The conference, “Thriving in Ministry: Family Systems Theory as a Resource for Faith Communities,” was hosted by the seminary in partnership with The Bowen Center for the Study of the Family and supported by the Lilly Endowment Inc. and the Joe Carolin Memorial Fund.

Throughout the conference, participants explored family systems theory as a resource for understanding and strengthening relationships and congregational life. Ordained and lay leaders, along with others interested in family systems thinking, considered how Bowen theory and differentiation of self, along with their faith traditions, could guide reflection and cultivate thriving in ministry.

Keynote speakers Rev. Dr. Robert Creech and Dr. Dan Papero presented from their expertise in the fields of practical theology and psychotherapy, respectively. Over the two days of the conference, Dr. Creech shared keynote addresses about the intersection of language between systems thinking and Christian theology, as well as how the practice of differentiation of self enhances pastoral care. Dr. Papero spoke about the most recent neuroscientific research regarding the impact of stress on brain functioning. Both contributed to panel discussions with other presenters.  

Conference keynote speaker Dr. Dan Papero (left) has been a faculty member of The Bowen Center since 1982. He has written numerous articles and book chapters on various aspects of family systems theory and family psychotherapy. The Rev. Dr. Robert Creech (right), a former pastor and faculty member of Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary, is the author of “Family Systems and Congregational Life” (2019) and co-author of “The Leader’s Journey” (2020), both with Baker Academic.  

Workshops and presentations included discussions on preaching, biblical studies, parenting, and tools to help participants thrive in ministry and daily life.

Among the goals of the Thriving in Ministry conference were to help participants:

• grow in their capacity to differentiate self through an increased understanding of the science of human relationships in families and congregations
• apply family systems theory to the work of faith leaders in pastoral care, preaching, youth work, religious education, and other ministry settings
• explore practical applications, including family diagrams, triangles, and other ways of shifting from an individual to a systems perspective

Other guest presenters included Chaplain Penny Driediger, the Rev. Melanie Lewis, Pastor Lana Miller, Janis Norton, the Rev. Dr. Emlyn A. Ott, the Rev. William Pyle, and the Rev. Chet Yoder. Faculty presenters included Dr. Kenton T. Derstine, Kathleen Cotter Cauley, the Rev. Randall Frost, Dr. Barbara Laymon, the Rev. Jennifer Long, and Amie Post.

For more information about the conference, visit .

“She had a presence and an authority that made her quiet words deeply significant wherever she spoke them,” said Professor Emerita Dorothy Jean Weaver, who taught Miller at Eastern Mennonite Seminary (EMS) and worked alongside her on faculty for 19 years. “In her own way, she was a giant. She had a huge impact wherever she was, and certainly here at EMS.”

Miller served the seminary from 1991 to 2010 in roles including campus pastor and assistant professor of spiritual formation. She was committed to helping people discover their story within “God’s great story,” establishing EMS’ spiritual formation program, and founding training programs for spiritual directors within Mennonite Church USA and The United Methodist Church.

At EMS, she led the Summer Institute for Spiritual Formation and developed “Soul Space,” an online guide for scripture reading and prayer. Many of her lasting contributions, through the gifts she shared and the lives she touched, endure today.

In addition to her two decades on seminary faculty, she was an ordained minister in Mennonite Church USA’s Virginia Conference and was a leading author. Among her writings, Invitation to Presence: A Guide to Spiritual Disciplines (Upper Room Books, 1995) was translated into several languages. She maintained a private spiritual direction practice until entering hospice care last summer.

Formerly of Broadway, Virginia, Miller was living in West Chicago, Illinois, when she passed away on Oct. 8, 2025. She was 87. A memorial service celebrating her life, held on Dec. 6, can be viewed on YouTube . A full obituary is available at .

Her husband and partner in ministry of 65 years, the Rev. Edmond F. Miller, died in October 2024.

‘Her imprint remains’

Because of Miller’s “gentle and steady efforts” beginning when she joined the seminary faculty in 1991, said the Rev. Dr. Sarah Ann Bixler, dean of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, EMS centered spiritual formation in its curriculum “long before theological schools in general and Anabaptist schools in particular caught on to the importance of tending the inner life of ministerial leaders.”

“Today, hundreds of EMS graduates have been sustained in their ministerial vocations because of the ‘invitation to presence’ Rev. Miller modeled and extended to them,” wrote Bixler. “Her imprint remains on the EMS curriculum, and students today cite the contemplative attentiveness cultivated by EMS as a distinctive and transformative aspect of their theological education. They are more compassionate, discerning, and resilient because of Rev. Miller’s influence.”

Her influence also lives on in the touches and traditions that have become part of the fabric of the seminary.

As reported in a in the Daily News-Record, Miller was “the driving force behind getting the (prayer) labyrinth installed” on the 91����Ƶ Hill above the Seminary Building. Dedicated in 2007, the labyrinth offers a unique way to connect with God.

Visitors to the Seminary Building might be familiar with the rectangular wooden “free table” just outside the second floor kitchen. It displays food and other items that people can leave or take. “That was Wendy’s idea,” said Weaver. “That’s how tangible and simple her ideas could be. She had a deep heart for the collective community.”

Another contribution she made to the seminary was the awareness that its faculty retreats should be held away from campus, Weaver said. For several decades, those retreats were held at Camp Overlook, a nearby United Methodist camp and retreat center. “She was someone who looked around and dreamed of things that could be,” Weaver said.

‘She saw potential in (us)’

One of Miller’s first students in the spiritual formation program, the Rev. Dr. Kevin Clark MA ’96 (church leadership) was trained and trusted to lead the program when she retired in 2010. “She was my teacher, my professor, my mentor, my friend, my spiritual director, and my colleague, all wrapped up in one relationship,” said Clark, a former campus pastor and retired assistant professor of spiritual formation at EMS.

“Wendy had this wisdom and insight into others that was unique,” he said. “Part of it was just rooted in who she was, as someone who paid attention to how God’s spirit was at work within others, and offering and evoking that in her quiet, questioning way. I was always amazed at how she would be in a classroom, we’d be in conversation, and she would have these wonderful little pauses, then come back with a question that was profound for a student to begin to think about. It opened up the whole classroom to a deeper understanding and awareness of their own spirituality.”

Les Horning ’86, MDiv ’98, director of admissions for EMS from 2012-18, also had Miller as a professor. He described her as “one of the most formative presences” of his MDiv experience.

“She saw potential in folks and would find ways to let them know,” he said. “Suddenly, you realized, Oh, she’s seeing my heart. I think that was one of her gifts, helping people dig beneath the surface and find out who they were.”

Horning graduated from 91����Ƶ with bachelor’s degrees in biology and chemistry and worked as a research chemist for five years before feeling a call for ministry and enrolling at EMS. “For me to come to seminary was a huge change and Wendy was a key part of helping me see that it was a good and right thing,” said Horning, pastor at Stephens City Mennonite Church. “She was very good at pulling out folks’ unique contributions to the community and making people feel valued and accepted and wanted.”

Along with Clark and Horning, Weaver traveled on an overnight train to Chicago last month to attend the memorial service. She remembers Miller for her love of Winnie the Pooh, her delightful laugh, and whimsical sense of humor. 

“She was a blessed woman who shared blessing with everyone she came in contact with,” Weaver said. “I consider it a major gift of my life to have been a friend of hers.”

She grew up in England

The following is from an obituary printed in the :

Born in 1938 in Westham, England, Miller was a child in London during World War II and later lived in Eastbourne, East Sussex. She immigrated to the U.S. in 1959, settling in Chicago with her husband. They served as missionaries in Frankfurt, Germany, and pastored churches including Woodland (Basye) Mennonite, as well as across the Midwest and eastern U.S. Following retirement, they lived in Virginia, Texas, and North Carolina before returning to Illinois.

Rev. Miller earned a bachelor’s degree from Iowa Wesleyan University, a master’s degree in church leadership with a concentration in pastoral care and counseling from EMS, and a master of sacred theology in spiritual theology and spiritual direction from General Theological Seminary in New York City.

She leaves five children, Paul (David Selmer) of Maine, David (Julie) of Georgia, Mark (Wendy) of Kansas, Scott (Laura) of Illinois, and Heidi (Gary MacDonald) of Georgia; 14 grandchildren; six great-grandchildren, three brothers, and four sisters-in-law.

Join us for three days of learning, storytelling, and conversation with people who hold practical wisdom and whose theology leads them into everyday justice work. Participants will explore organizing as an Anabaptist-Mennonite expression of peacebuilding, wrestle with the theological questions it raises, and begin building ongoing connections among leaders in both movement and broad-based organizing. 

Daniel Hunter, co-founder of Choose Democracy, will present the keynote address at 7 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 12, in Martin Chapel. He has trained pro-democracy movements in Burma/Myanmar, Thailand, and India, and has more than three decades of activist training experience, according to a bio on his website. 

Most events will be held in the Seminary Building on the 91����Ƶ campus. For more information, including an event schedule and list of speakers, as well as registration, visit .

Registration is also available for virtual participation in the symposium’s keynote and plenary sessions.

The symposium planning committee consists of Andre Gingerich Stoner, Jessica Sarriot, Jonathan Smucker, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Jacob Alan Cook, Peter Dula, and Tim Seidel.

When Eastern Mennonite Seminary Professor David Evans set out to write his book about religious white progressives in the fight for Black freedom, he didn’t expect that his main thesis would flip by nearly 180 degrees.

“I thought I was going to be writing about white allies who could be exemplars for other white people in predominantly white institutions,” said Evans, professor of history and intercultural studies and associate dean of the seminary. “And then I stumbled onto some problems and thought, Maybe we should spend some time talking about where we’re going wrong.”

After seven years of research and writing, Damned Whiteness: How White Christian Allies Failed the Black Freedom Movement is just weeks away from publication. The book, published by The University of North Carolina Press and due out on Oct. 28, offers an unflinching history of white allies—namely Clarence Jordan, Dorothy Day, and Ralph Templin—and the fracturing relationships that followed when their strategies and philosophies didn’t align with Black leaders and communities.

“That’s what my book is trying to figure out: if both groups were willing to put in all this energy and risk their lives to end Jim Crow segregation, why couldn’t they work together?” Evans said. “I’m suggesting that part of it is a kind of arrogance, a haughtiness, that white folks believe they know better than Black people about what needs to be done.”

Damned Whiteness explores the work of three white allies: Jordan, founder of Koinonia Farm, an interracial Christian community in Americus, Georgia, and spiritual father of Habitat for Humanity; Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement; and Templin, a Christian missionary who studied nonviolence in Gandhi’s India. The 302-page book serves as both a warning and call to action, but also as a lament, reflecting on what went wrong and what could have been.

Rather than confronting the systems and economic structures that reinforced racial inequality, these white allies focused more narrowly on creating spaces to cultivate interracial friendships, Evans said. “Had they been able to come together with Black folks to really hear what they were saying, see what they were doing, and join in solidarity with them around freedom instead of just trying to be friends, I’m curious to see what could have happened.” 

Evans is set to present his book at George Mason University in November and has also been invited to appear on several podcasts to discuss it. 

Rev. Dr. Sarah Bixler, dean of the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences division, said the book is expected to make a splash after its release. “This book represents the kind of critical historical scholarship that we value at 91����Ƶ,” she said. “Thanks to our expert faculty’s commitment to researching and writing with integrity, Dr. Evans’ book will drive important conversations in religion and society deeper, and open new opportunities for our students to engage with this level of work.”

91����Ƶ the professor

Evans is co-editor of Between the World of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Christianity (Cascade, 2018). His teaching and research focus on the braided identity categories of race, religion, and nation.

He holds a master’s degree from Wesley Theological Seminary, in the history of Christianity, a second master’s from Drew University in historical studies, and a doctorate degree in historical studies from Drew University Graduate Division of Religion. In concert with his teaching and scholarship, Evans practices a local “eco-lutionary” lifestyle that promotes a sustainable future for the diverse people of the Shenandoah Valley Watershed.

In addition to the publisher’s website, the book is available to preorder at online booksellers including , , and .

Trina Trotter Nussbaum ’00, MA ’17 will never forget the first time she saw the view from the Campus Center balcony. Standing on the balcony overlooking the Front Lawn and gazing east toward the Blue Ridge Mountains, the then-first-year student recalled telling a friend: “I don’t know what I’m going to study, but I know this is where I need to be. This is my place.”

“All it took was one look at those mountains, and they seemed to tell me, ‘You belong here,’” Trotter Nussbaum said. 

That was nearly 30 years ago. Today, Trotter Nussbaum is the new director of the Center for Interfaith Engagement, a position she’s held since Jan. 1. She still feels that same sense of belonging at 91����Ƶ and works to ensure others on campus feel it too. Through her role at CIE, she celebrates and supports students, faculty and staff from a wide range of faith traditions and backgrounds. 

It was a long road that led her to 91����Ƶ. After graduating from high school in North Lima, Ohio, Trotter Nussbaum, who was raised Mennonite, moved to Pittsburgh and completed travel agency school. She gradually learned that it wasn’t the career for her. Returning home to Ohio, she ran into a childhood friend about to graduate from 91����Ƶ who told her, “You should give 91����Ƶ a try.” It was just the push she needed. 

Trotter Nussbaum arrived on campus in the fall of 1995 as a 22-year-old first-year English major. She was older than the others in her Northlawn dorm, but she saw that as a blessing. “It helped me settle down and figure out what I wanted to do.”

That turned out to be theater. Trotter Nussbaum credits 91����Ƶ’s theater program with recognizing her strengths as a performer and teaching her invaluable listening and improv skills. During the second semester of her junior year, she added a psychology major. Though it delayed her graduation by another year, she said it ended up being one of the best decisions she ever made. “I might not be acting or counseling right now, but I draw on those skills every day,” Trotter Nussbaum said. She graduated in 2000 with bachelor’s degrees in theater and psychology, along with a minor in justice, peace and conflict studies. She said professors in her justice and theology classes challenged her faith with love and grace, ultimately strengthening it and shaping her into the faith-based peacebuilder she is today.

After a decade spent working at nonprofits and government agencies, Trotter Nussbaum returned to 91����Ƶ in 2013 as associate director of CIE. Fueled by formative experiences during a 1998 intercultural trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland, she began pursuing a master’s degree in conflict transformation at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. It took her another five years to complete the two-year program while working at CIE and raising two children. In 2017, she earned her MA.

Ever the lifelong learner, Trotter Nussbaum continues to seek out further education. She’s working toward earning MDiv equivalency so that she can enroll in the new Doctor of Ministry program at Eastern Mennonite Seminary. 

Over the years, she’s received numerous scholarships as a student. She said those scholarships, as well as 91����Ƶ’s tuition benefits for employees, made it possible for her to continue her studies. “I love how 91����Ƶ encourages its employees to take the classes they want to take,” she said. “The ability to take classes, even one at a time, for almost free is such a blessing.”

Trotter Nussbaum and her husband, Brian Nussbaum ’00, live in Harrisonburg with their two children. Her brother, Travis Trotter ’99, serves as university registrar for 91����Ƶ.

Your generous support helps students like Trotter Nussbaum pursue a quality college education without financial barriers. Join us for the 9th annual Lov91����Ƶ Giving Day and contribute to the scholarships that empower future 91����Ƶ students. Together, we can help write 91����Ƶ’s next chapter.

Read the previous profiles in our A Royal Tale series:

Makinto has pretty much done it all. The Liberian-German musician, storyteller, educator, worship leader, Mennonite pastor, activist—honestly, there are too many descriptors for him to name here—has played piano for Pope John Paul II at the Vatican and for Nelson Mandela in Germany. He’s traveled the world extensively, performing at venues such as Madison Square Garden in New York, the Sydney Opera House in Australia, and for a crowd of 200,000 at Brazil’s largest soccer stadium. His humanitarian work in Africa and recognition as an international recording artist earned him the title of Goodwill Ambassador for Peace and Development for an of the United Nations. 

Just about the only thing he hasn’t done is attend a four-year college. He simply never had time for it during his four decades as a global performer. Thanks to the flexibility of 91����Ƶ’s online and hybrid courses as well as the generosity of donors through the seminary scholarship, can now check that item off his list. 

The single-named polymath is a second-semester graduate student at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, pursuing a master’s degree in Christian leadership. His wife, Mukarabe, first pulled him into the orbit of 91����Ƶ, enrolling at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at the start of last year. 

“It would be impossible for us to finance two degrees if it weren’t for the largesse of the donors through the seminary scholarship,” Makinto said. “We’re very grateful for that.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, he earned a two-year associate’s degree. Along with his 15 years as a pastor, he had enough equivalent experience to enroll at the seminary. “It’s great that I’m able to participate in a master’s program based not just on academic history but also on life history,” he said.

One of his earliest impressions of 91����Ƶ came during a visit to campus in November 2023 for the annual Music Gala Concert. Makinto, the featured performer of the night, put on a dazzling show as he played the djembe, kalimba, flute and piano. That evening, after touring the campus and meeting a great number of people, Makinto said he and his wife “resonated really well with 91����Ƶ.”

“We felt at home here,” said Makinto. “Everyone felt like family.”

The couple, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1999, lead , a nonprofit dedicated to giving hope and restoring dignity to Burundian refugees and equipping them to participate in the transformation of African communities. The word “Amahoro” comes from the Kirundi (Burundian) expression for peace that conveys blessings, well-being and fullness of life. The organization is a Conference-Related Ministry of Mosaic Mennonite Conference.

Makinto said that he’s working on bringing an initiative called “Amahoro Drumming for Peace” to 91����Ƶ. The program would bring people from diverse backgrounds together to make music and reflect on community.

He said that he’s excited to become part of 91����Ƶ’s global network of partners and alumni to contribute to and collaborate on peace initiatives. “We can build something together,” he said.

Makinto and Mukarabe live in Harrisonburg with their son Joël, the youngest of their six children. Makinto can often be found at Martin Chapel on Tuesday mornings leading worship music with a bright smile and joyful spirit. He will perform as a guest artist at Love, Joy & Peace: A Choral Celebration! on Friday, March 14, at Lehman Auditorium. The concert will bring together three choirs and showcase a piano collaboration between Makinto and Dr. David Berry, director of the music program at 91����Ƶ. 

Your generous support helps students like Makinto pursue a quality college education without financial barriers. Join us for the 9th annual Lov91����Ƶ Giving Day and contribute to the scholarships that empower future 91����Ƶ students. Together, we can help write 91����Ƶ’s next chapter. 

Read the previous profiles in our A Royal Tale series:

What began as a book that aimed to celebrate the contributions of white allies in the fight for Black freedom, he said, morphed into a research project that questioned the effectiveness of those allies and their movements toward racial justice.

That book, Damned Whiteness: How White Christian Allies Failed the Black Freedom Movement, will publish in November by The University of North Carolina Press. Evans, who has worked on the book for the past seven years, introduced the book and shared some passages at Convocation on Wednesday in Lehman Auditorium.

Watch the full livestream of his talk .

Evans said work on his book began as a response to an invitation from scholars like Beverly Tatum, author of Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations about Race, to narrate the stories of white individuals and groups who have resisted racism.

“A number of books on abolitionists and a small number of texts on white allies have become available,” Evans said. “They told the stories of people like Mary White Ovington, a white socialist woman who helped W.E.B. Du Bois start the NAACP. They narrated biographies of people like Judge J. Waties Waring, who grew up in a segregationist household, but later in life became an advocate for racial justice.

“These stories of segregationists to anti-segregationists, from racist to anti-racist, from enemy of black folks to allies, are important stories, maybe even necessary stories. But what’s interesting about these texts that I mentioned is the things that they didn’t do.”

Damned Whiteness explores the work of “three of the most celebrated white Christian allies of the Black freedom era”: Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement; Clarence Jordan, founder of Koinonia Farm; and Ralph Templin, who was an American missionary in India. Each of these allies either created or led movements that launched them into similar trajectories with Black freedom organizations that opposed racial segregation, Evans said.

“But because the visions of these movements were disconnected from the Black communities they aimed to help, they failed to meet them on their path to liberation,” he said.

Evans is the co-editor of Between the World of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Christianity (Cascade, 2018). His teaching and research focus on the braided identity categories of race, religion, and nation.

91����Ƶ’s students, faculty and staff, rooted in the value of active faith, practice compassion, mutual love, and appreciation for the diversity of religious and cultural expressions represented in their community.

“Every course in this series is brand new,” said Cook, academic program director for the seminary’s Pathways for Tomorrow grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc. and visiting assistant professor of Christian ethics. “We built an academic and professional degree that’s cohesive, integrative, and invites students to bring their whole person.”

The D.Min. program at Eastern Mennonite Seminary (EMS) is the first of its kind to combine study in the fields of justice, peacemaking, and theology. Students who graduate the three-year online program will receive a terminal degree that equips them to lead in faith-based settings, including in congregations, nonprofits, community organizing, and some teaching roles. The program is accredited by The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) and is pending accreditation approval by the Association of Theological Schools (ATS).

Applications are now being accepted for the first cohort of students starting in August 2025. Cohort capacity is limited, so applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. Along with their applications, candidates must submit three references, an academic writing sample, and a personal statement. 

EMS looks forward to begin extending offers of admission in March, and will continue to review applications as part of a rolling admissions process. Scholarships will be awarded to D.Min. program applicants on the basis of academic merit, leadership strengths, and financial need.

Students in the online doctoral program will complete one course at a time, devoting about 15 hours per week to their coursework. Those courses can be completed fully asynchronously, allowing students — who also will be engaged in practicing ministry — to fulfill their personal and ministerial commitments.

The Rev. Dr. Sarah Ann Bixler, assistant professor of formation and practical theology and associate dean of EMS, said this flexibility and balance is essential in providing support for student success.

“We want our D.Min. program to contribute to leaders’ wholeness,” she said. “EMS will support students to complete their doctoral degree in a timely fashion with integrity and flexibility. Students will be encouraged to pursue doctoral research that enhances their current ministry, rather than draining energy from the heart of their calling.”

Each course in the D.Min. program is designed and taught by continuing-contract, full-time EMS faculty with terminal degrees (PhD or D.Min.) in specific fields relevant to the courses they’re teaching. That’s something not seen at a lot of other Doctor of Ministry programs, which are often run on the labor of contingent faculty, Bixler said.

“This struck me as a justice issue, unethical for the program we envisioned in peacemaking and social change,” she said.

The D.Min. program reflects 91����Ƶ’s core values of academic excellence, peace and justice, and active faith, providing a transformative education that prepares leaders to engage in ministry with integrity and purpose.

For more information about the Doctor of Ministry degree offered at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, visit:

Read more

• 91����Ƶ News (July 2024): “Board of Trustees approves new Doctor of Ministry program”

• (January 2025): “Eastern Mennonite Seminary to offer first doctor of ministry program”

Harrisonburg, Virginia, resident Seth Crissman ‘09, MDiv ‘15 has been selected by 91����Ƶ’s Alumni Association and its Awards and Nominations Committee as the 2024 Outstanding Young Alum for his work through the collaborative faith-based ministry The Soil and The Seed Project. The effort seeks to nurture faith in Jesus through conversations, art, poetry, music and daily readings. 

“I wanted to find ways of empowering the church to live out what we say we believe,” Crissman said, “… faith that doesn’t just live in our heads, but in how we live and move in the world.”

The award is given annually to an alum who, through professional achievement and/or Christ-like compassionate service, is making a significant contribution to the local, national or global community.

Crissman, 38, founded his Christian-based faith formation project in 2021 in partnership with and as a ministry of Virginia Mennonite Missions (VMMissions). With dozens of other artists, his team produces liturgical daily readings and new music albums every three to four months to help families talk about their faith.

“It’s meant to be an intergenerational project,” Crissman said.

The project grew from a previous effort he worked on with his wife, Theresa Peachey Crissman ‘09, called Kids Club, which helped area churches combine efforts to provide resources for children.

“I love helping people build bridges between communities,” Crissman said. 

The Soil and The Seed Project has drawn talent from North America, Northern Africa and Southeast Asia; streams music to more than 130 countries; and has been shipped to 30+ states, all given away free of charge. More than 20 denominations and nondenominational groups are represented among the project’s followers.

Married with four children, Crissman pursued special education and history at 91����Ƶ before seeking a master of divinity from Eastern Mennonite Seminary.

This past year, he was awarded a $1.2 million grant through Lilly Endowment Inc. as part of its Christian Parenting and Caregiving Initiative. Awarded to VMMissions for the purpose of growing The Soil and The Seed Project, the grant will fund, in part, a music festival at Highland Retreat in Bergton, Virginia, from Oct. 25-27, 2024.

“There’s a temptation to think that what happens is because we’re clever or we hustle,” Crissman said. “What’s come of this project isn’t because I’m clever or have hustled a lot. It’s something God has done, and I’ve just had the joy of being able to help get it started.”

The Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) in Peacemaking and Social Change program, approved by the 91����Ƶ Board of Trustees at its meeting in June, is an advanced, professionally oriented degree that will equip graduates to lead in faith-based settings, including in congregations, nonprofits, community organizing, and some teaching roles. EMS faculty have designed this program to invite students to  engage in embodied, critical theological reflection on theories and practices of peacemaking and social change, developing their capacity to strategically foster communities of action for constructive change toward peace.

Courses in the three-year program can be completed fully asynchronously online, and are expected to begin during the summer or fall term of 2025.

These courses include: Theologies of Nonviolence, Justice and Peace; Theologies of Liberation; Religion and Social Change; Peacemaking Practices; Scriptures and the Ministry of Peacemaking; Trauma-Informed Spiritual Care; Analysis of Self and Systems; and Research Methods and Design. Each of these courses has been designed specially for the D.Min. program. 

In a 2021 survey of seminary alumni and students, 37 percent of respondents named a doctoral degree as something they believed EMS should consider adding. With enrollment in D.Min. programs steadily rising at ATS schools each year, the addition will help EMS meet an increased demand for a professional ministry doctorate.

“No other theological schools offer a D.Min. program in peacemaking and social change,” said Jacob Cook, academic program director for the seminary’s Pathways for Tomorrow grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc. and visiting assistant professor of Christian ethics. “This is who we are. This is at the heart of all we do.”

Candidates for the D.Min. program are required to have a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree from an accredited school — or achieve M.Div. equivalency — with three or more years of post-M.Div. ministry experience.

The new program is pending accreditation approval by the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) and The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. 

For more information about Eastern Mennonite Seminary degrees and programs, visit. 

Stay tuned for future 91����Ƶ News updates on this significant new academic program!

The new degree, grounded in Anabaptist theology, is among the seminary’s latest innovative offerings. EMS is distinguished among U.S. seminaries for its historic emphasis on peace and justice and its location within a larger Anabaptist university, according to The Rev. Dr. Sarah Bixler, associate dean of the seminary and assistant professor of formation and practical theology.

“Our seminary faculty members are excited at the new possibilities this degree offers to attract a global community of students seeking deeper academic study in theology and culture, biblical studies, or peacebuilding infused with an Anabaptist perspective,” exclaimed Bixler.

A growing number of seminary students are coming to EMS with professional and personal interests outside the traditional avenues of pastoral ministry, she said.

“This new degree answers their need to expand their knowledge and skills in culture and peacebuilding within EMS’s long-standing curricular excellence in skills for ministry,” Bixler shared.

The MATS includes 15 core units, with 21 elective units focusing on the student’s specialized study in concentrations of theology and culture, biblical studies, or peacebuilding. 

This degree will equip nonprofit leaders, leaders in nonpastoral settings who want to explore the intersection of theology and another field of study, students who wish to pursue further graduate study below the PhD level, and students who want to study theology for personal enrichment.

“This flexible, short, new degree program is a unique slice of EMS’s distinctive curriculum, with core grounding in spiritual formation, biblical studies and peace theology and more coursework in elective offerings that students choose to meet their personal interests and vocational needs,” said The Rev. Dr. Jacob Cook, academic program director for the seminary’s Pathways for Tomorrow grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc. and visiting professor of Christian ethics.

Lilly Endowment’s consistent financial support places EMS on the cutting edge of education among select North American theological schools. In 2022 and 2023, the seminary received two separate grants of $1 million or more each: The Pathways for Tomorrow grant focuses on resources and training for pastoral and lay leaders to address 21st century challenges, while a second grant received in 2023 supports research, practice and resources in Christian parenting. 

Students can expect to become well-versed in seminary distinctives with direct practical application such as formation for peacebuilding, adaptive leadership and conflict transformation, Cook said. Learning is rooted in Anabaptist perspectives, threaded with an invitation to explore theologies of nonviolence and practices for just peacemaking and transformational leadership.

Prospective students are encouraged to talk with seminary faculty and staff about their learning goals and objectives, as each degree program has been designed with a different focus, Bixler said.

The MATS, with 36 required units, is the shortest graduate degree offered by the seminary with an academic focus and integrated emphasis. The 48-unit MA in Christian leadership is focused on professional skills for pastoral leadership, while the 60-unit MA in religion prioritizes academic preparation in the theological disciplines. The Master of Divinity (MDiv) degree, at 81 units, is required for ordination in some denominations.

An icon created by Eastern Mennonite Seminary alumnus Derek Yoder ’23, M.Div., graces the cover of the of Anabaptist World magazine. Yoder designed the digital artwork, titled “Christ of the Wheelchair,” for his master’s of divinity capstone project in 2022.

For his project, Yoder searched through Scripture, art and ecclesial history for symbols that display the image of God revealed in persons with intellectual disabilities, people who are central to his ministry. In the absence of such symbols, he developed an icon that serves as a “celebration of and blessing for my community, who bear the image of God.”

“When you meet someone with intellectual or developmental disabilities, do you recognize the image of God?” Yoder asks in an article in the issue. “‘Christ of the Wheelchair’ is a prayer for me, my community and the church. It emerged from the recognition that the church rarely considers people in my community when it contemplates the Image of Dei (image of God). Yet, in my community I encounter Jesus every day.”

Read the “Christ of the Wheelchair” article online .

Anabaptist World began as a print magazine in 2020 from the merger of The Mennonite and Mennonite World Review, starting with a circulation of 8,200 paying subscribers. It seeks to be “the flagship Anabaptist publication, in print and online — the place where a diverse community comes together to explore and strengthen Anabaptist values and encourage one another to follow Christ faithfully,” its website states.

In addition to the cover image, another article in the magazine issue mentions Yoder and Faith & Light, an inclusive worship gathering he leads for people with intellectual disabilities. The article follows the process of baptizing someone with an intellectual disability and the work that goes into ensuring it’s done in a way that reflects their relationship with God.

Read the article, “A baptism just a bit unpredictable,” online .

“I am glad that Anabaptist World’s most recent issue celebrates the gifts and contributions of persons with disabilities in the Church,” Yoder said. “In my communities (at Pleasant View and Faith & Light in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County), my friends with intellectual disabilities constantly lead me to Christ. I’m grateful that Eastern Mennonite Seminary provided the chance to deepen my ministry in those communities.”

Yoder lives in Harrisonburg, Virginia, with his wife Laurie, a chemistry professor at 91����Ƶ. He is the pastor at Pleasant View, an organization that supports people with intellectual disabilities in living out their goals for meaningful work, relationships and spiritual development. Pleasant View is a conference-endorsed ministry of Virginia Mennonite Conference. He worships at Shenandoah Valley Faith & Light and Community Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg.

At a time of deepening political polarization in the country, said Rev. Adam Russell Taylor, many churches have embraced one of two extremes.

The first extreme, he told the crowd of about 40 assembled on Tuesday evening, is to become increasingly politicized and partisanized, “where our Christian faith becomes subservient to our political identity.”

“Put another way, our political loyalty and identity becomes a proxy for what Christian faithfulness should look like,” he said. “I believe that this is a fundamental form of idolatry.”

The other extreme, he explained, is to become apolitical and to “believe that our politics are so polarized and broken and corrupted that the solution is to withdraw entirely.”

“Our democracy, as flawed as it may be — our decision not to engage with politics is often an endorsement of the status quo,” Taylor said. “Our decision not to vote, not to engage, not to participate, then becomes a way to prop up what is currently so often wrong or unjust. … We cannot advance shalom without being engaged in politics.”

Although there is no “magic bullet” to cure the toxic polarization in our communities, he admitted, it is imperative that Americans share a baseline understanding of “how we’ve gotten to where we are.”

“Tied to that, we will be a house divided against itself if we don’t have a shared moral vision about where we want to go,” he said.

Taylor, one of two keynote speakers at Shalom Academy 2024, is the president of and the author of A More Perfect Union: A New Vision for Building the Beloved Community (2021). His address, titled “Where Do We Go From Here: Toxic Polarization or the Beloved Community?” pointed to some of the causes fueling the stark political divide in the country and urged faith leaders to work toward building a “beloved community.”      

“My most succinct definition of what beloved community is all about is to build a society, to build a nation, where neither punishment nor privilege is tied to race, to ethnicity, to gender, to sexual orientation, to ableness,” he said. “It is to create a society and a nation where our diversity truly is embraced as a strength and not a weakness. It is to create a society and a nation where everyone is respected and everyone is enabled to thrive.”

Shalom Academy 2024, held at Eastern Mennonite Seminary from Monday, Jan. 8, to Wednesday, Jan. 10, drew 80 pastors, ministers and laity to campus for its workshops, seminars, worship and fellowship opportunities. Participants traveled from 10 states for the event, from as far away as California and Manitoba, Canada.

The theme of the three-day conference, “Pursuing Community in a Divisive World,” offered a place to learn and reflect on the practices that move congregations past divisiveness and toward peace, both within their walls and in their larger communities.

This was the first year that Shalom Academy, formerly known as the School for Leadership Training (SLT), used its new name. For 54 years, SLT has equipped pastors with tools needed for deepening the effectiveness of their ministries.

Courtney Joyner, director of the seminary’s Lilly Foundation “Thriving in Ministry” grant funding the event, called Shalom Academy 2024 a great success:

“Everyone who contributed brought their best selves to the task, giving us a thoughtful and engaging conference. I am so grateful to each one for the gifts that they so freely gave to us this week.”

“The conversations I had with participants during the breaks confirmed what I sensed — that they were getting skills and ideas that would be put to immediate use in their ministries. Several expressed how the speakers and leaders motivated them to be courageous faith leaders in this time of deep polarization in our society.”

If you have any of the following people in your church, Rev. Melissa Florer-Bixler told the crowd during her keynote presentation, their lives will be impacted by outcomes from the 2024 presidential election.

Those people include: “Migrants, refugees, anyone on Medicaid, anyone on Medicare, disabled people, LGBTQ people, children, women, people who want to live in homes, people who want to drink water, people who plan to live for 20 more years, and anyone who cares about anyone on that list.”

Florer-Bixler, author of How to Have an Enemy: Righteous Anger and the Work of Peace (2021) and the pastor of Raleigh Mennonite Church in North Carolina, offered guidance on what to expect in the presidential campaign season and how to navigate the challenging waters ahead. Her address, titled “Ministry During the Election Cycle: Politics Without Despair,” pulled from stories in the Gospel of Matthew as well as from her own experiences leading a church.

She called on faith leaders to offer sanctuary to the most vulnerable in their congregations. During presidential election years, she said, communities experience a spike in hate crimes, often directed against Black people, Jews, Muslims and LGBTQ people.

She also encouraged them to cultivate joy by telling better stories, including those in Scripture of hope, subversion and abundance.

“We have a genealogy of joy that extends through the lives of people who have lived at times much like ours,” Florer-Bixler said. “People who have also lived at the end of the world, who have lived in disaster, who found their way to collectively and persistently proclaim ‘Jesus is Lord, Caesar is not.’ And they have also given us what we need in order to witness to the risen Jesus Christ in our lives.”

91����Ƶ professors Justin Poole and Jerry Holsopple revived their multimedia production of Bonhoeffer: Cell 92 for Shalom Academy participants. The one-man play, which incorporates powerful film footage and a haunting cello score, breathes life into the struggles and friendships of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. A Christian theologian, anti-Nazi dissident and spy, Bonhoeffer was imprisoned for his opposition to Hitler and the Nazi regime in World War II. He spent one and a half years in prison before being hanged in April 1945, just weeks before the end of the war.

The play debuted at 91����Ƶ in January 2022 and was performed in Vienna, Austria, that spring.

There’s one last chance to watch the play before its final curtain call.

Tickets for the show are $9 for general admission and $5 for students.

Small groups gathered in conversation circles on Tuesday and Wednesday, where they discussed topics such as “Climate Justice in a Divisive World,” “Reading Scripture as a Community” and “What is God Like?”

Lana Miller, a member of Community Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg, led a conversation circle on “Incorporating Economic Justice in Ministry Settings.”

As a stewardship consultant for Everence Federal Credit Union, she said her job is to help people think about how their faith impacts what they do with their money. “I love these kinds of conversation spaces because I want to keep helping people grapple with the fact that having money and what we choose to do with the money we have makes a difference in the world we live in,” she said in an interview after the discussion. “Leading that conversation circle is part of my work and it’s what I’m passionate about.”

In a Facebook post about his passing, the shared that Augsburger had been diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer on Oct. 23. He died peacefully at his California home surrounded by family and loved ones on Oct. 30, the post reads.

A memorial service for Augsburger will be held at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 19, at La Verne Church of the Brethren in La Verne, California. 

Augsburger was recognized as an authority in the fields of pastoral care, counseling and reconciliation. He was a prolific writer, penning more than 20 books including Conflict Mediation Across Cultures (1992), The Freedom of Forgiveness (1988) and Sustaining Love: Healing and Growth in the Passages of Marriage (1989). He authored the popular Caring Enough series of books, beginning with Caring Enough to Confront: How to Transform Conflict with Compassion and Grace in 1980. His feature articles have appeared in more than 100 different periodicals. 

Former Eastern Mennonite Seminary (EMS) Professor Lonnie Yoder, associate dean of the seminary from 2010 to 2016, called Augsburger a pioneer in the field. 

 “If he didn’t write the first book, it was among the first in pastoral counseling in terms of culture: Pastoral Counseling Across Cultures (1986),” Yoder said. “He was at the forefront of that dimension of pastoral counseling, which is now complete with lots of work. He was one of the first to recognize that when you do counseling, cultural context is really important.”

Augsburger also was known by many for his voice. From 1961 to 1975, listeners across the country tuned in to hear him speak and promote the Gospel on The Mennonite Hour radio program, which was based in Harrisonburg. His productions won 10 awards for creative religious broadcasting.

“His style focused on the Anabaptist evangelical response to the social concerns of the day: war and peace, racism and interpersonal relationships. Witty turns of language and thought held attention and conveyed truth” (). 

Augsburger held a bachelor of arts degree with a major in Bible from Eastern Mennonite College (EMC) and a bachelor of divinity degree from EMS. He received a PhD from the Claremont School of Theology in Southern California.

His brother, Myron, was a professor of theology at EMC and led the college and seminary as its fifth president from 1965 to 1980. Another brother of his, Aaron Donald “A. Don,” graduated from EMC and EMS and taught in the field of Christian education at the school.

Augsburger was a pastor at Trissels Mennonite Church in Broadway, Virginia, from 1963 to 1971. He taught at Northern Baptist Seminary near Chicago and at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana, before joining Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He served as professor emeritus of pastoral care and counseling at Fuller from 1990 to 2018. He and his wife Leann pastored Peace Mennonite Fellowship, a church in Claremont, California. 

In a , Fuller Theological Seminary touted Augsburger’s work as a dedicated minister of the Mennonite Church and as a diplomat of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors. 

“Augsburger’s impact reached far beyond the classroom,” it reads. “He taught counseling, led workshops internationally, and provided supervision and therapy, embodying the principles he espoused in his teachings.”

‘A communicator of outstanding ability’

George Brunk III ’61, SEM ’64, was a year behind Augsburger at EMC and EMS but the two were close friends. The duo sang “shoulder to shoulder” in choral groups as bass singers, Brunk said.

“He was a person of multiple talents,” Brunk said. “He was always a prominent voice in whatever setting he was in.”

Brunk would later serve as a professor at EMS and as dean of the seminary from 1977 to 1999. Although Augsburger was not employed by Eastern Mennonite, he would often return to campus for speaking engagements. 

“He was a communicator of outstanding ability,” Brunk said. “He had an ability to grasp onto big ideas, but he gave attention to communicating those ideas and to applying them in practical ways to life.”

Yoder, a former professor of pastoral care and counseling at EMS, recalled Augsburger speaking at the School for Leadership Training — now called Shalom Academy — at the seminary a few decades ago.

“He did an amazing job of connecting with students,” Yoder said. “He was obviously a very brilliant individual, but he could communicate in a way that people understood.”

When EMS Professor Tim Reardon, who received his PhD from Fuller, was a pastor at Pasadena Mennonite Church in California, he asked Augsburger for help resolving a conflict within the congregation.

“He was a great resource for understanding reconciliation issues,” Reardon said.

He lauded Augsburger’s support for members of the LGBTQ+ community in the Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference, and spoke highly of him as a mentor. 

“He was such a loving, genuine and honest person,” Reardon said. “His family loved him so much. It’s hard to imagine he’s gone.”

“It’s a hard world for pastors to navigate right now,” said Joyner, director of the Thriving in Ministry grant at Eastern Mennonite Seminary. “We wanted to address that and equip them with tools to better be able to minister in their local context.”

Shalom Academy 2024, held at the seminary from Monday, Jan. 8, to Wednesday, Jan. 10, is themed “Pursuing Community in a Divisive World.” It offers a place to learn and reflect on the practices that move congregations past divisiveness and toward peace both within their walls and in their larger communities. The deadline for standard registration pricing is Saturday, Dec. 9.

Learn more
and register.

New Name

This is the first time that Shalom Academy, formerly known as the School for Leadership Training (SLT), will be using its new name. For 54 years, SLT has equipped pastors with tools needed for deepening the effectiveness of their ministries.

“As we build on the solid foundation of SLT, we recognize the need to more overtly emphasize justice, peacebuilding and conflict transformation from a faith-based lens,” Joyner said.

She said the name change projects this focus while also distinguishing the conference as one of the programs under the umbrella of EMS’s new Shalom Collaboratory.

“Shalom Academy is a place for both education and connection,” Joyner said. This year, Shalom Academy will feature keynote speakers and workshops that give fresh perspectives on justice-inspired shalom, small-group spaces to connect around shared interests and excursions that provide relaxation and recreation with friends. 

Keynote speakers

Rev. Melissa Florer-Bixler, an author and the pastor of Raleigh Mennonite Church in North Carolina, is the chair of L’Arche North Carolina, an organization that provides housing, support and care for adults with intellectual disabilities. Her address on Monday evening is titled, “Ministry During the Election Cycle: Politics Without Despair,” and will discuss how church leaders can faithfully and hopefully lead congregations in the months ahead. 

The other keynote speaker is Rev. Adam Russell Taylor, president of Sojourners, a Christian media and advocacy organization that works toward social and racial justice. His address on Tuesday is titled “Where Do We Go From Here: Toxic Polarization or the Beloved Community?” and will focus on the tools for overcoming polarization in our society, our politics and our churches.

Excursions

A new addition to the activity schedule this year is excursions. The excursions provide a space for participants to get to know each other outside of conference events, Joyner said.

“We wanted to incorporate an afternoon where people can relax, connect with each other, have fun and build relationships in a playful way,” she said.

The excursions for Shalom Academy 2024 are:

• Ice skating at Generations Park;
• a tour of the Frontier Culture Museum;
• a tour of Shenandoah Caverns;
• a tour of the Brethren Mennonite Heritage Center; and
• a performance of the play Bonhoeffer: Cell 92 at 91����Ƶ’s MainStage Theater.

The play depicts the life of German dissident and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was imprisoned and murdered for his opposition to Hitler and the Nazi regime in World War II.

“This play aligns so well with our conference theme because Dietrich Bonhoeffer lived in a deeply polarized society in which he stood up for faith and justice,” Joyner said. 

Workshops

A schedule for Shalom Academy 2024 includes conversation circles, teaching sessions, worship services and workshops. 

The workshops, held Tuesday and Wednesday, are:

• “Leading Difficult Conversations” with Rev. Dr. Sarah Ann Bixler;
• “Moral Discernment within Community” with Rev. Dr. Jacob Alan Cook;
• “Understanding Polarization: The Good, the Bad and the Useful” with Rev. Melissa Florer-Bixler;
• “Preaching in a Divided Church” with Rev. Jim Joyner; and
• “Building Bridges with First Responders” with Rabbi Jeffrey Kurtz-Lendner.

Registration is available for both in-person and virtual participation. Online registration offers virtual access to the keynote addresses, teaching sessions and the Wednesday panel discussion. For more information about The Shalom Collaboratory at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, visit .