Les Horning Archives - �� News

In Memoriam: Wendy Miller MA ’91, professor emerita, established spiritual formation program at seminary

Ryan Cornell — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 22:23:40 +0000

The Rev. Wendy J. Miller MA ’91 (church leadership) may have been short in stature and soft in voice, but her influence loomed large, say those close to her.

“She had a presence and an authority that made her quiet words deeply significant wherever she spoke them,” said Professor Emerita Dorothy Jean Weaver, who taught Miller at Eastern Mennonite Seminary (EMS) and worked alongside her on faculty for 19 years. “In her own way, she was a giant. She had a huge impact wherever she was, and certainly here at EMS.”

Miller served the seminary from 1991 to 2010 in roles including campus pastor and assistant professor of spiritual formation. She was committed to helping people discover their story within “God’s great story,” establishing EMS’ spiritual formation program, and founding training programs for spiritual directors within Mennonite Church USA and The United Methodist Church.

At EMS, she led the Summer Institute for Spiritual Formation and developed “Soul Space,” an online guide for scripture reading and prayer. Many of her lasting contributions, through the gifts she shared and the lives she touched, endure today.

In addition to her two decades on seminary faculty, she was an ordained minister in Mennonite Church USA’s Virginia Conference and was a leading author. Among her writings, Invitation to Presence: A Guide to Spiritual Disciplines (Upper Room Books, 1995) was translated into several languages. She maintained a private spiritual direction practice until entering hospice care last summer.

Formerly of Broadway, Virginia, Miller was living in West Chicago, Illinois, when she passed away on Oct. 8, 2025. She was 87. A memorial service celebrating her life, held on Dec. 6, can be viewed on YouTube . A full obituary is available at .

Her husband and partner in ministry of 65 years, the Rev. Edmond F. Miller, died in October 2024.

The��Rev. Wendy J. Miller, assistant professor emerita of spiritual formation at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, pictured in her office in January 2006.

‘Her imprint remains’

Because of Miller’s “gentle and steady efforts” beginning when she joined the seminary faculty in 1991, said the Rev. Dr. Sarah Ann Bixler, dean of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, EMS centered spiritual formation in its curriculum “long before theological schools in general and Anabaptist schools in particular caught on to the importance of tending the inner life of ministerial leaders.”

“Today, hundreds of EMS graduates have been sustained in their ministerial vocations because of the ‘invitation to presence’ Rev. Miller modeled and extended to them,” wrote Bixler. “Her imprint remains on the EMS curriculum, and students today cite the contemplative attentiveness cultivated by EMS as a distinctive and transformative aspect of their theological education. They are more compassionate, discerning, and resilient because of Rev. Miller’s influence.”

Her influence also lives on in the touches and traditions that have become part of the fabric of the seminary.

As reported in a in the Daily News-Record, Miller was “the driving force behind getting the (prayer) labyrinth installed” on the �� Hill above the Seminary Building. Dedicated in 2007, the labyrinth offers a unique way to connect with God.

Visitors to the Seminary Building might be familiar with the rectangular wooden “free table” just outside the second floor kitchen. It displays food and other items that people can leave or take. “That was Wendy’s idea,” said Weaver. “That’s how tangible and simple her ideas could be. She had a deep heart for the collective community.”

Another contribution she made to the seminary was the awareness that its faculty retreats should be held away from campus, Weaver said. For several decades, those retreats were held at Camp Overlook, a nearby United Methodist camp and retreat center. “She was someone who looked around and dreamed of things that could be,” Weaver said.

“She was a truly delightful person, and she shared grace with the people she met,” said Dorothy Jean Weaver, professor emerita at Eastern Mennonite Seminary. “I have no idea how many thousands of people beyond this institution have been impacted by Wendy Miller.”

‘She saw potential in (us)’

One of Miller’s first students in the spiritual formation program, the Rev. Dr. Kevin Clark MA ’96 (church leadership) was trained and trusted to lead the program when she retired in 2010. “She was my teacher, my professor, my mentor, my friend, my spiritual director, and my colleague, all wrapped up in one relationship,” said Clark, a former campus pastor and retired assistant professor of spiritual formation at EMS.

“Wendy had this wisdom and insight into others that was unique,” he said. “Part of it was just rooted in who she was, as someone who paid attention to how God’s spirit was at work within others, and offering and evoking that in her quiet, questioning way. I was always amazed at how she would be in a classroom, we’d be in conversation, and she would have these wonderful little pauses, then come back with a question that was profound for a student to begin to think about. It opened up the whole classroom to a deeper understanding and awareness of their own spirituality.”

Les Horning ’86, MDiv ’98, director of admissions for EMS from 2012-18, also had Miller as a professor. He described her as “one of the most formative presences” of his MDiv experience.

“She saw potential in folks and would find ways to let them know,” he said. “Suddenly, you realized, Oh, she’s seeing my heart. I think that was one of her gifts, helping people dig beneath the surface and find out who they were.”

Horning graduated from �� with bachelor’s degrees in biology and chemistry and worked as a research chemist for five years before feeling a call for ministry and enrolling at EMS. “For me to come to seminary was a huge change and Wendy was a key part of helping me see that it was a good and right thing,” said Horning, pastor at Stephens City Mennonite Church. “She was very good at pulling out folks’ unique contributions to the community and making people feel valued and accepted and wanted.”

Along with Clark and Horning, Weaver traveled on an overnight train to Chicago last month to attend the memorial service. She remembers Miller for her love of Winnie the Pooh, her delightful laugh, and whimsical sense of humor.

“She was a blessed woman who shared blessing with everyone she came in contact with,” Weaver said. “I consider it a major gift of my life to have been a friend of hers.”

Rev. Wendy Miller met her husband, Edmond, then a young U.S. Air Force airman, while attending the European Bible Institute in Paris. The couple had five children; their daughter Heidi Miller MDiv ’97 taught at Eastern Mennonite Seminary as assistant professor of spiritual formation and ministry.

She grew up in England

The following is from an obituary printed in the :

Born in 1938 in Westham, England, Miller was a child in London during World War II and later lived in Eastbourne, East Sussex. She immigrated to the U.S. in 1959, settling in Chicago with her husband. They served as missionaries in Frankfurt, Germany, and pastored churches including Woodland (Basye) Mennonite, as well as across the Midwest and eastern U.S. Following retirement, they lived in Virginia, Texas, and North Carolina before returning to Illinois.

Rev. Miller earned a bachelor’s degree from Iowa Wesleyan University, a master’s degree in church leadership with a concentration in pastoral care and counseling from EMS, and a master of sacred theology in spiritual theology and spiritual direction from General Theological Seminary in New York City.

She leaves five children, Paul (David Selmer) of Maine, David (Julie) of Georgia, Mark (Wendy) of Kansas, Scott (Laura) of Illinois, and Heidi (Gary MacDonald) of Georgia; 14 grandchildren; six great-grandchildren, three brothers, and four sisters-in-law.

Seminary conference gives space to brokenness, ‘kintsugi clergy’ and ministry in a polarized society

Lauren Jefferson — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 20:19:11 +0000

The Reverend Meredith McNabb is director of the United Methodist Church Virginia Conference’s Center for Clergy Excellence, and she isn’t afraid to poke a little fun at the grandiose-ness of that title.

This she did, gently and to knowing laughter, during her keynote address last week at Eastern Mennonite Seminary’s annual . The gathered included some 160 clergy and faith leaders representing 10 denominations and coming from 13 states.

Yet it was clear to all that McNabb had considerable experience helping to prepare both prospective clergy for the path of ordination and supporting those currently serving. In her hour-long address, McNabb suggested that there is a temptation to ignore “unhealed wounds in unhealed places.”

“We don’t stay in Good Friday, we keep moving and we are Easter people,” she said.

Iris de León-Hartshorn, director of transformative peacemaking for Mennonite Church USA.

Taking as her theme the Japanese art form kintsugi, McNabb shared that the goal of excellence in ministry cannot be truly attempted unless one considers — deeply — one’s own “broken places.”

“In kintsugi, broken ceramic pieces are mended together with gold and silver, filling in the cracks with craftsmanship, value, care and beauty,” she said. “This is what God does, pouring in the gold and working it in finely … it is critical that we be models of how the broken places can be mended.”

Iris de León-Hartshorn, director of transformative peacemaking for Mennonite Church USA, offered the first keynote address on Monday evening. She shared the story of her journey in leadership, “from Catholic to Presbyterian to Southern Baptist to Mennonite,” and invited listeners to “face into brokenness as an integral aspect of finding one’s place as a leader.”

Networking a highlight

One goal of the event was for those attending “to come to grips with the reality that ‘brokenness’ and ‘thriving’ are not mutually exclusive realities,” said EMS Director of Admissions Les Horning. “Several participants noted that the speakers and workshops challenged them to rethink the categories of wholeness and brokenness.”

“How is wholeness defined? How is brokenness defined? And who gets to write the definitions?” asked one participant.

From left: Seminary alumnae Nicholas Detweiler-Stoddard, Lorie Hershey, Carmen Horst and Brett Klingenberg contribute to a panel discussion about their ministry contexts which range from rural western plains to urban streets.

Time to connect and network was woven into the schedule, which Horning said was the highlight for many participants. “I think the more we encounter brokenness in us and around us, the more we need each other.”

“Just being with other pastors is wonderful,” wrote one participant in an evaluation. “Guest speakers are icing on the cake. I like how all the emotions and brain waves get validated and voiced.”

Practical skills

In breakout sessions throughout the three-day conference, seminars focused on practical skills related to the complexities of congregational leadership.

Professor , an expert in congregational change, brought a sociologist’s perspective to current polarization on political and cultural issues in the United States, then presented with �� President Emeritus Loren Swartzendruber a case study of how the university moved through a long listening process on the way to making the decision to change their same-sex policy for employees.

Brittany Caine-Conley, an EMS alumna and ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, shared about her leadership and involvement in the clergy response to recent white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia.

While many in the audience knew the popular narrative provided by the media, Caine-Conley shared a more nuanced and detailed narrative: of how she became involved in area activism at the behest of an anarchist group for people of color; how as a layperson, she persuaded area clergy to become involved; and how her leadership among various groups sometimes forced her to make decisions she later regretted. She spoke openly about the challenges of making decisions in fear-filled situations and mediating between citizens’ groups with disparate and conflicting views.

“Allowing our bodies to be bruised and our spirits broken for the gospel is not new but it is necessary in today’s world,” she said. “We follow an agitator who was executed by the state.�� If you enter into this ministry, you’re called to do this thing that doesn’t make any sense, to put your body on the line to spread the good news that is countercultural to everything our society values. Jesus put his body on the line to absorb violence at the hands of the emperor so that others didn’t have to. If I am to follow this Jesus, I need to do that as well.”

Seminary’s School for Leadership Training ‘Broken Vessels, Thriving Pastor’ slated for January

Christopher Clymer Kurtz — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 14:09:19 +0000

The ministry model of clay jars can take several twists: Are ministers cracked pots? Crackpots? Broken vessels? Is their work – to use another Biblical metaphor – but the sowing of grains of wheat that fall into the earth and die?

Proclaiming God incarnate even in brokenness – within themselves, in their congregations and neighborhoods, and nationally – is no small task for pastors. Eastern Mennonite Seminary’s ��(SLT) participants will explore themes of thriving and succeeding in ministry even in the context of so much reason to lose heart.

The Jan. 15-17 training “Broken Vessels, Thriving Pastor” will feature Iris de León-Hartshorn, The Reverend Meredith McNabb, and an alumni panel. Seminars will feature a Charlottesville, Virginia, pastor who confronted the “Unite the Right” rally in August, a personal leadership coach, and various EMS faculty.

“None of us is free from brokenness,” said Les Horning, director of seminary admissions and SLT coordinator. “And not one of our congregations and communities is exempt, either. The question is, ‘How can we recognize and act in the extraordinary power of God wherever and whoever we are?’”

In her keynote address “Bridges crossed, lessons learned: My journey in leadership,” Hartshorn will use her own life story as an invitation to face brokenness “as an integral aspect of finding one’s place as a leader.” Hartshorn is the director of transformative peacemaking for Mennonite Church USA and a leader in racial and gender justice in the church.

A panel of alumni will present the second keynote address, “Thriving and brokenness on the front lines.” It will feature reflections on the challenges and joys in ministry contexts ranging from rural western plains to urban streets. Panelists will include:

Brett Klingenberg, MDiv 2011, Pastor, First Mennonite Church, Beatrice, Nebraska
Carmen Horst, MDiv 2010, Associate Pastor, James Street Mennonite Church, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Nicholas Detweiler-Stoddard, MDiv 2010, Pastor, Salem Mennonite Church, Freeman, South Dakota
Lorie Hershey, MDiv 2005, Pastor, West Philly Mennonite Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

In the final keynote, McNabb – an ordained elder in the Virginia United Methodist Conference, the director of the Center for Clergy Excellence, and former Washington D.C.-area pastor and attorney working primarily with low-income victims of domestic violence – will use as a guiding image the motif of kintsugi, a Japanese method for repairing broken ceramics with a special lacquer mixed with gold, silver, or platinum. The technique is based on the philosophy of recognizing an object’s history and, instead of disguising it, incorporating the repair into the new piece.

Other events will include a pastor appreciation breakfast with �� president Susan Schultz Huxman, facilitated conversation circles, a showing of Dr. ’s film “I shall not hate: A journey of hope through faith, tolerance, and courage,” and worship.

Seminars include:

“Love Over Fear: Subverting evil in the way of Jesus” with Brittany Caine-Conley, director of University Ministry at Westminster Presbyterian Church and co-founder of Congregate Charlottesville [read more about her work here];
“When the Center Cannot Hold: Leadership in an age of polarization” with , associate professor in ��’s ;
“No Quick Fix for Brokenness in Self or in Others” with Kenton Derstine, EMS faculty;
“God’s Word and Ours: Praying the Psalms” with , EMS faculty;
“Train Stations, Bike Trails and Bus Routes” with , a life and work transition advisor and personal leadership coach;
“Pastoral Responses to Racism in Our Community and Congregation” with , director of Transformative Peacemaking, Mennonite Church – USA;
“Gleaning Resilience from the Good News, Both Then and Now” with , EMS faculty;
“Whatever You Do, Just Don’t Talk about THAT!” with , EMS associate dean; and
“Pastoring in the Landscape: Geological and ecological lessons” with , director of the Center for Clergy Excellence.

“We invite you to bring your stories of brokenness, and your stories of how you confronted brokenness,” Horning said. “Bring your jars of clay and your dying grains of wheat. Together we thrive.”

For more information, visit , call 540-432-4698, or email slt@emu.edu.

New seminary degree trains leaders for ever-broadening spectrum of roles and contexts

Christopher Clymer Kurtz — Wed, 16 Aug 2017 18:23:46 +0000

“Ministry” can take many forms and happen in many contexts: preaching and pastoral care in a church, yes, but also serving firefighters, pursuing restorative justice, leading music and offering spiritual direction — just as examples. Eastern Mennonite Seminary’s new (MACL) degree provides leadership training for that ever-broadening spectrum of roles and contexts.

The new curriculum with its emphasis on “Christian Leadership” is a “re-visioning” of the previous “Master of Arts in Church Leadership” degree, said Professor .

While the traditional gold standard for congregational ministry remains a masters in divinity, “there are different ways of ministering and interacting with different contexts,” said , director of seminary admissions and an ordained Mennonite pastor. “Trends across denominational lines are for specialty study, smaller and more nimble programs in addition to traditional, on-campus seminary studies.”

Flexibility is key. Students can incorporate other electives and disciplines — such as the��offered by the��— into their own individualized curriculum.

“Missional leaders have different focuses, and the new MACL’s core curriculum of formation, Bible, history and theology requirements leave ample room for students to creatively tailor the program to suit their interests and goals,” said Heisey.

A blend of online and on-site courses allow for residential flexibility for students, but Heisey said that personal formation and building and maintaining a “sense of community” are still central. “It’s an exciting challenge for us to maintain our charism and at the same time recognize where people are coming from.”

The new degree — just like other seminary programming — requires students to reflect on their own inner selves and how they engage with the theological story. “We’re not a degree factory. Instead, we ask student to bring all of who you are, to inform their coursework,” said Horning.

That acknowledgement of a uniquely shaped individual is what ultimately makes the new MACL so attractive, Horning said, because students “are not being asked to fit into a pre-existing mold so much as think about the world’s needs and where their gifts can make an impact.”

Seminary hosts the Summer Institute for Spiritual Formation June 19-30

Lauren Jefferson — Wed, 31 May 2017 18:43:51 +0000

The at Eastern Mennonite Seminary from June 19-30 provides training for those interested in individual spiritual direction and congregational spiritual formation. It also gives participants an opportunity to deepen their own faith and explore their own faith formation more fully.

The two-week institute is offered annually. If students complete three consecutive summers or 12 semester hours, they will receive a certificate of course completion (not an academic degree).

“The beauty of the Summer Institute for Spiritual Formation is its appeal to a wide range of students,” says , director of admissions. “Current seminary students can use it as part of their degree programs; pastors can use it as a time of sabbatical and rejuvenation; lay leaders can utilize it to strengthen the gifts they bring to their local congregations. The ecumenicity and diversity of participants only adds to the richness of the experience of growing in one’s spirituality.”

Core courses in the Summer Institute are “Spiritual Guidance in Life and Practice,” taken the first year of participation, and participation in the spiritual directors peer group, offered for participants in year 2 and 3. A home-based practicum is also available.

Additionally, two or three spiritual formation electives, with a spiritual direction or worship focus, are offered each summer.

The day begins and ends with approximately 30 minutes of worship, with a morning and afternoon class session, and time for lunch. Housing is offered through ��.

Eastern Mennonite Seminary’s Summer Institute for Spiritual Formation offers time to explore relationships with peers and with God.

The seminary also offers a special program, , for pastors on summer sabbatical and spiritual directors who want continuing education. The Oasis program provides opportunities for intentional guided reflection and prayer time or the option of sitting in on classes with no record. It also provides continued training options for spiritual directors. In place of coursework, Oasis offers intentional Sabbath and space. Cost is equivalent to one semester hour of study with no seminary credit available.

Read about one couple’s experience at the Summer Institute of Spiritual Formation

For Tom and Carolyn Albright, pastors at Ripple Church, Oasis has been a welcome opportunity to worship, to meet with spiritual directors, to enjoy the stimulation and engagement of classes without the obligation to meet credit requirements. The week at EMS was, in some way, an anniversary celebration of their past milestones: the Albrights both earned certificates of spiritual formation by attending SISF every summer from 2007 to 2009; additionally, Tom and Carolyn both earned certificates of ministry studies in 2013 and 2015 respectively.

School for Leadership Training addresses pastoral responses to a racialized and divided America

Lauren Jefferson — Fri, 20 Jan 2017 18:06:55 +0000

“Some of us are more knowledgeable about what is happening with people 6,000 miles away, people we’ve never met, than what is

Professor David Evans, director of cross-cultural missions at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, leads a seminar titled “Rebirth of a White Nation,” offered twice during SLT.

happening with our neighbors,” said Professor during ’s School for Leadership Training. “In the 21st century, we don’t need to travel 6,000 miles to meet others, ethnic others, racial others. We just need to open our doors or walk down the hall. We could do better to love our literal neighbors, those people closest to us.”

Evans’ point, made during a panel presentation on the themes of “neighboring” and “othering,” drew nods from listeners in Martin Chapel – all of whom had come to the two-day workshop to deepen knowledge and explore engagement with the diversities of politics, culture and theology in today’s modern church and culture.

Approximately 240 pastors and lay leaders from 16 states attended. At least eight denominations were represented: Brethren in Christ, Church of the Brethren, Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, Mennonite Church USA, United Methodist, Lutheran and Unitarian Universalist. The event included four keynote addresses, workshops and a seminary faculty panel addressing the theme of “Yearning to Get Along … And Stay True to Ourselves.”

‘It is not enough to stay silent’

Participants ranged from veteran pastors to seminary students to laypeople such as Janelle Clark, of Newport News, Virginia, who is contemplating seminary studies. Pastor Sandy Drescher-Lehman has attended for the past seven years, anticipating by January, the need for collegial connection, spiritual sustenance and reflection “on where I was when I came last year — spiritually, emotionally and vocationally��— and comparing that to my current place in the world.”

“As a white person living and working in a multicultural neighborhood,” Cynthia Lapp, pastor at Hyattsville Mennonite Church in Hyattsville, came to learn “more about racism and the ways white privilege functions … It is not enough to stay silent. Racism will not just fade away; we must act and speak.”

“I came to help uncover and discover what is often hidden in our racialized society and to consider how these forces of racialization are forming and shaping us as a church,” said John Stolzfus, Franconia Conference youth minister and campus pastor for Dock Mennonite Academy.

Drew G.I. Hart, professor at Messiah College, listens to Pastor Jeff Carr of Bridgewater Church of the Brethen, Bridgewater, Virginia, discuss a point related to Hart’s keynote address at the School for Leadership Training.

Reflecting after the event, Stolzfus questions: “How can we as leaders empty ourselves of our privilege and power in the self-emptying way of Christ in order to embody the incarnational love of God? To the extent in which we are not able to see or understand the suffering and struggle of the immigrant, racial minority, foreigner, sexual minority, or anyone who may be different from us reveals the poverty of our relationships. We need to be in proximity to and stand next to those who are “other” in order to truly be a neighbor.

With opportunities for worship, reflection and prayer in the midst of education, many came away with more questions than answers.

Mick Sommers, lead pastor at Ridgeview Mennonite Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was “sobered by the realization that generations of attitudes and structure within the church will likely not be altered in a short span of time … I recognize within myself the need for a constant awareness and intentional mindfulness to counteract what has been my own socialization about race and power.”

Inequality and the ‘whitened Jesus’

, of Duke University Divinity School, and , of Messiah College, offered three extensive keynotes on the subjects of a practical theology of inequality, power and unity and the whitened Jesus, respectively.

Cleveland, a social psychologist, talked about the socialization of racism, the current politics of victimhood and related both concepts to Jesus’s statements and actions as a marginalized and oppressed person.

“If you looked to see where Jesus was socially located in every single one of his actions, how he emptied himself of his influence, platform and power … you’ll probably be astounded,” she said. “Jesus was always using his voice to make a point about what our relationships should be.”

Hart drew from history and culture to highlight the ubiquity of the “white European Jesus fixed in our places of worship,” an image that “bolsters a social system organized around racial hierarchy. “

Les Horning, associate director of seminary development, offers communion during the closing worship service.

While lifting up the constructed image of the blonde, Nordic and explicitly non-Jewish Jesus, Hart asked, “Where do we go with that image … to recover our Gentile identity? None of us have a copyright on Christianity or Jesus … Let us remember that it is someone else’s story that shapes our lives.”

Selected seminars summarized

A complete list of seminars is available .

Understanding the ‘other’ through the mirror/window of popular culture with Benjamin Bixler, PhD student, Drew University.

Bixler began with a clip of Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy Awards performance of “The Blacker The Berry,” in which the rapper and dancers, dressed as convicts, perform in the setting of a jail. Bixler discussed popular culture (movies, novels, music, etc.) as a way of engagement with “the other” on several levels: not only does the alternate world and characters offer alternate perspectives and provoke empathy, but the people who are discussing, analyzing or critiquing the work are also learning about themselves and each other.

Rebirth of a White Nation, with Dr. David Evans, EMS professor.

Evans facilitated discussions about white racial identity, a brief history of race in the United States, and the characteristics or qualities of “good white people” before asking the question “How might following Jesus be consistent or inconsistent with pursuing white status?”

“Race is national discipleship that teaches us the values we must have in order to belong to a certain status or group,” Evans says. “These values rival what Jesus calls us to be or to become … If we’ve been discipled into white nationalism, and no one was born white, then we’ve been converted into something that we need to be converted out of.”

How Do You Measure Life Change? The Role of Data and Measurements in Community Engagement with Wes Furlong, director of church development, EVANA network.

Churches often take an input-focused approach to thinking about social/service work (e.g. pounds of food gather for food drive) rather than thinking carefully about outputs and desired impact.
Serving communities, at its best, begins with careful work to fully understand context, strengths and assets and to ensure that all actors are involved.
Those involved in social/service work need to avoid the temptation of taking a short-term or transaction view to their efforts and instead strive to take a systems view with a focus on the long-term.
Dr. Andrea Saner speaks at the seminary faculty panel. She is joined by colleagues (from left) Kevin Clark, David Evans, Lonnie Yoder, Dorothy Jean Weaver and Emily Peck McClain. Not shown is Kenton Derstine.

Seeking the Peace of the City, with Dr. Johonna Turner, �� professor, and Julian Turner, graduate student.

The Turners, both raised in the Washington D.C. area, also lived and worked there until moving to Harrisonburg. Johonna Turner was a public school teacher involved in peacebuilding and empowerment work with youth, while Julian Turner worked in social services, specifically with HIV-AIDS patients. The Turners led discussions, framed by Jeremiah 29.7, about perceptions of the choices inner-city citizens make and the visualization of a more peaceful and harmonious city. This was conjoined to a scriptural exploration of compassion as modeled by Jesus, leading to a model for action in connection, lamentation and amplification. Presenters emphasized that care and consideration for voices of all citizens, whether urban dweller or rural folk, because “we are all connected.”

Panel: Navigating the move from ‘other’ to ‘neighbor’ in the context of theological education.

A panel of seminary faculty — including Dr. Kevin Clark, Dr. David Evans, Dr. Lonnie Yoder, Dr. Andrea Saner, Dr. Emily Peck McClain, Dr. Kenton Derstine and Dr. Dorothy Jean Weaver — discussed the role of theological education and cross-cultural engagement in shaping the move from ‘other’ to ‘neighbor’ in students and communities; how society defines each of these terms; and issues of power and privilege in the seminary classroom.

‘We don’t want differences to keep us apart’: School for Leadership Training focuses on connecting across divisiveness

Randi B. Hagi — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 13:01:23 +0000

Congregations must grapple with the contentious times in which we live. Eastern Mennonite Seminary’s 2017 School for Leadership Training (SLT) will speak to divisions of race, power, privilege and ideology—and how pastors might recognize and work with such dividedness — with the theme, “Yearning To Get Along … And Be True to Ourselves.” The conference will be Jan. 16-18 at �� in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

“We have to recognize differences, and can’t just sweep them under the rug until we become a bland, monolithic society, culture, or church,’ says , SLT coordinator. “But at the same time, we don’t want differences to keep us apart.”

Drew G.I. Hart, an author, activist, and pastor who teaches at Messiah College, provides a keynote address. (�� photos)

The story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10) will be a “common thread” throughout the conference.

Christena Cleveland, a social psychologist and fifth-generation minister who teaches at Duke University Divinity School, will be a keynote speaker. Drew G.I. Hart, an author, activist, and pastor who teaches at Messiah College, will also present. [Cleveland was a speaker at the 2016 faculty-staff conference; read more .]

Plenaries and workshops will cover Jesus’ exposé of power and division, the differently-abled community, white-washing Jesus, restorative justice in the police force, and other topics that encourage “neighboring” instead of “othering.”

“Pastors and church leaders are hungry for ways to lead congregations through the hard work of connecting, even in the face of differences,” says Horning. “Plus, as many congregations find themselves in culturally pluralistic communities, they see the need for respectful, engaged dialogue across those differences.”

Workshops include:

“Rebirth of a White Nation” with , professor of history and mission, Eastern Mennonite Seminary;
“Will You Be My Friend?” with David Gullman, chaplain for ;
“Power, Privilege, Promise: Hagar and Sarah in Scripture and Tradition” with Andrea Saner, professor of Bible and religion;
“Understanding the Other Through the Window/Mirror of Popular Culture,” with Ben Bixler, PhD student, Drew University;
“Practical Bridge-Building,” with Bob Gross, church consultant;
“Restorative Justice at Work in the Community,” with , Harrisonburg Police Department;
“Seeking the Peace of the City” with , professor of restorative justice and peacebuilding at the , and her husband, Julian Turner;
“Combat to Communion: Coming Together at God’s Table in the Aftermath of War” with United Methodist Church Pastor , president of the local chapter of Veterans for Peace;
“Celebrating Differences in a Multi-Cultural World,” with Dr. S, Fulbright Scholar from Indonesia;
“How Do You Measure Life Change? The Role of Data and Measurements in Community Engagement,” with , director of church development, EVANA Network.

“It is our hope that participants will leave SLT 2017 with renewed hope in humanity, in our ability to recognize differences, and at the same time enter into valuable engagement in the face of those differences,” says Horning.

For more information, visit , call 540-432-4698, or email slt@emu.edu.

With the ageless theme of finding hope in times of fear, seminary convocation opens new academic year

Laura Lehman — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 12:43:35 +0000

With natural and man-made disasters on the collective minds of many students and faculty, dean provided some assurance in his opening convocation address.

“Will we survive?” asked King. “I believe yes. Here we are despite millennia of catastrophes. But will our lives, communities, institutions, structures, countries, planet be recognizable?”

King’s convocation address, titled “After the boxes are packed,” encouraged listeners to think about the signs of hope found in the midst of fear. Drawn from the third chapter of Lamentations, King noted that both fear and hope are found in our landscape today, just as for the writer in Lamentations.

Reflecting on the death of his mother-in-law this summer and his own parents’ death in 2010, King discussed the boxes left behind by these elders and the ways that small gestures brought hope in the midst of the grief he experienced.

King asked, “Knowing others will someday be left with nothing but our boxes, which fragments of ‘the Lord as our portion’ do we hope they find there?”

For faculty, staff and some students, this convocation highlights the 2016-17 school year as one��of many transitions. This year King will be combining his role as seminary dean with a new role as dean of graduate and professional programs. Professor�� has begun as associate dean, replacing Professor��, who held the role for six years. [Read more about this administrative��transition.]

Denominational fluctuations have caused seminary enrollment to fall to a national low and EMS is not immune to these changes, King said.

And yet, he added, there are signs of hope. This year’s incoming class includes pastors, counselors, educators and many others seeking to follow God’s call to seminary and ministry in various contexts.

For example, Pablo Hernandez, from Honduras, is resuming studies at EMS after five years away. Hernandez needed to return to his home country after his first year to attend to family members with health issues. He has finally returned to complete his degree, bringing his family with him.

“Pablo’s return to EMS to study is just one of the many signs of hope I see in our students,” said , associate director of admissions, development and church relations. “Other students have moved across the country, entered a career in retirement, or simply took the next important step in God’s call.”

Convocation concluded with faculty, staff, new and returning students reflecting on the question: “If ‘you can’t take it with you’, if our labors of love eventually wither away, in what do we place our hope?”

School for Leadership Training to challenge churches to consider the ‘nones’

Laura Lehman Amstutz — Mon, 24 Nov 2014 17:05:50 +0000

The Pew Research Center made news with its 2012 report that the fastest growing U.S. “denomination” was the “Nones,” the “religiously unaffiliated” who answer “none of the above” when asked which religious community they belong to.

One-fifth of the U.S. population and one-third of adults under 30 do not identify with a particular denomination or church. Yet many signal deep spirituality through belief in God, prayer or a connection to nature or the earth.

What does it mean for churches if a growing number of U.S. residents claim “none of the above” when asked about religious affiliation? The��at Eastern Mennonite Seminary (EMS), Harrisonburg, Va., helps to address this question with a Jan. 19-21, 2015 workshop titled “A Church for All Generations in an Age of ‘Nones.’”

, vice president and dean of EMS, calls the training an invitation to explore “how we connect Christian faith, churches and communities with the millions who are actually passionate about faith but often equally passionate in their conclusion that institutional/denominational structures of the day have lost or betrayed integral, authentic connection with the deep journeys of the soul.”

In addition to workshop leaders presenting on a variety of practical topics, speakers include Lauren Winner, assistant professor of Christian spirituality at Duke Divinity School, and Dan Aleshire, executive director of .

Winner, a historian and author, provides reflections on life in a small parish and addresses spiritual practices for the 21st century.

Aleshire will address “The Christian But Not Religious Church for the Spiritual But Not Religious: The Shifting Role of Religion in American Life.”

Participants will also take part in worship experiences “to help us celebrate the healthy tension between deep roots and new branches reaching for new horizons,” said worship planner .

This event will be helpful for church leaders, youth workers and anyone who wonders about the future of the church.

“I’m excited about attending this event because it speaks to what many youth workers are observing in their congregations,” said John Stoltzfus, conference youth minister for and of and campus pastor at . “Youth are engaging in church and expressing their faith and spirituality in different ways. A key part of our task as youth workers is to be attentive to these shifts and to empower youth to be attentive to the new movement of the Spirit in our world. What are the spiritual longings of the next generation and how can we help them create faith communities to respond to these longings?”

Registration and more information can be found at��.

Worship in acknowledgment of the “elephant in the room”

Laura Lehman Amstutz — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 16:23:52 +0000

Participants in the 2014 at Eastern Mennonite Seminary did not tiptoe for three days around the “elephant in the room” – that is, the anguish felt by many over congregational disagreements in regard to same-sex relationships.

On the contrary, a highlight of the three days appeared to be a worship service where the whole person was engaged. It was titled “Offering the Elephant in the Room to the Holy Spirit.”

Participants were invited to imagine themselves in the presence of Jesus, and then to imagine themselves in the presence of Jesus with someone with whom they disagree. Each person wrote down hopes and fears for themselves and for the person with whom they disagreed and at the end came forward and placed their hopes and fears at the foot of the cross.

“This worship service created time and space for the Spirit to move among us.” said Beth Yoder, associate pastor at . “I know without doubt that the full gamut of beliefs about this question was represented.”

And yet, at the end of the service these people with disparate beliefs gathered together, prayed together, and wept together at the foot of the cross.

Brian Miller, pastor at , said: “This was a space that is about the prayer of unknowing, a space that is more about yieldedness than control, a space of deep listening, and a space that is about finding a third way.”

As each person in the room remembered their own relationship with God and then remembered that even those who vehemently disagree with them are also beloved children of God, tears flowed and the group sang, “Don’t be afraid, my love is stronger than your fear.”

“There were tears throughout the room, sometimes quiet sobbing, as each of us felt our own vulnerability and need for God’s Spirit – our fears and hopes for the church, for beloved people,” said Yoder.

Participants acknowledged their own hopes and fears, perhaps for the first time giving words to deep emotion. Through the work and the mystery of the Holy Spirit the experience went beyond argument, beyond disagreement.

As a result, in Yoder’s words, “the bars of the iron cage of rationality were loosened a little bit.”

Ervin Stutzman, executive director of , was among the church leaders who spent time praying together at the foot of the cross. “As I humbled myself before the cross, I experienced the power and comfort of a Christian community, grateful that God has redeemed a church, not just individuals.”

, MDiv ‘98, worship coordinator for the annual school, explained that the purpose of the service was to “begin the healing process for the ways that people have experienced pain surrounding this issue.”

Yoder summarized it well: “We did not decide or discern anything, but we did create time and space for God’s Spirit to be with us. And that is a very good place to start.”

To see worship resources for this event, held Jan. 20-22, 2014, and all of the worship services for School for Leadership Training visit .

Horning Brings Devotion to Seminary Fundraising Role

Laura Lehman Amstutz — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 19:45:07 +0000

Les Horning has been a pastor, bus driver, chemist, house painter and doctoral student of Hebrew. Now he is a full-time advocate for Eastern Mennonite Seminary, Harrisonburg, Va., as associate director of development, church relations and admissions. He is also the father of an �� undergrad.

“When I was a student here in 1995, I knew I wanted to return some day as faculty or staff,” said Horning. “As a student here I felt like a balloon that had lifted off the earth. Suddenly my horizons seemed endless. I have always wanted to help other students have that experience.”

Horning is responsible for both seminary fundraising and recruiting of students. He aims to grow the seminary annual fund and build a $2 million dollar scholarship endowment.

“The current economic situation makes it a challenging time to raise money,” he says, “But I see great possibilities for strengthening small givers and broadening our base of supporters.”

Actually, Horning says hard times prompt many people to focus on what is really important, including a strong seminary preparing much-needed church and community leaders.

“People are looking for things to believe in and to belong to,” he says.

In his admissions duties, Horning is working in tandem with Anita Fonseca, a new seminary student and admissions assistant, from Chile, both will work under the leadership of Laura Amstutz, MDiv ’06, director of seminary admissions.

Horning earned a BS from �� in 1986, majoring in biology and chemistry. He completed an MDiv here in 1998. He and his wife Crystal have two daughters, 20-year-old Anya at �� and Alanah, 18.