As many of you may know, my name is Chris Pedersen and I will be interning at Columbus Mennonite for the next year. I have been able to introduce myself to many of you but for those I haven’t yet met, hi! I was asked to write the blog for this week so then I could give the congregation another opportunity to get to know me more. I love talking about food. So, I decided to write my first blog about food. This past summer I worked on MTSO’s (Methodist Theological School in Ohio) organic farm, called Seminary Hill Farm. I had never worked on a farm before but I loved what the farm was trying to do. Seminary Hill Farm has been around for three years and is striving to produce deliciously organic food for the MTSO students and faculty and those in the community. One day, it dawned

Last summer we selected twelve scriptures that guide our understanding of the Bible and the life of faith.  The scriptures were the basis of our summer worship series and continue to be colorfully displayed in the church foyer and on our website.  But since the Bible isn’t all love and peace, we also named “difficult passages” which seem to either confuse or contradict our dearest values.  Last October we had four weeks to focus on two of those themes: the subjugation of women, and violence. One of the difficult passages frequently mentioned that we didn’t address was Revelation.  Yes, the entire book of Revelation.  But do not fear…this October will be a continuation of the difficult passages series, with the whole month dedicated to Revelation.  Like the previous series, each service will include a brief reflection/response after the sermon from a congregational member. This Sunday we’ll worship up at Camp

Last week I attended a pastor peer meeting in the Bluffton area.  It was the first time Renee Kanagy, the new pastor of Cincinnati Mennonite Fellowship, where I pastored before Columbus, was a part of this group.  Over the course of conversation Renee mentioned that she lived in Columbus from age three to six, attending Neil Avenue Mennonite Church (the former name of Columbus Mennonite Church).  I’m also aware of two other pastor friends who attended this congregation at some point in their young lives – Karl Shelly, one of the pastors of Assembly Mennonite in Goshen, Indiana; and Marty Troyer, pastor of Houston Mennonite Church.  In other words, this congregation has helped form pastors currently leading congregations in Cincinnati, Houston, and Goshen.  I’m sure there are others. This academic year I’m glad we can welcome another potential future pastor.  Chris Pedersen is a second year student at MTSO (Methodist

Last Thursday we had an abbreviated September Church Council business meeting in order to use our time doing something else.  Our goal was to listen to what the Spirit has been doing among us and discern if there may be an area to which our congregation might be called to give extra attention in the coming year.  Present were the leaders of Commissions – Worship, Mission, Community Life, Christian Education, Facilities, + Shepherding Team, as well as church staff. The white board pictured above is an artifact of our collective minds, which you may or may not find legible or intelligible. We began by naming the tasks that each Commission does along with some things that each one has prioritized in the past year.  After this we spoke to these two questions: What do you see as something significant that has happened in our congregation in the past year? What

While trying to figure out what to write about for this week’s blog, I could not get out of my mind a local news story that ran last week about OSU’s move-in day.  Perhaps some of you saw it as well.  The summary of the story is that a few young men living in a house located along Indianola Avenue hung banners during move-in day for Ohio State University that read “Dads, we’ll take it from here” and “Daughter day care.” This news story stuck with me for a number of reasons, but two things seem especially pertinent: First, the article that ran on the Columbus NBC station was titled, “Are OSU move-in banners inappropriate?”  The fact that we as a society are still leaving this question up for debate bothers me.  In what way is it “appropriate” to very publically display signs to strangers that insinuate that women are merely