We stand on the threshold of a new year.

What will become of the expectations or plans we have for 2015? What will we celebrate or lament when we take down the calendar at the end of next year?

At the top of my list for this year’s plans are to attend two churchwide conventions.

The first will be Mennonite Church USA’s biennial convention in 2015, held June 30–July 5. The theme is “On the Way/En el Camino” (Luke 24).

It will be a time for networking and fellowship, learning and inspiration and conversations about issues the church is facing. I anticipate that people’s lives will be transformed and faith renewed. In this gathering, representatives to the delegate assembly will play a particularly important role in shaping decisions for our denomination.

The second conference I plan to attend is Assembly 16 of Mennonite World Conference (MWC), to be held July 21-26 at Harrisburg, Pa.

The theme is “Walking with God/Caminemos con Dios/en Marche avec Dieu” (all of MWC’s material is available in English, Spanish and French). Three members of Mennonite Church USA have been involved in the National Advisory Council for this assembly—Elizabeth Soto Albrecht, moderator of Mennonite Church USA, Richard Thomas, past moderator, and Sheldon Good of Washington, D.C.

It’s both an opportunity and a challenge to hold these two conventions so closely together. The primary opportunity is to make it possible for many guests of Mennonite World Conference to also participate in the Mennonite Church USA assembly.

A primary challenge is the cost in time and money. To assist people who wish to attend both gatherings, Mennonite Church USA and MWC are offering $50 rebates to those attending both conferences.

That’s why our Purposeful Plan lists the following goal: “Collaborate with the planners of Mennonite World Conference’s Assembly 16 in Harrisburg, Pa., to provide a wide and hospitable welcome for international guests to our 2015 biennial convention in Kansas City, Mo.”

What will this “wide and hospitable welcome” look like? How might we as members of Menno­nite Church USA help guests of the MWC assembly feel welcome here in the United States?

First, we’ll have a booth for MWC at our Kansas City assembly. We’ll also hear from international guests in seminars and worship services and interact with them in a variety of informal gatherings during the convention.

Second, we envision that hundreds of members of Mennonite Church USA who live in Pennsylvania will open their homes to guests who attend the MWC assembly. Sharing food and lodging is an excellent way to say “welcome.” See the application for offering home stays at www.mwc-cmm.org/article/host-family-application.

Further, we anticipate that many congregations will invite participants from MWC to share in their worship services preceding or following Kansas City 2015 or Assembly 16. We expect that congregations or area conferences will sponsor these guests from “sister churches” they are partnering with in mission.

This sponsorship may include financial assistance, hosting in homes and travel arrangements to sites of interest in their regions. This is a form of Assembly Scattered, a way that MWC hosts participants in visits and tours before and after the assembly. There will be many tours and short trips for guests.

Along with Bonnie, my wife, I intend to lead one of the Assembly Scattered tours, sponsored by TourMagination, to introduce MWC participants to American and Mennonite Culture and History (Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania).

We’ll visit the Mennonite Church USA church offices and our seminary in Elkhart, Ind., along with many other sites on the way from Chicago to Lancaster, Pa.

I don’t know what all the year 2015 will hold. But I anticipate that many of us will be able to look back on one or both of these churchwide events with gratefulness for God’s goodness, in both expected and unexpected ways.