Marlene Harder Bogard came to own her faith and now shares it with others.

While growing up in Mountain Lake, Minn., Marlene Harder Bogard, minister of Christian formation for Western District Conference (WDC), had everything a young person needed to form a strong Christian identity—a strong home, a strong church and strong role models.

Except there was one catch: She had not yet owned the faith for herself.

So when her peers at Bethel Mennonite Church joined the catechism class leading to baptism, the 16-year-old declined to participate, she said during an August interview.

As the class studied the Anabaptist faith, the fun-loving teenager who was often in the center of things was absent.

Instead, Marlene, the daughter of the late Clarence and Irma (Fast) Harder, visited other churches or sat alone at the lake on the outskirts of the small rural community settled by her German Mennonite ancestors. As she peered into the sunlight dancing off the lake, she reflected about what it meant to be a Christ follower in her own way, rather than joining the crowd.

In the midst of her dilemma, the Jesus movement of the 1970s came to town. She breathed in some of the air of the evangelical and free-spirited movement. And the soul of the vivacious teenager expanded with hope that she could connect with Christianity in ways she could name for herself.

“I stepped away from the pressure of the ‘cattle chute’ mentality,” said Marlene, who lives in rural Newton with her pastor husband, Michael Bogard. “I felt that just because one was 16 years old one should not be expected to take catechism. I felt that everyone’s faith journey was unique and different, and I wanted to own faith for myself rather simply being part of the group.”

But a fork in the road came the night of her junior prom. She was getting ready to go to a party when she had a conversation with a caring Youth for Christ leader that became a turnaround experience for her.

“The next day was Sunday, when the members of catechism class were to be baptized,” Marlene said. “Because of the conversation the day before and my change of heart, I called up my pastor, the late Walter Gering, at 6 a.m. I told him my story and asked if I could be baptized with the class after all.”

He said yes. And Marlene, who for months had been watching the waves wash the shoreline, was sprinkled with the baptismal waters that symbolized rebirth. She stood before the 400-member congregation to give testimony to her commitment to Christ.

That moment was only one of many in the next several decades in which she was called publically to share faith with God’s people.

Eventually, Marlene became part-time WDC Library director in 1990 and full-time WDC minister of Christian formation in 2002. She was ordained in April 2007.

Today, Marlene directs the WDC Library in North Newton, Kan., where she selects and manages the 12,000-book-and-DVD collection.

The library provides faith-based resources for all ages across WDC, South Central Conference and Central Plains Mennonite Conference.

She also provides workshops and seminars on topics ranging from engaging Christian formation in congregations to hospitality to developing policies for keeping children safe.

She plans WDC annual assemblies and convenes conferences such as the launch of WDC’s Year of the Bible (YOB). Mennonite Church USA has taken notice of her regional commitment to cutting-edge and creative resourcing with YOB.

As a result, she is partnering with Terry Shue, Mennonite Church USA’s director of leadership development, to provide YOB materials for the denomination through the development of the website yearofthebiblenetwork.org.

Pathway to vocation has detours

Ironically, the teenager who once questioned the Anabaptist tenets of faith is the same woman who is now helping solidify those tenets through resources and education. But her path to her current vocation had its detours.

When she was 7, her father, Clarence, owner of the town’s Standard Oil Station, died suddenly, leaving Marlene, her mother, Irma, and her 10-year-old sister, Becky, to carry on.

“I experienced a very carefree childhood until my father died,” Marlene said. “That event set into motion a whole host of changes in my childhood and youth experience. My mother had to find her livelihood and raise us by herself in the 1960s. That was not an easy task.”

Marlene said her mother, who died at 95 in May, was a pillar of the church and community.

“I think about her every day and what she modeled for us,” Marlene said. “She had an entrepreneurial spirit and helped build a new public library and the community’s Heritage House Museum. I see myself trying to fit into some of the same roles she had, and I find a lot of satisfaction in following in her footsteps.”

Marlene’s parents were part of a mosaic of German Mennonites who immigrated to the United States from Russia in 1874 and helped establish Mountain Lake.

A small extended family—in tandem with a nurturing church family—rooted Marlene in the love of God and others in a rural farming community (population 1,900).

“My faith formation as a child was very steady,” she said. ” loved to go to vacation Bible school and read the stories in the Herald Press booklets. We lived a half block from the church, and I went there all the time.”

Anchors from her Mennonite faith heritage—including peace and justice, community, simplicity and discipleship—ultimately steadied Marlene after her windblown adolescent identity crisis.

But it would still take a few more years before she reached the “harbor” of the Anabaptist world.

“After I was baptized, I got involved in the Jesus movement,” she said. “I participated in parades where we shouted, ‘I am a fool for Jesus—whose fool are you?’ This involvement propelled me into a different mind-set, and for me it became all about being a Christian first, then a Mennonite.”

She went to Baptist-affiliated Bethel College in St. Paul, Minn., to set herself apart from her Mennonite upbringing, she said. But after a couple of years, she felt something was missing and realized it was the Anabaptist emphasis on peace and discipleship.

So after she and Mike met at Bethel and became engaged, they decided to live out an
Anabaptist Mennonite expression of Christianity when they married after graduation in 1977. Soon after the wedding, they were hired as co-directors of Swan Lake Christian Camp in South Dakota.

In 1979, they moved to Elkhart, Ind., where Mike pursued seminary studies at what is now Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary. At that point, however, Marlene—with a college major in anthropology and linguistics—had no inkling of her own ministerial call.

“I never dreamed of going to seminary,” she said. “No one tapped me [on the shoulder] and said I should take a class, so I didn’t. I put Mike through school by working in a library and a greenhouse and began having babies. We had a tight budget and brought carrots to potluck, where we were so excited to have meat.”

Their first son, Ben, 32, was born in Goshen, Ind., and their other son, Josh, 30, was born in Freeman, S.D., where the couple moved in 1982 so that Mike could pursue several pastoral callings. Marlene became a librarian at Freeman Public Library and also worked at some other jobs.

A geographic change brings vocation change

In 1990, they moved to Newton, Kan., when Mike became WDC youth pastor. Marlene became part-time WDC Library director. The shoulder tapping began when Dorothy Nickel Friesen became WDC conference minister in 2002.

Marlene’s role during Friesen’s tenure (through 2010) expanded into what eventually was titled minister of Christian formation. During this decade, Marlene earned a master’s degree in Christian ministry and was ordained.

“Even though we both grew up in Mountain Lake, she was off my radar until I moved to Kansas to become WDC conference minister,” Friesen said during a Sept. 16 interview. “It didn’t take me long to see what a treasure I had. I saw a multitude of gifts in her that were not being used, and those were the gifts I felt the church was calling for. In Marlene, we already had that person in place.

“So we shifted her role into one of teaching and providing workshops, seminars and conferences. Rather than hoping people would come to the library to use our resources, Marlene took those resources into the congregations.”

WDC’s Resource Commission helps direct Marlene in her role. In an early September interview, Jeff Koller, commission chair, said Marlene’s joyful spirit and people skills enhance her many other gifts.

“Marlene knows how to interject fun at appropriate times but is able to flip instantly into a more serious mode when the deeper issues call for that,” he said. “She also helps everyone else to have a good time by interjecting humor and fun into any setting.

“And when there is controversy, she is usually able, without compromising her own beliefs, to stay neutral and respectful and to relate with everyone.”

Nurturing the church of today

Part of what brings the most joy to Marlene is her interaction with children and younger people, she said. That includes conducting library story hour for preschoolers, teaching youth ministry classes at Bethel College in North Newton, Kan., engaging young adults in the YOB and mentoring developing leaders.

“There is no need to be fearful about the church’s future,” she said. “As I listen to young adults talk about their faith and their questions, I hear how eager they are to become something more for God. We often say that young adults are the future of the church. They are the church right now.”

She added: “When we isolate ourselves from other generations, we fall short of what God intended. When we engage in these multigenerational relationships, we learn not only about history but also what may be our future. We learn about our current realities and using faith to maneuver those realities.”

One of Marlene’s mentees was Katherine Goerzen, who was ordained in October 2011 and is associate pastor at Grace Hill Mennonite Church near Whitewater, Kan.

“I loved Marlene;s energy and the joy that radiated from her,” Goerzen said during an early September interview. “It was empowering for me to relate to her and to see how gifted women leaders like her bring authority to their position.

“And now, since I live a block away from the Resource Library, I weekly bring my 17-month-old daughter to check out books. Marlene often gets down on the floor to play with her.”

Bogard’s ‘bucket list’ is long

Marlene said these interactions are double gifts for her, given the geographical distance that lies between her and her sons, who live in the Pacific Northwest. Social networks and smart phones help them stay connected, but face-to-face conversations happen only a couple times each year.

Soon the Bogards expect to hold their first grandchild, born to their son, Ben, and his wife, Jen. The addition of a new generation sparks Marlene’s passion for preserving family bonds.

“I dream of writing family history tales for my children and grandchildren,” she said. “As our children move out of our communities, faith and family and history are more difficult to transfer when you don’t have those weekly come-over-for-soup moments.”

The challenges of fostering family bonds from afar figure deeply into her future, as do other challenges. At 58, Marlene said she is running out of time to do all the things she cares about. Her list is long.

“I want to help our denomination let go of things it once held dear in order that something new can emerge,” she said. “Sometimes those things exist side by side, but more often than not, we have to choose between letting go and moving forward. I see that as a real dilemma for the Mennonite church right now.

“I want to find more time to dream and reflect and have silence like I did on those Sunday mornings at the lake when I was 16. My mind gets so cluttered with media and noise and opportunities that it is hard to hear God’s voice.”

Marlene said that even though she is not a “Jesus freak” anymore, she wants to better fulfill her desire to follow Jesus in lifestyle choices. “Mike and I want our lifestyle to represent our care for each other and our care for the Earth,” she said. This includes nurturing their five acres of land with its garden and fruit trees.

It also means harvesting more of the blessings of working with people. “I become alive when I am with people, and I count it a blessing to have gotten to know hundreds of people through the years,” she said. “What is most important to me is that I have been a positive influence in someone’s life and have encouraged someone. I really feel like my job is the best calling I could have.”

That is, until it comes time for her second career.

The former Campfire Girl who swam in cold lakes said she dreams of becoming a park ranger.

“That would allow me to be immersed with people in nature,” she said. “I could be a storyteller, a guide, a nurturer, a caretaker. I am all those things now, but I am stuck in an office without a window. I get really cranky when I don’t get my green fix.”

Laurie Oswald Robinson is a free-lance writer in Newton, Kan., and the author of Forever Family.