{"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\/jonathan-whitsel-to-middle-pa\/\">Jonathan Whitsel to lead Middle Pennsylvania District<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/jonathan-whitsel-dirigira-el-distrito\/\">Jonathan Whitsel dirigir\u00e1 el distrito de Pensilvania central.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/jonathan-whitsel-pral-dirije\/\">Jonathan Whitsel pral dirije Distri Mwayen Pennsilvani an<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/we-want-to-hear-from-you\/\">We want to hear from you: Mission and Ministry Board committee holds listening sessions<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/queremos-escuchar-su-opinion\/\">Queremos escuchar su opini\u00f3n: El comit\u00e9 de la Junta de Misi\u00f3n y Ministerio celebra sesiones de escucha.<\/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}]}}