Two young pastors on the church and mission

Brett Klingenberg and Joel Shenk are two young pastors who are excited about participating in the mission of God …

Brett Klingenberg and Joel Shenk are two young pastors who are excited about participating in the mission of God.

Klingenberg graduated from Eastern Mennonite Seminary, Harrisonburg, Va., in April and accepted a call to serve as pastor at First Mennonite Church in Beatrice, Neb. Joel Shenk is a recent graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif., and began pastoral ministry at Toledo (Ohio) Menno­nite Church in October 2010.

The two met at a gathering last fall of the Anabaptist Missional Project in Lancaster, Pa., and discovered a common vision for ministry and mission despite their different contexts. In this article they report in their own words what this all means for them in their contexts.

Brett Klingenberg:
When my wife and I decided to attend the Anabaptist Mission Project (AMP) meeting in Lancaster last fall, I had no idea how important this gathering was going to be for me. With little expectation, I participated in the structured conversations and listened as people shared their convictions about what it meant for churches to be engaged and focused on mission through Jesus Christ.

By the end of the weekend I had become convinced that I needed to rethink my understanding of the role of mission in the church. I now see that mission is the role of the church and that this mission can only be done with Jesus Christ as its center. I also realized that this new group of young leaders was going to be important for me as I step into a new role as pastor of a rural church.

I grew up on a farm in Kansas, and since entering seminary I have become committed to returning to the plains and serving in a rural church. It seems to me the mission trend today centers around urban ministry and church planting, which can give rural churches the sense that they aren’t in a location where mission can happen. Country churches have a lot to offer, such as their strong sense of family, frequent gatherings and stability, and I think members are hungry to engage in mission and outreach. I am looking forward to returning to the country because it is where my gifts can best be used.

I also appreciate AMP because it brings together young leaders who are already working in a variety of contexts. This connects well for me because both rural and urban settings contain people who are longing for a community and connection with God, and we have the opportunity to provide that, no matter what context we are in.

Both settings also require that we as the church believe that the good news of Jesus Christ is both life giving and life changing. We need to risk our insecurities in order to invite others into a life of confession and discipleship. And urban churches have a lot to teach us about flexibility and creativity. Because people are more transient and diverse in the city, churches have to be much more innovative to keep up with the changes and makeup of the community.

Being with a group of young leaders who are committed to keeping the focus on mission has challenged me to reorient my view of church leadership and direction. In many ways I already feel like AMP is a group where I can receive support, encouragement and new ideas as I step into my new role as pastor. I am looking forward to the challenge of remaining mission-focused in my new role and learning just how much I am willing to sacrifice in order to participate faithfully in mission.

Joel Shenk:
After graduating from college I spent a year ser­ving with the PULSE program in Pittsburgh. After that, my wife and I moved to Pasadena, Calif., where I studied at Fuller Theological Seminary and worked at the Center for Anabaptist Leadership (CAL). These formative experiences challenged me to think about what it means to be God’s people in the city, and I found myself energized to risk and experiment in the possibilities for mission.

Having accepted the call to Toledo Mennonite Church, I find myself challenged in new ways not just to talk theoretically about mission but to actually put it into practice through a local faith community. One of the constant refrains of Jeff Wright, my former boss and executive director of CAL, was that congregations are God’s agents of mission. In the urban context, where the vestiges of Christendom have eroded, this can be quite a challenge. Churches are no longer automatically given status and authority.

Yet God is still in the city, and there is evidence of God’s kingdom all around if we patiently look for it without assuming we know where it is or that we have all the answers.

Local faith communities have the great privilege and responsibility to be about God’s mission in their contexts. To do this faithfully requires patience to exegete the community, humility to learn from the community and faith that God is already at work in the community.

Groups like AMP are instrumental for me in this regard. It’s a good forum that brings together other young leaders who share a passion for mission in order to share ideas and help each other move forward. It’s an opportunity to learn from other contexts while offering perspectives from your own. Without such connections it would be easy to fall back into old patterns without ever looking for where God might be up to something new.