A New Announcement...

I'm sorry I've left this blog without new content for so long. However, the previous posting was cited as a reason for the decision to demand my early severance from service with the Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference. I decided to wait to post this announcement until the end of the last day of the covenant agreement between Shalom Ministries and the PSMC.

The post is in two parts. Part 1 is the text of an eMail I sent to my Shalom Ministries staff and our major contractors at the close of the business day on June 30, 2009. Part 2 is the text of a letter I sent to Dr. Juan Martinez, Chairman of the Board for Shalom Ministries earlier. He vetted the contents of the letter before I made it official with him.

Beginning in July, I hope to return to posting things related to my interests: Urban mission, church planting, community development, Discipleship, and Authentic Christian Community, instead of the church politics that have engulfed my life the past months.

PART ONE:

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

The attached letter has been very difficult to write, and even harder to send. The greatest joy in my 22 years of association with Shalom Ministries and CAL has been the friendship and fellowship with staff. I am sad beyond words that this chapter of my life and ministry has come to a unilateral end not of our choosing.

As you read the attached letter you may feel that anger is the dominant tone. I would be untruthful to say anger at the current PSMC Board is not present anywhere in the attached letter. However, I can say with personal integrity, that anger is not the dominant emotion - sadness and disappointment are the dominant feelings as I seek to come to terms with current reality. At the same time, anger can be useful to organize and clarify and tell truth in ways not yet heard. I think this letter, which was vetted by our board chairman earlier this month, clarifies a one-sided historical record and tells the truth in ways so far missing from that record.

This makes the July 24 Board and Corporate meeting important for the purposes of transition. There are conversations already in the works about possible transitions.

My life and ministry continue to move forward. I will continue to serve as pastor of the Madison Street Church. After July 31, however, my status will change, and my employment relationship will be directly with the Madison Street Church, and not via an arrangement with Shalom Ministries. On July 1, I begin as Executive Director of Madison Street Community Development Ministries, mobilizing God's people for service in three challenging neighborhoods in Riverside. In addition, I will be available to offer consulting services through an arrangement with Urban Expression, a UK-based urban mission agency. As Principal Consultant for Urban Expression North America (which will function by arrangement as a d/b/a of Madison Street Church), I will continue to be able, through UENA, to offer assistance to whatever urban ministry and church planting developments that desire my skill sets.

Communication is critical to a smooth transition. Joel, may I impose on you to forward the attached letter as well as any pertinent information from this eMail to our constituent churches in Southern California and Nevada, after June 30? Juan, I believe, is forwarding the attached letter to the Shalom Ministries Board of Directors. Jeannette, you may wish to share the attached letter with friends of Shalom Ministries in Arizona. Indeed, all of you should feel free to share the attached letter and pertinent additional information in this eMail with all our networks of friends as you see fit. I will also post the attached letter on my blog.

This is hard. CAL has been at the center of my vocational life and ministerial identity for 22 years. To leave it, because our former partners in the PSMC make my further service through Shalom Ministries too difficult to navigate, does leave me sad. However, a deeper feeling is the love I have for each of you. I leave this assignment cherishing you and 60+ other staff, interns, associates, and board members I have served alongside all these years.

Because of Christ's just peace,

Jeff Wright

PART TWO

June 30, 2009

Dr. Juan Martinez

Via eMail

Dear Juan:

It has become increasing apparent to me in the past few months that Shalom Ministries will not be able to function effectively among the member church constituency we share with the Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference as long I lead Shalom Ministries. The animosity and complete lack of candor the current PSMC Board of Directors has directed toward me since last fall, and especially since the February debacle at the winter PSMC assembly, effectively undermines my ability to continue to relate in good faith to the congregations which make up our membership, without risking continued serious misinterpretation of my actions by the current PSMC Board. Repeatedly, the current PSMC Board has communicated a mixed message of private admonitions to me about the very real potential for disciplinary action against my ministerial credentials should I engage in what I see to be legitimate missional relationships with PSMC member congregations, coupled with occasional public announcements about all the effective work I have done over the last two decades.

I had hoped, following the experience of a dreadful lack of governance exercised by the PSMC Board in the years 2004-2008, the unilateral decision of the current PSMC Board in the Spring of 2008 to force my professional portfolio into two one-half time positions would occasion a new sense of confidence and allow me the privilege of continuing to serve the Mennonite church community in Southern California for the rest of my active ministerial career. While the process that arrived at that decision was flawed from the outset, the bias toward some sort of action did seem at the time to be of greater health than the PSMC Board was able to muster in the preceding years. I continue to feel the utter conviction that the joint nature of the missional work of Shalom Ministries and the ministerial credentialing and leadership development work of the various regional conferences has, since the days of Allan Yoder, been a source of organizational capacity and strength and not a source of confusion and weakness. Unfortunately, as we know, the current PSMC Board of Directors did not and does not share this view. I do not take issue with their right to make a decision which effectively disregards and dismembers nearly thirty years of missional action. However, that does not change the fact that I am troubled at the lack of genuine conversation and shared process with the Shalom Ministries Board of Directors, as was once promised by the current PSMC Board. I am deeply disappointed by the disingenuousness and utter lack of regard with which I and other Shalom Ministries staff have been treated by the current PSMC Board. These real and serious lapses in basic integrity by the current PSMC Board will someday bring their own reckoning. Already, church plants have withdrawn from relationship with the PSMC. Already, good leaders have emotionally disengaged from the PSMC. I am saddened, but not surprised, by this turn of events. From my 20+ years of observation and engagement, it seems to me that no area conference in Mennonite Church USA has successfully sustained highly functioning missional capacity combined with highly functioning ministerial leadership development, and strong relationality while lacking sustaining partnerships with other agencies. Conferences need help in sustaining missional direction. Given the recent demise of US Ministries within Mennonite Mission Network, and the ongoing and somewhat confusing reorganization of Mennonite Central Committee, the current PSMC Board has rendered the Conference ill-equipped for a meaningful missional future. In this present environment, Shalom Ministries under my leadership is unable to fill the deep void that has been created by the current PSMC Board without risking the likelihood of a significant crisis.

Accordingly, I am resigning as President and Chief Operating Officer of Shalom Ministries, and Executive Director/Senior Consultant for the Center for Anabaptist Leadership, effective July 31, 2009. Such a decision is occasioned by profound sadness on my part. Since arriving in Southern California in July 1986, my entire ministerial career has been tied closely to CAL, and the severing of that relationship is painful. However, I will not risk the potential of losing my ministerial credentials at the hand of the current PSMC Board of Directors by continuing to engage in missional training, coaching, and consulting with the PSMC churches of Southern California in this current environment of hypocrisy and bad faith on the part of the PSMC Board of Directors. The time has come to walk away, and let the current PSMC Board discover what, if any, consequences befall their short-sighted, mean-spirited, and misguided decisions.

I have appreciated our journey together in ministry, Juan. Going back to our seminary days, we wondered if the Mennonite Church was sustainable in Southern California. We will know the answer to that question some day. But for now, this particular journey I have been on with these beloved congregations must come to an end. I want to thank you for your steadfast friendship and unflinching honesty with me over the years, as well as your continued support and confidence in my leadership.

Wishing you Christ’s just peace,

Rev. Jeff Wright

President/Chief Operating Officer, Shalom Ministries

Executive Director/Senior Consultant, Center for Anabaptist Leadership