Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Ambler

Peace Nights Connect Mosaic Youth

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by Rachel Mateti

 

The fall 2024 Peace Nights were funded in part by a Mosaic Conference Missional Operations Grant (MOG) requested by Salford (PA) Mennonite. The grant helped to cover expenses for food, supplies, and transportation for the Mosaic youth groups who participated. 

 

This fall, youth from around the southeastern PA congregations of Mosaic Conference have the unique opportunity to come together to learn about the peaceable way of Jesus through fellowship, formation, worship, and games.  

The original idea for the Fall 2024 series of four Peace Nights was a collaboration between Ambler (PA), Salford (PA), Zion (Souderton, PA), Whitehall (Allentown, PA) and Plains (Hatfield, PA), with the support of Mosaic’s youth formation team.  

A slide from the teaching portion of the “Peace with God” session on Sept. 14. Photo by Rose Bender Cook.  

 

The first Peace Night of the series took place in September at Zion, on the theme of Peace with God. Around 70 persons were in attendance, including youth and leaders from the above-named congregations and Souderton (PA), Ebenezer (Souderton, PA), Indonesian Light Church (Philadelphia, PA), and Deep Run East (Perkasie, PA). The second meeting took place on October 6 at Plains with the theme “Peace with Self.” 

“The idea for Peace Nights started as a way for churches in southeastern PA in Mosaic Conference to share resources and provide programming for youth faith formation,” shares Andrew Zetts, Associate Pastor of Youth and Outreach at Salford.  

Youth and leaders from Whitehall (PA) Mennonite. Photo provided by Rose Bender Cook. 

 

“As I ran the idea by other Conference youth leaders, a few goals emerged. In addition to sharing resources and gathering a critical mass of youth in one place, we wanted to live into Mosaic’s intercultural priority and bring youth from various geographic and socioeconomic backgrounds together to develop meaningful relationships; and to teach peace theology as a foundational part of living out the ways of Jesus.”

At Plains, the youth group is small but growing, with grades 6-12 together. It can be hard to provide spiritually invigorating activities for a large age range. Peace Nights are one of the few places they can interact with other Mennonite peers in a church setting. 

Youth from eight congregations work together during the games portion of the first Peace Night. Photo by Rose Bender Cook.  

 

Instead of one shared culture, multiple cultures are represented at Peace Nights. Instead of most kids knowing each other, the majority are meeting for the first time. Awkwardness abounds, but a willingness to participate has prevailed. Through games like 9 squares (provided by Bloomin Glen [PA] Mennonite), and “Get -to-Know-You” Bingo (crafted by Andrew Zetts) youth have opportunities to make connections while having fun. Good food energizes everyone to talk and fellowship around tables deepens relationships. 

Loud voices singing together in worship has been a blessing. Youth seeing other youth singing boldly invigorates the whole group and creates a spirit of readiness for our teaching time. Teaching is followed by discussion groups that give youth a chance to come together and internalize the message they have heard. It is beautiful to observe. 

Participants from Deep Run East led worship. Photo by Hendy Matahelemual.  

 As Andrew Zetts shared, Peace Nights have a many purposes (sharing of resources, teaching peace theology, making connections outside our own congregations) but I also see Peace Nights as a place for youth to belong. Even those who might have held back in the beginning of our gathering seem to find their place throughout the night.  

Being Mennonite in our modern world can sometimes make a person stick out or feel different. Being a Christian youth can also feel alienating at times. Finding a place of belonging is, therefore, vital in keeping our youth engaged, connected, and inspired to follow Jesus. 

Peace Night worship. Photo by Mike Ford. 

The third Peace Night took place at Zion on Saturday, Nov. 9, 5-7:30pm; the theme was Peace with Creation. Our last gathering will be on Sunday, December 8 at Plains where we will look at Peace with Others; all Mosaic youth in 6th-12th grade and their youth leaders are invited to join us.

Plans for future gatherings in 2025 are underway and will be shared with congregations soon. As a leader, I am encouraged to see this vision come to fruition and to hear other leaders express their sense of energy and hope for the future of these gatherings. 

Participants gather outside for games. Photo by Hendy Matahelemual. 

Rachel Mateti

Rachel Mateti is the Children and Youth Minister at Plains Mennonite (Hatfield, PA). She is married with three kids and lives in Telford, PA. She enjoys reading when she finds the time and recently picked up running as a hobby.

Joint Prayer Service for the People of Palestine and Israel

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by Eileen Kinch

A version of this article originally appeared in Anabaptist World and is reprinted with permission.  

On March 17, five Mosaic congregations, Ambler (PA), Methacton (Norristown, PA), Perkasie (PA), Salford (Harleysville, PA), and Plains (Hatfield, PA), held a joint service of prayer, singing, lament, and hope for the people of Palestine and Israel, as the humanitarian crisis in war-ravaged Gaza worsens. 

Pastors of the five congregations, Jacob Curtis (Ambler [PA]), Sandy Dresher-Lehman (Methacton [Norristown, PA]), Wayne Nitzsche (Perkasie [PA]), Dave Greiser (Salford [Harleysville, PA]) and Mike Derstine (Plains [Hatfield, PA]), offer the call to prayer. Photo by Joel Alderfer. 

Several Palestinian-American Christians and Muslims, and Israeli Jews from the Philadelphia area were invited to share their griefs and hopes for Palestine and Israel, including representatives from Philadelphia Palestinians of America, Prayers for Peace Alliance, Friends of Sabeel North America and If Not Now. 

Ambler’s co-pastor Jacob Curtis was the lead organizer. In his opening remarks, he reflected on how Jesus grew up under occupation, and blessed the poor, the grieving, the weak, those hungry and thirsty for justice, the peacemakers, and the persecuted. “When people are powerless, hungry, and thirsty, that is the side Jesus is on,” Curtis emphasized.  

Samuel Kuttab, a Palestinian-American Christian and Mennonite shares his grief and hopes for Palestine. Photo by Jeremi Tumanan. 
Singing together was a key feature of the worship service. Photo by Kiron Mateti. 

The idea for the service emerged from a conversation between Curtis and Samuel Kuttab, a Palestinian-American and former member of Ambler. Curtis asked if Ambler could hold a prayer service for Kuttab and his family. He envisioned a small gathering, but Kuttab said, “throw the doors open.” Nearly 250 people were present in the building, with 50 more attending via livestream. 

Curtis reflected on the suffering and trauma that Israelis have experienced since Hamas’s attack in Israel on October 7, and on how, in Israel’s response to that attack, “Palestinians are hungry, thirsty, sick, and unable to go home. Arabs around the world are increasingly afraid that they will also become targets.”  

A small group lays hands on and prays for Amer Raja, a Palestinian-American, one of a number of guests who shared during the service. Photo by Joel Alderfer. 

“As Palestinians and Arabs grieve, Jesus is with them,” Curtis said, addressing those gathered. “And so are we…As Israelis and Jews grieve, Jesus is with them. And so are we.” 

Readings from Lamentations 5 were interspersed with reflections from Palestinian and Jewish friends. 

Ahlam Kuttab pointed out widespread American culpability in the war in Gaza, given that the U.S. is a leading arms supplier to Israel. Amer Raja shared that the current Muslim month of Ramadan is a joy-filled time of fasting and feasting, but in Gaza, people can’t have these festivities. He finds it hard to be joyful when not everyone can participate. 

Becca Feidelson, a representative from If Not Now, an American Jewish group that organizes for a just peace for Palestinians and Israelis, read the words of a fellow organizer, Ella Israeli. 

“How could we let our pain [from the Holocaust] become this?” Feidelson asked. She reflected on how Jews believe humans are made in the image of God, and each life is sacred. 

The second half of the service offered readings from Matthew 5 paired with reflections about hope. Dina Portnoy, a teacher in Philadelphia who grew up on an Israeli kibbutz that was built on a Palestinian village, said she finds hope in confronting difficult truths. She said some Israeli soldiers are refusing to serve in Gaza, and Israeli activists have lost jobs and are going to jail. 

Around 40 people, mostly children and their grownups, watched the service’s livestream from the basement, while making Birds for Gaza and praying for children in Gaza. Photo by Kiron Mateti. 


 
Samuel Kuttab admitted that being a Mennonite and a Palestinian can be tough. Mennonites emphasize love, and Palestinians are suffering. 

“My faith goes into conflict,” he said. But he believes the Mennonite church has “woken up.” He is encouraged by the work of Mennonite Action, a new peace-advocacy group, and feels Mennonites have legitimacy in political action because “we are a peace church.” 

After the reflections, participants gathered to lay hands on the speakers and pray for them. An offering raised $5,500 for Mennonite Action. 

Following the service, participants shared refreshments and were invited to participate in Mennonite Action’s Holy Week Action to send postcards to local government representatives, urging them to support peace and diplomacy. 

Eileen Kinch

Eileen Kinch is a writer and editor for the Mosaic communication team. She holds a Master of Divinity degree, with an emphasis in the Ministry of Writing, from Earlham School of Religion. She and her husband, Joel Nofziger, who serves as director of the Mennonite Heritage Center in Harleysville, live near Tylersport, PA. They attend Methacton Mennonite Church. Eileen is also a member of Keystone Fellowship Friends Meeting in Lancaster County.

The End of Youth Ministry? 

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by Michelle Curtis

I don’t like to read books alone. So when Brooke Martin, Pastor of Youth & Community Formation for Mosaic Conference, invited me to join a book study group for The End of Youth Ministry? by Andrew Root, I jumped at the chance.  

The book study group, comprised of youth Pastors and leaders, gathered around back porches and youth rooms to discuss a few chapters every other week. We lamented the difficulties of leading youth ministries in 2023. We shared how much we love our youth and how much we want them to know Jesus’ love. We waded through the philosophical parts of the book, trying to make sense of how they apply to middle schoolers.  

Some of the biggest takeaways felt like both “aha!” moments and also a reminder that youth ministry should not be different than any other ministry in pointing people to the core of our faith. We, with Paul, proclaim Christ and him crucified. Root’s writings challenged us to help youth walk toward the cross, not away from it.  

© Andrew Root

Instead of focusing primarily on fun, Root told how walking with youth toward the suffering they see and experience can help us all to see our stories as part of Jesus’ story of death and resurrection. When we walk toward suffering together, we can start to see and name how God brings new life out our death experiences. The whole book is based on how a youth group was transformed by the experience of gathering together in a hospital waiting room when one of their members almost died. There they had an opportunity to hear stories of how God brought life out of death in the lives of two adults in their church.  

Among our book study group of youth pastors and directors, I was the only one whose job title didn’t formally include youth or faith formation. I serve as co-Pastor of Ambler Mennonite Church along with my husband, Jacob, and we’ve shared the role of starting a monthly youth group over the last few years.  

Sometimes I feel jealous of churches with the staff and size to gather their youth together every Sunday and Wednesday. But I’ve realized that one of the gifts of our small church is that we are intergenerational by necessity. When we put together boxes of food for our neighbors each December, we intentionally invite the youth, but the whole church has to come together to make it work. We’re too small to do otherwise.  

When my parents were in youth group, it was their whole social network. They had activities most days of the week. Instead of longing for that past, Root encourages us to understand what has shifted over the last few decades. Instead of trying to compete with all the extracurriculars filling the lives of our youth, Root encourages us to see clearly what youth ministry is for: joy. It’s for helping youth to experience the joy in community that grows out of walking through suffering together and seeing how God brings life out of death.  

We’re all still chewing on the book’s implications for each of our ministries. I’m thinking more about how to walk with our youth toward the cross, and how to help them find themselves in God’s story.  

Youth Groups completing various challenges during the Mission Impossible event at Souderton (PA) Mennonite in September 2023. Photo provided by Brooke Martin. 

To be clear, Root is not advocating that we do away with fun. He ends the book in a Dairy Queen with ice cream and friendship. In that spirit, we ended our book study with coffee and Yum-Yum donuts, celebrating the relationships that we’ve built through these weeks together.  

Michelle Curtis

Michelle Christian Curtis is co-pastor of Ambler (PA) Mennonite Church with her husband, Jacob.

Congregational Profile: Ambler Mennonite Church

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by Dorcas Lehman, Interim Pastor 

90 E Mt Pleasant Ave, Ambler. Photo by Randy Martin

Ambler Mennonite Church is located on the corner of Mt Pleasant Avenue and N. Spring Garden Street in the borough of Ambler, Montgomery County, PA, 15 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

We want our neighbors, near or far, to know that when you join us for Sunday morning worship, you will find a small congregation that loves to sing, listen to scripture, share concerns and joys, pray for each other and the world, and inspire one another in the way of Jesus. As part of a historic peace church, we hope to share that much-needed perspective, and to live it ourselves.

Whether you arrive by walking, driving, or public transit, you will notice a Monarch butterfly station, a little free library, and a rain garden, reflecting our enjoyment of neighbors, care for the earth, and desire to add beauty to our block.

Our mission statement says: “We are a diverse community of believers following Jesus in building relationships by serving those among and around us with love, and offering the good news of peace, hope, and healing.”

AMC in front of the rain garden. Photo by Glenn Lehman

As a church that began as a mission with ministries to children and youth, we may have thought, “When we serve others, they may want to be part of us.” But now we think, “We want to provide opportunities for people who want to serve God and contribute to the community, whether or not they become part of the congregation.”

During the past year, we’ve become stronger by honestly facing questions of sustainability, and discovering a wide range of ideas for renewal. Now we’re ready to discern collective vision, and to grow beyond the current number of 45 or so congregants, which reflects a decline from earlier decades.

We come from a variety of backgrounds in culture, ethnicity, education, and lifestyles, and we come together as a worshiping community with Jesus at the center. Some of us live in the borough, and others commute.  Intergenerational relationships are strong. You will especially sense this if you visit on the day of a monthly potluck meal, where you will hear lively conversations rise around good food.

Sylvie and Lena packing Boxes of Love. Photo by Randy Martin

We share a desire for an increased presence in the neighborhood, and renewed connection with other Mennonite congregations nearby. During the Lent-Easter season, we hold joint services with Church of the Brethren, Lutheran, and United Church of Christ congregations. In May, we provide meals and overnight volunteers for the Interfaith Hospitality Network’s emergency shelter program. We fill Boxes of Love with food supplies and support the Wissahickon Valley Boys and Girls Club.

This spring, during Lent, we are following the initiative of Mennonite Church USA’s Creation Care Network to learn, pray, and act in relation to climate injustice. Through Sunday school and worship, we’re noticing the ways that caring for God’s creation is an act of discipleship.

We view ourselves as having a history of capable leadership and gifted laity. We are rooted in a mission initiative that began in 1952, when young adults from larger congregations in Franconia Conference began Sunday school classes in the borough. From that beginning, Summer Bible School was added, then came house church, and the building of the current meetinghouse in 1961.

Pastors Michelle and Jacob Curtis. Photo by Randy Martin

We honor that history, and value the older generation’s wisdom, energy, and resources, even as we transfer leadership and prepare to renew our children and youth ministries.

We are happy to introduce our new co-pastors, Michelle and Jacob Curtis, who will begin their ministry with us in May 2020.

Prayer requests:

  • for Michelle and Jacob Curtis as co-pastors, and our church, as we begin our journey in mutual ministry
  • for wisdom and insight as we discern a collective vision, and move through generational change
  • for creativity and resilience of spirit as we, along with other churches, find ways to practice social solidarity even as we practice social distancing, due to the viral pandemic

Three congregations credential new leaders on Pentecost

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by Sheldon C. Good

Many Christian congregations commemorate the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday, and three Franconia Conference congregations in particular acknowledged the Spirit’s movement through the credentialing of leaders for ministry.

On June 8, all occurring in southeastern Pennsylvania, Donna Merow was ordained and Danilo Sanchez and Phil Bergey were licensed for ministry. Their credentialing brings the number of credentialed leaders in the conference to approximately 160 men and women serving in at least seven states and four countries.

Merow was ordained for pastoral ministry at the Ambler congregation, where she has pastored for more than four years. LEAD minister Jenifer Eriksen Morales led Merow’s credentialing. Merow chose to be ordained on Pentecost Sunday after discovering she was confirmed in the United Methodist church on Pentecost 40 years prior.

Donna Merow's ordination
LEADership Minister Jenifer Eriksen Morales and members of the congregation pray at the ordination of Donna Merow (seated center), pastor of Ambler Mennonite Church. Photo by Andrew Huth.

“The 40-year journey from one public confession of faith to another,” Merow said, “has been a significant one for me — including marriage and becoming a mother and grandmother, completing college and graduate work, worshipping in multiple traditions other than the one in which I grew up, and facing the challenges of breast cancer and kidney disease.”

Merow was only 12 when the possibility of religious vocation was first suggested to her. Between now and then, she “worked at a church camp, dropped out of college, cared for blind students, got married, and raised two daughters.” She has also been an active participant in churches from several denominations: Methodist, Baptist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Mennonite.

She described her credentialing ceremony as “an outward acknowledgement of an inward change in identity as I became a pastor in the process of practicing pastoral care.”

Sanchez was licensed for youth ministry among multiple Anabaptist congregations in and around Allentown. LEAD minister Steve Kriss led the credentialing. Sanchez is primarily working with Whitehall and Ripple, both Franconia congregations, by leading music or teaching children, but is also working alongside Karen Fellowship (independent), Iglesia Menonita Evangelica Restoracion (Lancaster Conference), Christ Fellowship (Eastern District Conference), and Vietnamese Gospel (Franconia Conference).

Sanchez said his licensing felt like an important personal and professional step because many people and institutions, including Franconia Conference and Whitehall, “are recognizing my gifts and willing to walk alongside me as a pastor.” Sanchez, grew up in the Boyertown congregation and has interned with both Souderton congregation and Philadelphia Praise Center while a student at Eastern University. He graduated from Eastern Mennonite Seminary last year with a Master of Divinity degree.

Members of Whitehall Mennonite Church pray over Danilo Sanchez
Members of Whitehall Mennonite Church pray over Danilo Sanchez. Photo by Patti Connolly.

“I finally feel like a pastor,” he said. “I am so honored that God has called me to be a leader. I’m thankful for the ways that Whitehall and Ripple will shape me into the leader God has called me to be.”

Bergey was licensed as interim lead pastor of the Blooming Glen congregation, where he has been a member for about 20 years. Ertell Whigham, executive minister of Franconia Conference, led the credentialing. Bergey is former conference executive of Franconia Mennonite Conference.

In the wake of Firman Gingerich’s resignation as Blooming Glen’s lead pastor, the congregation’s board invited Bergey to assume a part-time interim lead pastorate. The congregation is searching for a long-term pastor.

Phil Bergey
Phil Bergey, interim lead pastor of Blooming Glen.

Bergey preached the morning of his licensing, focusing on the story of Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 12. He framed the commencement of his pastoral leadership and the pastoral search processes not as the beginning of a journey but the continuation of a journey. That journey, he said, includes the history of the Blooming Glen congregation, the Anabaptist tradition, and the Christian church, going all the way back to Abraham and Sarah.

Bergey said: “Blooming Glen, like other congregations, has been through pastoral transitions before; it is simply part of a congregation’s life together. And pastoral transitions are especially true for a congregation that is approaching 300 years of age.”

Ministerial Update (April 2014)

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Hadi Sunarto
Hadi Sunarto was licensed as a deacon at Philadelphia Praise Center in March.

Steve Kriss, Director of Leadership Cultivation, provided this update from the March & April meetings of the Credentials and Ministerial Committees:

Hadi Sunarto (East Rutherford, NJ) was approved for a license for specific the ministry of deacon at Philadelphia Praise Center.

Krista Showalter Ehst (Bally, PA) was approved with a license toward ordination to serve as pastor at Alpha (NJ) Mennonite Church.

Bill Martin was approved with a license toward ordination and to serve as associate pastor at Towamencin Mennonite Church.

Danilo Sanchez (Whitehall congregation) was approved to serve as Allentown area youth minister with a license toward ordination.

Donna Merow was approved for ordination and continues to serve as pastor at Ambler (Pa) Mennonite Church.

Several new members have been added to the Ministerial and Credentials committees.

Mike Clemmer (Towamencin) and Marlene Frankenfield (Salford) have been named to the Ministerial Committee.   Heidi Hochstetler (Bally) resigned her position from the committee earlier this year.   Continuing Ministerial Committtee members include:  Verle Brubaker (Swamp), Ken Burkholder (Deep Run East), Carolyn Egli (Whitehall), Janet Panning (Plains), Mary Nitzsche (Blooming Glen), Jim Williams (Nueva Vida Norristown New Life).

Aldo Siahaan (Philadelphia Praise) and Marta Castillo (Nueva Vida Norristown New Life) have been named to three year terms on the credentials committee.    Continuing committee members include:  Rose Bender (Whitehall), Verle Brubaker (Swamp) and Mike Clemmer (Towamencin).

Steve Kriss began serving as Conference staff liaison for both committees since the retirement of Noah Kolb late in 2013.

From there to here: a story of community

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Ambler_Stationby Jenny Duskey, Ambler congregation

I came back from Mennonite Church USA Convention in July feeling challenged and uncomfortable, the kind of feeling that means I need to do something.  In Phoenix, I’d prayed about how to respond to a drone center coming to our area.   I went to the next protest.  Still, I remained uncomfortable.

Then I experienced what turned out to be a blessing, though it didn’t seem so at first.  My car was damaged in a parking lot, and the body shop needed it for a few days.  My husband and I, both retired, volunteer regularly at different places, all too far to reach on foot.  In the Philadelphia area, senior citizens ride trains for eighty-five cents and buses free.  I could get where I needed to go without renting a car.

My habit had been to drive anywhere too far to walk, using public transportation only when I couldn’t drive.  What an irrational routine: a two-mile exercise walk, a quick stop at home, and a drive to my destination, spewing pollutants into the atmosphere.  No wonder I’d felt uncomfortable!  When my car returned, I found I couldn’t go back to my old ways.  The Holy Spirit has turned my thinking upside down; I now use public transportation whenever possible.

When I drove, my car isolated me.  Now, no longer isolated, I relate to others.  I’m reducing pollution only a little, but my sense of community is growing a lot. Here are a few illustrations.

After church, I walked to the train.  Two teen-aged boys, acting silly, as teens do at times, passed me.  At the station I noticed an elderly man with a cane.  I began to check email on my phone.   A voice said, “Hey, old man, give me all your money, or I’ll beat you up!”  I hid my phone away and looked up.  Standing by the old man was one of the teens I’d seen.  I got my phone out again, thinking of calling 911.  Should I try to talk the boy out of it or would that make it worse?

Then the old man spoke, “Where are you going?”  The boy answered.  The old man said, “Man, you’d better get out of here and cross the tracks.”

“I’ve got time,” the boy laughed.  “How’ve you been?”

My heart started beating again; they knew each other.  The boy had been joking; as I returned home, I pondered my reactions and assumptions.

Often there are not enough conductors on the trains to punch all the tickets.  I don’t want to cheat, so I try to find a conductor on the platform to take my ticket.  Once, he refused, saying,   “Use it another day.”  I responded that with his permission, I guessed I would.

Once, the conductor shortage was potentially more serious.  At my stop there was no conductor in sight as I stepped down toward the platform.  A blind woman with a dog started up the same stairs.  I knew I couldn’t move back in time, so I called out, “I’m coming down.”  She backed up.  As I walked past her, I said, “It’s clear now.”

A conductor stood motioning for her to move to the next door.  She kept walking toward the stairs.  “She’s blind,” I told him, “she can’t see you.”  He kept gesturing.  I called to the woman, “The conductor wants you to move to the next door.”  She moved, but not far enough, stopping right in front of the opening between two cars.  She lifted her foot to climb onto the first step, but her foot was over the track, which lay a few feet below.  Knowing it’s not acceptable to touch a blind person, but afraid she’d fall, I put my hand on her arm.  She turned toward me immediately to tell me loudly to stop.  My emotions were a jumble.  I reacted as I usually do when yelled at, hurting inside, but also felt immensely relieved that she had turned back.  Her dog steered her back to the stairs.  The conductor no longer gestured as she stepped up.  I shed tears of relief as I walked home.

When I was driving most places, I rarely related to anyone on the way.  My car isolated me.  Now, the trains, the stations, and the buses bring me closer to the people who share this place in which I live.  No longer isolated, I see them as the human beings they are, and they see me the same way, picking up my ticket when I’d dropped it, getting up to let me sit down on the bus, and, in one case, asking me if an umbrella on the shelf above me was mine, and when I said it wasn’t, exchanging sympathy for whoever had lost it.

One day, an excited little boy asked his father one question after another about the train, where it went, when it would come, how it stayed on the tracks, what made it move, and so on.  He and his family wore Phillies hats or shirts.  Someone asked him if he was going to the ball game.  He grinned, nodded, and asked if we were going to the game, too.  Soon each of us knew the others’ destinations and we all wished each other a safe journey. I expect I was not the only one to board the train with a warm feeling of commonality and a little extra joy.

Successful Conference, Seminary partnership concludes

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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.”