Sent Conference set for May 4-7

Update: This event has been canceled. Mennonite Mission Network, in partnership with Mennonite Church USA Executive Board, Everence, and Mosaic Mennonite Conference, will host the seventh annual Sent Conference May 4-7 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The theme of this gathering will be “I Saw a Vast Crowd: Explorations in Multiethnic Ministry.” See https://bit.ly/2023SENT for more information.

Sharing our faith with others — Count the casts, not the fish

In this episode of the Ohio Conference Cast, hosts Corben Weaver Boshart and Ramon Lianez talk about evangelism with Brad Roth, who was the speaker at Ohio Conference’s 2021 missional conference. Corben, Ramon and Brad discuss evangelism, especially in a rural setting. Listen to this episode to learn why curiosity and asking questions are important as we share our faith,…

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Ohio Conference to offer free online workshops

As winter turns to spring, Ohio Conference invites you to join with others across the Conference in the exploration of new ideas. During March and April, Ohio Conference is offering a series of free one-hour workshops on the Zoom vid­eoconferencing platform. All workshops will take place on Thursdays, beginning at 7 p.m. These workshops, led by individuals from Ohio Conference…

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Anabaptist Witness seeks submissions for April issue

Call for submissions: Anabaptist Witness welcomes submissions of various genres (sermons, photo essays, interviews, biographies, poems, academic papers, etc.) for its April 2021 issue on “Worship and Witness.” The deadline is Nov. 1, 2020. View submission guidelines at anabaptistwitness.org.

Missional festival is for people of all ages

You’ve probably heard the word “missional” many times before. But what does it really mean? And how can you live missionally? You can explore the answers to these questions at Engaging Mission 2020, an Ohio Conference missional festival planned for June 26-28 at Bluffton University. This will be a bilingual event in both English and Spanish. Engaging Mission 2020 is…

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Churches support radio ministry in Argentina

For several years Sonnenberg Mennonite Church in Kidron and Pike Mennonite Church in Elida have been supporting a radio ministry which reaches out to the Indigenous population in the Chaco region of Argentina. To learn more about this ministry, which is also supported by Mennonite Mission Network, see http://bit.ly/ChacoRadioMinistry.

Growing Disciples, Part 1 — The Explosion

Sometimes growth takes a while, but patience can pay off. That’s been the experience at Valley View Mennonite Church in Spartansburg, Pennsylvania. In the latest episode of the Ohio Conference Cast, Lucas Johnson and Robb Esh, pastoral team members at Valley View Mennonite, talk about the growth of Missional Discipleship Groups in their area of Pennsylvania. The groups now include…

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Church planting conversation begins

On Oct. 15 interested persons gathered at the Ohio Conference office for a conversation about planting new Visible Kingdom Communities. This meeting was an initial conversation about what the process of starting new church communities may look like in Ohio. Several people who could not attend in person took part in the conversation via a video conference. The conversation included…

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Prayer volunteers sought

Prayer volunteers needed: The Ohio Conference Ministry Development Team has affirmed Growing Visible Kingdom Communities (formerly known as church planting) as a priority. An initial conversation for interested people has been scheduled for Oct. 15, 2019, at the Ohio Conference Office in Kidron from 1 to 3 p.m. If you feel led to help provide prayer support for this conversation, please…

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Missional festival is coming in 2020

In this episode of the Ohio Conference Cast, host Thomas Dunn and his guest co-host Dick Barrett talk about mission with Jacob Dodson, pastor of Wooster Mennonite Church and a member of the Ohio Conference Missional Planning Team. Listen to this episode to hear about plans for a summer missional festival in 2020. You will also learn more about some…

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Church planting discussion planned

By Ralph Reinford Regional Pastor Are you interested in church planting? The Ohio Conference Ministry Development Team wants to initiate a conversation about growing new Visible Kingdom Communities, formerly known as church planting. This article is an invitation to anyone interested in, passionate for, or feeling a call to be a part of supporting new endeavors. We are planning a…

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Summer festival to focus on mission

Plans are underway for an Ohio Conference missional festival, “Engaging Mission 2020,” to be held at Bluffton University June 26-28, 2020. This event will be for people of all ages, including family groups. The festival will provide an introduction to missional living where participants will be challenged to create space for mission in their lives. In the past several years,…

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You are invited to make disciples

In Matthew 28, Jesus called for his disciples to make disciples of others. But the call to make disciples continues today. You are invited to join others in the Ohio Conference who are participating in the Missional Discipleship Initiative (https://www.mennonitemission.net/MDI). What is the Missional  Discipleship Initiative (MDI)? MDI is an initiative launched by Marvin Lorenzana and Mennonite Mission Network to…

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When disciples make disciples

By Laurie Oswald Robinson KANSAS CITY (Mennonite Mission Network) — Several years into her role as pastor at the 178-year-old Salem Mennonite Church in rural Elida, Ohio, Paula Snyder Belousek felt a growing dissatisfaction. Something was missing. Even though the congregation had faithfully followed Jesus for the long haul, older generations — rooted in traditional understandings of the Anabaptist faith…

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Missional Network training events scheduled

Ohio Conference Missional Consultant Jessica Schrock-Ringenberg will be leading a second Missional Network training event during August and September. This training event will cover two focus areas: 1. Leadership Development and 2. Growing Missional Communities. See the Missional Network page for more details. The training event will be offered three times: Saturday, Aug. 18— 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at Zion Mennonite Church, Archbold…

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Church planting and patience

What role does patience play in the church planting process? In this episode of the Ohio Conference Cast, host Bill Seymour and his guest co-host, Paula Snyder Belousek, talk with Sally Youngquist of Living Water Community Church in Chicago, Illinois, about the process of planting that congregation. Listen to find out how many years it took for Living Water to…

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Church Planting — From Jerusalem to Antioch

What happens when non-church planters — aka pastors from long-established churches — attend a church planting conference? And why would they even want to attend? In this episode of the Ohio Conference Cast podcast, host Bill Seymour talks with Ohio Conference pastors Paula Snyder Belousek, Corben Weaver Boshart and Jessica Schrock-Ringenberg about their experience attending SENT 2018, a church planting…

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Missional Network to begin in summer

By Jessica Schrock-Ringenberg Ohio Conference Missional Consultant All Ohio Conference congregations are invited to join the Ohio Conference Missional Network. Representatives from this network of congregations will begin meeting and working together during the summer of 2018. The purpose and expectation of those who sign up for Ohio Conference’s Missional Network cohort is to equip congregations in both intentional discipleship…

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Missional conference focuses on evangelism and discipleship

Just prior to Annual Conference Assembly, the Ohio Conference held the Gathered and Sent Missional Conference at Bluffton University March 8-9. One hundred eight people from across the Conference participated in this event. During four sessions, speakers Meghan Good and Marvin Lorenzana challenged common assumptions about evangelism and discipleship. Meghan Good, the teaching pastor at Trinity Mennonite Church in Glendale,…

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The Wheelhouse – A bicycle ministry in the city

“We don’t feel like we were particularly gifted to do this. Every time, though, we were worried about something — like where would we store the bikes, how would we learn how to fix bikes — every time we were worried about that, something came forward. An answer came from God.” — Ginny Cress, speaking about the Wheelhouse, a bicycle ministry…

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Evangelism and discipleship – How are they related?

What’s the relationship between evangelism and discipleship? Ohio Conference Cast hosts Thomas Dunn and Bill Seymour discuss this question with Meghan Good and Marvin Lorenzana, the speakers at the Gathered and Sent Missional Conference at Bluffton University. https://ohiomennoniteconference.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/18_03_09_MissionalConf_Submitted.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSS

Evangelism – Is Jesus Christ worth knowing for his own sake?

Ohio Conference Cast has come to Bluffton University! In this podcast episode, Ohio Conference Cast hosts Bill Seymour and Thomas Dunn discuss the Gathered and Sent Missional Conference with two conference participants, Sarah Geiser, and Robb Esh. On Thursday night, featured speaker Meghan Good, teaching pastor at Trinity Mennonite Church in Glendale, Arizona, opened the missional conference by talking about…

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Conference to focus on evangelism, discipleship

Gathered and Sent, a missional conference, will precede the 2018 Annual Conference Assembly. It will take place March 8-9 at Bluffton University. Presenters will be Meghan Good, teaching pastor at Trinity Mennonite Church in Glendale, Arizona, and Marvin Lorenzana, discipleship initiatives director at Mennonite Mission Network. This conference will focus on growing as a good news community.  Join us as…

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Top five reasons we really don’t want to be missional

By Jessica Schrock-Ringenberg Missional. We’ve been hearing this word for 20 years. Our seminaries have been teaching it, our agencies have been producing books on it and our congregations have been using the word “missional” to justify programs, mission efforts and other worthwhile “regularly scheduled” activities the church has done for the last 20 years. But as I question why…

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Jessica talks about missional VBS (and pigs)

Sometimes, to engage others missionally we need to let go of things that we cherish. In this episode of the Ohio Conference Cast, hosts Thomas Dunn and Bill Seymour talk with Jessica Schrock-Ringenberg, pastor of Zion Mennonite Church in Archbold, about Zion’s experience with reinventing Vacation Bible School this summer. The story includes the local swimming pool, vending machines, the park,…

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Missional Work Camp — You can do this!

Many church youth groups go on summer service trips, but this episode of the Ohio Conference Cast features something different — a summer work camp in the local community. Instead of traveling to a far-off location to serve, youth and adults at Sharon Mennonite Church in Plain City use the church building as a home base for the week and spend…

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Festival raises funds, builds community

What started out as a fundraiser turned out to be something more.  On June 24 Salem Mennonite Church in Waldron, Michigan, held a Strawberry Festival on the church grounds to showcase the congregation’s new unfinished building and to help raise funds to complete it. Salem’s new building sits behind the current structure in the middle of a hay field more…

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Make disciples. Seriously. Here’s one way how.

The Missional Discipleship Initiative is coming to the Ohio Conference! The Conference is partnering with Mennonite Mission Network to offer the Missional Discipleship Initiative (MDI) to congregations, starting this fall. In this episode of the Ohio Conference Cast, hosts Bill Seymour and Jacob Dodson talk about MDI with Mennonite Mission Network staff members Marvin Lorenzana and Karla Minter, as well…

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MMN offers missional training for congregations

Is your congregation interested in learning more about what it means to be missional? Ohio Conference is partnering with Mennonite Mission Network (MMN) to offer the Missional Discipleship Initiative to Conference churches beginning this fall. Marvin Lorenzana, the director for discipleship initiatives at MMN, coordinates the Missional Discipleship Initiative (MDI). “Our goal is to help leaders engage the missional church…

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Missional Church: The fad that just won’t go away

By Jessica Schrock-Ringenberg Recently I heard an observation following Ohio Conference’s Annual Conference Assembly in which we focused on becoming a mission-driven (a.k.a. “Missional”) conference. The observation? It seems as though our younger leaders are the driving force behind the passion for this movement. And so the question becomes, “Why?” Why are younger leaders pushing for this change? Is it…

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