{"id":28256,"date":"2016-05-26T16:56:21","date_gmt":"2016-05-26T20:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=28256"},"modified":"2016-06-29T14:41:35","modified_gmt":"2016-06-29T18:41:35","slug":"counselor-pastor-and-social-justice-advocate-harvey-yoder-named-2016-alumnus-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2016\/counselor-pastor-and-social-justice-advocate-harvey-yoder-named-2016-alumnus-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Counselor, pastor and social justice advocate Harvey Yoder named 2016 Alumnus of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harvey Yoder \u201964, SEM \u201999, is guided by a steadfast vision of God\u2019s future in which the \u201cwolf lies down with the lamb, people study war no more, and prisoners are released.\u201d In the half-century since his 1964 graduation, Yoder has quietly encouraged efforts to bring about God\u2019s shalom.<\/p>\n

While he prefaces mention of his accomplishments with \u201cthey didn\u2019t set the world on fire,\u201d his work\u2014as a teacher, pastor, counselor, writer and community organizer in Harrisonburg, Virginia\u2014 has kindled flames of communication and cooperation. Yoder\u2019s work garnered him other accolades. In March 2016, he received the Harriet Tubman Commemorative Leadership Award, awarded by the local Harriet Tubman Cultural Center.<\/p>\n

\"Harvey<\/a>
Harvey Yoder at the Family Life Resource Center in Harrisonburg, Va., where he has worked since 1989 as a mental health counselor,<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHarvey\u2019s many years of leadership as Mennonite pastor and counselor in matters on faith, life, spirituality, relationships, values, peace, social and criminal justice reform has touched the lives of thousands,\u201d the plaque reads.<\/p>\n

In April, he was recognized as Counselor of the Year by the Central Valley Counselors Association.<\/p>\n

Bridge-builder<\/h3>\n

For the first 20 years after his graduation, Yoder shared his time between teaching social studies and Bible at Eastern Mennonite High School and pastoring at Zion Mennonite Church. In addition to earning a master\u2019s in congregational leadership at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, he earned a master\u2019s in counseling psychology from James Madison University (JMU).<\/p>\n

A year after Virginia Mennonite Conference founded the Family Life Resource Center in 1988, Yoder joined the Harrisonburg center as a full-time mental health counselor, while still serving as an unsalaried pastor of a house church congregation. His book, Lasting Marriage: The Owners’ Manual <\/em>(Herald Press, 2007), distills some of his learnings, as does his radio program, \u201cCenterpiece,\u201d and his \u201cHarvspot\u201d blog at harvyoder.blogspot.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yoder\u2019s influence extends into the community. In 2014, when county supervisors proposed a new $63 million prison to alleviate overcrowding at the existing facility, Yoder joined others who were alarmed at the area\u2019s soaring incarceration rates. He hosted a weekly meeting to address the issue and shepherded the group from merely opposing a new prison to broadly examining the root causes of mushrooming imprisonment.<\/p>\n

In dealing with this emotionally charged topic, \u201cHarvey has developed important and healthy relationships with others, even and especially with those who might not agree with him,\u201d wrote Dr. Terry Beitzel, director of JMU\u2019s Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence and a member of Yoder\u2019s group. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t get frustrated with others, but works with others through these frustrations to develop better conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among other contributions, Yoder has also led a local chapter of Fellowship of Reconciliation, as well as guided Old Order Mennonites to create agricultural-forestal districts.<\/p>\n

Working for shalom<\/h3>\n

Yoder grew up Amish, the eighth of nine children. He moved to the Shenandoah Valley from Kansas with his parents when he was 6. Nine years later, they left the horse-and-buggy group and joined the somewhat less conservative Beachy Amish.<\/p>\n

Despite this move to \u201cmodernity,\u201d Yoder\u2019s parents were leery of Mennonite sway on their son, then 21, when he chose to attend Eastern Mennonite College. Harvey himself, however, found the influence formative and positive. \u201cEMC expanded my world big time. My peers at EMC became my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

One literally did. \u201cMy parents were afraid I\u2019d marry a Mennonite girl,\u201d he says, \u201cwhich I did,\u201d he adds with a chuckle. Yoder married Alma Jean Wert \u201963 of Juniata County, Pennsylvania. They have three adult children: Brent, Brad and Joanna Yoder \u201998 Heatwole, and six grandchildren.<\/p>\n

Yoder says he often questions the effectiveness of his influence in helping create God\u2019s peaceable kingdom. \u201cMy grown daughter once gave me a candle of St. Jude, the saint of lost causes,\u201d he says with a laugh. \u201cBut I can’t help dreaming of things as they truly should be, and as they in fact one day will be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harvey Yoder \u201964, SEM \u201999, is guided by a steadfast vision of God\u2019s future in which the \u201cwolf lies down with the lamb, people study war no more, and prisoners ... read more about Counselor, pastor and social justice advocate Harvey Yoder named 2016 Alumnus of the Year<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,8845],"tags":[5690],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-28256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-emu-at-lancaster","tag-peacebuilding"],"yoast_head":"\nCounselor, pastor and social justice advocate Harvey Yoder named 2016 Alumnus of the Year - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2016\/counselor-pastor-and-social-justice-advocate-harvey-yoder-named-2016-alumnus-of-the-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Counselor, pastor and social justice advocate Harvey Yoder named 2016 Alumnus of the Year - 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