Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Blog

Who Wants to be 91?

by

by Margaret Zook

August 21 was National Senior Citizens’ Day.  By 2060, those aged 65 or older will total more than one quarter of the world’s population.  According to the World Health Organization, the number of persons aged 80 and older is expected to triple between 2020 and 2050 to reach 426 million.    

Community elders, or those of us who are aging, may be viewed as retired, empty-nesters, babysitters, volunteers, or vacationers spending their children’s inheritance. Others may think of them as forgetful, frumpy, frail, and feeble. 

“Who wants to be 91?” a 19 year-old young man asked with a sneer.  “I do,” replied a ninety-one-year-old man modestly. Most of us want to live a long time, but we don’t want to grow old.  

We start aging the moment we are born.   The first stage of life is filled with learning and growing.  The second stage is focused on production and accomplishment. These years go quickly.

The third stage of life, or the later years, is time for reflection, renewal, relationships, and grace. Author Katie Funk Wiebe writes of the third stage as the “proving ground of whatever one has believed, thought, practiced, and said.”  It is a time to use life-giving skills—those skills developed and practiced during the previous two stages—that will continue to give meaning and strength to life and faith. 

“Can we expect to become brighter and sweeter as the years roll by?” asks Tilman Smith in In Favor of Growing Older. “Not necessarily; it depends on how we live today. You will take your baggage with you as you grow older.”   

Life is complex at all stages. Funk Wiebe recommends in her books Border Crossing: A Spiritual Journey and Bless Me Too, My Father some faith practices for living today and all tomorrows. “It’s never too late to learn,” says Smith, so “develop the resources within … throughout your life.”   

I invite you to, no matter what your age is, join me in some of these faith practices: 

Gratitude: Exercise the “thank you” muscle. Repeat the words “thank you” to God and to those around and watch what happens.  

Generosity: Scientific studies report that giving back and helping others make us feel happier and more content. Create an inward picture of your generosity’s recipients and pray a blessing for and around them.  

Reframing: All of life has its share of reverses, losses, and sorrows.   What makes a difference is the attitude we have towards them.   Practice reframing time and focus on the positive aspects of the present. Be aware of events and persons in the present—give them your attention.   

Flexibility: Things change as we age, and some of those changes are irrevocable.   But with every reversal comes a new opportunity.  Practice never giving up learning, listening, and growing.   

Forgiveness: Anger and payback do not turn into the healing balm of love.  Forgiveness is the therapy of old age that wipes the slate clean and heals.  Practice true forgiveness, for it is more important to the one who forgives than it is to the one who is forgiven. 

As the Apostle Paul reminds us, “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me…. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-13, NIV). 

Margaret Zook

Margaret Zook is the Director of Collaborative Ministries for Mosaic Conference. She and husband, Wib, are members of Salford Mennonite Church and live in Harleysville, PA.

An Urban Minister Reflects on Farming and Prayer

by

Most of my life I have lived at the western edge of the Sonoran Desert. Inland southern California has neither enough good topsoil or enough water to have sustainable harvests without assistance. We import food or someone else’s water to build up our topsoil.  Living in Pennsylvania this year has helped me to think about the different ecosystems of my life.   

As a more regular inhabitant of PA, I have come to recognize that God’s good creation (above sea level) and all of God’s very good humanity are dependent on two things: six inches of healthy topsoil and the presence of rain.  Without those two ingredients, nothing God has made for the land survives.   

In the church, we need a healthy ecosystem too. It is built on the spiritual topsoil of historic longevity, the complex relationships of closely-knit families, and many people of different cultures. Spiritual topsoil also requires distribution into wild areas, cultivated spaces, and lived-in realities.  But we also need rain.  The atmosphere needs to be stirred and water vapor needs to be condensed into drops that fall on our organized topsoil, creating watersheds of life and hope together.  In short, we need a vision shaped by two ingredients that engage in a constant and complex relationship of restoring life together. 

So how do I pray these days for the congregation I am currently serving and the churches I continue to be privileged to serve as a Leadership Minister?   

  1. First, I am learning in new ways to pray with an end in mind. That is, I pray for a good harvest (Matthew 9:37). I pray that our churches would conspire together to labor that all may come to know Jesus Christ as our ever-present Savior, teacher, friend, and Lord.   
  1. For that harvest to happen, I also pray for good soil (Matthew 13:8). In our “good soil” I pray that the interplay of our traditions, experiences, and the ever-present, ever-compassionate Holy Spirit will make the Word of God a living thing in our lives that bears good and abundant fruit.   
  1. Third, I pray for rain (Hebrews 6:7).  I pray that the atmospheric conditions of turbulence in my congregation and in Mosaic Conference are stirred up by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God in such a way that the water vapor condenses, and fresh water falls into our common life. We who were once parched find ourselves quenched. 

It is my observation that I have spent too much time, energy, and treasure on worrying about things that are not the main thing.  I choose to pray for a return to collaborating on a great harvest, made possible by healthy, fertile topsoil, and refreshed from the turbulent atmosphere giving us the water we need for life together. 

 I realize that the church I currently serve and the Conference I have been serving have all the ingredients needed to fulfill God’s first great commission: to be stewards of all He has made.  As we hold a vision for a great harvest, tend to the precious and thin layer of topsoil, and welcome the turbulent rain that makes us whole and alive, we fulfill our great purpose as the people of God.  

As we hold a vision for a great harvest, tend to the precious and thin layer of topsoil, and welcome the turbulent rain that makes us whole and alive, we fulfill our great purpose as the people of God.

In this season of reimagining the church in the post-pandemic realities of our time, may we seek a great harvest, not shriveled relationships. May we tend to the precious resources God has given us together, and not walk away from one another.  May we welcome the turbulent rains – soft showers and strong storms – that keep our souls thriving. 

Yet This I Call To Mind

by

We read in Ecclesiastes 3:1, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” (ASV).  The text continues by explaining that positive events are paralleled with negative ones to reflect reality. The author reflects on human mortality, and states that because we are creatures of time and occasion, we must live in harmony with the ebb and flow of life. 

No matter how we frame something, there are times we simply must acknowledge that life hurts. While acknowledging this, we also recognize that Jesus knows us more intimately and personally than anyone else.  

In God’s love and mercy, we are also given the Book of Lamentations in the Bible. We may not turn to it daily, but it offers us companionship in the human struggle 

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven”

(Ecclesiastes 3:1 ASV)

To lament is to bring our experiences of disappointment, pain, hurt, anger, and dismay to God—to acknowledge that things are not as they ought to be. Lamentation can be a powerful and meaningful form of worship because it places our love for God above even the worst circumstances in our lives.  

“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him”

(Job 13:15a, KJV)

We see this in the story of Job, when he said, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him” (Job 13:15a, KJV). Job stood fast, turning his suffering into worship. He took everything he feared, total disaster, loss of everything, and false accusations, and still praised the Lord. 

Declarations like Job’s don’t change the realities of what has happened in our lives. However, they help us to keep looking to God above our circumstances and situations. We still may feel pain and hurt, but we do not need to let this pain form, shape, and guide our lives. Instead, through the Holy Spirit, we will let Jesus continue to shape and guide our lives until … Christ is formed in you! (Gal. 4:19). We will continue to receive the love, grace and truth of God and the comfort and strength of the Holy Spirit. 

Lamentation does not deny the existence of pain or hurt. It calls us to worship God even in midst of it! It recognizes that God stands in the moment with us. Therefore, we are truly not alone. 

We also recognize that in this process, we may find ourselves at different places of healing on this path. That is okay. Each of us will process our realities in different ways and at different paces. So, might we extend grace and understanding to each other? 

I invite you to an exercise. On a sheet of paper create two columns, one column entitled, “Though” and the other, “Yet.” In the “Though” column, write things that have brought sadness or hurt to you in regard to your current situation. In the “Yet” column, write memories of God’s faithfulness in the past, that you can draw on now, to move forward. 

For example: Though – “I feel deeply hurt because….” Yet – “I will cast all my anxieties on him for I know he cares for me.” 

Present yourself and this list before the Lord. Listen for what God wants you to know as you remain open to His presence moving forward. Receive that which He offers you.  

May your faith remain strong, even if it has been shaken. May you not lose hope, for it is like a bridge that connects our present to our future.  May you, being rooted and grounded in love, know the love of God that surpasses all understanding and guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. 

Stretched Out

by

Every other month I join the Mosaic Women’s Gathering to talk about our annual gathering, share stories, and empower each other. At our last meeting, as we were brainstorming ideas for this year’s gathering, Marta Castillo shared from Isaiah 54, about enlarging our tent, or dreaming big.

2 “Enlarge the place of your tent, 
    and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; 
do not hold back; lengthen your cords 
    and strengthen your stakes. 
3 For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, 
    and your offspring will possess the nations 
    and will people the desolate cities. 

Isaiah 54:2-3, ESV

After the meeting, I found myself reflecting upon this passage for the rest of the week. As little children, we were often told to dream big. Every Sunday at Philadelphia (PA) Praise Center, the benediction includes, “May God enlarge your territory to the left and to the right…” in Indonesian.

However, Isaiah 54 reminded me that before we can enlarge our tent, we first must let ourselves be stretched out. And as we all know, being stretched out is uncomfortable.

We’re still in the middle of a global pandemic. Throughout this time, I’m sure that all of us had to pivot and adapt to the current situation. Personally speaking, I have felt stretched thin because I feel trapped in a season of waiting yet having too little time to do everything. I can feel overwhelmed, like God is stretching me too hard.

Close-Up Shot of a Person Holding a Pink Slime

However, God has always found a way to gently remind me whenever I feel like I’m at the lowest point in my life. I find strength by being reminded of this passage, that was addressed to the desolate as an eternal covenant of peace.

I am taking away three things from the Isaiah passage: 

1. Do not hold back 

When God is stretching me, I must constantly tell myself to not speed up or put a speed bump on God’s process. I should try to enjoy the uncomfortable. I need to enjoy the stretch!

2. Lengthen your cords 

Sometimes when I feel I don’t have enough to give, I keep telling myself that it’s okay to say no. It’s also okay to ask for help. A tent cord is used to secure a tent to the ground. Our limitations are what ground us and keep us human. In the areas where I feel like I lack, I find peace in knowing that God will be able to fill the empty spaces.

Photo Of People Reaching Each Other's Hands

3. Strengthen your stakes 

A house without a strong foundation won’t last long in the middle of a storm. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in doing things that I forget to recenter myself in God. I can find myself lost. I need to humbly be reminded of how little control I have, and how much I need God to help me through.

Black Ceiling Wall

As I reflected on times when I felt stretched to my limit, I found comfort when I felt God’s helping hands during those times. In my little, God is big. In my weak, God is strong.  

May you find strength and peace in this closing verse, as it did to me: 

“For the mountains may depart 
and the hills be removed, 
but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, 
    and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” 
    says the Lord, who has compassion on you. 

Isaiah 54:10, ESV

Seeing With New Lenses

by

by Hendy Matahelemual, Indonesian Light congregation (Philadelphia, PA)

When I was a little boy, I wanted to wear glasses. I used to play with my parents’ glasses. I would put them on, but of course, I could not see clearly.  My parents would discourage me from playing with their glasses. But I felt so cool when I did. Both of my parents wore glasses and some of my friends at school did too. So for me, glasses were cool. That’s why I was a bit disappointed knowing that my vision was just fine, 20/20, and I didn’t need glasses. That was a long time ago.  

“20/20 vision” is a term used to describe normal visual acuity measured at a distance of 20 feet. At the beginning of 2020, I was excited in my faith, believing that God would give me a “perfect vision,” but my excitement changed after the pandemic hit. Now six months have passed. Seeing God’s vision each day is not easy in 2020, or maybe we just need to see it with a new lens. 

What is God’s vision for me this year? The writer of Proverbs said, “When there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18, KJV).  I often pray, “God, I want to see what you see, I want to feel what you feel.” Sometimes I get a revelation, and sometimes I don’t. But one thing is for sure: God always gives me a new lens. God always shows me a new perspective. 

No one could predict 2020 was going to be like this: pandemic, war, police brutality, racial justice issues, wildfires, hurricanes, earthquakes, economic crises, and more.  No one saw it coming, but is this a new thing?  

The book of Ecclesiastes (1:9) says,  “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (NIV). Maybe this is right; there is nothing new.  Maybe the reason that we don’t see it is because we choose not to see it. 

Every aspect of humanity has fallen. In the era of the fastest 5G internet connection, humanity is still very slow to forgive and forget. Most humans still choose to retaliate rather than turn the other cheek. It feels like the four horsemen are just around the corner. 

My friend said to me recently, that at this particular time, she can really understand the proverb, “Ignorance is bliss.”  It’s easier for us to wear our comfortable glasses instead of wearing the glasses that see all this messy reality. God wants us to have “perfect vision,” seeing the world as this big mess that only Jesus can heal (both in Spirit and with His second coming). Or as my friend said, “There’s no Messiah without a Mess.” 

Seeing with a new lens means that we see reality as it is, fully embracing pain, fear, struggle, and suffering to the fullest before giving it to God. Sometimes seeing with a “perfect vision” means that you will have blurry vision, a vision with less clarity, due to the tears in your eyes. These tears come because you finally understand the pain, struggle, and suffering in our humanity.  

Sometimes seeing with a new lens is seeing with a grieving eye. As Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matt. 5:4, ESV).

Congregational Profile: Shalom Evangelical Mennonite Church

by

by Javier Márquez

Editor’s Note: Mosaic Mennonite Conference anticipates welcoming eight Florida congregations (that were formerly part of Southeast Mennonite Conference) at this fall’s conference assembly.  For the next several weeks, we will be sharing the profiles of each of these congregations.

Members of Shalom Evangelical Mennonite Congregation pray together. Photo credit: Javier Márquez

Iglesia Evangélica Menonita Shalom (Shalom Evangelical Mennonite Church) began in 2019 and continues to grow and strengthen through prayer, evangelism, and service to others. Currently 20-25 adults and children gather regularly in the church building on Machado Street in Tampa, Florida. 

The congregation began as a church plant on May 26, 2019. Pastor Secundino Casas and his wife, Jesenia Casas, were leaders of this “cell” in the house of a member of the congregation. 

Now the congregation meets in the same building as College Hill Mennonite Church. The College Hill congregation has opened their doors so that this community of Spanish-speaking believers can carry out their faith activities. The two congregations share service opportunities, like a community food, clothes, and toy distribution every Wednesday, for those in need in Tampa.

Pastor Secundino Casas preaches on a Sunday morning. Photo credit: Javier Márquez

Pastors Secundino and Jesenia Casas, a married couple from Mexico, promote the church’s mission, “Share Jesus’ love for others, serve, and evangelize.” This vision is clearly reflected in the different actions they perform as a community of faith.

Church members actively work at discipleship and evangelization through community Bible studies and outreach. One day in the midst of an outreach campaign, a man, who did not speak Spanish, asked the members to pray for his life because he “could feel the presence of God in them and in what they are doing.”

Pastor Secundino (on truck) delivers food to the community. Photo credit: Javier Márquez

Despite having little time to attend church activities, many single working mothers living in Tampa have found a place of welcome at Shalom Evangelical Mennonite Church. This reality has motivated church leaders to organize help for these families, offering childcare at the church  for women who work.

Shalom Evangelical Mennonite Church is a community committed to building peace.  On their church sign, along with service times, is the verse, “Blessed are the peacemakers because they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9).

What I’ve Been Reading on Faithful Living

by

by Josh Meyer, Leadership Minister

“What an astonishing thing a book is,” writes Carl Sagan,  astronomer and author, who captures my love and appreciation for books quite well. “It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.”  

Here are a few of the magic-working, shackle-breaking, people-binding books that I’ve been reading lately.  

The Sacred Overlap: Learning to Live Faithfully in the Space Between by J.R. Briggs

Back in February 2019, I had the privilege of serving on a team of “readers” for this book, tasked with reading and providing feedback on an early manuscript of the project.  Now, a year and a half later, the book is finally out and I couldn’t be more excited to recommend it. The widening political, racial, generational, and religious differences in our society all too often lead to an “us vs. them” mentality.  

In The Sacred Overlap, Briggs lays out a biblical, Jesus-centered vision that embraces tension and invites us to live between the extremes that isolate and divide people.  But rest assured – this isn’t a spineless call to a kind of “mushy middle” that fails to take a stand on things that matter.  This is an invitation to convicted civility that emphasizes both grace and truth.  

Finding Holy in the Suburbs: Living Faithfully in the Land of Too Much by Ashley Hales

Suburbs reflect our good, God-given desire for a place to call home.  And suburbs also reflect our own brokenness.  As Hales writes in the introduction, “The suburbs – like any place – exhibit both the goodness of God’s creative acts (in desiring to foster community, beauty, rest, hospitality, family) and sin (in focusing on image, materialism, and individualism to the exclusion of others).”  Quite simply, places form our loves.  

Hales’ book raises provocative and profound questions for suburbanites like myself: Are we bending our lives around the spaces we occupy, the things we acquire, the homes we build, and the positions we’re climbing toward?  Or are we willing to let the triune God straighten out the narrative of safety and control, and pull us closer to the Divine Story of love and belonging?  

Something Needs to Change: A call to make your life count in a world of urgent need by David Platt

Is Jesus really the hope of the world?  David Platt poses this question as the centerpiece of his new book.  While I don’t agree with Platt on every point of theology, I was challenged and convicted by his account of his recent trek through the Himalayas.  

Platt, a megachurch pastor, realized it’s one thing to consider the injustices of the world from behind a podium in a comfortable building on a Sunday morning.  It’s another thing to face the realities of human suffering, sex trafficking, urgent physical need, and deep spiritual loss face-to-face.  

I appreciated and resonated with Platt’s struggle, his honest wrestling with the deepest questions of our faith, in light of the human suffering of our world.  Read this book and consider the questions…if you dare.

Conference Announces Growing Staff

by

by Sue Conrad Howes, Communication associate

As of September 1, Mosaic Conference has added two new staff members: Cindy Angela, full-time Digital Communication Associate, and Margaret Zook, part-time Director of Collaborative Ministries.

Cindy Angela

Cindy Angela will provide direction for digital and virtual resources, including vision-setting and implementation of social media strategy, leading the video and translation teams, and providing other artistic expressions including photography and graphic design.  She has a degree in communication from Temple University and is a member of Philadelphia Praise Center, where she coordinated much of its virtual worship services during the COVID-19 quarantine.

“Communication has been a growing edge in our conference for several years now. We continue to see the changes in our conference as opportunities to connect across cultures, languages, geographies, and theological worldviews,” said Emily Ralph Servant, Mosaic’s Director of Communication.  “Cindy is a huge gift to us at this crossroads.  She brings technical skills that we desperately need as well as relational and intercultural capacity, enthusiasm and creativity, and a passion for contributing all of who she is to joining God’s work in the world.  We couldn’t be more excited to add her to our team!”

Margaret Zook

Margaret Zook will lead the conference’s team of staff relating to Conference Related Ministries as Director of Collaborative Ministries. Before coming to this new role, Margaret served with three Conference Related Ministries, including a decade on the board of Penn Foundation (Sellersville, PA).  Margaret was also the Executive Director of Souderton (PA) Mennonite Homes for more than twenty years before serving Living Branches (Lansdale, PA) as the Director of Church and Community Relations.  She is an active member of Salford congregation (Harleysville, PA).

“Margaret brings deep commitments to the church and extensive leadership experience within our Conference Related Ministries community,” said Steve Kriss, Executive Minister.  “I’m grateful for her willingness to lead the work of strengthening relationships with our broad array of non-profit ministries that extends our work in Pennsylvania, Vermont, Honduras, India and Indonesia.”  

The staff of Mosaic Conference has grown to twenty-one full-time and part-time individuals since the reconciliation of Eastern District Conference and Franconia Conference in February 2020.  Conference staff provides accompaniment to congregations, credentialed leaders, and Conference Related Ministries, administrative support, and resourcing through youth formation, intercultural, and missional teams.  Staff members currently live in four states and work regularly in English, Spanish, and Indonesian languages while also producing materials in Cantonese, Haitian Creole, and Vietnamese.