Conference News

Board members visit congregations

January 29, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

by Jim Laverty, Souderton & Rina Rampogu, Plains

Over the past year members of the Franconia Conference Board have been visiting Franconia congregations. During our visits we celebrated each church’s vision and mission, clarified the role of Franconia Conference and communicated the board’s desire to be servants of the conference churches, to stand beside the good work each church is doing for their members and the world and to be accountable to Franconia churches in a new and better way.

We were excited to see what is happening in conference congregations:

Collaborative relationships, affinity groups (or learning communities) with churches, Conference-Related Ministries (CRMs) and Partners in Ministry (PIMs).
Service to communities through community-building events, sports camps, support groups, pre-school programs, community gardens, and meals.
Opportunities for everyone (gender, age, background) to get involved inside and outside of church services.
Creative approaches to talking about following Jesus with people from different generations, cultures, ethnicities, and language groups.
Effort to get along in the body of Christ, providing mutual aid and support through Sunday School classes and increased participation in small groups.
Goal-setting, clarifying and reviewing roles, and aligning budget with vision and values in cooperation with LEAD teams.
Solid lay and pastoral leadership. Strong preaching, prayer ministry and blended worship in the spoken-language of the congregation.

Some of the challenges that congregations are facing:

Financial limitations, decrease in giving, and learning how to grow people who will commit to being generous with their time, talents, and treasure.
Fluctuation in worship attendance and coming to terms with what it means to be in fellowship with people coming and going on a regular basis as well as a loss of membership due to relocation.
Understanding the changing nature of our world.
Communicating stories of what God is doing in congregations while respecting people’s privacy. Learning how to communicate across the generations.
Building community when congregation and community are made up of people who speak different languages.
A need for support and advocacy in facing changing immigration policies and their implications (worship service times, hospital visitation, transportation).
Unemployment among church members. Dealing with conflict in relationships (separation, divorce).

We discussed what it will take to continue to build confidence toward Franconia Conference:

Modeling healthy approaches to dealing with major conflicts and crisis. Encouraging unity in diversity.
Clear communication. Relational face-to-face meetings with members of conference and board.
Ongoing relationship with LEAD minister and guidance in pastoral searches, staff reviews, and conflict mediation.
Fostering relationship with CRMs.
Offering a prophetic voice to help us to see God at work in the world in a positive way and to witness to the world about what the body of Christ is.

We discussed what confidence will look like:

Celebrate the ways that diverse congregations can share in what they have in common, dialoguing on critical issues.
Encourage better connections (such as pulpit supply) and partnerships (such as church planting mentors) between urban, suburban and rural congregations
Recognize Conference Related Ministries and their missional value.
Clarify the rationale for introducing LEAD and the concept of the E3-vision for churches in Vermont and other locations that aren’t close to the conference offices.
Tell more stories to fan the flames of how Franconia Conference is living out our vision and values.
Train congregations in children and youth ministries as well as worship (such as blended music during worship services).
Provide financial aid for documented and undocumented students who have been accepted into Mennonite and non-Mennonite institutions of higher education.
Incorporate more non-ethnic (non-Swiss German) Mennonites into leadership positions.

Congregations expressed appreciation for the ongoing support they have received from Franconia Conference in areas of leadership development, provision of meaningful learning and sharing opportunities for pastors and leaders, and for being a point of contact for ongoing pastoral resources.

Two are better than one

January 29, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

by Mary Lou Cummings, Perkasie, cominghome@verizon.net

Plains and Perkasie junior youth enjoy a hike on Hawk Mountain. Photo by Rob Kerns.

Let’s face it, teenagers like to hang out in groups—and the more kids in the group, the better.

So what is a church to do when its life rhythms produce periods with small teenage populations? Perkasie and Plains congregations are creatively working together to provide lots of new experiences for their junior youth by pooling their programs.

Two years ago Plains had a handful of junior high girls and only a few boys. Perkasie had four boys. One of the boys from Perkasie, however, attended Plains activities and several knew each other at school. Eventually Dale Gahman of Perkasie, mentor for the boys, and Pastor Dawn Ranck, who oversees “the younger half” of the Plains congregation, got together to brainstorm how to work together.

The groups clicked right away. Now the two groups meet together for fun experiences most months, and they bring their friends—with about 15 or more showing up. They have gone hiking to Hawk Mountain and have picked and donated to Manna on Main Street and FISH organizations. They have attended an Iron Pigs baseball game, bowled, and gone on a scavenger hunt looking for disguised adult friends. There are plans for a service day at Ten Thousand Villages in Lancaster followed by a camp-out. All agree that it is a lot more fun to do these things with more people.

The two groups still reserve some months for their own separate activities. Each congregation provides adults who share in the leadership. Ranck initiates a twice-a-year meeting in her home for the leaders to sketch out the year’s activities and then creates flyers of each event for the kids and parents.

“I wanted to provide experiences for these young people that would be lots of fun, but would also stretch them–help them meet new people, and do things they wouldn’t ordinarily do,” says Gahman. “We try to include service projects in the planning. It’s great to see the kids having fun and liking the group.”

“One of the great things,” says Ranck, “is that by alternating the planning, sometimes leaders are able to just ‘show up’ and enjoy the kids. It’s working well and I think it is a good model for others to try.”

Ministry in “thin places” marks Frankenfield’s journey

January 29, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

by Sheldon C. Good, Salford, with Stephen Kriss, Philadelphia Praise Center
shelds3@gmail.com, skriss@francoiaconference.org

After dropping her young children off for Sunday school, Marlene Frankenfield often sat on the sidewalk outside Salford Mennonite Church. She was “going through a time of disillusionment with the church,” and didn’t want anything to do with institutionalized religion. Instead, she wanted church to be “real.”

While lounging outside Salford, youth frequently walked past Frankenfield on the way to Sunday school. They soon began greeting her and making small talk.

“It wasn’t long before they’d sometimes skip Sunday school to come chat with me, sharing their real lives,” Frankenfield said. “That was the very thing I was longing for. Soon they were stopping by my house on Saturday nights.” That was over 20 years ago. Marlene’s journey moved from congregationally based youth ministry to collaborative work with Franconia Conference and Christopher Dock High School for over a dozen years.

Relationships with Salford youth awakened Frankenfield to the possibility of ministry and brought her back into congregational life. Her initial formal call to serve came shortly after those interactions with teenagers on the church sidewalk when the church invited her to serve alongside of a growing youth ministry. After eight years at Salford, she began in the joint role of conference youth minister and campus pastor. She was licensed for ministry in June 2002 and ordained in May 2007.

Frankenfield found herself ministering in what she calls the “thin spaces” between classes at Dock and working doggedly to bring youth ministry to the center of congregational life and faith formation across the Conference.

“For young people, there is so much going on in their faith and in life, you need to be a person that can listen,” she said. “You need to be a God bearer, listening through God’s ears.” A quotation from Douglas Steere shapes her work. “To listen another’s soul into a condition of disclosure and discovery may be almost the greatest service that any human being ever performs for another.”

As she moves on, Franconia Conference and Eastern District Conference have named a shared youth minister alongside the campus pastor role at Christopher Dock. Frankenfield says this is a sign that church leaders have noticed the need for steady youth leadership. “For so long, I felt like I worked in something separate from the vision of the conference, so to see so many people excited about youth, that other people are catching the vision, as I step away, is the biggest gift I could have,” she said.

Marlene offered this prayer and dream as she completed her work in consideration of the ongoing possibilities for youth ministry in and beyond Franconia Conference, “That adults will listen to our youth—the underrepresented, and pay attention to the diverse places where the Holy Spirit is at work. That Franconia Conference would provide ways for women young and old to be mentored and empowered. That Franconia Conference see to it that all people who work with children and youth be educated in child safety, which will provide a safe healthy environment for all. That God’s spirit would be present in each young person to feel God’s unconditional love and experience God’s grace within a faith community.”

As Marlene considered her decision to end in her dual roles, she said, “I made this decision to transition with much prayer and discernment and I felt like it was the right time to explore something new. I have faith that God will have a plan for me for the future and God also has a plan for the places where I’ve ministered. One of my goals when I started was to lead in a way that invited others to lead—to step out of the way and be a mentor and encourager for others—to create a safe place for students to explore leadership.”

After these years of leadership development at Christopher Dock and Franconia Conference through chapel-planning, retreat planning, walking with youth pastors, and calling forth new youth ministers and leaders, Marlene’s work shaped space for new leaders, even now, collaboratively, across boundaries and in-between spaces, with real hope and committed service even in the midst of questions.

We are Messengers of Joy

January 29, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

by Jennifer Malloy, Indian Creek Foundation, jmalloy@indcreek.org

Faith and Light Pilgrimage — Indian Creek Foundation’s chaplain Pamela Landis with Sharon Weisser and Carol Menser, Spring Mount.

This past summer Indian Creek Foundation’s interfaith chaplain Pamela Landis, as well as Sharon Weisser and Carol Menser, both of the Spring Mount congregation, took part in a Faith and Hope Pilgrimage. Faith and Light Communities encompasses individuals with an intellectual or developmental disability and their family and friends who meet together on a regular basis in a Christian spirit to share friendship, pray together, and celebrate life.

During this four-day event, which was held in St. Louis, Missouri at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows, the group took part in trolley tours of the Shrine and the St. Louis area, participated in ecumenical worship, sang uplifting hymns, and experienced the faith, fellowship, and spirituality of other Faith and Light members from all over the United States.

The theme of this year’s pilgrimage was “We are Messengers of Joy.” As messengers of joy, attendees were asked to be exuberant about their spirituality.

Faith and Light pilgrimages take place every ten years to commemorate the first pilgrimage the organization undertook in 1971. At that time some held a belief that those with disabilities had no place on a religious pilgrimage because they were thought to be incapable of experiencing this kind of activity and there was fear that their presence would disturb others.

Founded in Lourdes, France by two parents who began a journey to find a congregation where they would be accepted with their two sons with disabilities, the Faith and Light organization has grown to include more than 1,500 communities in 80 countries over six continents. The core value of Faith and Light remains the belief that every person, no matter what their ability, is called to be a source of grace and peace for their community.

Indian Creek Foundation’s Faith and Light program has been in existence since 1989. This program seeks to enrich the lives and the often underserved aspect of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities—their spirituality. Ecumenical services are presented monthly for individuals interested in exploring this avenue. These inter-faith gatherings provide a chance for clients to gather together, sing hymns, listen to stories, participate in activities, and share in each other’s fellowship. The monthly service is held on the first Friday of every month at the Indian Valley Mennonite Church from 6:30 to 8:30pm.

Founded in 1975, Indian Creek Foundation’s mission is to provide opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and to live in and enrich the community throughout their lives. Through four divisions offering residential, vocational, family services, and social work programs, the Foundation continues to grow and meet the changing needs of the surrounding community.

For more information: indcreek.org or (267)203-1500.

Conference Finance Update (December 2011)

January 29, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

Dance Team — Nueva Vida Norristown New Life received a grant for creative youth ministry which was partly used to develop a sacred dance team that helped to lead worship at Conference Assembly 2011 at Penn View Christian School in November. Photo by Stacy Salvatori

The 2011-12 fiscal year is almost over. Congregational giving continues to be behind expectations so far this year, by $34,000. Expenses have come back to expectations, running $2,850 below budget at this point in the year. We are currently in the time of year (December and January) when congregations usually make up for giving shortfalls, so we are praying for this to continue. 26% of congregational giving usually comes in these last two months.

A sampling of the various activities of the conference during the months of October & November:

$1,200 in Missional Operations Grants (MOG) was disbursed for youth ministry to Nueva Vida Norristown New Life.
The annual Conference Assembly meetings occupied of lot of staff time these past two months. Developing worship themes, partnering with Eastern District, contacting the guest speakers, translating into four languages, organizing the Prayer Room, coordinating video recordings, and so on, took a lot of energy; for both the assembly scattered meetings and the main meetings at Penn View Christian School.
Sandy Landes continues to lead a weekly prayer gathering at the conference center, but also led a day of prayer and fasting and a teaching on prayer.
Conference leaders attended the Constituency Leadership Council in October, a meeting of the “elders of the denomination”, who spent this time reflecting on the convention in Pittsburgh and church-wide communication.

Other tidbits:

The conference relies on contributions from congregations for approx. 60% of its operating budget. 27% of the revenue comes from conference-owned property subsidies, and 4% from conference related ministries. The other 9% comes from a variety of sources.

Stepping Stones Finds New Home

January 24, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

Plains Mennonite Church opened up its doors to Stepping Stones Nursery School
By Tony Di Domizio, Montgomeryville-Lansdale Patch

Stepping Stones Nursery School has found a new home at Plains Mennonite Church in Hatfield Township.

The daycare, which cares for 55 children, re-opened for business on Thursday, Jan. 12. “By Monday, they were signing papers and moving in,” said Plains Mennonite Church Pastor Dawn Ranck.

Ranck said the agreement is temporary, for now.

“Then, we’ll see and they’ll see,” Ranck said. “They need time to figure out the next steps.”

Ranck approached Stepping Stones and Grace Lutheran Church about using space at their church for daycare services.

“We thought right away that we could house daycare or drama (Laymen Playmen). We talked to different people in the church, and four of us went to the church council chair. We knew there was support,” Ranck said. “We went over to the church and said, ‘If you need us, we’re available.’”

Stepping Stones director Lori Bezanis said many surrounding churches offered their help. “I was doing the best I could to stay as close as I could to where we were,” Bezanis said. “It seemed like the best location.”

Bezanis said Ken Crest Services was located at Plains Mennonite for many years, and she knew they had moved from that location. “I knew it had been set up at one time for preschool,” Bezanis said. “The fire marshal and code people went and checked it out and gave me the thumbs up.”

Bezanis said it was awesome for Ranck and the church to approach Stepping Stones and offer their space temporarily. “I can’t thank them enough for making us feel so welcome and so at home,” Bezanis said. “They bent over backwards to accommodate us.”

Bezanis said Stepping Stones was poised to relocate next door to Bethany Bible Fellowship. However, the code inspector did not approve it.

“They called us on Friday a week ago and said, ‘Can we check you out?’” Ranck said.

Ranck said the Plains Mennonite Sunday school teachers were willing to give up control of the space.

“We still use the space on Sunday, but (Stepping Stones teachers) are decorating the rooms since they are there the most,” Ranck said. “Teachers share space on the bulletin board.”

Stepping Stones runs Monday to Friday, Bezanis said. “On Friday evening, we have to clean up a bit more and put things away a bit more than during the week,” Ranck said. “They and we are both committed to making it work.”

The relocation of Stepping Stones has also brought some new, young life into the church. “My office is down that hallway,” Ranck said. “It’s really fun having kids in that hallway and hearing noises in a hall that is normally quiet.”

Other churches have stepped forward to help out Grace Lutheran Church and Stepping Stones Nursery School. Lansdale United Methodist Church has opened its doors to the Laymen Playmen. Christ United Methodist Church’s education and missions departments donated a very large amount of money for the daycare to buy supplies from U.S. Toy in Montgomeryville.

Local Girl Scout troops also volunteered time to raising money for Grace Lutheran Church.

“And we are still getting donations, which is awesome,” Bezanis said.

She said parents really like the new location. “I’ve heard only positive remarks from parents. They are very pleased,” Bezanis said.

She added that the daycare wants to get into a permanent location down the road, but she can’t say when that’s going to be. There’s talk of adding modular classrooms at the Grace Lutheran Church site.

“In the meantime, we are at Plains and liking it. We are getting adjusted and getting settled. The kids are very happy,” Bezanis said. “(Plains Mennonite Church) has been more than accommodating and we are more than grateful for helping us out.”

Even local businesses have donated time to make the youth at Stepping Stones happy. Giggle Magic and Magic Marcy, of Harleysville, did a show for the students on Monday. On Wednesday, All About Paint will be painting the children’s faces. Jumpin Jack’s Indoor Inflatable Playland, in Hatfield, opened its doors for the children recently as well.

What’s even more positive is, in the wake of the New Year’s Eve fire, membership at Stepping Stones has not been affected.

Ranck said there was no hesitation in helping Stepping Stones and Grace Lutheran Church. “We are one piece of the puzzle, but not the whole puzzle,” Ranck said. “It’s the community coming together.”

She said the church had space and Stepping Stones had a need. “It’s not a question of ‘Do we do this?’; it was ‘How do we make this happen?’” she said.

Plans move ahead to improve Souderton playground

January 24, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

By Emily Morris, emorris@montgomerynews.com
Reprinted from the Souderton Independent

Gerry Clemmer, pastor of Souderton Mennonite Church, Jen Ruggiero, and Tara Cupitt stand inside the gazebo at the playground at Chestnut Street and Wile Avenue in Souderton. They are working to revitalize the park through fundraising events in the Souderton community. Souderton Independent photo - SUSAN KEEN

Plans to improve the public playground at Chestnut Street and Wile Avenue in Souderton are moving along, with a group of volunteers working on the project hoping to tag on to some of the momentum of the borough’s 125th anniversary.

“We’re partnering together and inviting the community to join us in this project,” said Gerry Clemmer, pastor of Souderton Mennonite Church.

Clemmer and fellow volunteers Tara Cupitt and Jennifer Ruggiero, both neighbors of the playground, are working under the name Chestnut Street Playground Community CARES to bring new, safer equipment to replace the aging existing features at the park. In addition, they’ll be refurbishing the gazebo that sits in the park.

The small corner playground, which has been there as long as anyone at the church can remember, Clemmer said, has not been updated in years, housing largely old steel equipment. Clemmer said the church donated one newer piece of equipment in 1999, which still exists and would remain as part of the plan. That was the last time the park was updated.

One of the primary goals is to create a safe and accessible playground for the numerous children who live in the neighborhoods surrounding the playground.

“The neighborhood is filled with school age kids,” Cupitt said.

To meet the safety goal, one of the key elements will be handicapped accessible equipment, including swings. There will also be a music station, which is an interactive piece of playground equipment that is appealing to all children, but also particularly good for children with autism and Asperger’s, Ruggiero said.

“Our goal is to encompass all children that might have some kind of disability,” Ruggiero said.

In addition, the playground will be designed to appeal to a wide age range, rather than just smaller children as the equipment does now. The goal is to get a larger playground structure that will appeal to those aged 7 to 12, and several other pieces to meet the age ranges below that. The playground is also visited regularly by children from the nearby Head Start program and other nearby nursery and preschool programs.

Cupitt, whose sons are 12 and 14, said her sons often go to the park to play football or baseball in the field below, and that field will remain for those purposes.

The group is currently working with the borough’s engineering firm, Boucher & James, to analyze the park property and create a master plan that can then be used to work on fundraising for the new equipment. Plans for the new park may include improvement of grading so that it is more accessible for both children or parents who may be in wheelchairs or handicapped in other ways.

Fundraising will be a key part of the project in the coming months, Ruggiero said. The goal is to raise a minimum of $65,000, though the group has plans that could incorporate more elements if more funding is raised. The group will be reaching out to larger companies in the area, along with smaller businesses, which may be able to support the project in other ways. For example, Ruggiero said, Action Karate recently donated the profits from the sale of gis — the outfits its students wear for karate — to the playground project.

The group is looking for large structure sponsors at $20,000 or more, smaller structure sponsors of $10,000 or more, $5,000 for a handicapped accessible swingset, $1,000 for the merry-go-round and spring rider, $500 for picnic tables and benches and $250 for trees and landscaping. Sponsorships over $500 will have their names placed on a recognition board in the park. Ruggiero said several businesses have already expressed interest in helping, including Moyer Indoor Outdoor, which has said it will help to maintain the trees and landscaping in the playground. Plans for the playground will preserve the existing trees.

For individual fundraising, the group hopes to have a number of events that may include a pancake breakfast and basket Bingo, and it will be hosting a block party in conjunction with the June 23 parade that will be part of the Souderton 125th celebration this summer.

The group hopes to begin fundraising in earnest after receiving a final plan for the park to show potential donors. The borough has said it will pull out some of the older pieces of equipment beginning in the spring, Ruggiero said, and the new equipment could be purchased piece by piece as money is raised. The goal is for the project to be completed by early fall.

“What we’re really wanting to do with this is to build a sense of community,” Ruggiero said.

Donations to the playground can be made Attention: Chestnut Street Playground to Souderton Mennonite Church, 105 W. Chestnut St., Souderton PA 18964 or Souderton Borough, 31 W. Summit, St., Souderton PA 18964. Checks and donations should note that they are to be earmarked for the playground project.

To learn more about the playground project or get involved, contact Pastor Gerry Clemmer, Tara Cupitt, or Jennifer Ruggiero.

Christmas light, shining into the new year

January 24, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

by Emily Ralph, eralphservant@mosaicmennonites.org

Ubaldo Rodriguez, pastor of New Hope, Baltimore, stood in the Walmart parking lot on Christmas afternoon, at a loss. Even in the midday light, there was a hovering shadow. What were they going to do?

Weeks earlier, he and his congregation had received a call from a family in Pennsylvania who wanted to join them on Christmas to serve the homeless in their community. The family was going to bring all the food—what a wonderful way to celebrate Christmas!

So Rodriguez invited fifty people to share the love of God—and Christmas dinner—with them. The dinner was set for 2pm on Christmas afternoon at Wilkens Avenue Mennonite Church.

Just past noon on Christmas Day, however, they made a shocking discovery—the food from Pennsylvania had spoiled on the trip. How were they going to feed their guests? They went to the supermarket, to Walmart—everything was closed. It was Christmas, after all.

Franconia Live Nativity — Franconia shares a live nativity with the community.

Now, as they stood in the parking lot at Walmart, trying to figure out some way to redeem this Christmas, they received a phone call. A member of Wilkens Avenue who owned a restaurant had come to the dinner—with enough food to feed fifty people.

In that moment, Rodriguez and his congregation experienced a real Christmas miracle. There was a light shining in the darkness.

And it was a light that could not be quenched. All throughout Franconia Conference this Christmas, congregations stood alongside Christ as light in the darkness.

2011 Souderton Christmas Parade — MIddle School students from Penn View walk in the Souderton Christmas Parade

Franconia (Pa) congregation kept watch in a live nativity during the week leading up to Christmas, providing soup, hot dogs, cookies, and hot chocolate for their visitors. Middle school students from Penn View Christian School (Souderton, Pa) took their live nativity on the road, walking in the Souderton Christmas Parade.

Plains (Hatfield, Pa) has a yearly tradition of caroling at the Montgomeryville Mall, an event that always draws crowds and participation from bystanders who can’t help but join in the breathtaking harmonies. This year, they also hosted a gift exchange for Manna on Main Street, a Lansdale (Pa) soup kitchen, providing gifts for almost 450 children.

Christmas gift exchange at Plains — Plains partnered with Manna on Main Street to distribute gifts to local children.

Upstate at Whitehall, the light was particularly bright on Christmas Eve, when the Christ candle in the Advent wreath was finally lit after a long season of waiting. The woman who carried the candle up the aisle battles mental illness. She lit the Christ candle and proclaimed, “Arise, shine, for your light has come!” The congregation stood and responded, “The light shines in the darkness . . . and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Christmas Eve is only the beginning—the Christ has arrived and continues to walk with his people through times of darkness and difficulty. This is why Whitehall also celebrated Ebenezer Sunday the week after New Year’s.

The congregation brought in a big stone like the one the prophet Samuel erected while Israel was battling the Philistines (1 Samuel 7). Members of the congregation wrote on the stone, listing the good and hard times that God has led them through. The stone will sit as a memorial of God’s faithfulness, first inside the sanctuary and then later in the church garden—an Ebenezer, their “stone of help,” for “Thus far has God helped us” (vs 12).

Whitehall-Ebenezer — A stone of help from Whitehall's Ebenezer Sunday

The light of Christmas shines into the new year—through darkness, uncertainty, and fear.

And the darkness has not overcome it.

“We praise the Lord for his continued love for people [and] his provision,” said Rodriguez, reflecting on his Christmas miracle. But he acknowledged that the love, provision, and light are not just for us to enjoy, but to extend to all people. “I hope we continue to share in practical ways with others the gift given to us all,” he said, “the gift of love, hope, and joy from our Lord Jesus Christ.”

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Has your congregation had a meaningful service or event? Are you planning something special? Send stories and photos to Emily or let us know what is coming up!

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