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David Boshart nominated for MCUSA moderator-elect

October 22, 2014 by Conference Office

by Mennonite Church USA staff

David Boshart of Wellman, Iowa, has been nominated to be moderator-elect of Mennonite Church USA (MCUSA).

Delegates will vote on the nomination at the 2015 MCUSA convention, held June 30-July 5 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Boshart is currently the executive conference minister for Central Plains Mennonite Conference. He has also served on the Mennonite Church USA Executive Board for seven years.

Prior to being appointed as executive conference minister in 2010, Boshart served as a pastor of local congregations for more than 25 years. He has a doctorate in leadership studies with an emphasis in missional theology from Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, and is the author of the books Becoming Missional: Denominations and New Church Development in Complex Social Contexts and Sex and Faith, a Bible study guide on male sexuality from the Closer than a Brother series published by Faith and Life Press. Boshart also serves as an adjunct professor at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana, and Eastern Mennonite Seminary in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

In his current role, Boshart provides leadership for the overall mission, vision and direction of Central Plains Mennonite Conference. He works with local congregations to help them focus their vision for ministry in their local contexts, and also to help develop partnerships among congregations to expand their capacity for witness and mission.

Boshart was nominated by the Leadership Discernment Committee of Mennonite Church USA, and his nomination was affirmed by the MCUSA executive board.

If delegates approve the nomination at the 2015 assembly, Boshart will serve two years as moderator-elect and two years as moderator and chair of the executive board. He would succeed the current moderator-elect, Patricia Shelly of North Newton, Kansas. The present moderator is Elizabeth Soto Albrecht of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Boshart is married to Shana Peachey Boshart, who serves as Central Plains’ conference minister for Christian formation, and they have three sons. They are part of West Union Mennonite Church, Parnell, Iowa.

Waiting for the pain to end

October 16, 2014 by Conference Office

by Michael A. Meneses, Wellspring Church of Skippack

It was a cold Sunday morning. It had snowed the day before, and though the church parking lot had been plowed, there were ice puddles everywhere. I was walking across the lot in a no-nonsense, got-business-to-take-care-of way when it happened: my right foot landed on a patch of ice. My foot twisted backward, facing the opposite direction as the rest of my body.

It was the most excruciating pain I’ve ever experienced. I laid there on the icy ground until someone found me and an ambulance took me away.

Yet that’s nothing compared to the pain I experienced when my brother died in January 1984. He would have turned 30 that March; I was nearly 28. How does one explain that kind of pain, the pain of a heart cut through by great loss?

Call it soul pain, a shattered heart: pitch-dark, deeply penetrating waves of grief that leave you raw and exposed. Your heart spasms and you can’t breathe. Dizzy with disbelief, you want to shout and cry out: “It can’t be! Can it? How could it? This is not real! Is it?” It’s as if your soul has swallowed some horrible, ugly truth that you want to vomit out, but you can’t.

There are other hurts: the pain of scorn or rejection. The hurt of ridicule and shame. And you, too, have been hurt in one way or another; all of us have. Indeed, many are hurting even now, as I write these words.

Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am.” I might have said, “I hurt, therefore I am.” For some, it hurts just to live. And without hope, a Comforter, something better to look forward to, how can anyone bear the pain of it all?

Yet, when it comes to suffering, the Apostle Paul, who was no stranger to the pangs of suffering, said that the sufferings of this present time are not even worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed to us in the end. Indeed, all of creation, which suffers along with us, eagerly awaits its freedom “from its bondage to decay” when we come into the fullness of our redemption (Romans 8:18-25).

The interesting thing about suffering, and perhaps most frustrating, is this: God does not promise to prevent pain and suffering in our lives. No matter how faithful we are, or how spiritually deep we become, God gives us no guarantee that he will relieve us from suffering in this life. In fact, the very opposite may be true: growing deeper and more faithful with God may actually result in more earthly suffering. Nevertheless, God does promise to be with us as we endure suffering.

Perhaps our hurts and our ever-present sufferings fall under the category of Christ’s command to pick up the cross and follow Him. Jesus Himself was no stranger to extreme pain and suffering, having endured the sufferings of the cross. Thus, Jesus is no alien to what we feel and experience in our own earthly sufferings (Hebrews 2:18; 1 Peter 3:18). Perhaps Jesus knows more about the depths of our sufferings than we do ourselves.

Therefore, we are not to live life avoiding suffering at all cost, running from suffering at every turn, or numbing ourselves from suffering by any means, such as the use of drugs and alcohol. In many ways, we are expected to readily face the painful experiences of our lives head-on, especially the inner, emotional pain of spirit and soul, heart and mind. And while we do, we are to allow the Lord to do his work within us, to change, renew, and transform us by its means.

And so, even as we hurt and carry what seems to be unbearable pain in our lives, we remain steadfast with great expectancy. We look forward to something better. Even as we deal with what may appear to be unendurable agony, our trust, our faith, our hope, and our promise is that it will end in due time. And it will have been worth it, once we find ourselves on the other side of it.

Like Paul, Peter also encourages us with the promise and eager anticipation of final relief in the face of suffering: “And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.” (2 Peter 5:10-11).

Our theme for this year’s joint Conference Assembly with Eastern District Conference is “Esperando: Waiting & Hoping.” Conference Assembly will be held November 14-15 at Penn View Christian School in Souderton, Pa.

Seeking peace in their cities, urban leaders gather in Philadelphia

October 15, 2014 by Conference Office

by Rachel Sommer for Mennonite Central Committee East Coast and Mennonite Church USA

urban ministry conference — Chantelle Todman Moore (Philadelphia program coordinator, MCC East Coast), Freeman Miller (retired bishop, Philadelphia District of the Lancaster Mennonite Conference of Mennonite Church USA) and Glen Alexander Guyton (chief operating officer, Mennonite Church USA) pray together for peace in their cities at the Urban Anabaptist Ministry Symposium co-sponsored by MCC East Coast and Mennonite Church USA. (MCC photo/Rachel Sommer)

In a letter to Jerusalem’s exiled leaders, the prophet Jeremiah called on them to work for the welfare of Babylon, the city to which they had been deported. “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city,” he wrote. “Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jer. 29:7).

From October 2-4, nearly 100 Anabaptist leaders gathered in Philadelphia to discuss what responding to Jeremiah’s charge looks like in the 21st century.

Participants came from cities including New York; Hampton, Virginia; Philadelphia; and Washington, D.C., to attend the Urban Anabaptist Ministry Symposium organized by Glen Alexander Guyton, chief operating officer for Mennonite Church USA, and Chantelle Todman Moore, Philadelphia program coordinator for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) East Coast.

The symposium invited urban leaders to discuss practical Anabaptist ministry in their cities. “Being a peace church isn’t just about not going to war – it’s about manifesting God’s kingdom in our own communities,” said speaker Addie Banks, executive director at The Groundswell Group in the Bronx, New York.

Banks said the symposium provided opportunities for her to learn from colleagues in new ways. “Each of us has a tool. We all need tools to do our work, and gathering here with one another is like assembling a toolkit.”

During plenary sessions, Banks along with Al Taylor, pastor of Infinity Mennonite Church (Harlem, NY), and Ertell Whigham, associate pastor of Nueva Vida Norristown New Life (Norristown, Pa.) and executive minister of Franconia Mennonite Conference, shared “best practices” from their ministries.

Whigham spoke about the need to develop personal connections in culturally diverse contexts. “To be intercultural in the church of God today means that I will recognize how God has blessed you in your life, and I will recognize the gift that you are to me,” he said. “I will allow the Jesus in you to be the Jesus in me.”

Workshop leaders drew from first-hand experience to facilitate sessions on youth and young adult ministry, education for urban leaders, immigration, developing community partnerships and dismantling oppression.

Additional event sponsors included the African American Mennonite Association, Cookman at Emerging Ministries Corporation, Franconia Mennonite Conference, Goshen (Indiana) College, Kingdom Builders Anabaptist Network of Greater Philadelphia, Mennonite Mission Network and Philadelphia FIGHT.

Symposium organizers hope that participants will continue to connect and collaborate with one another. “I’m excited about the relationships that were forged here,” said Guyton. “This gathering showed that we can all benefit from the expertise of Anabaptist leaders who are carrying out practical ministry in their own contexts.”

Ben Walter, one of the pastors at Ripple, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, said the conference was one of the best he’d ever attended. He appreciated that voices often on the margins were given ample space and emphasis, and found it “helpful and enlightening” to hear the diverse perspectives and experiences represented among attendees.

Todman Moore hopes that urban Anabaptist leaders will convene in other cities in coming years. “We’d love to hear from Anabaptist leaders in other urban areas who are interested in discussing practical ministry in their contexts,” she said. She invites leaders to contact her (215-535-3624, C hantelleTodmanMoore@mcc.org) or Guyton (574-524-5282, GlenG@MennoniteUSA.org) to discuss planning similar initiatives in other cities.

Philadelphia churches offer sanctuary for immigrants

October 14, 2014 by Conference Office

by Tim Huber, for Mennonite World Review (reposted by permission)

Two Mennonite churches in Philadelphia have joined a sanctuary movement aiming to support people fearing deportation from the United States.

The congregations are members of New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia, an organization participating in a nationwide act of civil disobedience responding to inaction on immigration reform. President Obama promised to act on immigration by the end of summer, but has delayed doing so until after November elections.

Philadelphia Praise Center Pastor Aldo Siahaan said his congregation hasn’t received word yet about hosting specific undocumented immigrants, but it is ready.

The New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia gathered with congregational leaders to hold a press conference on September 25. The press conference was held at Philadelphia Praise Center, one of several congregations participating. — The New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia held a press conference announcing the new initiative on September 25. Photo by Bam Tribuwono.

“At Philadelphia Praise Center most of the people are immigrants,” he said. “This is kind of an issue that we deal with every month, even weekly. We know the pain and we know how it feels, so we open our space.”

The congregation has significant numbers of Indonesian, Hispanic and Burmese ethnic groups. Membership at PPC includes many undocumented people.

The church has two Sunday school classrooms that can be used to house families, and the sanctuary could also be employed.

Siahaan said law enforcement officials have not visited the church since its involvement was announced in a September 25 New Sanctuary Movement press conference at the church. In April, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter signed an executive order significantly limiting collaboration between local police and federal immigration authorities.

But word has gotten around.

“Last week, one radio station called me and put me on the air,” Siahaan said. “The announcer tried to be my opposition, and he really opposed the idea of the church opening to the ‘illegal people crossing the border.’ That’s what he was trying to say.

Aldo Siahaan, pastor of Philadelphia Praise Center, being interviewed at the press conference.

“I gave my reasons. It was an opportunity to speak to the people who disagree with us.”

Other support

Germantown Mennonite Church became an affiliate member of New Sanctuary Movement after a congregational vote over the summer. Though not planning to host undocumented people at the moment, it is providing support for churches that are.

Russ Mast and Betsy Morgan have attended organization meetings on the congregation’s behalf, and have accompanied families to deportation meetings as both witnesses and emotional supporters.

Germantown’s facilities are also used by a Jewish community group, Tikkun Olam Chavurah, for high holiday services. Like Philadelphia Praise Center, the group has signed on to host undocumented people. However, it is unclear where the Jewish group would provide sanctuary — be it at Germantown, a member’s home or a rented location.

“That hasn’t been something that has been decided yet,” said Germantown facilities administrator Michelle Bruhn.

Waiting together in the cold

October 9, 2014 by Emily Ralph Servant

by John Stoltzfus, conference youth minister

Recently, I spent three days with a group of conference leaders who work in youth ministry. This is an annual gathering at a beach house that has no agenda other than to be with one another, share what is happening in our lives and ministries, and eat some good food. Let’s just say that youth workers know how to have a good time when we get together!

What dominated our conversation this time, however, was a lament of the current state of affairs in Mennonite Church USA: the dwindling numbers and interest in the events we plan for youth and youth workers; the fracturing of churches and conferences; the passive aggressive behavior which is so prevalent in conflicts; a lack of healthy leadership (including disappointment in ourselves); the church caving to cultural patterns of polarizing behavior; a lack of the empathy and forbearance in our church relationships that love requires; the list could go on. As we dug our toes into the sand, we waited with one another and sought to listen deeply in our grief and disappointment.

One of us commented that it feels like we are in a waiting period. We are waiting for what will be torn down and what will emerge. It didn’t help the mood that the weather was overcast and there was a chill to the wind coming off the ocean. Someone volunteered to go and collect coats and blankets so that we could stay warm.

Yet, as we huddled together, we also noticed signs of hope. We shared stories of emerging faith and maturity in our children. The more seasoned parents among us noted that this can take a long time. We noticed signs of new life and emerging ministries in our churches and conferences. We rejoiced in the collaborative spirit we often see among youth pastors and workers. We reflected on the increased interest in Anabaptist thought and practice from groups and churches outside the Mennonite Church. We chuckled with holy amazement as we swapped stories of “problem” youth in our youth groups who grow up to be effective and mature Christian leaders.

We need places in our faith community where we can grieve together and share our disappointments. We also need community to help us move beyond ourselves and notice where God is stirring on the edges. We can choose to focus on the fears and anxieties of what we perceive is being lost or we can lean into the assurance that what God is bringing about is good even if we have a hard time imagining what it might look like.

In this time of uncertainty, I long for a renewed sense of community to emerge that is willing to wait with one another until Christ returns. Each generation in the church has a new set of perplexing issues and challenges and we are fooling ourselves if we think we can ever come to a final resolution to settle our differences. Our youth need to see the church model a way to be authentic community together when so much in our world is fragmenting and tearing apart. I long for a church that has a vision of the community that will one day gather around God’s banquet table and then seeks to live into that community today.

I long for a community that is willing to simply be with one another even when the weather is overcast and cold.

Partnership solution developed to make PA 2015 attendance possible

October 8, 2014 by Emily Ralph Servant

by Phyllis Pellman Good, Mennonite World Conference

Harrisburg, PA – “What a sad irony it would be if we welcomed the world to PA 2015 but we failed to find a way for our U.S. and Canadian sisters and brothers who belong to immigrant congregations, and to congregations who need financial support, to attend MWC’s Assembly next summer,” reflects Lynn Roth, Mennonite World Conference’s lead North American staff person.

“We have a rich diversity of nationalities within our 1400-plus congregations in the U.S. We worship in at least 20 languages – Indonesian, Amharic, and Karen, to name just a few. Many of the members of these congregations are fairly recent immigrants. Many of them have limited incomes. They want very much to attend PA 2015. But many cannot afford the registration fee, nor can they afford to take time off from work to attend.

“Yet we believe it is essential for people from these congregations to experience the global church and to be strongly represented at the Assembly to be held July 21-26, 2015 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

“Their presence at PA 2015 will help all of us more fully grasp the wonderful variety within the North American church,” says Roth. “And having had this experience, we won’t be content to live so separately in the future.”

A partnership solution

“We’ve put together a plan that shares responsibility for solving this dilemma,” explains Roth. “Regional and area conferences, together with local congregations and church organizations with resources to share, are invited to partner with Mennonite World Conference, and with these congregations with limited financial resources.” (See below for details.)

“We urge all congregations and area conferences across North America to join us in this effort – both those who need financial support and those who have funds to share. Please keep this opportunity to ‘care for those in our household of faith’ in mind as you plan your 2015 budget,” suggests Roth.

“Email registrations@mwc-cmm.org for instructions about how a conference or congregation can become a partner by sending funds to MWC for their portion of the registration, and how the persons receiving the subsidy should register.”

A gift that keeps on giving

“Think of this as an investment in our ongoing life together as a North American church,” says Roth. “PA 2015 gives us a rare chance to learn to know our neighbouring churches – our sisters and brothers from other cultures and language groups, and with different economic status – as partners.

“We want to continue our shared life together when the last guest has gone home from PA 2015,” reflects Roth. “As a North American church, we want to more fully experience being part of a global faith family as a result of preparing for and hosting the Assembly.”

Here’s how the partnership solution will work:

The registration fee for a North American adult for PA 2015 (including the full meal plan) is $575.

Mennonite World Conference will subsidize $150 of that cost.
MWC invites the congregation’s regional conference or a partnering congregation to donate $150.
The participating individual (or his/her congregation) pays the balance of $275.
In addition, these persons will be given priority to stay in private homes for $25 per night (totaling $125 to $150).
An additional cost for which creative funding must be found is transportation to and from PA 2015.

The news is biased

October 7, 2014 by Emily Ralph Servant

by Steve Kriss, director of communication
(originally posted on Mennonite World Review, reposted by permission)

I’ll start with a confession: There is no such thing as objective reporting. I know this after working around journalism for 20 years. If you and I were to see the same thing occur, we would likely see it differently. Experiences etched into our brains cause us to interpret the same scene through different lenses.

Often the more information we have, the more complicated the scenes become. Then there are the limitations: deadlines, language barriers, short attention spans of readers (and editors!), lack of space on a page. We are trapped by the inadequacy of communicating human experience through words. Yet, we try.

And then there are the biases, even in the newspaper you are reading. MWR is rooted in the General Conference Mennonite tradition, valuing autonomy and unity. We are biased toward the positive possibilities of Mennonite Church USA and other Anabaptist denominations. We are biased toward relationships within Mennonite World Conference’s big tent. We believe there is something good in us being together.

If you watch Fox News or MSNBC, there are obvious partisan preferences. The funding sources of RT (Russian) news or Al-Jazeera (Qatari) shape reporting and information gathering in quite different ways from U.S.- or U.K.-based sources. This summer’s unrest in Ferguson, Mo., played differently in China (where they are also afraid of insurrection within the nation’s diverse ethnic groups) and Russia (where the incident was viewed as an example of internal American imperialism).

In Ferguson, Gaza, Iraq and Ukraine, we’ve seen how conflict is interpreted in different ways. I’ve written very little on any of these topics, fearing I might be wrong. It’s my privilege to be silent when I don’t have a deadline or the conflict isn’t at my doorstep. I’ve found myself silent, knowing all too well that my biases can get in the way of good judgment.

In the Midwest, the Middle East or Ukraine, it’s easy for me to identify oppressed and oppressor. My biases form quickly. I don’t trust Israeli offenses in Palestine. I am leery of police who shoot the unarmed. As a great-grandson of Eastern European immigrants, I am suspicious of Russian assertions of power and cheer on Ukraine’s move to align with the European Union and NATO. But the more I learn, the more I wonder about my easy-to-come-to conclusions. It’s like the more I know, the less I know.

More and more these days I trust these complex stories to on-the-ground interpreters. I hear the words of friends in Israel/Palestine. I hear their fears from inside Israel’s “Iron Dome” and the West Bank. I listen to the stories of those who witnessed the scenes that unfolded in Ferguson. I struggle to interpret what is happening in Ukraine, Syria and Iraq because of limited access to firsthand sources in English. Online I found an interpreted account of a Yazidi woman who is pleading for intervention to save her people in Iraq. It brought me to tears.

I am glad I am not entrusted to make foreign policy, particularly when I recognize how hard it is even to interpret what is happening in Missouri. Yet it is important to me, as a Christian leader/ writer/follower, to keep listening to those who bear witness to the justice, injustice, violence and hope of their own communities. And to believe that the Spirit is upon us as Jesus-followers to bear good news of freedom and possibility. And to know that I cannot persist in silence.

Stephen Kriss is a teacher, writer, pastor, student and follower of Jesus living in Philadelphia.

Passing the keys

October 1, 2014 by Conference Office

by Ron Landes, Blooming Glen congregation

I knew that it was going to happen. I’ve seen it happen to others many times. I wasn’t really dreading it. But, even though they wouldn’t have to pry them from my “cold, dead hands,” I knew that the trustee set of building keys would have to pass from me to the next, newest member of the group. And so they did, with only the slightest bit of remorse, that of leaving something enjoyable and moving away from something that has been an important part of my life for the last 12 years.

I had grown quite used to having and using that motley collection of some six or seven door-lock openers. There were newer ones and older ones, usual and unusual ones. Differing shapes to fit the various locks found around our building. There was even one that no one was even sure of either use or origin; I carried it anyway. Somehow the keys came to me with a brass Goshen College tag attached to the key ring. I passed that on as well.

Even though these keys have an obvious physical function, that of accessing our church building, they took on a symbolic meaning for me. They represented my responsibility to our congregation in assisting in the task of maintaining our building as a place of comfort and security. I am humbled to see all those who work toward these goals that I believe enhance our worship together.

It has been both a privilege and a blessing to have served with all of the current and past trustees.

The set of keys and many new opportunities await Peter Giesbrecht as he joins the present group of trustees as the next, newest member. We ask God’s blessing on Peter, the ongoing work of caring for our meetinghouse, and on each member of our church family who passes through our unlocked doors each week.

Ron Landes is a member and former trustee of Blooming Glen Mennonite Church. He first shared this story in Glen News, the church’s newsletter. Reposted with permission.

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