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Notes to Pastors – February 22

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This week on mosaicmennonites.org:

Read the latest Growing Leaders articles online:

View video interviews from young leaders in Franconia Conference

News Stories:

Congregations and Pastors Address Pornography Together
Plan to attend the seminar, Thursday evening, March 29, from 7 – 9 p.m. and Friday morning, March 30, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on the issue of pornography. The Seminar will be held at the Souderton Mennonite Church Fellowship Hall. The Thursday evening session is open to both lay leaders and pastors for teaching on the issue by Brenda Martin Hurst. The Friday morning session is especially for pastors, chaplains, and other ministerial staff persons, with credentialed leaders expected at both sessions. Brochures will be distributed soon with more information and plans for registration. Or call 215-723-5513, ext. 110 to indicate you will be attending. Pastors, be sure to invite key lay leaders to come with you to the Thursday evening session.

Bible Survey and Anabaptist Hermeneutics
Who might you encourage to attend the course with Marion Bontrager (Hesston College) on Bible Survey and Anabaptist Hermeneutics? The course will be held at Conestoga Mennonite Church, Morgantown, PA, April 13-14, May 11-12, and June 8-9. The course can be taken for three hours undergraduate credit ($945) or audit ($150). To register, call 866-EMU-LANC or email Julie.siegfried@emu.edu. This is a basic Gateway Course that all new credentialed leaders are expected to have taken in college or seminary.

Growing Leaders, Winter 2007

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View/download the printable PDF

Why the incarnation principle still applies: Taking relationships seriously means you need to show up

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img_0241.jpgDavid Landis, dplandis@mosaicmennonites.org
Associate for Communication and Leadership Cultivation

“When we’re all gone, this church will disappear,” stated an older gentleman from a church whose population of young adults is virtually nonexistent.

When I began working for Franconia Mennonite Conference in early 2006, it didn’t take much time to realize that many young adults are loosing connection with their home congregations, both unintentionally and intentionally. Many leave for college, begin an international service term or settle into jobs, shedding familiar connections to explore an adult role within their surrounding community.

As a young adult often feeling this same disconnect, my curiosity was sparked to investigate the situation. Though much has been presumptuously stated about why young adults are not connecting, it seems that a lot of what is heard are words and ideas not supported by experiential investigation.

In order to explore our questions, we decided to visit students from our conference’s congregations at various colleges. Food and drinks always seem to gather college students, so spaces were set up at restaurants and coffeehouses for conversation. We hoped to bring an atmosphere of hospitality to the students in a manner that wouldn’t beg them to come back to church, but rather honestly seek the best ways to mutually listen, understand, and support.

Dinner with Goshen students at “Hacienda”Although it might seem obvious, we clearly discovered that the very act of going and listening is the most practical starting point for understanding each other. In a world where those close to us are often separated by vast geographic distance, it takes a lot of energy, time and financial investment to make these journeys. Yet these precious resources of our culture are what we sacrifice because we care. An incarnate sacrifice indicates that we are committed to actively pursuing relational understanding.

The incarnation is a foundation of the Christian experience. In John 1:14, Jesus initiates his relationship with humanity when “the Word became flesh and dwelled among us.” Jesus came seeking new human relationships.

We all believe that relationships are the core of our meaningful experiences. Much energy in the church has been invested into the familiar phrase, “strengthening our personal relationship with God.” Young adults have directly and indirectly communicated that we understand what it means to be in relationship with God by how we are in relationship with others. As Jesus said, “Whatever you have done for the least of these, you have done for me.” We show how much we care by what we do.

Making the sacrifice to walk alongside each other on the journey indicates how much the relationship is valued. Many young adults do not hear from their home congregations while they are studying and serving far from home. Some have indicated that theyfeel their congregations view college or international experiences as a time to “sow wild oats” as prodigal daughters and sons, later to return to the way things have always been or suffer guilt otherwise. For many, these experiences are the first opportunity to freely explore difficult issues. This period of questioning is a time of trying to grasp how experiences interact with integrity to the world around us and nurture healthy, holistic relationships.

For many, the church has been a place that privileges those who seem perfect and successful. Idealistic morality is the socially rewarded goal, it’s a standard that all of us fall short of attaining. Our personal struggles are then the most difficult to discuss. By restraining from these difficult, personal conversations, we stress and damage the relationships within the community, eventually producing a desire to escape what seems like a facade.

img_0257.jpgMuch of the pain that estranges us from our church community is due to broken relationships. We grow up in a tightly connected group seeking to explore what it means to personally follow Jesus with our daily decisions. It’s a difficult process that often separates us from each other. For the church community to holistically engage this learning process, we need to be able to re-imagine how to move toward each other.

Our hospitality, whether social or theological, indicates the approachability of our community’s relationships. Hesitancy to begin the journey is perceived as fear from the perspective of those who are ready to explore the path ahead together.

Creating and sustaining these connections takes gracious energy. We need to show up and meet each other where we are at if we are going to take relationships seriously. We all know this is the truth, and we all desire it. We need to ask ourselves whether we are willing to courageously invest in this grace, whether we are going to make the journey?

All of us, young and old, do not want to suffer this journey of exploration alone. Young adults desire wisdom and guidance from older adults who are willing to ask difficult questions with them. Many older adults who have lived through difficult questions are waiting to be asked about them. We are all hesitant to approach that vulnerable moment where the incarnation becomes paradoxically personal and communal, where words become flesh to bring forth grace, truth and ultimately new life.

Bridging the gap between tradition and innovation: Toward a relevant body of Christ

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Jessica Walter, Associate for Communication and Leadership Cultivation

Our Church is skillfully playing out the story of the Exodus. Having eagerly taken the mantle of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness, we have left Egypt, bound for the Promised Land. Still, in order to get to that promise we must first experience God’s teaching in the desert in a time of change, confusion, exhaustion, and longing. Like the Israelites, we don’t easily recognize where we are and why we are here. Whether we recognize our state or not, we are in the midst of a massive shift that causes tensions to flair and lines to be drawn.

On one side of the line are those who identify with the Israelites who began to idolize Egypt. Sara Groves describes the situation in her song “Painting Pictures of Egypt,”

“I’ve been painting pictures of Egypt, leaving out what it lacked. The future seems so hard and I want to go back…the past is so tangible I know it by heart, familiar things are never easy to discard…caught between the promise and the things I know.”

The people on this side of the line are unsure of the future. They want to go back to the way thing used to be, preferring “the good old days” and “the way things were.” In this unsureness, it’s easy to forget that change is part of God’s design; just look at like the seasons.

Those on the other side identify with the Israelites who began to mistrust Moses and that the desert experience was mandated by God. As Alan Roxburgh explains in his book The Sky is Falling!?! Leaders Lost in Transition these are “a people for whom transition became the norm.” For them the “way things were” is a disconnected ideal of the past that must be in the past for a reason. They are full of distrust, cynicism, and questions because they see a Christ in the pages of the Bible that means something more powerful than what they see manifested today. They are searching and trying to create a Body of Christ that is real and true to Christ.

As these sides contest for the future the line between us, once just a groove in the sand, is becoming a canyon. Congregations desperately trying to revive the ways of old are slowly dying. New faith communities, defying anything tried and true, come and go with the wind. All the while the world watches and finds us less stable than the changing times and increasingly irrelevant.

Our problems lie in an inability to communicate with each other and work together to form a relevant Body of Christ. These problems exist because of fear, stubbornness, and pride as we prefer the misery of today over the mystery of tomorrow. In our stubbornness and resistance to change, we dig in our heels and close our hearts dismissing each other’s ideas and questions as ridiculous. Pride keeps us from moving, knowing that opening ourselves to each other might suggest that we’ve been wrong in the past.

To become a community that can truly call itself the Body of Christ we will need to put aside these things and communicate with each other. We must build relationships that are open to accountability, honest enough to voice our fears, trusting enough to let one another lift us up, humble enough to give and receive grace, and above all infused with God’s love. Making it a priority to care for each other truthfully and lovingly in action, not just words, will require personal sacrifice of comfort and a willingness to go beyond surface issues. To do this we need to recognize, cultivate, and encourage people who are able and willing to reach across the canyon to develop these relationships.

A bridge is already under construction that brings together the strength of the past with current innovation to create a relevant Body of Christ. But we are barely grasping what it is we need to do because it will take almost all of us to create something that is powerfully real and true.

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What’s Franconia Conference doing on Facebook?

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n2222469171_34395.jpgRecently, the Franconia Conference Leadership Cultivation team created a networking group on Facebook.com to connect with its young adults who are near and far. Originally started as a student based online community that allowed friends to stay in touch while away at college, Facebook is now an open community and people from all over the world can use it to connect with friends, family, and like minds. We asked two of our group members to tell us what they thought of Franconia’s presence on the web community.

There are many young adults from the Franconia Conference whom I am friends with. Since I might only connect with any one of them once a month at some random event I use the conference Facebook group to stay in touch and up to date. I also enjoy being able to share pictures. Dave Landis is a great photographer, and will frequently post highlights of his shutter escapades on the group site. I also thought it was great that many young adults were able to get together last month at Caruso’s. I was able to reconnect with people that I hadn’t seen in years and made some new friendships.

Creating a space where young adults feel welcomed and inspired is not easy. The church has a long way to go. However the conference is off to a great start. I see this new social technology as a blessing. But like many things, its not healthy to have it become your social life. It is important for the church to be creative and willing to adapt in order to meet needs and be relevant. Facebook is a great tool to keep people connected in an age where community is no longer restricted to geography.

Tim Moyer is a student at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts and a member of Blooming Glen Mennonite Church.

I joined the Franconia Facebook group so I could stay connected with the conference. It’s a creative method of using the popular culture to bring together young adults who might not otherwise have a way of keeping in touch with what’s happening in FMC. I think it’s a helpful way of building a sense of connection with others who are a part of the group and an easy way for Franconia to get in touch with us all. Even though, as college students, we are spread out in different areas, this group allows an easy way of keeping us up to date and sending out messages to a large group of people. It’s a way that many people are familiar with and can easily relate to. I think it’s neat FMC has set up a Facebook group and is trying to reach out to young adults in a practical way.

Emily Derstine is a student at Eastern Mennonite University and a member of Plains Mennonite Church.

Perspective on leading and inspiring young adults: An Interview with Aldo Siahaan

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Interview conducted by Jessica Walter

Aldo Siahaan is Associate Pastor at Philadelphia Praise Center (PPC). He has been serving with the congregation since its beginning two years ago. We interviewed Aldo about his experiences leading PPC and how he cultivates and inspires young leaders in his own congregation. The congregation is mostly made up of persons under the age of 40.

GL: What inspires you as a leader at PPC?

What inspires me as a leader at PPC is that the people choose me to lead. I never nominated myself to lead. Somehow the people here believed I would be a good leader because of the work that I have done in the congregation so they asked me to lead. Now they call me “pastor” and “brother” which is sometimes weird for me.

GL: What are your challenges in leading PPC?

One of my challenges as a leader at PPC is that I have to be a spokesperson for both the young people and the elders. I often become a mediator between the two voices. Also as a spiritual leader I have often been challenged by the young people who are not all interested in listening to my spiritual advice.

GL: How do you call out young leaders at PPC?

Taking time with them has proven to be the best method to find and then be in a position to call a young person into leadership. As I spend time with them I begin to see their potentials through observing their daily lives whether at work or school, how they interact with their family, and how they handle the tasks that they’ve been given.

GL: How does PPC encourage young leaders to stay involved?

We ask them to be a creative part of our congregation. We ask them to help us reach out to our neighbors, beyond the Indonesian community. They have helped us as we have been moving into a new building. We are really focused on strengthening our leadership and are interested and open to their new ideas for the church, its programs, and how it reaches both groups and indiviuals.

GL: What are the challenges of getting young leaders involved at PPC?

To be honest, my biggest challenge is that some of them still want to focus on themsleves. They are not all interested in investing their lives in others.

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What are these young leaders telling us? Signs of hope and warning

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James M. Lapp, Senior Ministry Consultant

Reading these highly personal articles from a group of younger leaders all connected to Franconia Conference has been deeply moving. There’s only one writer with roots in our conference and there is evidence of intercultural perspectives represented among them. Is this a sign of things to come?

I hear in their words deep interest and commitment to God and the church, which should hearten those of us from other older generations and with historic ties to FMC.

I hear an invitation for older or more traditional leaders to give time to cultivating relationships with young adults and youthful leaders. Only with this “incarnation” of our love and care will younger people really know how much we value them. I hear this might create unfamiliar (maybe even uncomfortable)
challenges but the rewards will be great for those willing to risk it. Can we make room in our lives and congregations for those who do not “seem perfect and successful” with idealistic morality?

I hear walking across the bridge to meet a new generation of leaders will involve a new type of communication, overcoming certain stubbornness and pride. Are we ready to make this journey between the past/present as we know it and the present/future they represent?

I hear voices of youthful idealism, easily swayed by doubt and suspicion (not unlike many of us experienced in our younger years) but a readiness to trust and believe when they see credible evidence that the Gospel we claim to espouse is indeed reality for us.

I hear considerable stress for younger leaders in this transition toward a postmodern era, along with a readiness to embrace questions, mysteries, and ambiguities that are not always given space and time in our churches. Frankly this worries me – that the environment younger leaders face and the status quo in congregations might create too huge of a hurdle for prospective 21st century young leaders to cross. We are duly warned that relating to these young leaders is not for the “faint-hearted, easily winded, or precariously perfect.”

I hear honest struggle with the narcissistic societal forces around us and other quagmires in our culture that younger leaders encounter among their peers.

I hear a call for the church to be more honestly self-reflective about who we are and our priorities in ministry. We can speak passionately about the need for younger leadership in our churches, but will we incarnate our talk in actions (especially time) and relationships that authentically connect with younger people and leaders? Why is it that we have few credentialed leaders under 30 in our conference?

What I do not hear is a desire to disconnect, a readiness to walk away from the church, or even a pessimism about what God is doing in our world today. I also don’t hear a call for lots of programs to be planned for young people and younger leaders. Rather relationships and space to navigate the stages of life seem to be the gifts most desired. These younger leaders offer a window into the challenges this presents to those interested enough to hear and respond.

I realize that these writers are hardly a cross section of younger leaders. These four (Landis, Walter, Kriss and Siahaan) are an exceptionally gifted and motivated group of leaders. More than likely they do not speak for all young leaders. But we ignore their voices at our own peril as a church. I am grateful they wrote and for the vulnerability with which they shared their perspectives. My greatest hope is that pastors, church leaders, boards and all persons who claim to be interested in young people and enlarging the circle of young leaders will pay prayerful attention to what they have shared. The test of interest might be if this issue of Growing Leaders shows up on the agenda of church boards and elders in the next few months.

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Notes to Pastors – February 8, 2007

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This week on mosaicmennonites.org, read and respond to the following articles:

Staff blogs:

News blogs:


Health Care Access Information

Would your congregation like some help in getting started on the Mennonite Church USA’s request for all churches to study the Health Care Access issue before San Jose 2007? A team of medical professionals are offering their services to any congregation or group within Franconia Conference. They will present the information as compiled by Glen Miller, program manager for Health Care Access, and help your church brainstorm next steps you might want to take. Contact Al and Iris Driver, 215-513-0568, agdriver1@msn.com or Chip and Jan Foderaro at 215-256-1345, afoderaro@gmail.com to schedule a session.

Pastors’ Family Weekend

Pastors’ Family Weekend at Spruce Lake Retreat, March 16 – 18. Dr. Loren E. Swartzendruber, president of Eastern Mennonite University, and Jep Hostetler (who believes humor promotes health), will lead this refreshing retreat for pastors and their families. Call 800-822-7505 for reservations, or check out www.sprucelake.org.

Congregational Leaders and Pastors Address Pornography Together

A seminar to address the issues of pornography in our society and its implications for pastors and lay leaders will be held Thursday evening, March 29 and Friday morning, March 30. The Thursday evening session will include lay leaders and pastors, and the Friday morning seminar will be only for credentialed leaders. Brenda Martin Hurst, professor of practical theology at Eastern Mennonite Seminary has been invited to serve as resource leader for this event. Brenda has been leading similar seminars in other conferences. The seminar will be held in the Fellowship Hall at the Souderton Mennonite Church. All active credentialed Franconia Conference leaders are expected to be present at both the Thursday evening and Friday morning sessions. More details will follow in a few weeks. Questions can be addressed to JMLapp@Franconiaconference.org or by calling 215-723-5513.

Matching Grand Scholarship Program at Bluffton

Bluffton University has information regarding their Church Matching Scholarship Program available at www.bluffton.edu. The forms available online will guide your congregation in supporting your students enrolling at Bluffton University. Questions regarding participating in the Bluffton University Church Matching Scholarship Program can be directed to Debra Niswander, at 800-488-3257.