Central Plains Mennonite Conference

11/06/2024

Check out our latest issue of Scattered Seeds, the online and print newsletter of CPMC.

http://www.centralplainsmc.org/scattered-seeds.html

04/30/2024

The latest issue of Scattered Seeds is out! Paper copies are available in CPMC churches, and the digital version is available on our website at:

http://www.centralplainsmc.org/scattered-seeds.html

12/13/2023

Our latest issue of Scattered Seeds is out! It features an interview with Alan Roxburgh, consultant for CPMC’s Leaders Table groups. You can read it digitally here:http://www.centralplainsmc.org/uploads/1/3/1/1/13118061/ssnov2023.pdf

11/29/2023

https://anabaptistworld.org/its-a-myth/
Another great article... this one from Steve Griffin, pastor of Bellwood Mennonite Church in our conference.

Years ago, I read a book that challenged nearly every lofty ideal of American mythology I had imbibed since early childhood.

11/29/2023

https://www.mennoniteusa.org/menno-snapshots/god-looks-like-jesus/
This is a great article to remind us of who we are and why we do what we do as Mennonites.

Meghan Larissa Good shares how many churches have experienced revival as they have begun to see God as a God that looks like Jesus.

06/20/2023

We are so deeply saddened by the recent death of our beloved former conference minister, Tim Detweiler, a man who lived with integrity and empathy and meant so much in the lives of so many, including the many pastors that he walked with and shepherded in Central Plains. We give thanks for his life and his legacy, and we mourn with his family and all those whom his life touched.

View Timothy R Detweiler's obituary, send flowers and find service dates or sign the guestbook.

01/28/2023

Today Amanda Bleichty's resignation as the Conference Minister for Christian Formation was announced via email to each church and pastor in CPMC.

Amanda wrote in her resignation letter, "I am so grateful for my four years as a Conference Minister with Central Plains. I am grateful to have worked for and with such supportive and encouraging and flexible board members, churches and fellow ministry staff. These years have been eventful. Through the pandemic and its aftermath, I have learned much about Christian formation, the church, and myself. I have appreciated the opportunities I’ve had to further my learning through becoming trained as an Intercultural Development Inventory administrator and a beginning coaching clinic. I have gained experience in creating and editing communications for the conference, I have gained valuable skills in learning design and life-long faith formation, I have been a part of many, many meaningful and vulnerable conversations with pastors and lay people throughout the conference about racism, and diversity, and faith formation. I will take all these experiences and skills with me throughout my career."

Nathan Luitjens, Executive Conference Minister, said, "I am deeply grateful for Amanda's passion for the church and the wisdom and energy she brought to her role as a conference minister in Central Plains. She has challenged our conference to think about what it means to continue to grow into faith regardless of the stage of life we find ourselves in. She has worked hard at intercultural development work and made space for many of us in leadership to think more deeply about how we engage our own culture of origin and other cultures around us. We will miss her gifts here at CPMC but we wish her well in her next endeavors."

Amanda's last day will be February 28.

07/20/2022

Looks like a good trip, Des Moines Mennonite Church!

06/18/2022

You can watch our CPMC Annual Meeting worship services online--Go to https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX8KyFlZChK0Ef-rlBAaS3A to see each worship service labeled by day.

Join us live using the same link tomorrow at 9:30 for our closing worship service.

06/18/2022

We're having a great time at Conference! Thanks Carol Eisenbeis for taking these photos for us!

Annual meeting sessions for Central Plains Mennonite Conference continue today on the campus of Freeman Academy. The event concludes on Sunday morning when all area Mennonite congregations, conference delegates, & guests from our community & beyond participate in a 9:30 AM worship service at Salem-Zion Mennonite (North) Church. Come to the Table! All are welcome!

06/08/2022

We have some really excellent artists in Central Plains--and now is your chance to own some of their original work!

​As part of an initiative to increase our imaginative capacity, artists from across the conference have been invited to create imaginative art based on scripture to be showcased in a series of thematic Scattered Seeds. At our Annual Meeting in June, we will hold a silent auction for these artworks. Half of the proceeds of this auction will go to the artists who so generously donated their time, talents and imaginations to the conference, and half will go to a CPMC mission project. This year, the project we’ve chosen will be “supporting our Partners in Venezuela.” Proceeds from the auction will help to fund community meals and meals for children, as well as provide pastoral support in an extremely difficult economic environment.

If you would like to purchase one of these pieces of art, we invite you to attend Annual Meeting, or submit your maximum bid on the form on our website (http://www.centralplainsmc.org/annual-meeting-art-2022.html). Following Annual Meeting, if you have the winning bid, you will be contacted for payment and delivery options. We encourage your generosity!

06/06/2022

An Invitation to Radical Hope for Central Plains Mennonite Conference:

In the years since Central Plains Mennonite Conference was formed in 2000 from the Northern District, Iowa-Nebraska Conference and Central District, we have a history of having hard conversations and coming together, despite our differences.

On May 27-30, MC USA delegates met in Kansas City, MO for a Special Delegate Session. We are grateful for all the congregations who sent delegates, and for each of these delegates who engaged in the hard work of discernment around tables. We know that God was present and at work in these delegate sessions—in our worship, in our conversations, in our fellowship around tables.

Delegates voted to retire the membership guidelines (clarifying that accountability for pastors resides at the Conference level), adopted the Repentance and Transformation resolution (repenting for the harm that has been done to LGBTQIA people in our midst and giving them representation in the larger church), unanimously affirmed the MC USA Accessibility Resolution (making space for differently-abled people to take part fully in congregational and community life), and had conversation about the For Justice resolution (asking questions about the injustices present in the criminal justice system). We recognize that the emotional impact from the decisions made in Kansas City are varied, and we are all left wondering what they mean as we move together into the future.

As the delegate sessions began, we were asked in table groups to visualize our radical hope for the future. As conference ministers, our radical hope for Central Plains Mennonite Conference is that we would continue the good work that we have always been about—of living together as the body of Christ, even when we disagree. Our radical hope is that we would each make space for one another to work out what it means to be God’s reconciling presence in our world, in whatever contexts we find ourselves. That as we engage with our Covenant of Spiritual Practices, we make space in our communities and in our lives for Jesus to be present and for the Holy Spirit to be at work. We look forward to engaging with Jesus in what he is doing in our congregations, communities and our world.

As we look forward, delegates to CPMC Annual Meeting will continue the process of discerning how we can best participate in God’s future, together, even when we disagree. However you find yourself feeling in response to these church-wide decisions, we invite you to join us and be a part of the work of moving forward as a conference. We’re setting a place for you at the table!

-Nathan Luitjens, Susan Janzen and Amanda Bleichty, Conference Ministers