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Over 250 junior high youth, in grades sixth through eighth, participated in the annual Junior High Lock-In held on Friday night into Saturday morning, March 14-15, at Christopher Dock Mennonite High School. The theme of this year’s event was “Be a bucket filler!” taken from Galatians 5:13-15. During |  |
| the event, which ran from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m., the youth brought tons of energy for the variety of activities held, a mountain of snacks and drinks for the night and an over-flowing suitcase full of children’s vitamins to donate to the MAMA Project’s ongoing outreach in Honduras. | ||
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Uncategorized
Notes to Pastors
Ministerial Leadership Registration
Credentialed leaders – Remember that May 1 is the deadline for updating your profile on the Ministerial Leadership Registration System at www.mennodata.org. This information will be used in the 2009 Edition of the Mennonite Directory. Please check that your profile has current and accurate position and credential information. For assistance, please contact Melissa Landis (mlandis@mosaicmennonites.org) or Deb Ratzlaff at MC USA (DebR@MennoniteUSA.org).
Bread for the Journey
The MCC US Anti-Racism Program/Damascus Road is pleased to announce their new blog, Bread for the Journey, available bilingually at http://breadforthejourney.wordpress.com/ or http://panparaelcamino.wordpress.com/
This blog replaces the Damascus Road Newsletter (which has been in retirement for a while), and so will carry on a somewhat familiar structure: several articles posted quarterly centered around a particular theme. Zulma Prieto serves as the editor for the “newsletter postings” on the blog.
April’s Thursday Pastors’ Breakfast with Gilberto Flores, Director of Denominational Ministry and Missional Church, MC USA
Franconia Mennonite Conference has been on a journey of discovering the next level or stage of oversight in the missional church. Gilberto will share around the conversations MC USA leadership have been engaged with centered on the question: “What is the role of oversight in the missional Church?”
Come and engage this question in order to help shape what the role of oversight might mean for us here at Franconia. The April 24th breakfast will be held at the Mennonite Conference Center, 8 – 10 a.m. A donation of $5 is recommended for breakfast. Please register for this event by April 19 to Jessica Walter at jwalter@mosaicmennonites.org.
FREE MINISTRY SEMINAR FOR PASTORS AND LAY MINISTERS
Pastors, chaplains, and lay ministers are invited to Dock Woods Community’s annual “Pastoral Care to Seniors Seminar” on Tuesday, May 13, 2008, from
8:00–11:45 a.m. in Dock Woods Community’s Fisher Auditorium. Complimentary continental breakfast will be provided.
This year’s focus is: “Hidden Gifts and Challenges: Affirming our Sexuality and Dealing with Depression in Seniors and Those Who Minister to Them.”
Our speaker is Dr. Andrew Johanson, LMFT, D. Min.
He is a licensed marriage and family therapist with a private practice in Child, Individual, Couple, Family, and Sex Therapy. He is adjunct Professor at Moravian Theological Seminary teaching “Human Sexuality,” “Family Systems and Marriage Counseling,” and “Professional Ethics for Counselors”. Web page: www.drandrewjohanson.com
To attend free of charge, pre-register by calling (or e-mailing) Merlin Hedrick at 215-368-4438 by May 9. The cost for those who do not pre-register is $10 the day of the seminar. There is a $25 fee for those taking the seminar for continuing education credits. (The seminar counts for 2.5 continuing education credits.) Your advance questions on our topics are welcome and can be sent to mhedrick@dockwoods.com. They will be forwarded to our speaker to be used anonymously in our seminar sessions.
Youth Breezes Spring 2008
Download the Spring 2008 issue of Youth Breezes
Click here to visit other Youth Ministry resources
View photos of the Lock-In at Christopher Dock
Notes to Pastors
April’s Thursday Pastors’ Breakfast with Gilberto Flores, Director of Denominational Ministry and Missional Church, MC USA
Franconia Mennonite Conference has been on a journey of discovering the next level or stage of oversight in the missional church. Gilberto will share around the conversations MC USA leadership have been engaged with centered on the question: “What is the role of oversight in the missional Church?”
Come and engage this question in order to help shape what the role of oversight might mean for us here at Franconia. The April 24th breakfast will be held at the Mennonite Conference Center, 8 – 10 a.m. A donation of $ 5 is recommended for breakfast. Please register for this event by April 19 to Jessica Walter at jwalter@mosaicmennonites.org.
FREE MINISTRY SEMINAR FOR PASTORS AND LAY MINISTERS
Pastors, chaplains, and lay ministers are invited to Dock Woods Community’s annual “Pastoral Care to Seniors Seminar” on Tuesday, May 13, 2008, from
8:00–11:45 a.m. in Dock Woods Community’s Fisher Auditorium. Complimentary continental breakfast will be provided.
This year’s focus is: “Hidden Gifts and Challenges: Affirming our Sexuality and Dealing with Depression in Seniors and Those Who Minister to Them.”
Our speaker is Dr. Andrew Johanson, LMFT, D. Min.
He is a licensed marriage and family therapist with a private practice in Child, Individual, Couple, Family, and Sex Therapy. He is adjunct Professor at Moravian Theological Seminary teaching “Human Sexuality”, “Family Systems and Marriage Counseling,” and “Professional Ethics for Counselors”. Web page: www.drandrewjohanson.com
To attend free of charge, pre-register by calling (or e-mailing) Merlin Hedrick at 215-368-4438 by May 9. The cost for those who do not pre-register is $10 the day of the seminar. There is a $25 fee for those taking the seminar for continuing education credits. (The seminar counts for 2.5 continuing education credits.) Your advance questions on our topics are welcome and can be sent to mhedrick@dockwoods.com. They will be forwarded to our speaker to be used anonymously in our seminar sessions.
MMN Responds to Need for Anti-Racism Guidelines
Mennonite Mission Network’s Shared Voices provides a much-needed set of anti-racism communication guidelines. The book suggests how the guidelines can be used, gives editing samples, offers principles of photo taking, collecting and assessing, and examines layout, photo usage, and choice of media. Although anti-racism training would be helpful to every member of the Mennonite Church, this book is a beginning to sensitize and make us aware as we communicate with each other. This book is recommended for pastors, congregational leaders, writers and anyone who is communicating across cultures. Shared Voices is available from MennoSource and/or MMN.
People’s Summit for Faithful Living
Greetings,
I’d like to invite you to participate in the People’s Summit for Faithful Living July 8 to 10 at the Canadian Mennonite University Campus in Winnipeg. This summit will be a joint gathering between Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite Church USA. We hope to have many people from Mennonite Church USA attend and enjoy this time of fellowship and discernment with our Canadian sisters and brothers. Under the theme “At the Crossroads: Promise and Peril,” participants will focus on the urgent task of being a faithful community of God amidst the many challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. Deuteronomy 4:1-9 will be the theme text.
Please follow this link to see a video invitation from Jack Suderman, General Secretary of Mennonite Church Canada, to attend this event http://www.youtube.com/watchv=LoM_gEg6YFo
Information on registration, costs and how to get to Winnipeg are available at summit.MennoniteUSA.org. Please forward and share this invitation with others you think may be interested in attending the People’s Summit with Mennonite Church Canada this July.
Peace,
Jim Schrag
Executive Director
Mennonite Church USA
Notes to Pastors
Managing Holy Restlessness Workshop
Franconia Conference School for Leadership Formation presents Managing Holy Restlessness – Calling and Discernment at any age and in any life situation. This workshop will be held at the Mennonite Conference Center on Saturday, April 19 from 8:30 a.m. to noon and will be led by Debra Franke, MA Counseling, and Walter Sawatzky, Franconia Conference Minister. The workshop will look at discerning and managing the holy restlessness that often stirs in us as we seek to live into the design God has for each person. The registration fee is $20 per person. For more information about this event, click on the following link: http://mosaicmennonites.org/news/tmoyer/managing-holy-restlessness
Please register for this event by Tuesday, April 15, by contacting Jessica Walter at jwalter@mosaicmennonites.org.
April’s Thursday Pastors’ Breakfast with Gilberto Flores, Director of Denominational Ministry and Missional Church, MC USA Franconia Mennonite Conference has been on a journey of discovering the next level or stage of oversight in the missional church. Gilberto will share around the conversations MC USA leadership have been engaged with centered on the question: “What is the role of oversight in the missional Church?”
Come and engage this question in order to help shape what the role of oversight might mean for us here at Franconia. The April 24th breakfast will be held at the Mennonite Conference Center, 8 am to 10 am. A donation of $ 5 is recommended for breakfast. Please register for this event by April 19 to Jessica Walter at jwalter@mosaicmennonites.org.
2009 Mennonite Directory
Mennonite Church USA is collecting updated information for the 2009 edition of the Mennonite Directory. Credentialed leaders are asked to check the Ministerial Leadership Registration System for current and accurate position and credential information. If you have not updated this information recently, please do so promptly! You can make these changes at www.mennodata.org. Please contact Deb Ratzlaff at DebR@MennoniteUSA.org or mlandis@mosaicmennonites.org with any questions.
Intersections March 2008
(click the header to read all stories)
Read the articles online:
- A gift plain and simple: Encouraging each other to live out grace– Bruce Eglinton-Woods
- The house is being built– Noel Santiago
- Historic peace churches meet in Indonesia: What is peace in our land?– Aldo Siahaan
- From Zimbabwe to Pennsylvania and back: Extending the blessing– Renee Gehman
- Global shared convictions series: The love of God comes wearing skin– Blaine Detwiler
- About faith, grace, fear and a whole range of emotions: “I thought I was the most unqualified person”– Gary Parmer
- Building relationships: Bridging culture and community– Elaine A. Moyer
- A reflection from the Honduras trip– Marlene Frankenfield
- Called to a Mission in Marketing: Encouraging shopping with a conscience– Brenda Oelschlager
- Wanted: Ideas for Ministry– C. Conrad Martin
Click to View/download the printable PDF
A gift plain and simple: Encouraging each other to live out grace
The house is being built
Noel Santiago, Executive Minister
nsantiago@mosaicmennonites.org
Grace… Peace… Blessing… Love… Goodness… Relationships… Encouragement… Ministry…
Almost sounds like the list found in Galatians on the fruit of the Spirit, doesn’t it?
God indeed is doing a new thing in our midst. Those who have gone before us have been faithful and their legacy of faithfulness continues to live today.
The prophet Haggai (2:9) once said, “The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house… And in this place I will grant peace….”
In these pages of Intersections we once again capture the “the glory of this present house” the Lord is building among us. This house is built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ, for truly no other foundation can be laid.
• As grace is experienced through becoming communities of grace, the house is being built.
• As peace is being sought in places of religious pluralism, poverty and injustice, the house is being built.
• As blessing is extended materially, spiritually and emotionally, the house is being built.
• As love shows up in unexpected skin, the house is being built.
• As God’s goodness comes in a way totally unexpected and a ‘yes’ is said, the house is being built.
• As relationships are forged across miles and cultures, the house is being built.
• As encouragement comes to help people through conscientious shopping, the house is being built.
• As ministry ideas are encouraged and offers to assist are made, the house is being built.
The house of God, a place of habitation where the glory of the Lord can shine forth, is being built among us!
In these pages you will get a glimpse of the house of glory being built through the lives, stories, works and words of those who write. The future looks bright, there is much to hope for even in the midst of a broken and dying world.
May you be built up in your inner being – the temple of the Holy Spirit – as you read the story of God’s movement in our midst. Blessings.