ELKHART, Ind. — Stanley W. Green, who has served 19 years as executive director of Mennonite Mission Network, will retire at the end of July 2020.
The MMN board of directors announced Green’s decision at its July 1 meeting in Kansas City, Mo.
He became MMN’s executive director in 2000 after serving as president of Mennonite Board of Missions (a predecessor agency of MMN) for seven years. Green, 64, guided the mission agency of Mennonite Church USA through periods of uncertainty and growth.
Green gave leadership in securing an office facility for MC USA in Elkhart. He also shepherded the agency in its transition to a more intentional networking and partnership approach in mission based on mutuality and respect with partners.
His leadership extended beyond North America as he played a key role in nurturing the vision for and securing the resources that made it possible to convene a global mission gathering in Guatemala.
This became a predecessor to the Global Mission Fellowship and Mission Commission of Mennonite World Conference, which he now chairs.
“I feel wonderfully privileged and honored to have served in this role, which saw a convergence of my own personal sense of call and the agency’s mission and vision,” Green wrote in a letter of thanks to the MMN board. “ . . . I am grateful for the staff teams who gave of their best and whom it was a joy to lead. I give thanks for our workers, volunteers and donors who made the mission possible.”
Born and reared in South Africa, Green was part of the student movement that helped dismantle apartheid. Prior to leading MMN, Green served as pastor, conference minister and mission executive in South Africa, Jamaica and the United States.
“Stanley Green has seen gifts in others and has encouraged and empowered them,” said MMN board chair Madeline Maldonado. “A Christlike leader, Stanley has been a gift to this denomination and the church as a whole.”
The MMN board will begin a search for his successor immediately.
Green and his wife, Ursula, have two adult children and are members of Waterford Mennonite Church in Goshen.
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