Articles

by Josh Meyer, Franconia congregation

How do we sharpen who we are?  We do it in relationship with others.  One person encounters another and there is an interchange of ideas, feelings, and values.  Isolated from others, we become dull—our thinking, our feelings, even our faith, becomes blunted.  The remedy is to routinely rub lives with other people: generating heat, sparking new thoughts, sharpening ourselves as people and as pastors.

Such has been the experience of a Learning Community I’m a part of.  Encouraged by Randy Heacock and partially funded by Franconia Conference, our group of four pastors (Jessica Miller from Perkasie congregation, KrisAnne Swartley from Doylestown congregation, Franco Salvatori from Rocky Ridge congregation, and myself) has met together monthly for conversation, prayer, personal/pastoral development, and the kind of sharpening that comes from sharing our lives with one another.  Walter Sawatzky (Plains congregation) serves as our coach and facilitator.

This circle has been deeply meaningful for each of us, despite the fact that we come from very different contexts.  We’re not all the same age.  We don’t all share the same theology.  We don’t all have the same experiences.  We don’t all come from Mennonite backgrounds.  We serve very different kinds of churches. 

However, despite these differences, we have much in common.  As Jessica observes, “We all wonder about the best way to lead the church forward in the 21^st century.  We all seem to have an itch to experiment and try new things.  We all share a deep love for the work of the kingdom and sharing God’s love with the world.  We’ve all been frustrated by congregational politics, yet we have stayed in ministry.  We all want God’s best for the people we serve.” 

Finding a place where what unites us is a higher priority than what divides us has been refreshing for my soul and has sharpened me as a person and pastor.

In addition to the common values we share, our circle has discovered a camaraderie rooted in mutual trust.  Franco articulates the importance of this dynamic: “In a political, social, and religious environment where people are functioning out of suspicion and fear, it is nice to have a group who can discuss a wide range of very personal and professional topics with a level of trust that mitigates fear.” 

Pastors often function with varying levels of keeping up their guard, but as Franco points out and the rest of us affirm, our circle quickly became a place where those guards were lowered so that thoughtful, intelligent, informed reflection could take place. 

This is not the first “pastors’ group” I’ve participated in over the years, but it is one of the most meaningful I’ve experienced.  Part of the reason for its success is the intentional and professional coaching offered by Walter.  He often provides research/analysis from leadership and church studies that allow us to interpret our local issues within the context of broader discussions.  Furthermore, he encourages us to look inward toward the underlying passions, motivations, and assumptions that undergird our personalities and leadership. 

KrisAnne reflects on the value Walter adds to our Learning Community by noting how “his non-judgmental listening, his thoughtful questions, and the way he connects different aspects of a situation to reveal what’s going on underneath all gently guide our group toward greater maturity in relationships and in leadership.”

How do we sharpen who we are?  We do it in relationship with others, and one of the most sharpening places for me in the past year and a half has been this Learning Community.  I pray that we all find places of decreased isolation and increased sharpening in the years ahead.

by Emily Ralph Servant, Director of Communication

Over the last two years, executive minister Steve Kriss has been building a diverse staff to accompany Franconia Conference’s credentialed leaders, congregations, and Conference Related Ministries through a time of fluidity and change.  In April, two new leadership ministers joined Franconia’s team to walk alongside a range of new and established congregations as we seek to follow Jesus together.

Marco Güete (Sarasota, FL) and Josh Meyer (Telford, PA) began their conference work by joining Franconia’s staff retreat at Spruce Lake (Canadensis, PA) in early April.  Güete will serve as an interim leadership minister for a cluster of congregations in Florida who are exploring conference affiliation.  Meyer will assume congregational responsibilities from other current staff as roles shift toward missional initiatives and executive priorities.

“Marco and Josh represent different generations of Anabaptist leadership,” reflects Kriss.  “They both bring strong commitments to the church and will add depth and wisdom to our staff team.”

Marco Güete has broad experience in the church as a pastor, missionary, radio host, church planter, and conference minister.  He currently works with Mennonite Education Agency in their initiatives with Spanish-speaking leadership development and formation and, like many of the Floridian Anabaptist communities, he moves readily between Spanish and English.  Güete is the director and founder of the bi-national Anabaptist Biblical Institute training program (IBA), from which Franconia Conference has several graduates, and has an MA in theology from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Roy Williams, moderator of the Florida network of congregations and former moderator of Mennonite Church USA, has worked with Güete for many years.  He witnessed Güete’s good work at integrating their conference, despite the challenges, and was impressed by the ways he was able encourage participation from congregations who were on the margins of the church.  Williams recommended Güete for the Franconia staff position, noting that he seemed like a good fit because “he has experience working with Mennonite Church USA, he’s a good leader, and he’s well-trained.”  Güete has a heart for the conference priorities of formation, mission, and interculturalism and “brings people in and gets them involved.  He’s very good at inclusiveness,” says Williams.

Josh Meyer is the pastor of discipling and preaching at Franconia congregation and has served on the conference’s Faith and Life Commission, Ministerial Committee, and reconciliation process’ Structure and Identity Task Force.  Meyer has an MDiv and DMin from Biblical Theological Seminary (now Missio Seminary) and teaches public speaking at Eastern University.  Meyer recently completed a doctoral thesis that worked to identify the factors that cultivate and confirm calling among millennial leaders serving in our conference and he is particularly interested in helping congregations connect the good news of God’s great love with younger generations and those without a faith background.

Associate Executive Minister Mary Nitzsche has served with Meyer on the Ministerial Committee since 2014. In her experience, his thoughtfulness, reflective questions, insights, and pastoral experience have greatly contributed to their conversations regarding the credentialing process, discernment of potential credential candidates, renewal requirements, and the ministerial misconduct policy and procedure.  These years of working with these processes firsthand will enable him to effectively assist pastors and congregations through the credentialing process and accompany them in times of change or transition, she reflects.  “As our youngest Leadership Minister, Josh brings energy and passion for expanding his leadership gifts and for developing other younger leaders to serve our conference into the future.”

“We continue to rely on both experienced and emerging leaders to help shape our conference into the future,” observes Kriss.  “I am grateful for both Marco’s and Josh’s willingness to join our team and to bring their gifts into our shared work together.”

by Danilo Sanchez, Conference youth formation pastor

I poured myself a cup of coffee and sat down at the table for our monthly worship planning meeting. As usual, we started out with “Dwelling in the Word” and prayer. For our “Dwelling in the Word,” we watched a video that illustrated the emptiness we often experience as humans in the world, whether an empty tank of gas, an empty fridge or bank account, or the emptiness we feel from the loss of a loved one.  The music was dramatic and called on my heart to think of its own emptiness.

I could relate to the father sitting in front of his computer looking at an empty bank account.

I could relate to the young girl who sat in a room full of people but sent a text to her friend saying, “I don’t know … I guess I just feel empty.”

About a minute and a half into the video, the mood shifted. Words faded in at the bottom of the screen: “Emptiness often means disappointment, misery, heartache, anxiety … except when it doesn’t.” The music swelled and cut to a scene of Mary Magdalene bursting into a room full of the empty-feeling disciples. She proclaimed, “Peter, it’s empty!”

What a powerful message.

As we reflected on our responses to the video, one person in our worship planning team said, “Oh, I’m sure you pastors never feel empty. You’re doing God’s work and I’m sure your personal prayer time is just amazing. I mean how could it not be?  I would love to just sit and listen to you praying to God.”

I didn’t know how to respond in the moment, but I had two reactions. First, I thought to myself, do I appear as “too holy,” like I never have problems or am never empty? That’s certainly not true. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve felt empty—in my role as a husband and father, from work demands, from being a pastor. Working on empty as a pastor is never good. Repeated patterns of taking on too much often lead to burnout. Learning to say “no” and have boundaries is something that every leader needs to learn, but for some reason it’s always hard to put into practice.

My second reaction, which was much deeper than the first, were feelings of guilt and shame because my prayer life is mediocre at best. After all the praying I do in front of others or for others, it’s hard for me to want to pray privately because that feels too much like work. I’ll admit there have been periods in my life that I’ve been too empty to even want to pray to God, my Creator. With my spiritual director, I’ve been exploring different ways to pray beyond words, like coloring or sitting in silence before a dancing flame candle.  I’ve been using my body to pray through yoga; as I inhale, I say, “Christ in me” and as I exhale, I say, “Christ through me.”

This year during Lent, we have emphasized how we come to God empty, needing to be filled. In my emptiness, I long to find joy in the one who created me. I long to be refreshed and claimed by God, not because I’m a pastor, but because I’m a child of God. In the empty tomb, I long to find the Resurrected Jesus who fills my life with mystery and wonder.

This Easter season, in your emptiness, may you find the belonging, hope, and joy that only Jesus can provide.

by John Ruth, with Joel Alderfer, for the Mennonite Heritage Center

 America’s love affair with 35mm. slide transparencies ran from the late 1940s into the 1970s.  Fortunate indeed are those stuck to Kodachrome – whose authentic colors have not been diminished by half a century of casual storage.  Over a quarter-century span, countless family gatherings were transfixed and bored by the marvel of colored photographs glowing on a screen.  Returnees from trips proudly proved that they had been to the Grand Canyon, stood under the redwoods, or strolled Florida beaches in winter.  In comparison, there were fewer family scenes, and many of them were posed portraits.

By the end of the 20^th century, the endless travel pictures had become hopelessly dull and irrelevant to many, while the occasional shot of local, daily work and play were accruing a growing fascination. Ironically, many families of affluence have little to show of the domestic habits of their grand-parents. Not so with the family of John and Lizzie Bean Guntz, farmers near Royersford in western Montgomery County, and parents of a daughter Anna Elizabeth, born in 1913.

The Guntz farm, where Anna lived for most of her life, had belonged to her parents and her grandparents before that. They were a conservative Mennonite farming family, members of the Vincent congregation based across the Schuylkill River in Chester County.  Anna found employment doing housekeeping in the Collegeville area, including for several upper-class families in town, where she was loyal and much appreciated.

In the early 1950s, Anna bought an Argus C3 camera and began taking pictures on slides. What she lovingly recorded was the unfolding, trans-generational life of her extended family, transpiring simply around her on the home farm where she lived with her parents.  With no photographic training or strategy, this self-effacing and sensitive woman with no children of her own poured the love of an aunt into what grew into the most endearing visual record we have of Mennonite family life in her community and time.

A poignant aspect of Anna’s bounty of slides is in their coming to us from when one had to buy film and pay for its developing from modest wages.  Instead of taking 40 digital shots and discarding 39, as is common today, in 1952 one might frugally allow oneself one or two exposures, with the hope, while waiting for the film to be processed and mailed back, that the subjects had not blinked.  It is remarkable, then, that of the several thousand slides Anna has left, over three hundred remain as iconic of the context of her life.

Asked how she had learned composition, Anna seemed indignant.  Composition?  What is that?  “Why, these were my nieces and nephews!”  She leaves with us a celebration of life in a setting now almost strangely superseded, but intimately, even lyrically, made available to viewers through her loving lens.

A photo exhibit of selections from the color slides of Anna B. Guntz, as well as family farm artifacts, are on display at the Mennonite Heritage Center until June 15, 2019.

(Some of the items on display – click for larger versions)