Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

News

Prayer network “adopts” street in Perkiomen Valley

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by Peter Smith, Upper Perk Prayer Evangelism Network, peteresmith4@comcast.net

“Adopt A Street,” in its simplest form, is a prayer strategy that focuses on changing the spiritual climate in your community. What would happen if 100% of the streets in your community were being prayed for daily for the next 12 months? The “Adopt A Street” prayer strategy brings unity to churches in any given community or city, energizes the local church in prayer, and it begins to bring transformation to the church and community that is visible and to a large degree, measurable. Prayer evangelism in its most basic form teaches that God wants us to talk to God about people, BEFORE we talk to people about God.

Prayer evangelism and the “Adopt A Street” prayer strategy, over time, contribute to the reduction of systemic poverty in the region where they are implemented. The strategy is one of the most effective ways for local church pastors to physically implement Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 1:8. The strategy is much more than a “prayer strategy;” it is a comprehensive missions strategy that allows the Holy Spirit to lead the transformation process. It can impact and transform every segment of a community including the church, businesses, education, government, media, arts and entertainment, and the family. One of the keys to its effectiveness is unity among churches in any given community or region. The greater the unity, the greater the possible transformation.

UPPEN (Upper Perk Prayer Evangelism Network) is a growing network of churches in the Upper Perkiomen Valley school district and surrounding region that has been in existence since 2003. Currently, there are 11 churches in this network and it continues to grow. Together, through prayer evangelism and a spirit of unity, they are seeing God changing the spiritual climate of their community and the surrounding region.

The UPPEN network had been praying during the first half of 2010 for a long-term prayer strategy for the Upper Perk region. UPPEN became aware of the Adopt-a-Street prayer movement in Newark, N.J. in the summer of 2010 and began to pray about the possibility of using the strategy in this region. After much prayer, UPPEN launched the Adopt a Street prayer strategy for their region on January 30th, 2011. Lloyd Turner and a team from Newark came to Upper Perk to participate in the launch of “Adopt A Street”. They held a training class for pastors, church leaders, and intercessors. Now the seeds of “Adopt A Street” have begun to spread across southeastern Pennsylvania. Two prayer networks in Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton decided at an informational gathering in March to implement the “Adopt A Street” prayer strategy for their region. Other regions and regional prayer networks are launching or praying about launching this prayer strategy. Please pray with UPPEN for these seeds to spread across the greater region.

UPPEN leaders, Peter Smith (Hope Valley Community Church, Red Hill), Charlie Ness (Perkiomenville Mennonite Church), and Scott Landes (Frederick Mennonite Church) gave an “Adopt A Street” presentation on June 9th at a Leadership Breakfast at the Mennonite Conference Center in Harleysville, PA. They shared about the UPPEN church network and the vision for the “Adopt A Street” prayer strategy.

UPPEN leaders are available to come and speak at churches, prayer networks or pastor networks in the region. For more information on “Adopt A Street,” prayer evangelism, or the UPPEN network, contact them at PrayUpperPerk.org, 215.541.4888 or peteresmith4@comcast.net.

Editorial: Effective strategy requires passionate engagement

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by Ertell Whigham, Nueva Vida Norristown New Life

The Encarta dictionary defines passion as “intense or overpowering emotion.”

In this edition of Intersections we have several stories and testimonies of what happens when the passion of God’s purpose gets hold of people. Passion seems to me to be at the core of any fruitful (God given) vision, mission, purpose or strategic plan. That is the element of passion.

This is not passion just within leadership but the passion of everyone who feels called to be a part of a particular organization or organism. In this time and place as Franconia Mennonite Conference, we are called to be passionately strategic about the immediate priorities of being missional, intercultural and formational.

One of the ways to facilitate engagement at a level of passion—that connects us to God’s direction and vision for our work together from Georgia to Vermont an beyond, increases clarity of understanding, purpose and commitment and gives us the energy to keep moving and growing towards transformation—is to simply deepen our community relationships through prayer, openness, clarity, collaborative leadership and sincerity.

While there are many ways to work at passionate relationships and strategic planning for living into the vision and mission of our conference, conference leaders continue to hear a call from the constituent community to: spend time in the same space; sit together and engage in relevant conversations; ask questions and share information within the context of our mutual priorities.

We hear a need to celebrate Gods message of alignment and a call to be open to the Spirit’s power to help us hear one another in spite of the distractions that entangle us. During the coming months, we must all find at least one part of the vision, mission and priorities where we can passionately connect and communicate who we are and what God has called us to be and do together as Franconia Conference. We must be willing to carry the message and have clarity of purpose that both honors God and extends the Gospel. This is a responsibility that goes beyond our organizational structure but must be owned and proclaimed by each of us.

Among many of the passions expressed by our constituency, there is a need to be heard, included and considered as we continue to plan our direction and work at decision making processes. There is a passion and need to feel appreciated and to trust that we are all called to this journey together as well as to understand our place and possibilities.

As conference leaders continue to meet with congregational and credentialed leaders, congregations, Conference Related Ministries and Partners in Mission, we are listening and moving toward clarity of commitment, direction and most importantly considering the cost of being a people called to live into the realities, priorities and understanding of being intercultural, missional and formational— transformed for the purpose of God’s reign.

We’ve heard congregations ask for continued commitment to missional movement, contextual support and ongoing development of equipping leaders to empower others to embrace Gods mission from the LEAD (Leading Equipping and Disciplining) platform.

We’ve heard Conference Related Ministries ask for clarity of how we can work together in mutually beneficial ways to support one another and establish deeper relationships with congregations.

In addition, Franconia Conference continues to appreciate our Mennonite schools and the Anabaptist distinctive that directly impacts spiritual formation that cultivates values and vision for equipping future leaders. While we indeed realize that Christian formation is happening effectively beyond our Mennonite schools, we affirm the community witness our schools offer in nurturing our young people to be radical followers of Jesus Christ and instruments of God’s peace and justice.

We heard PIM (Partners In Ministry) express appreciation for ongoing support and encouragement in walking beside them as they minister in new and exciting ways.

We must continue to listen together and hear God’s Spirit calling us to find the passion that will give life to God’s strategic plan and priorities as a conference community living witnessing what it means to be missional, intercultural and formational.

Sounding the Gospel of our common Christ: Lutherans and Mennonites move toward right relationships

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by Dr. John Ruth, Salford Mennonite Church, and Bishop Claire Burkat, Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

The history of Lutherans and Mennonites has not always been one of mutual appreciation. The Mennonite Church is a church of Anabaptist heritage. The name Anabaptist was first used in the 16th century by Lutheran reformers. “Anabaptist” literally means re-baptizers, because of the practice of believers’ baptism. This was not used as a term of respect; in fact the early Lutheran reformers used the name in derision, condemning Anabaptists as heretics and accusing them of sedition.

In the 16th century, Lutheran invectives against Anabaptists were treacherous and produced serious harm and death to the historic members of the Mennonite community. Hundreds of Anabaptist Christians were put to death, imprisoned, and persecuted by Lutherans. Lutherans by and large developed an historical amnesia about this shameful part of their Reformation heritage.

Last summer in Stuttgart, Germany, the Lutheran World Federation presented a statement of regret to the Mennonite World Conference, asking forgiveness from God and from their Mennonite brothers and sisters. The expression of a “deep and abiding sorrow and regret” from Lutheran people of the 21st century for atrocities perpetrated by their ancestors almost 500 years earlier, is a confession and subsequent reconciliation which God has desired for centuries.

Ripples from those deep events have reached the backwaters of the Delaware Valley, to a place watered by the Indian Creek, once known to both Mennonites and Lutherans as “Indianfield.”

This landscape still carries names of historic memory: at Christopher Dock Mennonite High School in Lansdale, Pa., there is Grebel Hall; in Allentown, Pa., there is Muhlenberg College; in Souderton, Pa., a Zwingli United Church of Christ.

These names are reminders of people and events that shaped our history and our identity; things that happened in European cities like Wittenberg, Zurich and Augsburg—and, after nearly five centuries, last summer in Stuttgart—still affect us today.

Yet our joint history is not just one of animosity and persecution. Over three hundred years ago, Mennonite and Lutheran refugees made their way to Pennsylvania to enjoy a religious freedom that they had never before experienced. The immigrants got along remarkably well together in Penn’s Woods.

One of the Lutheran’s early leaders was Henry Muhlenberg. Even after Muhlenberg had a beautiful new church built at Trappe, he allowed one of his members, who had been living among the Mennonites of Skippack, Pa., to bury his aged mother’s body in the graveyard of the Mennonite congregation. Of course the service would be conducted by the Lutheran pastor, who was considered the best preacher of the gospel in the region.

The day was very hot, so Muhlenberg proposed to preach under a large tree. He was surprised that the Mennonite leaders present urged him instead to come into what he called their “roomy” meetinghouse for the service.

Hesitantly but respectfully accepting this invitation, Muhlenberg found himself nevertheless cautioned at the meetinghouse door by an elderly Mennonite minister, who hoped that the Lutheran pastor would not include any “strange ceremonies” in his service. Yet after the service came another surprise, when the same old man thanked Muhlenberg—with tears—for “sounding the Gospel” in their Mennonite meetinghouse.

Three hundred years later, in a gesture unimaginable for early Mennonites, Lutherans once again held a service in one of their roomiest houses of worship, Franconia Mennonite Meetinghouse in Franconia, Pa. This time, as part of their annual business meeting on May 6, 2011, the Lutheran Synod of Southeastern Pennsylvania extended their own apology for the oppression of the past, reminding those gathered that reconciled communities are not about abstract relationships; instead, the forgiveness and healing between Mennonites and Lutherans is a family matter.

As Charlie Ness, pastor of Perkiomenville Mennonite Church, responded to the apology, he echoed the words of the President of the Mennonite World Conference Danisa Ndlovu, saying, “Today, in this place, we together—Lutherans and Anabaptist Mennonites—are fulfilling the rule of Christ. We cannot bring ourselves to this table with heads held high. We can only come bowed down in great humility and in the fear of the Lord. We cannot come to this point and fail to see our own sinfulness. We cannot come to this point without recognizing our own need for God’s grace and forgiveness.”

Once again on that sunny May morning, the Lutherans were sounding the Gospel—for what is the good news but the news of the reconciliation of all things in heaven and earth and under the earth, worked and revealed and offered by Christ on his cross? As at Skippack, that day in Franconia, Lutherans accepted Mennonite tears of joy for their gesture, this request for forgiveness. And on that day, their witness to our common salvation, sounding out in the Mennonite’s roomy meetinghouse, was the Gospel of our common Christ.

Adapted from remarks shared at the Eastern Synod of the ELCA gathering on May 6, 2011 by Dr. John Ruth, historian for Franconia Mennonite Conference, and Bishop Claire Burkat, bishop of the Eastern Synod of the ELCA.

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Healing Memories, Reconciling in Christ: A Lutheran-Mennonite Study Guide for Congregations

Lessons from the little ones: Building bridges in Pittsburgh

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by Emily Ralph, eralphservant@mosaicmennonites.org

He was sitting in a chair with his back to a room full of Mennonite preschoolers.  He wouldn’t make eye contact with me as I sat down on the floor next to him, using everything I had in my bag of tricks.  I had offered my afternoon to help with the preschool class at Mennonite USA Convention and something drew me to this little loner.  Every question I asked was greeted with a shake of his head and a mournful whimper.

Little by little, we made progress.  Within a couple of moments, he was forcing his mouth into an “I’m not going to let you see me smile” frown that told me we were almost there.  Soon, he erupted into a laugh as he delighted in bouncing the ball past me so that I had to run after it.  And once the dam broke, his joy and energy filled the room as he engaged me in play.

About an hour later, I noticed a little girl tucked in a play tent, staring sadly at the ground.  My new little friend followed me over to her.  The instant I climbed in and plopped myself down next to her, the frown turned into a whimper and a trembling lip.  “I want my moooommy.”

“Do you want me to read you a story?” I asked.

“Nooo.”  The end of the word came out like a moan.

“Do you want to color a picture?”

“Noooo.”

I looked up and realized that my little friend had disappeared.  A moment later he returned with a coloring page and some crayons.  Instantly, the girl perked up.  Just as instantly, the trembling lip resurfaced.

“I only want to color with pink and purple,” she sighed, fingering the orange crayon.  Her benefactor disappeared again.

After a few seconds, he returned with a handful of purple crayons, dumping them onto my open palms.  In awe, I watched this little champion, this loner who had become the comforter.

“I’m going to go get another activity,” he stated strongly in accented English, laughing when I had to ask him several times to repeat himself.  “An ac-tiv-i-ty!” he said again, leaning in close to yell into my ear so that I would get it that time.

He was back sooner than expected, his eyes twinkling.  “Do you want to play with bubbles?” he asked, peering at her through the tent opening.  That’s all she needed to hear.  They were off, a little girl and a five-year-old Jesus, building bridges with bubbles and crayons.

Conferences initiate intercultural worship and songwriting cohort

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By Ben Sutter, benjamins5@goshen.edu, Franconia Conference Communications

As a conference embracing formational, intercultural, and missional values, Franconia Conference will join with the Eastern District Conference to offer a series of experiences exploring intercultural worship. In preparation for this year’s joint Conference Assembly, the conferences are initiating a worship and songwriting cohort open to anyone interested in playing and creating music together. Leaders hope this time of joint worship will encourage musicians in both conferences to offer their skills and creativity to the Conference Assembly in a new way.

The “jam sessions” will take place on four separate Fridays throughout the summer in the second floor of the Mennonite Conference Center in Harleysville, PA. The sessions will be held July 15, August 5, August 26, and September 16 from 7pm until 9pm.

Coordinator Emily Ralph, Associate Director of Communication for Franconia Conference, is excited about the possibilities that might emerge from this event.

“The purpose of these ‘jam sessions’ is to create a diverse community of musicians that can work out together what it means to be an intercultural worshiping community,” says Ralph. “I look forward to this being an experience that will unite musicians and songwriters across geographic, cultural, and ethnic boundaries.”

Musicians and songwriters of all instruments and ability levels are encouraged to attend. Prayer intercessors are also invited to pray during meetings, either onsite or from their homes. The cohort will join in study, worship, jamming, and songwriting to inspire times of corporate worship that are formational, intercultural and missional.

Ralph asks participants to come with an open heart and a willingness to make friends and allow the Holy Spirit to move through their musical gifts.

“I hope that we will form friendships that will allow us to minister together in the future, build relationships that will lead the way in church unity, and create a new expression ofworship that will reflect who we are as a diverse community of worshipers.”

Ralph cautions participants to release their own definitions of success for this event.

“This is an experiment,” she says. “We don’t know how it will turn out or if it will even be a ‘success’ by human standards. My definition of success is that we’re going to try and see what happens. We’re going to be finding our way, so it could get really messy.”

Defining the process as messy doesn’t scare Ralph. She is excited about the opportunities that this cohort could generate.

“Messy isn’t bad,” says Ralph. “Sometimes it takes messiness to create something new!”

Those interested should RSVP to Ralph at eralphservant@mosaicmennonites.org.

Franconia Conference and Eastern District Conference announce joint assembly

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By Emily Ralph, eralphservant@mosaicmennonites.org

Franconia Conference and Eastern District Conference of Mennonite Church USA will hold a joint conference assembly this November.

“We felt that this is an exciting opportunity resulting from a long standing conversation about what it means to work together for God’s purpose and ministry in our region from Georgia to Vermont,” says Ertell Whigham, Franconia Conference’s executive minister.

The annual gathering, which will be held November 11-12 at Penn View Christian School in Souderton, Pa., will be planned by a team consisting of members from both conferences.  Although some details are still in process, the event is already scheduled to include a joint worship service on Friday evening and then separate delegate sessions on Saturday.

The purpose of this joint event, says Eastern District executive minister Warren Tyson, is to strengthen the unity of the two conferences and continue to move forward in common work in this region.  Added benefits would include costs savings and increased value for Conference Related Ministries, who would only have to set up booths at one event instead of two.

This is not the first partnership between Franconia and Eastern District Conferences: they already share office space and staff and are in the process of hiring a joint conference-wide Youth Minister.  The conferences also share resources and training events, so the joint conference assembly is a logical next step.

“It feels natural and timely,” says Whigham.  “We are excited about the possibilities of what it will mean for our future together.”

Welcome our summer ministry intern!

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from Steve Kriss, Director of Communication
skriss@mosaicmennonites.org

The communication team at Franconia Conference is excited to welcome our summer ministry intern–Ben Sutter.  Ben is a student at Goshen College in communication and history.  He’s finishing up his first week of work with us and is living with Aldo Siahaan in South Philadelphia.  He’ll be in the office on Mondays and doing the rest of his work from the field–which will include time in Harleysville, Mexico City, Baltmore, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.  He’ll be writing some articles, spending some time in meetings, engaging with congregations and helping to update our website.   I’m glad to have Ben working here–and hoping that we can continue to cultivate his gifts in communication and his interest in serving in the way of Christ.

He’s grown up as part of the Kern Road Mennonite Church in South Bend, Indiana, but has been attending Waterford Mennonite Church while studying at Goshen.  He recently received a scholarship with the Fund for Theological Education and participated in a conference in New Orleans with them earlier this summer.   Please welcome Ben in his work, in his questions, in his exploring God’s call with and among us.

Ben can be reached by phone on Mondays at the Conference Center (267-932-6050, ext. 123) or by e-mail, benjamins5@goshen.edu.

Steel City congregation blessed and released

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By Emily Ralph, eralphservant@mosaicmennonites.org

Harleysville, PA – Franconia Mennonite Conference released Steel City Mennonite Church to transfer its membership to Conservative Mennonite Conference.  The request for transfer came after a significant period of discussions related to theology, vision, mission perspectives and scriptural understanding, according to Franconia Conference Executive Minister and Steel City’s former Conference Minister, Ertell Whigham.

Some of the questions leading to this decision revolved around differing interpretations of Biblical perspectives specifically related to issues of women in leadership.  “It was with a heaviness of heart that I shared with the elders in September 2009 that a time was coming soon when I couldn’t in good conscience have my ministerial credentials held by the Mennonite Church USA and Franconia Mennonite Conference,” said Steel City’s pastor, David Kochsmeier.

Soon after, Steel City’s leadership began to look into other options for affiliation.  They discovered agreement with the positions of the Conservative Mennonite Conference, a denomination founded in 1910 which has been based at Rosedale, Ohio, since the 1960s.  On May 2, 2010, the congregation voted to leave Franconia Conference and Mennonite Church USA and join the Conservative Mennonite Conference, a transfer that was completed in February of 2011.

Noah Kolb, Franconia Conference’s Pastor of Ministerial Leadership, walked with Steel City through the release process.  “I feel a sense of loss and grief over losing the Steel City congregation, which I think has been a creative, missional congregation over the last few decades,” he said, reflecting on the experience.

Part of the blessing was a service of transfer which was held on March 6, 2011.  Members of both Franconia and Conservative Mennonite conferences were present for a symbolic releasing of the congregation.  As he shared his heart with members of Steel City, Kolb held a candle representing the congregation.  “Your light has burned brightly since your beginning,” he said.  “I believe God has been glorified through you and your witness and service. . . I hold this candle with thoughts and longing filled with much joy and hope for you.”

Turning to Steve Swartz, Executive Secretary of the Conservative Mennonite Conference, Kolb offered him the candle.  “Steve, in the name of Christ and for his glory, I release Steel City from the care of Franconia Conference into your care and oversight.  May God be glorified in this new relationship.  May the presence of the Kingdom grow ever stronger in this community.”

“We hope Steel City will continue to find direction for what God is calling them to be and do in ministry,” said Whigham.  “We will find ways to continue to be in relationship with them.  Even now, we’re working together to find ways to connect and collaborate.”