Name: Rodger Schmell
Occupation: Pastor at Deep Run West Mennonite Church and moderator of Eastern District Conference

1. How did your call to pastoral ministry emerge? When did you first sense that God was calling you to this role?

Well, it was kind of a strange thing. My wife and I had been working with Youth With a Mission in Florida. We were sensing that our time there was coming to an end and didn’t know what was next. We came back to Pennsylvania for a 2-3 week break. It was over Thanksgiving and we were visiting with family.

The pastor here at Deep Run at the time asked to see us and I said, “OK, we can do that.” The same day we were scheduled to meet with him, my dad asked me, “What are your plans?” I told him that we didn’t know and that I was looking for something in Florida. My dad asked if we would consider moving back to PA. He had a part time job available for me, but he knew that I’d have to find another part time job to supplement.

I didn’t think much about this offer, but that day we went to talk to the pastor at Deep Run and right off the bat, he was talking about the youth director position they were hiring for, almost as if I had applied for it. And we said, “Wait a minute. Did someone tell you we were interested?” And what he said next really put chills down both our spines. He said, “It would only be a part time position, but you’d need to find another part time job to supplement your income.”

I thought that maybe we should pray about it and eventually we accepted the role. I was youth director for six years and during that time the pastor moved on. We had an intentional interim come in and work through transition stuff. They put together a search committee and asked me if I would consider being a pastor. I filled out the application and they also interviewed other people. I tried to be very calm and say, “Lord if this is what you want ok, and if not, I want to be able to work with whoever comes.” When everything settled, they asked me to their pastor. That was 13 years ago.

2. If someone were you to ask you what it means to be a Mennonite, what would you say to them?

I would first tell them that we don’t drive buggies or wear funny clothes. I think that’s still a lot of people’s perspective of who Mennonites are. I tell them that we are a pacifist denomination and that what it really means for me to be a Mennonite is that I want to live what we believe. I know that most Christians should be that way, but it seems that growing up here at Deep Run that was always the emphasis. It’s not just about what you believe, but it’s living that way, too.

Now sometimes I think Mennonites do a great job of living the way they’re supposed to but not always with having a spiritual emphasis in their lives. They live by the book and sometimes the connectedness with God and others may not be there. Mennonites are known for being hard workers and that’s great, but we also need to have that relationship with God that’s not about work and what I do to earn my place in his presence.

3. What is special about Deep Run West Mennonite? Where do you see God moving in your congregation?

It’s the congregation I grew up in and that I was baptized in. I actually gave my first sermon here when I was 17 and in the youth group. It was youth Sunday and I had made a big change in my life. I really wanted to be serious with God. When youth Sunday rolled around, some of the youth advisors wanted to know if I could give the message that Sunday. They had to approve it with church council. They said that I could speak but that the youth director had to speak after me.

Over the years, I’ve always felt that Deep Run was good at giving people a chance to find their spot, whether it was in music ministry or pastoring or being a missionary. Over the years they’ve been very supportive of people taking that step out on a limb. And they have always been very supportive of their youth. We have sponsored mission trips. This past year they went to Puerto Rico. They’ve been to Mexico before. They’ve done home mission projects as well. And the church has always responded tremendously to fundraising and making sure that the youth were not forgotten or didn’t feel like, “Someday you’ll be in charge and you can do your thing.”

We’ve kind of been slowly decreasing here with members and budget, for various reasons. We have 10 members now living over at Souderton Mennonite home. Some have died and some have moved on. Right now we’re in the midst of redefining ourselves. What is our vision and mission for now, instead of going off of what we’ve always done. We’re taking a good look at what God wants us to be doing today. What changes do we need to make to our vision statement, to our mission statement to how we reach out to people? I’d say we’re at a very deep introspective stage right now. Our dynamics have changed here so now we need to change to continue to do what God is wanting us to do here.

4. You’ve been serving as moderator for Eastern District Conference. What are some of the gifts and challenges facing the conference right now?

One of our challenges now is hiring leadership. We changed our model from having a half-time conference minister to breaking it down into having a part-time conference minister who does administrative stuff and then two conference pastors that will help manage relationships between the churches. We’re moving to the multi-staff model so that we get more interaction between our churches and our leadership level.

We just went through a re-visioning time and that structure change was part of it. Often we remember the good old days where we did a lot together as churches. Since that time, we’ve lost a lot of churches. When the two denominations came back together to form Mennonite Church USA, we had a block of churches leave. We had a church or two close. And so it’s just been again a process of redefining ourselves as who Eastern District is and where we want to go and how we want to move forward. We’re going back to some of the things that we did before that had us relating to one another: having a pulpit exchange, inviting another church over for a picnic or service or a project. It’s kind of like the kids have grown up and now we want to have a family reunion and bring people back together.

5. How is your conference navigating conversations around theological disagreements right now? Are these having an impact on your collective ministry?

We’re a little slow in that development. When everyone is having those conversations, we’re in the midst of re-visioning. We really haven’t had the conversations that other districts have had about human sexuality or the disciplinary actions or forbearance. I know Franconia did a whole lot of work on that. They are settling now on what they’ve come up with. While we’re trying to pull people together, we’re getting to the point where we realize that maybe some of those conversations need to start happening. We’ve always been very autonomous in ED, probably to a fault. A church goes down a path that maybe we should have been more mindful of. We’ve got a diversity of churches in our district. We need to have some conversations to kind of figure out where we’re all at.

6. How would you characterize your experiences at the Constituency Leaders Council gatherings for conference leaders?

My first CLC meeting scared me to death. My first meeting was right after Mountain States Mennonite Conference had made a decision to license a pastor in a same-sex relationship and there was this big Tsunami of stuff hitting the Mennonite church. I went there having no idea how it was going to go. And as I was looking around the table, I saw that a staff member from MSMC was at my table. I was petrified, because I just didn’t know how this was going to go. But it was just amazing to me to see how many people with so many differing views could sit down together in a civil manner and listen to each other and get to know each other. It took a couple days for me to really relax and each time I go back, it takes a little less time to relax and say I’m amidst people who have differing views, but it’s a safe place to be and no one will be railroaded out.

The impact on our conference is that at CLC, I think a lot of discussion happens that’s not fueled by emotion. It’s not fueled by throwing the Bible at each other. It’s fueled by an idea that we should listen and pray through things together. Let’s see each other as people and as fellow Christians before we label each other and go home feeling those differences.

7. If someone could only read/experience three books, songs, Scripture passages, movies, etc. to someone, what would you recommend they check out?

• Big God by Britt Merrick: He just walks through Hebrews 11, a passage of faith, and I read it on vacation. I didn’t have an agenda with it. But it was incredible and I’m starting a sermon series on it this coming Sunday. That’s one of my latest favorites.
• My life verse is 1 John 2:6 : “If we claim to live in him, we must walk as Jesus did.” That just means a lot to me. That goes back to my definition of what a Mennonite is. If you’re claiming to be a Christian, then let’s live like it and stop making excuses for our dysfunction. Man and woman up to be the kind of women and men that God called us to be.
• Another book, one I haven’t read in awhile, is No Compromise: The life story of Keith Green. I know he was pretty radical and outspoken in his day, but it’s a book that always challenges me. Every time I read it I think about ways I’ve kind of slipped or coasted and I’m reminded that I need to come back to where God wants me to be.

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