Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

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Notes to Pastors

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Eucharist and Peacemaking: A dialogue between Anabaptism and Eastern Orthodoxy

How does the Eucharist center the Church to live as a people of Christ’s peace in the world? This dialogue continues a conversation about the Eucharist as a centering, shaping and a sending meal for the Church engaged with God’s mission in the world. Schedule for the day includes presentations from John Rempel (Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary) and Alex Patico (Orthodox Peace Fellowship). Andrew Klager (recently appointed Visiting Scholar at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College beginning mid-January next year) will offer a response. There will be opportunities for Q & A with audience participation. Lunch will be provided (free will offering). The afternoon will focus on a practical application discussion of eucharistically-anchored peace-seeking (panelists and audience). This informative event will be held on Saturday, November 14, 9:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m., at Sunnyside Mennonite Church, 337 Circle Ave., Lancaster, PA. There is no registration fee, but if you are planning to attend please contact Brian Miller at 717-283-7466 or justanapprentice@gmail.com. This dialogue is being sponsored by Anabaptism and Orthodoxy in Conversation and Interchurch Relations of Mennonite Church USA

Notes to Pastors

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Answering Darwin

The BuxMont Coalition for Evangelism invites you to attend their fall conference titled Answering Darwin. Exactly 150 years ago, Charles Darwin set forth his theory of evolution which set the future course of biological science. Much has happened since then and many of Evolution’s greatest expectations have fallen short of their predictions. Dr. John Morris and Dr. Gary Parker from the Institute for Creation Research will be the featured speakers at the fall conference to be held at Penn View Christian School. Dates for the conference are Thursday, November 5 through Sunday, November 8. For more information visit www.answeringdarwin.com.

Notes to Pastors

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October Prayer Gathering
Pastors, prayer team members and those interested in prayer are invited to the October Prayer Gathering, Saturday, October 3, 10 a.m. -12 noon, at Deep Run Mennonite Church East. Ertell Whigham, pastor and Lead Minister with Franconia conference will bring encouragement from The Word. We will worship, fellowship and pray together. Come and be blessed!

Child Safety 101
Franconia Conference School for Leadership Formation presents: Child Safety 101, Thursdays, October 1, 15 & 29 and November 12, 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. at the Mennonite Conference Center. Churches everywhere are learning, sometimes the hard way, that child safety planning is an important part of providing high-quality ministry to children and young people. It is often a challenge, however, to know where to start when creating a child safety plan. Child Safety 101 is intended to help congregations create a comprehensive child safety plan in just a few weeks. With the support of instructor, Julie Prey-Harbaugh, and their classmates, participants will thoroughly understand the issues at stake and come away ready to implement a solid child safety plan in their congregations. Registration Fee: $200 per team* *Please note: Due to the practical nature of this event we ask that congregations send their entire Child Safety team/committee; no church should register less than two people. Julie Prey-Harbaugh (One Childhood Consulting) is a licensed minister of Franconia Mennonite Conference and their recommended trainer in child protection and child abuse recovery. She is a member of West Philadelphia Mennonite Fellowship and serves as an on-call chaplain at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. In 2004, Julie received her MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary, where she focused on theological and pastoral responses to survivors of abuse. Julie has extensive experience working with children and survivors of abuse in the Philadelphia area—as a social worker, support group facilitator, youth sponsor and activist. Recently, she led trainings in child protection at Eastern University, Princeton Theological Seminary, the Youth Specialties National Youth Workers Convention and the Mennonite USA Churchwide Convention.

A Day of Renewal
A Day of Renewal is being planned for pastors and prayer leaders at Brooklyn Tabernacle, New York, NY, on Tuesday, October 27. This will be an opportunity to experience what God can do when His people come together and pray. The day’s schedule includes teaching by Daniel Henderson of Strategic Renewal, teaching by Pastor Jim Cymbala of Brooklyn Tabernacle, sharing lunch with other pastors, and joining the evening prayer meeting. The cost, including lunch, is $75. For more information visit www.strategicrenewal.com.

Mennonite Hymnals
Swamp Mennonite Church is looking for additional copies of the Mennonite Hymnal. These hymnals were published in 1969 and have red covers. Please contact Emily Ralph at Swamp Mennonite if your congregation has any extra editions they would be willing to share.

9/17/09

Notes to Pastors

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Peace Sunday
Sunday, September 20 has been set aside as Peace Sunday. James 3:13 – 4:8a is the primary text suggested by Mennonite Mission Network. Worship resources, sermon seeds, a sample worship service outline, children’s stories, and ideas for engaging the whole congregation are available at www.mennonitemission.net/resources/peacesunday/.

Subscription Special for College Students
The Mennonite is a great way for your congregation’s college students to connect with the Mennonite Church and nurture their spiritual lives – wherever they attend school. A $22.00 subscription will begin with the October 2009 issue and run through the April 15, 2010 issue. If you would like your students to receive The Mennonite, just submit their name and address information with the handy form found at www.TheMennonite.org. Deadline is October 1.

Becoming a Generous Congregation
Mennonite Mutual Aid is hosting the webinar Becoming a Generous Congregation produced by the Alban Institute on Thursday, September 24 from 1:00 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. at the Mennonite Conference Center. This pastor’s resourcing event will explore the relationship between spiritual formation and money. We’ll have a talk-back time following the webinar sharing our own experiences and providing practical tools to use in your congregation. If there are others on your leadership team who would benefit from this gathering, feel free to invite them as well. Panelists for the webinar are John Clark and Jonathan Buuck from the James Company. RSVPs are helpful but not necessary. For more information contact Randy Nyce at 267-384-5350 or randy.nyce@mmapartners.org.

Notes to Pastors

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Fall Workshop on Congregational Peace Building
Pastors are invited to the Peace and Justice Fall Gathering “Seeking Peace:
A Conversation to Encourage Congregational Justice and Peace Education and Action” on Saturday, October 10 from 8:30 a.m. – noon at Franconia Mennonite Church. The program will include reports about peace and justice work in local congregations and introduce new peace resources for preaching and teaching. For more information or to RSVP, email seekpeace@ppjr.org or visit efpjc.ppjr.org. Questions can also be directed to James C. Longacre at 610-845-7686 or Robert Walden at 610-861-0653. Click here to view the promotional poster.

Intersections July/August 2009

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Hopeful vision roots at Indian Creek Farm

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Sheldon Good, Salford

In 2005, Phil Bergey, former Franconia Conference executive director, had a dream about the future of the Indian Creek Road Farm. In the May/June 2005 issue of MennoLife, Bergey said that in his dream he imagined the 40-acre Harleysville farm “as a place that would unite the daughters and brothers of Franconia Conference instead of tear them apart.”

More recently, Jill Landes, from the Blooming Glen congregation, has lost sleep envisioning Bergey’s dream.

“I get excited just thinking about the farm,” said Landes, who is currently working on a plan to use the Indian Creek Road Farm as space for a ministry to be called Living Hope Farm. “I sometimes can’t sleep at night because of it.”

Landes has a vision for what the farm might become some day, and in many ways, is already becoming. Her vision explores the possibility of what she calls “a non-profit, sustainable, organic, market farm that grows produce for people and profits for ministry.”

Starting this October, Bergey’s dreams – and Landes’ lack of sleep – will come to fruition.

Living Hope Farm will operate on the land as a non-profit ministry and incorporate many topics that are emerging in contemporary culture, according to Landes, including: sustainable agriculture, land stewardship and preservation, job training and a greater understanding of one’s connection and interdependence to land.

Landes believes the farm will help people rediscover their roots. “Today we have a disconnect,” Landes said, in reference to one’s relationship with food. “We buy any vegetable or fruit year round at our local grocery and do not think twice about who grew it, how it was grown or the distance it traveled to the grocery store.”

Living Hope Farm will allow persons to re-root, re-route and get dirty.

The primary function of the farm will be to operate as a non-profit Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). “A CSA is a model of farming that emphasizes locally grown food, supports the local economy and promotes a safe food system,” said Landes, who works at the Bucks County Branch Creek Farm, which produces food for local restaurants and stores.

Persons who purchase memberships in a CSA sign a contract for the season and agree to pay in advance. CSA shareholders then help with some of the work of harvest and distribution of food. They also pick up a share of whatever is available on the farm each week, which guarantees they receive the freshest produce possible. And the food doesn’t travel 1,300 miles as it ripens.

The Living Hope Farm CSA will create a self-sustaining foundation for the ministry, which will incorporate additional ministries without the burden of outside resources.

Landes also plans to connect with an urban area that has limited access to fresh, local, reasonably priced produce. “It is the ministry part of the farm that has me dreaming,” Landis said. “The potential ministries that have surfaced seem to be as numerous as the spokes on a wheel.”

A few possible ministries include:

  • agricultural learning opportunities: for the community, with on-site farming classes
  • local camp outreach: combining agriculture, creation study, Bible study and personal development
  • work for prison inmates or ex-offenders: providing basic work skills in an outdoor setting related to food production
  • urban extensions: partnering with Philadelphia church leaders, congregations and/or schools to explore local community food systems.

For Landes, the sky – or the ground – is the limit. “There are any variety of things that might blossom here,” Landes said.

There are no blossoms at the farm yet. But the farm is currently used for a variety of purposes.

A portion of the 40 acres is farmed by the Knechel family, who operate a dairy farm nextdoor. In the center of the property, Mennonite Central Committee Material Resource Center of Harleysville uses a building that was formerly a group home. Indian Creek Foundation, which began at the farm, runs a group home west of the property barn. The land is also used for the annual Apple Butter Frolic, which benefits the Mennonite Historians of Eastern Pennsylvania. Additionally, the farmhouse is rented out to a family and a single woman.

This is largely how the farm has operated for some time. But in 2005, the conference formed the Vision and Financial Plan team to determine a new future for the farm. Karen Moyer, chair of the Vision and Financial Plan team and member of the subgroup charged with determining the best direction for the farm, said that turning the space into an organic farm was not the only, or first, idea.

“An original option considered,” Moyer said, “was to sell the property when the market value was extremely high to fund mission initiatives for domestic inner-city work and partnering with our southern hemisphere brothers and sisters rather than just ‘hoarding’ the wealth for the conference. [The planning team] heard a mandate from the local conference constituents to apply for a land preservation grant to retain the use of the farm for agriculture.”

In response to this mandate, the conference applied to sell the development rights of the farm. In 2008, the farm was submitted as a candidate but rejected with the Montgomery County Agricultural Land Preservation Board. According to the board, the farm’s eligibility score was not high enough. Such a registration would legally place the land in farming perpetuity and provide governmental funding to Franconia Conference. The conference will continue to pursue the sale of the farm’s development rights.

Ultimately, the Vision and Financial Plan team decided to transform the land into an operable farm. “Since the grant would not generate the same revenue as an outright sale,” Moyer said, “the team also heard a voice of financial support for any agricultural ministries that would come about with this plan for future use of the land.”

Enter, Landes’ version of Bergey’s dream. But there’s plenty of work to be done before Living Hope Farm becomes reality.

Currently, Landes treks to the farm a few times every week, which is unsustainable for the long-term. “Our family would like to reside on or near the farm as the time for growing draws nearer,” Landes said.

Landes is currently testing soil for possible crop locations. Meanwhile, Henry Rosenberger, from the Plains congregation, and others are finalizing a board of directors and pursuing a 501c3 status for the ministry. Living Hope Farm planners also want the organization to become a Conference Related Ministry.

Going forward, Landes and her team can’t do all the work themselves. “I’m hoping people will help out similar to the Care and Share Shoppes,” said Landes, in reference to the thrift store in Souderton. “We will need to count on a few committed volunteers, though this will be a bit different since tasks will change as the seasons change. And as the farm progresses, we will be looking for donations of time, materials and money as well.”

Landes plans to harvest the first crops in May. Persons interested in purchasing a CSA share can sign up starting at the Apple Butter Frolic on October 3. “Families with children are especially encouraged to participate in all that the farm will have to offer,” said Landes, “including a children’s garden, U-pick areas and weekend gatherings for potluck meals.”

Embracing God’s mission: Being and becoming people of peace

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Gay Brunt Miller, Spring Mount

In February of 2008, urban minister Jim Kilpin gave Blaine Detwiler (conference Moderator and pastor of Lakeview Mennonite Church), Steve Kriss (conference Director of Communication and Leadership Cultivation) and myself a tour in of East London. He shared how his family had moved to this neighborhood a decade earlier to plant a church (connected with Urban Expression, part of the Anabaptist Network, U.K.). As they became familiar with the neighborhood, they began to look for where God was already at work, wanting to be part of what God was already doing. In other words, to be missional.

I asked Jim, “How do you recognize where God is already at work?” He thought about my question and then replied, “I think it is where you find people of peace.”

Henri J.M. Nouwen offers a similar observation in his book, Life of the Beloved, “There is no clearer way to discern the presence of God’s Spirit than to identify the moments of unification, healing, restoration, and reconciliation. Wherever the Spirit works, divisions vanish and inner as well as outer unity manifests itself.” Through God’s Spirit and collective discernment, we join hands with like-minded believers where we find and give encouragement, we equip leaders to empower others and we look for opportunities to join in what God is already doing – where there is unification, healing, restoration and reconciliation.

Recently, delegates of Franconia Conference have shaped our work together through these actions:

  • Developing relationships with Partners in Mission as an expression of the missional character of Franconia Conference (2002)
  • Establishing the Conference’s mission: “Equipping Leaders to Empower Others to Embrace God’s Mission” (2004)
  • Affirming the Conference’s Vision/Core Processes: Identity Formation from a Biblical/Anabaptist perspective, Leadership Transformation from cradle to grave, and Healthy Relational Patterns—passionately living out our callings; and Strategic Values as to be missional, intercultural, and formational (2005)
  • And clarifying that Franconia Conference’s five-year Vision and Financial Plan should result in more healthy and growing leaders, congregations, new believers and connections to the world. (2007)

Together, we are cultivating a community of “people of peace” in this framework of action and discernment. Matthew 7:16 says, “You will know them by their fruits.” What fruits from these decisions are evidenced in this issue of Intersections?

Healthy and Growing Connections to the World
As you read you will discover stories about three of our Partners in Mission–the Anabaptist Network in the United Kingdom, Oxford Circle Mennonite Church and Peace Fellowship Church. Nearly half of our conference’s member congregations connect with one of these three partners.

Equipping Leaders and Identity Formation
Elaine Moyer’s reflections on her leadership at Christopher Dock Mennonite High School remind us of the important identity formation work and legacy of leaders who have been equipped and are equipping others through their ministry. Dock’s role in these areas precedes Franconia Conference’s mission statement and is an important piece of our collective work.

Bob Helverson’s ordination is another specific example of a young leader, called, equipped and empowered for ministry.

Strategic Values In Action
“Creating Ripples in the Lehigh Valley” tells the story of the Whitehall congregation’s missional experiment, led by Tom and Carolyn Albright. The growing ministry of Ripple is Anabaptist in character with an untraditional expression of worship, learning from other “emerging” groups, including the Anabaptist Network, U.K.

Healthy and Growing Congregations
The story of Philadelphia Praise Center’s expansion into Spanish worship is a beautiful expression of a healthy and growing congregation. The congregation meets an important need for South Philadelphia, living into the Revelation 7:9 vision of “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation” standing before the Lamb of God.

So what does Franconia Conference do? Together we are living into the vision and mission that we have set. We’re embracing God’s mission, continuing to be and become people where the fruit of God’s peace is manifested.