Everence participants at the 2024 Hope for the Future conference included (left to right): Madalyn Metzger, Chief Marketing Officer; Colleen Whigham, Everence Federal Credit Union board member; Aphaphanh Nussbaum, Director of DEI; and Leonard Dow, Vice President of Community and Church Development. (Photo by X. Marisa Smucker, Mennonite Mission Network.)
GOSHEN, Ind. – Everence® representatives recently gathered in Dallas, Texas, on Feb. 9-11, 2024, to attend the Hope for the Future conference – an annual event that provides space for Black, Indigenous, Latina/o, Asian and other leaders of color from across Mennonite Church USA. Madalyn Metzger (right), Everence Chief Marketing Officer, provides a report during the 2024 Hope for the Future gathering. She is joined by Sibonokuhle Ncube (left), Mennonite Mission Network Regional Director for Africa and Europe. (Photo courtesy of Sue Park-Hur, Mennonite Church USA.)
The conference’s theme – Breaking Chains, Mending Walls – drew from Isaiah 58 as an invitation for God’s people to remember who they are and what they are called to do in times of destructive challenges. Participants explored the theme through brief worship services and learning labs on topics related to conflict management, migration, and changing generational demographics.
Additionally, attendees engaged in two keynote sessions led by Felipe Hinojosa, Ph.D., on the history of Latina/o and Black Mennonite leaders and congregations that have profoundly shaped the Mennonite Church. Dr. Hinojosa serves as the John and Nancy Jackson Endowed Chair in Latin America and Professor of History at Baylor University (Waco, Texas), and is the son of a Mennonite pastor who first encountered Mennonites as a migrant farmworker in Archbold, Ohio, before planting a new church, Iglesia Menonita del Cordero, in Brownsville, Texas, in the early 1970s.
Everence co-sponsored the conference, along with Mennonite Church USA, Mennonite Education Agency, Mennonite Mission Network, and MCC U.S. A portion of the Everence sponsorship included scholarships to help students from the MC USA-affiliated colleges and seminaries to attend, and foster a more intergenerational experience.
Now in its 11th year, the Hope for the Future conference provides a safe setting to assess the present reality and experiences Black, Indigenous, Latina/o, Asian and other people of color leaders within MC USA and to provide spiritual renewal, resourcing and mutual support across cultural racial and intergenerational lines for systemic transformation.