Mennonite Weekly Review

During 20 years as a conference leader based in the Pacific Southwest, Jeff Wright guided the region’s churches through an era of growth and change.

Jeff Wright, then minister of Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference, stands between Harry and Angela Nze, pastors of Christlife Chapel in Surprise, Ariz., at the conference’s 2008 Summer Assembly in Tucson. — Photo by John Barkman

The number of Mennonite Church USA congregations in Southern California more than doubled and added to the denomination’s ethnic diversity.

Two conferences, with Wright as staff person, merged in 1994 to form Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference, seven years before their denominations united to form MC USA.

On April 30 Wright’s leadership tenure ended after the conference’s board decided he would no longer be conference minister. The board announced in February it would redefine the conference minister’s role as the conference undergoes changes.

It also terminated a covenant made in 2000 that designated Shalom Ministries — of which Wright is president — as the conference’s mission agency. That relationship will end June 30. The conference is considering a potential future relationship.

Though his work with Pacific Southwest ended in a way he did not choose, Wright looks back with satisfaction on his legacy. “The church planting, church development, focusing especially on immigrant congregations, is front and center,” he said.

Further, he values that those congregations and pastors have an Anabaptist identity. “We could have simply welcomed anyone who wanted to affiliate, or we could have simply planted churches,” he said. Instead Wright and others from Shalom Ministries trained congregational leaders in Anabaptist theology, especially geared toward mission, he said.

Wright also values his co-workers over the years, “three generations of folks who have come to the city trying to figure out God’s call for their life, either on conference staff or Shalom ministries staff,” he said. “This has not been a one-man show; it has been a team effort.”

Conference’s vision

Tyler Zabriskie, conference moderator, said Pacific Southwest has spent two-and-a-half years looking at whether the conference meets congregations’ needs.