{"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\/discernment-and-calling-an-appeal\/\">Discernment and calling: An appeal for nominations for the Annual Conference ballot<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/disenman-ak-apel-yon-apel\/\">Dis\u00e8nman ak ap\u00e8l: Yon ap\u00e8l pou nominasyon pou bilten v\u00f2t Konferans Any\u00e8l la<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/discernimiento-y-vocacion-convocatoria\/\">Discernimiento y vocaci\u00f3n: Convocatoria para la presentaci\u00f3n de candidaturas para la votaci\u00f3n de la Conferencia Anual.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/help-shape-intergenerational-resources\/\">Help shape resources for intergenerational ministry: An invitation from Brethren Press<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/ayude-a-dar-forma-a-los-recursos\/\">Ayude a dar forma a los recursos para el ministerio intergeneracional: Una invitaci\u00f3n de Brethren Press.<\/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}]}}