{"id":27835,"date":"2026-09-25T18:15:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T18:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/?p=27835"},"modified":"2026-09-25T18:15:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T18:15:14","slug":"jonathan-whitsel-to-middle-pa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/jonathan-whitsel-to-middle-pa\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonathan Whitsel to lead Middle Pennsylvania District"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jonathan Whitsel has been called as district executive minister for the Church of the Brethren\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.midpacob.org\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"http:\/\/www.midpacob.org\/\">Middle Pennsylvania District<\/a>, beginning Jan. 1, 2027. He has served as pastor of <a href=\"https:\/\/sugarrunchurch.org\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/sugarrunchurch.org\/\">Sugar Run Church of the Brethren<\/a> in Shirleysburg, Pa., since April 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whitsel brings a strong background in business operations and logistics, with 31 years of experience as a self-employed logger. His involvement in church leadership has included serving on the board of <a href=\"https:\/\/campbluediamond.org\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/campbluediamond.org\/\">Camp Blue Diamond<\/a> in Petersburg, Pa., for seven years, and on the board and as a deacon at Beech Run Church of the Brethren in Mapleton Depot, Pa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He attended the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.etown.edu\/programs\/svmc\/acts.aspx\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.etown.edu\/programs\/svmc\/acts.aspx\">ACTS<\/a> (Academy Certified Training System) program, under the auspices of the Brethren Academy for Ministerial Leadership, from 2010 to 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Find more Church of the Brethren news:<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__list wp-block-latest-posts is-layout-flow wp-block-latest-posts-is-layout-flow\"><li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/steele-to-conclude-service-aug-2028\/\">David Steele to conclude service as Church of the Brethren General Secretary in August 2028<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/steele-concluira-su-servicio-agosto-2028\/\">David Steele concluir\u00e1 su servicio como Secretario General de la Iglesia de los Hermanos en agosto de 2028<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/steele-pral-fini-sevis-li-out-2028\/\">David Steele pral fini s\u00e8vis li k\u00f2m Sekret\u00e8 Jeneral Legliz Fr\u00e8 yo nan mwa Out 2028<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/brethren-volunteer-service-unit-340\/\">Brethren Volunteer Service Unit 340 completes orientation<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/la-unidad-340-del-bvs\/\">La Unidad 340 del Servicio Voluntario de los Hermanos completa la orientaci\u00f3n.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jonathan Whitsel has been called as district executive minister for the Church of the Brethren\u2019s Middle Pennsylvania District, beginning Jan. 1, 2027. He has served as pastor of Sugar Run Church of the Brethren in Shirleysburg, Pa., since April 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"yes","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1703],"tags":[1882,3915,963,1267,1774],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-27835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-of-the-brethren-newsline","tag-district-executive","tag-jonathan-whitsel","tag-middle-pennsylvania-district","tag-ministry-office","tag-personnel"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27835"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27836,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27835\/revisions\/27836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27835"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=27835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}