About
Welcome to Seattle Mennonite Church. Here is a brief overview about us, our history and what makes us who we are.
Who We Are
Seattle Mennonite Church is an active Anabaptist Mennonite Christian congregation working faithfully at following Jesus in our urban context. As disciples of Jesus, we believe faith and action are inseparable elements in each person’s pilgrimage. We are often welcoming new friends, and we aim to live out our calling to offer hospitality, whether for a morning or over the course of years.
Rooted in History
Mennonites have been around for about 500 years. Mennonites seek to follow in the Way of Christ Jesus, as revealed in the gospels, and are committed to community, living simply, and peace and justice.
A Welcoming Place
As disciples of Jesus on our journey together, we seek to embody God’s wide welcome of all.
Invested in Community
We partner with local residents, businesses, and agencies in generating a grassroots, person-centered effort to companion people who are experiencing homelessness.
Sunday Morning Gathering
On Sunday mornings, we gather for worship, fellowship, and opportunities for people of all ages to engage in Christian education and formation. Our Sunday School program runs September through May and meets for an hour following worship, from 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. We meet in the Lake City neighborhood in Seattle, in a building that many still remember as the Lake City Theater. Our buildings have become places where we worship and fellowship, and where we and many other community members, organizations, and congregations work, play, and serve in a variety of ways. At Seattle Mennonite, we together discern God’s will in community, worship faithfully through the Spirit, and follow Christ in building peace in our community and in the world. Welcome!
Leadership
Seattle Mennonite Church has a staff team made up of persons with varied gifts and interests, all of whom support and enable our many ministries.
Megan Ramer
Lead Pastor Megan (she/her) joined the ministry team as Lead Pastor in September 2015, returning “home” to Cascadia where she’d spent some particularly formative young adult years prior to seminary in Denver and a decade of ministry in Chicago. She is passionate about worship that connects and preaching that challenges, comforts, and inspires. Providing pastoral care and standing with folks during their most significant life transitions feels like a sacred honor. Building collaborative connections within the city and across the wider Mennonite church grounds her. Megan truly believes that we both witness to and participate in God’s vision of a Just Peace for all of creation, and finds joy when we are able to fully embody Jubilee justice in our communal life. Some of her favorite restorative activities are reading, camping, and hiking, including her most sustaining weekly practice of #fridaysabbathhikes. Megan also enjoys experiencing the magic of live music, snuggling with her cat, Rogue, frequenting the theatre to see her actor husband, Jon Stutzman, perform, and going on traveling adventures both large and small.
Tyler Merrill
Pastor of Faith Formation Tyler Merrill (he/ him) moved to Seattle with his wife Elise in 2017, from Greenville, Illinois where he completed an undergraduate degree in theology and began bi-vocational work as a pastoral musician in a Free Methodist church and as a guitar instructor. His twin passions for theology and music continued in Seattle as he completed a Masters of Christian Studies at Seattle Pacific Seminary, established a guitar and ukulele lesson studio for children and youth, and formed a rock band with four of his college friends who all transplanted from Illinois to the Pacific Northwest. He believes that music—like art, justice, compassion, and joy—is a means through which the Spirit resurrects lives and communities in the present. Inspired by Mennonite witness of communal justice and joy, Tyler joined the ministry team at Seattle Mennonite Church in 2024.
When he’s not performing at local taverns with his band The Noble Manes, Tyler loves to spend his time hiking with friends, meditating, lounging in the sun, hearing about what imaginative projects the children in Elise’s classroom have been up to (she is a play-based educator of four year olds at a cooperative preschool), and picking up various new, short lived hobbies (the most recent one being whittling Pokémon figurines for his nephews). He is absolutely thrilled to have joined the Pacific Northwest Mennonite community and is grateful to be praying together with the church for God’s guidance through this season of new beginnings.
Staff
Facilities Manager
Dave Slonecker
Office & Volunteer Coordinator
Melissa Kelly
Our email addresses are our first names at Seattle Mennonite dot org.
Spiritual Leadership Team (SLT)
Spiritual Leadership Team serves as the governing body for Seattle Mennonite Church.
You may contact any member of the team individually with affirmations, questions, or concerns,
or write the whole team (including pastors) at the email address corresponding to: slt at seattlemennonite dot org
Pastoral Care
Our pastors are available to respond to specific needs and emergencies, to attend to events such as weddings and funerals, and to refer people to external resources they may not be trained or equipped to provide. Our Congregational Care Team assists in coordinating support of those within the congregation needing special care for any reason, nurtures and equips systems of care within the congregation so that we minister to one another, and tends to the ongoing lifecycle of care for the congregation. Additionally, we regularly offer opportunities for support through participation in small groups and congregational fellowship.
Mandated reporting of known or suspected instances of abuse or neglect of minors: “Although Washington State law only requires that supervisors report alleged abuse by individuals they supervise, SMC’s policy extends this requirement to include pastors and others in the congregation who reasonably believe child abuse [or neglect] occurred, whether or not there is a supervisory relationship” (from the SMC Child Safety Policy).