Reflections from the Mosaic Conference Indonesian Mennonite community
by Hendy Matahelemual
The Indonesian Mennonite immigrant community living in the United States has experienced great blessings and real challenges. Living in a new culture has stretched us, sometimes in difficult ways. Cultural tensions, microaggressions, and racism are part of our daily experience, even in Christian circles. Yet we continue to find strength in God and in our church community. The church has become the center of our lives—a place where we are reminded of God’s faithfulness and where we find belonging, healing, and hope.
Amid these challenges, our connection with the broader U.S. Mennonite community has been a valuable source of encouragement and support. Our relationship with Mennonite Church USA (MC USA) was once positive and meaningful, but in recent years it has become more complicated and difficult.
My journey in this fellowship began when I joined the Franconia Conference (now Mosaic) and attended my first Mennonite Convention in Orlando, Florida, in 2017 through the Servant Leader program. In 2021, I had the honor of serving as one of the worship leaders at MennoCon in Cincinnati, Ohio. I also participated in Hope for the Future, a national gathering of leaders from racial and ethnic minority groups, and became involved in Mennonite Men, where I serve as a board member. These experiences strengthened my commitment to the broader Mennonite community.
It is deeply unfortunate that much of the good that had been built over the years was overshadowed by the way the Resolution for Repentance and Transformation was introduced and approved in Special Delegate Session in Kansas City in 2022. The process lacked intercultural sensitivity and felt one-sided. Conversations were cut short because of time limits, leaving little room for genuine dialogue—especially among people meeting for the first time. As someone whose first language is not English, I experienced this process as exclusionary and, in many ways, discriminatory.
The resolution imposed a particular cultural framework and language—using terms and words that did not always reflect our context, culture, or beliefs. As Indonesian immigrants, we often felt powerless under the dominant influence of white majority, which pressured us to affirm values that conflicted with our culture and convictions.
What has been done cannot be undone. The question now is: what can we, the Indonesian Mennonite community, do? Our response is to depend on those who are willing to listen and walk with us.
While many congregations have chosen to leave Mosaic Conference or MC USA, we chose to stay with Mosaic. We need spiritual covering, care, and support. We are deeply grateful for Mosaic Conference, who has shown understanding, compassion, and genuine intercultural awareness. The Indonesian Mennonite community in the U.S. feels that our voices are truly heard by Mosaic, and we feel a closer connection to Mosaic than to MC USA.
There are many things I cannot put into writing here. In our culture, some matters are inappropriate to express in written form, but that does not mean they cannot be discussed in person. One of the challenges for the dominant white American culture is learning to hear what is not spoken and to see what is not written, and to understand that these unspoken and unwritten realities exist.
MC USA does not represent the voice of the Indonesian Mennonite immigrant community in the U.S. Therefore, we believe that discontinuing our membership is the right decision. We do not see this as a division but rather as an opportunity for Mosaic to grow—building relationships that sharpen one another as equal siblings in Christ.
For this reason, the Indonesian Mennonite community in Mosaic requests to join Mennonite World Conference (MWC) and invites them to act as a mediator between Mosaic and MC USA, helping unite us under the broader family of MWC, so that together we can walk in unity, remain centered on Jesus, and continue to bear witness to his peace in a world that desperately needs it.
Hendy Matahelemual
Hendy Matahelemual is pastor of Indonesian Light Church, Philadelphia, PA.
Mosaic values two-way communication and encourages our constituents to respond with feedback, questions, or encouragement. To share your thoughts or send a message to the author(s), contact us at communication@mosaicmennonites.org.
The opinions expressed in articles posted on Mosaic’s website are those of the author and may not reflect the official policy of Mosaic Conference. Mosaic is a large conference, crossing ethnicities, geographies, generations, theologies, and politics. Each person can only speak for themselves; no one can represent “the conference.” May God give us the grace to hear what the Spirit is speaking to us through people with whom we disagree and the humility and courage to love one another even when those disagreements can’t be bridged.
This post is also available in: Español (Spanish) Indonesia (Indonesian)
This post is also available in: Español (Spanish) Indonesia (Indonesian)