The first Pastors’ Day began many hours before opening worship for Convention 2009.

In opening remarks, James Schrag, executive director of Mennonite Church USA, spoke about the “crow’s nest calling,” a metaphor representing the pastoral vantage point.

“From my humble view,” said Schrag, “a pastor’s role is longer, wider and deeper than any other in the church.”

At least 250 pastors, a quarter of all the pastors in Mennonite Church USA, sat at discussion tables to listen to the first presentation, a lesson on “Understanding the Missional Church,” by Craig Van Gelder, a professor of congregational mission at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn.

Van Gelder, who also taught domestic missiology at Calvin Theological Seminary, addressed the power of change, especially at the margins and from above.

In his overview of church transformation, Van Gelder spoke about contrasting views of church: the instrumental view places the church as the acting agent, whereas the missional view of church places God as the primary acting subject.

Van Gelder encouraged the Mennonite Church to “live more deeply to understand God more fully.”

For Clyde Kratz, a pastor at Zion Mennonite Church in Broadway, Va., the topic of the missional church is not new.

“It’s something I have been reading about for a while,” he said. “This is reinforcing the things I’ve already heard, as well as stimulating some rethinking.”

The topic of the trinity is something that isn’t often talked about in the Mennonite Church, Van Gelder pointed out.

Phil Kniss, a pastor at Parkview Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg, Va., thinks it’s important to see the trinity “as an example of relational diversity that we can base our other relationships off of.”

According to Dorothy Nickel Friesen, the Western District conference minister, an annual pastor’s meeting is an excellent way to resource pastors, open up conversation and provide inspiration.

She said an annual pastoral gathering will “bring us together and make us more approachable in a local context.”

Other events throughout the Pastors’ Day included seminars and a discussion about the Corinthian Plan, which is intended to provide health care for pastors, regardless of congregational means.