Leadership: A word from Mennonite leaders

As we approach age 30, Justin, my husband, and I have talked about our goals, especially as they relate to our sense of career and calling.

For Justin there’s a clear trajectory he can visualize and would like to see materialize.

We know that even the best-laid plans sometimes fail, but Justin at least has a clear sense of where he’d like to be and what he’d like to be doing in 10 more years.

For me, the answer to this question has proved more elusive. It’s not that there aren’t things that I’m passionate about or that there isn’t lots of work out there I could get excited about.

On the contrary, I can get excited about almost any opportunity put in front of me if I pause to consider it long enough and it involves working with people (I’m an extrovert).

Over the last eight years since I graduated from college, I can see that the places and spaces I’ve engaged with my work have been less about intentionally moving toward one set career and more about saying yes to good opportunities when they’ve presented themselves.

Before she left her role as president at Bluffton (Ohio) University, Lee Snyder sent me an email with this poem by Sheri Hostetler (a poem she also quotes in her recent memoir), and she sent it to me as an encouragement to do just what I’ve been talking about: to say yes to opportunities when they present themselves.

Say yes quickly before you think too hard
or the soles of your feet give out.
Say yes before you see the to-do list.
Saying maybe will only get you to the door,
but never past it.
Say yes before the dove departs for, yes,
she will depart and you will be left
alone with your yes,
your affirmation of what you
couldn’t possibly know was coming.
Keep saying yes.
You might as well.
You’re here in this wide space now,
no walls and certainly not a roof.
The door is always an illusion.

There’s no one right way to seek a vocation; what’s most important is to be open to God’s call and to say yes when we feel her Spirit urging us to act or be present somewhere.

One of the greatest gifts of these varied roles I’ve assumed across Mennonite Church USA over the past eight years has been encountering people across the country who have embodied the words of this poem and who enact their “yes” in response to God’s call.

I think of Jeff and Cheryl Landis, who spent years giving leadership to Pine Lake Fellowship Camp in Meridian, Miss., a holy place of retreat for many members of Gulf States Mennonite Conference.

I think of the Williams family in Tampa, Fla., who have devoted their lives to leadership development and faith formation for young adults.

I think of the members of Maranatha Christian Fellowship, a multicultural congregation in Northridge, Calif., who have learned to celebrate their Indonesian roots but also to embrace new worship styles and ways of being together so that their young adults feel at home in church.

I think of Hyun and Sue Hur, who live out Jesus’ call to be peacemakers throughout the Korean and Mennonite communities in Los Angeles County.

I think about conference minister Herm Weaver preaching one of the most powerful sermons I’ve ever heard three years ago, reminding those gathered that God is always faithful.

I think of Rachel Halder, who has bravely shouted from the rooftops our need to acknowledge the ways sexualized violence is made invisible in our church.

And I think about Doug and Cindy Baker and Lois and John Mast, four individuals who have devoted countless hours and energy to nurturing junior high and high school students at the congregation where I grew up, Berkey Avenue Mennonite Fellowship in Goshen, Ind.

My work has given me hope. There are so many good people across Mennonite Church USA, striving to be faithful to God’s call in their local contexts. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

This does not mean the journey will always be easy or clear. It doesn’t mean there’s only one good choice we can make. But it does mean God wants us to join in the work unfolding in the world.

I may not know where my next step will lead or where my career may take me over the next 10 years, but I can be ready to say yes when the Spirit nudges me.

Hannah Heinzekehr is director of communication for Executive Board staff of Mennonite Church USA.