Mosaic Mennonites

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Sitting in Creative Tension

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From February through June, Mosaic’s Intercultural Team offered a monthly book study on Drew Hart’s second book, Who Will Be A Witness? Pastors and leaders from across the conference gathered over Zoom to respond to Hart’s challenge and invitation.

Who Will Be A Witness? outlines a biblical and historical case for why Christians should engage in the public witness of racial and economic justice. Hart roots each of his claims in the “revolutionary public witness of Jesus” as a way to remind Christians of how Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection informs our witness to the world. His challenge and invitation to the reader is that we too can embody “the good news of Jesus through radical grassroots action as local congregations” in the face of the systemic and interlocking injustices of racism, militarism, and economic exploitation (p. 41).

I must confess, from my perspective, Hart’s challenge was easier to grasp than his invitation at first. In chapter three, Hart shares a personal story about when he watched white students at his Christian college leave in mass protest during a chapel service led by students of color. Hart recalls his anger and disappointment at how his white peers opted out of a challenging conversation on race and Christian faith. He noticed how when the conversation got difficult, his white peers collectively decided that their racial comfort was more important than their shared Christian identity with students of color like himself (pp. 101-106).

I believe the challenge for our predominantly white book club was similar. How do we not internally check out when the conversation gets difficult? How might our shared commitment to following Jesus help ground our understanding of racial justice?

One way we leaned into the conversation was to sit in creative tension with what we were reading in Who Will Be A Witness? with our own lives. We talked about what faith-based grassroots activism might look like in our respective ministry contexts. Some of us talked about how our preaching and teaching can include more books and resources from people of color as a way to freshen our readings of Scripture. Others of us shared experiences about learning how to engage the local school board on issues related to race and equity. A few of us tossed around the wild idea of liquidating our congregation’s endowment accounts as an act of Jubilee.

Sitting in this creative tension between the book and our own lives of ministry is one of the most fruitful outcomes of this book study. It is my sincere hope that more opportunities for shared learning are available in the future.

Learning Dinosaur Names

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What was it about Jesus that drew the little children to come running to him? Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a child will never enter it.” (Mark 10:14-15, NRSV)

Wayne and I spent two weeks in May with our nearly four-year-old grandson, William. William is curious, observant, and eager to learn. He is aware of his surroundings and seeks opportunities to explore and learn new things.

Grandson, William, and his beloved dinosaurs. Photo provided by Mary Nitzsche.

On our walks, William noticed bugs, spider webs, rocks, butterflies, squirrels, sounds, and signs. When we approached nature signs at the lagoon, he insisted we stop and read the bird or plant names on the sign (even if they were difficult to pronounce or understand).

William is all about dinosaurs. He is eager to learn all he can about different kinds of dinosaurs: how to pronounce their complicated names, what kind of food they ate, when they lived on earth, and special features they had. His delight in observing and learning is contagious. I could imagine him running to Jesus, sitting beside him, and listening to what he had to say.

William’s curiosity and excitement for learning inspired me. I began noticing spider webs, butterflies, sounds, and rocks on our walks. I enjoyed watching the hummingbird sitting in her nest in a tree outside the window. I was eager to learn more about dinosaurs and even how to pronounce their long, complicated names!

In reading the gospels, we notice that Jesus attracted people who had little power or influence and were not always seen or heard. Jesus valued all people regardless their age, economic status, education, gender, health condition, or faith commitment. Because humans are created with a need to be accepted, loved, and belong, it’s no wonder children came running to Jesus sensing his acceptance and love for them. He saw, heard, and valued them and commanded, “Do not stop them!”

Mary Nitzsche and her grandson, William, read nature signs together. Photo provided by Mary Nitzsche.

Jesus continues on this topic, saying that to experience the fullness of God’s kingdom, one needs to receive it as a child. What child-like qualities are important for receiving and experiencing the kingdom of God? In the gospels, the people responsive to relationship with Jesus were ones who were curious and eager to learn more about Jesus and what he had to say. Little children tend to be curious, observant, and eager to learn. No wonder children came running to Jesus sensing his affirmation for these qualities.

My grandson’s spirit challenged and inspired to approach my faith and understanding of Jesus in a child-like spirit of curiosity, delight, alertness, and openness — to see, notice, and hear what the Spirit is saying to me. At a season of life when knowledge of the scriptures, certainty of belief, and established spiritual practices or rituals, are well developed, I am reminded of the importance of being curious, observant, and eager to learn.

May the little children lead us in experiencing the fullness of God’s kingdom on earth. May our delight in living God’s kingdom values inspire others to come running to Jesus.

A butterfly noticed by Mary’s grandson on their walk. Photo provided by Mary Nitzsche.

Shalom Fund Exceeds Goal!

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As of July 7, 2021, donations to the Mosaic Conference’s Shalom Fund have reached $206,874.01, surpassing the goal of $200,000, according to Conrad Martin, Mosaic’s Director of Finance.

The Shalom Fund was created in the spring of 2020 as a direct response to COVID-19 and the ensuing economic crisis experienced in Mosaic Conference and beyond. The fund supports pastors, congregations, and ministries working directly with those affected by COVID-19 or economic challenges caused by the pandemic.

“The Shalom Fund has fostered a sense of real hope in a difficult time,” said Executive Minister Steve Kriss. “I’m grateful for those who have contributed to help sustain ministries across our Conference and beyond through the reach of our Conference Related Ministries. Thousands of people have been fed, cared for, and blessed through the Shalom Fund.”

The Shalom Fund continues to enable Mosaic Conference to respond to the most vulnerable within our membership and neighborhoods by empowering local ministries to meet real needs with Christ’s love and generosity in a time of fear and anxiety. “I’m so grateful to witness how our Conference constituency responded in such a generous way in giving to the Shalom Fund,” shared Conference Moderator Ken Burkholder (Deep Run East congregation, Perkasie, PA). “This is a testimony to God’s goodness among us during a very difficult time, as well as our loving care and compassion for one another.”

From large gifts to donations of just a few dollars, the Shalom Fund has been able to do more than any of us could ever imagine. “Together, by extending God’s generosity to us, we have been a witness of Christ’s peace that surpasses all understanding,” reflected Kriss.

The Seashells in My Hands

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Editor’s Note: On June 12, 2021, Pastor Josh Meyer, Mosaic Leadership Minister, gave the commencement address to the 2021 graduating class of Dock Mennonite Academy (Lansdale, PA). In the address, Meyer shared three stories with the graduates. The stories offered challenges and wisdom on how to pursue a meaningful life. Here is a story from Meyer’s speech.  

A number of years ago I heard about a pastor who was at the beach with his wife and two kids. They were walking along the water picking up seashells – except they weren’t full shells. They were like those little fragments of shells, the kind of “sea shell shrapnel” that shows up by the water. The kids were running around with these handfuls of broken shells, trying to see who could pick up the most.

Suddenly, the family saw something floating in the water. They stopped to watch and realized that about 30 feet offshore was a giant starfish, just bobbing in the water.

Now if you’re a kid, getting your hands on a starfish is like striking gold, so after watching it for a while, the youngest son got a look in his eye, like, “That starfish is mine,” and he went charging into the water after it.

He only got about halfway, though, before he stopped and came back. The dad, from the shore, reassured him, “It’s alright, buddy – you can go. Go get the starfish!”

The kid went back in after it, and he got even closer this time, but before he made it all the way, he stopped again and came back in. The dad continued to encourage him, “You can do it, you were so close, go back out and grab it.”

The little boy ran out one more time, and this time he got all the way there, right next to the starfish. Literally all he had to do was reach out and pick it up, but instead he turned and ran back to the beach.

Now the whole family was yelling, “Buddy, you were right there! What’s the problem? Just pick it up!”

And finally, the little boy yelled back, “I can’t! My hands are full of shells.”

Sometimes we need to say no to good things in order to say yes to the best things. And if you want to lead a meaningful life, it will require the difficult but necessary skill of learning to distinguish between the starfish and the seashells.

Pastor Josh Meyer gives the Commencement Address to the Dock Mennonite Academy Class of 2021. Photo by Dock Academy.

Intentional and Insightful Fellowship

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In the light of the racially charged events of the past year, some members of Blooming Glen (PA) Mennonite Church studied Jemar Tisby’s book, How to Fight Racism: Courageous Christianity and the Journey Toward Racial Justice.  One of the ways Tisby suggests fighting racism is to visit with and learn from people of color.

Our book study group contacted Katie Gard, Development Director at Oxford Circle Christian Development Association (OCCDA), and asked if a group of us from Blooming Glen could listen and learn from our brothers and sisters of color, share a meal, and worship together. We wanted to embark on a learning trip. 

Members of Oxford Circle and Blooming Glen Mennonite Churches gather to talk and listen about race and prejudice on June 13, 2021. Photo provided by Mike Ford.

On June 13, twenty-one of us from Blooming Glen traveled to Oxford Circle (Philadelphia, PA) Mennonite Church. We spent hours listening, learning, and eating a delicious Colombian meal together. We engaged in intentional conversation to build understanding and gain a new perspective on the difficult topic of racism. We ended our visit by worshiping with the Oxford Circle congregation at their evening service.

Our experience was rich with opportunities to listen, learn, and grow and gave us lots to consider, such as …

  • Would you change your name to make your neighbors feel comfortable? You are a US citizen in the US, but your name is unfamiliar to the people around you. Would you change your name to one that sounds familiar to your environment? A person that we met at Oxford Circle changed their name for our comfort. How important is your name to your identity?
  • One Oxford Circle participant explained that as a child, they learned that there are three reasons why a white person would come into their community – to recruit kids to sell drugs, to use girls for sex, or to buy drugs. How distrustful and fearful of white people one might feel if those were your experiences? What messages or experiences inform our ideas about race? How can we help each other to put aside our fears?
  • If shots were fired in your neighborhood, would you call the police? If yes, how long would it take your local police to respond? For a person living near Oxford Circle, the police did not arrive until the next day. Is that your experience with the police?
  • If you were attacked and stabbed, how likely would it be that the police would interrogate your children? The police questioned a participant’s children, without an adult present, while they waited to be picked up from school and accused them of being part of the attack.  Further, the media misrepresented the facts about the attack. After this terrifying event, the victim reached out to offer forgiveness and reconciliation to the perpetrator’s family. Could you?

We learned how our brothers and sisters are following the way of Christ amidst persecution, prejudice, and violence.

Desiring to learn more about overcoming racism, 21 members from Blooming Glen Mennonite Church traveled to meet with members of Oxford Circle Mennonite Church in Philadelphia, PA. Photo provided by Mike Ford.

Together we courageously discussed the difficult topic of racism. Can Mosaic churches be beacons of Christ’s love amidst all of the division within us and around us? How can we take steps towards one another to build understanding and unity?

One Oxford Circle member shared, “I want you to love my color people as you love your neighbors, as you love yourself. If we loved each other as God asks us to do, we wouldn’t be having the issues we have in this world. Recognize and educate yourself. Spend quality time being part of the solution, and finally, PRAY.”

We are blessed with diversity in Mosaic Conference. Let us seek ways to build on the blessing of our diversity as we witness together.

Sleeping Uphill in Shame

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Like many children of my era, I not only shared a bedroom with my older brother, but we slept in the same bed.  The promised bunk beds, similar to the promise of chunky peanut butter, never materialized.  In our bed, there was a clear, imaginary line down the middle which, if crossed, was fair game for a brotherly punch.    

One particular night, we were doing a bit more than our usual messing around. I do not recall the exact details, but there was a loud snap that echoed through our room. We had broken the bed slat at the top of the bed. Living in a small ranch home, we were pretty sure Dad heard the commotion and would soon be appearing in our room.   

So, we did what many young men would do … as dad opened the door, our angelic faces rested on our pillows as if we had been sleeping for some time. Dad calmly asked if everything was ok and we quietly said yes. Dad closed the door.  

After Dad left, we quickly realized sleep was not going to happen. The problem was our bed was tilted with our heads low and our feet high.  As the younger brother, I was instructed to go tell Dad we needed some help. A few bricks solved our problem until the broken slat could be replaced.    

Randy Heacock (right) with his brother, Brad (left), with whom he shared a childhood bedroom, and their mother (center). Photo provided by Randy Heacock.

This is just one of many experiences in which my Dad’s calm demeanor, in the face of my foolishness, has shaped me. Fortunately, as a result, I find it easy to ask for help.  I treasure this as a true gift because I hear from many how hard it is to ask for help, admit need, or worse yet, name personal failure.  

Sometimes shame arises from the inability to admit our needs, desires, or failures. I have heard stories while serving at Doylestown Mennonite Church of the creativity, energy, and anxiety people expended to hide their family television from the bishop at one point in their lives.  A friend recently told me of a grandparent’s wedding ring that has been hidden in the family since 1922.    

I wonder how these experiences have shaped us to keep secrets and to bury our shame. There are layers of shame – as individuals, families, faith communities, and in our institutions. Our larger societal emphasis on public image only adds to this struggle. Often help is within reach, but we remain silent and even proclaim everything is just fine. Ironically, often our struggle is obvious to others … just like my dad knew we needed help with our bed but didn’t offer to help until we asked for it. 

I am reminded of the hymn, “The Love of God.”  One way to experience the great love described in the hymn is to name one’s needs before God. Sometimes we need to risk our fear of shame when we insist all is fine, while actually trying to sleep uphill on a broken bed. What transformations might happen in our lives, families, churches, and institutions if we begin to trust God with our needs, weaknesses, and failures? 

As you rest your head tonight on your pillow, when God asks is everything okay, how will you respond?   

Love Experiments and Give Us Our Daily Bread

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English translation by Andres Castillo

In this article we review some publications that were made on the Mosaic news page in the same spirit that has inspired our Spanish section, which is to build bridges between church members in the Mosaic Conference. 

LOVE EXPERIMENTS

Eloise Meneses wrote a review of the book recently published by Emily Ralph Servant entitled Experiments in Love. It’s a wonderfully evocative book, according to this review. Emily is an Anabaptist writer for the Anabaptist church in the second decade of the 21st century. She is a prophet of self-examination and transformation based on the need to “to reshape (perhaps remodel, or deconstruct) the theological stories told by church leaders, towards an emphasis on God’s own vulnerability and willingness to risk for us”.

In her book she makes a call to reevaluate the role of the church with the “outside world” and with people different from us; that role is also a relationship. The book is mostly aimed at traditional Anabaptist communities, but Hispanic communities may also process Emily’s words in their own ways. The book is written in English, and so the translation of this review is a source of theological and spiritual growth for our Hispanic communities

GIVE US OUR DAILY BREAD

I will write it as I originally thought: “if a life of faith is not also an aesthetic-artistic experience, then it is poorly focused.” That’s why Brooke Martin’s account on May 27 is deeply inspiring and rich. He has not so much written a metaphor as she has testified to how she immerses herself in Jesus when she kneads and bakes bread for her family.

She has turned to the prayer that Jesus taught us when he said, “Give us our daily bread.” It is a very sensitive and spiritual reference for Brooke when she bakes bread for her children. She does not bake daily, but reflects on and acknowledges the fact that we need the bread of Jesus daily, just as in the time of Jesus when baking bread was a daily necessity.

What I Think About as I Fall Asleep: Reflections on Being Mosaic

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Editor’s Note: Pastor Jacob Curtis wrote this reflection to his congregation, Ambler (PA) Mennonite Church, on June 30, after attending the candlelight prayer service in South Philadelphia. This is reprinted with his permission.  

On June 29, five of us from Ambler (PA) Mennonite Church made the hour-long trek down I-476/I-76/I-95 to Centro de Alabanza on the corner of 5th and Snyder in South Philly. We were there for a candlelight prayer service in solidarity with Asian Americans who are being targeted for hate crimes.

Photo by Hendy Matahelemual

The service was powerful. I’m still trying to figure out exactly how to describe what happened—in the service and inside me—but here are a few of the things I fell asleep thinking about:

1) It is such an honor to be part of Mosaic Mennonite Conference.

Honestly, I don’t know how a beautiful, fragile thing like our conference can exist in the world, or how we are allowed to be a part of it. But somehow—and I can only assume it is by the grace of God—we find ourselves in community with Swiss-German and Russian Mennonites, and also with everyone who’s been drawn to what they planted here in southeast Pennsylvania.

Our Conference includes churches like Franconia Mennonite, which built its first log meetinghouse in … oh, you know, 1748! … and churches like Nations Worship Center, which purchased its building from a catering business in an Italian neighborhood of South Philly in 2012.

We are Matahelemuals and Krisbiantos and Siahaans, as well as Yoders and Millers and Martins. And because of our Conference, we get to sit outside with all sorts of other Mennonites on the breezy, noisy, sunlit corner of 5th and Snyder, praying in all our languages to the living God.

2) Maybe there’s an opening here?

Ambler Mennonite Church is not (and never will be) Franconia Mennonite Church, with its history and its resources. Nor will we ever be Centro de Alabanza, located right in the middle of a densely-populated, diverse urban neighborhood. But might we become a little bit of both?

Might we grow into an identity as the part-city, part-country church? Might our congregation be black without being all black, brown without being all brown, white without being all white? Might we be the church where conservatives and progressives learn to respect each other and find a way through our cultural and theological gridlock? Might we lean into our particular spot on the map—just north of Philadelphia, just south of the old Mennonite heartland, an in-between place for a bunch of in-between people?

I don’t know. I don’t know exactly what God has in mind for us. And I don’t know what’s possible in the Borough of Ambler as it is now, getting rapidly younger and whiter and wealthier. But these are the things I think about as I fall asleep.