Congregational Profiles

Introducing Plains Mennonite Church

September 12, 2013 by Emily Ralph Servant

Plains Mennonite is located on the corner of Orvilla Road and Route 63 (Main Street), Lansdale, where a group of God’s children have gathered to for Sunday morning worship and fellowship events for almost 250 years. The original meetinghouse was built in 1765.

Our current pastors, Mike Derstine and Dawn Ranck Hower, minister to all who enter our doors with a warm and creative spirit and a loving acceptance of sinners saved by grace through Jesus Christ. Members seek to live as followers of Jesus in a changing world. Confession and praise find expression in our hearty singing, open sharing, and caring prayers.

When entering Plains churchyard you will see a recently developed small park area utilizing the land adjoining the church and cemetery. A welcoming sign reads “Plains Park: A Place of Peace in the Community.“ A yearly “party in the park” involving our pastors and attendants offers free food and a time of neighborhood delight to all who come. Many from the surrounding community regularly stop by for relaxed times within this Peace Park. Some new warm friendships are developing as church members also enjoy the park. At times courageous neighbors choose to join our worship services.

All who come to worship with us receive a welcome at our doors, an invitation to join small groups discussing Bible passages and issues of faith and practice – along with an extension of ongoing love and fellowship. Children and youth are offered love and quality time during a Sunday morning hour as well as during the worship hour. Excellent food is shared frequently and with joy in the ground-floor fellowship area. We expect those who worship with us to give generously to support church-related ministries such as Mennonite Central Committee and Mennonite Disaster Service as well as meeting local needs via community-run programs like Manna on Main Street in nearby Lansdale.

“Called to journey together with Jesus, we listen to God and to each other, join in the creative work of the Holy Spirit, and joyfully share God’s saving love, justice, and peace with our neighbors and world.”

Introducing Spring Mount Mennonite Church

August 22, 2013 by Emily Ralph Servant

Spring Mount Mennonite Church is located in Spring Mount, Pa., in the Perkiomen Valley. At its very beginning (1934) this faith community was a mission Sunday School and summer Bible School, organized by the Franconia Mennonite Mission Board and facilitated by members of Salford Mennonite Church. In the early 20th century communities like Spring Mount were summer resort towns. Visitors from Philadelphia would travel here on the Perkiomen branch of the Reading Railroad that went through each town. The old railroad line is now the Perkiomen Trail, a popular recreational space and part of the county park system. Today Spring Mountain is the main attraction in town, and the Philadelphia Folk Fest is held here annually, just a short distance away from the meetinghouse.

All are welcome in this small, friendly congregation. We value newcomers while continuing to put down roots in our Anabaptist/Mennonite heritage. Our worship style is warmly informal, participatory, and multi-voiced. The leadership structure includes a Church Council and Elder team, with Chris Nickels serving as pastor. Our vision statement reads, “To reach out to our community as a healthy congregation able to offer welcome and fellowship for the purpose of salvation and nurture in God’s grace.”

We have always valued the community and seek to serve and connect with our neighbors through a number of activities, such as the Schwenksville community food pantry. We often experiment with new ways of doing church together, which has led to new expressions like Table Church (a monthly Sunday morning meal liturgy). We value practices like corporate prayer, Bible study, and worship. We particularly like to use food to bless others, through activities like fellowship times and meal ministry.

Introducing Blooming Glen Mennonite Church

August 15, 2013 by Emily Ralph Servant

The people at Blooming Glen Mennonite Church are PEOPLE ON A JOURNEY WITH JESUS!

The congregation meets weekly at 9:30 am for worship with Sunday school following. Blooming Glen is a 259 year old, 725 member congregation that meets at 713 Blooming Glen Road, Blooming Glen, Pa. The congregation is served by three pastors: Firman Gingerich, Lead Pastor; Michael Bishop, Pastor of Music and Worship; and Mary Nitzsche, Pastor of Pastoral Care and Spiritual Formation. Kim Moyer serves as Children’s Ministry Director, relating to more than ninety children. Kim shares ministry to the Junior High Youth with Donna Wilkins, Interim Youth Pastor, who also relates to the senior high youth. Four lay persons are currently serving as sponsors and teachers for the young adults.

The congregation is deeply committed to Christian education with strong mentoring, Sunday school, and Summer Bible School programs. Pastor Michael Bishop directs the adult and junior choirs and also plans major musical worship events throughout the year. Hearty congregational singing and instrumental music are part of worship expressions weekly.

The Congregational Leadership Board provides leadership along with five foundation groups: Elders, Gifts Discernment, Trustees, Stewardship, and Spiritual Formation. The Leadership Board is challenging the congregation to reach out to our local community, encouraging the congregation to listen and learn and extend hospitality.

Members are involved in many ministries in the community and each Sunday school class partners with a mission worker. School kits and health kits are collected for Mennonite Central Committee weekly and on Thanksgiving eve congregants bring food to help people in need. In November, homeless families participating in the Interfaith Hospitality Network are hosted in the newly renovated farmhouse.

Pastor Mary Nitzsche gives leadership to the pastoral care ministry and eight pastoral visitors assist. Sunday school class shepherds and deacons also provide care to class members, seniors and those with special needs.

Introducing Bally Mennonite Church

August 7, 2013 by Emily Ralph Servant

Bally Mennonite Meetinghouse was built in the 1730s in the Bally Community, which was settled by German Reformed, Catholics, and Mennonites, who have traditionally worked together. At one time, Bally had a number of industries, but currently has just two major industries: Bally Block and Bally Ribbon.

We are a small congregation of about 100 people. Pastor Klaudia Smucker is our minister. Our leadership consists of the church board, and the ministry council, which includes the chairs of all our committees; worship, finance and administration, outreach, and Christian ed.

Our mission statement is to “Grow in faith, Connect as a Community, and to Serve others.” We have a very diverse congregation which loves Scripture, is committed to Anabaptist theology, and values service both at home and abroad as we seek to articulate the good news of Jesus Christ. Vital ministries of our congregation are the Bally Community Center which serves the youth in our community, a community preschool, and a community garden, which just this past year donated 400 lbs of produce in the local community. We are also known for our delicious pancake breakfasts.

Introducing Taftsville Chapel Mennonite Fellowship

June 17, 2013 by Emily Ralph Servant

Taftsville Chapel Mennonite Fellowship is a small, stable congregation in mid-central Vermont. We meet in an old school house in the rural village of Taftsville, which is situated in the Ottauquechee River valley between the tourist towns of Woodstock and Quechee, along the US Route 4 corridor.

The congregation was formed by Mennonite families who had all temporarily moved into the area for 1-W Alternative Service to the draft (most working at a local teaching hospital) in the late 1950s to early 1960s. Many of these families decided to stay, and the congregation has grown into a vibrant, healthy body. Our congregation has remained stable at around 60 members, with some ebb and flow as families move into and out of the area for school and work. Currently, we are about 50% ethnic Mennonites, mostly from Pennsylvania, and the rest represent a wide diversity of spiritual backgrounds. The majority of our members are employed in the fields of medicine or education. We range in age from newborn to 94.

Our geographic area is called “The Upper Valley,” which is simply a convenient and loosely defined term referring generally to the middle section of the states of Vermont and New Hampshire bordering along the Connecticut River. We have dedicated members who travel as much as an hour to worship with us at Taftsville. We are not a ‘community’ church as such, since none of our members live in the immediate village of Taftsville. Instead we represent a wide geographic area of rural communities, home towns and workplaces. Even with the geographic challenges, our community at Taftsville is a close-knit one, and we look for ways to be involved in each others’ lives.

Currently, the leadership at Taftsville is shared among several small teams, and individuals on those teams are either volunteers or appointed by group discernment according to strengths and giftings. The Administrator serves as leader of the Church Council, which is made up of annual voluntary slate positions and is concerned mostly with the programs and finances of the church. The Pastoral Care Team is invited by the Pastor to share the pastoral care needs of the community. The Leadership Team is discerned by the congregation, serving alongside the Pastor to oversee the vision, teaching, and sermon direction and other spiritual needs of the group.

We have discovered that our mission in the Upper Valley is primarily a place of healing. We describe this as being “preparers of good soil.” We have found that many people’s hearts are unable to receive the gospel because of hurts, traumas, and confusion, sadly often at the hands of other Christian churches. We provide a safe place of welcome, rest, and grace and delight to find that broken people who become part of our faith community begin to learn to trust again and grow in their own discipleship and faith.

Introducing Taftsville Chapel Mennonite Church (pdf)

Introducing Vincent Mennonite Church

June 10, 2013 by Emily Ralph Servant

Vincent Mennonite Church is located at 39 Seven Stars Rd., Spring City, PA. We have been in existence for 277 years, founded 40 years before our country gained its independence. Our current church was built in 1974 and is situated on a rural lot with a pavilion built in a grove of trees.

Our current pastor is Pastor Tim Moyer. Our current leadership structure consists of 3 teams: Elder Team, Lay Ministry Team, and the Administration Commission.

Our Vision for Vincent Mennonite Church is “For all people to become followers of Jesus Christ with us, and to nurture one another in a Christ-centered life of Worship and Service.”

Vincent is a unique and exciting church; a harmonious blend of believers from a diversity of backgrounds and ethnicities who support one another as we collectively follow Christ. We are a warm and friendly congregation that nurtures an atmosphere where visitors quickly realize that they are valued and welcome. We are committed to maintaining our core foundational beliefs while at the same time endeavoring to present the message of Christ in a manner that is relevant to each person.

Some of the weekly events that we offer to our church and community include Youth Group activities, Son Seekers, (ages 10 through 8^th grade), Ladies Support Group, and Sunday School. Monthly events include Ladies Sewing Circle and Children’s Church. Yearly events include Vacation Bible School, The Country Fair/Antique Tractor Show, Mother/Daughter Banquet, Father/Son Baseball Picnic, Harvest Party, potluck fellowship meals, and a Reading Phillies Excursion. We also have special services during the year centered around Good Friday, Easter, Communion, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Seasonal events include Adult Choir and Children’s Choir.

The Orphan Ministry is a new ministry at Vincent. The purpose of this ministry is to inform and make available opportunities for the congregation and the community to provide for the needs of orphans in this country and abroad. It is in response to God’s mandate to bring justice, care, and protection to the fatherless and oppressed. The Orphan Ministry will be spearheading one to two projects per year to aid orphans.

Introducing Vincent Mennonite Church (pdf)

Introducing Covenant Community Fellowship

May 21, 2013 by Emily Ralph Servant

Covenant Community Fellowship was planted by the Franconia Mennonite Church in 1986. Covenant is located on Sumneytown Pike just outside of Lansdale with an average attendance of 120. Our lead pastor is Jay L. Moyer and our associate pastor is Scott Franciscus whose primary focus is on youth & young adult ministry. We are an elder-led congregation, with our vision statement as follows: “We envision the transformation of persons, families and neighborhoods by the power of the Holy Spirit through authentic caring community that serves the needs of others around us as we model the life of Jesus Christ.”

As a community of believers, Covenant continues to seek how to live faithfully to the teachings contained in the Bible, believing in the authority of Scripture as the inspired Word of God. One component of our Sunday morning worship is music, which is team-led, creating an atmosphere of healing, participation and celebration.

In keeping with our mission to reach the community by serving others and modeling the life of Jesus, we have shared with the Lansdale community a number of free spaghetti dinners to provide a non-threatening environment for the establishing of initial relationships that can be built upon in the future. We are a congregation striving to live the command of Jesus: to love God first with all our being, and to secondly love one another as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:37-39).

Introducing Covenant Community (pdf)

Introducing Garden Chapel

May 14, 2013 by Emily Ralph Servant

We are “The Garden Chapel” from Victory Gardens, New Jersey. We are a small, diverse, loving, and growing congregation located in Morris County, New Jersey. The borough of Victory Gardens was founded in 1941 by the federal government to house workers from a nearby munitions factory. It was named after the vegetable gardens people planted during World War II in response to food shortages. It is the smallest municipality in size (91 acres) and population (1,520) in Morris County, but the most densely populated.

During the Vietnam War young men were being drafted into the military services. Since serving in the military is completely contradictory to our beliefs, the Mennonite Church negotiated an “Alternative Service” arrangement with the government. This allowed conscientious objectors to serve our country in a manner consistent with our understanding of the Lord’s commands. Instead of going to war, these men served at Greystone State Psychiatric Hospital assisting patients in various capacities. Initially, the men formed a house church, but they saw that the community of Victory Gardens was not served by a single church. With the assistance of the Franconia Conference, they planted our church in 1971. To this day it remains the only church in the community. How truly wonderful it is that God would plant a peace church in a community founded for war!

We have been blessed with our new Pastor Tim Hart since last March. Tim grew up in the community and has attended our church since childhood. He is keenly aware of our strengths and our needs and has a dynamic vision for the future.

Our mission statement is “Loving God, Loving Our Neighbors, & Loving Each Other.” We try to live this out by our outreach to the community. We have an annual “Community Day” picnic were we reach out with food, fun, and fellowship with our neighbors. This year we distributed 105 book bags filled with school supplies to needy children. During the holidays we prepare and deliver meals to shut-ins and seniors. When we visit and fellowship with them we are reminded to “… remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” (Acts 20:35)

We are praying that God will enable us to develop a Hispanic Ministry and also help us to restore our summer youth program which in the past has shown God’s love to many young people. Please pray for us as we are praying for all of you.

Find Garden Chapel on the web: http://www.gardenchapelchurch.org/. Download the pdf: Introducing Garden Chapel.

Congregational Profiles

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