Two new leaders for Executive Board

Staff restructuring marks shift in communication, fund-raising strategies

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Barth Hague and Marty Lehman will join other members of Mennonite Church USA’s staff to help chart the denomination’s course. Both will be accountable to James Schrag, executive director of Mennonite Church USA.

Hague, vice president of marketing services for MMA, the stewardship agency of Mennonite Church USA, began April 1 as interim director of communication. Lehman, CEO of Adriel School, a residential and foster-care ministry in West Liberty, Ohio, will begin July 1 as full-time director of financial development.

These appointments result from actions taken by the Executive Board of Mennonite Church USA at its late January meeting, Schrag says. The board requested that he plan to collaborate with MMA based on the pew survey and communications inventory that Hague initiated in fall 2003 (see “Survey: One-Third Excited About Church,” Feb. 17).

“Constituents told me in many spoken and unspoken ways that they want to commit to the denomination,” says Hague, who will implement some of his recommendations arising from the survey-inventory. “They want to feel emotionally connected to the missional calling of Mennonite Church USA and want ownership in how that gets expressed in their communities and around the world.”

That survey revealed that many constituents are still vague about Mennonite Church USA and thus are slow to support it financially. Hague hopes to help buoy the missional identity of the denomination, while Lehman hopes to help build its funding base.

“I believe younger generations have a lot to say to us about this,” says Lehman, who worked at the former Mennonite Board of Missions and as director of admissions at Goshen (Ind.) College.

MMA is releasing Hague to work three-quarters time for the denomination. Funding for Lehman’s position will be shared by Executive Board, MMA, Mennonite Mission Network, Mennonite Publishing Network and Mennonite Education Agency—Laurie L. Oswald for Mennonite Church USA News Service

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