Wednesday, February 01, 2023

PERSONNEL NOTES

Nathan Polzin has been hired by the Church of the Brethren as executive director of Discipleship and Leadership Formation. From 2009 to 2017 he served as Michigan District’s executive minister. From 2007 to present, he has been instrumental in planting and pastoring The Church in Drive, a congregation serving Saginaw, Mich., and Saginaw Valley State University students. He also currently serves as the pastor of Midland (Mich.) Church of the Brethren. In the past, he has served congregations in Mount Pleasant, Mich., and Hagerstown, Ind. He also provides individual and group coaching, team building, training, and consulting services through Polzin Coaching and Consulting. Nathan is a graduate of Central Michigan University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science, and of Bethany Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity. Nathan will begin on April 10.

Heidi Gross, a member of Chicago First Church of the Brethren, began Feb. 6 as managing editor of Brethren Press, the publishing house of the Church of the Brethren. She is starting out in a part-time contract role and will transition to full-time employment June 19. Heidi is currently assistant director of the Center for Civic Engagement at Northwestern University. She is also special projects manager and editor at The Together Group. Heidi holds an M.A. from Northwestern and a B.S. from Manchester University. She lives in Chicago.

The Office of Ministry’s Part-time Pastor; Full-time Church program has engaged Tabitha Hartman Rudy as an independent contractor to assist with administrative needs of the program. Her work began Jan. 30. She will give up to 10 hours per week to fulfilling program tasks remotely from her home in Boones Mill, Va. She is an ordained minister and former pastor of Smith Mountain Lake Community Church of the Brethren in Wirtz, Va. Prior to pastoring, and following her graduation from Bethany Theological Seminary, she served as interim associate district executive minister of Virlina District. 

Laura Stone began as district executive minister for South/Central Indiana District on Feb. 1. Laura previously served as chaplain at Timbercrest Senior Living Community in North Manchester, Ind., a position she had held since May 2018. A graduate of Manchester University, she holds a Master of Divinity degree from Andover Newton Theological School and has done work on her Ph.D. in practical theology at Boston University School of Theology.

Daniel L. Rudy began as district executive minister for the Virlina District on Feb. 6. He has served as pastor of Ninth Street Church of the Brethren in Roanoke, Va., since 2011 and has been an instructor in the Christian Growth Institute of the Virlina and Shenandoah districts. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Bethany Theological Seminary and a Bachelor of Arts from Bridgewater College.

Pauline Liu has resigned as volunteer coordinator for Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS), a staff position working out of the Church of the Brethren General Offices in Elgin, Ill. She concluded her work with the Church of the Brethren on Feb. 2. Liu worked on the BVS staff for almost three years, spanning most of the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. She began as orientation assistant for BVS on May 18, 2020, working remotely from her home in Colorado. In January 2021, she was promoted to the newly created position coordinating volunteers for BVS, which she had started on an interim basis the previous July. Previously, she had been a BVS volunteer in Unit 319, serving from 2018 to 2019 at a L’Arche community in Kilkenny, Ireland.