Mennonite Weekly Review

MOUNT PLEASANT, Pa. — Ken Nafziger, Marilyn Houser Hamm and Marlene Kropf have influenced Mennonite music and worship for decades.

In addition to producing hymnals and worship resources, the Music and Worship Leaders Retreat they developed — set for Jan. 22 — became so popular that participants requested an additional event to meet demand.

A Sept. 12-14 gathering at Laurelville Mennonite Church Center, where 42 participants attended the first Music and Worship Leaders’ Training Workshop, met the request while offering new resources. The event focused on training new leaders through a mentor-mentee model.

In practice with that model, each leader brought a younger student to help lead the weekend.

Samantha Lioi, in her final year at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind., led worship with Kropf. The two had met several times since February to develop themes and visuals surrounding three Scripture texts used during the weekend, and created a packet of resources for participants to take home.

“It exceeded my expectations,” Lioi said. “I forget how energizing being involved in worship is.”

Nafziger, Kropf and Houser Hamm offered concurrent sessions in their respective areas of expertise: music leading, worship leading and accompanying. In these three sessions, participants worked with three Scripture texts to develop the material to be used for Sunday’s worship service.

Kristin Swartley, a senior flute performance major at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va., attended the weekend with three fellow EMU students and four faculty members. Although Swartley has experience leading music and is most drawn to that aspect of leading, she attended the worship-leading workshop.

“It was a good chance to understand what else is going on in the service,” she said.

Each day included morning and evening prayers, reflective services that included spoken text and song.