with the congregations from which they come in affirming their call to service and send them forth in the confidence that we have fulfilled our mission to educate for service,” he continued.

Cartwright focused on the role of metaphors in shaping the way people see themselves in relation to God and their sense of vocation. He said that a common but unhelpful metaphor is that people are “puppets on a string,” which makes them passive about their lives. He instead wants to challenge students to “begin to think of themselves as persons who are capable of responding to God’s gracious initiatives,” he said. “The value of such a metaphorical shift is that students begin to see themselves as agents in relationship, which is crucial in helping them to begin to see the importance of grace as the first move that God makes in calling us.”

Among the goals of the “Cultivating a Culture of Calling: Mennonite Perspectives on Vocation” conference were to share new understandings about vocation and calling, to discuss what is unique to Mennonites as well as points of connection and points of difference with other traditions, to bring together a cross-section of people working on vocation from different angles and to create synergy for the Mennonite Church USA “Culture of Call” initiative.

"I was pleased with the ideas, questions and stories that emerged in many sessions,” said Becky Horst, director of the Goshen College CALL project and conference coordinator. “I hope that academics, congregations and church administrators continue to learn from each other about how to create and sustain a ‘Culture of Call’ in Mennonite Church USA.”

In 2001, Goshen College was among the first 20 colleges to receive a five-year grant from the religion division of Lilly Endowment to fund Programs for the Theological Exploration of Vocation. The Goshen grant is called the CALL project.

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

 

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Goshen College, established in 1894, is a four-year residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S.News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu/.