Leadership: A word from Mennonite Church USA leadership

Pastors play a significant role in leadership of Mennonite Church USA. They are in a key position to shape hearts and minds across the church. They interpret the signs of the times through preaching, teaching, modeling, shaping ministries, visioning and being in positions of influence locally and with the wider church. Mennonite Church USA recognizes the importance of the ministerial role and function and has developed guidelines for assessing the qualifications of candidates for ministry.

A person seeking to serve in a ministerial role or seeking a ministerial credential with Menno­nite Church USA is required to complete the online Ministerial Leadership Information form and provide four references. The MLI is a 13-page document with six sections:

1. Background information (contact info, church connections, baptism date, conference connection, credential status, transition from previous position, education, employment, language proficiency);

2. Personal character: relationship to God, to self, to others (theology, confession of faith, Anabaptist/Mennonite distinctive and spiritual development);

3. Qualifications relating to position and role (understanding of ministerial role, vision for youth and young adults, missional church understanding, sense of call);

4. Qualifications relating to task or function (ranking 20 congregational/pastoral expectations and priorities, pastoral skills and gifts);

5. Personal needs and preferences (type of congregation, position preference, housing needs, financial needs, bivocational openness, part-time openness, geographical preferences);

6. References and legalities (four references and response to background check questions).

The Denominational Ministry office of Menno­nite Church USA gathers and organizes this information for the 21 area conferences and upon request shares MLIs and references with area conference ministers as they help congregations search for pastors and guide conference committees in credentialing ministers.

In the first few years of Mennonite Church USA, conference ministers discussed the lack of standards for education and training of ministers across the 21 area conferences. In 2004, a task force of conference and denominational leaders formed to help bring more clarity to those standards and incorporate missional church learning.

The Ministerial Credentialing and Education Task Force came up with six ministerial competencies to help assess those being considered for ordination in Mennonite Church USA. Ministers are expected to do the following:

1. Know the biblical story in content and formation and how the Anabaptist/ Mennonite way of using Scripture in community is unique and be able to preach and teach the biblical story in order to help a congregation be formed by the biblical story and be able to share it with others.

2. Know the Anabaptist/Mennonite story, its history and theology in light of the wider church so that the congregation is formed by Anabaptist/Mennonite values and praxis.

3. Practice a Christian spirituality and discipleship that nurtures a relationship with God and that helps the congregation be formed by God’s love and purposes and increases the capacity to love God and others and invites others.

4. Have self-understanding, self-awareness and emotional intelligence. A well-differentiated pastor increases the capacity of a congregation to accept healthy diversity, recognize gifts, express differences, mature in character and welcome new people.

5. Have contextual awareness and understand intercultural, interfaith, ecological and global dynamics. A pastor competent to read, learn from and engage ministry context helps the congregation engage its context in healing and hopeful ways and leads the church toward being more welcoming, ecumenical, antiracist and being a sign of God’s presence and reign.

6. Have the capacity to influence others and lead change. A pastor competent in leadership equips others for ministry, mentors emerging leaders, cultivates a climate of trust and collaboration and helps the congregation discover its purpose and vision and lead it into that vision.

The full description of these competencies is available at www.mennoniteusa.org.
The congregations and many other ministries of Mennonite Church USA are blessed to have many excellent ministers who faithfully guide the church of Jesus Christ during these times of challenge and opportunity.

Lee Lever is director of Denominational Ministry of Mennonite Church USA.