Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Christ Fellowship

Congregational Profile: Christ Fellowship

by

We are an evolving Mennonite fellowship, located in Allentown, PA. We are dedicated to spreading truth and love throughout our city in Jesus’ name.

Christ Fellowship is located on West Chew Street in Allentown, PA.

Our church began when our Pastor, Sam Claudio Sr., was invited by First Mennonite Church of Allentown to join their staff to provide ministry to the surrounding community. As First Mennonite Church’s years of ministry came to an end, we continued in ministry and remained in the building. 

Today, we are a group of approximately 30 people of Peruvian, Colombian, Honduran and Puerto Rican descent. While we are bilingual (Spanish/English), we hold our services in English. This helps us minister to those around us.

Our primary focus is to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all those with whom we are in contact. We understand this to be a spoken, taught, lived, and serving message. Thus, all our ministries are understood to be an expression of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. 

Together with Bethany United Methodist Church, we provide food for persons who are homeless or in need of food through our food bank. 

Our building facilities are used by Iglesia Evangelica Roca De Salvacion, a Spanish speaking congregation, and Narcotics Anonymous (NA), a group that provides support to those seeking to overcome addictions.

Members of Christ Fellowship (Allentown, PA) prepare for worship.

Currently we are undergoing some transition in our pastoral leadership but continue with the group of dedicated pastoral leaders that remain on the team.

Please pray with us that our witness and the preaching of the gospel will continue to flourish in the Allentown/Bethlehem region. We also invite you to pray that we would have the needed resources to upgrade our current facilities to make them accessibility compliant and that God would lead us to the persons he has prepared to step into the open pastoral roles.

Allentown Mennonites gather for Tet worship celebration

by

[singlepic id=3001 w=320 h=240 float=right]The Mennonite Church USA congregations in Pennsylvania’s third largest city hadn’t to anyone’s recollection gathered for worship together until Sunday, January 29, at the Vietnamese Gospel Mennonite Church.  The four diverse communities—Vietnamese Gospel Mennonite Church, Whitehall Mennonite Church and Ripple all associated with Franconia Conference and Christ Fellowship, an Eastern District Conference congregation—met together to celebrate Tet (Vietnamese New Year) through an eclectic multilingual worship that featured singing in three languages, Scripture reading in six languages, and storytelling from each congregation on the theme of God’s abundance in a time of scarcity.

Vietnamese Gospel Mennonite Church pastor Hien Truong welcomed those gathered, explaining, “Vietnamese New Year is a marking of springtime.  It’s a time of new growth and a special time of asking forgiveness and moving into new ways of building relationships.”  While planned by a team from the four congregations, the gathered worship took on a Vietnamese flair with scripture blessings distributed to adults and traditional li xi gifts ($2 bills in red envelopes) for children.  Afterward, the congregations enjoyed a carry-in meal that was held together around Vietnamese New Year foods.

According to Rose Bender, pastor at Whitehall Mennonite who also helped plan the gathered worship, “The worship service was such a joyous occasion for me because of the great diversity of God’s kingdom that was represented.  It was a foreshadowing of heaven—all nations, all tribes—declaring God’s glory! . . .  I am so excited to see what God is doing in the Lehigh Valley—and encouraged by four small congregations coming together and proclaiming God’s bounty as we face a new year.”

[nggallery id=71]