Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Articles

Why I Said Yes …

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 . . . to ongoing work and hope

by Stephen Kriss

Mother Theresa called it a “call within the call.”  That’s the best language I’ve found to describe why I’ve said yes to the invitation to the role of Executive Minister with Franconia Conference.   These weeks since the announcement went public I’ve felt surrounded by congratulatory support as well as honest condolences.   The congratulations recognize the largeness of the role and the condolences honor the difficulty of church leadership in this time and space.  I’ve received them both openly and humbly feeling strongly the sense of call between God, the world, our community and me for “such a time as this.”

While I’ve worked now over a decade with Franconia Conference, this appointment still feels like a surprise.  I’d have never guessed moving to Philadelphia after grad school would mean staying this long and finding my heart drawn to the community that we are, that we have been and that we are becoming.   I’ve come to love us from our immigrant congregations in South Philadelphia, to our historic congregations in Bucks and Montgomery County, to our experiments in church life in the Lehigh Valley and our unique blend of Vermonter Anabaptism.   There’s no where like us.   We are poised with interesting and sometimes complicated possibilities.

I’m grateful for the thorough work of the search committee and for the discerning work of the board.   Ertell Whigham, who has served as our executive minister, hands off a stable and financially sound organization.   He is leaving the role after being the first African American to lead a Conference in our national body.  Ertell’s commitment to our ongoing transformation as missional and intercultural people is one that I intend to carry forward.

In my interview with the Conference Board, I said that a marker of success for me will be collaboration.  I’m not exactly sure how we’ll mark or measure this yet, but I’ve seen glimpses of it in our work together in mutuality and sharing resources that give me some clues.   We have a long story together and I’m convinced that our future could be bright.   We’ll need to keep learning (to keep on being disciples) and to invest carefully so that our gift of faith might not simply be safely preserved but multiplied like the resources entrusted to the servants in Jesus’ parable from the Gospel of Matthew.

In this journey, the text “to whom much is given, much is required” has lingered in my head.   I hear it both for me and for all of us.   I receive this work as a gift.   I acknowledge the privileges that are mine and are ours.  These are not simply political, economic or racial/class privileges (though there are those), but privileges of grace, hope, and love.    It is because of these eternal things that last that I have said yes, again this time to the invitation of the Spirit among us.  I look forward to living into this “call within a call” together.  And trust that we’ll continue our faithful legacy of work and hope.

Become an Expert of Your Child

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Parents of children of all ages are invited to a special Parenting Seminar – “Become an Expert of Your Child” – on Saturday, January 14, 6:30 to 9:00 pm at Line Lexington Mennonite Church. The featured presenters, John and Cindy King, are parents of 9 children and currently reside in Mechanicsburg, PA .  John is a former youth and worship pastor at Line Lexington and currently serves as Associate Pastor of Adult Discipleship at Mechanicsburg Brethren in Christ Church.  He also has previous work experience as a school counselor, a mobile therapist, and a foster care social worker.  Cindy is a stay-at-home mom and former educator at Penn View Christian School.  Together they are co-directors of Victorious Hope Adoption Consulting, and their family regularly tours Central and Southeastern PA with their band, The King’s Strings.

John and Cindy bring a wealth of insight and practical help for raising children. “Become an Expert of Your Child” is a free two-part seminar open to everyone.  Join for one night, or both (January 14 and February 18). See the flyer here.

Related – Read the following articles on Parenting:

 

God Always Shows Up In Unexpected Ways

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During advent we focus on the journey of Mary and Joseph, culminating in the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ; it’s a story full of God showing up in unexpected ways.  At a recent Ministerial Committee meeting, Ken Burkholder, pastor at Deep Run East, shared an article that speaks on how we need to allow God to show up in unexpected ways by not striving to be so perfect and remembering that being good enough is good enough.

The article — “A Case for Good Enough Parenting and Pastoring” — has the author, Ken Evers-Hood, reflecting on another story of Mary and Joseph, where they failed their important task “to keep an eye on the boy.” From this he draws lessons for pastors and parents about the importance of not being perfect, remembering that “being good enough is enough, trusting that God through the Holy Spirit really will show up as God always does: in a way no one expects.” It’s a good reminder for us all as this season often has us pulled in multiple directions.

A Warm and Fixed Hallelujah

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By Jenifer Eriksen Morales

Over and over again throughout this season of advent, I find myself looking at our Crèche (a model representing the scene of Jesus Christ’s birth), longing to place the Little One in the empty manger early — a symbol of hope. This has been a tumultuous year for many in our congregations, communities, nation and world.  Some of us struggle with illness, finances, and relationships, while others are mourning the loss of a loved one.  As a church, we long to belong and we long to get along.  Just 15 minutes of the morning news highlights clips about political corruption, racism, assassinations, suicide bombings and other forms of violence in homes and neighborhoods.  A quick scroll through Facebook reveals posts of sexual abuse, injustice, commercialism and a war in Syria that has left so many homeless and taken so many innocent lives, especially in the city of Aleppo.

Needless to say, it doesn’t surprise me that this advent season the typical advent and Christmas songs are not running through my head.  Instead it is the song, “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen, a Jewish song writer, singer, and poet who passed away in November. There are many verses and versions to this song, but In “Hallelujah,” Cohen writes:

…Love is not a victory march
It’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah.

Maybe there’s a god above
All I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
And it’s not a cry you can hear at night
Not somebody who’s seen the light
It’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Amidst the cold and broken hallelujahs of this advent season comes my six-year-old with a painting she made.  She asks to hang it behind the crèche — a symbol of hope.  I am touched by her awareness, heart and imagination as she describes her art.

“This is a flower and this is Leonard Connan (Cohen).  He is holding hands with a little girl from Aleppo.  They are in heaven and they are singing ‘Hallelujah!’  But Mommy, their Hallelujah isn’t cold and broken anymore.  It is warm and fixed!”

I hug her tight and whisper a prayer, “May it be so Little One.  May it be so… ‘On Earth as it is in Heaven’.”

Value-Based Decision Making

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by John Stoltzfus

When our oldest son was 13, he wanted to play in the park football program. Despite some misgivings about the benefits of youth football, my wife and I decided to let him play hoping that he would find a sense of confidence and purpose in a team sport. However, when the schedule came out indicating that some games may happen on Sunday mornings, we knew we had some additional discernment to do. So we engaged our son in conversation about what we would do.

Tim Bentch’s article “Are We Driving Our Children Away from God?” asks some important questions related to the values we as parents are modeling to our children. A frequent refrain among youth pastors is how to do ministry among the “busy schedules” that dominate the calendars of our youth and families.

A recent book, Overplayed: A Parent’s Guide to Sanity in the World of Sports, by David King and Margot Starbuck, asks some of the same questions. They address seven myths about youth sports that are deeply entrenched in our culture. What are the unintended messages we pass on to our children about what we value regarding performance, success, family, community, and justice and equity? What are alternative ways families can positively engage with youth sports culture?

They do not give a one-size-fits-all suggestion. Each family will need to make their own tough calls based on their priorities and values and responses to these questions:

  • What do we want to be doing with our money and our time?
  • What relationships are most important for us to honor?
  • What are three to five values we want to name as being important to us?
Courtesy of Towamencin MYF

As parents and/or youth workers it is important that we help keep the focus of our youth on Christ and being disciples. Identifying family values in advance gives you tools for decision making about athletic and other types of extracurricular commitments. As youth workers and pastors we can help keep these values at the forefront for our youth when we see them making decisions. These values may lead to limited or no engagement in certain extracurricular activities, or as seen in a previous Intersectings article, “The Everyday Missionary,” you may find a way to help make disciples for the Lord through extracurricular activities. Either way engagement should be based off the values your family holds.

Here are some guiding values for us to consider as communities of faith. What would you add?

  1. Sabbath. We need to be grounded in a Christian community committed to the sacred balance between work and rest. A life that incorporates Sabbath rest helps us to be more aware of the Spirit of God, more dependent on the providence of God, and more available for relationships of love. What does Sabbath look like in a world where choices abound and technology surrounds us? Sometimes our church youth programs buy into the “more activities and choices are better” mentality and only compound the problem. Let’s confront one of the diseases of our time: we are distracted from the “better” things often hidden among many “good” things.
  2. Accompaniment. How can we come alongside our youth in their journey of discipleship? Our task is to initiate young persons into mature Christian faith through relationships with adults who join them in living the way of authentic discipleship. As elders we can offer youth friendship, guidance and listening ears as they make the passage through adolescence into spiritual maturity. This is the work of the whole church and not just a youth pastor or a few youth sponsors in the congregation.
  3. Discernment. We need to be guided by prayerful discernment attentive to God’s living Word. We practice and teach the discipline of discernment with our youth so as to be responsive to the movement of God’s grace and mission. How can we be less anxiety and fear driven and more Spirit led in our ministry with youth? Involve youth in the decision making process in congregational life. Be open to how God is speaking to and through them to the larger church.
  4. Multigenerational: Make church multigenerational as much as possible. In some of our attempts to do great youth programming we may be unintentionally disconnecting them from the larger body of Christ. Young people at multigenerational focused churches are more likely to remain connected to the faith and become active church members as adults, because that’s what they already are and always have been. When my wife and I were looking for a church home, we were not looking for a church with a dynamic youth program as much as we were looking for a community of believers modeling an active faith that included the nurture of children and youth.
  5. Authentic action: We seek to engage youth and adults in authentic actions that reflect God’s mercy, justice and peace. Most studies of faith and youth point to parent’s faith as the key factor in their children’s faith. What is the shape of our faith that we are passing on our children? What is the one radical thing we are doing because of our faith? Our youth need to see the connection between life and faith.
  6. Baptism: Let’s reimagine baptism and its role in Christian citizenship and discipleship. What does baptism look like in our current context? To early Christians, baptism meant a decisive step of leaving one’s civilian life behind and accepting the commitment of becoming a “living sacrifice” for God’s service. How can we as adults make more of our baptismal promises and journey? How can we give space for the baptism instructional experience and ritual to be more fully robust and transformational?

My conviction is that God is speaking to our youth in every part of their lives. How can we as adults help them respond with the words of Samuel, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”?

Are We Driving Our Children Away from God?

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By Tim Bentch, Pastor at Souderton Mennonite Church (originally published in the Souderton Mennonite Church November 2016 newsletter)

As I write, this article, I am already feeling guilty about my own deficiencies as a parent – all the ways I could have helped my children excel in sports, music, and academics. I could do more!  All the missed opportunities to help my children become successful in life! We parents are plagued by guilt and we also feel the constant pressure from our society to be super parents and to turn out super kids.

But, are these pressures and expectations in balance with what we know is the ultimate goal of Christ-following parents – to help our children find Jesus? Are we helping our children find God and doing all we can to model a pursuit of God for them?

One area we need to take a strong look at is the current sports obsession (though there are many obsessions in other areas). With this in view, I ask the question: Are you driving your children away from God – literally? When you drive your child to a soccer match or practice on Sunday mornings, what is that teaching your child?

My wife and I served in Eastern Europe beginning a few years after the fall of Communism. In many of the countries under Soviet domination, Christians faced discrimination and persecution. In Moscow, I met a talented young musician who played the clarinet beautifully. He was in his late twenties. Why, I asked, didn’t he go to the conservatory of music or to a university for formal studies? He looked at me with a puzzled expression that said, don’t you know? Under Communism, there was no way he could be accepted into a conservatory or a university because he was active in the church – automatic disqualification. But, he chose to be faithful to God by staying active in the local church even though it meant that ‘success’ for him in a musical career or in any other field that required a college education was not possible.

I met an outstanding singer in Timisoara, Romania. He had one of those voices you usually only find in the east – a deep, dark, profound, resonant voice. When I heard him sing, I was incredulous. “Why aren’t you a leading soloist in the opera?” I asked. Again, that puzzled look; don’t you know?  He told me that when he finished conservatory, he was offered a contract to be a soloist with the opera. But, they said, there’s one thing, “You will have to give up going to church. A soloist in the opera cannot be known to be a Christian.” He told them immediately, “No way,” and turned down the contract. Instead, he took a position with the choir of the philharmonic – not nearly as prestigious, but he stayed active in his local church.

I think about many others who made huge sacrifices in order to be faithful to Jesus and to honor him by serving in church. Yet, we choose sporting events over church? Really? When we are driving our children to a practice or a game instead of worship or instead of a Wednesday night youth meeting, what message does that send to our children? Are we saying, we only go to church when there’s nothing better to do?  Are we placing sports, or work, or leisure, above knowing and serving God?  The Bible calls this idolatry.

Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” The patterns that we give to our children will stay with them the rest of their lives. If we are communicating that church is not important now, how can we expect that they will go to church when they are older? If we are modeling for them a faith that requires no sacrifice, then what good is it? What could be more important than our children’s eternal destiny?