Meet Our Pastors
Sheri Hostetler
Rev. Sheri Hostetler has been a pastor at First Mennonite since 2000. Her family has been Amish or Mennonite for 500 years, a legacy she deeply values.
In the spirit of her Anabaptist ancestors, Sheri loves reinterpreting the Mennonite faith tradition to be relevant and transformative for our lives now.
Sheri has been deeply enriched by wisdom from Buddhist and Celtic Christian traditions, and from Indigenous cosmologies.
In 2014, Sheri co-founded an Indigenous justice non-profit, the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery, with Sarah Augustine.
She cohosts a podcast of the same name, and she and Sarah are authors of the book So That We and Our Children May Live: Following Jesus in Confronting the Climate Crisis.
Sheri was one of the founders of Inclusive Mennonite Pastors, a coalition of pastoral leaders seeking LGBTQ+ justice in the church.
A poet and writer, Sheri is trained as a spiritual director and a permaculturist, and lives with her family in the San Francisco Bay.
Joanna Lawrence Shenk
Associate Pastor Rev. Joanna Lawrence Shenk focuses on leading the youth group, coordinating the Mennonite Voluntary Service program, and supporting congregational justice efforts.
Joanna is a graduate of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (Elkhart, Ind.) with an MA in Theological Studies, and is the author of Widening the Circle: Experiments in Christian Discipleship and The Movement Makes Us Human.
Active in interfaith justice efforts in the Bay Area for over a decade, Joanna also serves on the pastoral team of Mennonite Action, and co-hosts the Mennonite Action podcast, Front Light.
In the fall of 2022, Joanna completed a four day wilderness vigil fast, which continues to re-root her in the ecosystem of the Bay Area and informs the call to re-wild within and beyond the Christian tradition.
Joanna loves creating ceramics on the wheel, spending time in the wooded park near her house and getting to know her creaturely neighbors in El Cerrito, where she lives with her family.
Pat Plude
Rev. Patricia Plude, D.Min, serves as Minister of Music, Arts and Formation, where she leads music, coordinates the use of worship arts and ritual, oversees Adult Education, and invites congregants of all ages to explore their spirituality through participation in the arts.
Pat’s ministry is enriched through a background in the performing arts, nonprofit arts management, and music education.
A passionate teacher, Pat has taught music, improvisation, and music pedagogy at Santa Clara University.
Pat is the author of The Art of Radical Listening and holds a Doctor of Ministry degree in Creation Spirituality.
Pat organizes with Faith in Action Bay Area, a network of congregations and community leaders working to uphold the dignity of all people. She is also an Educational Consultant for Radical Listening for Health in Harmony (an international nonprofit dedicated to reversing global heating through rainforest preservation).
In ministry and in life, Pat strives to fully embrace incarnation; work faithfully for shalom justice; turn toward suffering; believe in resurrection; and live in Christ.