Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Beth Yoder

My Experience of Faithful Dissent

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by Beth Yoder

When I accepted the request to officiate the wedding of two beloved men in the Mosaic Conference congregation I was pastoring at the time, I anticipated that I would be required to go through the conference Giving and Receiving Counsel process. I did not anticipate the full force of the overflowing joy and love and sense of community that I and many others experienced at that wedding. Nor did I expect that the credential review process would be, for me, a deeply meaningful experience of “church.” 

I continue to ponder that experience. On the one hand, it was profoundly moving to bring my voice into the circle of discernment, meeting with brothers and sisters in the church whose experiences and convictions differ from mine and to be listened to well.   

I spoke from my heart, and I sensed that those around the table listened with their hearts as well. Together, we felt we were standing on holy ground. They listened with respect and care to my experience of “faithful dissent.” 

On the other hand, this very process—reviewing a pastor’s credentials for extending pastoral care in this way, to faithful, God-honoring followers of Jesus—is another example of how the church continues to bring harm to LGBTQ+ people. 

Over the more than 40 years before officiating this wedding, as I lived, studied, and served in the church, I witnessed the church exercising exclusionary policies and actions, insisting that human health and wholeness are only possible in heterosexuality. These practices have caused harm: to queer people’s sense of personhood and belovedness by God, to their faith in God, to their trust in the church, and to their desire to be a part of it.

I have seen this as a pastor and as a mother, watching our young son grow up in the church, be formed by it, and then receive the message from much of the church that there was no place for him in it. 

I cannot square the harm that I have witnessed with the loving, life-giving way of Jesus. Nor does it square with an important message I heard from the Mennonite Church in 1985, when a study on human sexuality was commissioned and sent out to the whole church for use. In that study, a key statement has stayed with me for all these years, “If the church should err, let it be on the side of love for a group of people who have been much persecuted by society.”  

My conversations with several Mosaic Conference committees during the review process felt like an experience of the church living into part of its calling: listening together, hearing one from the other, offering and receiving different ways of understanding how God’s Spirit is moving in our midst—our different pieces of the mosaic which forms this larger church.   

I am grateful to have my credentials fully reaffirmed, and I am grateful to have experienced church in the hard work of speaking and listening to each other. But the deep hurt and sorrow in my heart remain. I continue to grieve the harm done to so many for so many years, and I fervently pray that there will increasingly be space where our LGBTQ+ siblings may also experience good church among us.  

Without them we cannot become fully who we, as a church, are meant to be. 

Beth Yoder

Beth Yoder has been a credentialed pastor in the Mosaic/Franconia conferences for more than 30 years. She continues as a member of the Salford congregation and also continues her ministry as a spiritual director.

Mosaic values two-way communication and encourages our constituents to respond with feedback, questions, or encouragement. To share your thoughts or send a message to the author(s), contact us at communication@mosaicmennonites.org.   

Conference pastors pursue higher education

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by Lora Steiner, managing editor

The Lord works in mysterious ways,  and the Spirit leads in mysterious ways: sometimes to faraway lands, sometimes to stretching local ministries—or sometimes, back to the classroom.

Beth Yoder with her family at her graduation from Drew.
Beth Yoder with her family at her graduation from Drew.

This year, two Franconia Conference pastors finished Doctor of Ministry (D.Min) degrees, while several others are pursuing pastoral studies alongside other fulltime jobs. The advantages to them and their congregations are many: For pastors who’ve been in ministry for many years, it can be a time to refocus and re-tool. For congregations, it’s a chance to develop new practices and to see the Gospel in fresh ways, and a gentle nudge to those in maintenance mode.

Throughout Beth Yoder’s congregational ministry, she has interspersed her work with study: a year at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, coursework at Biblical Theological Seminary in Hatfield and Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey, and classes at Eastern Mennonite Seminary as well. It was at EMS that Beth re-embraced her passion for worship and preaching—and also at EMS where she remembered her interest in doing a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min) degree at Drew University,  a program that would allow her to focus heavily on those areas.

Yoder, associate pastor of Salford congregation, says her studies were invigorating, and brought a sort of freshness for her and her congregation. D.Min. programs are structured around a project that the student commits to doing in her worship setting; Yoder’s focused on embodied worship—using principles of theater and movement to enrich worship. Many—not all—she reports, were appreciated, but it let her examine a hunch about the significance of embodied worship on spiritual formation. A lot of it, she says, wasn’t brand new—but her studies and assignments carved out that space to try something different.

Mike Derstine, pastor of Plains congregation, recently finished a D.Min. at Palmer Theological Seminary in King of Prussia, Pa. He’d always thought about pursuing the degree but with commitments to family and church, the timing never seemed right. When his congregation gave him a three-month sabbatical, it was the encouragement he needed to enter the program.

Mike Derstine with his family at graduation from Palmer.
Mike Derstine with his family at graduation from Palmer.

Palmer’s program focuses on transformational leadership, the missional church, and congregational renewal. Derstine says it’s just what he was looking for, a “key area for congregational pastors who need to think about what the changing context means for ministry.”

Derstine says he’d become so preoccupied with the needs and demands of the day-to-day life of a congregation that he found he wasn’t taking enough time for personal or professional renewal. Programs like this, he says, allow pastors  space to cultivate a “deeper spirituality, as well as more disciplined  and intentional approach to what we do.”

Beny Krisbianto, pastor of Nations Worship Center in south Philadelphia, is finishing a degree at the Eastern Mennonite Seminary campus in Lancaster. Like many other pastors in Franconia Conference, he takes one or two courses a semester—that’s all he has time for—and appreciates how he is able to daily use what he is studying: “I can balance between learning the principles and theology and applying it to my context.”

Krisbianto says one thing he learned from seminary is how to care for himself.

“Before I went to seminary I didn’t know about teaching and discipline. After beginning seminary, I grew a lot,” he says. “I know my strength, I know my weakness, I know when to say no, I know when to say stop.”

Krisbianto has two classes left and will graduate in 2015. This week also saw the graduations of Tami Good, Souderton congregation, and Kris Wint, Finland congregation, with M.Divs. from Biblical Seminary in Hatfield, Pa.

Although it may seem impossible while in the midst of classroom demands, life continues after graduation: Derstine took time after he finished his studies to replace the mufflers and exhaust system on his old car, and started seeds for his garden, continuing the balance of daily life and renewal. Both Derstine and Yoder continue in their same congregations.

“I think both formal and informal pastor education are important for pastors and congregational leaders,” says Yoder, “because it gives people an opportunity to engage new material, to learn with new people, and also gives leaders a space to say ‘I don’t have all of the answers,’ when sometimes leadership roles can get us into the practice of feeling like we have to have all the answers.”

“Going back into the classroom invites you to become a learner, to engage humbly, to rethink your own leadership from a different perspective.”

Introducing Salford Mennonite Church

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Salford Mennonite ChurchSalford Mennonite Church, located in Harleysville, Pa., was founded in 1717.  An agrarian congregation throughout its history, the past 50 years has seen a transition to a suburban and professional lifestyle for its members.

Church leadership consists of a pastoral team of four (lead pastor Joe Hackman and three associate pastors, Maribeth Benner, Ben Wideman and Beth Yoder) with additional support staff, and a church board made up of nine members.  Present membership is 450, with an average Sunday morning attendance of 300.

Our mission statement declares our desire to be “A joyful, learning community eager to live and share the peaceable way of Jesus.”  We have a sister church relationship with Dios Con Nosotros in Mexico City, and a local neighbor relationship with Advent Lutheran Church of Harleysville.

Salford Mennonite ChurchWe have a garden ministry shared with Advent Lutheran, regularly participate in Mennonite Disaster Service trips, Chosen 300 Meal Ministry feeding the hungry in Philadelphia, and an active Justice and Peace ministry.  Our facility is active during the week with Salford Mennonite Child Care Centers (campuses at Salford and Dock Woods community).

Our congregational focus for the next few years is “Learning to Listen: across the generations, in our personal lives, and in our local community.”  See our website and our photoblog for more glimpses of life and ministry at Salford.