First Mennonite: Morning services feature seminary pastor; former member of Christian Peacemaker Teams speaks in evening
Janeen Bertsche Johnson, Campus Pastor of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Ind., will preach during the 10:30 a.m. worship service Sunday, Jan. 10 at First Mennonite Church, 301 N. Jackson St., Bluffton. Her sermon title is “Seeing Ourselves in the Other.”
During the 9:15 a.m. Sunday school hour, Bertsche Johnson will reflect on a learning tour of Israel/Palestine in which she participated in November 2015. She was one of six pastors from the Central District Conference of the Mennonite Church USA who attended the tour led by the Mennonite Central Committee.
Bertsche Johnson is in her 21st year as campus pastor at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary. She also serves AMBS as an instructor, director of alumni relations, and creation care coordinator. Janeen and her husband, Barry, were married at First Mennonite (where they served as youth sponsors during college) in 1986, and are parents to Hannah (2015 Bluffton grad) and Aaron (Bluffton junior).
In a related presentation, Jonathan Brenneman will provide a Window on Mission program at 7 p.m. Sunday. Jan. 10 at First Mennonite, on his work with the Christian Peacemaker Teams’ Palestine project in Hebron, promoting human rights, especially children's rights. An offering will be taken to support Peace, Pies and Prophets, a dramatic production by Ted & Co to raise money and awareness of CPT's activities in Israel/Palestine.
Brenneman grew up attending Lima Mennonite Church. After high school, he spent eight months in Northern Ireland with Mennonite Mission Network's Radical Journey Program. He earned a degree in history and philosophy from Huntington University and attends the Kroc Institute at University of Notre Dame. For the past six months, as a part of that program he has interned with Ndifuna Ukwazi in Cape Town, South Africa, promoting urban land justice.
First Mennonite Church welcomes all to these services.
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