After a thorough search process, Peck-McClain has been hired as assistant professor of Christian formation, preaching and worship, said , PhD, vice president and seminary dean.

“Formational resources, training, and activities have long been an EMS specialty,” he said. “We see Emily as particularly well-suited to be steward of this EMS treasure. Emily embodies and owns formational questions and considerations at great depth in her life, thought, and experience.”

Peck-McClain said she is excited by the position “because it combines what I see as essential in the practical theology and practice of ministry fields. I can tell that formation is something the seminary community as a whole truly values.”

Each degree at EMS has at least one full-year required course in Christian formation. The master of divinity degree has three full-year required courses. Peck-McClain will be giving direction and oversight to these full-year formation courses, in addition to teaching in preaching, worship and Christian education. , adjunct instructor and campus pastor, will continue to work with spiritual formation electives.

Peck-McClain’s work reflects her experience growing up in an interfaith home with one Jewish parent and one United Methodist parent and her education in liberation theology. As an ordained minister in The United Methodist Church, she has pastored two congregations in New York City.

“A community is enriched when different experiences of God and Christian living interact,” she told 91����Ƶ News Service. “The diversity of how God reveals ‘Godself’ is a gift to God’s diverse global community.”

Peck-McClain said she was attracted to EMS’s commitment to “faithful Christian leadership in a global, challenging, and changing context.” She deeply appreciates the Anabaptist values at the core of EMS’s mission.

“One of the things that impresses me most about EMS is how formation is valued not only as a separate discipline, but as integral to how teaching and learning take place in the seminary. I seek to balance individual journeys and spiritual disciplines with communal practices, actions, and discernment in how I teach formation, preaching, and worship.”

Emily received a BA in religion from Washington and Lee University in 2002 and a master of divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 2005. She is finishing her ThD through Duke Divinity School. Her dissertation “Revealing the Power: New Creation Epistemology for Adolescent Girls” is on reading Romans 1-8 as a liberative source for ministry with adolescent girls. She has also been a teaching assistant, co-instructor, and adjunct instructor at Duke Divinity School in areas of Christian education, New Testament, and worship.

The class is offered in conjunction with , an EMS program that provides pastors and lay leaders with an opportunity to learn preaching skills. It will be offered on campus Tuesdays, Jan. 9 to April 23, 8-10:40 a.m.

Topics will include sermon forms; preaching without notes; preaching and the cross; preaching Paul; special occasion sermons, and the use of technology and visual arts in preaching. Students will also articulate their own theology of preaching.

This course will help lay-leaders who preach occasionally and would like to improve their skills, seasoned preachers who would like to stretch their preaching or add to their repertoire, and associate pastors who may be looking to improve their skills in preparation for moving into a lead pastorate

“The sermon has the potential to empower and transform lives from the inside out as preacher and listeners engage with scripture and the realities of our world,” said Joni Sancken, who has a doctorate in homiletics and teaches preaching and practical theology.

“The past 10 years have been challenging ones for institutional religion: September 11, clergy abuse scandals, economic challenges, and declining membership,” Sancken said. “Congregations are seeking fresh ways to encounter God and experience renewal in these challenging times. Preaching is part of this renewal.”

The discounted rate is available to those who take the class on an audit basis. Students who want seminary credit would pay the full tuition price. The typical participation audit fee is $690, but due to coordination with the , EMS is able to offer the course at an attractively discounted rate.

To learn more about the class visit or call the office of seminary admissions at 540-432-4257. December 20 is the deadline for inquiries on the special rate.

, dean of in Harrisonburg, Va., will speak on his quest to know his father, an Amish entrepreneur who died when Ervin was three years old, at 7 p.m. Sunday, May 7, at Walnut Creek (Ohio) Mennonite Church, 2619 CR 144.

Dr. Stutzman’s ten-year search revealed tangled strands of relationships, woven by Tobias J. Stutzman’s ambition through the fabric of family, church and community. It led to his writing a book, “Tobias of the Amish,” released by Herald Press of Scottdale, Pa., in 1995.

Stutzman was born into an Amish home as a twin in Kalona, Iowa. After his father’s accidental death, his mother moved her family to her home community in Hutchinson, Kan. He was baptized into the Center Amish Mennonite Church near Partridge, Kan. He later joined the Yoder Mennonite Church near Yoder, Kan.

After marrying Bonita Haldeman of Manheim, Pa., the couple served five years in Cincinnati, Ohio, with Rosedale Mennonite Missions, where Stutzman was co-pastor of the Mennonite Christian Assembly.

Ordained as Bishop

In 1982, the family moved to Lancaster, Pa., where Stutzman became associate director of the home ministries department of Eastern Mennonite Missions. In 1984, he was ordained as bishop of the Landisville District of Lancaster Mennonite Conference.

He was moderator of Lancaster (PA) Mennonite Conference, 1991-2000, and moderator of Mennonite Church USA, 2001-2003, the newly-merged denomination joining the Mennonite Church and the General Conference Mennonite Church.

The EMS dean completed his undergraduate work at Cincinnati Bible College, earned an MA degree from the University of Cincinnati, a master of arts in religion degree from Eastern Mennonite Seminary and a Ph.D. in communication from Temple University.

Stutzman joined the seminary faculty in 1998 and was named dean in July 2000. He is also founding director of the seminary’s Preaching Institute.

Telling His Story

Stutzman has three additional books published by Herald Press – “Being God’s People” (1986), “Creating Communities of the Kingdom,” co-authored with David W. Shenk (1988) and “Welcome” (1990).

Stutzman notes that “Tobias of the Amish” is more than a book about his father – “It’s also the story of a family and faith community struggling with the challenges of a modern world.

“I hope that my story will encourage others to embark on the arduous but deeply-rewarding task of delving into their family lore,” Stutzman states. “Gazing into my father’s face has helped me to see my own.”

The program at Walnut Creek Mennonite Church is open to the public. For more information, call 330-852-2560.

The meeting, called by EMS dean Ervin R. Stutzman and June Alliman Yoder, professor of preaching at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, explored common professional interests in the teaching of homiletics.

“This seemed the right time to hold this meeting,” said Dr. Stutzman. “The 2004 School for Leadership Training held Jan. 19-22 at EMS focused on strengthing preaching and a new book, ‘Anabaptist Preaching: A Conversation Between Pulpit, Pew, and Bible,’ edited by David B. Greiser and Michael A. King is being released.”

(Standing, l. to r.): John R. Martin, Allan Rudy Froese, John H. Neufeld, June Alliman Yoder, Ervin R. Stutzman, Palmeer Becker, Mark R. Wenger. (Seated, l. to r.): David Greiser, Ryan Ahlgrim, Pieter Post, Daniel Hertzler, James Waltner. Photo by Jim Bishop

The dean said that along with the encouragement that comes from collegial interaction, “we discussed curriculum, grading, student feedback and brainstormed ways to equip preachers beyond the seminary classroom.”

The group explored the possible formation of a gathering for Anabaptist teachers of preaching and decided to continue meeting on a regular basis, likely once a year in conjunction with other larger gatherings.

“The overarching purpose for formation of such a group is to raise the level of preaching across churches in the Anabaptist tradition,” Stutzman said. “We believe that, over time, this group can make a significant contribution to that end.

“Our vision is to expand our services to equip persons in district conferences or other settings so they can provide preachers in their respective areas with practical instruction or feedback on sermons,” he added.

“This group will not attempt to replace our membership in professional societies on homiletics,” Stutzman noted. “Rather, it would serve as a pedagogical supplement. There are few places where teachers can ‘talk shop’ about classroom practice.”

If solid, effective preaching intends to actively draw people in the pews into a dynamic interchange with the preacher and the Bible, then the opening address of the 2004 School for Leadership Training at Eastern Mennonite Seminary on Jan. 19 offered a prime example of that three-way conversation.

Keynote speaker John Kinney, dean of the School of Theology at Virginia Union University in Richmond, broke open the biblical text as he combined exhuberant oratory, vivid word pictures and dramatic body movement in calling his audience to “Get Up and Get Loose.”

Dr. Kinney, who is also pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Beaverdam, Va., based his prophetic sermon on the biblical account in the 11th chapter of John of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.

“Jesus shared the pain of the moment when someone He loved died – He wept,” the speaker said. “The stone covering the tomb became a symbol of the separation of the ‘dead, smelly one’ from all that we perceive as sweet and pure on the outside.

“Are you ready to roll some stones away and confront those structural realities that separate people from God and from injustices enacted on each other?” Kinney asked, noting that doing so was an essential to the ministry of the late civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Notice in the scripture account

Eastern Mennonite Seminary has selected a theme for its 2004 School for Leadership Training that builds on a desire among many church members for good preaching and authentic dialog between pulpit and pews.

The program theme, “Preaching: Renewing the Conversation between Pulpit, Pew and Bible,” will focus on helping participants to become better preachers and to “enliven the conversation among participants” for more active participation between those proclaiming the Word and worshipers.

The Jan. 19-22 conference at 91����Ƶ will include four worship services created to reflect the variety of worship styles used in congregations and examples of good preaching by guest speakers.

“Most people filling church pews