Our Pastors
Jo Hatlem
Jodie Boyer Hatlem began as Pastor at Shalom in September of 2022 after serving as interim for one year. Besides pastoring she enjoys occasionally teaching Seminary courses and writing. She has a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Toronto and an M.Div from Duke Divinity. She grew up on small hobby farm in Northern Michigan and enjoys running, murder mysteries and baseball.
Trevor Bechtel
Trevor Bechtel is Shalom's Community Engagement Pastor. He began pastoring at Shalom in 2018, having attended since 2009. His most significant Christian formation has been in relatively small urban churches including Chicago Community Mennonite Church (CCMC) and Shalom. He has degrees in Religion from Canadian Mennonite Bible College and Loyola University Chicago, earning his Ph.D. in 2008. He was ordained at CCMC in 2012. He is the creative director of the Anabaptist Bestiary Project, a band who sing songs about how animals reveal God’s will for human life (anabaptistbestiaryproject.com). Trevor also manages Washtenaw County Initiatives at Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan where he teaches occasionally in the School of Social Work.
Former Pastors:
Hillary Watson pastored at Shalom from 2018 to 2021 while also managing facilities at the NEW Center. She grew up at Seattle Mennonite Church in a new-to-Mennonites family. A graduate of Goshen College in Bible, Religion, & Philosophy and Emory University with the Master’s in Divinity, she pastored at Lombard Mennonite from 2013-2018, where she was ordained in 2018. Her church writing appeared on her blog Gathering the Stones and regularly in the Mennonite Weekly Review. In her spare time, she writes poetry under the name Hillary Kobernick, which has appeared in The Christian Century, decomP, Powder Keg, and Button Poetry’s YouTube channel.
Steve Thomas was Shalom’s transitional pastor from September 2016 – March 2018. He has 30 years of pastoral experience, most recently serving as transitional pastor at First Mennonite Church of Indianapolis. Steve’s mission is to explore, discover, and present God’s abundant life of freedom, love, and peace. His passions include tending trees, managing his family’s woods, bioscaping, travel, men’s work, and peace education.
Nathan Ruah-Bieri served as pastoral associate from 2015-2017.
Previously, Paul Versluis served as Shalom’s minister from 2000 until his retirement in June 2016. While minister, Paul served on the steering committee of the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice, the Interfaith and Life Sciences Life Ethics Forum, the Interfaith Round Table of Washtenaw Country, and the Ecumenical Center and International Residence.
Shalom’s first pastor was Kathy Neufeld-Dunn, now Associate Conference Minister for the Western District Conference of the Mennonite Church USA