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Congregational Profile: Franconia Mennonite Church

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by Mark Wenger, Franconia congregation

The Brown Family

Timothy and Toni Lynn Brown both grew up in devout and close-knit Roman Catholic families. About three years ago they developed a strong desire to renew their commitment to the Christian faith, for themselves and their teenage children, Rebecca and Tim. 

The children enrolled at Dock Academy; the family began coming to Franconia.  “It was a truly beautiful experience for all of us.  Our children enjoyed church again for the first time in years,” comments Timothy.  “I refer to it as my ‘charismatic renewal.’”

Toni echoes this: “The pastors give their sermons and speak to the congregation like we are equals, not below them.  To be able to take away something from the worship service and incorporate it into my daily life is something I never had before, and I truly enjoy it.”

Timothy and Toni were baptized into the Franconia congregation on November 26, 2017.   They are literally Anabaptists – “rebaptized” – in the original definition of the word.  Newcomers, they are sharing their gifts in a congregation that’s been meeting at the same location for almost 300 years.

Franconia congregation is currently led by a team of four pastors, Larry Diener, Josh Meyer, Kyle Rodgers, and Mark Wenger.  Attendance for Sunday morning worship in 2019 has averaged 350.  The Sunday School program is vibrant with about 265 children, youth and adults participating each week.

Worship Drama – Photo by Doris Diener

Franconia is blessed with strong multi-generational family networks. This feature lends itself to a sense of identity and a culture that is purposely Anabaptist-Mennonite.   About 85% of Franconia adults grew up in Mennonite homes.  Tradition and faithfulness are important.  The roots are deep. 

A vision the pastors believe that God has brought into focus for Franconia, however, speaks of going deep and wide: “A rooted Anabaptist congregation willing to do whatever it takes to connect with our neighbors so they feel at home and grow in Jesus.”  Timothy and Toni Brown and their family are a good example.

Franconia has a strong commitment to mission: Curtis and Eva Kratz visiting inmates; the Women’s Sewing Circle knotting and quilting covers for refugees; partnering with congregations in Liberia for education and development work; supporting mission workers at Christian camps.  

Curt Kratz at HOPE Festival – Photo by Renita Leatherman

But a calling for being sent into our local community and connecting with next-door neighbors is coming into sharper focus.  Like through Celebrate Recovery (a Christ- centered, 12-step recovery program) that meets on Mondays; like serving supper monthly to homeless neighbors in Pottstown; like hosting a live-nativity at Christmas.

The pastors have recently formed a “2020 Vision Team” to join them in giving creative energy for investing in this community-connecting vision for the next year.   Timothy Brown was invited to be a member of the Vision Team and he agreed!

What will it take to hear God’s call and adopt a new mindset that shifts from trying to keep each other happy, toward equipping each other to pray for and connect with our neighbors?

A vision-grounding Scripture text that has emerged prayerfully is 1 Corinthians 9:19-22:

“Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible…” 

FMC stands for Franconia Mennonite Church.  What else could FMC stand for in 2020 and beyond? 

  • Finding Meaning in Christ?
  • Friends Meeting Christ?
  • Families Magnifying Christ?

Yes!

Prayer requests:

  • for wisdom on follow-up connections resulting from the recent Necessary Conversations series.
  • for the Search process to call a Director of Music & Worship, and a Director of Children’s Ministries.
  • for God’s anointing upon the 2020 Vision Team and initiative

Congregational Profile: Ripple

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by Danilo Sanchez, Ripple congregation

Pastor Angela Moyer leads a service – Photo by Danilo Sanchez

From its origins, Ripple church has been “Christ-centered, Community-focused.” The founding pastors, Tom and Carolyn Albright, sought to have a ripple-effect in our neighborhoods and beyond. The ripple starts with the love of God and loving ourselves and then moves out toward our neighbors and community as we work toward peace and justice in Allentown.  Our worshipping community is made up of people from various racial, economic, and educational backgrounds; yet our desire is to be one body that reflects the beautiful kingdom of God. As 5 co-pastors, we are each committed to this work of reconciliation, empowerment, and rippling out into the community.

Ripple spends the day at Spruce Lake – Photo by Angela Moyer

Anyone who comes through the doors at Ripple knows they are welcome, safe, and can experience the love of Christ. Everyone is invited to participate in the service and use their gifts in different ways. Many Ripple members find themselves living on the margins and carry the mentality: “I’m broken. I’m always the person in need. I don’t have anything to offer.” As a church, we work to change that mentality and do ministry “with” the people. Doing ministry “with” people focuses on relationships and empowering others, rather than doing things “to” or “for” others. As pastors, we do our best to have reasonable expectations and provide enough support so that our members can thrive. Over the years, this model of doing church has proven successful.

Each Sunday we share “ripples,” which are instances over the course of the previous week when we’ve seen God’s Spirit at work in, around, or through us. At Ripple we value the input and voices of our members so the fourth Sunday of every month we have what’s called “Prayer, Praise, and Planning” (PPP) to make decisions as a community, resolve any conflicts, and dream together. Just the other week a new person came on a PPP Sunday and said, “I’ve never seen a church do this before. It’s so cool.”

Community Clean-Up – Photo by Danilo Sanchez

It is a blessing and a joy to see the transformation of those who, at first, were hesitant to be part of our group, eventually participate fully. They find a sense of belonging and the love of Jesus which invites them to make changes in their life. This is one of the benefits of being “Christ-centered.” We don’t have rigid boundaries about who is in or who is out, but rather point toward Christ. As a pastoral staff, we proclaim Jesus and allow each individual to decide for themselves if they are going to follow him. We know that spiritual formation is not a linear process but rather a spiral or even zig-zag. People may move toward Jesus, but then make decisions that are contrary to being a disciple. So, we focus on working “with” people, offering grace when they stumble and celebrating spiritual or life achievements when they succeed. Through this way of doing church we have found the difference it makes when as pastors we are present with people as we seek for form a more stable, healthy community.

Ripple Mime Ministry – Photo by Charlene Smalls

A difficult part about pastoring at Ripple, however, is the fact that many of those who attend live very transient lives. We may invest a large amount of time, love, and trust, only for that person or family to move away unexpectedly. So we do our best to hold things loosely and invest in the people that God has placed before us.

One exciting thing that has been happening at Ripple is our Mime Ministry. A group of young men have been expressing their worship and love of God through dance. Even the young kids have been getting involved now. I don’t know many Mennonite churches that have a dance time, but that’s what happens when you make space for different cultures and ways of doing church.

Prayer requests: 

  • for Ripple members who are seeking freedom from destructive behaviors
  • for more volunteers to help with our growing kid’s ministry
  • for our community center to help those in need

Congregational Profile: Blooming Glen Mennonite Church

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by Mike Ford, Blooming Glen

Tree planting – photo by Brenda Shelly

Like many other eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite congregations in the 1700’s, Blooming Glen began as Mennonites migrated from Germantown to Montgomery and Bucks counties.  In 1753, a farmer donated space in a field and a small log meetinghouse was built, and Blooming Glen Mennonite Church began.  Today, we are a diverse congregation “on a journey with Jesus,” averaging 230 at worship on Sunday.

We’ve been blessed with a wonderful facility and land, and we want to grow in having the community use our facilities.  Currently, such varied groups as Girl Scouts, Hilltown Democratic Committee, National Association for Mental Illness, and Aerobic Rhythmics use our spaces.  Our outdoor pavilion and playground is often rented for family get-togethers and community events.

Junior high attending the Creation Festival – photo by Ben Moyer

Blooming Glen wants to be a Christ-like presence and blessing in our community.  The towns of Perkasie and Sellersville do annual community festivals, and we set up a booth at these events.  One of our congregants has made dozens of engaging and fun games that set up well in a park setting.  At these festivals, these games allow us to engage folks in play and conversation and build relationships and presence.

We also have some long-standing traditions.  We still have a few farmers in our congregation, and annually on the last Saturday in October, we host a Harvest Festival.  We host hundreds of folks on our property for food, games, hay wagon rides, kids’ play areas, and to see a combine harvest corn or soybeans.  The harvest is then sold and the proceeds used to support a hunger-related ministry or organization or to provide disaster relief.

Summer Bible School – photo by Jen Hunsberger

Like many, we love worshipping the Lord through music.  Blooming Glen is blessed to have children and adult choirs, open to any that want to participate in choral singing.  These choirs most often perform during Sunday worship, though we usually do a major choral production each year.  On December 15, 2019, 6:30 pm, all are invited to an audience participation sing-in Messiah concert in our sanctuary.

We also try to share the love of God beyond our community by staying active and aware of the bigger body of Christ and worldwide needs.  Our folks are supportive of Mennonite Central Committee and Mennonite Disaster Service, our youth typically do a week of summer service learning in a different setting, and we have annually sent teams to learn and work in Honduras with Healthy Ninos Honduras and other overseas locations.

Senior meal – photo by Jen Hunsberger

In the fall of 2019, we are working at a new model of team pastoral leadership, with Michael Bishop and Mike Ford co-pastoring, and a number of other staff making up the team.  We are in the midst of a September-December small group prayer initiative, with 3-4 person prayer teams meeting regularly to humbly seek God for direction for our congregation, for guidance as to what God is doing in our time and place, and how we can best join Him in his work.  Our leadership is also meeting regularly with a Forge America missional ministry group.

Pray that we:

  • would sense God’s specific leading and guidance for our congregation in this current season of group prayer
  • would grow in being a vital spiritual presence in our community
  • would relationally, lovingly represent Jesus daily among the individuals with whom we live, work, and play

Congregational Profile: Perkiomenville Mennonite Church

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by Mike Spinelli, pastor

Perkiomenville Mennonite Church Meetinghouse. Photo by Charlie Ness

In 1935, seeds of faith planted on the edge of the Upper Perkiomen Valley took root. The harvest resulted in Perkiomenville Mennonite Church, a now 200-person congregation seeking to live out the same call to plant seeds in places near to home and around the world.

God used Clayton Godshall from Franconia, a feed truck driver, to scatter the seeds that would become Perk.  Clayton’s route brought him to Perkiomenville, PA where he saw no church meeting or other spiritual life.  With the help of Abram Metz and Isaac Alderfer, a Sunday school was formed and soon a church began meeting in a rented farmhouse on Deep Creek Road, about a mile from the current church meetinghouse on Gravel Pike (Route 29).

Others caught the vision and joined these men and their families in various “seed-scattering” ventures such as teaching Sunday school, Vacation Bible School, and distributing of printed “good news” papers.  The early hope was to concentrate on the children and then reach the parents. 

Perk’s first called pastor was Abram Metz, who served the congregation for 30 years beginning in 1944.  Four other pastors have served in either a solo or lead role since then – Stanley Godshall, Richard Moyer, Charles Ness, and Michael Spinelli.  Associate ministers have been used from time to time for focused ministry and include Lamar Ness, John Ayars, Dennis Detweiler, and Scott Roth.

Having fun together at a church day retreat. Photo by Tammy Snyder

Today, Perk is a gathering of people from various communities who come from all directions of the compass.  While several families attend from Perkiomenville and Green Lane, people also drive the roads from places like Alburtis, Upper Perk, Hatfield, Telford, Limerick, and Schwenksville. This leads us to encourage people to see themselves as sent to minister in the places where they live.

Perk also continues to live out its seed-scattering DNA by encouraging people to live as people sent to the world.  In recent years, Charlie Ness has taken work crews and ministry teams to Mexico to help the Monte Maria Church in its mission through meetinghouse construction, prayer ministry, and teaching in their school of ministry.  Monte Maria is pastored by Franconia missionaries Bob and Bonnie Stevenson.

Another outgrowth of Perk’s ministry is Men’s Encounter, a weekend gathering held twice a year where men come and hear teaching on walking with Christ, purity in relationships, building strong families, and working through personal issues.  Many men over the last five years have found freedom in Christ and are continuing to grow in that freedom.

Funnel cake makers at Upper Perk’s 4th of July Celebration. Proceeds fund mission trips and projects. Photo by Janet Ness.

Perk has several traditional gatherings such as a Family Fun Day, which opens our doors to our community, a Christmas banquet, and our regular worship services.  We also work to stay connected to the Upper Perk Valley through a pastor’s prayer group and ministerial association. There is the ever-present challenge of shaping our congregational activities to gather as the people of God and minister while scattered in our various neighborhoods.

Perk Church continues to dream about its ability to plant seeds in a world of change.  Our stated purpose is, “Inspiring people to follow Jesus.”  While our message is still the same, we recognize that our world has changed, becoming less inspired by the message of the church.  We would love to see that turned around and with the help of God’s Holy Spirit, we will see a new harvest of believers here in Perkiomenville.

Prayer requests for Perk:

  • Pray that we will live up to our calling as the people of God and inspire others to follow Jesus.
  • Pray for wisdom and discernment as we search for a new associate pastor.
  • Pray for wisdom for the implementation of ministry initiatives in 2020.

Congregational Profile: Philadelphia Praise Center

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(Baca dalam bahasa Indonesia)

Philadelphia Praise Center (PPC) is not just a church. In addition to holding services every Sunday, PPC is also well known for its involvement in reaching and bridging the South Philadelphia community. With a vision to be a diverse church with love and compassion for the lost and for the city, Pastor Aldo Siahaan formed the Philadelphia Praise Center in early 2005. To live out this difficult vision, PPC strongly believes that the key is in building relationships. Here are some ways PPC has carried out God’s vision for the past few years:

Most of the PPC members are immigrants from Indonesia. But as most people know, Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world. In Indonesia, Christians are a minority community that is often underestimated. But in Philadelphia, the situation was reversed. Of the thousands of Indonesian immigrants living in Philadelphia, only a handful are Muslims. Because PPC knows the feeling of being a minority, PPC took an initiative to establish good relations with the Indonesian Muslim community in Philadelphia. A few years ago when they did not have a place of worship, PPC opened the church building to be used by Muslim friends in breaking their fasts and prayers in the month of Ramadan. Since then, the relationship between PPC and the Muslim friends has continued.

In addition to building relationships with communities of different beliefs (interfaith), PPC also builds relationships with Christian immigrant communities from other countries (interculture). The PPC building is located in the middle of South Philadelphia, which is often a destination for many new immigrants from other communities, including the Hispanic community. Called to establish relationships with these brothers and sisters, the PPC leaders asked for help from Franconia Conference to send Hispanic leaders who would serve with us in preaching the good news. Finally, God sent Fernando Loyola and Leticia Cortes to begin the ministry of outreach to Hispanic souls. They came from Colorado without knowing any other Hispanic people, but God’s love opened the doors of relationships, until eventually they had many friends who were willing to learn about God’s word. Fernando and Letty currently lead Centro de Alabanza de Filadelfia, which has its own church building located South Philadelphia.

PPC also realizes that being an immigrant in America is not easy. To get immigration status, one must spend thousands of dollars. Many of us live in America as undocumented immigrants. PPC is involved in many immigration rallies or activities related to immigrant rights. When immigration raids occur, many experience fear. We are called to make the Philadelphia Praise Center a sanctuary church, a church that provides shelter for immigrants who need it. We renovated the church basement to include a proper bathroom and kitchen, in order to make it a proper sanctuary church.

This is only a small part of what God does through PPC. Let the vision that God has given us continue to carry on with the strength and wisdom that the Holy Spirit gives.

Prayer requests:

  • Immigration situation and related family separations
  • Job opportunities
  • the Indonesian political situation

Congregational Profile: Doylestown Mennonite Church

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Our congregation’s history reaches back almost 250 years, and we have seen the normal highs and lows of many mid-sized congregations. Our group of approximately 70 congregants enjoys a blended style of worship that includes old hymns as well as contemporary songs. We intentionally include a variety of voices in our worship service: scripture readers, worship leaders, and individuals willing to share about their daily lives and where they see God at work. Our active prayer ministry provides opportunities, during worship and at other times, for prayer ushers to listen to a person’s struggles with a focus on simply lifting the person and their situation before God. They also listen in prayer for a word that God might have for the individual who comes to pray.

Community Garden (Photo credit: KrisAnne Swartley)

Though the congregation’s history is long, we have a youthful energy and flexibility. We see evidence of this in the courageous step of the 3-year experiment that we called the Missional Journey, which began in 2011. Through this experiment, the congregation intentionally set aside funds and people to connect with the community around them. A community garden was started on church grounds, and small groups formed to pray and reflect on simple ways to connect with neighbors. Themes that grew out of these times together were authenticity, vulnerability, and trust in the Holy Spirit to be at work beyond us, within us, and through us.

Summer soccer camp (Photo credit: Judy Garrido)

The Missional Journey did not immediately result in an upward trend in church attendance, but it inspired more risk-taking on the part of congregation members. A disc golf group formed, bringing together congregants and neighbors. An annual summer soccer camp was also started, combining learning soccer skills with spiritual formation. The community garden on the church property continues to grow and is used in large part by neighbors of the church, donating much of the produce to local food banks. Potlucks connect garden members and church members in friendship and conversation. Funds were set aside to create a walking path, new playground, and a pavilion on the property, in order to welcome even more neighbors and create spaces for the congregation to build and deepen relationships.

New pavilion (Photo credit: Lois Myers)

Our congregation has also become more intentional about connecting with the many groups who use the building throughout the week, including girl scout troops, addiction support groups, writing groups and A Woman’s Place (the domestic violence prevention agency serving Bucks County). We intentionally invite them to special events and times of worship.

This fall we will welcome quite a few new members into the congregation, and we anticipate growing even more flexible and courageous as God leads us onward in risk-taking!

Prayer Requests:

  • Pray that we deepen our identity in Jesus so that we can follow His example of engaging others with the love of God.
  • Our theme for this year is Incarnational Living. Pray that we have the courage to practice living incarnationally even when it feels uncomfortable.