Evening worship at Conference Assembly 2012: God@Work.

The Franconia delegate session at Conference Assembly 2012: God@Work.

Joint afternoon session with Eastern District at Conference Assembly 2012: God@Work.

Liberty Ministries exists to serve offenders in prison and ex-offenders in the community by showing God’s love, providing practical assistance, and supporting Biblical standards of justice.  At Wednesday morning’s breakfast, Bob Thompson, executive director, Jonathan Lewis, director of the residential program, and Charlie Ness, pastor of Perkiomenville congregation and one of the ministry’s founders, shared from their experiences of walking with ex-offenders who are moving beyond their past in the healing community of the church.

Steve Hackman from One Village Coffee and Dale and Bethsaba Nafziger, missionaries in Nepal and proprietors of Top of the World Coffee, spoke at the June 14th Pastors and Conference Related Ministry Leaders Breakfast at the Conference Center in Harleysville.

All three have a passion for using business to reach others for Christ and to bring development to impoverished communities.  Read about the Nafziger’s work in Nepal here or listen to Steve’s presentation in our podcast–at the end, you’ll also hear a little about a new coffee ministry beginning in Quakertown, Pa.

On May 24, leaders from Eastern District Conference and Franconia Conference met together to continue conversations about partnering in the future.  Eastern District conference minister Warren Tyson and Franconia Executive Minister Ertell Whigham shared ways that the two conferences are already working together as well as suggestions of future possibilities.

After table conversations, the gathered leaders reflected back to the larger group some of their affirmations, concerns, or questions.

Members of Eastern District and Franconia Conferences met on March 29 at Christopher Dock Mennonite High School in Lansdale, Pa., to continue conversations about a shared future.  This gathering, the first of two forums planned for Spring 2012, focused on developing a deeper understanding of the 1847 split in Franconia Conference that led to the formation of Eastern District Conference.

Joanna Shenk, editor of the book Widening the Circle: Experiments in Christian Discipleship, led a conversation about emerging church and relationships between institutions and movements.

Tweets from the event: “It’s more important to be pastoral than prophetic in many of these cases–we’re in this for the long haul.”

“When our society says “peacemaking,” they mean absence of conflict. When we say “peacemaking,” we mean shalom.”

“Movements & institutions in relationship. We need each other. What could this look like?”