Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

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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. 

This Advent, I’ll Take a Look Across the Street

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By Hendy Matahelemual

Growing up in a Christian family in Indonesia, a Muslim-majority country, I didn’t often see Christmas decorations. But we always knew where we could find a Christmas display. It was at a car dealership in a corner of the city. The owner must have been Christian.    

Every year at the end of November, my family and I were excited to find out what kind of Christmas exhibit the owner would put up: Santa and his sleigh, a snowman, a nativity scene. Each year was different.  

He also put up colorful lights, so at night it was wonderful to see — sacred and secular Christmas decorations, including symbols of cold weather and snow, in a tropical climate.  

As the years passed, the car dealership moved and there were no more Christmas exhibits on that corner. But the colorful lights and snowmen will stand forever in my Christmas childhood memories.    

Not quite satisfied with a mental picture from memory, I opened up Google Maps to see what that corner of Bandung looks like right now. As I scrolled the surroundings, something came up. I realized that right across the street stands one of the city’s Great Mosques.   

As a child, I never noticed the mosque. It did not matter to me. But now it does.  

As followers of Jesus, we need to change our attitude toward people with different beliefs.   

In his ministry, Jesus interacted with people of diverse backgrounds: Romans who believed in multiple gods, Canaanites who worshiped Baal, Samaritans who worshiped Yahweh at Mount Gerizim rather than at the Temple in Jerusalem.    

Jesus didn’t try to convince people to join his religion. He healed the sick, delivered the demonically oppressed, told people to tell others what God had done for them, praised people for their faith, and announced they would feast in heaven with the prophets.   

Jesus simply loved them, praised the good in them and answered the questions they were asking — sometimes by pointing them toward finding the answers for themselves.   

Mesach Krisetya, an Indonesian Mennonite leader who died earlier this year, said Christian missionaries in Indonesia often posed a conquering strategy. It is common for Christians to feel threatened by Islam and for Muslims to feel offended by former colonial powers, politics, and cultural arrogance. Krisetya urged pluralist sensitivity, aware that neither Muslims nor Christians lose identity through a careful exchange.   

Recently we invited a Jewish rabbi to speak at our Mosaic staff meeting. Her congregation is just two blocks around the corner from my congregation in South Philadelphia.    

We invited her to share her knowledge of chesed, a Hebrew word meaning God’s steadfast love, in light of our fall Assembly. As she explained the love of God and the practice of chesed, I was amazed by her insights on the Old Testament. She invited us to their Shabbat dinner, which I’m very interested to experience.    

During Advent this year, I will try to be aware of my surroundings. I will try to find God in other people and in every corner of my life. I will try to love even when it hurts. I will try to extend grace to everyone, regardless of their actions, beliefs, status, politics or nationality.   

“Praise the Lord, all you nations! Extol him, all you peoples! For great is his steadfast love (chesed) toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord! (Psalm 117).  

I believe one thing unites us as humans: God’s constant, steadfast, faithful love.   

Let us show the world that we are Jesus’ followers, not by how many Christmas decorations we put up, but by how much we love strangers as well as friends.  

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in Anabaptist World on Nov. 18 and is used here by permission. To read the original article, please click here.  

Hendy Matahelemual

Hendy Matahelemual is the Associate Minister for Community Engagement for Mosaic Conference. Hendy Matahelemual was born and grew up in the city of Bandung, Indonesia. Hendy lives in Philadelphia with his wife Marina and their three boys, Judah, Levi and Asher.

Yet Even Now

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By Noel Santiago 

As Mosaic Conference, we have affirmed what has become known as the Pathway Document. The first action step listed in this document states: “We believe that we are called by God in this time: To share in the practice of continued prayer and fasting so that we may discern, yield, and listen to the Spirit among us.” 

In John 11, two sisters are concerned about their brother Lazarus. He’s not doing well and could die. They send word to their close, personal friend Jesus, asking him to come. Their hope is that he would heal him, and all would be well. 

As we know, Lazarus dies, and the sisters are in deep mourning and distress. All seems lost. What do they make of this close friend who could have done something about it but didn’t? 

Jesus finally arrives. He is informed of how things could have been different had he arrived sooner, but it’s too late. Lazarus has been dead now four days.  

However, in John 11:22, even though her brother is dead, Martha knows something: “Yet even now I know that whatever You ask from God, God will give You” (HCSB). 

 Yet even now I know that whatever You ask from God, God will give You.

John 11:22 (HCSB)

Three little words make a huge difference: “Yet even now.” 

As Mosaic Conference, we have affirmed the Pathway Document which calls us to prayer and fasting. Might these three little words, “yet even now,” still hold possibilities for us? 

  • Yet even now, though we are unsure of what the future holds. 
  • Yet even now, when we wonder how things will work out? 
  • Yet even now, when we ask what the relationship will be between Mosaic and Mennonite Church USA? 
  • Yet even now, when we wonder will Mosaic thrive, survive, or struggle? 

Yet even now … what is it that Jesus knows? 

The beauty we find in the midst of a painful situation is that Jesus was getting ready to show a new side of himself no one had seen before, the side of being the resurrection and the life. 

Could “yet even now” lead to newness of life, to renewed energy, commitment, and lasting life? As we pray, fast, and yield to Holy Spirit, may we experience God’s renewing life!

The beauty we find in the midst of a painful situation is that Jesus was getting ready to show a new side of himself no one had seen before, the side of being the resurrection and the life. 

Noel Santiago

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

MC USA Executive Board Nominates Marty Lehman as Moderator-Elect

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Marty Lehman
(photo by Rex Hooley)

The Mennonite Church USA (MC USA) Executive Board has nominated Marty Lehman of Goshen, Indiana, as moderator-elect for the Delegate Assembly cycle beginning July 2023. Lehman is a former associate executive director for Churchwide Operations for MC USA and has a deep affiliation with and affection for the denomination.  

“I love our church and believe in what our church is doing and trying to do,” said Lehman. She said she hopes that we can “be known as people that are reaching out and caring for the most vulnerable in [our] communities … people that show up … people who serve as the hands and feet of Jesus, so that God’s healing and hope can flow through us to the world.”  

Pending affirmation by the Delegate Assembly, which will meet in Kansas City, Missouri, on July 7-8, 2023, Lehman will serve alongside incoming moderator, Jon Carlson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 

To read more, please see the full article. 

When We Are Not of One Accord: Moving Forward on the Pathway

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By Stephen Kriss 

Mennonite historian and retired pastor John Ruth once told me that if you don’t have gelassenheit, you really don’t have anything as a community.  Gelassenheit (yieldedness) is a hallmark of our Mennonite story. In our historical moment, it’s a counter-cultural thing.   

Gelassenheit is a willingness to put my own conscience or belief in the context of community and to yield my own position to the discernment of the group. It is the opposite of fight or flight. It’s remaining, staying, maybe even holding to your own viewpoint, but yet yielding. 

While this yieldedness has possibilities for abuse, it also has an immense power in our time of individualism and consumerism.  Typically we humans think of ourselves first and then those we consider like us (by biology, ethnicity, geography, politics, faith, language, or citizenship.) Our commitment to those who are different diminishes within diversity, rather than strengthened through intentional engagement.   

It is the opposite of fight or flight. It’s remaining, staying, maybe even holding to your own viewpoint, but yet yielding. 

In Mosaic, we are trying what can feel like an impossible thing by holding together some of those differences under the Spirit of Pentecost. We choose this community together, continuing the commitments of baptism to give and receive counsel and to identify with Jesus by walking together.  We choose, in the face of diversity and adversity, not fight or flight, but engagement and connection. 

At our recent Conference Assembly, we discerned a pathway together, a compromise with a two-year maximum timeline.  While 81.5% of us found this to be an affirmable option, 20% of us didn’t. Our task now as Mosaic leaders is to hear the reservations of that 20%, some who think the process is too quick while others too slow, and to diligently include those concerns going forward. 

We are not a community that simply allows the majority to rule.  We take the concerns of everyone seriously.  In this way, the church can bear witness to the reconciling love of Jesus in a way that isn’t evidenced often in political or economic realms.  We are still one community, with one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God who is above all and through all and in all even when we are not quite of one accord.   

I am committed to hearing the concerns and cautions (I read all the ballot comments before writing this article). A red vote didn’t mean you don’t love or know what it means to be Mosaic, nor that you weren’t ready to go the second mile in the spirit of Chesed.  It meant you thought the plan was imperfect, not the best option, or you hoped for something else.  I hear that. We all need to hear that, and also continue to move forward. 

As a leader, I am committed to the principle of leaving no one behind.  It comes from battlefield tactics and understandings.  But it also comes from my sense of faithfulness in believing that the loudest or quickest person doesn’t negate the perspectives of those who speak more quietly or slowly or have yet to discern.  God speaks in rolling thunder and in the still small voice as well. We need space for both and time to consider our way.  There are times when we need to be quick and responsive, but also times when we need to be slow and contemplative.  We will need to balance these realities together. We are both broken and beautiful, strong and weak. 

In the next weeks, the Board and staff will begin to work at implementing pathway recommendations.  There will be opportunities to begin to help shape this process further together.  All of us will be invited to engage across our varieties of difference in Mosaic.  I hope we will be able to yield to the process of our imperfect discernment for now, trusting the Spirit to keep working within us on the way and beside us in paths of mutual transformation and renewal. 

Stephen Kriss

Stephen Kriss is the Executive Minister of Mosaic Conference.

Journeying with God

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By Eileen R. Kinch

In early October, my husband and I moved to Telford, PA from Ephrata, Lancaster County, PA.  We had an embarrassment of help – more than we needed – to load and unload the moving truck. Most of the furniture is now where we want it, and we have unpacked many boxes. We are now figuring out how to find the things we need in our new community, such as groceries, car repair, and healthcare. Adjusting to a new place is hard work, and it takes emotional and physical energy. 

Moving is also disorienting. I have lived most of my life in Lancaster County. I grew up in the southern end of Lancaster County, twelve miles from the Maryland border. I know the routes and the roads. In our new area, I don’t know where I am going most of the time. I am only starting to recognize where I am, and the other day, I considered it a victory when I found a post office.  

In Genesis 12, God tells Abraham, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you” (12:1, JPS). I wonder how that felt for Abraham. Did he think, I am just fine where I am, thank you very much. I have everything I need. Why do I need to go somewhere else? Did he feel sad to leave his family and his home area? Did Abraham have a difficult time on his journey? Did he find it exhausting? 

Moving and journeying also characterized the Israelite experience, especially after the escape from the Egyptians across the Red Sea. The Israelites moved from place to place and carried the tabernacle with them. When they reached the Promised Land, had planted crops, and were offering the first fruits of harvest, God commanded that the Israelites recite their history, beginning with these words: “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous” (Deuteronomy 26:5, NIV). Even after they settled, the Israelites were supposed to remember their ancestor Jacob’s experience of wandering. 

Did he think, I am just fine where I am, thank you very much. I have everything I need. Why do I need to go somewhere else?

The book of Hebrews mentions wandering as part of the journey of faith, naming Abraham, Moses, and many others: “All of them died in faith, not having obtained the things promised, but having seen and hailed them from afar, and they acknowledged themselves to be foreigners and sojourners on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13, translation by David Bentley Hart). 

Sometimes God calls us to do something that requires a change of location. Often this means leaving the comfort of home. Sometimes the purpose of moving is clear to us, but other times, it is not. As we pack, unpack, and try to make our way in a new place, we may wonder if the moving and disorientation are worth the immediate (or ongoing) trouble. Yet the writer of Hebrews points out that the big picture is important, even if we don’t recognize what it is. Faith, after all, is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of unseen realities” (Hebrews 11:1). 

I am grateful for the experiences of wanderers in the Bible. I am sure Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (and Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah and Rachel) asked some of the same questions I do and experienced similar feelings. Even if I feel a bit lost right now, I can still find a home in this faith story.

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.