By Steve Kriss, Executive Minister
My first communication received in the new executive minister role came as a text message on Sunday morning before I went to worship on January 1. It came from a Conference board member who told me that his congregation intended to support the work of Danilo Sanchez in Allentown for another year in the partnership between the Conference, Whitehall Mennonite Church, Ripple congregation and Mennonite Central Committee East Coast. It was a welcome communication and a gracious reminder of the Spirit’s work among us. What our board member didn’t know was that this important initiative working with youth (many who are refugees and immigrants) was reaching the end of its funding stream. We had decided late in 2016 in a collaborative conversation between the partners to move forward without funding fully being figured out. This gift will help bridge that gap. I was and am grateful.
It’s these kinds of signs along the way that remind me of the good work that we are called to do together. While political change and tensions surrounds us, we continue in the work that God has called us to do. As executive minister, I will do my best to keep us focused toward the going to the margins mission as affirmed at Conference Assembly in 2015. This includes the ongoing and important work of caring for the refugee, the stranger, the poor, the differently-abled, the young, the aged, the homeless, the hungry, those in prison and those recently released while respecting all people as created in the image of our God regardless of their own religious practice or lack thereof. And it also includes renewed attention on church-planting and gives space for new initiatives that we might not yet have imagined that will help carry the Good News into the next generation.
For some of us, this good work seems more challenging under President Trump while for others this seemed more difficult under the leadership of President Obama. Regardless of our political preferences or the regime at hand, we are called to the same hard and good work with respect and prayer: to speak and incarnate the Good News of Christ that heals the wounded, sets the captive free, provides sight to the blind and offers freedom to the oppressed (Luke 4.18). This message changes us and intends to transform the whole world.
Mission to the margins means both speaking and acting. For us as Conference staff, these last few weeks have included finding ways to support when Carlos Romero, Executive Director of Mennonite Education Agency, received a racially harassing phone call. Our response to Christ and the Spirit’s work at Pentecost means we cannot remain silent as witnesses to ethnic intimidation or acts that represent white supremacy. We are the first community to have named an African American pastor in the Mennonite Church and to have an African American lead our conference. We worship in four languages. Almost 20% of our pastors are people of color. This is our story. It’s never been easy work and gets even more challenging when we are able to be more honest with one another about our experiences.
It’s meant a conversation with Congressman Fitzpatrick’s office, who serves much of our constituent community in Pennsylvania’s 8th District, regarding last week’s Executive Orders that has halted for the time begin the processes for refugees entering our country. Many of our congregations have hosted refugees and helped with resettlement, others of us are refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. Many of us descend from those who were those same persons from generations earlier. This is a story we live and know and are continually challenged by through Biblical mandates to welcome the stranger.
Donella Clemens from the Perkasie congregation once advised me to seek out Biblical texts that offer guidance into where to situate ourselves for difficult or transitional times. This week, I’ve settled into Micah 6.8’s invitation to “live justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God.” It’s a challenging invitation for our time even though the words can at times feel overly familiar. It seems exactly where I’m going to need to be awhile after 30 days into the new leadership role. There’s still much to figure out and to learn.
In the meantime, I’ll keep celebrating God’s generosity and Spirit’s provocation among us like I experienced on Day 1. We’ll keep figuring out how to speak and act as mission to the margins is our priority. I invite you to be an ongoing part of those good stories and that sometimes hard but worthy work among us as we live out what it means to embody the Good News with our neighbors near and far and even among those who might be perceived as our enemies. There is still much work but we have great hope.
On Saturday evening, we celebrated with Centro de Alabanza (Center of Praise) in Philadelphia at the dedication of their building. A much-needed larger space in a Spanish neighborhood, this was made possible by Centro de Alabanza’s fundraising efforts include tamale sales and a car raffle, along with generous support from other Franconia Conference congregations. It was a joyful 
event of thanksgiving and praise, renewed covenant, and anointing before the Lord. Families brought forward wooden blocks inscribed with their family’s name to construct a building showing community, committing themselves to build on the foundation that “has already been laid, which is Jesus Christ” (I Corinthians 3:9-11).
new building, “First of all, we feel honored and thankful for the mercy and backing of God in this Hispanic ministry and for us to have a building means to have a place to worship the Lord in freedom and in power concentrating on the mission work of extending the Kingdom of God. It will help us be more responsible in stewardship, and the location is an area where there are many Latino groups. We believe that God has sent us here to be an example and to reach more souls for Christ.”
The following day, Sunday, January 29, members from Bethel Mennonite, Nueva Vida Norristown New Life and Christian Community Baptist came together for a time of celebration and remembrance. Over 29 years ago, Bethel Mennonite and Nueva Vida Norristown New Life joined together, selling the original Bethel building to Christian Community Baptist. Members of all three congregations celebrated together in a time of remembrance and worship in the same building where former Bethel members had put down their spiritual roots. Christian Community Baptist members thanked Nueva Vida Norristown New Life and Franconia Conference for sharing with them a well-cared-for building that was already filled with the Holy Spirit.
I cherish those memories, even as time and exposure to different faith expressions have given me more varied experience of what mission could look like: in the last few years alone, missional initiatives in Franconia Conference have included 
All of these expressions of mission point to the Good News: through Jesus, we are invited to share in God’s life; out of the overflowing of God’s life and love in us, we work for wholeness in the world around us. That is the meaning of the word shalom: wholeness and health, demonstrated in reconciled relationships with God, others, ourselves, and the earth.
So what does it look like to be an Anabaptist church in mission? According to Krabill, it means “doing what God does, loving the world—all of it—as much as God does, caring deeply for its welfare and working to set right what has gone wrong.” Krabill (senior mission advocate for Mennonite Mission Network) will join Mennonites in eastern Pennsylvania this February for a conversation on mission and shalom. “Celebration of Shalom: Stories of the Church in Mission” will feature stories and insights about mission from Fully Engaged as well as interactive storytelling from congregations in Franconia Conference and beyond, celebrating the diversity of God’s Spirit in sharing the Good News through both word and deed.
Mother Theresa called it a “call within the call.” That’s the best language I’ve found to describe why I’ve said yes to the invitation to the role of Executive Minister with Franconia Conference. These weeks since the announcement went public I’ve felt surrounded by congratulatory support as well as honest condolences. The congratulations recognize the largeness of the role and the condolences honor the difficulty of church leadership in this time and space. I’ve received them both openly and humbly feeling strongly the sense of call between God, the world, our community and me for “such a time as this.”
In my interview with the Conference Board, I said that a marker of success for me will be collaboration. I’m not exactly sure how we’ll mark or measure this yet, but I’ve seen glimpses of it in our work together in mutuality and sharing resources that give me some clues. We have a long story together and I’m convinced that our future could be bright. We’ll need to keep learning (to keep on being disciples) and to invest carefully so that our gift of faith might not simply be safely preserved but multiplied like the resources entrusted to the servants in Jesus’ parable from the Gospel of Matthew.
Living in a big city such as Philadelphia has its challenges, namely parking a car. On a daily basis, I spend a large part of my time driving people in need to the hospital, the lawyer, bringing people to the welfare office and many more. Most of my time is spent in South Philadelphia or Center City. Yet, parking is a problem almost anywhere you go in the city, making your chances to get a ticket pretty high!