Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Articles

The Gift You Don’t Expect

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By Michelle Ramirez 

Besides commemorating the birth of Christ, the holiday season is about giving and receiving gifts. But what if a gift you joyfully receive comes with something you weren’t expecting at all?  

I recently received a gift of a puppy from someone who knew I really wanted one.  You can imagine the joy I felt in receiving this gift. I have always loved dogs and wanted a dog my whole life. Unfortunately, because my family moved around a lot, I was never able to have one. One of our church members recently had a dog who gave birth to a litter of nine puppies. He knew how much I always wanted a dog, so he gifted me a puppy, to my surprise.  

In the days leading up to my puppy’s homecoming, I prepared myself as best I could, knowing puppies are not easy to care for. I read all the information I could find and bought whatever I thought would be necessary, but I still felt unprepared. I received the gift I always wanted, but I didn’t expect all the responsibility that came along with it.

I realized how very similar this is to how we respond in our walk with Christ. We pray fervently for something but find it hard to accept the trials that can come with asking for something. The Lord, in His infinite mercy, may grant us the gift we want, but He also grants us the tools we need to receive it. 

Atlas, Michelle’s new puppy, as he prepares for homecoming. Photo provided by Michelle Ramirez.

Often, we forget that in the asking, we also receive gifts we weren’t expecting. Those extra gifts could be, like me with my puppy, extra responsibilities, momentary struggles, or even our characters being tried by fire. Even though God gives us these unexpected gifts, what is great is that He knows He gave it to us with a purpose (see Jeremiah 29:11). His plans are always to prosper us and not harm us. The gifts we weren’t expecting become the tools we need to actually grow.  

So this holiday season, while we receive gifts from loved ones, let’s remember we are constantly receiving gifts from our heavenly father as well. Those gifts might come with added things we weren’t expecting, but it will always be for our good!

Michelle Ramirez

Michelle Ramirez is the Youth and Community Formation Coordinator for Florida for Mosaic Conference.

On Fasting…

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by Jeff Wright

The call to fast ought not to be a throwaway line.  

In almost five decades of deciding and trying to follow Jesus daily in life, I have seen the call to fasting used as a spiritual punchline far too often.  Christians have a tendency to call one another to fast when they really, really want us to pray, or they really, really think I need to lose weight.  Fasting often gets treated like the spiritual equivalent of hot fudge sauce on our vanilla ice cream intercessions … if we fast (or at least throw around the language of fasting), then our prayers must really, really be sincere, and we must really, really be spiritual. 

Yeah, I don’t think so. 

Fasting, if we are open to the spiritual habit, ought to be fun.  After all, fasting at its best is about laying aside things that want to capture us – the 24-hour cable news, the screens we carry around with us, that second piece of pie.  Fasting is about saying “no” so that we are able to say “yes” to increased time spent in the company of Jesus.  Fasting opens the door joyfully to enable us to pray boldly and learn to forgive extravagantly. Fasting creates a pathway toward Christlikeness. 

We’re into Pathways right now in Mosaic Conference.  Our pathway begins with prayer and fasting and leads to discernment, which invites us to being formational, missional, and intercultural as churches.  Then (and only then) the pathway will guide us to ask the pertinent question of whether or not membership in Mennonite Church USA (MC USA) helps or hinders us on the path forward.   

My hunch is that MC USA membership is truly not a central issue in our walk with Christ.  Finding the pathways to Jesus that bypass the over-stimulated world we’ve created and help us bond together as a church full of missionary disciples seems way more important than the current denominational feud. Fasting is a pathway to put aside the anxieties of our stuff, and listen thoughtfully to the Jesus who loves us, accepts us, and forgives us, even before we’ve thought to ask for it. 

Maybe, if we begin the Mosaic Pathways Process with true fasting and honest prayer, where we end up in our discernment, and whose brand name we cherish, won’t really matter … because we will have rediscovered Jesus, our ever-present Savior, teacher, Lord, and friend.  

Jeff Wright

Jeff Wright is a Mosaic Leadership Minister for California and the Intentional Interim Lead Pastor at Blooming Glen (PA) Mennonite Church.  He is not an expert on fasting (lock up your pies!), but at this stage of his life and ministry, he is willing to give up a weekly slice of blueberry pie, his favorite, if it would help him discover new pathways to get to know Jesus better.

Perk Up in Prayer

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by Paula Marolewski

If you google, “why prayer meetings are dying,” you will find plenty of reasons: lack of variety, lack of leadership, lack of participation, lack of enthusiasm, and more. Prayer meetings can become “same old, same old” and die the death of attrition. Yet prayer is our personal and corporate connection to our sovereign God. Prayer meetings should be a wellspring of life within each local church. 

Perk Up in Prayer, the weekly prayer meeting at Perkiomenville (PA) Mennonite Church, is full of energy and excitement. Several factors have contributed to the vibrance of this prayer meeting. Perhaps other congregations will find some of these practices helpful in their own prayer meetings. 

Kingdom Focus 

Perk Up in Prayer springs from and aligns with the kingdom-focused vision, mission, and goals of the prayer ministry at Perk.  Perkiomen Mennonite desires to be a congregation  

where vibrant prayer drives the kingdom of God forward in our lives, our church, our community, and our world.  The prayer ministry’s mission is to provide opportunities for teaching and mentoring in prayer to help people know God better and love God more.    

Perk Up in Prayer allows people to be involved regularly in at least one opportunity for corporate prayer and helps them to learn to be comfortable with praying together.  It also expands people’s concepts of prayer to embrace a kingdom mindset. 

Varied Approach 

Each Perk Up in Prayer meeting is unique because we vary the topical focus, the methods of prayer, and the specific components for each evening. The combinations offer an infinite number of possibilities for prayer meetings. 

In general, we have found that the energy and engagement level of the meeting is best maintained by structuring the evening in 10–15 minute blocks of time. For example, we might start with 10 minutes of worship, and then spend 15 minutes sharing and praying about the needs of the church.  We may turn to sharing about an attribute of God for 15 minutes and then move to 10 minutes of silent reflection and prayer about that attribute. We conclude with 10 minutes of corporate prayer focused on that attribute. 

Diverse Leadership and Spiritual Sensitivity 

Having a team of people who are willing to lead meetings provides both diversity and sustainability to Perk Up in Prayer.  

A principle for leaders to always keep in mind is to go with the flow of the Spirit. Leaders plan and prepare as good stewards, but they should remain sensitive to the leading of the Spirit. Leaders need to be willing to make changes on the fly to respond to the need and insight of the moment.  

For example, if a person comes with deep pain, it is important to take time then and there to pray for that person. Or, if a group discussion reveals that a certain burden is on everyone’s heart, scrap the plan for the evening and pray for that burden.  Being sensitive to the movement of the Spirit is essential to any prayer meeting. 

How are prayer meetings helpful? 

One Perk Up in Prayer participant finds the prayer meetings corporately enriching. “As we gather weekly for prayer time, we’re learning more about humbling ourselves before God and each other, praying with expectation, seeking the face of God, and repenting of sin,” says Dennis Detweiler.  Others are grateful for increased personal and spiritual strength.  

For Sarah McCarthy, the meetings are “refreshing and help me get through the week with a thankful heart.”  We encourage churches to find creative ways to enliven and deepen their prayer life. 

Paula Marolewski

Paula Marolewski leads the prayer ministry at Perkiomenville (PA) Mennonite Church. She writes faith-centered blogs, Bible studies, and fiction, all of which are available at www.prismaticjoy.com.

Pathway Steering Committee Nominations Now Open

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At the November Assembly, Mosaic Conference delegates affirmed the Pathway process for strategic planning.  The Board intends to name a Pathway Steering Committee to begin to work with a consulting team in February 2023.   

This steering committee will serve the Conference broadly for the next two years (2023-24) through prayer, listening, collaborating, and creatively imagining our next steps of life together.  The Pathway Steering Committee will include up to 12 people, comprised of broad representation from across the Mosaic community including staff, board, pastors, and congregational members. 

Effective candidates will be committed to Mosaic’s Mission & Vision and come with a level of openness to discern and listen together with others across our 8,000 bicoastal member community. Steering committee members should expect monthly meetings on Zoom and/or in- person. As outlined in the Pathway document, this process will be highly relational and rooted in our commitments to prayer and fasting together.  

To nominate someone for this role, please email Mary Nitzsche, Mosaic Leadership Minister, and include the name of the nominee, their email address, phone number, and Mosaic affiliation (congregation, CRM, etc.) Nominations will be received through Friday, January 13, 2023.

Giving and Receiving Counsel Update

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At its November meeting, the Mosaic Board affirmed the recommended actions regarding a Giving and Receiving Counsel process with Beth Yoder. In April, Yoder officiated a same-sex wedding.  

The discernment process, as outlined in the Giving and Receiving Counsel document, included a conversation with a review team comprised of members of both the Ministerial Committee and Credentials Committee. Yoder was not employed as a pastor in a Mosaic Conference congregation at the time of the officiating, though remains a member of Salford (Harleysville, PA) Mennonite Church where she was most recently part of the pastoral team.

The following recommendation came from the review team which was then affirmed by the Ministerial Committee and forwarded for final processing to the Mosaic Board: 

We find Beth Yoder’s actions in officiating a same-sex wedding to be at variance with the policy and teaching positions of Mosaic Conference, specifically with Statement Three of the Church Together Statement Grace and Truth, which states that pastors credentialed in the Conference may not perform same-sex covenant ceremonies. We reaffirm that the Grace and Truth statement is the policy and teaching position of Mosaic Mennonite Conference. In accordance with the Giving and Receiving Counsel document, each incident is to be handled on a case-by-case basis. We recommend that Rev. Beth Yoder’s ministerial credentials with Mosaic Conference be placed on probation for a period of two years. Probation is defined by A Mennonite Polity for Ministerial Leadership as “the credential held by those…who are placed under close supervision for a specified period of time in order to determine whether the credential will be continued.” 

Review team members included: Sherri Binder (Ripple), Tami Good (Souderton), Josh Meyer (Franconia), Michael Howes (West Swamp), and Aldo Siahaan (Philadelphia Praise Center). 

Moderators Share Letter with MC USA Executive Board

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In response to a recommendation of the Listening Task Force, Mosaic moderator Ken Burkholder (Souderton [PA] congregation), incoming moderator Angela Moyer Walter (Ripple congregation [Allentown, PA]), and incoming assistant moderator Roy Williams (College Hill congregation [Tampa, FL]) sent a letter to the Executive Board of Mennonite Church USA (MC USA).  The letter was initially shared with Jon Carlson, the assistant moderator of the MC USA Executive Board, and Michelle Dula, a member of the MC USA board, at an in-person meeting on November 15.   

The letter shared words of affirmation and gratitude for gifts Mosaic Conference has received from participation in Mennonite Church USA.  It also described some of the challenges the conference has experienced in the rapid growth of recent years and identified areas where the conference could work on improving its relationships with the wider church community. 

The letter expressed the unease that has increased in Mosaic Conference in response to the Mennonite Church USA special delegate session in Kansas City in May, including discomfort with both the process and content of the Resolution for Repentance and Transformation. It shared the decision of Mosaic delegates to engage in a two-year discernment process and articulated some of the reasons that members of the conference desire to reconsider affiliation with the denomination. 

Finally, the letter committed to staying in relationship with the staff, board, and other members of Mennonite Church USA during the discernment process and requested that the Executive Board and staff also walk alongside the conference until a decision has been made. 

Read the full letter here. 

After receiving the letter, Carlson and Dula then distributed it to the rest of the MC USA Executive Board.  In response, the Executive Board invited Burkholder, Moyer Walter, and Williams to attend their January meeting for further conversation. 

Meet Turan Rush, Mosaic’s Newest Staff Member

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By Eileen Kinch 

Turan D. Rush, Mosaic’s newest staff member, is a Leadership Development Associate with passion and energy. He is also the Chief Operations Officer (COO) at the Midian Leadership Project (a Mosaic Conference Related Ministry) in Charleston, WV. Rush grew up in Charleston and graduated from Eastern Michigan University in 2021. Rush is employed for his Mosaic work a half of day per week, which is funded through Mosaic Conference, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), and the Midian Leadership Project.   

Midian Co-founder Turan De’Angelo Rush speaks at a community non-violence event following the shooting of a local high schooler. Photo provided by Midian Project.

Rush returned to his hometown after college because he wants to see positive change in his community, especially in the schools. “I want to master the concept of restorative justice,” Rush said and looks forward to learning from the Mosaic community as well as giving to it. 

Restorative justice is based on relationships. If students throw food in the cafeteria, the usual course of action is detention because the students broke the rules. With restorative justice, however, students work at repairing the relationships that were harmed because of their actions. If the students were assigned to janitorial duty, they would need to work with the janitors and learn how throwing food affected them. 

For restorative justice to work, students need relationships with teachers and staff. Rush pointed to time in his own life when a teacher inspired him to succeed. He was a self-described goofy, immature high schooler, but his English teacher, Miss Garrison, believed in him. “You’re a leader,” she told him.   

Miss Garrison emailed Rush over the summer before his junior year of high school and explained that she was putting him on student council. “I had to hold myself to a higher standard. I had to push myself to be a better person,” said Rush.  Miss Garrison could have labeled him as a troublemaker, but instead she put him in a leadership role. 

Rush wants to bless others in the way he has been blessed. In addition to his duties at the Midian Leadership Project, which include hiring staff and running meetings, he is also a teacher in a virtual homeschool. A local middle school student couldn’t focus in typical a classroom setting and got kicked out of public school. Rush went to the school and asked if he could teach the student.  

Rush wants to start his own high school someday, and he sees his teaching role as an opportunity to test possible ways to run the future school. He dreams of an all-male Christian high school to help build up young men to be leaders and better fathers. The school would incorporate restorative justice with its disciplinary structure. 

Rush is also interested in trauma healing through sports. As a football player at Eastern Michigan University, he understands firsthand how physical movement and team accountability can relieve stress and trauma. “When you play sports, you forget about all the negative things and trauma in your life…. It releases some type of positive energy where you can just be you.” Rush is eager to do more research to understand the connections between sports and trauma healing. Meanwhile, the Midian Leadership Project has already placed 15 trauma-trained coaches in schools and local community sports teams. 

Photo of Turan Rush from Midian Leadership Project’s Website.

“Youth are the people who are going to change the world,” Rush explained. The Midian Leadership Project’s goal is to make sure the youth have what they need so that they can. To know that God is working through him is exciting.  

“Every time I wake up and am blessed with another day, I have an opportunity to help,” Rush said. “I just [want] to serve and help the community and the world as much as I possibly can.”

Eileen Kinch

Eileen Kinch is part of the Mosaic communication team and works with editing and writing. She holds a Master of Divinity degree, with an emphasis in the Ministry of Writing, from Earlham School of Religion.

Mosaic Board Begins Pathway Process

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At their November 21 meeting, the Mosaic Conference Board developed the next steps in moving on the Pathway that was affirmed at our fall Assembly.  While not the only agenda item for this meeting, the Board discerned the following actions to keep pace with the two-year maximum timeline for strategic planning and affiliation clarification for Mosaic Conference: 

  • The Board affirmed the staff to begin leading our time of prayer and fasting.  Noel Santiago, Leadership Minister for Missional Transformation, will serve as the primary staff person for this process, which will run alongside and integrally with the strategic planning in the coming months.  Noel will begin to introduce a process of praying Scriptures developed in collaboration with other staff and leaders from Faith Chapel (Los Angeles, CA), including Pastor Grace Pam and George and Mukarabbe Makinto.  These prayers will begin our process of praying the text as we listen to the Spirit together. To learn more about praying scriptures, please watch this short video.

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Download the Praying Scriptures

The Board also laid out plans for the strategic planning process itself.  A request for proposals will be developed and shared with numerous consulting options who fit Mosaic’s specific needs of experience with faith-based communities, strategic planning, and intercultural capacity. The Board hopes to name this group at its next meeting in January 2023.   

  • In January, the Mosaic Board will receive nominations from across Mosaic membership to serve on a Steering Team.  The Steering Team (6-12 persons) will be a mix of Board, staff, and Conference members who bring a strong commitment to Mosaic’s missional, formational, and intercultural priorities and our shared vision to embody the reconciling love of Jesus in our broken and beautiful world. 

Here are some important actions for Mosaic delegates and leaders to do now, as we journey on this Pathway together: 

  • Continue to watch, pray, and fast as we seek God’s direction for us together.   
  • Initiate groups to pray with you in your community or individually, as guided by the praying the Scriptures model. (Watch this video now and watch for more information coming in Mosaic News.)
  • Prayerfully discern persons you might nominate for the Steering Team in January.