Conference Assembly

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Click on the name of a Church-wide Agency to read an update on their ministry!

Mennonite Church USA
Mennonite Education Agency
Mennonite Mission Network
MMA Stewardship Agency
Mennonite Publishing Network

Colleges and Seminaries:

• Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary
• Eastern Mennonite Seminary
• Bethel College
• Bluffton College
• Eastern Mennonite University
• Goshen College
• Hesston College

Other:
Mennonite Central Committee East Coast

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Click on the name of a CRM below to read an update on their ministry!

Bethany Birches Camp
Camp Men-O-Lan
Care and Share Shoppes
Christopher Dock Mennonite High School
Community Home Services
Crossroad Gift and Thrift
Delaware Valley MEDA
Dock Woods Community
and Souderton Mennonite Homes
Germantown Mennonite Historic Trust
Indian Creek Foundation
Liberty Ministries
Life with God Ministries
Mennonite Historians of Eastern Pennsylvania
Mennonite Disaster Service
MCC Material Resource Center of Harleysville
Peaceful Living
Penn Foundation
Penn View Christian School
Philadelphia Mennonite High School
Quakertown Christian School
Rockhill Mennonite Community
Spruce Lake

Goals/Purposes:
To partner with youth workers in congregations and Christopher Dock Mennonite High School who “actively invite every youth to commit to a personal relationship and everlasting adventure with Jesus Christ, mentoring them towards a supportive church community and empowering them to bring healing and hope to the world.” To provide support, training and resources to those who minister to junior high and high school youth so they may better carry out the Mennonite youth ministry mission statement, vision of the Franconia Conference and the purpose of youth ministry with their organizations.

2008 Updates/Activities:

• Congregational Youth Pastor Search – Blooming Glen & Salford
• Leadership Retreat is annually planned with Eastern District (EDC) and Christopher Dock Mennonite High School (CDMHS). It is designed for student leaders and adults that work with youth. This event is planned by a committee of youth pastors, volunteer leaders, and the Assistant Principal of CDMHS.
• Jr. High Lock-In is a joint event with EDC that is held at Christopher Dock Mennonite High School. This event is for Jr. High youth groups to come together along with their leader(s) from 9 PM and until 7 AM. The night is filled with many different activities, which offer choices for the youth to participate in during the night. The event is planned by a committee of youth pastors and volunteer leaders.
• Learning Communities is a model in which I facilitate two pastor groups. Congregational youth pastors for Franconia and Eastern District Conferences meet once a month for a time of sharing personal life experiences and youth ministry joys and challenges. This group creates a safe place for youth pastors to resource and network with one another. Credentialed women pastors and chaplains also meet once a month. This group gathers over lunch for discussion of topics that each person brings. This gathering is a time for support and encouragement for one another as we share our joys and challenges as pastors.
• Communication with youth leaders happens through an electronic quarterly newsletter titled Youth Breezes. The newsletter is intended to give resources and communicate local youth ministry and church-wide events to congregations.
• Mentoring continues to be a passion in Franonia Conference youth ministry. I am excited that Nate Stuckey will be interning with me from September 2008 to May 2009. Nate is in his second year as a student at Princeton Seminary. He comes with five years experience as a congregational youth pastor. Nate is hoping to connect with youth leaders and welcomes opportunities to meet with youth leaders as well as leading youth group Bible studies.
• Spiritual formation is a core value for Franconia Conference—to equip congregations from birth to death. Sharon Fransen, who is a parent, member at Blooming Glen, youth leader and a board member for Penn View and Christopher Dock, leads a group made up of Franconia Conference/EDC leaders, pastors, and Mennonite school leaders called the “Connections Goal Team.” This group comes out of the GPS 2012 vision for the schools. They developed a document that will equip congregations in passing the faith to the next generation. The document shows the importance for spiritual formation to happen in the home, congregation and school.   I am privileged to be on this team representing Franconia Conference youth ministry.  The document is a gift to Franconia Conference/EDC congregations and will help integrate youth ministry into the core of Franconia Conference and congregational life.
• 2009 Youth Convention will be held during July in Columbus, Ohio. I am looking forward to promoting and helping youth leaders navigate details as they plan for their groups to attend. This year I will be involved in helping to lead community life and will be working with Speak Up. Speak Up is a group of youth that will gather during the seminar time and will discuss issues that connect to the adult assembly delegate gatherings. Two youth are invited from each youth group, making the Speak Up group. This group helps the youths’ voices to be heard and provides opportunity for youth to lead and articulate their thoughts and ideas.
• MC USA – Youth Ministry Leadership Team is responsible to articulate a vision for youth ministry for the denomination and to promote ways to align youth ministry with MC USA churchwide priorities and to be an advocate for youth ministry in and throughout the denomination. We meet twice a year and also through periodic phone conference meetings.
• Youth Ministry Council consists of area conference youth ministers of the Mennonite Church Canada and MC USA as well as churchwide agency staff. We gather once a year for fellowship, counsel, mutual encouragement, and resourcing.
• Continuing Education
  Preaching Institute – Eastern Mennonite Seminary
  Princeton Theological Seminary Youth Ministry Institute

Goals/Purposes:
To provide contact between Franconia Conference, the pastors in Vermont and congregations of Bethany, Plains, Salford, Taftsville.
To provide support and direction for congregational search processes and the Franconia Conference Pastoral Search Resource Team

2008 Updates/Activities:
Established a Resource Team of four persons who are experienced in guiding the process of congregational search committees seeking new pastor(s).
Provided guidance and support for several pastors during times of transition and change.
Provided oversight for six pastoral search processes.

FMBMC Directors: Marvin Anders, President; Ruth Walter, Vice-President; Brian Alderfer, Secretary/Treasurer; Resource person: John Landes, Finance Committee Chair; Staff: Conrad Martin and Noel Santiago

Purpose: FMC Properties acts as a holding corporation for properties owned by Franconia Mennonite Conference and the board consults on financial matters as directed by the Conference Board through the CBFC.

2008 Updates/Activities: The Franconia Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities (FMC Properties) directors met to continue the discussions with Berean Christian Stores on their lease extension.

Recommendations from the Vision and Financial Planning Team report are leading the conference and FMC Properties to sell the development rights for the Indian Creek Road farm.

Conrad Martin, Director of Finance
John Landes, Finance Committee Chair

CBFC Members: John Landes, Chair; Mary Clemens, Brent Kolb, Scott Landis, Barbara Rice, and Timothy Swartley; Resource person: Charlotte Hunsberger; Staff: Conrad Martin and Noel Santiago

Purpose: CBFC is responsible for providing responsible leadership on fiscal matters pertaining to the conference and its property and assets. The committee also develops a budget based on the vision of the Conference Assembly, for Conference Board approval.

2008 Updates/Activities: The Conference Board Finance Committee (CBFC) spent considerable time over the past twelve months discussing issues such as:
examining the various investment funds held with the Mennonite Foundation (ministry and missional grant funds), Univest National Bank (ministers retirement fund), and Mennonite Mutual Aid’s Praxis Mutual Funds (funds from the sale of the Yoder Road property);
use of the conference’s 501(c)(3) registration by conference related ministries (to ensure that the risk and exposure of the conference is minimized); and
cash flow needs (amounts and timing) for both the conference and the properties, including future capital expenditure needs of the Souderton Center and how to budget for this.

CBFC members routinely reviewed Franconia Conference’s financial reports, as well as provided reports to the Conference Board regularly, ensuring the conference stays within the budget set and that adequate cash flow is maintained.

CBFC members spent a couple of meetings developing a budget for the current year in line with the vision and mission of the conference. They also looked at various trends of recent years for clues to the future. Congregational giving continues to decline, which impacts the operations and ministries of the conference.

The long-term financial picture has been incorporated into the tasks of the Vision and Financial Planning (VFP) Team as they discern how God is calling Franconia Conference to be faithful with collective resources for the work of the Kingdom.

The CBFC members are committed to ensuring that the conference staff is being good stewards of the assets and resources that have been entrusted to Franconia Conference by the conference congregations and constituents—that they are being used appropriately and in alignment with the vision and mission of the conference. The conference received a clean audit report again this past year, verifying that the funds and reports are in alignment with good accounting practices. For the complete audit report, go to www.stewardship.mosaicmennonites.org or click here to download PDF.

For a four-year history of the Balance Sheet and Income Statement, click on the following links: Balance Sheet/Income Statement. Pie Charts of the Revenue (& major revenue sources) and Expenses (& program/support services) are also available.

Noah Kolb, Pastor of Ministerial Leadership
Nelson Shenk, Ministerial Committee Chair

CBMC members: Nelson Shenk: chair, Marlene Derstine, Carolyn Egli, Mike Meneses, Jerry Musselman, Ray Yoder, Joy Sawatzky; Staff: Noah Kolb
Credentials Committee members: Mike Derstine: chair, Marta Castillo, Larry Moyer, Joy Sawatsky, Nelson Shenk, and Staff: Noah Kolb

We are grateful for all these persons who give many hours and have passion for the Church and the Conference and care deeply about pastoral and chaplain leadership.

Purpose: CBMC is responsible for shaping the overall policies related to the calling, credentialing, training, and disciplining of those persons being credentialed by the Conference. The Ministerial Committee is responsible for approving and granting ministerial credentials in keeping with A Mennonite Polity for Ministerial Leadership and its designations for the status of credentialed leaders. The Ministerial Committee provides counsel to staff on carrying out these procedures related to credentialed leaders. The Credentials Committee interviews and recommends persons for credentialing based on policy developed by the Ministerial Committee. This includes all persons for licenses, ordination and transfers of credentials.

The work of the Ministerial Committee in the past year included the following:
Approval of 2 Licenses for Specific Ministries: Gay Brunt Miller for staff work with Franconia Conference chaplains and Eva Kratz for prison ministry.
Approval of 6 persons for a License toward Ordination: Jenifer Eriksen Morales for conference ministry in pastoral/congregation transitions; Tim Moyer as pastor at Vincent; Tom Albright for outreach ministries for Whitehall; Bob Helverson as associate pastor at Salem; Yunus Perkasa for associate pastor at Nations Worship; and Aldo Siahaan for ministerial leadership at Philadelphia Praise Center.
Approval of 4 transfers of ministerial credentials into the conference: Chris Nickels as pastor at Spring Mount; Mary Nitzsche as associate pastor at Blooming Glen; Wayne Nitzsche as pastor at Perkasie; and Jim Ostlund as associate pastor at Blooming Glen.
Approval of the ordination of John Brodnicki as pastor of Mennonite Bible Fellowship, Morris, Pa. John was ordained in May.
Restored the ministerial credentials of Ben Stutzman.
Terminated the ministerial credentials of Michael Schaadt.
Continue to work at the implications and impact on credentialing processes as oversight patterns shift in the conference system.
Developed guidelines for pastoral terminations and transitions.
Reviewed proposed competencies for credentialed leaders.
Discussed credentialing for Partners In Mission.
Formed a policy on issuing cards for ministerial credentials.

Our major focus this past year has been to maintain some consistency in the credentialing process of ministerial leadership while major shifts occur in how we do our work and relate to congregations and pastors. Our credential policies and practices are significantly shaped by the Mennonite Church USA (MC USA) because we are a part of a larger credentialing system and polity. We continue to value that relationship, the identity, and the values and beliefs of the Mennonite Church and continue to be shaped by it. It is our goal to promote and resource a high level of spiritual maturity, integrity and competency in ministerial leadership as we call, place and equip women and men who are committed to Christ and His kingdom. The role of leadership is shifting from a shepherding motif to a more visional and missional focus of “equipping leaders to empower others to embrace God’s mission.” This calls for new ways of understanding leadership whether in the congregation or in related ministries. It also calls for new ways of resourcing and equipping leadership to carry out the mission God has called us to in our communities and beyond. This work is being carried on by the School for Leadership Formation.

The Ministerial Committee is also being challenged in how we credential leaders from across cultures and races, differing Christian experiences and shifting theological understandings. Our task is to call and nurturing leadership from an Anabaptist/Mennonite perspective that can unite us in Christ as a people from every tribe, race and culture, thus bringing to reality the great Kingdom multitude of Revelation 9:7.

AN OVERVIEW

As a part of GPS 2012, the collaborative strategic plan for Christopher Dock Mennonite High School, Penn View Christian School, and Quakertown Christian School, the three schools have initiated development of a pre-K—12 framework for spiritual formation. While this document is useful to the schools, its purpose is to be informing and transforming for families and congregations as well.

DIAGRAM

It is the hope that this document will be a living, interactive conversation that will create reflection on and action toward how we help our children and youth become radical followers of Jesus Christ. In doing so, church, home, and school work at the same goal and many of the roles and experiences in each setting repeat and reinforce what happens in the other two settings.

While this overlap is true, there are some opportunities most likely to occur in one of the three settings. What do home, church and school uniquely offer a child in terms of faith development? Suggestions of some of these items are listed in the non-overlapping sections of the circles.

The sections where two circles overlap indicate some areas of shared experiences for the child, or experiences that both of the settings provide, with the goal of children and youth becoming radical followers of Christ in the middle of the three overlapping circles.

It is in the best interest of our children and youth that home, church and school communicate about what is occurring in each of these places regarding faith formation, that home, church and school acknowledge the strengths of all three settings, and that each supports the other in every way possible. This framework begins that dialogue.

The overlay over the school circle is an Anabaptist-Mennonite theology and lens through which faith formation is shared, taught, and experienced. This lens includes an understanding of a God of love who sent Jesus to be an example for us to follow in daily living, with a focus on peacemaking, social justice, servant-hood, community and grace.

We acknowledge that there are other circles of influence in the spiritual formation of children and youth, including but not limited to camp settings, and large group gatherings such as Creation or Mennonite conventions, and we recognize that these experiences contribute to faith development in important and unique ways. We also understand that the home, church and school are intersecting daily with the broader world and do not represent the whole of any person’s existence or interactions.