Eastern Mennonite University

Professors Teach, Preach, Work and Learn This Summer

By Laura Lehman Amstutz

Summer is a time for faculty members to pursue scholarship, travel and spend time with family and friends. This summer our professors spent time doing some of each of these.

George Brunk | N. Gerald Shenk | Sara Wenger Shenk | Don Smeeton | Ervin Stutzman
| Linford Stutzman | Mark Wenger | Dorothy Jean Weaver | Lonnie Yoder

George Brunk

N. Gerald Shenk

I participated in four conferences, taught two intensive courses, led a baptism, sold a house, re-organized our garage, wrote a column for the Mennonite (on adoptions), consulted with local pastors on persons seeking to become Christians from other religious backgrounds, and facilitated family members traveling to or from Atlanta, Grand Rapids, Cairo, Rangoon and Almaty. Students from six countries took my course on Sociology of Religion at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Osijek, Croatia, in May. Then in June here at EMS I had a course on Ethics & Nonviolence: the Sermon on the Mount. Directly afterwards, I attended a workshop on distance learning and cooperative ventures among Virginia Independent Colleges, at Bluefield College. Next was the Interchurch Relations biennial Consultation for Mennonite Church usa, held at MCC headquarters in Akron, PA, focusing on connections among "old and new Anabaptists."

Later in July I participated in an intensive training workshop at University of Virginia with Professor Peter Ochs on Scriptural Reasoning, with Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders from a wide region, including some Anglican faculty from Ontario. This strengthened our skills for the local chapter, begun last year, for interested folks from Charlottesville and Harrisonburg who meet monthly to read Scriptures together.

Also in July, I attended the annual assembly of Virginia Mennonite Conference, where our emerging congregation "The Table" was accepted into membership. With others on The Table design team, we held a visioning retreat in early August at the outset of a year devoted to reflection on worship in our life together.

Other delights: family vacation at the beach with Sara's tribe, and helping to provision our freezer with the peaches, sweet corn, beans, range-fed beef and chicken that will facilitate the hospitality we hope to extend to Table-folk and others in the coming year. Oh, I also received the first copies of "Hope Indeed! Remarkable stories of peacemakers," a collection I have eagerly anticipated getting into print (Good Books, 2008).

Sara Wenger Shenk

I invested a lot of my summer serving as acting dean with Ervin gone for a much deserved summer sabbatical. I did much of our extensive annual assessment report, reviewing and evaluating our performance as a seminary in the past year, and I also did further work on the curriculum revision, consulting with various faculty along the way.

I attended the Association of Theological School's Seminar for Chief Academic Officers and the ATS Biennial Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. I also participated in the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship Colloquium for 2008-09 grant recipients. I had authored a worship renewal grant proposal which The Table: an emerging Mennonite Church, was awarded. Mike Metzler and I will co-direct this project for The Table during this coming year. I led worship and hosted multiple meals for The Table throughout the summer, planned and participated in a Visioning Retreat for Table leadership.

I also wrote a full length journal article on Mennonites and co-habitation for the Institute of Mennonite Studies Vision Journal, and a new column for Real Families in The Mennonite, which I do on a quarterly basis.

There was some vacation time, either at home or at the beach. We welcomed our daughter home from Egypt, a son from Myanmar, and said farewell to another son leaving for Kazakhstan.

 

Don Smeeton

Donald Dean Smeeton was elected president of the Association of Christian Librarians in Boston during the organization's annual conference. The association provides professional and spiritual development to its members who serve in the libraries of seminaries, Christian universities and Bibles college in the US and overseas. He also published "Tyndale Theology and His Significance to Librarians" in the "Proceedings of the American Theological Library Association," 60 (2006), 263-267.

Ervin R. Stutzman

There are four objectives that I described in my application for a sabbatical. The first was scholarly, the second was for enhancement of personal language skills, the third was for restoration, and the fourth was for a community service project. The activities for the second half of my sabbatical are described in that order below.

Scholarship – I worked on this objective in three ways. First, I worked on a manuscript having to do with the Mennonite Church’s journey from Nonresistance to Peace and Justice, based on my doctoral dissertation. The editor for Studies in Anabaptist and Mennonite History (SAMH) has looked over my current draft of the manuscript and is eager to receive it this fall. I agreed to make some conceptual changes and include data from Mennonite Church USA, which was formed since I wrote my dissertation. I want to do some more research so it will be a challenge to meet their preferred schedule. Since the current draft would make 400 printed pages, I may do some more cutting and editing to keep the book from getting too long.

Secondly, I wrote a proposal and did much of the research and writing for a paper entitled Raising the Flag for Jesus. It has to do with the symbolism of a national flag versus the “Christian flag” in sanctuaries and chapels where the gospel is preached. The paper has been accepted for presentation at the Evangelical Homiletics Society this coming October. The research for this paper provides a good background for my preaching class.

Language skills – I studied Spanish informally all summer long. Most importantly, I spent four weeks in Guatemala City, Guatemala in an immersion experience of language study. I studied at CASAS and lived in the Noel Flores household, the same family that hosted Ray and Violet Horst on two different occasions when they led cross-cultural trips for EMU. My Spanish language ability has increased significantly. I was able to move from Intermediate level 1 to Advanced level 1. Gracias a Dios! I found the time in Guatemala very engaging and helpful. I was also reminded that truly learning the language will require serious ongoing study.

Restoration – This summer, I engaged in several activities that seemed restorative to me. First of all, I weaned myself from wearing my wristwatch and wallet a good bit of the time. I rarely wore my cell phone and answered email much less frequently. I found these practices to be freeing.

Second, my wife Bonnie and I attended a week at the John C. Campbell Folk Art School in Brasstown, North Carolina. In a relaxed environment much like summer camp, I took a course on photography that involved two field trips to a beautiful national park. I have used my new photography skills to take hundreds of photographs in North Carolina, Maine, and Iowa, as well as Guatemala. Photography has become an important diversion for me.

Third, I attended the Lexington Seminar in Bar Harbor, Maine. While this trip could also be categorized as professional development, I found it restorative since I found time for long daily walks, relaxed time with Bonnie, photography, reading, and kayaking in the bay.

 Fourth, I spent vacation time with family. Bonnie and I spent more than a week working on a house remodeling project for my daughter in Iowa City, Iowa. Like last summer, I felt it was a particular privilege to work shoulder to shoulder with Emma and her husband, Matthew Dawson.

Fifth, I met with three of my siblings and their spouses in a family gathering, the first time we’ve all been together in 15 years. We met at the EssenhausInn in Middlebury, Indiana.

Community service – While I did not meet my goal of serving for a week with one or our service agencies, I did perform other community service. I met along with other EMU staff at the Lancaster extension in an accreditation visit with the Pennsylvania Department of Education. I also made some important connections for EMU/S in Guatemala. I preached in Mennonite congregations in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Iowa as part of my travels. I also spoke for historical societies or family research societies in Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Indiana

Linford Stutzman

● Led "Yella," a group of 24 young adults for a rigorous 3-week seminar in Israel/Palestine in May. This leadership development seminar was sponsored and organized by the Mennonite Church of Eastern Canada and MCC Canada. We were the first group to hike major portions of the new " Jesus Trail" developed by David Landis. ● Spent six weeks aboard SailingActs in southern Turkey, finalizing the writing and editing the book manuscript of With Paul in the Empire: Acts, Globalization and Mission, planning for several study programs and tours in the Mediterranean in 2009, hiking a new section of the Paul Trail, and sailing single-handed for a week along the Turkish coast (Paul's mission route).
● Taught several sessions on Paul's mission in Eastern Mennonite Mission's World Mission Institute in Lancaster, PA live from Turkey via Internet and Skype.
● Taught sessions on mission in the New Testament for tranSend mission orientation for Virginia Mennonite Missions.
● Co-led a workshop with Loren Horst, president of Virginia Mennonite Missions, for Virginia Mennonite Conference.

Mark Wenger

Dorothy Jean Weaver

From May 2-19 I co-led a Nazareth/Bethlehem Work Group for Virginia Mennonite Missions under their "Partners in Mission" program.  We had a great bunch of folks and a delightful experience both in Nazareth and in Bethlehem.  In late May and on through June I completed a series of Sunday School lessons on the Gospel of Matthew for the Mennonite Publishing Network (adult lessons for the Uniform Lesson Series).  These lessons will show up in December 2009-February 2010.  In early July I attended an MCUSA conference at Akron, PA on "Interchurch Relations" (July 1-3).  And at the end of July I flew to Portland, OR for a Sabeel Leadership Retreat (July 31-August 3) and stayed an extra day (to get a cheaper flight, truth be told, and to visit with friends).  (Sabeel Ecumenical [read "Palestinian"] Liberation Theology Center has its headquarters in Jerusalem, but has a large North American support group, Friends of Sabeel North America, who sponsored this leadership retreat.)

Lonnie Yoder

I have been on the move for most of the summer. Right after graduation our family spent a week in Hawaii at a Marriott timeshare with Teresa's sister, parents, and families. In June I spent eight days in Jamaica interacting with Jamaica Mennonite churches and leaders. Much of July was taken up with the LEAP program. Sixteen youth and eight leaders traveled to Colombia after a week of training on campus. In Colombia we had a fascinating introduction to the Colombia Mennonite Church and its mission in the context of challenging social and political realities. And just to make sure I didn't stay at home in August, our family vacationed for two weeks in Iowa. In the midst of the vacation I attended a three-day conference on distance education at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

 

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