Mennonite Weekly Review

NEWTON, Kan. — Rachel Swartzendruber Miller became director of Convention Planning for Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership in mid-July.

Swartzendruber Miller, 29, of Phoenix, where she lives with her husband, Tyson, was named to the post after Jorge Vallejos, director, announced his resignation. Swartzendruber Miller had helped plan conventions as associate director for Convention Planning since 2006.

Swartzendruber Miller grew up on a dairy farm near Kalona, Iowa, her family has run for five generations. She attended Lower Deer Creek Mennonite Church.

“My parents are heavily involved in their congregation,” she said. “They taught me that you get out of something whatever you put into it.”

Swartzendruber Miller graduated from Iowa Mennonite School in Kalona in 1998, Hesston (Kan.) College in 2000 and Goshen (Ind.) College in 2002.

After graduating from Goshen, she was hired as an admissions counselor for Hesston College. She left that post in 2004 to earn a master’s degree in communication from Wichita (Kan.) State University, where she spent time studying Mennonite women’s writings in the church press. After graduating, she become the associate director of Convention Planning in August 2006 and is pursuing a doctorate in leadership theory in the School of Education from Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Mich.

Swartzendruber Miller has a vision for the ministry of conventions, held every two years, in the life of MC USA. The next convention is set for July 4-11, 2011, in Pittsburgh.

“My long-term vision is that conventions will continue to do what they have always done so well — celebrating what unifies and energizes us as God’s Anabaptist people,” she said. “Because of conventions, I want Mennonite Church USA and its congregations and individuals to better know how God is calling us to serve.”

Trusting the process of the delegate body is key, she said.

“Sadly, we as humans are so quick to criticize process, yet make little effort to get involved,” she said. “If we want to see the Mennonite denomination doing God’s work in the world, we need to individually seek out ways to assist in doing that work.”