Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

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Creating Change through Love

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by Jennifer Svetlik, Salford congregation

Steve KrissIn 2005, Steve Kriss was living in Pittsburgh, working in leadership cultivation with young people, and going to graduate school at Duquesne University. When he saw Franconia Conference’s job description for a role that involved cultivating young adult leaders, Steve said to himself, “How can I say no to this?”

Franconia’s vision and staff culture were a good fit for Steve.  After flourishing on conference staff for over a decade, in 2017, he was asked to serve as Executive Minister.  “I would never have anticipated or asked for this role, but it has allowed me to live into God’s calling,” he reflects.

In his fifteen years on staff, Steve has “come to love the people” of the conference, and that love was one of his primary motivations in accepting his current role. He describes his leadership posture as seeking to create change through love, which grows over time. “It is work that feels very personal, meaningful, and with people and communities I’ve come to care about deeply,” he says.

Steve works with the Conference’s executive leadership, leadership cultivation, and serves as a leadership minister. A typical workday for Steve has at least three meetings and additional contacts with lots of people in a variety of ways. Usually, this involves conversing in English or Spanish and texting in Spanish, Indonesian, and/or English. “I don’t know many professional roles that have the diversity of people that I encounter daily, and sometimes that is disorienting,” Steve reflects.

The most rewarding aspect of Steve’s work is watching people grow over many years. There are high school students that he worked with 15 years ago that are now leaders in the conference. “It is also significant to watch our conference’s intercultural transformation, and to have been around long enough to see us changing,” says Steve.

“I continue to be amazed by how our conference communities are comprised of so many gifted, committed, and compassionate people,” shares Steve. “I am amazed by the generosity of individuals and communities, feeling a sense of ‘us’ as the conference and wanting to dream together.”

Steve Kriss (right) visits with Isai Sanchez, Diana Salinas, and Gama Sanchez along with board members Angela Moyer and Gwen Groff, on a visit to CIEAMM in Oaxaca in 2018.

Recently Steve has been inspired by the work of reconciliation. “It feels like a privilege to get to lead the Conference in the time of the reconciliation work,” admits Steve. “When so much in the culture around us is divisive, we are attempting to bring the resources, strengths, and shared history of these conferences together. It has been shared and holy work.”

Steve grew up near Johnstown, PA in a three-generation household. His great grandparents were from Slovakia and many Eastern European immigrants lived near him as a child. In middle school his family moved to a more Mennonite area in a suburban setting and began to attend a Mennonite church.

Steve graduated from Eastern Mennonite University (Harrisonburg, VA), and served as a pastor for Mennonite congregations in Somerset County, PA and Staten Island, NY.

Steve lives in Northwest Philadelphia and is a member of Philadelphia Praise Center. Even though he is an extrovert, his work is so people-oriented that he really values time by himself, along with time with family and friends. He enjoys being outside and biking on trails. He prioritizes going to the gym to maintain both his mind and body. His love of planting things comes from his grandfather, for whom Steve is named. “I feel tangibly connected to him when I am working in my garden,” Steve shares.

A Wedding & A Funeral: Pandemic Life Realities

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by Randy Heacock, Leadership Minister

Randy Heacock and his daughter, Vanessa, at her recent wedding. The bride’s grandfather’s boots, seen in the photo, represent Randy’s father.

As we continue, day after day, in this time of social distancing, there are moments I find myself feeling like I have discovered a bit of a routine. Meanwhile, there are moments of hazy confusion, when I need to remind myself what day of the week it is. One moment there seems like there are a lot of new things going on; the next it seems like another 24 hours of the same old thing.

In the last 3 weeks, I experienced the high of seeing my daughter get married and the low of burying my father.

With this weird mix of highs and lows, busy and bored, normal and unusual, I am reminded of Ecclesiastes 3. Perhaps you remember the song by The Byrds, “Turn! Turn! Turn!” which states much the same:

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.  -Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NRSV)

This text comes out of the wisdom literature of the Bible. It contains the wisdom of the people of Israel as they learned both from God and from the circumstances of daily life. There is the awareness that there are different seasons to life. It acknowledges what appear to be opposite ends of the spectrum, such as a time to gather and a time to throw away. Often we tend to embrace one of these ends, and consider it good, while trying to avoid the other, and labeling it as bad.

Perhaps we are to live more in the tension, somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, rather than merely embracing one place and running from the other. For example, in both the wedding and the funeral I attended recently, there were tears of loss but also celebrations of profound joy.

In relationships, it is always good to be at peace. But there are times, even in our best relationships, when we experience conflict, which may feel like war.  If we hold these things in tension, while looking to God, we can find hope and energy. Perhaps the call is to simply remain present and wait on God.

A few people have expressed to me how this pandemic has provided them the space to sort out things they have neglected for many years.  In a culture that believes busyness is better than stillness and accumulation is better than reduction, consider what we can learn from the biblical wisdom that proposes a time for everything.

How might we continue to learn what God has for us?  What new practices might we develop as we come out of social distancing?  There is a time to reflect and a time to practice.

Generosity & God’s Provision in Social Isolation

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by Steve Kriss, Executive Minister

According to clinical psychologists who study these things, we are in the “third quarter” of social isolation. In this phase, we want things to get back to normal.  We grieve what we’ve lost in the time away from work, each other, routine.  We’ve let go of celebrations and now interact virtually. We’re reluctantly wearing masks at the grocery store.  We’re reluctantly going to the grocery store. We each experience the crisis of a pandemic differently.

Antonio Martinez, Aurelio Hernandez, Suly Sosa and Tomas Galicia, preparing food for distribution at Centro de Alabanza.

The children of Israel grew weary of the time in the Sinai.  The exhilaration of release from Egypt became the exhaustion of the not yet.  There was God’s obvious care through the quail and manna.  But there was distraction through the creation of a golden calf that harkened backward rather than toward true identity and future.  And there were frustrated leaders, like Moses, who broke the original tablets of the commandments and had to return to a conversation with God for a second round.

In our Conference, we implemented a lean and responsive plan to work for a 60-day period, ending June 1.  We paused a hiring process for our director of Community Engagement in order to work more closely with Conference Related Ministries and communication. We’ve put a hold on travel and some grant processes.

We’ve focused energy toward more frequent communication. Randy Heacock has assumed an interim role as leadership minister for Conference Related Ministries.  We’re continuing our work toward our new reconciled identity that is scheduled to be released at Pentecost.  We’ve filed for a government-backed loan to help carry us through, like many other nonprofits and small businesses, but still reduced expenses during this time. Meanwhile, we’ve launched the Shalom Fund initiative.

Food ready for delivery at Centro de Alabanza.

What we’ve discovered in this in-between time is God-inspired generosity, compassion, and empathy.  We’ve been able, through the generosity of so many, to respond to real human needs in vulnerable communities and situations.  What began as a half ton of potatoes in the back of a pick-up truck has multiplied into truckloads of food delivered to Allentown, North Jersey, Philadelphia, and Tampa.

Some days I wonder if we will have enough resources to meet the needs arising in our Conference.  Each time God, working through God’s people, has supplied what was needed. Like the widow’s vessel of oil that never ran dry and the loaves and fish Jesus multiplied, there has always been more than enough.

We’ve exceeded our $100,000 goal for the Shalom Fund. Glory be to God and thanks to each of you who have shared in this extension of Christ’s peace in a disrupted time.  This has been amazing to witness.

I have been overwhelmed, but not surprised, by the commitment and creativity of our worshipping communities and leaders.  I trust that we will continue to respond well in ways that keep our love of God and our neighbors in the foreground.

Yet, we are still in the in-between. Needs still exist. The journey to the Promised Land was not about returning to normal but imagining a new way of being God’s people together.  The Israelites were not without fears and complaints in their odyssey. But God continued to work among them, inviting them to be renewed in their relationships, both vertically and horizontally.

When we look back, my hope is that we will remember the ties that bound us when we shared our loaves and fishes and continued our work creatively and courageously rooted in Christ’s love. Because there was indeed abundance.

Learning to Grieve, Slowly

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By Chantelle Todman Moore, Intercultural Leadership Coach

I have struggled with grief; I still do. Growing up as a Christian, I learned platitudes in response to grief. But they never gave me the tools I needed to be present with myself, community, and the myriad of feelings and experiences that grief entails.

Life has slowed down for me during this pandemic. With new reasons to grieve on a daily basis, I am finding that I have more capacity to engage and explore personal and communal grief. I am finding guidance and wisdom through conversations with others and reading about grief.

Two books that are bringing me comfort, lessening the feelings of grief isolation, and allowing the tears to flow are The Book of Solace by Dane Kuttler and Rebellious Mourning: the Collective Work of Grief, an anthology edited by Cindy Milstein.

The Book of Solace was gifted to me this past holiday season. In turn, I gifted my copy to another person whom, at the beginning of the pandemic, lost their brother to illness. The wisdom of this book has accompanied me when grief caught me off guard in the middle of completing a task and has been shared with others as they wrestle to make sense of what cannot be tied up into a neat bow. I was also gifted The Book of Solace and have read the contributions with tears streaming down my face. These texts speak to the hard spaces where grief finds us and takes us, as part of the human experience.

Our grief and our mourning is both personal and unique as well as collective and ordinary. Beyond reading and talking with others, additional practices that are holding me in my grief is finding ways to see the potential for transformation for myself and our world. I am planting seeds with my family in our raised beds, making and enjoying delicious meals, finding ways to rest and enjoy pleasurable things.

As most of us shelter at home, there is unreserved access to media. But grief needs stillness and silence. Many things can distract yourself from grief. So I am opening myself up to moments of silence: sitting in my yard, going for walks, and listening to the wind, all while resting and quieting a mind and heart that wants to keep racing for answers and solutions.

I invite you to name what you are grieving both personally and communally right now. Open up yourself to see where grief is leading, teaching, and softening you for transformation.

Always Reinventing Himself

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Leer en espanol

by Jennifer Svetlik, Salford congregation

Originally from Columbia, leadership minister Marco Güete has found numerous ways to combine his passion for the church with his creativity, high energy, and intercultural sensitivities. Since August 2019, Marco has worked with nine congregations, eight of whom were recently part of Southeast Mennonite Conference, that will join Eastern District & Franconia Conference this year. He spends much of his time answering questions about the process of switching conferences and transferring credentials, along with helping the congregations complete the paperwork for transferring membership. He finds the opportunity to bring clarity in the midst of confusion to be rewarding.

“These churches were looking for an established conference to be affiliated with, and decided that Franconia was the best option because of the conference’s racial and ethnic diversity and attentiveness to intercultural ministry,” explains Marco. Eastern District & Franconia Conference was also attractive, Marco explained further, as it has a good Anabaptist foundation and a solid relationship with MC USA.

For Marco, the most rewarding part of his job is seeing these churches continue their affiliation with MC USA. “They consider MC USA as a family and that they belong to them,” shares Marco. “Seeing that gives me a sense of accomplishment.”

Marco was born in Colombia and moved within the country several times as a child, which helped him develop confidence and a sense of independence, as well as learn about different cultures. He and his wife, Sandra, immigrated to the U.S. and Marco worked as a salesperson in an international corporation while he sought professional training in Christian ministry. He opened up two small stores in Queens, NY and was introduced to Anabaptism by a fellow businessman who was a pastor of a Hispanic Mennonite church plant in New York City. A couple of years later, Marco enrolled in the Pastoral Ministry Program at Goshen College (Goshen, IN) and then at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary (Lisle, IL).

Soon after began Marco’s long career of leadership in the Mennonite church. He received a call as a pastor at Community of Faith Mennonite Church (Chicago).  In 1986, Marco became the Hispanic Ministries Program Director of the General Conference Mennonite Church. During this ten years in this role, Marco began the Instituto Bíblico Anabautista (IBA, or Anabaptist Biblical Institute), a Spanish training program for local congregations in Mennonite history and theology. Later, Marco was the director of the Latin American Anabaptist Resource Center (CLARA) and Colombia Mennonite Bible Seminary. More recently he has served as a conference minister for three area conferences. He and Sandra reside in Sarasota, FL.

“I am the kind of person that is always re-inventing myself, and creating something new in my ministry and my personal life,” reflects Marco. “If I have goals that I find meaningful, I don’t consider my job ‘work’.”

In his free time, Marco exercises a lot, including walking at least one hour daily with his wife. In September, Marco walked part of the Camino de Santiago in Spain to raise money for the IBA. Marco also stays busy putting together comforters for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) with his wife and considers the work to be an act of creative expression. He enjoys watching movies and reading historical fiction.

A Stimulus Relief Package

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Jesus Meets the Wants Beyond the Needs

by Marta Beidler Castillo, Leadership Minister (Wellspring congregation)

Before Jesus feeds the five thousand (John 6), he sees a great crowd coming toward him and he says to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?”  He asked this to test Philip, John says, because Jesus already knew what he was going to do.

Right now, I feel like Philip, who answers, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”  I am wondering where the provision will come from to meet all the needs we’re seeing just in our conference, congregations, Conference Related Ministries, and connected ministries in Mexico and beyond. Maybe it’s a test for us, since God already has in mind what God is going to do.

Luke Beidler and Marta (Beidler) Castillo working together in home office. Photo by Dorothy Beidler

Going back to the story, we remember that Jesus fed them all as much as they wanted with a boy’s offering of five small barley loaves and two small fish.  I am now the small boy ready to offer what I have and stand back to watch how God will bless, multiply, and distribute all that is needed and wanted.

 

A Stimulus Relief Package and the Shalom Fund

by Luke Beidler, Methacton congregation

This week, the Times Herald pictured President Trump signing the corona virus stimulus relief package at the White House.  The article headlined, “Relief checks are a lifeline for some, a cushion for others.”

What do these checks mean for me?  For you?

As I answer this question, I feel my identity as a follower of Jesus, as a member of an Eastern District & Franconia Conference congregation. I strongly feel my commitment to the Anabaptist faith, to feeding the hungry, and to healing the sick. This is exactly the time for us to show our colors, to put ourselves on the front lines together with first responders, doctors, and nurses.  To show ourselves willing to sacrifice that others may live! Can we join all people of faith and the secular community, seeking the welfare of the towns and cities of all the nations? Praying and supporting a fair, just distribution of required resources!

So what does it mean for me and my family?  Can I, as a landlord (I hate that term), be part of the vision to forgive late and unpaid rents, especially for those affected by the virus or loss of job?  Can my wife and I add stimulus to stimulus by matching Everence funds in our local congregation to cover some of the losses of our members and next-door neighbors?   Freely received, freely give!  How about carrying with you envelopes with a hundred dollars to give a stranger who reveals a real need?!

And can we move from our local congregations and counties to pick up the unequal burdens that our urban congregations and their populations face? Pandemics demand an out-in-the-world dynamic. Now is not the time for a scarcity mentality but a joyous generosity to give people hope one day at a time. This is the vision of the Shalom Fund that Eastern District & Franconia Conference has announced for our consideration. In a pandemic, the disadvantages of the homeless, immigrants, and lower income families grow. I would like to see each of us, with passion, pass on and multiply our stimulus checks.  I would like to see each of our conference congregations each give $10,000 for a stimulus relief offering for the healing of the nations.

May the open hand rather than the closed fist be our learning and joy!

Marta Beidler Castillo and Luke Beidler are daughter and father.  If you would like to learn more about the conference Shalom Fund or donate to the fund, please click here.

Important update for Participants in MCUSA’s Corinthian Plan

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by Conrad Martin, Conference Director of Finance

Recently the Corinthian Plan sent out a letter to all participants. Perhaps you, like I, set it aside without reading it. If you did, please read it. The letter has some important information that will affect your church as the employer and you as a participant in the plan.

Here is a brief summary of the topics covered in the letter:

  1. Announcement of a May premium holiday and how that affects both employer and employee.
  2. How changes in working hours may or may not affect your participation in the plan.
  3. Effects of the recent expansion of the Family Medical Leave Act and the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act.
  4. Adjustments to the plan coverage of COVID-19 related items, eg. testing, treatment, telemedicine, etc.

The Corinthian Plan has generously offered a “premium holiday” (one month that churches do not have to pay the plan’s premium for continued coverage). However, the plan is inviting churches who do not need a “Premium Holiday” to pay their premium. These paid “holiday premiums” will be placed in an emergency fund, available to churches suffering from significant financial hardships due to the current situation.

If you did not receive a letter, here is a link to the Corinthian Plan web page for this new COVID-19 information: http://mennoniteusa.org/what-we-do/the-corinthian-plan/.  Please read this information and/or make sure your church staff have read it.

If you have questions, please contact the Corinthian Plan Director Duncan Smith, (316-281-4255) or the East Coast Advocate, James Miller (941-400-9937).

Be a Part of History!

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by Joel D. Alderfer, Mennonite Heritage Center, Collections Manager

At the Mennonite Heritage Center, we want to collect and preserve stories from this time of health crisis in which we find ourselves.

We’re inviting persons from our Mennonite communities to help with this by responding to our Coronavirus Crisis Survey at mhep.org/coronavirus-crisis-survey.  No need to answer all questions.  Just type your responses and click “submit” at the end.  From the responses received, we will create a digital archival collection at the Mennonite Heritage Center, which will be available to future researchers.

Melky Tirtasaputra, Associate Pastor at Nations Worship Center (Philadelphia, PA), and his wife, Alvina Krisnadi, transport eggs, rice, and potatoes to Whitehall Mennonite Church (Whitehall, PA) via motorcycle and trailer to help those who are without work and food during the pandemic. (Photo Credit: Melky Tirtasaputra)

We also invite congregations and ministries to share a few good photos (no more than five) that document life during COVID-19 – showing congregational and community life, in all its new, creative, and restricted forms! If you submit photos, please briefly describe them, and email (preferably as jpgs) to: alderferjoel@mhep.org.

Thank you for considering this invitation!  We encourage you to include the following brief paragraph about this survey to include in your church’s newsletter or online bulletin:

Mennonite Heritage Center is inviting persons from our Mennonite communities to help preserve stories of life during the COVID-19 pandemic. All persons are invited to participate. Please respond by taking the Coronavirus Crisis Survey at: https://mhep.org/coronavirus-crisis-survey/.  No need to answer all questions.  Just type your responses and click “submit” at the end.  From the responses received, they will create a digital archival collection at the Mennonite Heritage Center, which will be available to future researchers.