Nate Yoder

“In my teaching of church history, I am called to pay special attention to God’s initiative and to human response across the centuries. My invitation to students is to engage in critical analysis and to bring considered commitment and worshipful wonder into their reflection on the incarnate Word, the embodied Spirit, and the renewed church.”

Dr. Yoder returns to seminary life this fall following a sabbatical for the 2006-2007 academic year. His research focused on the Conservative Mennonite Conference, often better known by her Bible college and missions program, both named for the village of Rosedale, Ohio, where they are located. In identifying the group he is studying, Yoder notes that one of his challenges in the upcoming book is that of defining what the label conservative means. He is particularly interested in how this group, which is hardly distinctive by way of outward cultural markers, has interfaced Anabaptism and Evangelicalism. An ordained minister, he brings both pastoral and historical perspectives to that question.

In addition to his research, Yoder’s year included being the father of the bride in the fall, watching his son and the Eastern Mennonite High School soccer team make a run into the state tourney – again, and enjoying the collegiality of his elder son now also being a teacher. He returns to the seminary classroom the spouse of an adult student. His wife, after supporting him through graduate school working as a nurse, is now pursuing further study herself.

• Ph.D., Department of History, University of Notre Dame, IN, 1999.
  Dissertation title: “Mennonite Fundamentalism: Shaping An Identity For An American Context.”
  Dissertation director: Philip Gleason; readers: Nathan Hatch, George Marsden, and Walter Nugent.
  
• M.A., Department of History, University of Notre Dame, IN, 1989.
  
• B.A., Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY, 1984.
  
• A.A., Jefferson Community College, Louisville, KY, 1982.

• ORGANIZATIONAL OVERSIGHT
• Consultant, Strategic Planning Retreat, Board of Directors, House of Yoder, Grantsville, MD, 31 March 2007.
• Board of Directors, Valley Brethren-Mennonite Heritage Center, Harrisonburg, VA. Secretary, 1999-2000; Program Development Coordinator, 2001-2003; Vice-President, 2003-2005; Chair, Program Committee, 2003-2005.
• “Programmatic Site Concept: CrossRoads.” Board of Directors, Valley Brethren Mennonite Heritage Center, Harrisonburg, VA, 2004.
• Partners in Mission team to Trinidad, leader.Virginia Mennonite Board of Missions, 30 July-11 August 2004.
• Co-chair, Program Committee. With Tuyen Nguyen of the Vietnamese Mennonite Church, Philadelphia. “Philadelphia Stories: Kingdom Building in the City,” Philadelphia, PA, 4-6 April 2003.
• Historical Committee of the Mennonite Church and Mennonite Church USA, 1995-2003; chair, 2000-2003.
  _ _
• PREACHING AND PUBLIC SPEAKING
• “Discernment: Agreeing with God.” Series of five sermons for a series of revival meetings, Chambersburg Mennonite Church, Chambersburg, PA, 18-21 March 2007.
• “When it’s not working the way it’s supposed to.” Chapel talk, Eastern Mennonite High School, Harrisonburg, VA 15 March 2007.
• “God’s Glory and Us (Ezekiel 11:14-21).” Sermon at Shiloh Mennonite Church, Resaca, OH 11 March 2007.
• “A Psalm for Wacky Times (Psalm 77).” Sermon at Shiloh Mennonite Church, Resaca, OH 4 February 2007.
• “Shepherds, Midwives, Coaches, and a Youth Pastor.” Sermon at ordination service for Jason Gerlach, Community Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, VA 14 January 2007.
• “Love Produces Growth.” Sermon at Mt. Clinton Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, VA, 31 December 2006.
• “The Messiah is Coming OR Waiting for the Messiah (Micah 4:1-4).” Sermon at Riverside Mennonite Church, Harmon, WV, 10 December 2006.
• “Telling Our Story as God’s Story (Nehemiah 9).” Sermon in Sunday morning worship, National Yoder Reunion, House of Yoder, Grantsville, MD, 22 October 2006.
• “I Will Build my Church (Matthew 16:13-20).” Sermon at installation service for Brenda Benner, St. Francis Episcopal Church, Somerset, PA, 24 September 2006.
• “Feed My Sheep (John 21:15-19).” Sermon at licensing service for Brenda Benner, New Life Mennonite Church, Somerset, PA, 24 September 2006.
• “Causes of the Revolutionary War.” Lecture to the annual meeting of the Casselman River Area Amish and Mennonite Historians, Grantsville, MD, 15 September 2006.
  Published as “The Causes of the American Revolution,” The Historian [of the Casselman River Area Amish and Mennonite Historians, Grantsville, MD], October 2006, 1-5.
• “Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism.” Discussion with the Faith and Issues Sunday School Class, Park View Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, VA, 3 & 10 September 2006.
• “The Psalms We Pray and the Lives We Live.” Sermon at Riverside Mennonite Church, Harmon, WV, 25 June 2006.
• “Using what we’ve got to get where we want to go (Luke 16:1-12).” Sermon, Baccalaureate Service, West Indies Theological College, Trinidad, 21 May 2006.
• “Strategic Hospitality.” Opening worship, Mid-Winter Faculty Conference, Eastern Mennonite High School, Harrisonburg, VA, 23 February 2006.
• “Making a Difference in History.” Sermon, Ridgeview Mennonite Church, Intercourse, PA, 5 February 2006.
• Bible study. Reunion for alumni of LEAP program, Eastern Mennonite Seminary, hosted by Calvary Community Church, Hampton, VA, 28 January 2006.
• “Resolutions for Eternity (Colossians 3:1-17).” Sermon, Trissels Mennonite Church, Broadway, VA, 1 January 2006.
• Pastor, Dayton Mennonite Church, 1993-1999.

• Co-editor with Carol Scheppard. Exiles in the Empire: Believers Church Perspectives on Politics. Vol. 5, Studies in the Believers Church Tradition. Kitchener, Ont.: Pandora Press, 2006.
• “Mennonite Fundamentalism: Shaping An Identity For An American Context.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Notre Dame, 1999.
• “Introduction.” In Exiles in the Empire: Believers Church Perspectives on Politics, ed. Nathan Yoder and Carol Scheppard. Vol. 5, Studies in the Believers Church Tradition. Kitchener, Ont.: Pandora Press, 2006.
• Review of Evangelicalism: An Americanized Christianity, by Richard Kyle (New Brunswick, NJ.: Transaction Publishers, 2006). In Direction: A Mennonite Brethren Forum 37 (spring 2007): 114-116.
• “A Challenge to Mentor Strategically.” Column for LEAP Program monthly e-mail message to mentors, “March 2006.”:
  leap.emu.edu/blog/mentoring.html
• “Mennonite Scholars and Mennonite Fundamentalism.” Journal of Mennonite Studies 23 (2005): 111-22.
• “At the Crossroads: A Faith is Shaped [The Two Israel Rohrers and the Old Order Mennonite Tradition].” Chronicles: The Quarterly Newsletter of the Valley Brethren-Mennonite Heritage Center [Harrisonburg, VA], Winter 2004.

• “The Conservative Amish Mennonite Conference: A Case Study in Appropriating an Amish Heritage.” Paper presented at The Amish in America: New Identities & Diversities – An International Conference, The Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, 9 June 2007.
  
• “The Mennonites.” Interviewed live with Nancy Heisey by Tom Graham for Insight on WMRA, Harrisonburg, VA, 7 June 2006.
• “The Rule of Christ: A Sacrament for Anabaptists.” Anabaptist Seminar, Eastern Mennonite University, 8 April 2006.
• “Church and School: Called to Connect and Let Go.” Presented at conference on Cultivating a Culture of Calling: Mennonite Perspectives on Vocation, Goshen College, Goshen, Indiana, 21 October 2005.

• American Society of Church History
• American Historical Association
• Conference on Faith and History

• “The Online Course for Theological School Faculty Teaching Online.” Sponsored by the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion, hosted by The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Distance Education Certificate Program, June-July 2007.
  
• “Syllabus Review and Re-design.” Wabash Center Seminar on Pedagogy, with Faith Kirkham Hawkins, Staunton, VA, 13-14 April 2007.
  
• “Emotional Intelligence: Implications for Teaching, Learning, and Leading.” Workshop with Pam Robbins, Eastern Mennonite Seminary, 30 March 2007.
  
• “Church History and the Visual Generation.” On-line workshop, sponsored by the Exemplary Practices in Theological Education project of the Association of Theological Schools, October 2006.
  
• Bi-annual meeting of the Southeastern Colloquium for American Religious Studies, meeting at Hampden-Sydney College, Hampden-Sydney, Virginia, September 29, 2006.
  
• Annual meeting of the American Society of Church History, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 5-7, 2006.
  
• Annual meeting of the American Historical Association, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 5-7, 2006.
  
• Modern Archives Institute, National Archives, College Park, Maryland, 2-13 June 2003.
  
• “Gestalt Pastoral Care,” taught by Tilda Norberg, September 1999 through January 2001.

• “Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism,” summer 2005.
  
• Integrated the previously freestanding “Methods of Research” into “The Christian Tradition I” as a supporting component, fall 2005.

• Seminary Academic Committee, 2007-
• Seminary Admissions Committee. 2007-
• LEAP Advisory Council. 2006-
• Coordinator member of the teaching faculty, LEAP (Learning, Exploring, and Participating) summer program for high school students, 2005–
• Accompanied LEAP travel to Jamaica, 2006
• Archivist, University Archives, 2005-
• Menno Simons Historical Library Committee, 1995-
• Director, Master of Arts in Religion program, 1995-
• Hosting Committee, Anabaptist Colloquium, 2006
• Search Committee, Director of Libraries, 2005-2006
• University Faculty Leadership Group, 2005-2006
• Processing Archivist, University Archives, 2002-2005
• Chair, Planning Committee, “God, Democracy, and U.S. Power,” the 15th in the Believers Church Conference Series, co-hosted with Bridgewater College, 2004