Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

formational

Moved by faith … back to school

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Philippiansby Maria Byler, Philadelphia Praise Center

In Matthew 17 Jesus tells the disciples that with faith the size of a mustard seed they could move mountains. But at Philadelphia Praise Center/Centro de Alabanza de Filadelfia, something else is being moved by faith: adults are going to school. And I, as site administrator, get to witness the miraculous results.

This fall, 15 members of PPC/CAF started the certificate program of the Anabaptist Biblical Institute (IBA), an adult Christian education program coordinated by the Mennonite Education Agency and the Hispanic Mennonite Church. It consists of eight 12-week courses. Students complete workbook lessons on their own and meet weekly in group tutoring sessions. Tutors are pastors Leticia Cortés and Fernando Loyola. With God’s help the first course, Introduction to Bible Study, was completed in early December.

Each student is in a very different place with their education. One student is completing postdoctoral work, one dropped out of elementary school over 20 years ago. Most have begun to know Jesus within the last five years. But their varied experiences with school and church were overcome by the strength of their faith and their desire to learn more about God.

At the first class when asked about the homework, most of the students raised their eyebrows and shook their heads sadly. “Me cuesta leer tanto,” – “It’s hard for me to read so much” “No entendí todas las preguntas,” “I didn’t understand all the questions.” We struggled through the literary genres in the Bible and the difference between figurative and literal. But we also had great conversations about Hebrew identity, Creation, and even vegetarianism. Week after week I left the class amazed at what God is doing with these humble but eager followers. And the students left the class feeling as though they had merely scratched the surface of knowledge, and ready to deepen their understanding.

More than what God is doing inside each student is what God is doing with us as a community. We are each (including me) growing so much more than if we just read the lessons individually. IBA has become a very human place where we learn from the reading and also from our sisters’ and brothers’ life views.  This includes experiences of members of the community during the course. We have had to cancel or rearrange classes because of illness or other church events – and those happenings make it into the class conversation. Students often bring their children, who participate in their own way. It’s giving us all practice in being a community of sharing and support as we learn together how to walk this life as Christians.

At the beginning of the New Year we start on the second course: Anabaptist History and Theology. For more information on what we’re studying, check out the Mennonite Education Agency website. Or, if you’d rather, contact me – I love to talk about this exciting work that God is doing in the church!

Fall Ministerial Update

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Noah Kolb, for the Ministerial Committee

Ubaldo Rodriguez, left, is the newest member of the Ministerial Committee.

The Ministerial Committee met on September 5 and November 7. At our September meeting, we welcomed Ubaldo Rodriguez as a new member of the committee. We took action to approve Kristopher Wint, associate pastor of Finland congregation, for a two-year ministerial license toward ordination and accepted the ordination credentials of John Stoltzfus, conference youth minister and campus pastor at Christopher Dock Mennonite High School, from Illinois Conference.

At our November meeting, we approved Franco Salvatori, pastor of Rocky Ridge congregation, for a license toward ordination. The committee took action to change the ordination status of Dennis Detweiler and Bill Brunk from “active’ to “retired.” The policy to assist credentialed leaders with counseling expenses was reviewed and updated.  We invited LEADership Ministers and the Credentials Committee to join us in reviewing the policies that guide who we credential.

God@Work: Singing a New Song

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by Sheila R. Duerksen, Blooming Glen

How does one who was sheltered in the arms of a loving family, taught of God as she is taught to walk, surrounded by faith as by an embryonic fluid — how does one such as I not know that God loves her?

In a crisis of overwhelming fears, I came to sudden clarity that I did not really trust Him, and this was rooted in not truly believing that He loves me.  Yes, I believed He loved the world, in a general, beneficent Creator sort of way.  But what interest did He have in me?  I knew I had been sheltered and protected, and for that I was grateful.  But I did not believe that He treasured me, and I did not believe that I should even expect that kind of attention.  I should be thankful for what I have and be content.  But there was a yearning in me I could not name.

I did not realize that thankfulness would unlock the greatest surprise of my life:  a God, on the edge of His seat, a catch in His throat, His muscles taut as He restrained Himself to honor my free will, and waited…waited…waited for me, His beloved.  A God who longed for me and fought for me and craved an intimate relationship with me.  I never imagined a God like that, His Words a-quiver with life, a startlingly real God of visions and dreams and singing a new song.

During this season of growing thankfulness came the songs.  Suddenly, like rain showers, words and music began to fall into my mind.  I never knew when the next song would come.  I did not deliberately try to write them; they would arrive out of the clear blue, while I was jogging or in the shower or at the kitchen sink.  They arrived while I was sleep deprived and desperately juggling the needs of two young children while drowning in the mire of household tasks.  I simply opened up and received.

This was shocking and delightful to me.  I had never written a song in my life, and it had never occurred to me to try.  Still, I had always loved the feel and tang of words, and found joy in music, paying very close attention to the songs which moved me.  The mystery of music called to me.

Could it be that God…knew me? Cared about me?  He knew that, when I was lost in the worship of thankfulness that January morning, my spirit suddenly stretched out long toward Him… I wanted to sing.  I wanted my own words to sing.  But I could not ask for such a thing.  You aren’t deserving of that.  And if you want it too badly, you will not get it.  You will be disappointed.  But somehow grace was stronger than fear, and He heard my faintest soul whisper, the deepest desire of my heart, what I did not even know was hidden in me.  He gave me what I was afraid to ask for.

This was a God who knew that the hurts incurred on my journey through the world had shaken me and battered me.  I had put away my poetic nature, my creativity, and my sensitivity because they did nothing to protect me from the blows.  I became jaded and suspicious, because innocence made me a target.  I closed the door on dreams because they weren’t practical or responsible.  But He knew who He had created me to be.  And He was calling out to that girl.  For the first time in my life, I heard Him.

He has answered my deepest questions and my deepest longings by His love for me.  I see His hands all over the events of my life, weaving the joy and pain together into something new, always something new.  Fear and disappointment cannot withstand the astonishing tenderness and mercy of my Father’s relentless pursuit of me; the creator and caretaker of all that exists is also the Lover of my soul.

God@work beyond our imagination

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United Conference Assembly 2012

by Krista Showalter Ehst, Bally congregation

Now to God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!   Amen.

Ervin Stutzman “kneels before the Father” to pray for the gathered members of Franconia and Eastern District Conferences at last Saturday’s joint assembly. Photo by Andrew Huth.

The passion of Paul himself permeated the auditorium as Ervin Stutzman, Executive Director of Mennonite Church USA, stood from his kneeled position and—hands stretched towards the sky—proclaimed these words from Ephesians 3:20-21. It was a fitting end to his message and an equally fitting end to the United Conference Assembly, in which 175 delegates, credentialed leaders, and other participants gathered to reflect upon and imagine where God has and might be at work amidst Franconia and Eastern District Conferences.

The day-long Assembly provided several opportunities for engaging God’s work through workshops, meal-time fellowship, a large exhibition of agencies, schools, and other ministries, delegate business sessions, and multi-lingual worship. This year’s second united gathering of the conferences was held at Penn View Christian School, Souderton, Pa.

Stutzman reminded participants that Paul wrote this prayer while in prison, a time of great trouble both for the apostle and the churches that looked to him as a leader. It is perhaps during the times of greatest trouble, Stutzman said, that God is working beyond our imagination.

A team of worship leaders from Eastern District and Franconia Conference congregations led multi-lingual worship. Photo by Andrew Huth.

Responses to the recent devastation of Hurricane Sandy testified to the ways God is at work in times of trouble. Andrew Huth, a documentary photographer and associate pastor of Amber congregation, recently traveled to New York City to photograph the aftermath of Sandy. The images he shared revealed immense destruction and heartache, but evidenced God’s love working through Mennonite Disaster Service teams from both conferences, local community members, and residents of the devastated areas. “If we aspire to be the kind of people who, at a moment’s notice, are ready and prepared to do the work of God,” Huth reflected, “then we must come pre-dirty.” The world doesn’t need us to put on a perfect face, Huth added, but they “should know us as followers of Christ from our stench.”

In the Franconia Conference business session, moderator John Goshow (Blooming Glen congregation) and assistant moderator Marta Castillo (Nueva Vida Norristown New Life congregation) acknowledged the challenge of loving one another and remaining in unity—particularly in the midst of disagreement over issues of human sexuality. Recently, the conference board received a letter from the Alpha congregation stating that they have decided to accept into membership persons with a homosexual orientation. The conference board is fully aware of the diversity of perspectives on this issue within Franconia Conference, according to Goshow, and decided that they were unwilling to sever a relationship with the Alpha congregation at this time.  “We acknowledge that further discernment on this subject is needed and desire that disagreeing voices be heard non-judgmentally and with patience and respect,” Goshow said. “We believe that God will be at work as we seek further discernment on this important issue.”

Warren Tyson and Ertell Whigham lead the congregation in a conversation on how partnership between the two conferences could bring God glory. Photo by Andrew Huth.

The ongoing relationship with Eastern District was another key topic of conversation. Franconia’s executive minister Ertell Whigham and Warren Tyson, Conference Minister of Eastern District, conferred with delegates on their responses to this common work; many delegates affirmed the benefits of working together and sharing resources.  There were also some reservations, however, around the risk of the smaller Eastern District being absorbed by the larger Franconia as well as potential theological differences between the two groups.

The desire to share resources speaks to a continued trend of decreased giving to the conference budget.   Whigham and Randy Nyce (Salford congregation), Conference Board Financial Committee Chair, alluded to the decreased financial support that Franconia Conference receives and a likely accompanying decrease in staff. This concerned some delegates, especially credentialed leaders who depend upon the support of their LEADership Ministers.

In the midst of these uncertainties, delegates were reminded of the many ways God has been and is at work throughout the conference community. Stutzman challenged the assembly to look for God “at work in every aspect of our lives” and within sessions and around dinner tables, participants shared of laundromat and garden ministries, appreciation dinners for local firefighters, and other creative, hands-on ways of entering into God’s work.

Members of the Ripple community gather up front during Conference Assembly to be recognized as a new member congregation of Franconia Conference. Photo by Andrew Huth.

Ripple, an emerging Anabaptist community birthed out of Whitehall congregation, brought particular witness to daily participation in God’s work as they were introduced to delegates and accepted into Franconia Conference as a member congregation.  Ripple seeks to respond to needs and possibilities in Allentown by serving their community through food distribution, engaging local children and youth, and living out community with those who have been marginalized.

Overall, the day was a rich one, filled with inspiring witness, tough yet necessary conversation, and much time to connect with persons from across both conferences. In the face of recent storm damage, uncertain economic realities, and the challenging topic of human sexuality, participants were challenged to trust and to take risks out of the knowledge that God can “do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”

Watch the highlight video, listen to the podcast, or peruse the photo gallery from Conference Assembly 2012.

Conference young adults serving with Mennonite Missions

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ELKHART, Ind. (Mennonite Mission Network) – Emma Nafziger, of Pottstown, Pa., began a one year service term with the Service Adventure program in August 2012. Nafziger will be living in community with other young adults in a unit house in Raleigh, NC.

A 2010 graduate of Christopher Dock Mennonite High School (Lansdale, Pa.), Nafziger is the daughter of Robin and Dean Nafziger and a member of Vincent Mennonite Church in Spring City, Pa..

In this program of Mennonite Mission Network, young adults, ages 17-20, live in a household community, with a leader, for 10 months in cities and towns across the United States. Since 1989, Service Adventure participants have served in medical clinics, tutored children, worked with senior citizens, assisted in building homes, and helped meet additional needs across North America. They’ve become part of new communities; experienced and learned from different people and cultures; and grown in their faith.

Joseph BatesJoe Bates, of Red Hill, Pa., began a one year service term with the Radical Journey program in August 2012. Bates will be serving with a team in England.

A 2011 graduate of Christopher Dock Mennonite High School, Bates is the son of Randee Bates and attends Perkiomenville (Pa.) Mennonite Church.

Radical Journey is a Mennonite Mission Network program for young adults that emphasizes faith formation, service and cross-cultural learning.  Participants spend 10 days in orientation, 10 months in an international service location and another month in re-orientation with their home congregations.

Mennonite Mission Network is the mission agency of Mennonite Church USA and exists to lead, mobilize and equip the church to participate in holistic witness to Jesus Christ in a broken world. Mission Network envisions every congregation and all parts of the world being fully engaged in mission.

Assembly Scattered 2012: How do we discern together?

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On October 16, Executive Minister Ertell Whigham and LEADership Minister Jenifer Eriksen Morales led a training for conference delegates.  Delegates discussed methods for corporate discernment in their congregations, how to prepare themselves and their congregations for Conference Assembly, and the role and responsibilities of conference delegates.

Another training will be held on October 27, 9-11am, at Dock Woods Community (Fischer Auditorium) in Lansdale, Pa.  We hope you will be able to join us in person as we interact with one another around topics of discernment.  If you have a scheduling conflict, however, the video from the October 16th training is now available.

CA Scattered handout

Can enemies become friends?

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Jean Claude (Whitehall)
Jean Claude Nkundwa shares his story of living through Burundi’s civil war. Photo by Patti Connolly.

by Rose Bender, Whitehall

I guess I started thinking about this earlier in the summer.  I was acting as ‘crowd control’ at a peace camp at Franklin Park in Allentown. The story teller had the kids acting out Acts 10—where Peter and Cornelius move from historic animosity toward friendship and salvation.  A Jewish fisherman, a Roman Centurion, and their respective cohorts took on a decidedly urban, Latino flavor. The kids seemed to enjoy the story, but when they were asked to think about why someone like Peter would be friends with someone like Cornelius their answers were painfully honest.  When asked to imagine creative ways to respond to bullies—they couldn’t seem to think of anything but fighting back.   And I could see why a white woman of privilege, suggesting Jesus would have them do otherwise, didn’t necessarily sit well with them.

The story time ended as it had each night, by the children passing around a ‘blessing cup’ filled with apple juice and saying words that went along with the story.  That night they said something like “The Spirit of Jesus can make friends out of enemies’.  One by one, children who had eagerly taken from the cup on previous nights refused to drink.  And I went home with an uncomfortable knot in my stomach.  The story of peace hadn’t seemed like ‘good news’ to them. (Read Samantha Lioi’s reflection)

The memory of that evening stayed with me all summer.  It was why I was looking forward to having Phoebe Kilby, from Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, come and share with our congregation in worship on August 5.  She was bringing a current student from Burundi, Jean Claude Nkundwa.   In planning the worship, we had chosen to read Matthew 5:38-48 and entitle their talk ‘Can enemies be friends?’  I wanted to hear a modern-day, real life story, from someone who had been willing to drink from the blessing cup of reconciliation.

At a Saturday evening gathering and during our worship on Sunday morning, I heard the complicated story of Burundi’s civil war and Jean Claude’s experience during it.  He was a teenager when his village exploded in violence from which only three of his family escaped—hiding by day and traveling under cover of night—not knowing who or where the enemy might be.  In his words, his “mind was paralyzed” and he questioned the existence of God. He began to believe the only way to peace was through military dictatorship.

Phoebe Kilby (Whitehall)
Phoebe Kilby tells Whitehall congregation about discovering her ancestors had been slave owners. Photo by Patti Connolly

But slowly and mysteriously, through a variety of people and situations, he was able to believe again in the God of Moses—present even in the wilderness.  His journey toward healing has included reconciliation with folks in his village.  He is a remarkable man—who feels called by God to continue working for truth-telling and justice in his own country, and dreams of starting an Eastern Africa Peace-Building Institute.  “Africa will be prosperous when the heart of Africa will be healed.”

After our time together, I wanted to bring Jean Claude to Franklin Park.  I wanted the kids to hear God’s story about Peter and Cornelius from his lips.  I wanted them to hear about his village and his family’s land that is now being farmed by former enemies.

I would like them to hear Phoebe’s story, too.  When she discovered that she was a descendent of slave owners, she reached out to the descendants of the slaves her family owned.  Her journey of reconciliation includes working together with her new-found cousins to fund and install a historic marker at the high school their family had worked to desegregate.  I think that each of them would have made the story of Peter and Cornelius come alive to the kids in a new way.

Can enemies really become friends?  After listening to Jean Claude and Phoebe, I know it is possible, but it requires holy imagination and committed perseverance—joining the work of the Spirit.  In reflecting on their stories and my time at Franklin Park, I have been struck by the importance of sharing where my own story intersects with the biblical narrative.  Perhaps that is what bearing witness really means.  We speak about the Good News we have seen and heard and lived.  I wonder if that would have made a difference to my young friends at Franklin Park.  I wonder if they would have been more open to imagine another way.   I am trusting there will be more opportunities to bear witness and live into the story together—the blessing cup of reconciliation overflowing.

Hazardous: Committing to the Cost of Following Jesus

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Derek Cooperby Derek Cooper, Deep Run East

If you are anything like me, you struggle with Jesus’ command to his disciples to “put God’s kingdom first.” I struggle with this because I tend to put my own needs first: to satisfy my own desires and interests before thinking about those of others, let alone God’s. I tend to put others’ needs before mine only occasionally, and not always like I really should.

But this is not the way of the kingdom.

Christians do not go their own way. Instead, they are defined by who they serve and, as such, seek to align their desires and interests according to their master’s desires and interests. God wants people who are totally committed to him. God wants people who worship him “in spirit and truth.” God wants people who serve him day and night, seven days a week, four seasons a year. In fact, we have a term for this deep level of commitment and loyalty: it’s called discipleship, and it’s quite challenging.

Over the past few years, pastors and Christian leaders have begun to rethink the importance of discipleship in the lives of North American churches. Although many churches will continue to obsess about attendance numbers and making their budgets, it’s encouraging to see that some are becoming less focused on things like church membership and more focused on making disciples.

Given the importance of this discussion in North American churches, I have recently co-written a book on discipleship entitled Hazardous: Committing to the Cost of Following Jesus. I wrote this book for two main reasons. First, although it is often said, it bears being repeated again: Jesus has entrusted the church with one primary task – to make disciples, not just believers or mere church members. Jesus’ last words, according to the Gospel of Matthew, were not breathed with the intention of his followers sounding good, paying bills, or looking professional; they were breathed to give life to a perpetual generation of Spirit-led, God-loving Jesus-followers (Matthew 28:19). The second reason why I wrote this book is because I have discerned that, despite the growing number of sermons, radio broadcasts, and books that discuss the topic of discipleship, too few spell out the specific costs of discipleship from the perspective of it being a very challenging and demanding enterprise each and every day. In running the risk of oversimplification, it’s far too easy to look upon discipleship like a Disneyworld roller coaster: sure, there are some downs along the way, but the journey is mostly for personal fulfillment and the costs of going on a ride are fairly minimal.

HazardousI agree that there are enjoyable moments on the road to following Jesus, but I think we do a serious disservice to Christians when we paint a picture of discipleship as a joy ride that takes us to our dream job, a bigger house, and a hassle-free existence.

Without denying the jobs and homes many Christians have (and love) and the stress-free lives we enjoy in relation to history and the rest of the world, following Jesus is hard, difficult, and challenging for the very simple reason that the eclipse of God’s kingdom on earth has yet to take place. And to state the obvious in our technology- and comfort-driven society, God is not a vending machine who mechanically and impersonally distributes riches to Christians like a game-show host. On the contrary, if you ask God for patience, you will most likely not be zapped with an abstract attribute; rather, you will be put in challenging circumstances where you will have to demonstrate patience as you rely upon God’s Spirit.

All of this is to say: Discipleship is a hazardous enterprise, and it is a topic that we need to think about with more seriousness and with more biblical and practical depth. If you would like to explore this kind of discipleship for yourself and for your church, I encourage you to read Hazardous and to think anew about what it means to follow Jesus in a culture that constantly competes with relevancy, independence, wealth, busyness, and comfort.

Dr. Derek Cooper is assistant professor of biblical studies and historical theology at Biblical Seminary, where he directs the LEAD MDiv program and co-directs the DMin program. He and his wife Barb are members at Deep Run East Mennonite Church. His most recent book is entitled Hazardous: Committing to the Cost of Following Jesus.