Pastoral Leadership - Central Plains Mennonite Conference

The Pastoral Leadership Committee is responsible to call out, credential and nurture pastoral leadership within Central Plains Conference. They provide a variety of resources for pastors and congregations. See below for some of those items.

Scholarships for Pastoral Training

The Pastoral Leadership Committee administers two scholarship funds for training future leaders.

The Central Plains Leadership Development Scholarship fund is funded through the Central Plains Spending Blueprint.

The Emery and Audrey Hochstetler Fund was established by the Hochstetlers to provide scholarships for person preparing to enter pastoral ministry, or persons in ministry wishing to further their education. See the guidelines below.

The Application form below can be used to apply for either of these funds. For more information contact the Central Plains office or one of the Conference Ministers.

Microsoft Word - Scholarship Application Form.pdf

Microsoft Word - Reference Request.pdf

Microsoft Word - Hochstetler Training Fund Guidelines.pdf

Salary Guidelines & Help

The Central Plains Pastoral Leadership Committee recommends that congregations use the Salary Guidelines formulated each year by Mennonite Church USA.

In addition, the Pastoral Leadership Committee has made available, free of charge to all Central Plains congregations, software to calculate pastoral salaries, based on the current Mennonite Church USA guidelines. This software can be found at the Many Gifts website

Ministerial Leadership Information Form

For New Pastors or pastors looking for a call in Central Plains or Mennonite Church USA, the first step is to complete a Ministerial Leadership Information (MLI) form.

Click here to access an Online MLI or update a current one.

Ordination Requirements

The Pastoral Leadership Committee adopted a minimum set of educational/formation standards for persons ordained in Central Plains. To see those standards, click on the document below.

Microsoft Word - Minimum education requirements for ordination.pdf

Misconduct Policy and Procedure

The Pastoral Leadership Committee of Central Plains Mennonite Conference takes seriously any ethical misconduct on the part of its credentialed leader, or any other leader in the congregation. Mennonite Church USA has developed policies and procedures for dealing with such misconduct, to which Central Plains also subscribes. All allegations of such misconduct should be directed to one of the Conference Ministers or to the Chair of the Pastoral Leadership Committee.

Copies of the policy and procedure can be found here in English or downloaded as pdf. files in Spanish below.

Microsoft Word - Normas y Procedimientos Indice.pdf

Microsoft Word - NORMAS y Procedimiento texto.pdf

Microsoft Word - HACIENDO JUSTICIA.pdf

Yearly Accountability Meeting

The Pastoral Leadership Committee encourages the Conference Ministers to meet annually with all credentialed pastors, using the Accountability Format document below as a basis for conversation.

Accountability Format.doc