Assembly 2020

All Events will be online via Zoom. Access information will be available the week of Assembly.

Worship

Saturday Worship – Pastor Brian Hennekan of East Holbrook Mennonite Church will provide sharing. The service will be complete with music by the virtual choir of MSMC conference.

Sunday Worship – with Keynote by Glen Guyton, Executive Director of Mennonite Church USA – Mr. Guyton will bring the message with focus on “being” and “racial justice.” Participants will come away from this session with an opportunity to converse with other attendees in break-out rooms!
Sunday Worship Zoom link

Guest Speakers

Glen Guyton is the Executive Director of Mennonite Church USA. Glen’s expertise in understanding culture has taken him from being a nerdy kid growing up in the suburbs of Houston, Texas to becoming an officer in the US Air Force, teaching middle school, to becoming the first African-American Executive Director to lead MC USA, a national non-profit religious organization of over 65,000 members. Glen is known for his ability to communicate across the generations in a humorous, yet compassionate way.

Brian Hanneken – Pastor of East Holbrook Mennonite in Cheraw, Colorado.

Delegate Session

This annual meeting is led by outgoing moderator, Ken Gingrich, who will pass the torch to incoming moderator, Ryan Koch. The gathering will highlight a conversation about the shift in organizational structure, provide conference reports, and review the budget. Non delegates are invited to observe this session.

Delegates serve for the entire year and may be asked to participate in electronic votes at other times during the year. According to our By-Laws, member congregations shall appoint delegates to annual MSMC assemblies based on the following formula:

All ordained and licensed persons involved in active congregational ministry within member congregations shall be delegates.
In addition, one delegate shall be appointed for every fifty (50) congregational members or portion thereof.

Delegate information will be posted on the MSMC website soon (click here) and distributed to delegates via email, so it is extremely helpful for your delegate(s) to have internet access. Please submit your delegates right away! Submit name, address, phone number and email address to Jen Dudenhefer at administrator@MountainStatesMC.org.

Zoom access information and documents to be reviewed by delegates will be available within 2 weeks of Assembly.

Children & Youth Activities

Children’s session – will have games, art activities and a story about “the Jesus way of being,” including community, peace, servant hood and vulnerability. A care package* will provide items for the session.

*Children who register by Monday, July 20 will receive a special care package in the mail that will have activities created to explore and learn about this year’s theme.

Kristin Neufeld Epp has been the director and lead teacher of New Creation Preschool, a non-profit outreach of New Creation Fellowship Church, since it opened in 1995. A graduate of Bethel College (North Newton, KS) with a degree in Elementary Education and an emphasis in Early Childhood Education, Kristin is dedicated to ongoing learning and exploring early childhood education. With influences from the Montessori, Regio Emilia, Waldorf and Magda Gerber approaches, Kristin offers play-based environments for young children to explore, discover and create. In response to COVID-19, Kristin began teaching free online preschool via the New Creation Preschool Facebook page, widening the “preschool family” to hundreds of people all over the world. Always striving to model and nurture curiosity in a world of differences, Kristin works daily for young children to be seen and loved. She can be reached via www.newcreationpreschool.com.

Youth Forum – A discussion on current cultural events (BLM, Coronavirus, climate change, etc) will allow the attendees to share how it is affecting “our way of being” and our “Jesus way of being” (our faith). The forum will encourage conversation between young people around their questions, experiences and perspectives.

Jordan Penner was born and raised in Reedley, California. He works with the Mennonite Central Committee in Denver and has now spent seven years with MCC working in Guatemala, Bolivia, and Denver. Jordan attended Bethel College and received a Master’s degree in history from the University of Texas of the Rio Grande Valley. Besides working with MCC, Jordan has been a youth group leader at First Mennonite Church, Denver since 2018. In his free time Jordan loves to bake bread and cookies, read, play various sports, and to get outside with his wife of eight years, Jenny Regier.

Downtime – Yoga/Meditation with Katrina

Focusing on the theme of “being” this class will invite all ages and abilities to join in meditating and moving together. Katrina Toews will lead the session. She is a dance and Pilates teacher who attends Defiance Church in Glenwood Springs. The time together will connect meditation and movement.

Downtime – Prayer with Brenda

Visit the Prayerstream (on Zoom) with Brenda Fox for 30 minutes of calm and guided meditation. We’ll take a few minutes to introduce the Prayerstream, then join in a time of reflective prayer together leaving a few minutes for sharing as desired by those attending.

Layers of upheaval and unrest and uncertainty have rattled the inner and outer landscapes of our lives. In the midst of crisis and deep social change, it is a precious touchstone of our faith to remember and recollect our well-being as we invoke the healing Presence and Power of the Spirit. Shared moments of deep breathing and peace can noticeably decrease stress, increase resilience and ground our busyness.

Brenda Fox, a long-time member of Boulder Mennonite Church, has a heart for public ministry, social justice and prayer. Through her work with refugees, survivors of torture, film-making and hospice chaplaincy, she has grown in her life’s mission to “pray without ceasing.’

The incredible honor to serve alongside the Great Mystery and Living God, with a full and open hearted desire to catch glimpses of the Holy at work in the transformations of our daily living, informs Brenda’s labors to renovate a vintage Airstream for the purposes of bringing spiritual care, prayer and meditation to communities in crisis.

RMMC Benefit Concert – Saturday, 7pm

“Girl Named Tom”performs to Benefit Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp. GIRL NAMED TOM is a band of siblings from Archbold, Ohio who play acoustic pop music. The band is known primarily for exquisite three part harmony, using their unique voices together to make their originals and covers stand out.

During the Zoom concert we will enjoy video clips from RMMC and commercial breaks from a variety of agencies and passion ministries. During the concert, donations will be collected for RMMC. https://rmmc.campbraingiving.com/

Registration

www.surveymonkey.com/r/MSMCAssembly

$25 Suggested Registration per person. Submit Registration Payment Here.

Following our tradition, we ask you to “Give if you can – Give what you can – Give more if you can.” In this unusual year, there are no expenses of food, lodging and travel. However, your donations are still critical in covering expenses – primarily for technology, honorariums and children’s activity packets. If you aren’t able to pay today, there will be opportunities during the event to make your donation.

There will also be an opportunity to donate to RMMC during the Saturday evening Benefit Concert. Those donations will go directly to RMMC.

Registration closes Friday, July 24 at 5 pm.

When Assembly gathers in person, there are booths set up for folks to visit. While online Assembly won’t be the same, keep an eye out for some agency video spots during the Saturday evening concert!