Staff changes for US MB Conference

• Chuck Buller began serving as executive director of the United States Conference of Mennonite Brethren Chuches on Jan. 2. The appointment, announced in November, ends a two-year search process; the appointment of a full-time director was approved at the 2000 US MB Conference convention.

  Buller graduated from MB Biblical Seminary in 1985 and served as senior pastor of Waterloo (Ont.) MB Church 1985–92 and of Neighborhood Church in Visalia, Calif. 1992–2000. Both congregations grew significantly, started services for non-Christians and built new buildings during his tenure. For the past two years he has been Mennonite Mutual Aid Capital Ministry director, helping eight congregations raise funds. Buller also served as the first chair of Mission USA (the US MB Conference’s church planting and renewal ministry) 1990–95 and served on the board of MB Biblical Seminary, including three years as chair.

  Buller’s appointment means that he has resigned as assistant chair of the US MB Conference, a position to which he was elected at last summer’s US MB Conference convention. Steve Prieb, senior pastor of Topeka (Kan.) MB Church, has now been appointed to fill that position.

• Loyal Funk has announced his intention to retire as Integrated Ministries director for the US MB Conference by the end of 2004. At Integrated Ministries, he has been overseeing ethnic church plants and churches. Until Buller’s appointment, he was also serving as interim executive director for the US MB Conference. During his tenure at Integrated Ministries, dozens of ethnic churches, particularly Slavic churches, have joined the Conference.

• The US MB Conference Board of Communications has announced that Carmen Andres has resigned as editor of The Christian Leader, the US MB Conference periodical, effective April 30, after serving since 1998. She is leaving the post primarily because she has moved to Montgomery, Alabama, where her husband Richard has been offered a tenured professorship, and she is no longer able to be part of a Mennonite Brethren congregation, as there are no MB churches in that state. She and Richard are expecting their second child in May. In addition to her duties as editor, Andres did much of the layout for the Leader and also set up a website for the US Conference. She is a graduate of Fresno Pacific University and California State University, Fresno. She previously was editor of the alumni magazine for the University of California, Davis, School of Law and managed the school’s website.

—from news stories in The Christian Leader