Research in Culture of Call

N. Gerald Shenk
3 scholarship practice hours

I. Project summary:

This proposal sought to identify and research congregations within the EMS orbit that could serve as models of vitality and encouragement for vocations in ministry. Its focus on tasks of calling, equipping, mentoring and supporting candidates for ministry centered on the basic level of regular, local church life. Further consideration was devoted to potential for placing seminarians in internships with congregations at the growing edge. The anticipated outcome would be profiles of such congregations and their practices in calling and equipping lay leaders for ministry.

II. Status of project with degree of completion:

This project evolved over the course of the year, morphing away from tracking down and describing existing congregations toward an exploration of local activism with real prospects for involving seminarians in the coming year. In fact , I was following my own vocation with this activist mode, along with current students who expressed the desire to see concrete practical responses to pressing current concerns. Each of the three dimensions I am reporting are very much in progress at present.

III. Summary of accomplishment and outcomes achieved:

A) When we want to bring students into more direct contact with persons in real need in our community, it is not enough to describe statistics or survey social conditions. Direct contact and careful assessment are necessary for compassion to take on flesh. Professors too can benefit from an opportunity to build longer-term relationships with the poor who are our neighbors.

I began volunteering with the downtown agency People Helping People last fall. This is a cooperative ministry of (some) area churches. I was recruited for the board of PHP, but the life changing impact came primarily h m the regular Wednesday interactions that put me in touch with landlords and eviction notices, electricity disconnect notices, children going hungry and medicines too costly for a family to purchase. My students welcomed the reporting I would bring back to the classroom. Now I have begun taking the students to the field laboratory with me. I will continue with more of that recruitment this fall. I am working with the board to raise more funds and increase PHP services. [log: 60 hours]

B) From the course "Churches and Social Transformation" grew two initiatives that can have an impact on mans at risk in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County . With Marvin Lorenzana and one team, we have a plan to recruit seminarians as volunteers for literacy work with immigrant parents in the local schools. The other effort, a housing ministry for &&le rental arrangements, is still in design stages and taking shape in collaboration with numerous others in the wider community. We have plans to recruit seminarians as volunteers with a safe house/ recovery program currently envisioned by Ron Copeland and the ministries of his Early Church downtown. This will require considerable renovation of an aging property. [log: 20 hours]

C) The Table, an emerging Mennonite congregation in Harrisonburg, has taken shape during this year and drawn more than half a dozen current and recent seminary students into active participation. Because it is a new effort, the design stage brings many questions to the surface. The open, public phase began in January and its intrigue for young adults has been evident in the number of persons who accept the invitation into our homes for lunch and wide-ranging discussions after the morning service.

The Table serves as an alternative model in contemporary church life, with strong emphasis on scripture in worship, creative music and a recurring theme of reflection and meditation. We see a hunger to engage the scriptures together, and a desire to bring that light to bear on weekday tasks in life. Two seminarians serve on the core team, leading in worship and rising to preach as called. [log: countless hours, usually more than ten hours per week, more than half in direct mentoring contact with seminarians and young adults]

IV. Ways the project has been shared with others:

The Table has been featured in seminary articles and the wider church press on a number of occasions; it was examined by the Ministry Inquiry Program and a young adult conference, plus a gathering of regional conference ministers. Seminarians ably represented us in those occasions. The housing ministry, the literacy project and People Helping People all involved extended networks of contacts in the local community, especially with other agencies already involved in trying to meet similar needs. To represent the seminary and build the prospect of more direct involvement by seminarians in these networks is an important part of our profile in the wider community.

V. SP category: Practice

VI. Where to find this Project:

Watch for word of a campaign to increase the services of People Helping People this fall, and recruitment of seminarians as volunteers there. The housing ministry will recruit for renovations and staffing of the recovery program Ron Copeland is starting. The literacy program will recruit for work in local schools with immigrant parents. And The Table is poised for new growth as the campus community returns this fall. Join us at 10:30 am on Sunday at the Discipleship Center.