Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

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The Fruit of the Spirit Is Showing Up

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by Charlene Smalls

In March of this year, I received an invitation to join Sandy Drescher-Lehman (Methacton [PA]) for a sermon preparation group, in which Mosaic pastors could come together to study from the Lectionary and prepare for upcoming sermons. During our most recent session, we reflected on how valuable this time has become for each of us. Today we would like to invite others to come alongside us and share in this experience. We have organically leaned into what it is to be Mosaic together, serving and sharing life as we study scripture and prepare for the work assigned to us.  

In the group, we reflected that there are other pastors across the U.S. studying from the lectionary for their upcoming sermons too. I wonder if God is pleased with this nationwide oneness, even if our sermons and contexts are different. Participating in this group has lightened the sermon prep load for me. It is a gift to sit with your peers in ministry, wrestle with Scripture, and see the different sermons that take shape in the group. 

Recently as we studied the scriptures together, we recognized that God has been working in us to deepen our study time and build relationships. God is allowing us to share about our varied contexts, which gives us a peek into the wholeness of the Kingdom God. The Fruit of the Spirit is showing up in this group.  

You are invited to join us virtually on Tuesdays at 10:30 eastern time. Contact Beverly Benner-Miller at Beverly@plainsmennonitechurch.org for the link.  

Charlene Smalls

Charlene Smalls is co-pastor of Ripple in Allentown, PA.

Mosaic Conference Receives $10,000 for Ambassadors Program

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Mosaic Mennonite Conference (Lansdale, PA) has received a $10,000 charitable distribution from the Schowalter Foundation to help fund the summer 2024 Ambassadors Youth Leadership Development Program.  

The Ambassadors Youth Leadership Development Program provides summer ministry experience to gifted young adults (ages 18-24) impacting their local communities. This program builds on a 20-year commitment by Mosaic (previously Franconia) Conference to develop young adult leaders through ministry experience.  

The program seeks to cultivate young adults’ commitment to Christian service and foster opportunities for Anabaptist witness and spiritual growth in their local communities and inspire young adults and develop their leadership skills. 

Danilo Sanchez, Leadership Minister for Intercultural Transformation, directs this program. Sanchez himself participated in a Franconia Conference-led summer service program as a young adult.

“These young adult Ambassadors give back to their community, work on their leadership gifts, learn more about who they are, and work closely with their pastor,” Sanchez shares. “As a young adult, I greatly benefitted from leadership opportunities with the conference which led me to become the pastor I am today.” 

For 10 weeks from June to August, the Ambassadors serve in their congregations’ Vacation Bible Schools and peace camps, at Conference-Related Ministry community centers, and more. They receive guidance from their pastor or another supervisor and mentor to discuss goals, receive support, and reflect on their experiences. The Ambassadors receive a stipend for their impactful work.  

In addition to the service opportunities, there are monthly virtual cohort gatherings for participants to build relationships, pray, and develop leadership skills. At the end of the program, there is a 2.5 day in-person retreat, designed and led by Sanchez and Hendy Matahelemual, Associate Minister for Community Engagement, which this year will take place in Tampa, Florida for the first time.

In 2024, 10 young adults are participating in the Ambassadors program, hosted by their congregation or Conference-Related Ministry. Initially, there were plans to host just six Ambassadors, but due to high levels of interest from applicants and host congregations, and the possibility of additional funding, the program was able to grow.  

“J.A. Schowalter wanted his legacy to continue on beyond his lifetime, supporting the missional work of Mennonite churches and organizations with similar faith and values,” said Schowalter Foundation President Diane Yoder. “We are pleased to support the efforts of Mosaic Mennonites through his vision and generosity.” 

The Schowalter Foundation was established in 1954 from the estate of J. A. Schowalter, a Mennonite from Newton, Kansas. The Foundation supports initiatives that follow the Mennonite convictions of service and missions, peacemaking and social concerns, and other programs and projects carried out by Mennonite Church USA and the Church of God in Christ, Mennonite, as well as Mennonite higher education institutions. To learn more about the life and legacy of J. A. Schowalter and The Schowalter Foundation’s mission and grants, visit schowalterfoundation.org. 

Celebrating 15 Years of God’s Faithfulness: Centro de Alabanza

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by Noel Santiago

“A Dios sea la gloria” (To God be the Glory). 

With these words of praise, Pastors Fernando Loyola and Lety Cortés of Centro de Alabanza (Philadelphia, PA) opened the 15th anniversary celebration service on Sunday, June 23, 2024. 

The service began with intimate songs of worship. As the expressions of love for God flowed, the songs of exuberant joy burst forth like rivers of living waters. God’s people had gathered from near and far to celebrate 15 years of God’s faithfulness at, in, and through Centro de Alabanza. 

Pastors Lety Cortés and Fernando Loyola. 
The children perform a skit about the Israelites under Moses. 
Marta Castillo (right), offers words of encouragement as Dan Barlow translates. 

Pastors Loyola and Cortés have been ministering in the congregation for 17 years, including a two-year start-up period.  

As the celebration continued, we were invited to offer what God had placed in our hearts to give with a huge smile on our face, because God loves a cheerful giver. 

The women’s group offered a celebration in dance as they moved and waved worship flags in sync with a song of praise. There was lots of singing and clapping. 

Mosaic Conference Associate Executive Minister Marta Castillo offered words of congratulations, encouragement, and strength to continue the journey. 

The women’s group offers a praise dance. 
A tasty fellowship meal was shared after the service.

Pastor Tomás Hangar shared the message from 1 Corinthians 5:17-21, highlighting that God is a mission-sending God who seeks to be reconciled with all humanity; we are made new in Christ and reconciled to God. God invites us to participate in his mission of reconciliation as “Chalanes de Dios” (Chalanes is a Mexican expression for an employer’s “helper”). 

The children’s group acted out a story of the Israelites under Moses leadership which called for trusting wholly in God. The youth group shared a video based on Psalm 78:4 reflecting on the church’s anniversary and learnings that each generation brings 

A reminiscent video showed snippets from the congregation’s life together to give praise to God’s faithfulness over these 15 years! As with any good celebration a wonderful Mexican meal was enjoyed by all! 

¡Felicidades, Centro de Alabanza! To God be the Glory! 

Noel Santiago

Noel Santiago is the Leadership Minister for Missional Transformation for Mosaic Conference.

Supporting Prometheus School for Children with Special Needs in Ukraine

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by Joe Landis

Approximately a month after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Anabaptist World published a story of how MCC had to leave the region and the building that MCC had used was now used for military purposes. The article had one sentence about a special needs school in Zaporizhzhia, which caught my attention.

On the cover of that March 4, 2022 issue was a picture of Dasha Bardus, an 11-year-old girl using arm crutches to walk. After some phone calls I learned the school had 167 students and was started 17 years ago by parents. Many students with special needs cannot attend public school in Ukraine although the government provides the school building and some teachers.

To me, this was a flashback to how Mosaic Conference, (then Franconia Mennonite Conference) got involved in providing services to individuals with special needs.

The cover of Anabaptist World in March 2022.

Because there was very little in the way of services for these children, it was mothers who stepped up and decided to do something. In the early 1960s, local parents, with Anna Gehman as chair, started the Wrens Nursery School in Lansdale, PA. In 1965, Gehman organized Hilltop Sunday school class at Salford Mennonite (Harleysville, PA) for 22 children with special needs, gathered from families in Lower Salford Township, allowing the parents to attend church since their children with special needs were not welcome there.  

Gehman also organized a day program and convinced Franconia Conference to start and fund a sheltered workshop for people with disabilities to do light industrial work, which ran from 1968 until 1983, when it was absorbed by the Conference-Related Ministry Indian Creek Foundation (Souderton, PA). All these services laid the groundwork for Indian Creek Foundation to emerge in 1975.  

Remembering the strenuous effort it takes to begin and maintain these programs in peacetime, I was struck by the fact that people in Zaporizhia are continuing to operate the Prometheus school in wartime, even as the Russian front is only 20 miles away. They hear bombs and artillery fire every night. I decided there must be some way we can offer support to these parents and their children: spiritually, morally, and hopefully financially.

Some children of Prometheus School for Special Needs in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, 20 miles from the Russian front.  

On Sunday, February 2, 2024, after seeing the artwork created for Transfiguration Sunday by Salford’s Hilltop Sunday school class (the continuation of the class that started in 1965), I envisioned that this artwork could help build a relationship with fellow Anabaptists in Ukraine. I shared the idea with Salford’s Accessibility Ministry Team and Justice and Peace Team, and they both supported the concept. 

As a result, we created greeting cards and posters with prints of the Hilltop Class’s artwork to sell and raise funds for the Prometheus School. This week after selling 880 greeting cards, nine posters and including donations, we mailed a check to Prometheus for $1,000. 

The Hilltop Sunday School class creates group artwork, titled “Be Transformed” on Transfiguration Sunday 2024. Photo provided by Joe Landis.
The Hilltop Sunday School class creates group artwork, titled “Be Transformed” on Transfiguration Sunday 2024. Photo provided by Joe Landis.

“Being part of Hilltop Class means being accepted as you are, heard when you share, singing when you are off tune, and finding beauty in creativity,” shares Lisa Yoder, who led the creation of the art piece the Hilltop Class created.  “The image is a mixed media collage created to depict Jesus’ appearance to the disciples before his resurrection. The artwork reminds me of how I find Christ in each member of Hilltop. My hope is the children of Prometheus will evoke the transfiguration of Christ through our support.” 

The children participating in Salford’s summer peace camp also learned about the Prometheus School and sent video greetings and songs to the children in Ukraine.  

The Hilltop Sunday School class packages notecards with prints of the artwork they created. Photo provided by Joe Landis.

“Being involved in the Hilltop class for nearly three decades, I was very moved to learn about the Prometheus school in Ukraine,” shares Janet Bartholomew, a leader of the Hilltop Class. “As our hearts ached for the Ukrainians when the war broke out, I remember several Sundays that the Hilltop class added our prayers for the people there. From a small class in Pennsylvania to another group with special needs and their caring parents, it really felt like the hand of God was directing each step!”

We invite other Mosaic Conference congregations to join this effort of relationship building with the parents and children with special needs in Ukraine, by selling greeting cards and posters. At least one other congregation in southeastern PA has joined our efforts, and we are looking for one person from each congregation to facilitate this.

If you are interested, please contact Joe Landis; jglandis@gmail.com for more information. Learn more and purchase cards and posters here. 

Joe Landis

Joe Landis is former CEO of Indian Creek Foundation and founder and former CEO of Peaceful Living, both Conference-Related Ministries. He is a member of Salford Mennonite (Harleysville, PA).

The Spirit of Habit, the Habit of Spirit 

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by Marco Güete

I have a friend who I admire for his routines and habits; I confess that I would like to imitate him. Every day he gets up and goes to bed at the same time. He says he sleeps eight hours without taking medications to help him sleep, he goes to the gym the same days each week, he eats his meals every day at the same times. Those are my friend’s good habits.  

The truth is that as human beings we have a lot of good and bad habits. This conversation with my friend prompted me to research habits by reading books and listening to lectures on the subject. Now I understand more clearly Ecclesiastes 3:1 NLT: “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.” 

We have the privilege of living in a volatile era, where everything is fleeting and transitory. Those of us who make up the church are not spared from the feelings of sudden and radical changes. What was is no longer, and what is, will not be. In our digital world, full of devices, new things emerge constantly and so quickly that it is difficult to adjust to the changes.  

These challenges make it complex to improve our habits and routines. I say complex, but not impossible. How long does it take to form a new habit that makes us happy? James Clear, in his book Atomic Habits (p. 75) answers, “Habit formation is the process by which a behavior becomes progressively more automatic through repetition. The more you repeat an activity, the more the structure of your brain changes to become efficient at that activity…Repeating a habit leads to clear physical changes in the brain.”  

“For everything there is a season…” The writer of Ecclesiastes anticipated what awaited us in this century without knowing it. When we attempt to do many things at the same time, we make mistakes and become stressed, and in turn that stress causes us innumerable physical and mental problems.  

I invite you to acquire the good habit that this text advises you: Do one thing at a time, well, with passion and dedication. Let us remember that “There is an appointed time for everything.” Work which cannot be done on the day for mission or ministry must wait its turn, because we are simply humans who love God and ourselves. 

Marco Güete

Marco Güete is the Leadership Minister for Florida for Mosaic Conference.

Ministerial Committee Update – June 2024

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The Ministerial Committee makes decisions on ministry credentials and policies that promote the support, health, and training of credentialed leaders and safe church practices for congregations. They meet quarterly to act on recommendations from the credentialing committee, review and revise current policies around credentialed leaders, and provide leadership in cases of misconduct.   

Report from the June 5, 2024 Ministerial Committee Meeting: 

Credentialing Updates
  • Melky Tirtasaputra – Ordination (Whitehall [PA])
  • Angelia Susanto – License toward Ordination License Extension (Nations Worship Center [Philadelphia, PA])
  • Beth Davco – License toward Ordination 3 Year License Extension (Wellspring Church of Skippack [PA])
  • Marcos Acosta – Withdrawn (Homestead [FL])
  • Angel Tamayo – Withdrawn  (Nueva Vida Norristown New Life [PA])

45 Credentialed Leaders have completed their 2024 Credentialing Renewal Process

Ministerial Committee Discussion Topics

Giving and Receiving Counsel Policy – addition of next steps of accountability, reporting, and reinstatement in cases of probation or suspension.Revision of credentialing process to add questionnaire for leaders of congregations who are not part of MC USA and don’t have access to the MLI (Ministerial Leadership Information) form.

Definitions Related to Credentials:  

  • Licensed for Specific Ministry (LSM) – Person called from within the congregation to serve in a specific leadership assignment within the congregation or another organization  
  • Licensed toward Ordination (LTO) – Issued for a three-year period with the purpose of testing the inner and outer call to ministry, further discerning of ministerial gifts, abilities, and aptitude; may or may not lead to ordination.  
  • License Extension – A three year-extension is given to a person in active ministry who has a license towards ordination but is not ready for ordination. 
  • Ordination (ORD) – Long-term leadership ministry credential appropriate for all pastors, area conference ministry staff, chaplains, missionaries, evangelists, and those determined by the church to have a continuing ministerial-leadership role in and on behalf of the church.  

Status Definitions

  • Active – held by those serving in a leadership-ministry assignment. 
  • Active without Charge – held by those not presently holding a ministry assignment.  
  • Inactive – held by those who have been without a ministerial assignment for more than three consecutive years.  
  • Retired – held by those who have retired from active ministry.  
  • Withdrawn – is given when a ministry credential is ended for non-disciplinary reasons. 

Boyertown Closes, Congregation Unites with 2/42 Community

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by Noel Santiago, Leadership Minister 

© Google Maps

“While it seems like a distant memory, it was just six months ago (Aug. 2023) that Boyertown (PA) Mennonite (BMC) began to make a final discernment as to whether we would simply continue to function as a small congregation with a part-time pastor, or if we would entertain the concept of merging with another congregation in the Boyertown area using the BMC church facility as the new entity’s ministry location,” shared the report of Walt Morton, merger process mediator and coach for Boyertown, on Jan. 29, 2024. 

The congregation sensed God’s leading to merge with another local community congregation who also had a heart for ministering to the people of the Boyertown community. That congregation was 2/42 Community Church, a nondenominational church, whose pastor is Bryan Raught. 

“On April 28, 2024, both Boyertown Mennonite Church and 2/42 Community Church Members voted unanimously to merge into 2/42 Community Church, effective May 1, 2024,” reads the letter Mosaic Mennonite Conference leaders received from Boyertown Mennonite Church Council Chair Doug Kern, writing on behalf of the congregation. “As a result of this merger, as of May 1, 2024, Boyertown Mennonite ceased to exist.” 

The process of discernment was an almost two-year intentional interim process led by Walt Morton, Intentional Interim Minister from Ohio. The process was heavily oriented toward relationally healthy conversations among congregants, which provided ample opportunities, options, and possibilities for discerning the sense of the congregation. It’s safe to say that when this process began, no one envisioned where it would end up. 

The letter ends with a desire from the Boyertown Mennonite Church members expressing a desire to maintain a relationship with Mosaic Conference. Although no one quite knows what that might look like, we remain open to the further leading of God’s Holy Spirit. 

So, as Boyertown Mennonite Church transitions to 2/42 Community Church, and continues to carry on the work of God’s Kingdom in this new way, we offer this prayer of blessing for her leaders, people, and ministries: 

Gracious and loving God, the builder and sustainer of the Church,

We give thanks for your Spirit and your people at Boyertown Mennonite and 2/42 Community Church.

We give thanks for the challenging work that the Boyertown Mennonite has engaged in these past several years, with transparency, vulnerability, difficult, and sometimes painful conversations, yet also with hope, possibilities, and a view toward a new horizon.

We ask that as Boyertown unites with 2/42 Community Church, your Spirit would bless this joining together as one. That all you have done historically in and through Boyertown Mennonite would be multiplied to that which you have done and are doing in and through 2/42 Community Church so that your kingdom rule and reign may be further established and expanded.

Thank you for the blessing that Boyertown Mennonite has been to Franconia and Mosaic Mennonite Conference over these many years. May all that continues to be said and done, bring you honor, glory, and praise we pray in Jesus name, Amen!  

Marking Our 4th Anniversary as Mosaic

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by Stephen Kriss

This Pentecost marked our 4th anniversary of becoming Mosaic Mennonite Conference. We took our name during the lockdown period of the COVID-19 pandemic, during a weekend of protests surrounding the murder of George Floyd. Pentecost 2020 was for many of us, during a tough time, a bright spot to celebrate a coming together. (If you need a reminder of our unveiling, here’s the video, which was filmed at Zion [Souderton, PA] and Centro de Albanza [South Philadelphia] while trying to social distance, at a time when many of us couldn’t get haircuts). 

This year we marked Pentecost by encouraging #MosaicTogether gatherings across our Conference which brought congregations together in a variety of ways. That same weekend, the Mosaic board met at Bethany Birches Camp in Vermont for equipping on discernment and decision making and affirmed the anchor/foundational statements of our Pathways strategic plan. Our previously scheduled Vermont board meeting had been cancelled during the pandemic time due to Vermont’s rigorous regulations on COVID. In a lot of ways, we are still catching up and adjusting to the newness and challenges of the timing of our beginning together. 

Since our birth in 2020, we have received congregations in Florida that now make up about 15% of our membership. We have had several congregations leave our conference after the special delegate session of Mennonite Church USA 2022 and had several congregations close. In the meantime, we’ve supported numerous new church planting initiatives in the United States, Mexico, England, and Colombia, and have had our first online-based communities emerge. We are in the midst of significant change around us and within us. 

I’ve been thinking about what holds mosaics together. It’s easy to see the brilliant, unique, and bright pieces, but harder to notice the quiet work of holding the pieces together. The work of cement and grouting is not particularly glamorous but essential. The task of our Mosaic Conference structure is to hold and situate each piece. We are a community of communities and ministries, not individuals. It takes work that is both individual and communal to hold us together. 

In becoming Mosaic, we had lofty dreams. We didn’t fully know what we would be living into together. We moved forward with hope, believing that our foundation in Christ, our commitment to community, and our willingness to work at reconciliation would give us plenty to do and the strength to do it. Early on we confessed in our vision statement that we work within a broken and beautiful world. That reality makes a mosaic possible. And difficult. 

Cynicism can come from unmet high expectations. Unfulfilled hope placed only in the human realm, not within the reign of God, can frustrate us. We can find ourselves constructing a tower of Babel rather than participating in the fullness of the Spirit’s Pentecost work. The culture around us needs for us to become fully Mosaic, embodying the reconciling love of Jesus, and will attempt to disassemble it.   

I continue to be aware of both our beauty and our precariousness. I am grateful for the ways that so many of us have invested time, prayer, work, and resources that help situate our Mosaic reality, to hold our beauty and brokenness together. Our faith grounds us. The Spirit gives us hope to live out our vision and mission. And love, both of God and each other, is what will hold our mosaic together through the bonds of peace (c.f. Ephesians 4:3). 

Stephen Kriss

Stephen Kriss is the Executive Minister of Mosaic Conference.