Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Blog

Practices to Flourish in Ministry 

by

Nearly two years into a stressful pandemic, it’s worth reflecting on our spiritual health. As part of my dissertation, I recently conducted a study on pastoral identity which revealed four key areas for pastoral flourishing. The study centered on Mennonite pastors and identified honesty, intimacy, community, and eternity as core elements of healthy faith leaders.

Pages from Josh Meyer’s journal which shows his daily scripture written out. Photo by Josh Meyer.

If you’re a pastor or ministry leader, take some time to evaluate how you’re fairing in each of these areas:

HONESTY. Pastors and leaders need places to share honestly about the joys, challenges, and frustrations of leading faith communities. The most content, fulfilled, healthy pastors in the study had such spaces. Do you? If so, it is more important than ever to lean into these connections. If not, it is more important than ever to find and cultivate them.

Personally, I’ve benefited from a formal Learning Community as well as informal gatherings with fellow pastors in backyards and around bonfires. These opportunities to connect and share have been invaluable.

INTIMACY. Pastors and leaders need regular rhythms that connect them with God. In a season where so many of our regular rhythms are disrupted, we may need to be extra intentional to cultivate our relationship with Christ.

Can you identify the rhythms that help you connect with the Divine? It may be helpful to articulate them out loud or on paper. For me, the practice of “scribing Scripture” has been a new and meaningful practice. Each day, I’ll hand-copy a passage of Scripture. This has slowed me down and helped me notice things in the text I’ve missed before.

COMMUNITY. Pastors and leaders need relationships outside of the church. While it is good and important to be deeply connected to our congregations, the healthiest faith leaders in the study were those who had a network of relationships beyond their ministry setting.

Do you have people around whom you can truly take off the “pastor mantle”? Doing so will increase your ministry effectiveness when you put it back on. Over the years, I’ve participated in indoor soccer leagues, played fantasy football, and gone on hiking trips with guys who aren’t part of my (or any) church setting. These external relationships help me more effectively connect with those in my immediate ministry context.

ETERNITY. Pastors and leaders need reminders that their calling serves a purpose beyond this life. If we evaluate ourselves solely on what we see in front of us, the task of ministry can feel heavy and at times even depressing. However, the pastors in the study who maintained an eternal perspective were far healthier and stayed in ministry much longer.

I need to regularly be reminded to step back and take the long view. Pastoral colleagues have been helpful for me in maintaining this broader mindset.

Josh Meyer practices “scribing scripture” each day with his Bible and journal. Photo by Josh Meyer.

There’s no clear blueprint that guarantees pastoral flourishing in any and every situation. But the research seems to suggest that developing our capacity for honesty, intimacy, community, and eternity will allow us to lead from the healthiest place possible. May it be so in your life – to the praise of God’s glory!

God’s Snow Day

by

I love snow. I especially enjoy watching it come down and the accompanying peaceful quiet.

As a child going to bed while it was snowing, I hoped that the accumulation would lead to the greatest possible snow event – a snow day! A snow day represented many things for me as a child: the joy of missing school, making snow forts, sledding, warm cookies, and in general, a quiet, peaceful day at home. It was a chance to take a break from the usual schedule of life and just relax.

In today’s world, snow days are certainly not like they used to be. For kids, they still include the joy of staying at home from school, sledding, and playing in the snow. But now, the fun only happens after they have finished their on-line assignments through virtual school. The requirements to complete a certain number of official school days each year trumps having official snow days.

Members of Mike Clemmer’s family enjoy the fun of sledding on a recent snow day. Photo by Paul Jacobs.

As an adult, I also find the joy of a snow day elusive. In fact, for me, there seems to be no such thing as a day “off” because of the snow. Instead, when it snows, I get up an hour earlier so that I can clear the driveway in order to slide my way into the office or perhaps to the store for milk – because life must go on.

As I begin to write this article, there is a fresh six inches of snow on the ground. I have decided that I am taking a snow day. I am determined to not leave the house for anything. Today, life can go on without me for a change.

Photo by Jonathan Charles.

I believe God intended for us all to have snow days. Perhaps not in the usual way we picture them in our minds – with snow and warm cookies – but with the same benefits for our mind and spirit. We would profit from a day of having a quiet retreat from our normal schedules or simply a chance to experience joy and fun in the ordinary. Most importantly, we would all benefit from the possibility of directing our thoughts and actions towards God.

God has already provided for us a snow day each week. It is called, Sabbath. It is a day where we can experience these very things. But just like snow days, we have often neglected our Sabbath days. Instead we use them to continue our daily grind, living out the idea that we need to keep life going, or things will fly apart without us. But without Sabbath, we are the ones who fly apart.

We easily forget that life is not about us and our desires, but rather it is about embracing, honoring, and worshipping God. Life is about allowing the reins of our lives to be in God’s hands. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8, ASV) is both a command from God and a reminder to regularly honor our Creator and Sustainer of life by disengaging from the regular life that we so diligently follow. In doing that, we will find rest for our souls and the joy of life will be restored.

The great thing about snow days and Sabbath days is that at the end of the day, both are of greater profit and worth than any work that could have been done in their place. That’s because God’s work has no equal.

I am hoping for a lot of God’s snow days in 2022, for all of us. I can almost smell the warm cookies already!

Perseverance Through Hard Times

by

We will all go through hard times; the Bible says as much. But the great thing about God is that although we will go through hard times, God also says that He will be with us no matter how hard it gets.

One of my favorite Bible verses is Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” (NKJV) This verse reminds me that, at the end of the day, God knows I won’t understand everything I go through and why I go through it, but it’s ok because I was never meant to know. This verse leads into Proverbs 3:6, “In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your path.” (NKJV) In these two short verses we can see that not only are we not meant to understand everything, but if we put everything we are going through in God’s hands, He will direct our path.

I saw these verses put into practice in my life in early 2017, when my father, Pastor Tomas, was diagnosed with cancer. In the beginning stages of doctor visits, a lot of things were very uncertain, from what treatment options were available to when and how many appointments my father should have. Through it all, I saw how my father maintained his faith, believing that God would provide a solution, no matter how difficult or uncertain the situation seemed.

The view from Michelle’s father’s hospital room on the 10th floor of the Advent Health Hospital, cancer building. Photo by Michelle Ramirez.

Before deciding on any treatment, my father would make sure to pray and put God first. On those long hospital nights, when it was uncertain when he would come back home, he and my mother, who was in the room with him, would always put on worship music to drown out the beeping monitors. Even after all his hair fell off from the chemotherapy, he would still have a smile of his face and thank God for another day.

Through the ups and downs of cancer, my father always put God first, just as Proverbs 3:5-6 says. This reminded me that although hard times are going to happen, it is guaranteed that our God will help us every step of the way. All we have to do is put God first and simply have faith and trust He will see us through. Although our individual struggles can seem difficult and never ending, God’s promise to us is that we will never be alone.

Pastor Tomas Ramirez (left) and his daughter, Michelle Ramirez. Photo provided by Michelle Ramirez.

New York City, a Laundromat, and Jesus

by

In May of 2021, my wife, Sandra, and I visited New York City to celebrate our 51st wedding anniversary. We were returning to the city that received us in the 1970s. We lived in New York City for eleven years and two of our children were born there.

New York City is “a planetary city,” as described by Colombian author Diana Uribe, because it has residents, communities, restaurants, and languages ​​from almost every corner of the world. When we first arrived in New York in the 1970s, we resided in Astoria, Queens, an area of mostly Greek and Italian communities. It was common to see ads in Greek and Italian and to hear these two languages ​​mixed with English. It was rare to find people who spoke Spanish.

Marco Güete and his wife, Sandra, celebrated their 51st anniversary in New York City. Photo by Marco Güete.

Our plan, as part of our anniversary celebration, was to visit some of the places where we lived. We wanted to walk the streets again, travel by train/subway, remember the stations, and identify where the shops, restaurants, and laundromats were. We wanted to go back to the past and live it again for a moment.

Everything had changed, or our minds played tricks on us trying to remember. We went down the stairs of a train station in Astoria, a station that we used several hundred times. We walked a block and to our left we discovered the place where the supermarket was located and where we bought groceries. We arrived at the corner and there in front of us, imposing and dazzling, was the apartment building that we welcomed our children, Zandra and Javier, as newborns, a year apart. What a surprise! To the right of the apartment building was our laundromat.

The laundromat near Marco and Sandra’s former home in Queens. 
Photo by Marco Güete.

Many years ago, on one bright, sunny, spring afternoon, my wife arrived at the laundromat. She was pregnant with our second baby. She rolled her laundry cart and our one-month-old daughter in her baby carriage. Until today, I never asked myself the question, how did she manage both?

In the laundromat Sandra met a neighbor and her baby. They two began a conversation, and our neighbor told Sandra that she would like to introduce us to the pastor of the church where she attends. A few days later, our neighbor arrived at our apartment with the pastor, introduced him, and left immediately to take care of her baby, whom had left her alone for a few moments.

That day, with great wisdom, love, and knowledge of the scriptures, the pastor told us about Jesus and invited us to receive him in our hearts and become followers of him. That day my wife and I began the pilgrimage of discovering and knowing how to become followers of Jesus. This has been a wonderful learning process for over 46 years, where our trust and faith in God grows daily.

From Patient Waiting to Chaotic Celebration

by

Last Christmas, despite the pandemic, my Aunt Marietta still made pierogies for Christmas Eve. She packed them up and dropped them off for the smaller gatherings of my extended family, for us to enjoy separately. Although we didn’t gather as we normally would for our Slovak Christmas Eve meal, with cousins, aunts, and uncles, my aunt still extended her care with these traditional labors of love, made from dough, potato, and cheese, even in the midst of a pandemic. “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

Last year, I watched a sparse Christmas Eve mass from the Vatican. We didn’t attend gathered worship. And most human interactions were calculated with care for risk, vulnerability, and a recognition that maintaining distance was, in a strange way, an act of love.

This year I am looking forward to my aunt’s homemade pierogies with extended family. This meal connects me with my family story and legacy of faith.

My own last name, Kriss, comes from the Slovak word for “cross.” I am likely a descendant from generations of Roman Catholic Christians whose faith became so important to them that it became their family name. This traditional meal, without meat, on Christmas Eve marks a celebration of the birth of Christ “among the animals.” It will be good to eat together again.

This year I enter the season of Christmas with deep gratitude. I am grateful to readily gather with family and friends. I have been enjoying Advent-gathered worship (this season I’ve worshiped with Philadelphia (PA) Praise Center, Zion (Souderton, PA), Salem (Quakertown, PA), and Doylestown (PA)). While life is still different because of the pandemic, there is a resumption of rhythms that are life-giving. I want to embrace these celebrations, remembering what it was like to reframe holiday practices and to resume them with more depth of intention and appreciation.

Advent is about waiting. It is an attempt to go slowly and thoughtfully. For many of us, the pandemic has stretched our patience. It has frayed our sense of community and connectivity. Yet, I have also seen the pandemic open our creative process to figure out how to extend love and care in a precarious time.

Christmas is about the inbreaking. While Advent is often slow and reflective, Christmas can be chaos and frenzied. The past 21 months has felt like a combination of the two seasons: a long, arduous wait combined with chaos and frenzy.

The inbreaking of Christmas is about the love of God incarnate, about God crossing the spiritual and social distance between us for the sake of redemption and abundant life. The coming of Jesus is an extension of the love that created all things.

This season as we gather, as we remember a year without gathering for some, may we remember the love that compels us to cross distances, to share what we have, to be transformed through the waiting and even through the chaos.

What Happens at the Cabin, Stays at the Cabin

by

I recently enjoyed my annual trip to our family hunting cabin in pursuit of the elusive white tail buck. While I had a wonderful time, the word elusive accurately describes my three days spent in the woods of Columbia County, PA.

This year my brother-in-law distributed t-shirts bearing the proud name of Camp YO-HO. The back of the shirt appropriately declares, “What happens at the cabin, stays at the cabin.” I sense some of this is to initiate newcomers with the most important rule of Camp YO-HO.

Photo by Terry Travelpiece.

I am sure many have heard similar comments during family trips or gatherings of friends. While this humorous saying is usually harmless, I am often intrigued by the secret-keeping that is common within our families and faith communities. For example, while at the cabin, my gift-giving brother-in-law shared that the football team, coached by his son, is under investigation for using racial slurs towards an opponent. I was surprised to learn he only knows about this because his daughter-in-law, not his son, informed him. We were asked not to tell other members of the family.

I immediately went online and found no less than four stories of the alleged accusations. It seems so odd to treat a public story with such secrecy. Yet I bump into this approach on a regular basis in our faith communities too.

Randy Heacock (first row, center) with family members at the cabin, wearing their new shirts. Photo by Terry Travelpiece.

Though rarely identified, I have discovered a slew of reasons why secrets are encouraged. Image is a big factor. We often fear what others will think if less than positive realities are named publicly. We do not want a loved one or respected friend to be seen in a negative light.

At times, our fear of conflict also keeps our lips sealed. More difficult decisions will need to be made if known struggles are stated clearly. Public acknowledgement can raise tension or even harm an institution or business. Hence, it may be easier to keep silent than to name known abuses. Such abuses can take the form towards children, money, power, corruption, or manipulation. Most notably this has happened in the Catholic Church, Penn State, and the USA Gymnastic program. We must also admit that it happens within Mosaic Conference, our churches, institutions, and individual families.

The interesting thing is that we often keep secrets to keep unity and peace. However, secrets do not deliver either. The writer of I John declares, “If we walk in the light, as God is in the light, we have fellowship with one another” (I John 1:7a, NIV). To walk in the light is to expose or be transparent. When we learn to live exposed, transparent lives, then, and only then, will we experience genuine relationships as God intended.

When and for what are you most tempted to keep secrets? May we pray for God’s wisdom to help us live in God’s exposed light. May we have the courage to build families and create communities of faith that graciously expose all to God’s light. Just maybe, we will begin to experience relationships as God intends!

Reflections on Time and Space

by

A few weeks ago, I accompanied the Mosaic Institute preaching and teaching class on a Sunday morning “lab” to hear a sermon at Philadelphia Praise Center (PPC). Jenna Villatoro, one of PPC’s youth pastors, was preaching on the theme, “Making Space for God and Others.”

Pastor Jenna acknowledged that when she was first given the theme, she was a little taken aback. In her Euro-American culture, she was more accustomed to thinking about making time for God than making space. But as she thought about it, she realized that during the pandemic (when so many people were confined to their own space), it was important for us to somehow signal to our minds and bodies that we were transitioning into God-space.

The Sunday lab session from the first Preaching & Teaching mini-course with Mosaic Institute.

I resonated with her observations. As someone who is also from a Euro-American culture that highly prizes time, I could feel the dis-ease of considering “God-space.” It tapped into a deeply rooted suspicion of home altars and a tradition that considered church buildings to be “meetinghouses” instead of “temples” where God lives. It’s much more comfortable for me to think of making time for God than making space.

Photo provided by Philadelphia Praise Center.

Yet I am growing increasingly aware of how my cultural “common sense” can interfere with my ability to see the bigger picture of who God is and how God is working in the world. As someone obsessed with time, can I reorient myself to think about the “spaces” that make up life?

Entering into someone else’s space can be life-changing. It mattered that our class went to Philadelphia and attended a worship service that felt familiar in some respects and different in others. We heard new ideas and were challenged to become like Jesus in fresh ways. Our timetable didn’t matter as much as our presence did.

Making space for others can be life-changing. It mattered for those who hosted us that we came to them. Our presence was an affirmation that they mattered and that they had something valuable to offer to others. They shared who they were and provided opportunities for us to do the same. We could have offered time from a distance, but instead they invited us to physically enter their space.

As Advent begins, we remember how Mary made space in her body so that God could enter our space. The Maker of the Universe became a guest in the world he had made.

Like Mary, we can make space for God to enter (and change) our lives. We can make space for others to enter (and change) our lives, and we can enter into others’ space (and be changed) as well. “Making time” can often be theoretical but “making space” can only be real and tangible.

“Making time” can often be theoretical but “making space” can only be real and tangible.

Evangelical Latina theologian Loida Martell-Otero suggests that eternity is not about time, but about space. She says, “Eternity is where God is.” When Jesus came to earth, our space and God’s space collided and eternity began. Jesus then spent his whole life showing us how the Kingdom of God creates space “for those who have been told they have no place. There is a place at the table, a place at the inn, a place at the synagogue, a place at the banquet. Hay fiesta con Jesús [There is a feast/celebration with Jesus].”1

This Advent, may we make space for God and others in the busy time of the holiday season. May we watch for the collision of God-space and our space. May we be changed.

1Martell-Otero’s translation. Latina Evangélicas: A Theological Survey from the Margins (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2013), 120 & 114.

A Canaan or an Egypt?

by

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in Anabaptist World and is used with permission by the author.

Someone asked me: How do you explain intercultural work to people who see immigrants as a threat and are afraid their jobs and resources are being taken from them?

I answer with questions. Who owns the resources in the first place? Aren’t immigrants supposed to have an equal opportunity to work and cultivate the land?

Who owns the resources in the first place? Aren’t immigrants supposed to have an equal opportunity to work and cultivate the land?

When my two boys fight over a toy, I tell them sharing is caring. Why do we have to fight, when there is enough for everybody? Isn’t God our provider?

The US attracts so many immigrants because of opportunities for employment, land ownership, religious freedom, and adventure. Another reason immigrants are here is because the U.S. was in their home countries. From regime change to economic impact, the results have not been as beautiful as US Americans might think.

I believe in mutual transformation and intercultural exchange, but the idea of the U.S. policing the world while selling the American dream can easily dominate and become a nightmare for those who are marginalized.

When I planned to come to the U.S., it took years to make it happen. I needed to build enough wealth, property, and business ties in my country for the U.S. government to approve my visa. It’s harder for foreigners to come to the U.S. than for U.S. citizens to go to other countries.

As an Indonesian, I saw the U.S. as the world’s economic and military power, the land of the free and the home of the brave. I did not understand that this power was not a sign of God’s favor but a tool of domination, intimidation and manipulation. With this power comes a curse and not a blessing.

I remember feeling intimidated and inferior as I prepared for my visa interview at the US Embassy in Jakarta. But my struggle was nothing compared to the hardships experienced by families separated at the U.S.-Mexican border or those who have died trying to cross the desert into the United States.

US-Mexico Border from the United States side. Photo by Hendy Matahelemual.

Why is the most powerful country in the world so afraid of outsiders and foreigners? I’m not sure, but maybe with power comes the fear of losing power.

Xenophobia — dislike or prejudice against people from other countries — is nothing new. Around 1400 B.C., in Egypt, the Israelites faced the same problem. Long after the era of Joseph, the Israelites had grown in numbers, and the Egyptians felt threatened. Pharaoh commanded that all newborn sons of the enslaved Hebrews should be killed. One baby boy managed to escape the atrocity, and the rest is history. God’s chosen people gained their freedom.

When I see U.S. power and superiority, I see the U.S. less as a Canaan, a land of promise, and more like an Egypt. I think the idea of one nation under God needs to be revisited and redefined. This god that the U.S. is under — is it the God of Scripture? Or another? Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters; for [you] will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth” (Matthew 6:24).

As an immigrant, I see hope in the church. When I came to the U.S., God brought me to a community of believers who practiced true love. This love was not just sentimentality but action — sharing possessions and resources to meet people’s needs. The sharing ranged from financial support to giving me keys to a house where I could stay during my seminary years.

I’m grateful that the God I love and serve doesn’t shut the gates of the kingdom but invites us all to come and share. Let us help all who are oppressed and marginalized, so we can bring blessings to the land.