Brief Description
“Justice and peace shall kiss” is a poetic picture of big ideas. Justice and peace can feel abstract and unachievable. Yet these visions of God’s Kingdom are something the followers of Jesus, gathered in churches, labor toward by the Spirit and with practical action. Many tools and frameworks exist to bring “justice and peace” out of abstraction and into tangible steps and concrete actions in the name of Jesus. Jenn and Nate Hosler will lead us through tools and strategies to understand and engage the social ecology of our churches and communities. They will draw on their experiences and background in community psychology, institutional development, urban church pastoring, and work for systemic change. Jenn and Nate will utilize an asset-based approach to understanding our congregational contexts. They will root the conversations in a theology of holistic ministry, while inviting participants to explore how their churches can embody and manifest justice and peace.
Bios
Jennifer Hosler and Nathan Hosler are pastors of Washington City Church of the Brethren, in Washington, DC, and they each serve as denominational staff within the Church of the Brethren.
Rev. Dr. Jennifer Hosler
Rev. Dr. Jennifer Hosler (Jenn) is bi-vocational, practicing as both a community psychologist and an ordained minister in the Church of the Brethren. A co-pastor at Washington City Church of the Brethren in Washington, DC, Jenn focuses on community organizing, engagement, peacemaking, and preaching. She directs much of the congregation’s interfaith engagement and activism to support peacemaking around the world. Jenn is active in the movement for peace and to stop violence in Palestine and Israel, working with both interfaith and Christian coalitions. She also led her congregation’s partnerships with Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid, Hill Havurah, and Capitol Hill United Methodist Church as we welcomed newly arrived asylum seekers bused from Texas and Arizona. As a community psychologist, Jenn seeks to support community organizations and congregations in addressing social injustice and promoting community well-being. In addition to a diverse background in program evaluation (including STEM education, peacebuilding programs, maternal health), Jenn has more than a decade of experience in interfaith engagement, intergroup dialogue, and consulting to religious and peacebuilding organizations.
Jenn has served the Church of the Brethren denomination in numerous capacities, including as the Manager of the Global Food Initiative (April 2024-Present), through two years of service doing peacebuilding work in Nigeria, writing bible study curriculum on social justice in the prophets, conducting a narrative research project on urban churches across the US, serving on an Annual Conference study committee, and serving on the Global Food Initiative grants review panel.
Jenn loves to run long distances, commute and ride for pleasure on her bicycle, spend time in the dirt tending her home garden and the church gardens, and adventure with her spouse Nathan and her son, Ayuba (age 6).
Rev. Dr. Nathan Hosler
Rev. Dr. Nathan Hosler is the director of the Church of the Brethren’s Office of Peacebuilding and Policy based in Washington, DC and is a pastor at the Washington City Church of the Brethren congregation on Capitol Hill.
Previously he served as the Ecumenical Peace Coordinator of the National Council of Churches USA as well as worked with the Peace Programme of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) and taught peacebuilding practice and theology at Kulp Bible College (now Kulp Theological Seminary) in northeast Nigeria (2009-2011). He currently is the president of the board for National Farm Worker Ministry as well as represents the Church of the Brethren at the National Council of Churches, Creation Justice Ministries, Churches for Middle East Peace, and others. He convenes the DC based working groups on Nigeria, drone warfare, and US-China policy, and works on US foreign policy, racial justice, statelessness, environmental issues, and food security.
He holds a BA in Biblical Language, MA in International Relations focusing on religion and peacebuilding, a professional certificate in Macroeconomics, and a PhD in Theological Studies working in theological ethics focusing on peacemaking.
Nate likes to run long distances, bike commute in DC, cook and try foods from around the world, and create and/or collect art.