Mosaic Mennonites

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Learning to listen across generations

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by Joe Hackman, Salford (Harleysville, Pa.)

Salford listening
Joe Hackman and Sanford Alderfer from Salford congregation. Salford is focusing this year on learning to listen across generations.  Photo by Tim Moyer.

“Thank you for listening!” say several excited young children at the end of every episode of Salford’s Listening Project.  Our church has been doing a lot of listening these days.

Last summer we set aside several months for prayer and discerning what God might be calling us to for the next several years.  The discernment led us to something pretty basic:  learning how to get better at listening to God.

In the next several years we will be learning to listen for God in our personal lives, in our local community, in hospitality, and in difficult conversations.  This year we’ve given special focus to learning to listen to God in intergenerational relationships.

One young woman who recently joined our church told me, “The reason I’m drawn to this community is that older people are curious about my family and me.  They really want to know who we are and what we’re thinking.”

But trying to get different generations to listen to one another and for God’s movement in those relationships has proven to be a joy and a struggle.  Some of our ideas have flourished while others have not.

Salford’s Listening Project invites people from across generations to sit in our old sound booth above the church sanctuary to share and record stories of faith with each other.  In a recent episode, two women discussed a time when the church prevented a person in FBI training from serving as a youth sponsor because he was required to carry a gun.  For the woman in her 80’s, this was a time when church leadership took a stand and did not compromise on a core belief.  For the woman in her 30’s, who was a member of the youth group at that time, the same story created much hurt; she interpreted it as a low point in her experience at Salford.  Sharing the story and the different ways it was understood helped both women listen for God’s movement in both the joy and pain of this event.

Salford listening
One initiative for intergenerational listening at Salford included a month-long crossover Sunday school class for youth and retirees. Photo by Tim Moyer.

But intergenerational listening hasn’t always been a success.  After Easter we started an intergenerational Sunday school class called “Jesus through the Ages.”  We had willing participants (mainly Gen Xers and the Silent Generation) gather around tables and look at scripture passages together, led by a team of skilled facilitators.  But, try as we might, the class struggled to thrive.

Why?  We’re not completely sure.  But we learned that different generations have different expectations for Sunday school and how it should be formatted. We decided to cancel the class after July and encouraged folks to return to their regular classes—which are traditionally split along generational lines.

I remember a few years ago the theme for the Mennonite Church USA Convention was “Can’t Keep Silent,” and I sometimes think of the irony: our congregation believes God is calling us to listen right now!  The church is called to offer people a new way of life brought about by the presence of a countercultural, spirit-filled reality.  And in a world that is increasingly polarized by talking heads on radio, television, and Twitter feeds, Salford needs to do the hard work of learning to listen to God and to each other; this is a message of good news for our church and our world.

Conference students receive Everence scholarships

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Jacob Ford
Jacob Ford, Franconia congregation

SOUDERTON, PA – Everence has announced that three Franconia Conference students are among 42 recipients of this year’s Everence college scholarships. The scholarship program encourages young people to explore the integration of faith and finances while helping them on their educational journeys.

The scholarship awardees are:

  • Jacob Ford, Souderton, PA; Jacob attends Franconia Mennonite Church and is a student at New York University.
  • Sarah Nafziger, Mohnton, PA; Sarah attends Vincent Mennonite Church and is a student at Penn State University.
  • Rachel Speigle, Telford, PA; Rachel attends Blooming Glen Mennonite Church and is a student at Northeastern University.
Sarah Nafziger
Sarah Nafziger, Vincent congregation

Nearly 200 students from across the country applied for scholarships for the 2012-2013 academic year. Recipients were chosen based on academics, extracurricular activities, leadership, community involvement and responses to an essay question.

Students wrote essays about someone who models the concept of stewardship.

“We were encouraged to see that so many students have people in their lives who set an example of how to be good stewards of their time and resources,” said Phyllis Mishler, member benefits manager for Everence. “They’re learning important lessons about how much impact a spirit of generosity can have.”

One student received a $3,000 scholarship, three received $2,000 scholarships and 38 others received $500 scholarships for the upcoming school year. For a complete list of scholarship recipients and their photos, visit Everence.com.

Rachel Speigle
Rachel Speigle, Blooming Glen congregation

Everence helps individuals, organizations and congregations integrate finances with faith through a national team of advisers and representatives. Everence offers banking, insurance, and financial services with community benefits and stewardship education. Everence is a ministry of Mennonite Church USA and other churches. To learn more, visit Everence.com or call (800) 348-7468.

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Did you know about the Area Conference Leadership Fund?  The ACLF gives grants for seminary training to members of Franconia and Eastern District conferences.  Find out more about it or make a donation here.

Construction projects build kingdom in Philadelphia

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by Sheldon C. Good
Mennonite World Review

PHILADELPHIA — Nearly two dozen adults and youth from Franconia Mennonite Church served here recently as part of an effort to literally build the kingdom of God.

The volunteers ventured from suburban Telford to work with Kingdom Builders Construction, an Anabaptist-related nonprofit, on July 21. They nailed, drilled and hauled materials to help convert a 6,000-square-foot section of a large warehouse.

Kingdom Builders Construction, or KBC, is turning the old warehouse into a multipurpose space that will include a workshop, offices, material storage and rooms to host volunteers.

Also, a new congregation, Christ-Centered Church, will eventually worship there in a makeshift sanctuary.

Read the full story at Mennonite World Review

Kingdom Builders Construction
Bekah Ford, Issac Moyer and Derek Cassel, volunteers from Franconia Mennonite Church in Telford, Pa., place a chalk line on a tool storage structure being erected in Kingdom Builders Construction’s future headquarters in a North Philadelphia warehouse. — Photo by Sheldon C. Good/MWR

Paint a Piece of History!

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by Liz Einsig Wise, Executive Director, Germantown Mennonite Historic Trust

Germantown Historic Meetinghouse
Volunteers from around Pennsylvania helped paint the historic Germantown meetinghouse in June. Photos courtesy of Germantown Mennonite Historic Trust.

The historic 1770 Germantown Mennonite Meetinghouse is a powerful symbol of the origins of the Mennonite experience in America and an important touchstone of the Anabaptist faith.  Now cared for by the nonprofit Germantown Mennonite Historic Trust (a Conference Related Ministry of Franconia Conference), the Meetinghouse hosts hundreds of visitors each year, from school groups learning about early Mennonite history to genealogy enthusiasts and others generally interested in American colonial life.  Others discover the Meetinghouse in the context of visiting Historic Germantown, learning for the first time of the Mennonites’ central role in early Pennsylvania  and  about the Mennonite influences contributing to America’s first written protest against slavery.

With a very small staff (less than one full time equivalent) and a modest budget, most of the grounds upkeep for this historic site is done by volunteers.  On June 9-12, GMHT’s Paint a Piece of History! Work Week hosted 50 volunteers from all over the region who donated over 237 hours of labor to spruce up the Meetinghouse and grounds.

Two primary tasks awaited:  repainting the 1908 Sunday School Room and the wrought iron fence that runs the length of the property.  With ready enthusiasm, volunteers from Souderton Mennonite Church, Boy Scout Troop 1719, Frazer Mennonite Church, Oxford Circle Mennonite Church, Germantown Mennonite Church, Circle of Hope Brethren in Christ Church (Broad & Washington and Frankford & Norris campuses), VolunteerMatch, and others all pitched in.  Skilled volunteers also began work on the exterior wood trim of the Meetinghouse.

Germantown 1Even with so many hands, work remained unfinished at the end of the official work week.  Fortunately, during the last week of the month, another group from Elizabethtown Brethren in Christ Church, in Philadelphia for a work week with Kingdom Builders Construction, helped finish the project (and even more grounds work!) with another 175 hours during one of the hottest weeks of the summer.

Before the paint was even dry, the Meetinghouse hosted a tour group, a jazz concert and a game night!  Coming up, the “Dog Days of Summer” on August 11 will feature GMHT’s 3rd Annual Rook Tournament & Barbecue sale, as well as live music and frozen treats on the lawn.  Later this year, their beloved Christmas Candlelight Service, featuring special ensembles from several congregations as well as a cappella congregational singing, will be held on Saturday, December 8.

Germantown Mennonite Historic Trust welcomes individuals and groups for tours by appointment, or during Historic Germantown’s “2nd Saturdays” on the second Saturday of every month from May through October from 12:00 – 4:00 p.m.  A special presentation customized for your group may also be arranged at your location.  For more information or to schedule a tour, please contact GMHT at (215) 843-0943 or gmht@meetinghouse.info.

To face the violence in courageous ways

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Good Friday vigil
Franconia Conference members joined Christians from all over the Philadelphia region for a Good Friday vigil outside a gun shop. Photo by Jim McIntire.

by Amy Yoder McGloughlin, Germantown Mennonite Church

One Sunday night in February, my husband, Charlie, and I awoke to lights flashing outside of our house.  We live on a quiet street in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia, and nothing much happens here, so the lights surprised us.  We expected to see the fire department outside, but it was the SWAT team.

A disabled neighbor had been murdered by a guest of his roommates.  That man was armed and hiding somewhere in the building.

It was unsettling that something like that could happen on our sweet, family-centric block, a place where we knew each other’s names, and shared each other’s stories.  But even more unsettling was that the next morning it was as if nothing had happened.  No one was talking about it, there was no police tape, and kids played on the sidewalk and porches, just feet from where this man’s life was taken.

Charlie and I couldn’t get past the reality that we had never met this neighbor, didn’t know his name, and couldn’t even contact his family to extend our condolences.  Violence in Philadelphia, and in cities all over this country, is swift and deadly.  But it’s also quickly erased.

A few weeks ago, a young couple at our church moved onto a struggling block in East Germantown.  After spending a hopeful weekend with their neighbors on an adjoining block, cleaning up trash and hanging large pieces of art, they learned that within twenty-four hours a dead body had been dumped there.   They could not stop the violence despite their good-faith efforts.

Another young woman from our congregation was recently assaulted at her neighborhood corner store.  After being committed to making Germantown her home, she began to have doubts.  Could she look this kind of violence in the eye every day and keep her passion for justice and sensitivity towards others?

At Germantown Mennonite, rooted solidly in the Anabaptist tradition, we long for peace in this world, for a day when violence will end.  We stand in front of gun shops to protest illegal gun sales, we try to make safe spaces in our neighborhoods, we call our state representatives to let our voices be heard.  But we are only human.  We grow weary.  Violence is overwhelming and we grow tired of hearing the stories.  There’s just too many of them.  And they can become too heavy to hold.

Inspired by Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), we long to be in solidarity with people who are hurting.  But, it’s clear that we do not always have the tools to do this in our own context.

Germantown Mennonite is exploring the possibility of a CPT delegation to Israel/Palestine next summer.  We hope to be joined by other Christians from the Philadelphia area who are committed to non-violence in our own communities and throughout the world.  Our prayer is that as we look at violence in another place and see how communities of faith face the violence in courageous ways, we will be inspired, encouraged, and given new visions and new tools to answer the violence we see in our own communities.

If you are interested in a Philadelphia CPT delegation to Israel/Palestine, Germantown Mennonite will be hosting Tarek Abuata, the Israel/Palestine coordinator, at our congregation on Sunday, August 5th.  After we worship together at 10am, we will follow with a potluck, then a time to speak candidly with Tarek about interest in a delegation of this kind.  All are welcome to join us as we explore this possibility.  If you are interested, but cannot attend a meeting, please contact me at pastoramy@germantownmennonite.org or 215.843.5599.

AMP conference focuses on multiculturalism and identity

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by Andrew Mashas, Anabaptist Missional Project (reposted by permission)

Anabaptist Missional Project
Leonard Dow, Oxford Circle, challenges the group to move toward the vision of the multicultural multitude in Revelation 7.

On the weekend of June 29 – July 1, 45 people from around the country gathered at Oxford Circle Mennonite Church in Philadelphia for the Anabaptist Missional Project (AMP) conference. Attendees experienced a time of worship, discussion, and fellowship centered on the growing and expanding diversity among Anabaptists in America, specifically within MCUSA. Throughout the weekend, attendees discussed the difficulty of embracing other cultures while maintaining an Anabaptist identity.

The conference, titled “The Spirit’s Work in Mission: Prophesying about Many Peoples,” focused on a vision of the Kingdom of God in the book of Revelation, which explains that every nation, tribe, and tongue will come together to worship the one true Lord and King, Jesus Christ.

Speakers David and Madeline Maldonado shared about the hundreds of Guatemalan immigrant workers attending their Florida congregation. As the number of immigrant attendees increased, so did the ethnic tensions between the Guatemalan workers and Puerto Rican congregants. The Maldonados explained the reconciliation that took place within the church and its example to the community.

Both Habecker and Oxford Circle Mennonite churches of Pennsylvania were able to share their stories of struggle with identity in the midst of declining church attendance and about revitalization within the church.

Leonard Dow of Oxford Circle, a Franconia Conference Partner in Mission, gave a passionate testimony on how the congregation provided a nonviolent protective community around residents who were threatened with violence, allowing for a new approach to community outreach.

In the case of Habecker, Pastor Karen Sensenig described the congregation’s willingness to become vulnerable to God’s transforming spirit. She explained how the church embraced Burmese refugees who stumbled upon their small rural congregation in Lancaster County. And now, with the church seeing a resurgence of life because of this newly found diversity among the community, they’re able to tell their story to the broader Anabaptist community.

“’New Life’ expresses my response to the conference,” said Pastor Sensenig in reflection on the dynamics of the conference. “The vitality that young people bring to the church is so full of hope. They ask questions that push us into new considerations of the movement of God among us. They are willing to be vulnerable and to take risks. The sincere engagement of the group put us all on a quest to discover just what is needed to open a way for the Spirit to blow into our midst in unexpected ways.”

Anabaptist Missional Project
Worship was led by a team from Oxford Circle Mennonite Church.

Meal times were spent in dynamic discussion around a variety of topics including the history of racism, ethnic divisions, and sensitivities in the West and among churches in America.  This discussion provided a platform for people to share their faith journeys with new people across the Anabaptist landscape.

Many of the conference organizers, including Carmen Horst, Ben Wideman and Aaron Kauffman agreed that this year’s conference lacked ethnic diversity and representation from multicultural congregations within the Philadelphia area.

“I was hoping for a diverse group of individuals who were interested in networking and entering into dialogue with each other on the subject of mission and had hopes that there would be a large contingent from the local area, but in the end only a few could make it.” said Ben Wideman, associate pastor at Salford Mennonite Church in Harleysville, Pa.

As for the future of the AMP conference, organizer Carmen Horst, associate pastor at James Street Mennonite Church, said, “I hope that those who have been leading our church for a longer time will pay attention to AMP and see a group of people who can be committed to serving Jesus together without agreeing on some of the issues facing the church. What draws me to AMP is the love for and commitment to the Church.”

Some would also like to see AMP grow to have regionally specific and more frequent gatherings. Aaron Kauffman, Global Ministries Director at Virginia Mennonite Missions said, “I would love to see this kind of thing continue to multiply in other parts of the country where local AMP networks would gather to worship, share insights, and spur one another onto greater faithfulness as witnesses to the reign of God in Christ.”

The sky seems to be the limit for a group like AMP. Creating a space for dynamic and in-depth conversation around the church and its mission while facilitating intentional fellowship among many cultures and ethnicities will serve as an example to the broader Mennonite Church. As Carmen Horst described it, “The leaders and participants of AMP recognize the many failings and brokenness of our Church, and yet desire to remain in it. Out of our love for this messy thing called church, we try to create spaces for speaking truth and growing in truth together.”