“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¶ĚĘÓƵ’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 .

will focus on the theory and practice of discernment at all levels, from personal to denominational. The three-day workshop takes place Jan., 20-22.

, associate professor of organizational studies at the , will guide participants through three case studies on discernment at various levels of church. Workshops, worship and large group sessions will help participants get a broad view of discernment in various contexts. In addition, keynote speakers Ervin Stutzman and Ruth Haley Barton will offer conclusions from their recent books.

“The church is in the midst of massive cultural and social shifts which often create conflict in congregations,” said , Seminary dean. “School for Leadership Training this year is part of our on-going desire to train leaders and congregations to discern God’s call in the midst of these shifts.”

Ruth Haley Barton is an award-winning author, sought-after teacher and conference speaker and the founder of the based in Wheaton, Ill. Her books include Pursuing God’s Will Together: A Discernment Practice for Leadership Groups and Strengthening the Soul of your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry.

Ervin Stutzman is executive director of . His most recent book Discerning God’s Will Together: Biblical Interpretation in the Free Church Tradition will be the basis of his plenary address.

More information and registration is available at: .

For one, her family owned a business that employed her when no one else likely would. But the proper medications, a supportive network and her church all played integral roles in her comeback, Miller said.

So for Miller, of Wauseon, Ohio, the return to her alma mater this week made perfect sense.

She’s one of nearly 300 attending ’s , which started Monday and wraps up today. She’s one who understands the importance of relationships to people living with mental illness.

The conference addresses how the church can be a healing space for mental illness.

For Miller, the patchwork story told during one Tuesday presentation hit close to home.

, professor of pastoral care at EMS, read the story of one fictional but realistic “Charlie,” who started showing signs of bipolar disorder when he was in high school. Despite his and his family’s best efforts to stay “normal” during his lifelong battle against the illness, fellow churchgoers, family members and friends began to shy away from him.

, director of at 91¶ĚĘÓƵ, said that’s exactly what they shouldn’t do.

“Yes, a mental disorder means something is out of order, but the person at [its] core is not out of order,” she said. “Focus on the whole person and know they are there and need your relationship to continue.”

Comer added that you don’t have to be a therapist or doctor to help someone with mental illness.

“Step alongside them, not in front or behind them,” she said. “By stepping into the mud, the mud changes, their experience changes.”

Comer warned against thinking that a mental illness is something to solve or that someone with a mental disorder will get back to his or her former self.

“Life will not get back to the way it used to be,” she said. “All involved must get used to a new normal.”

She reminded those in the audience that having a mental disorder doesn’t imply a character flaw or mean that the sufferer is being punished. Also, mental illness affects many more people in a community than just those who have it, and every person should be tending to his or her own mental health, she added.

Holding a mental health-centered conference is a step in the right direction, according to Miller.

“It’s a group of people that I know want to be here and want to help,” she said.

Courtesy Daily News Record, Jan. 24, 2013

Spaces are filling up fast for this year’s School for Leadership Training (SLT) January 16-18, 2012 at Eastern Mennonite Seminary. Plenary speaker Walter Brueggemann, and workshops on the theme “God and Mammon: Reframing Stewardship Amidst Abundance, Scarcity and Conflict” are contributing to an unprecedented number of early registrations.

“With the economy, jobs and money on the top of nearly everyone’s mind, and a great scholar like Brueggemann, this is a timely event,” said Linda Alley, coordinator for SLT.

Brueggemann, professor emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary, is a prolific author and has written more than 50 books, hundreds of articles, and several commentaries on books of the Bible. He is also a minister of the United Church of Christ. Brueggemann has a ThD from Union Theological Seminary, New York and a PhD from St. Louis University.

“What we do with our money and how that connects to our faith is so vital,” said Alley. “Church budgets are stretched, individual’s budgets are stretched, and we often wonder how that connects with our faith.”

There will be 15 workshops and include a range of topics from living more with less, and preaching on money to faith in work settings.

Several of the workshops will be led by Everence Financial staff. “With our emphasis on faith and finance, this was the perfect opportunity for us to partner with Eastern Mennonite” said Joseph Lapp, managing director of Everence’s Harrisonburg office.

“Sometimes it seems there is a gap between the business world and the church,” said Michael King, EMS dean. “Our hope is Christian business leaders and church leaders will converse deeply about how our handling of money flows out of or impacts our faith.”

The SLT training workshop is the collaborative work of Eastern Mennonite Seminary, the master in business administration program at 91¶ĚĘÓƵ and Everence.

Christian business leaders, stewardship and financial officers in the church, pastors and lay leaders are encouraged to attend this three-day event. Group discounts are available for multiple members from the same church, business or organization when they register together.

For more information or to register visit .

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Shane Hipps () of Phoenix, Ariz., believes there is great promise as well as peril in our technological society, but, he says, “we’ll never make our way through the maelstrom of our media if we don’t stop and ask the right questions before moving forward.”

Hipps speaks from experience. Before accepting a call as a pastor, he was a strategic planner in advertising, which included working on the multi-million dollar communications plan for Porsche Cars North America.

Today, he is pastor of Trinity Mennonite Church, an urban Anabaptist congregation in Phoenix, a writer and sought-after speaker on the topic of media’s effect on the church and its mission in the world. He is a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif.

Hipps is a contributor to “Leadership Journal,” host of the “Third-Way Faith” podcast on and author of The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture: How Media Shapes Faith, the Gospel, and Church.

School for Leadership Training

He is serving as primary resource person for the annual School for Leadership Training being held Jan. 19-22 at Eastern Mennonite Seminary on the theme, “Christians Engaging Cultural Change.”

Hipps will give a public address on “The Spirituality of the Cell Phone,” 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 20 in Lehman Auditorium. The presentation will explore the hidden spirituality of the digital age, the way it shapes community and ways persons can respond.

A “talk back” session with Hipps will follow at 8:30 p.m. in the Common Grounds Coffeehouse in the University Commons. Coffee, tea, hot chocolate will be available at half price along with free brownie bites and cream puffs.

Both events are sponsored by 91¶ĚĘÓƵ campus ministries and are offered to the community free of charge; donations are welcomed.

For more information, call 540-432-4196.