Historical Committee

Back cover copy | Table of Contents | A Cheyenne Legacy at the Washita River | Drinking Anabaptist Tea . . .| In the Footsteps of Clayton Kratz

Gathering at the Hearth: Stories Mennonites Tell
A collection of twenty-eight stories from Mennonite History

by John E. Sharp
Herald Press, 2001

Order from Provident Bookstores or call 800-759-4447

The Threshold is High By Anne Stuckey Until the 1970s women's gifts of leadership in the church were not officially recognized and cultivated. Even then, it was not easy for women who felt called to pastoral ministry to exercise their gifts freely. But Emma Richards and Marilyn Miller led the way. Richards was ordained in the Mennonite Church in 1973, and Miller was ordained in the General Conference Church in 1976. After 25 years of leadership in the church both women reflected on their calling and experience at a celebration held at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana, January 26, 1998. The writer, Anne Stuckey, recently completed nine years as minister of congregational leadership at Mennonite Board of Congregational Ministries, Elkhart, Indiana. A Japanese expression-"The threshold is high"-describes the first high step into a traditional Japanese home. At the entrance you must first remove your shoes and then take a high step over the threshold in order to enter. This image also fits the experience of the first women call to congregational pastoral ministry 25 years ago. Emma Richards was called to such a ministry by Lombard (Ill.) Mennonite Church and ordained by the Illinois Conference in 1973, making her the first ordained woman in the Mennonite Church. And it 1976, Marilyn Miller was ordained by the Western District Conference of the General conference Mennonite Church to serve as co-pastor of Arvada (Colo.) Mennonite Church. Emma made some decisions early on that provided the framework for her years as a pastor. In her spiritual life she decided not to let her inner well run dry. Even though this meant getting up at 4 a.m. to pray, read Scripture and meditate, this daily connection to God made ministry possible. In the congregation, she decided that the agenda for ministry would come from the congregation, not from her, and that she would lead by loving the congregation, its purpose and its mission. Emma preached well-prepared, expository sermons, keeping Jesus central both in sermons and prayers. And she paired this priority with being an Anabaptist-Mennonite pastor in teaching and in living. At a time when women pastors were scarce and often called upon to serve the broader church, Emma decided to stay in the congregation, especially in the early years, rather than go out and preach in other churches or lead conferences on women in ministry. She wanted to allay fears that with a woman as pastor men would not come to church, attendance would decline and men would not go to a woman pastor for help. But this was not the experience of Lombard Mennonite Church. What sustained this call for Emma was the certainty that she was always inside the will of God for her life. She knew that Jesus was near her and that the Holy Spirit was guiding her. When you hear Emma talk today, you notice her thankfulness. She is thankful for the overarching mercy of God through Jesus Christ, for early church leaders who trusted her when others wre raising their eyebrows. She is thankful for a new generation of women who have heard the call and taken the step into pastoral leadership with integrity and skill. And she is thankful for her children, her husband, Joe, the home and the congregation in which she grew up. Marilyn Miller tells of hearing the call for more pastors when she was in elementary school in the late 1940s. She heard: "The church at large is greatly in need of pastors. Pray that more young men will open their ears and hear the call of the Lord." Standing in her backyard in Kansas and looking up at the stars, she asked God that if he was in need of more pastors, why wasn't she created a man? After watching her father, who was a pastor, she knew that she, too, would love to be a pastor. But it wasn't until after marriage and after saying at home to raise her children for nine years that Marilyn even had the chance to prepare for ministry. God made that possible. Marilyn's father, Milo Kauffman, supported her call to ministry and never questioned her ordination. After being president of Hesston (Kan.) College for 19 years, he had opportunity to travel extensively throughout the church. When people asked what the thought about women being called to ministry, he would say, "When I look at women around the church using their gifts, I have to say with Peter, "If then God gave the same gift to them as he have to us . . . who am I to stand in God's way" (Acts 11:17). When Marilyn was questioning whether it was necessary to be ordained in order to pastor, a saint from the Arvada congregation climbed the hill behind the church with her just to talk. The woman said, "Maybe if you allow us to celebrate the gifts God has given you, then we can celebrate the gifts Gad has given us a little better." God, children, congregation and family all come together in pastoral ministry. Marilyn's reflections on the death of her son in a kayaking accident, her daughter's wedding and the similarities between church planting in Boulder, Colorado, and developing a home brings one back to the totality of life in ministry, which includes all these things. "It is relationships in life that are most important," she says. "Love for God and love for people." Emma said it and Marilyn echoed that the threshold to ministry is indeed high, but they are glad they took the high step and in so doing, are thankful they were upheld by God's grace and mercy through Jesus Christ. And if there is any glory, they said, it belongs to God. Menno Simons wrote of the vocation of preachers, "They were driven into this office by the Spirit of God, with pious hearts" (Foundations). That is true of both Marilyn Miller and Emma Richards. While women who have been called to ministry have experienced many disappointments and hurts in the past 25 years, the grace of God gave each the power to take that high step into ministry. This article was published in The Mennonite, August 4, 1998, pp. 8-9. Reprinted with permission from Gathering at the Hearth: Stories Mennonites Tell edited by John E. Sharp, Herald Press, Copyright 2001. The book is sponsored by the Historical Committee of the Mennonite Church.