Pastors Week

Pastors Week is an annual event devoted to providing resources in ministry, biblical studies and/or theology for pastors and other church leaders. It's a week rich with worship, inspiring presentations, networking and renewal for those who devote their time to serving their congregations.

The Spirit of the Lord is Upon Us: The Immeasurable Dimensions of Jubilee

January 28–31, 2013

What happens when the Spirit of God moves pastors and business leaders in the same direction? What happens when church leaders and leaders from other professions come together, pray, call on the Spirit, and take seriously the gifts the Spirit gives--including gifts of financial management and entrepreneurship? Could it be that God’s people more fully embody Jesus’ mission to preach good news to the poor, proclaim freedom for prisoners, bring recovery of sight to the blind, release the oppressed and proclaim the year of Jubilee?

Pastors Week 2013 will feature venture capitalist, Bible teacher and social entrepreneur Dr. Kim Tan of Surrey, United Kingdom, speaking on what happened when, in the midst of a successful biochemistry and business career, he encountered John Howard Yoder and Yoder’s teachings on Jubilee economics. Come hear how this meeting changed him and how Jubilee economics subsequently has changed the world in many places.

Pastors Week will also feature testimonies of the power of Jubilee living from among several Mennonite communities of faith. Come listen to these stories of living in community, creating and sharing material wealth, and releasing wealth to help others. Hear real-life ministry experiences—the good, the bad, and the ugly—and their surprising rewards.

The “Jubilee Gospel” is too good to keep to yourself! We encourage you to bring a business leader or other entrepreneurial spirit with you to Pastors Week. Invite friends to join you in imagining together how God might want to work in new ways in your congregation and community.

Featured presenter

Dr. Kim Tan is a venture capitalist on a mission. A biotech and social entrepreneur, he is founder and Chairman of SpringHill Management Ltd., a United Kingdom-based private equity fund management company specializing in biotech and social venture capital investments. Captivated by John Howard Yoder’s lectures and writings on Jubilee economics in the mid 1980’s, Dr. Tan developed a friendship with Mennonite missionaries Alan and Eleanor Kreider. He and several friends committed themselves to living out discipleship principles in their lifestyle, entrepreneurial enterprises and investments.

An accomplished biochemist, Tan also became an itinerating Bible teacher and the author of several theological books: The Jubilee Gospel; Lost Heritage: The heroic story of radical Christianity; Sting in the Tail: The parables as Oriental stories; Understanding the Bible through Eastern Eyes; and Fighting Poverty through Enterprise: The case for social venture capital. Among the organizations he has founded or helped to lead are: Jubilee Action, a human rights charity for children and families at risk in Asia, Africa, Central America and South America; the Transformational Business Network, a network of business people and corporate organizations that use an enterprise approach to tackling global poverty in 22 countries; the Kuzuko Game Reserve, a conservation and social transformation project in an area of high unemployment in South Africa; and Hagar International, an international Christian organization dedicated to the protection, recovery and community integration of survivors of human rights abuses.

Worship

• Preachers: David B. Miller, Cyneatha Millsaps, Leonard Dow
• Worship leaders: Marilyn Rudy-Froese, Mark Diller Harder