Nina Lanctot has One Job

For the last two and a half years this has been my office at Associated Mennonite Biblcial Seminary. I was the half time Assistant Director of Engaging Pastors as well as the half time pastor of Florence Church of the Brethren Mennonite.

Well, yes, I am an engaging pastor! But there was more to it than that. The seminary had been awarded a multi-million dollar grant to foster interdependence between seminary professors and pastors. There were ten programs as part of this great experiment. And it was my job to find professors and pastors who wanted to participate and to help keep the programs running.

This was a great opportunity for me. Since I did not grow up Mennonite, it gave me a much broader window into the Mennonite Church in the United States and Canada. I especially enjoyed the opportunities I had to relate to pastors in person. Here is a sampler:

I hosted about a dozen pastors who were on sabbatical at AMBS at various times throughout these years.

I hosted six Spanish speaking pastors in a weekend visit to AMBS. Maria Montoya made tamales for this visit, and people at AMBS are still raving about them.

Two groups of new pastors came for long weekends, one in 2008 and one in 2009. I partnered with AMBS and denominational leaders in offering these pastors resources to strengthen their mininstries in the coming years.

This fall I was an organizer and participant in the Interfaith Spiritual Care Pastor Faculty Study group. Four chaplains and five pastors meet with Daniel Schipani to share about our experiences of relating to people of various faith traditions.

The culmination of the grant was a Summative Conference at AMBS in early December where about 120 professors, pastors, conference ministers, theological educators and denominational leaders reflected on what we had been learning. That kind of process will be on-going in seminary curriculum revision and in making theological education useful for the changing face of our communities and congregations.

So it is both with sadness and relief that my position comes to a planned ending along with the ending of the Engaging Pastors grant. I packed up my office last Friday following a full week of Pastors' Week on campus. And now...

Now I have two weeks to do the final preparations before I leave on sabbatical on February 14. How fortunate I have been in these tough economic times to have two jobs! It will be easier and more enjoyable to manage one.

Thanks for your grace in working with my complex schedule in the last two and a half years! We will see what the fall brings...