“We need more pastors,” says Rick Eshbaugh, MB Foundation director of financial discipleship, “and MB Foundation wants to help.”
For the past eight years, that help has come in the form of MB Foundation’s Leadership Generation Fund (LeadGen). Since 2016, MB Foundation has provided financial assistance to high school through master’s level students who are exploring ministry leadership opportunities in the Mennonite Brethren family.
MB Foundation sets aside $50,000 per year to provide scholarships for individuals preparing for pastoral ministry or serving as a missionary. LeadGen scholarship money is granted as necessary to meet the needs of the applicant. Funds are available until the annual allotment is depleted.
“The program was started to address the shortage of students training for ministry within the MB denomination,” Eshbaugh says. “At last count, we’ve given 150 grants to 102 recipients, with a total of $246,864 awarded. In 2023 we had 15 grants and in 2024 we had 25.”
Individuals interested in exploring vocational ministry have a variety of options available to them. In addition to undergraduate and graduate theological training offered by Tabor College, Fresno Pacific University and other colleges and seminaries, training opportunities include USMB Leadership Pipeline, mission training programs offered by Multiply, and discipleship, residency and internship programs developed by district conferences and local churches. But sometimes securing funds for training opportunities is a challenge.
“We know costs are increasing and we want to be of assistance,” Eshbaugh says.
Grant amounts to increase
Effective May 1, LeadGen grant amounts will increase by 50 percent and will reflect the growing number of training and educational programs available to U.S. Mennonite Brethren.
Grants that help fund one to two months of service for Level 1 programs will increase to as much as $750; Level 2 programs that are three months to one year in length will qualify for up to $3,000; and Level 3 programs which offer one-plus years of training will qualify for up to $4,500.
Each level assumes an increase in certainty of vocational ministry and an increase in the length and intensity of the educational or training experience.
- Level 1 is intended for those who are exploring vocational ministry in short-term internships or with Multiply’s ACTION program.
- Level 2 programs are typically internships, residency programs or Multiply’s TREK program and participants have identified ministry aspirations.
- Level 3 participants are often involved in graduate ministry classes, internships and residency programs or Multiply’s FOCUS program and are frequently involved in a ministry discernment process.
“Models for training our pastors and missionaries are changing,” Eshbaugh says. “Training programs aren’t limited to colleges or seminary. They are not coming only from an institution but also from individual churches. Potential leaders are being offered new experiences to learn what ministry looks like. Hopefully LeadGen can help make it affordable.”
Church-based training made affordable
One LeadGen recipient involved in a church-based training program is 45-year-old Luke Zimmerman, one of four residents at Ridgepoint Church, Wichita, Kansas.
The Ridgepoint Leadership Academy residency program is a hands-on ministry training experience designed to develop future church leaders and typically runs from September through May. These positions are paid part-time with the expectation that the resident will find other work or financial support.
Each week, residents attend training sessions, meet with their mentors, complete journaling assignments and engage in eight to 10 hours of ministry leadership. The program is tailored to a participant’s gifts, experience and ministry track. One of Zimmerman’s primary roles has been leading the Alpha program, guiding discussions with a group of 12 individuals exploring faith in a welcoming environment.
“Before joining the residency, I was already deeply involved in ministry while working full-time with Scouting America,” Zimmerman says in an email. “I had been active in Ridgepoint’s Men’s Ministry and felt a growing desire to explore full-time vocational ministry. The residency has given me firsthand exposure to the joys and challenges of ministry, affirming my passion for serving the church.”
Zimmerman says the LeadGen grant has provided “critical” funding for his residency. “Because of this support, I’ve been able to dedicate time to developing my leadership skills, gaining hands-on ministry experience and investing in the spiritual growth of others. The grant isn’t just benefiting me—it’s equipping the next generation of church leaders,” he says.
“Through this journey, I’ve felt God confirming my calling, and I now have a clearer vision of what full-time ministry could look like for me,” Zimmerman says.
This fall, Zimmerman plans to enroll in Tabor College’s new graduate theological education program. He anticipates continuing to lead Alpha courses as well as 24/7 prayer courses and mentoring a few young adult men as part of his ongoing ministry involvement.
Grant helps with college courses
Jon Landis, 54, has also been on a pastoral ministry journey. A recently retired police officer, Landis took classes for two years at Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford, British Columbia, a one-hour drive from his home in Blaine, Washington. He earned a certificate in theology in December 2024.
Thanks to a LeadGen grant, Landis, who has a wife and two young children, was able to avoid student loans.
“The grant has been a great help in the fact that it took a lot of the burden off my family when trying to come up with the money to pay for college,” Landis says in an email interview. “I still had to work part-time while taking classes, so having the extra help from LeadGen was a huge blessing. I cannot thank MB Foundation enough.”
While studying at Columbia Bible College, Landis also served his home church, Birch Bay Bible Community Church, as a pastoral intern of adult ministries. In this role, Landis developed a class for new believers, lead a weekly Life Group, worked with the lead pastor to develop a discipleship pathway for the congregation, and provided pastoral care.
Beginning in May, Landis will serve as the director of adult ministries at BBBCC. As he assumes this new role, he is grateful for the educational preparation he has received.
“This degree has helped me first and foremost in getting to know God in a much deeper and personal way and has given me deep roots in my walk with Christ. When I have the opportunities to preach, I can go a lot deeper. While training Bible study groups I have the ability to find information and share the gospel like never before.”
Preparing for cross-cultural ministry
Sharing the gospel cross-culturally is the call God has place on Melanie Wiebe’s heart. Wiebe, a nurse participating in Wichita’s Ridgepoint Leadership Academy, is appreciative for the LeadGen grant she received.
“At the beginning of the program, I was just starting to get back into nursing,” Wiebe says. “The grant gave me a little cushion to work part-time, do eight hours of ministry, but also have time and flexibility to be with my mom, who has since passed.”
Wiebe, 40, grew up in India, the daughter of Mennonite Brethren missionary Esther Wiebe. “I was adopted into a family with a legacy of missions—my mom, aunts and uncles, grandparents and great grandparents,” Wiebe says in an email interview. “Growing up, I didn’t have much interest in missions. I became a nurse and found I loved being in the operating room.”
Throughout the years, Wiebe was involved in several short-term medical mission trips, providing surgical care to people in Nigeria, Honduras and the Dominican Republic. She was also involved in church mission trips, including one to Burundi, Africa in 2023 with a team from Ridgepoint.
“During that trip God was working on my heart,” Wiebe says. “I came home transformed and felt God was calling me to long-term missions.”
She completed a FOCUS internship with Multiply, spending six months in Uganda. At the conclusion of this nine-month internship, Wiebe returned to Wichita to be near her 96-year-old mother while pursuing what was next.
“One thing I learned while in Uganda was my lack of ministry experience,” Wiebe says. “I wanted to use my nursing skills on the mission field but very often you are called upon to lead in ministry as well. So, this opportunity to develop ministry leadership skills was very appealing and a little bit scary also.”
Wiebe’s capstone residency project was planning, preparing and leading an April mission vision trip to a restricted access Asian country.
Wiebe concludes her residency confident of God’s call on her life. “There have been different events throughout the year that I have attended as part of my residency that have really reiterated God’s call on me to go globally and the passion he has placed on my heart for cross cultural missions,” she says. “As we finish up the program, I continue to seek the Lord’s call for my future, whether it’s moving to the Middle East to work in a hospital, staying locally or even going to parts yet unknown. I really want to seek the Lord’s will, not my want.”
Investing in future leaders
Wiebe, Landis and Zimmerman are among the more than 100 individuals who have received LeadGen scholarships while exploring vocational ministry within the Mennonite Brethren family.
“The LeadGen grant is a powerful investment in developing future church leaders,” says Zimmerman. “It has not only provided financial support but has also created opportunities for me to grow, serve, and step into God’s calling with confidence. I am incredibly grateful for this program and hope LeadGen continues to equip others like me who feel called to ministry.”
MB Foundation’s Eshbaugh, who has been a pastor in the Central, Pacific and Southern district conferences, is hopeful that the increase in scholarship amounts and expanding training programs will encourage more individuals to consider pastoral ministry or serving as missionaries.
“We want them to taste and experience ministry; we want them to open themselves up to serving God in this way,” he says. “Through these internships and other opportunities, they can dip their toes in real-life ministry.”
He also reminds the rest of us that congregations play a role in identifying new leaders. “There needs to be more shoulder-tapping,” Eshbaugh says. “We can all help call out the next generation of leaders in ministry.”
To learn more about the LeadGen scholarships, visit www.mbfoundation.com/leadgen or contact Eshbaugh at reshbaugh@mbfoundation.com
Connie Faber joined the magazine staff in 1994 and assumed the duties of editor in 2004. She has won awards from the Evangelical Press Association for her writing and editing. Faber is the co-author of Family Matters: Discovering the Mennonite Brethren. She and her husband, David, have two daughters, one son, one daughter-in-law, one son-in-law and three grandchildren. They are members of Ebenfeld MB Church in Hillsboro, Kansas.
