Indonesian Light Church, Philadelphia, PA, asks for your prayers, that they would have the capacity to reach out and becoming a spiritual home to many unchurched people in South Philadelphia. See the below video to learn more about ILC!
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Congregational Profile: Indonesian Light Church
A Congregational Profile of Indonesian Light Church.
Congregational Profile: Spring Mount Mennonite Church
by Chris Nickels, pastor
A well-known children’s book has become a symbol for Spring Mount Mennonite Church—with a slight edit to the title. After helping a local relief worker collect supplies for the people of Haiti (following the devastating earthquake in 2010), she deemed us, “The Little Church That Could.” I think this name calls to mind both our history, as well as how we seek to participate in what God is doing in our community today.
Our congregation is located in the Perkiomen Valley—a community known today for recreational activities at Spring Mountain and the Perkiomen Trail, for hosting the Philadelphia Folk Fest, and for having the best cheesesteak (at the Collegeville Italian Bakery and Moccia’s Train Stop, and I am right about this). A century ago, it was a resort town for residents from Philadelphia. Local Mennonites found ways to build relationships with neighbors through Sunday School, summer Bible School, and eventually the founding of our congregation.
We believe that each member is a minister, and that it’s important to sit around the table with each other. A monthly Table Church service helps us worship in an unconventional way and lets us practice valued aspects of Anabaptist tradition—communal interpretation of scripture, and listening for the guidance of the Spirit. As fellow pastor Melissa Florer-Bixler writes, “In our Mennonite church, the interpretation of the Bible doesn’t belong to the preacher alone. It belongs to us, to God’s people. We ask questions, comment on what we’ve heard, fill in the gaps, tell each other ‘thank you’ for the work done here among us.”[1] Ok, sometimes we argue a little bit, too. Yet the Spirit illuminates.
Building relationships with neighbors continues and helps us notice where God is at work.
Food insecurity is an issue here, which has led us to participate in supporting the Daily Bread Community Food Pantry and the Perk Valley Power Packs program. More recently, we sensed a deeper way that we could meet needs and also make friends in our neighborhood was by hosting free Community Meals. The meals are very well attended, and we hope that the neighborhood will view our space as their “meeting house” too.
The last few years have put us in contact with local veterans. Some of us received trauma training specific to military and combat veterans, and the whole congregation has demonstrated compassion to foster healing from the wounds of war. In cooperation with a local veterans’ network, we hope to soon establish a healing circle for veterans at our meetinghouse —a restorative, safe space where veterans can share their stories and civilians can listen and hold space for them. We are learning to see these relationships as a way we live into our calling as a Peace Church.
In order to better serve our community, we desire to make our building more accessible to all. Part of this work will entail raising support for physical upgrades. But it has also meant learning to support our members with autism in worship and church life and to learn from their giftedness. Our worship space includes a picture schedule (icons that depict the worship order) and a “success station” with sensory items, seat cushions, and information about local service providers.
The Spirit continues to form this “Little Church That Could,” and it is a joy to serve Christ together.
Prayer requests for Spring Mount:
* for the comforting presence of the Holy Spirit to surround our congregation, as a number of our members are currently struggling with illness, hospitalizations, and the loss of loved ones.
* prayer as we seek to build relationships in our community, that as we meet new people these may turn into growing friendships
[1] Melissa Florer-Bixler, Fire By Night: Finding God in the Pages of the Old Testament (Harrisonburg, VA: Herald Press, 2019) 35.
Congregational Profile: Zion Mennonite Church
Zion Mennonite Church, Souderton, PA, asks you to pray for youth who will soon be baptized, for their new Associate Pastor of Faith Formation, Jordan Luther, who will join them in June, and that Zion may grow in grace as they follow God’s call in their community. See the below video to learn more about Zion and their Bean Bag Food Program.
Building Connections in Florida
by Mary Nitzsche, Associate Executive Minister, Marta Castillo, Leadership Minister of Intercultural Formation, and Javier Marquez, Intercultural Communication Associate through the International Volunteer Exchange Program (IVEP)
Spending a long January weekend enjoying 85-degree temperatures was only one benefit conference team members Marta Castillo, Mary Nitzsche, and Javier Marquez experienced during their recent visit to Florida.
The primary purpose of the trip was to learn to know the pastors of eight congregations (formerly all members of Southeast Conference) who are in the process of joining our new conference. Marta, Mary, and Javier joined nine pastors and their Leadership Minister, Marco Güete, at their quarterly cluster meeting in Sarasota, FL. The day was filled with worship, personal and congregational sharing, prayer, fellowship, tasty and abundant Colombian food, laughter, and a review of the transfer of credential process.
The team was warmly welcomed by the Florida pastors, some who are just beginning ministry and many who have been in ministry for over twenty years. Most of these pastors served in other professions as they began ministry or planted new churches. While their countries of origin varied (Colombia, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Mexico), a unifying spirit of faith, mission, and deep respect permeated their interactions.
During the meetings, pastors shared the pain of their former conference breaking apart and choosing to leave Mennonite Church USA. Desiring to remain in the denomination, the group carefully explored which conference they wished to join. After much prayer and discernment, the pastors felt God leading them to join our new conference. Their discernment process was guided by assessing which conference best aligned with their beliefs and values. Many of the pastors also had prior connections with Steve Kriss, Executive Conference Minister, and other conference leaders, which led to a strong sense of trust as well.
On Sunday, our team was also warmly received in local congregations for worship. Mary preached at College Hill Mennonite Church in the morning while Marta preached at Iglesia Evangelica Menonita Shalom in the afternoon. Both congregations are located in Tampa, FL. After the services, we were hosted by church members for a flavorful meal representing their countries of origin.
Monday morning, several Credentials Committee members joined Marta and Mary via Zoom, for a conversation with four of the pastors. Most of the pastors will be transferring their ministry credentials to our conference. When asked about hopes for their interactions with the conference, they expressed a desire to build more connections, foster collegial relationships of mutual respect, give and receive mutual aid, and offer ideas for the growth of God’s kingdom. These congregations have much to share about connecting to the local community, particularly in urban ministry.
Reflecting on their experiences, Marta and Mary are convinced these pastors and congregations will bless our new conference. The Spanish-speaking churches and leaders will bring support and new energy to our existing Spanish-speaking churches and leaders. They also bring church-planting experience and enthusiasm. Geography will continue to be a challenge in keeping connected; Marco Guete will serve as Leadership Minister to the Florida congregations, essential for keeping connections strong despite the geographic distance.
While Mary and Marta returned home, Javier stayed on in Florida to collect stories and pictures of pastors and congregations. Look for pastor and congregational profiles in our newsletter this year to continue learning to know how the kingdom of God is growing and flourishing in Florida.
The Old Has Passed Away
by Emily Ralph Servant, Director of Communication
Way back in 2012, Franconia Conference’s communication was all over the place.
Our website was set up to automatically send out a new article anytime it was posted (sometimes it notified people when a small change to the website was made!) and we sent a separate email for every announcement, event reminder, or broader-church blurb. This meant that, some weeks, our subscriber list was receiving an email every day and, some weeks, none at all.
We knew it was time to try something different.
Enter “Intersectings” (it was a play on words from our quarterly paper newsletter, “Intersections”), a weekly digest for connecting congregations, pastors, and delegates across the conference. Intersectings’ original tagline was “where our stories meet,” and we included news articles, blogs, social media posts, announcements, and event information—everything together in one place. We hoped that the predictability of this new publication would make it easier for our pastors and delegates to stay up-to-date on what was happening without getting lost in an avalanche of emails.
The going was rocky at first—it was hard work to find enough content to fill the newsletter each week and we sometimes got complaints from people that they weren’t being kept informed of what was happening. But as our communication team got used to the rhythms of the newsletter and as members of the conference consistently began opening and reading it, we found that our communication improved. It was working.
It’s now almost eight years later, and we’ve decided that, once again, it’s time for a change.
This issue is our last Intersectings. Early in 2020, we’ll roll out something new that reflects the values and needs of our New Conference.
Earlier this year, we began sharing “Bridges,” an email newsletter to keep members of both Franconia and Eastern District Conferences up-to-date on what was happening during the reconciliation process and to help us get to know each another better. Beginning next week, Bridges will continue weekly through the rest of this year and into the next. For the time being, watch Bridges for event information, announcements, congregational profiles, and other important information related to the reconciliation process.
Then, once our New Conference has launched, be on the lookout for our new email newsletter. This newsletter will automatically be distributed to anyone who has subscribed to either Intersectings or Bridges (although you can always unsubscribe if you’re not a credentialed leader or delegate!). This new newsletter will include the best of both of our email newsletters—news articles, blogs, announcements and event notifications, and getting-to-know-you articles and profiles—as well as new content that reflects our changing times and contexts.
As we prepare for this change, we’ll be laying low for a couple of months, focusing on all the work that goes into building something new—a new website, a new paper newsletter, a new email newsletter, a new social media presence. We’d appreciate your feedback and suggestions: What have you liked about our communication in the past that you’d like to see continue? What new elements would you like to see includeed? What changes do you think would make our communication more effective? E-mail me at eralphservant@mosaicmennonites.org.
We work hard to bring you interesting and informative content that will help you stay connected to others in our Conference and to the work of our Conference staff, board, and committees. But we know the secret to good communication lies with you—all this work is for nothing if you don’t read it.
So thanks for reading Intersectings all these years. The old has passed away, but—behold! Something new is coming.
A New Conference, A New Creation
by Mary Nitzsche, Franconia Conference Associate Executive Minister
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:17-18).
Eastern District Conference and Franconia Mennonite Conference are on the verge of becoming something new, a new conference with a new name and structure. Since our joint Assembly meetings last November and May, our journey of becoming a new, reconciled conference has been a work in progress.
Over the summer months, four committees were formed—Business of the Conference, Implementation, Conference Related Ministries, and Naming committees—to give more definition and detail to the Structure and Identity Taskforce recommendations.
As a staff member, I was appointed to the Implementation Committee, charged with creating bylaws for the new conference. The rest of the committee members included Sherri Brokopp Binder, Scott Roth, Charlotte Hunsberger, Ken Burkholder and Danilo Sanchez. Our committee met seven times over the past five months.
Working on bylaws is tedious and time-consuming. Much of the current Franconia Conference bylaws content remains in the new bylaws with minor revisions. Some sections in the current bylaws were deleted, since they contained outdated information or unnecessary detail. Some sections were added to reflect the Structure and Identity Taskforce recommendations.
Input of delegates, staff, boards, or the three other committees was gathered. Since the May Assembly, many opinions were given voice and consideration; conversations were engaging and sometimes intense. Focus groups offered feedback on a name for the new conference. The four committees and the Structure and Identity Taskforce shared information and exchanged suggestions.
By the beginning of September, the work of the committees was entrusted to the Structure and Identity Taskforce for final review and revision. The Scattered meetings this month were intended to inform delegates of the refining work of the four committees and invite clarifying questions or suggestions before the Fall Assembly affirmation to be one reconciled conference.
As two conferences come together in a spirit of reconciliation, this process of birthing a new conference has been one of prayerful, discerning, and compromising work. The new structure represents a more congregational model of relating and sharing together in a common mission rather than a hierarchal structure where the staff and board dictate. As congregations join the new conference, we commit to building relationships with other member congregations and its people: hearing and valuing one another’s stories (I hope you are reading congregational profiles) and discerning together what is best for the whole. This relational and congregational model takes more time and requires listening, humility, flexibility, and openness to mutual transformation to be a conference reflecting the diversity that God’s Spirit is continuing to call and form.
Many of us will not be able to affirm every detail of the new structure and bylaws. May we all come to Assembly in a spirit of openness, humility, trust, and commitment to the new thing God’s Spirit has been doing among us. The “old conferences” are passing away and a new conference is being created as a sign of God’s ongoing reconciliation ministry in the way of Jesus.
Life Together Gets More Interesting
Since 2011, Franconia and Eastern District Conferences have come together for an annual fall Assembly holding separate business sessions, yet enjoying joint times of worship on Friday evening and Saturday morning, sharing in the recognition of newly credentialed leaders, and lunch. This year on November 3 and 4, 2017 they gathered at Dock Mennonite Academy in Souderton, Pennsylvania to do the same. However, new this year, a time of joint meeting was held on Saturday afternoon that focused on reviewing recommendations from the Exploring Reconciliation Reference Team that the two Conferences voted to commission at the 2016 Assembly.
The Assembly was centered on Psalm 133:1,3b, “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.” The theme was Life Together, as the focus of the Assembly was that while these two conference may have split 170 years ago, they continue to do life together. A large part of the Assembly business this year was to look at whether these conferences would take the next step in their relationship, to look even more intentionally at reconciliation and what it would look like if they were to merge into one conference.
The weekend began with Friday night worship led by Tami Good of Swamp Mennonite Church, which included a worship team of folks whose first languages were Indonesian, Spanish and English and who came from congregations in South Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Upper Bucks and Montgomery Counties. The opening prayer was given in Indonesian, Spanish, English and even Pennsylvania Dutch. Videos were shown that highlighted Souderton Mennonite Church’s Vocation as Mission internship program, “for young adults actively pursuing God’s kingdom in local communities.” Highlighted were the fact that the interns come from congregations across both conferences — most not even realizing there were two conferences — and the relationships built between the interns through Bible study, leadership and social issues trainings, as they worked side by side with local non-profits, businesses and ministries. The other video shown was about the ministries of Deep Run East and Deep Run West — one Franconia Conference church and one Eastern District church that happen to be across the street from one another. Their pastors, Ken Burkholder of Deep Run East and Rodger Schmell of Deep Run West, shared about how their congregations do ministry in such close proximity and how their relationship has changed over the years since their initial split. The worship time was followed by the annual ice cream social provided by Longacres Dairy.
Saturday morning, delegates began their day in separate Eastern District and Franconia Conference business sessions. This was a historic day for Franconia Conference as they became bi-coastal and accepted four new congregations as members, one from Flushing, New York and three from the Los Angeles, California area. Bethany Elshaddai Creative Community in New York is pastored by Hendy Stevans and has been connecting with Franconia Conference for about two years. Hendy is currently a student at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, attending classes at the Lancaster, Pennsylvania campus. 
The congregations in the Los Angeles area consist of Jemaat Kristen Indonesia Anugerah (JKIA) pastored by Virgo Handoyo, Indonesian Community Christian Fellowship pastored by Makmur Halim, and International Worship Church pastored by Buddy Hannarto. All three have had relationships with Franconia Conference for over a decade. The four congregations’ members are largely from Indonesia and joined with Franconia Conference pastors Aldo Siahaan of Philadelphia Praise Center and Beny Krisbianto of Nations Worship Center to share in a song. To learn more about these congregations check out their congregational profiles here. Following the 98% vote of affirmation to welcome these congregations, the delegates joined in singing songs in both English and Indonesian as a welcome.
The joint Franconia and Eastern District Conference Saturday worship was a time of song, remembering those who have passed on in the last year, and anointing 15 newly credentialed leaders. Following the anointing of the newly credentialed leaders, the leaders were dispersed throughout the auditorium and those in attendance were invited to be prayed over by them. It was truly a time of commissioning and sending forth. There was also a time of recognition of the Centennial of Mennonite Women USA and a video celebrating Eastern District and Franconia Conference’s shared Sistering Committee, a local chapter of Mennonite Women USA.
Following lunch by Landis’ Market, the delegates from Eastern District and Franconia Conferences joined one another around tables to hear from the Exploring Reconciliation Reference Team. The team reviewed their report that had been previously sent to the delegates, which can be accessed here. They also highlighted their recommendations. At their tables, the delegates were then invited to discuss any affirmations, concerns or questions they had regarding the report or the recommendations put forth. These were recorded on sheets of paper and submitted to be compiled and shared with those tasked at carrying out the recommendations, should the delegates vote to move forward with them.
The core recommendation from the team is that Eastern District and Franconia Conference “enter a formal engagement process for the purposes of healing and reconciliation and with the intention of becoming a single, unified conference by November 2019.” In order to do this, the team recommended the forming of two teams: one to work intentionally at addressing the “spiritual and emotional components of reconciliation,” known as the “Healing and Reconciliation Team”, and the other being the “Identity Development and Structural Implementation Team,” tasked with managing “the process of forming a single unified conference, with particular attention to the structure, staffing, financial, and cultural realities of creating a single conference from the two existing conferences.”
Nancy Kauffman, Mennonite Church USA Denominational Minister for the two Conferences, closed the joint time in prayer.
After a short break, the conferences gathered in separate rooms where their delegates recorded on flip chart paper their largest affirmations and concerns regarding moving forward with the recommendations. Present were David Brubaker and Roxy Allen Kioko, consultants from Eastern Mennonite University who had been hired in 2016 and were working with the Exploring Reconciliation Reference Team. Following this and some open microphone time for questions and answers, the delegates voted. With a 90% affirmation from Franconia Conference and a 99% affirmation from Eastern District Conference, both agreed to move forward with working at reconciliation and exploring more formally what a merged conference will look like.
This means that over the next few weeks, both Conference Boards will be looking for nominations for the two teams presented in the recommendations. The goal will be to have these teams appointed no later than the end of the calendar year. According to the recommendations, there is a goal for the Healing and Reconciliation Team to hold a Reconciliation service at a Spring 2018 Assembly, and planning will therefore need to begin quickly. The Identity and Structural Development Team will, over the next two years, work to develop a shared mission and vision, a new organization chart and budget to be presented to the delegates in 2019. Therefore, a decision on whether or not these two conferences will merge will not come until 2019. Over the next few weeks, leaders of both conferences will work to address questions raised about the process. Keep your eye out for more information on that. Nominations are due by Friday, December 1 at midnight.
To close this historic day, the two conferences joined together in song as they continue to look forward to Life Together.