Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Conference Assembly

“The Faith Walk of a Child: An Intentional Journey”

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Introduction to Presentation – Saturday, November 8

Several years ago, Franconia Conference began thinking about spiritual formation from cradle to grave for each of its 7000 members and their neighbors. They brought persons together who told stories of faith formation in various settings such as camps, public schools, Mennonite schools, and within the context of home schooling. There was much energy around the idea of nurturing faith within our churches at every age.

Recently, as part of a joint strategic plan, Quakertown Christian School, Penn View Christian SchoolChristopher Dock Mennonite High School and , have developed a spiritual formation framework. Entitled Passing on the Faith: A Community Work, the framework asks the question, how do we as families, churches and schools work together to intentionally encourage and guide the faith formation of children and youth so they become radical followers of Jesus Christ. This living document offers resources for families and churches and provides a starting point for discussions regarding the faith development of children.

Think of the children in your congregation, your neighborhood, your family. How do you see their faith developing? What are you doing to walk along side them and encourage their faith formation? On Saturday, November 8, presenters Marlene Frankenfield, Sharon Fransen and Mary Benner will share this framework with you.

Full Online Docket

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Back to Main Assembly Page

(click) to Download PDF of all sections (13.9MB)

Section I – Board/Committee Updates
click here to read updates from the Conference Board, Ministerial Committee, Finance Committee, FMC Properties, and various staff ministry updates.

Section II – Conferring Documents

Vision and Financial Plan Update

“The Faith Walk of a Child: an Intentional Journey”

  • Introduction to Presentation

  • Overview

  • Passing on the Faith Diagram

  • Passing on the Faith: A Community Work- Framework

Section III – Gift Discernment

Ballot 2008

Gift Discernment Nomination Form-NEW!

  • Click on the link above to see the blank nomination form we are asking delegates to fill out, suggesting names for the gift discernment process. This form will be handed out for delegate input and Conference Assembly.

Section IV – Minutes 2007

  • Minutes- Friday, November 9

  • Minutes- Saturday, Novemember 10

  • Summary of Actions

Conference Board And Executive Committee

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Noel Santiago, Executive Minister
Blaine Detwiler, Conference Board Chair

The Vision and Mission of Franconia Mennonite Conference is to: “Equip Leaders, to Empower Others, to Embrace God’s Mission” (E3) so that we have: “More and Better Leaders, Churches, Disciples and Connections.” (click) to view online document

Board Members:
* Blaine Detwiler, Conference Board Chair, Conference Moderator
* Randy Heacock, Conference Board Vice Chair, Conference Assistant Moderator
* Vina Krisnadi
* John Landes, Chair of Finance Committee
* Jim Laverty
* Karen Moyer
* Yvonne Platts
* Rina Rampogu
* Noel Santiago, Executive Minister
* Nelson Shenk, Chair of Ministerial Committee

Executive Committee Members:
* Rina Rampogu
* Randy Heacock
* Blaine Detwiler
* Noel Santiago

Purpose:
The Conference Board provides leadership when the Assembly is not in session. It seeks to ensure alignment with the vision and mission as affirmed by the Delegate Assembly. It also provides oversight to the Ministerial and Finance Committees.

The Executive Committee provides oversight leadership to the Executive Minister who is accountable to the Moderator.

2008 Updates/Activities:
This has been a year of transitions. With a new Executive Minister in place, staff has sought to live into the vision and mission affirmed by the delegates as framed in the Vision and Financial Plan Recommendations.

Through its various committees and staff teams, the Vision and Financial Plan Recommendation has been progressing. This will be part of the conferring time at this year’s assembly.

The Conference Board has met in various locations throughout the conference (Spruce Lake Retreat, Doylestown Mennonite Church, Lakeview) as a way to remain close to Conference Related Ministries and congregations’ life and ministries. Upcoming meetings will be held at Rocky Ridge Mennonite Church as well as Blooming Glen Mennonite Church.

Adjustments in Executive Committee meetings have included “skyping.” Skype is an Internet-based phone and video system that allows participants to meet from scattered locations. While this is used occasionally, face-to-face meeting remains the preferred way of gathering.

The Ministerial and Finance Committees updates that follow are a significant part of this report.

New this year are Ministry Updates from conference staff. We hope this provides you with a broader perspective on what conference leaders actually are involved in and the intersection between congregations, conference related ministries and partners in mission.

This year the Partners in Mission will be highlighted through workshops at Conference Assembly, as a way to share what has been happening with these exciting ministries. We note especially the relational connections that exist among many Franconia Conference congregations and these partners. There is much to celebrate even as we acknowledge that there is much more to do.

Gratitude:
As your Conference Board, we are deeply grateful for the opportunity to serve you in this way. We remain humble and open to being transformed as God continues to broaden and deepen our community of faith as expressed through the new ministries, congregations and leaders of diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds, young adults and women among us.

We also cherish the faithfulness and legacy of those who have been faithful to God and God’s people over the generations in this region. We are seeking to bring forth into the future this spiritual inheritance that has been entrusted to all of us even as we make room for those that God is adding daily (Acts 2:47b).

Board/Committee Updates

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Table of Contents

Click on a name below to go directly to a specific update.

Conference Board (CB) – Noel Santiago, Executive Minister
Ministerial Committee (CBMC) – Noah Kolb, Pastor of Ministerial Leadership
Finance Committee (CBFC) – Conrad Martin, Director of Finance
Board of Missions and Charities (FMBMC)
Ministry Updates:

Assembly '08

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click here to watch Assembly08 Preview

Full Online Docket
Read the full online docket in preparation for Conference Assembly in November!

Printed Materials
please print and bring these documents with you to Conference Assembly

Workshop Descriptions

Newly Credentialed Leaders

Conference Related Ministry Reports
Read updates from the wide variety of Conference Related Ministries

Church-wide Agency Reports

Assembly 08 Schedule of Events

Directions to Pennview Christian School

**information will be posted as it becomes available.**

Franconia Conference leaders gather at annual assembly

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by Lora Steiner

dinner.jpgWhen lunch was served to the delegates of the oldest Mennonite conference in the Western Hemisphere, the buffet table held Vietnamese egg rolls, fried tofu, peanut sauce, candied yams and fried chicken. Interpreters translated business agenda and updates into three languages. At the Franconia Mennonite Meetinghouse close to Telford, PA, where Franconia Conference began nearly 300 years ago, attendees sang hymns in Spanish and offered prayers in Indonesian.

Representatives from churches and pastors gather each November with conference staff to worship, welcome new pastors and congregations, discern future movements for the conference and learn about the ministries they support together. But for some, the event is also a reminder of how rapidly the face of the Northeast corridor–and Franconia Mennonite Conference with it–is changing. The churches of Franconia Conference range from Vermont to Washington, D.C.; including congregations initiated by waves of Swiss German immigrants who settled along the Skippack and Perkiomen creeks in the late 1600’s to two Indonesian-speaking churches in South Philadelphia filled with recent immigrants who arrived in the United States after riots in Jakarta in the late 90’s.

gilbero.jpgThe gathering opened on Friday evening with worship. Gilberto Flores, who is a denominational minister with Mennonite Church USA, presented the evening message. Speaking on the theme for the event, “Centered in Christ, Embracing God’s Mission,” Gilberto encouraged the audience to consider the mission to which God has called the church, a mission that includes all people from all places.

“Mission has to be embraced, not discussed,” said Flores. “To walk on water, you just have to walk on water.”

The evening service included a time to officially welcome two new congregations, Nations Worship Center of Philadelphia and Peace Mennonite Church of East Greenville, PA, while newly credentialed pastors were introduced on Saturday morning. Items on Saturday’s agenda also included to in-depth discussion and affirmation of Vision and Financial Plan Team recommendations. Blaine Detwiler, pastor of Lakeview Mennonite Church in Susquehanna, PA, was affirmed by vote as the new conference moderator; he will replace Merrill Moyer of Souderton, PA. in January.

While those who gathered for the assembly recognized that with increasing diversity comes increasing challenges, they also found it to be a hopeful thing.

“There are a number of challenges, living in a traditional kind of church community which has long deep values,” says Noah Kolb, Conference Pastor of Ministerial Leadership “And trying to value them while we open ourselves up to new ways of experiencing God’s grace and God’s mission among us–there’s tension in that.” Kolb highlights that church leaders now come from many different places–not just from other Mennonite churches or institutions, but often from different cultures and countries.

“I think a lot of the hope that I find comes just from relating to these people and seeing God at work within them, and the desire to work together because there’s some common mission that we’re all wanting to move towards.”

Marta Castillo, an associate pastor at Nueva Vida Norristown (PA) New Life Mennonite Church, shares that hope.

prayer.jpg“I see hope, as a new leader, in Franconia Conference, in our church, in the way God is working,” says Castillo. “God is the hope for me, because the things I expect will happen don’t always happen, but all these unexpected things I didn’t know God was already working on beginning to happen. There’s so much hope in the fact that God is bringing more and more people in the Conference that are not like us. In the Bible it talks a lot about ‘the others,’ the unexpected people that God used in miraculous and wonderful ways . . . Sometimes it is ‘the others’ that God needs in this place and in this time.”

“It’s all about trust in God,” says Yvonne Platts, who serves on the Conference board. “It’s all about listening, discerning and really trying to hear what messages God is saying for our church–and understanding that it’s not about us. Anything new can be uncomfortable. Unfamiliar territory can make us afraid. But if we just trust and lean on Jesus, he will guide us.”

view photos

view highlights video

view Vision and Financial Plan Document