Sent conference 2019 speakers

Ken Gingerich has worked in visual communication and marketing for Mennonite organizations for most of his career. He has been director of communications at Hesston College, art director at Mennonite Mission Network and Mennonite Church USA Executive Board. He and his wife Leona, served as lay pastors at Albuquerque Mennonite Church in its earliest years and more recently, after retirement, Ken is serving as moderator of Mountain States Mennonite Conference. "I believe marketing, or branding—or whatever you want to call it, has to reflect the genuine nature of who you are at the core. Anything else is false advertising. The first job of any kind of messaging is to be authentic."

Rebeca González Torres and Fernando Pérez Ventura serve as executive co-coordinators of CITA (Comunidad de Instituciones Teológicas Anabautistas, Community of Anabaptist Theological Institutions) and currently as part of a long-term relationship between the CIEAMM church conference in Mexico and Mountain States Mennonite Conference (MSMC) are serving with Beloved Community Mennonite Church in Denver, Colorado, in intercultural church-planting. Previously they pastored for more than 34 years in Mexico City, and served short-term in ministries supported by Mennonite Mission Network in Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico.    

González Torres holds bachelor’s degrees in Theology from the Theological Community of Mexico, and in Education and Pedagogical Innovation from the Pedagogical University of Mexico. She also has a master’s degree in Biblical Sciences from the Theological Community of Mexico and a specialty in Logotherapy.

Pérez Ventura has bachelor’s degrees in Theology from the Evangelistic Institute of Mexico, and in International Relations from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He also has a Master’s in Biblical Sciences from the Theological Community of Mexico and a specialty in Logotherapy.

Madeline and David Maldonado are both ordained, and have been active in Southeast Mennonite Conference leadership. They also have held leadership positions in Mennonite Church USA. Each has preached at a Mennonite Church USA convention. They each served on the Mennonite Church USA Iglesia Menonita Hispana board of directors, but at different times. Madeline is current chair of the board of directors for Mennonite Mission Network.

Zach Martinez is from Greeley, Colorado, where he lives with his wife, Megan, and daughter, Margot. He earned a BA in Philosophy at the University of Northern Colorado before attending seminary at North Park Theological Seminary (MDiv), in Chicago. His research interests include eco-leadership, multisite church organizations, and church marketing. He is currently the pastor of Sojourn Mennonite Church, which includes a more established campus in Fort Collins and a new, experimental site in Greeley.

Vern Rempel has been a Mennonite pastor for 33 years, first in a new congregation, Community Mennonite in Lancaster, and then in an established congregation, First Mennonite in Denver. Four years ago, inspired by conversations about love with the Quaker writer Parker Palmer, the evangelical leader Ted Haggard, with conference leaders, and with the example of Jaime Lazaro, Vern started a new congregation on the south side of the Denver metro area, Beloved Community Mennonite Church.

Vern graduated from Anabaptist Biblical Seminary - M.Div (1986), and Iliff School of Theology - D.Min. in homiletics (2007), and has taught ethics at Hesston and Goshen colleges and a class on preaching at Iliff. He also studied congregational and family systems theory with rabbi Ed Friedman in Bethesda, MD in the 1990s. Vern has more recently learned from the deep listening practice based in the work of Parker Palmer and the National Center for Courage and Renewal and is a retreat leader.

Vern is married to Marilyn, and they have two adult children with spouses, and one lovely grandson! Marilyn and Vern love the southwest and road trips. Vern also bicycles on the wonderful trails in Denver, and is an amateur blues pianist.

Matthew Shedden is the pastor at Defiance Church in Glenwood Springs, Colorado and the Praxis Editor at The Other Journal.

Skip Tobin is USA Ministries Director at Virginia Mennonite Missions, giving him the exciting opportunity to specifically encourage and nurture a missional posture among churches and leaders, allowing them to join the movement that Jesus began. Skip also offers relationships and resources to help re-engage the core practice of disciple making. Skip brings to his role a wealth of experience sharing Jesus and walking with new believers in prisons and on the streets of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. He also provided leadership to a church planting team in Thailand that grappled with imaging what church could look like in that particular context, and then experienced the joy of seeing church emerge.