L.E.A.D. Conference gathers in Ephrata to learn to ‘Listen, Equip, Adapt, Disciple’

Keynote speaker Dennis R. Edwards of North Park Theological Seminary, and preachers Etienne Nsanzimana of the Church of the Brethren in Rwanda and Jeff Carter of Bethany Theological Seminary, led the main sessions at the first-ever L.E.A.D. Conference of the Church of the Brethren on Nov. 15-17.

Some 150 people gathered at Ephrata (Pa.) Church of the Brethren including participants from around the country and members of the Ephrata congregation who helped host the event.

In addition to the three keynote sessions and two worship services, 20 break-out sessions were given by a wide variety of Church of the Brethren speakers on topics related to the four focus areas: listen, equip, adapt, and disciple. Break-out sessions were in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole, and language translation was available during the keynote sessions and worship.

The planning team was led by Nate Polzin, executive director of Discipleship and Leadership Formation, which sponsored the conference. Also on the planning team were Ephrata lead pastor Brian Messler; pastor James Washington of the Pleasant View and Elm Street Church of the Brethren congregations in the area of Lima, Ohio; pastor Ilexene Alphonse of Miami (Fla.) Haitian Church of the Brethren and the country advisory team for Haiti; Lupita Cruz-Ortiz, church planter and associate pastor at Mount Hermon Church of the Brethren and Hispanic Ministries in Bassett, Va.; Jennifer Kreighbaum, a pastor at Buck Creek Church of the Brethren who is on the leadership team of West Marva District; and Northern Ohio District executive minister Kris Hawk.

Polzin announced that plans are already in the works for another L.E.A.D. Conference in 2026.

A New Testament scholar and dean and vice president of Church Relations at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, Ill.–the graduate theological school of the Evangelical Covenant Church–Edwards has pastored in urban settings including Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., and Brooklyn, N.Y.

He addressed humility as a Christian identity marker (Colossians 3), in his first keynote session, and then went on to speak about humility and shepherding as a leadership virtue (1 Thessalonians 2), and to identify humility as the countercultural way to transform society (Philippians 2). As Edwards spoke about the congregations that were addressed in these New Testament letters, all in cities of the Roman Empire, echoes with the current culture in the United States became evident. Both cultural settings, although separated by thousands of years, have valued the ability to exert power and influence over others, and have shaped leaders in that mold. But the New Testament letters teach humility as a counter cultural value, Edwards said.

What if humility were to be accorded the status that it should have? he wondered aloud in the first keynote session. He defined humility not as weakness or self-abasement or submission to earthly powers, but as an intentional way of living that “starts out with us yielding to God” and “rejects the show of superiority.”

This is the humility that Jesus displayed, prioritizing a relationship with God and service to others, which did not prevent him from speaking boldly. Humility as a virtue is found throughout the Bible, he said, and other biblical figures–such as Moses–also had an intimacy with God that directly related to their humility.