by Rachel Schlegel
Meghan L. Good, lead pastor at Albany (Ore.) Mennonite Church, will spend a week at Hesston College Oct. 25 to 31 as pastor-in-residence and as a featured speaker for the annual Anabaptist Vision and Discipleship Series conference.
Good received her B.A. in philosophy and biblical studies from Gordon College (Wenham, Mass.) and her M.Div. from Duke University Divinity School (Durham, N.C.). She previously worked for Duke University’s Center for Reconciliation and spent time teaching and preaching in Uganda.
As pastor-in-residence, Good will spend part of the week connecting with students. Her theme for the week is “The Inside-Out Kingdom.” She will speak to students during 11 a.m. chapel Oct. 25 and 27 in the Hesston Mennonite Church sanctuary and during student-led Campus Worship at 8 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 31, in Northlawn room 109. Good’s chapel and Campus Worship presentations are open to the public.
Good will also present a church-college conversations lunch workshop with pastors at 11:45 a.m. Monday, Oct. 25. The theme for the workshop is “The Way Truth Comes to Life.” Good says she drew her inspiration for the workshop title from “The Contemplative Pastor” (1989) by pastor and writer Eugene Peterson, “But Jesus is the Way as well as the Truth. The way the Gospel is conveyed is as much a part of the kingdom as the truth presented. Why are pastors experts on the truth and dropouts on the way?”
Pastors interested in attending the free lunch workshop can contact the Church Relations office at 620-327-8109.
The second part of the week will feature Good as one of the main speakers for the college’s annual Anabaptist Vision and Discipleship Series conference Oct. 29 to 31. The theme for the conference is 3-D Jesus.
Conference participants will explore questions on individual perceptions of Jesus, such as “Do we emphasize certain aspects of Jesus and neglect other aspects in ways that distort who Jesus really is?” and “In our negligence, do we make Jesus into our own image instead of the other way around?”
“The goal of 3-D Jesus is to discover the whole of the story of Jesus,” said Michele Hershberger, Hesston College faculty member and conference coordinator. “We’ll look at his life, death, resurrection and ongoing work and presence in the church and the world as a continuous narrative, allowing that story to change us.”
Other conference presenters include Dr. Steve Dintaman, professor of theology at LCC International University in Klaipeda, Lithuania; Dr. Rev. Kevass Harding of Dellrose United Methodist Church in Wichita, Kan.; Pastor John Murray of Hesston (Kan.) Mennonite Church; Hershberger and Marion Bontrager, both faculty members at Hesston College.
A complete AVDS schedule, registration information and speaker information are available at www.hesston.edu/AVDS . Cost for registration is $120, and the group rate is $85 per person. For more information, contact Elaine Schmidt at 620-327-8290.
Located 30 miles north of Wichita, Hesston College is the two-year liberal arts college of Mennonite Church USA.