Past Pastors & Leaders Events
AMBS Pastors & Leaders is an annual gathering of pastors and those who hold leadership roles in local congregations, chaplaincy contexts, regional churches, denominational settings, not-for-profits and community organizations.
We meet together to connect, worship, learn, and be inspired for our ministries. Our gatherings reflect AMBS’s Anabaptist orientation but are open to people from any denomination or no denomination.
Want to learn more about the upcoming Pastors & Leaders conference? View the main Pastors & Leaders conference page.
Information about our past events:
Pastors & Leaders | Deep Faith 2022: Formed in the Wilderness, Leading in Hope
Hosted: Monday, Feb. 21 – Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022
A joint conference of AMBS and Mennonite Church USA Faith Formation.
What can we learn from leaders who were formed in the “wilderness” for the struggles we face today? During this conference we will draw insight from the late Alan Kreider’s book, The Patient Ferment of the Early Church: The Improbable Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire (Baker Academic, 2016), as we seek guidance and inspiration for the challenges of our time. Each day, Eleanor Kreider, Alan’s wife and partner in ministry and scholarship, will offer reflections on readings from Alan’s book, followed by responses from two Anabaptist church leaders. Also, each day, Tom Yoder Neufeld, a close friend of Alan and Eleanor, will lead Bible studies that draw on stories of leading in hope through difficult times. Through responses, sermons, and workshops, we will learn from today’s leaders what it means to lead the church with hope today.
Read how this conference looked to the Early Church for inspiration to lead with hope today.
Video recordings of 2022 sessions
- Monday evening worship, Sibonokuhle Ncube
- Tuesday morning worship, Tom Yoder Neufeld
- Tuesday afternoon teaching session, Eleanor Kreider; Responses: Nekeisha Alayna Alexis and Caley Ortman
- Wednesday morning worship, Tom Yoder Neufeld
- Wednesday afternoon teaching session, Eleanor Kreider; Responses: Moriah Hurst and Mark Tiessen-Dyck
- Thursday morning worship, Tom Yoder Neufeld
- Thursday morning teaching session, Eleanor Kreider; Responses: Madeline Maldonado and Matt Troyer-Miller
- Thursday closing sermon, Rolando Sosa Granados
Pastors & Leaders 2021: Thriving Together
Hosted: Monday, March 1 – Thursday, March 4, 2021
Sometimes it seems like all the energy you planned to use for ministry and mission is being expended just surviving week to week. It’s exhausting.
So how can congregations and their leaders thrive in this time of unprecedented disruption? Who do we turn to for help? After all, who actually knows how to lead well in a time of pandemic, racial reckoning, climate crisis and political upheaval? For this event, we invited creative, seasoned leaders to offer their best insights into what congregations need to thrive in today’s world.
Video recordings of the plenary sessions can be found below.
Video recordings of 2021 sessions
- Dare to Hope – Cynthia L. Hale, D.Min.
- Dare to Dream – Cynthia L. Hale, D.Min.
- Sustaining Healthy Community with Pan Dulce – James Nelson Gingerich, M.D.
- Not Just Disciples, but Disciple Makers – Marvin Lorenzana, D.Min.
- Apocalyptic Imagination: Christ Our Hope in the Present Tense – Drew Strait
Shaping Faith in a Digital Culture: A joint conference of Pastors & Leaders 2020 and Deep Faith
Hosted: Monday, March 2 – Thursday, March 5, 2020
How do we recognize the gospel in our digitally saturated culture? Join other pastors, lay leaders, formation leaders, youth leaders, parents, and educators as we attend to faith formation in the congregation and community. This conference featured Karen-Marie Yust, M.Div., Th.D., author of Real Kids, Real Faith and professor of Christian education at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia.
Video recordings of 2020 plenary sessions
Video recordings of the plenary sessions can be found below.
Recorded sessions from earlier events
If you missed past conferences, you might have missed out on the community, but you can still listen to what the speakers had to say. Click the orange arrow below to listen to the keynote messages.