No asterisks for us
At the Mennonite Church USA convention, attendees were asked by a worship leader to move from a diseased and disordered love — the church’s long history of putting an asterisk by its love — to a...
[read more]‘Lead Your Way’
Imagine a Mennonite college admissions counselor, for whom the national youth convention is harvest time. Thousands of her best prospects will pass through the exhibit hall where she’s set up shop....
[read more]Future Church Summit: Be honest, and mourn
As the days have passed since the Mennonite Church USA convention in Orlando, Fla., I get more and more frustrated. As usual, I was happy to see old friends and make new connections, but as the glow of those...
[read more]Kriss: Shaky present, bright future
I hadn’t been a delegate at a Mennonite Church USA convention since San Jose a decade ago. It wasn’t a positive experience then and, to be honest, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to the renewed...
[read more]Miller: Back after 26 years
I was a delegate to the Mennonite Church USA convention in Orlando, Fla., July 4-8. I last attended a denominational convention in 1991, when the Mennonite Church gathered at the University of Oregon. Much has...
[read more]Flawed but important
Your headline, “Mennonite Church USA Makes a List,” aptly describes the results of the Future Church Summit: a 154-item, nine-page document summarizing wide-ranging discussions within 97 focus groups....
[read more]Taking Israel’s side
The Mennonite Church USA resolution on Israel-Palestine is not anti-Israel. That is one of the first things advocates of the statement want everyone to know. They call it a third way, a recognition that...
[read more]If conservatives feel silenced, we need to speak
I was not able to attend the Mennonite Church USA Future Church Summit in Orlando, Fla., but I followed with interest from a distance. I have since been putting together a composite picture of the event — a...
[read more]Did the Future Church Summit silence conservatives? No
As I try to process my experience at the Mennonite Church USA Future Church Summit in Orlando, Fla. — and especially as I think about the events of the delegate session — scenes from my son’s teen years...
[read more]Medium, message and Jesus: Future Church Summit observations
Think of a memorable scene from a favorite film. Conjure it in your imagination: characters speaking and acting, musical score playing. Now imagine it without music or with different music — it becomes a...
[read more]My denomination continues to swing left
We delegates at the 2017 Mennonite Church USA Convention in Orlando met for an initial four-hour session and then a concluding one-hour session. In between those sessions, a number of non-delegates joined us...
[read more]Reflections from Orlando: Change is happening
I spent most of the first week of July in Orlando, Fla., being a delegate at the Mennonite Church USA convention. Confession: I don’t like conventions. There’s the dungeon-esque nature of the whole place...
[read more]LGBTQ advocates make the most of greater acceptance
ORLANDO, Fla. — From official seminars and an inclusive worship service to direct involvement in the Future Church Summit, LGBTQ participation and presence at the Mennonite Church USA convention reflected...
[read more]Comfortable in their skin
From 2015 to 2017, Mennonite Church USA conventions changed drastically. Two years ago at Kansas City, debates over how to handle diverse views about LGBTQ people in the church cast a cloud of tension over the...
[read more]To put love in action, Mennonite Church USA makes a list
ORLANDO, Fla. — For 3,200 people at the Mennonite Church USA convention July 4-8, “Love Is a Verb” was more than a grammar lesson. The week’s theme focused on the basic truth that Christian faith is...
[read more]Tanzanians make connections at convention
Hundreds of congregations have left Mennonite Church USA in the last few years, making this summer’s convention a peculiar learning opportunity for a group of leaders from Tanzania Mennonite Church...
[read more]Israel-Palestine statement takes a ‘third way’
ORLANDO, Fla. — Mennonite Church USA delegates on July 6 overwhelmingly passed a resolution on Israel-Palestine, confessing “our own complicity in this web of violence, injustice and suffering” and...
[read more]Rachel Held Evans: It’s not faith, hope and ‘being right’
ORLANDO, Fla. — When best-selling author and blogger Rachel Held Evans saw Mennonite Church USA’s “Love Is a Verb” convention theme, she hoped organizers didn’t see her Twitter...
[read more]Mennonite Church USA convention: Put love in action
ORLANDO, Fla. — God’s unconditional love, first expressed through the gift of Jesus Christ, was the focus of the opening night of the Mennonite Church USA convention July 4 at the Orange County...
[read more]Mennonite Church USA pep talk for Orlando
This week, July 4-8, Mennonites from across the U.S. will gather in Orlando, Fla., for the Mennonite Church USA biennial convention. I have spent my whole life going to these conventions, so it feels weird...
[read more]Support for resolution
We are writing to express our support for the resolution, “Seeking Peace in Israel-Palestine,” being considered July 6 at the Mennonite Church USA assembly in Orlando, Fla. We participated in April 2016 on...
[read more]The future (Mennonite) church
I’ve been told to come to the Mennonite Church USA Future Church Summit with a smile, ready to make new friends. And I will. I basically smile all the time anyway; that’s just how my face looks. Honestly,...
[read more]MC USA to hear voices of youth in convention business sessions
At the Mennonite Church USA convention in 2015, high school student Leah Wenger questioned the role of youth after noting how separated the youth convention was from the delegate sessions. “My youth group...
[read more]Opinion: Cruel checkpoints in Palestine
I joined Christian Peacemaker Teams-Palestine in 2002, where I wrote countless reports, met with State Department officials five times and visited 51 congressional offices — all resulting in little change to...
[read more]About Me
