Blooming Glen

Introducing Blooming Glen Mennonite Church

August 15, 2013 by Emily Ralph Servant

The people at Blooming Glen Mennonite Church are PEOPLE ON A JOURNEY WITH JESUS!

The congregation meets weekly at 9:30 am for worship with Sunday school following. Blooming Glen is a 259 year old, 725 member congregation that meets at 713 Blooming Glen Road, Blooming Glen, Pa. The congregation is served by three pastors: Firman Gingerich, Lead Pastor; Michael Bishop, Pastor of Music and Worship; and Mary Nitzsche, Pastor of Pastoral Care and Spiritual Formation. Kim Moyer serves as Children’s Ministry Director, relating to more than ninety children. Kim shares ministry to the Junior High Youth with Donna Wilkins, Interim Youth Pastor, who also relates to the senior high youth. Four lay persons are currently serving as sponsors and teachers for the young adults.

The congregation is deeply committed to Christian education with strong mentoring, Sunday school, and Summer Bible School programs. Pastor Michael Bishop directs the adult and junior choirs and also plans major musical worship events throughout the year. Hearty congregational singing and instrumental music are part of worship expressions weekly.

The Congregational Leadership Board provides leadership along with five foundation groups: Elders, Gifts Discernment, Trustees, Stewardship, and Spiritual Formation. The Leadership Board is challenging the congregation to reach out to our local community, encouraging the congregation to listen and learn and extend hospitality.

Members are involved in many ministries in the community and each Sunday school class partners with a mission worker. School kits and health kits are collected for Mennonite Central Committee weekly and on Thanksgiving eve congregants bring food to help people in need. In November, homeless families participating in the Interfaith Hospitality Network are hosted in the newly renovated farmhouse.

Pastor Mary Nitzsche gives leadership to the pastoral care ministry and eight pastoral visitors assist. Sunday school class shepherds and deacons also provide care to class members, seniors and those with special needs.

Successful Conference, Seminary partnership concludes

July 30, 2013 by Emily Ralph Servant

IME — Steve Kriss (top right) and Derek Cooper (second row, fourth from the right) have partnered for five years to take seminary students on intercultural learning trips, including this spring’s trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. Photo by Dennis Dong.

by John Tyson, Salford congregation

Theological educators believe headfirst immersion into unfamiliar cultural terrain is a requirement for preparing church leaders in the context of the twenty-first century. For students at Biblical Theological Seminary (Hatfield, Pa.), a lifelong commitment to intercultural ministry begins at the second year mark of their LEAD Master of Divinity Program.

To meet the complex and unconventional demands of intercultural education, Biblical Seminary and Franconia Conference have partnered together to create the Intercultural Ministry Experience (IME). For the past five years, Franconia’s director of leadership cultivation, Steve Kriss, and Biblical’s director of the LEAD program, Derek Cooper, have led a total of seventy-five students on journeys far and wide, from Israel/Palestine to Italy to Cambodia and Vietnam.

For Dr. Derek Cooper, the ten-day trips abroad produce formative insights and questions that dwell with students well beyond their time in seminary. “It is my favorite component of the LEAD program, and students receive a very concentrated educational experience,” said Cooper. “Students always come away from the trip changed, challenged, and more culturally aware. It’s completely transformative.”

“We also talk a lot about contextualization, and we learn much about how the local Christian community addresses issues relating to history, culture, politics, and world religions,” Cooper added.

Josh Meyer, associate pastor of Franconia congregation (Telford, Pa.), participated in the 2011 trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. Meyer identified practices of learning and listening as the educational core of his experience. “This was not a mission trip where rich, white Americans did a service project and ‘brought Jesus’ to the forgotten corners of the globe,” he said. “Rather, this was a learning experience where we went as students, not saviors; as listeners, not experts; as those interested in exploring ways in which God was already living and moving and active in the culture, not as those bringing Jesus to a place where, prior to our arrival, God was not present…This approach to cross-cultural study resonated deeply with my own wariness of short-term missions and helped to shape my thinking on how we as people of faith engage with the rest of the world.”

The required IME provided Donna Merow her first opportunity to explore spaces beyond U.S. borders. Now pastor of Ambler (Pa.) congregation, Merow recalled how her trip to Israel/Palestine transformed both her understanding of ancient scripture as well as the present Israeli/Palestinian conflict. “The reality of walking where Jesus did, of visiting his birthplace, the village he called home, the Sea of Galilee, and the site of his death has changed the way I read the Bible,” Merow explained. “Seeing and touching the separation wall, staying in the homes of Palestinian Christians, and visiting one of the multigenerational refugee camps has made me ask hard questions about government policy and church practice.”

For many travelers, encountering weathered, historically nuanced places reveals how tender the balance is between the past and the future. This was one of the major lessons absorbed by KrisAnne Swartley, associate pastor of Doylestown (Pa.) congregation, on her trip to Italy. “I was struck by the history there, and how it is preserved and revered, and how that can be both a strength and a weakness,” Swartley reflected. “The strength is in remembering our story, remembering how the faithful who went before us worked through questions of faithfulness in the midst of change/struggle. The weakness can be that we are so trapped by traditions of the past that we become irrelevant in the present and into the future. I continue to think about this balance, to pray that I remember and learn from the church of the past but also [have courage] to walk into the future bravely, not afraid to let go of what was as the Spirit gives new wisdom.”

While this spring marks the end of the Biblical/Franconia IME partnership, its conclusion is cause for celebration, according to Kriss. “The model proved to be an effective partnership because both the seminary and the Conference benefitted,” he said. The Conference offered resources of intercultural education and global networking, he observed, while the seminary provided students who were positioned to deeply engage. “The surprising outcome,” Kriss said, “was to build relationships with Anabaptist students on campus which helped Conference congregations to have new connections with potential pastors. And these new potential pastors had already been shaped somewhat by Anabaptist ways of engaging the world. It was a fruitful endeavor, not without struggles at times, but one that represents effective and strategic partnering in healthy ways.”

God@Work: A Persistent Morning Cue

December 5, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

by Brenda Shelly, Blooming Glen

I am an unapologetic snooze-button smacker. It is my habit to set my alarm for 5:30 each morning just for the pleasure of slapping (and ignoring) it several times before I am forced to actually rise from my soft, warm bed. The snooze button is insistent, chirping at regular intervals to rouse me from sleep and I’ve noticed lately that one of the persistently obnoxious intervals has been occurring at exactly 6:06 a.m.

This may seem inconsequential (even daft) to a Lutheran, a Baptist, a Pentecostal, or a Presbyterian. But last month in my foggy morning Mennonite mind, the association clicked. The beeping and the number have since been a recurrent morning cue, courtesy of the unrelenting connections in my brain. I’d like to think this is God’s sense of humor tickling the synapses in my brain, though some may say He’s got no time for such nonsense. Call me illogical, but I find Him to be very involved in the intricacies of my day; my mornings and waking are no exception.

So last month, the annoying beeping and the time on my clock spoke loudly and clearly, nudging me out of my morning mist and urging me to turn to page number 606 in the hymnal.

Since then, I’ve begun my days at 6:06 a.m. with a robust internal morning song. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. The song is in my heart and in my mind as I peel back the covers and try to find my footing on the carpet. Praise Him all creatures here below. At the sound of my steps stumbling toward the shower, Jasmine the cat begins to howl a morning greeting from downstairs. Praise Him above ye heavenly host. So early in the morning, my mind is drawn to the countless blessings I receive each day. Who am I, mere mortal, given the opportunity to praise my Heavenly Father in the company of heavenly beings? Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. There is none like Him. And it resonates in the very core of my being before the warm spray of water even hits me in the face.

God works in large sweeping movements leaving his indelible mark on hearts and lives. But his glory is also found blossoming from the tiny cracks of damaged sidewalks and in the ordinary details we too often fail to appreciate. His interest and involvement in our lives exceed our imaginations, and I venture to suggest He would love for us to discover blessings far surpassing those for which we stoop to ask. Hallelujah. Amen.

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Listen to Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow at last year’s Mennonite Church USA convention.

A Franconia Conference Summer

September 27, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

We asked for stories from summer activities from around the Conference and got this jewel from Kim Moyer, Blooming Glen congregation:

The theme for our Summer Bible School was “Be Bold! God is with You!” The children learned through songs, dramas, stories, crafts, and games, that God is with them, even when they are scared.

One mother told me a story about her 5 year old son who has always been afraid to go into the basement of their home by himself. The week after SBS, he asked his mom to go with him to the basement so that he could get his blanket. His mom couldn’t go with him at the moment, so he decided he would try to go by himself. When he returned to his mom with his blanket, he told her, “I was able to go down in the basement because I kept telling myself, God is always with us, God is always with us.”

A piece of SBS that caused a lot of excitement among the children was an offering project competition between the girls and the boys. The children were raising money for a Mennonite Mission Network project, which sends children in South Africa to Bethany Bible School, a camp that teaches the children about Jesus. It costs $20 to send one child to the camp, and the boys and girls at SBS were competing against each other to send the most children to camp. If the boys won, then the Children’s Ministry Director (me) would get a pie in her face, and if the girl’s won, then the Lead Pastor would get the pie in his face.

The children took this competition seriously and were bringing in their piggy banks, doing extra chores to raise money, and asking grandparents to write out checks. By the end of the week, the 70 children at SBS collectively raised $1,162.53, sending 58 children to Bethany Bible School! Although the boys won, and I got a pie in the face, it was decided that the real winners were the 58 children that would now be able to attend the Bible Camp.

Thanks, Kim, and everyone else who shared their photos and stories this summer! And if you haven’t already read them, check out these stories about Peace Camps, Bethany’s anniversary celebration, a special service at Plains, Salford’s listening project, Kingdom Builders construction in Philly, Germantown Historic Trust’s painting project … and this is just some of what has been happening in our Conference this summer.

Enjoy these fun photos that were taken at camps, picnics, outdoor services, Bible Schools, and more. If you’d like to add photos from your congregation’s summer to this gallery, send them to Emily with captions and photo credits.

View the photo album

Conference students receive Everence scholarships

August 1, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

SOUDERTON, PA – Everence has announced that three Franconia Conference students are among 42 recipients of this year’s Everence college scholarships. The scholarship program encourages young people to explore the integration of faith and finances while helping them on their educational journeys.

The scholarship awardees are:

Jacob Ford, Souderton, PA; Jacob attends Franconia Mennonite Church and is a student at New York University.
Sarah Nafziger, Mohnton, PA; Sarah attends Vincent Mennonite Church and is a student at Penn State University.
Rachel Speigle, Telford, PA; Rachel attends Blooming Glen Mennonite Church and is a student at Northeastern University.

Nearly 200 students from across the country applied for scholarships for the 2012-2013 academic year. Recipients were chosen based on academics, extracurricular activities, leadership, community involvement and responses to an essay question.

Students wrote essays about someone who models the concept of stewardship.

“We were encouraged to see that so many students have people in their lives who set an example of how to be good stewards of their time and resources,” said Phyllis Mishler, member benefits manager for Everence. “They’re learning important lessons about how much impact a spirit of generosity can have.”

One student received a $3,000 scholarship, three received $2,000 scholarships and 38 others received $500 scholarships for the upcoming school year. For a complete list of scholarship recipients and their photos, visit Everence.com.

Rachel Speigle, Blooming Glen congregation

Everence helps individuals, organizations and congregations integrate finances with faith through a national team of advisers and representatives. Everence offers banking, insurance, and financial services with community benefits and stewardship education. Everence is a ministry of Mennonite Church USA and other churches. To learn more, visit Everence.com or call (800) 348-7468.

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Did you know about the Area Conference Leadership Fund? The ACLF gives grants for seminary training to members of Franconia and Eastern District conferences. Find out more about it or make a donation here.

Walking together on the road to Easter

April 18, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

by Emily Ralph, eralphservant@mosaicmennonites.org

It’s a familiar story, especially for those who have grown up in the church. So how do we retell the story of Jesus’ passion and resurrection year after year in ways that open us up, once again, to the pain, the beauty, and the wonder of Jesus’ sacrifice and victory over death?

dove scripture picture — Members at Souderton congregation contributed artwork made of scripture. Photo provided.

The season of Lent, celebrated for the forty days leading up to Easter, marks Christ’s journey to Jerusalem. It invites those who follow Jesus to walk with him by remembering his life, practicing disciplines of fasting and sacrifice, and engaging in deeper commitment to their brothers and sisters in the church.

Souderton (Pa.) congregation began Lent by diving deeper into Mennonite Church USA’s “Year of the Bible” with an art project. Members of the congregation were invited to choose a word or phrase from scripture on which they wanted to meditate and to write it over and over on a panel using colors to create images. These panels became banners that hung in the front of their sanctuary during the Lenten season.

Souderton wasn’t the only congregation to celebrate the imaginative Spirit. Swamp (Quakertown, Pa.) spent Lent exploring God as creator, “littering” the steps of their platform with items created by members of the congregation, symbols of God’s unique creative work in them. Their children memorized Psalm 139, which they recited on Palm Sunday after leading the entire congregation in a procession, joyfully waving palm branches.

Plains maps — Plains congregation used maps to illustrate their prayers for their region, country, and world. Photo by Dawn Ranck.

Palm Sunday marked the beginning of Holy Week and was the day when Jesus entered Jerusalem to the adoration of the crowds. The week soon turned more somber, however, as Jesus ate his final meal with his disciples, washing their feet, and predicting his betrayal. These events are remembered on Maundy Thursday.

Conference congregations reenacted Christ’s humility with their own experiences of footwashing. Traditionally, Mennonites have practiced footwashing in groups divided by gender. At Perkiomenville (Pa.) congregation this year, footwashing was one of several stations that members could visit, which, for the first time, allowed married couples or family members to wash each other’s feet.

Franconia Conference members joined Christians from all over the Philadelphia region for a Good Friday vigil outside a gun shop. Photo by Jim McIntire.

In addition to footwashing, Plains (Hatfield, Pa.) congregation acted out Christ’s care and humility by setting up prayer stations with large maps of the world, the country, and their region. Members could pray for and mark areas on each map with a dot or a heart.

Compassion for the community continued to spread into Good Friday, the day when followers of Jesus remember his death on the cross. Members of churches all over the Philadelphia region gathered outside a gun shop in the city for a Good Friday vigil. As these believers stood against violence in the city, others gathered in Good Friday services to remember that Jesus’ death made peace and reconciliation with God, and one another, possible.

Salford power outage — Salford congregation spent part of its Good Friday service in the dark, thanks to an unexpected power outage. Photo by Emily Ralph

Just when Good Friday seemed like it couldn’t get any darker, Salford (Harleysville, Pa.) congregation’s evening service was suddenly interrupted by a power outage. For just a few, brief moments the congregation was surprised by the darkness and powerless to do anything but sit in the shadow of the cross.

There was a hush in Franconia Conference on the Saturday of Holy Week, as though the Church was holding its breath, waiting for the joy they knew was coming on Easter morning.

And the joy did come—in colors and flowers, in song and story, in food and hope and promise. Crosses were draped in white and lilies and hyacinths and forsythia decorated sanctuaries. Congregations met as the sun rose, around breakfast tables, and in their morning services to celebrate an empty tomb.

Philadelphia Praise Center viewed a video in which church members took to the city streets to ask people about the significance of Easter. Blooming Glen (Pa.) congregation acted out the resurrection story in a chilly sunrise service and a member at Deep Run East (Perkasie, Pa.) built a custom tomb to display on Easter morning. In Vermont, members of Bethany congregation participated in an ecumenical sunrise service on the side of Mt Killington and then, after brunch, were led in worship by a new generation of storytellers–their children.

It’s a familiar story, and yet it’s born fresh each year as we once again walk with Jesus through Lent, Holy Week, and the Easter season. In this story, we recognize what theologian H.S. Bender once wrote: we live on the resurrection side of the cross. May we continue to celebrate Christ’s resurrection by living our lives as a resurrected people.

He is risen: He is risen indeed!

View the photo gallery

Franconia Conference board and staff gather together to listen, dream and heal at Blooming Glen

August 23, 2011 by Emily Ralph Servant

by Emily Ralph, eralphservant@mosaicmennonites.org

Blooming Glen, Pa—Franconia Mennonite Conference board and staff gathered at Blooming Glen Mennonite’s pavilion on August 22 for a time of healng prayer, sharing and dreaming for the future.

According to Conference Executive Minister, Ertell Whigham, the retreat was designed to develop a common sense of ownership and understanding of the conference’s purpose. “Strategy without passion or commitment doesn’t get an organization anywhere,” he told the group, inviting them to share experiences that have excited them about Conference life and direction.

Noah Kolb (right) laughs with Ertell Whigham and Marta Castillo at the Franconia Conference board and staff retreat. Photo by Emily Ralph.

“Part of my deep passion is seeing young leaders develop and do all that God has created them to do,” said Noah Kolb, pastor of ministerial leadership. He smiled across the room at Joe Hackman of Harleysville, Pa, board member-at-large. “I look across here and see Joe, who I blessed as a baby—I followed his fascinating growth in leadership. It’s that kind of thing that just really excites me.”

Finance Committee chair, Randy Nyce of Hatfield, Pa, sees that kind of formation as central to the church’s purpose. “The core problem in society is our separation from God,” he said. The role of the church is to “help people to build healthy relationships, both with each other and with God.”

Noel Santiago, LEADership Minister for spiritual transformation, asked each person to imagine that they were walking their dogs and heard someone in the park sharing a testimony of Christ’s transformation in his life. “That’s John’s story,” he said, smiling broadly. Just two days before, John and seven others had decided to follow Jesus after hearing the Good News at GodQuest’s Souderton (Pa) Worship in the Park (photo gallery).

And these are only some of the lives that have been touched as Franconia Conference congregations have stepped beyond their walls and entered their communities.

For Philadelphia Praise Center, said Steve Kriss, director of leadership cultivation, being missional means that, “at their block party [last week], vegans were flipping burgers for their neighbors.”

Board member Beny Krisbianto prays blessings over Conference staff. Photo by Emily Ralph.

Many of these kinds of events are made possible through conference missional grants. Conrad Martin, director of finance, oversees the grant process. Each grant application includes the congregation’s desired outcomes, he told the group. “This little grant that we’re giving them,” he said excitedly, “if it’ll end in their ‘expected results,’ was well worth it!”

Rina Rampogu, board member-at-large from Quakertown, Pa, reflected on how apathetic she was to the conference’s work when she was a lay leader. All that changed when she was nominated to her current position, she said. “When I became a board member, it became vibrant for me. . . . God has brought us together to see what congregations are doing.”

The board members have been introduced to congregational activities through individual gatherings with church leadership teams. “Congregational visits are huge,” agreed Nelson Shenk of Bally, Pa, Ministerial Committee chair. “Those visits have made us a better board,” added Jim Longacre of Barto, Pa, board member-at-large.

The conference board and staff were particularly struck by the width of cultural differences within the conference, beyond those of ethnicity: cultures of wealth, technology, generation, or theology. “We have many different paradigms for how we understand God’s work in the world,” said Joe Hackman, “yet we can still partner together.”

“We don’t need to think alike,” pointed out LEADership Minister, Ray Yoder, “but we do need to think together.” This means open, candid, and often difficult conversations, he added.

The foundation of these conversations is developing a culture of prayer—which could be an intercultural experience in itself, suggested Marta Beidler Castillo of Norristown, Pa, board member-at-large. “This is a growing cultural edge for us,” she said.

Conference board and staff gather for healing prayer as the sun sets. Photo by Emily Ralph.

Conference board and staff gathered for a prayer of healing and commissioning together as a step toward a hopeful future, recognizing the last months of conflict, struggle and leadership transitions. As the sun set quietly over Bucks County fields, board member Beny Krisbianto of Philadelphia prayed that the Conference would recognize together that a new day was beginning. A final blessing included Ertell Whigham’s prayer, which was based in Philippians 1: 9-11: that love would overflow and that knowledge and understanding would increase toward continued fruitfulness in a way that brings glory to God.

Celebrating Souderton: A missional direction

July 14, 2011 by Emily Ralph Servant

by Scott Hackman, Salford, scott@myohai.com

Celebrate Souderton was a missional faith experiment birthed from the imaginations of the Open Hand Initiative, a group of people who want to help local communities become places of belonging, using generosity and collaboration.

The context of society has shifted over the past several decades and the church has been pushed to the margins. Many people believe this offers an opportunity for the church to reclaim its mission. Celebrate Souderton gave Mennonite leaders the opportunity to take risks and experiment with missional impulses, as we attempted to answer what it might look like to express our faith in a local context during Lent.

The goal of this event was to collaborate with local faith communities, businesses, and non-profits to create space for belonging and opportunities for generosity. On Friday, March 11th we started by hosting a concert and coffee in downtown Souderton. Over 200 people participated in the evening, which included free local music and the opportunity for conversation at Main Street Java. From there, we continued the conversation at Main St. Java with Sunday evening gatherings to share stories about faith in the neighborhood in the context of themes from the Sermon on the Mount. Over 150 unique people came out during these weekly gatherings.

Our final event happened on April 23rd when 12 churches, 13 business sponsors, and several Main Street businesses joined together to celebrate the people in their neighborhood. Over 1,000 neighbors showed up. There were three art galleries displaying art by local high school students, local artists, and those in the community with disabilities (through Peaceful Living). A kids’ station was presented by Salford Mennonite and congregations like Blooming Glen and Souderton Mennonite provided free food. We also took over the main street parking lot for a large KidsZone managed by BranchCreek Community Church, complete with inflatables, hot dogs, cotton candy, and face painting. The youth group of Franconia Mennonite starting things right by dressing up as Scooby-Doo and Elmo to invite the neighbors to join in the fun.

The vision for this faith experiment comes from the underlying impulse to participate in the reign of God by following Jesus. We do this through sharing stories, events, and education. Together we’re exploring the next steps for the common good in the neighborhood whether that’s in Souderton or beyond.

Blooming Glen

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