As I stood outside Doubletree Omaha Downtown waiting for my husband to retrieve our car from the hotel parking garage, I looked across the street at the fountain that is part of one of the largest bronze sculptures in the world. This sculpture park with more than 100 bronzed pieces that weave through the business district is one of my favorite attractions in Omaha, Nebraska.
The section of the sculpture park across from the hotel that hosted our biennial Pastors’ Conference and National Convention illustrates one of three conclusions I came to about our USMB community during Gathering 2024.
- “New” is the operative word for USMB.
- Our world needs salt and light.
- USMB convention delegates want to talk.
“New” is the operative word.
Before explaining the first statement, let me describe Omaha’s First National Sculpture Parks that begins along Capital Avenue about six blocks away from the Doubletree. The initial scene, called Pioneer Courage, depicts four families and their covered wagons traveling along a dry creek bed, encountering Native Americans who offer directions. The figures of men, women, children, wagons, horses and other animals are 1.25 times life size and are intended to be interactive, inviting visitors to join the journey.
This scene reminds me that like the pioneers who came through Omaha on their way West, we U.S. Mennonite Brethren are on a journey, and we don’t always know what will be around the next corner.
According to the sculpture narrative, as the wagon train heads west, it causes a herd of bison to stampede. This stampede down 15th Street has buffalo racing along the sidewalks and navigating public planters and buildings before emerging on Dodge Street where they flush a flock of Canada geese from a fountain.
This scene, called Spirit of Nebraska’s Wilderness with geese flying off as buffalo thunder into the grass around the fountain, is what you see from the hotel entrance. It features more than 50 Canada geese, larger than life size and cast in bronze and stainless steel. The flock of bronze geese transition to stainless steel as they fly across the four corners of the intersection of 16th and Dodge and into the First National Tower Atrium. According to the sculpture notes, the bronze represents Nebraska’s history while the stainless steel points to the future.
This section of the sculpture, specifically the shift from bronze to steel geese as the birds fly across the street, is a picture for me of the road ahead for USMB. Omaha marked a shift in our journey into the future. The USMB “flock” is in transition, from a team of experienced staff and board members to a new crew of leaders.
The lead “goose,” to keep with the metaphor, is Aaron Box, the new national director who joined the national office in July and was commissioned during the National Convention.
“New” is an appropriate word to use when also describing the staff members serving USMB district conferences as well as national conference board members.
Box joins district ministers James Moore, Eastern District, and Brian Harris, Southern District, as 2024 hires. Daniel Rodriguez (Central District) was hired in 2022 and Jordan Ringhofer (Pacific District) in 2020, while Aaron Rodriguez, LAMB, is the most experienced district minister, taking on the role in 2017. District ministers, hired by their respective districts, are not only the lead staff members of their districts but also serve on the National Strategy Team and as ex officio members of the national Leadership Board and Board of Faith and Life, as is the national director.
Gathering 2024 marked the retirement of three USMB staff members: Donna Sullivan, who worked 32 years as administrative assistant, bookkeeper and event planner; Don Morris, who concluded 20 years with USMB, first as Mission USA director and then national director; and Lori Taylor, who spent 16 years as administrative assistant and webmaster. That’s more than six decades of combined experience.
At every convention, delegates elect members to the Leadership Board and Board of Faith and Life. Following 2024 elections, both boards are comprised of relative newcomers. Four years of experience is the most that any returning member brings to either the Leadership Board or BFL. Of the elected Leadership Board members, one has four years of experience, five have two years or less and three are new. Of the elected BFL members, two have two years of experience and two are new to the role.
Often with new leadership comes fresh ideas and different ways of addressing existing challenges. These newcomers likely won’t be thinking, “We’ve never done it that way” or “Last time we handled it this way.” As USMB flies into the future, it will be exciting to see how our national conference changes and grows under the leadership of these men and women.
The world needs salt and light.
The theme of USMB Gathering 2024 was “Salt and Light: Living faithfully in a secular culture.” Walking around Omaha’s central business district and the Old Market neighborhood reminded me that the world needs us to be salt and light.
It was hard to miss the homeless people on the streets. I didn’t remember seeing so many homeless people in previous visits to Omaha, so I did some research. While Omaha metro’s total homeless population remains one of the smallest in the nation, in the past decade, the number of people living homeless and unsheltered has risen faster in Omaha than nearly every other U.S. city.
This research came to mind when my husband and I had lunch at The Table, a coffeeshop and eatery in historic Old Market. Talking with the hostess we learned that the coffeeshop is a nonprofit and local church (that meets next door) that supports ministries in the Old Market neighborhood.
It felt good to know that our meal tab supported the efforts of this ministry and to see their care for customers and the community. Every staff member we interacted with was kind and gracious and wished us a “blessed day.” We watched as the hostess hunted up food for a homeless man who came in asking for coffee and something to eat.
The ministry’s website echoes the salt and light theme of Gathering 2024: “We aim to be a light in the darkness and place where hope and love can flourish. ‘The Table’ creates coffee by day and prayer and worship by night.”
The churches that support ministries to the homeless in Omaha are salt and light, and each of our USMB congregations can be the same in our communities. Not all a community’s needs are as obvious as homeless people sleeping on the sidewalk or yelling profanities to no one in particular. But the needs, seen and unseen, are there. Spending a week in downtown Omaha reminded me to take the time to see the needs around me. I can do something about the needs in my community only when I see those needs.
We like to talk.
Associate editor Janae Shafer and I had the challenge of getting people to stop talking at the beginning of each Gathering 2024 session so that we could announce give-away winners. It wasn’s easy. But that’s not what I’m thinking about when I say U.S. Mennonite Brethren like to talk. Once again, in Omaha business sessions took longer than the time for which organizers allowed in the schedule. Why? Because delegates want to talk.
Ten years ago, consultant George Bullard recommended that USMB national conventions prioritize encouraging, equipping and serving attendees over informing them through denominational ministry reports. His recommendation was supported by convention evaluations that indicated delegates weren’t fans of the many reports that dominated the sessions.
For the past decade, convention organizers have given more time for worship and input from speakers. Mennonite Brethren and inter-Mennonite ministries provide written reports and video updates and only a handful of agency representatives give remarks from the stage. Unfortunately, the new format has also squeezed the time given to processing decisions and recommendations.
This year delegates acted on three recommendations, and it was the recommendation to amend USMB bylaws, giving districts flexibility in addressing a church’s capital assets if the church dissolves or leaves the conference, that generated conversation. For the recommended bylaw revision to pass, two-thirds of the delegates needed to vote yes, and that didn’t happen. With a vote of 57 for and 54 against, the vote did not have the required two-thirds majority.
The split vote isn’t surprising, given that previous national and district discussions indicated a lack of consensus on the complex issues surrounding the reversion clause. While the vote could indicate that delegates do not want districts to have flexibility in applying the reversion clause, I wonder what part the abbreviated business session played in the vote.
Did the limited time allotted for discussion convey that leaders expected delegates to rubber stamp their decisions? Maybe. Or maybe, despite the Leadership Board’s work with districts to develop the recommended bylaw revision, delegates needed more time to process and own the bylaw decision they were asked to make. If so, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
In future conventions, I encourage organizers to expect delegates will want to talk about agenda items and to build the National Convention schedule around that expectation. Business sessions can continue focusing on decision-making rather than reporting, but let’s develop a schedule that supports delegates in their desire to talk about the issues and respects those who have prepared to speak by crafting a National Convention format that allows sufficient time for both business discussions and times of worship and enrichment.
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.
