Nancy Sollenberger Heishman will retire on July 17 as director of the Church of the Brethren’s Ministry Office, after holding the position for almost nine years. She started as director of Ministry on Nov. 6, 2017.
During her tenure, she has facilitated the search processes for district executive ministers for the majority of the denomination’s 23 districts. She has worked closely with the Council of District Executives in reviewing policy and polity documents, and also with the Pastoral Compensation and Benefits Advisory Committee of Annual Conference as that group has overhauled forms and guidelines for pastoral compensation practices.
A major focus of her work has been the every-five-years required ethics training for all credentialed ministers across the denomination, and she has convened and trained teams of people to lead the trainings in each of the 23 districts.
The unique Part-Time Pastor; Full-Time Church program to support and resource multi-vocational pastors was made possible by her work to help acquire and oversee grants from the Lilly Foundation Inc.
In addition, she has sponsored and helped plan the denomination’s Clergywomen’s Retreats to support women in ministry.
Sollenberger Heishman’s previous employment with the denomination included two years as part-time coordinator of the Spanish-Language Ministry Training Programs of the Brethren Academy for Ministerial Leadership, beginning July 22, 2015. In that role she administered Seminario Biblico Anabautista Hispano (SeBAH-CoB).
She also spent years working in the Dominican Republic, where she was mission co-coordinator from May 2003 through June 2011 and director of the Theological Education Program of la Iglesia de los Hermanos en la República Dominicana (the Church of the Brethren in the Dominican Republic) from 2008 to 2010.
She was moderator of the 2014 Annual Conference, serving in the highest elected position in the Church of the Brethren. She is an ordained minister and has pastored congregations in Delaware, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. She holds a master of divinity degree from Bethany Theological Seminary and a master’s degree in piano performance from the University of Cincinnati.
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