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2007-10-02 issue:

From seeker to leader

How worship develops young leaders at First Mennonite Church of San Francisco

by Sheri Hostetler

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In the early 1990s, I was what you might call a “recovering Mennonite.” At 29, I had felt alienated from the church of my childhood for several years. I had too many questions about faith, too many seemingly unorthodox opinions. But I longed to connect with God and a spiritual community in a deeper way, I still held strongly to many of the ethical teachings of my childhood faith and I couldn’t imagine being anything but a Mennonite.

In this frame of mind, I first walked through the doors of First Mennonite Church of San Francisco in March 1992. Immediately the church’s “seeker friendliness” felt like a good fit. People didn’t have all the answers yet worshiped together joyfully.

Within months the worship committee asked me to help lead worship during Lent. Though I had recently graduated from seminary, I had never before led a congregation in worship. I loved it and—thanks to the mentoring of my co-worship leader, Doug Basinger—found I was good at it. In another few months I was invited onto the worship committee and eventually became its chair.

Three years after I first attended First Mennonite as a “recovering Mennonite,” I had not only refound my faith but felt called to the ministry. Such is the work of the Spirit, and such is the particular ministry of First Mennonite Church of San Francisco to young adults.

My story is not atypical at First Mennonite. In our 31-year history, more than a dozen young adults (many of them members of our Mennonite Voluntary Service unit) have gone on to seminary and been ordained, most within the Mennonite church. Two women in their 20s with me at First Mennonite are now pastoral colleagues. Dozens of others have become lay leaders at First Mennonite and other congregations. Currently young adults in their 20s chair almost half our church’s committees, including a capital campaign committee.

At a time when many denominations, including ours, are trying to figure out how to attract more young adults to churches and train them for leadership, people have been asking us, How do you do what you do?

Partly the answer lies in having a Mennonite Voluntary Service unit. “Everyone who is involved in our congregation and who was in MVS has taken on a leadership position here,” says Russ Schmidt, local program coordinator for our unit. “You don’t have to look far in our congregation to see that the people who have been involved in service of some kind—MVS or Mennonite Central Committee—are going to be leaders.”

But perhaps most importantly, we have (almost without knowing it) created a vehicle of leadership development through our approach to worship. It starts with worship that young seekers can relate to because of its honesty, says Pat Plude, our congregation’s minister of worship arts. “There’s an authenticity, a truth telling that happens in our worship that appeals to young adults,” she says. “We use Christian language, but it’s put in a context of authentic sharing and storytelling that gives that language real-world value for young people who are trying to figure out so much about their faith and how it works in the world.”

For instance, we regularly ask people to tell their spiritual journey, during which they freely admit to doubts about basic tenets of the faith, such as the meaning of Jesus’ atonement. In a Lenten series on money, one of our members, who was giving a sermon on living ethically with wealth, told exactly how much money he had inherited and what he did with it. During a sharing time after a sermon on Cesar Chavez, who started the United Farmworkers Union, one of our members stood up and challenged us on whether we were really committed to justice for the people who pick the food we eat everyday. This sort of honesty in our sharing time is not unusual. All this combines to create a safe place where young adults want to bring their gifts to worship because they know their honesty won’t make people uncomfortable, Plude says.

Having created that safe space, we then regularly invite young adults to take significant leadership roles during worship. They plan and lead worship, lead singing, give reflections and faith stories. Young adults new to our congregation realize there is a meaningful place for them and their gifts in worship and that the pastor and other “old-timers” will step back and allow them to step forward to lead. They also realize they don’t need to have it all together faith-wise to lead a congregation in worship. Not only is it OK to be a seeker at First Mennonite, we invite people to leadership while they are still seekers. This congregation’s acceptance of my doubts and its willingness to embrace my leadership gifts led me both to a mature faith and to my vocation as pastor.

Besides a seeker-friendly worship culture, we also have a clear process for young adults to become involved in the worship life of the church. Every fall we invite people to fill out a “things I’d enjoy” form that lists the many opportunities to be involved in at the church. Based on that, we first invite young adults to participate in worship in less anxiety-producing ways, such as reading Scripture or singing in a choir. If they seem energized by this, we may ask them to give a reflection on a Scripture passage or lead worship. Finally, young adults who show an interest in worship are invited to serve on the worship committee.

Throughout this process, we make sure young adults have adequate mentoring. As pastor, I have coached many young adults giving their first reflection in front of a congregation. Pat Plude has mentored many of our young adult song leaders via one-to-one teaching and through a Sunday school class called “Song Leading for Beginners.” We pair new worship and song leaders with experienced ones, who guide them through the process and offer valuable feedback. Finally, instruction in worship leading is a regular part of our worship committee, which usually has a large percentage of young adults on it. This year, out of a nine-member committee, five are in their 20s.

Mentoring future worship leaders has happened at even a younger age at First Mennonite. A year ago we asked our elementary children to lead some part of worship, such as the call to worship or offering prayer, with the adult worship leader. We also asked our older children to read Scripture. All the children are offered guidance by an adult who coaches them on pacing, mike placement and other details of public speaking.

But how does worship leading translate into leadership in general? More than anything, good worship leading is a process of spiritual formation that instills the character of a leader into a young adult. “The first thing worship leading teaches is that it’s not about you,” says Rebecca Slough,  associate professor of worship and the arts at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Ind., and a former pastor at First Mennonite. “When you are worship leading well, you learn that your responsibility is to be in front of the congregation in such a way that invites the congregation together for the sake of connecting with God.”

David Wieand, a former MVSer who is now a member of the pastoral care committee and chair of our MVS capital campaign committee, found numerous leadership development benefits to being involved in worship. “Most people have an aversion to being up in front of people. But over time, through practice and trial and error, the anxiety tends to lessen, and confidence starts to build,” especially, he says, when constructive criticism and positive feedback are offered.

David says he also learned the rudiments of project management through planning worship. Coordinating the parts of a service, contacting people to do tasks and doing this all within a specific time frame were new experiences for him at the time. “Even having the confidence to pick up the phone and say, ‘Hey, would you be willing to do the children’s story,’ needing to do that sort of negotiation or influencing on a minor scale was a learning experience. Those small steps all helped me build the confidence that I can do it.”

Now 15 years later, I am what you might call a “recovered Mennonite.” At 44, I find myself involved in Mennonite Church USA as a pastor, a member of the conference pastoral leadership committee and as an active mentor of new generations of Mennonites. I still have questions about faith and some unorthodox opinions. But I have a spiritual community that helps me connect with God and holds me accountable to the church’s ethical teachings. I still can’t imagine being anything but a Mennonite.

Sheri Hostetler is pastor of First Mennonite Church of San Francisco.

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