formational

On World Domination and Global Espionage

August 14, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

by Derek Cooper, Deep Run East

Growing up in the piney woods and ranch-covered hills of East Texas, I deliberated between two potential careers: world domination, that is to say, being a politicking lawyer, and global espionage, perhaps serving as a CIA officer who worked covertly in some ivy-covered medieval castle in Ghent or Prague.

Now snugly in my thirties, it turns out that I have yet to find a way to control the world. Nor have I yet traveled to Ghent or Prague. Instead, my days are comprised of changing dirty diapers on the youngest of my three children, who laughs mockingly every time I mention that toilets are all the rage; leading and participating in a continual cycle of meetings; having lunch at very German-sounding restaurants with local pastors; teaching and counseling seminary students; and writing Christian books whenever I can snatch the time. When I get home after a busy day of work, my wife and I talk about our day and then I play dolls with my two girls. Almost every night, instead of chasing down international gun-smugglers in a black-and-white tuxedo, I run after my son until I fall down from premature middle-age or until I trip over a Barbie Doll who is taking a joyride on a miniature camouflaged jeep.

My life – and the silly daydreams I had as a child – changed for the better when I was a young college student. Armed with the dual majors of Political Science and Spanish, I stood barrel-chested before the world, ready to take over the reins of political control and international malevolence once I graduated.

In the meantime, I met the love of my life during my second year of college. At the exact moment I saw her, something inside of me came alive and the first moment I got, I boldly declared to this Bucks County native: “I’m going to marry you.”

Repulsed at my forwardness, I spent the next three years convincing this beautiful young lady, named Barb, that God sent her down to Texas so that she could marry me. Little did I know that God had, indeed, led her to Texas – to serve as a missionary with Youth with a Mission (YWAM). But about this more important matter of fetching a husband, she was not amused. Although I still stand by my statement – who knew that Texans were bold and swaggering? – God was pleased to use this young woman to remove my heart of stone and give me a heart of flesh. Within a matter of months, I dropped that world domination and global espionage business, and began to think like a Christian, that is, outwardly and in a Jesus-centered way. I gave my life to Christ, and it has never been the same.

Before I knew it, I was a college graduate and a full-time seminary student. I was now conjugating Greek verbs, preaching at something called a church, reading the Bible (and learning this was far more interesting than political theory), praying, and thinking of a career in missions.

Eventually I learned that God was preparing me for a career in theological education. In the meantime, not only did I convince Barb to marry me, but I even convinced her that God was calling me to get a PhD – which can be translated in the marriage-ese language as: “I will study for the next several years and make no money. Will you support us as I do so?”

While I was earning the last of my three graduate degrees and generating a very meager income-earning power, Barb gave birth to our three wonderful children – currently aged three, four, and five – and also managed to work full-time as an educator.

Did I mention how great my wife is?

Over the years, God has been extraordinarily kind to us. After years of prayer, Barb is now able to stay at home full-time with our kids, just as she has always wanted. And God has provided many wonderful ministry opportunities for me. Most recently, I served on the pastoral teams of two different churches, and I am now a very busy seminary professor and administrator – filling my professional free time with speaking at different churches and writing books.

But the most recent change Barb and I have experienced is joining the Mennonite community. Through the course of key relationships with Mennonite leaders, pastors, and churches, Barb and I have sensed God’s clear leading for us to become Maronites, I mean, Mennonites (I’m still trying to get that down). What can a Southern transplant from gun-slinging and flag-saluting Texas say about being part of the oldest Mennonite community in North America?

In all honesty, I can say that Barb and I clearly sense that God is active in the Mennonite community. God’s Spirit is really alive and poised to do something amazing. We are excited to be a part of this and can’t wait to see how God will bring everything together.

As I think back upon my former dreams, do I have any regrets? Not a one: Christ fashioned my life into something much more than a career in world domination or espionage ever could have given me. Following Jesus has been the most rewarding journey of my life. Of course, if Jesus happened to take a trip and set up shop in Prague or Ghent, I would not complain.

Dr. Derek Cooper is assistant professor of biblical studies and historical theology at Biblical Seminary in Hatfield, PA, where he also serves as associate director of the Doctor of Ministry program. He and his wife Barb are members at Deep Run East Mennonite Church. He can be reached at dcooper@biblical.edu.

To "Mennonite" when we're each other's enemies

August 13, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

To Mennonite Blog #11

by Michael A. King, dean of Eastern Mennonite Seminary (Salford)

Michael King — Photo provided by Eastern Mennonite University

Pondering what it may mean “to Mennonite” reminds me of a friend who leads a state agency serving persons with disabilities. Just returned from Washington, D.C., he reported a grim picture: the likelihood that a divided Congress won’t get its act together to release funds his agency relies on. Any cuts will hurt people with faces I cherish, because my friend has come to lead this agency as an outgrowth of love for his own children with Down Syndrome.

I found our conversation chilling. Has it come to this? Are we so divided we can’t find common ground even to support persons with disabilities?

This is not to minimize complexities; it’s appropriate to ponder the roles of, say, government versus church in caring for “the least of these.” But my friend works tirelessly to raise funds from church folk—yet they provide a fraction of the needed revenue.

So how have we reached a juncture at which even seeing some role for government to play in funding my friend’s agency—why should my taxes support those takers!—may pull me into the vortex of mutual hate which seems the only thing we now know how to build together?

My point isn’t to argue specifics of one more divisive matter. It’s to grieve what seems our loss of ability to work across legitimate differences to discern solutions. And it’s to suspect that an important meaning of “to Mennonite” in such bitter times is for us to learn and maybe model what love amid division can look like.

From our beginnings Mennonites have sought a “third way,” an understanding of Bible, faith, and life that doesn’t quite fit into Protestant or Roman Catholic categories though it can enrich and be enriched by both. Key to third-way understandings has been unusual passion to take Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount literally. This in turn has led Mennonites to believe that Jesus actually meant for us to love even enemies (Matt. 5:44)—here, now, concretely.

Perhaps our most prominent expression of such love has been through conscientious objection to killing enemies in wartime, and this remains a vital Mennonite conviction. Increasingly, however, I wonder if we risk so focusing on enemies out there that we fail to learn how to love the enemies we make of each other.

When we differ over today’s hot issues we seem ever more inclined not to treat persons who hold different views as fellow pilgrims seeking, with us, to hear God’s voice amid our common finitudes and frailties. We seem ever less inclined to trust that God could be threaded through any view other than our own. Rather, we seem ever more ready to believe that if you hold a view other than mine you are my enemy.

Maybe with so much alienation swirling, the one who is not my friend is, precisely, my enemy. But even if we accept such a troubling conclusion, to Mennonite our way through it may then be to ask what it means to love the viewpoint opponents we have made our enemies.

Amid my own limitations of vision, let me not offer a formula for navigating such complicated terrain. Yet let me at least suggest that to Mennonite our way through a time in which we turn even other Christians and Mennonites—not to mention, say, atheists or Muslims or Republicans or Democrats—into enemies is to find ways to repay even what we consider evil with good (Rom. 12:21).

When I was growing up, I saw my parents model what such Mennoniting might look like: no matter how much they might disagree with a person’s beliefs or choices, precisely because they always took seriously that even the enemy was to be loved, they always spied treasure in the other. It might be tarnished; it might need polishing; the light of Christ might barely brighten it. But it was there—and thus was something even in the enemy that could be cherished, learned from, not merely vanquished. I would like to try Mennoniting like that in today’s world and see where it takes me and us.

Our summer blog series will soon be wrapping up. Have there been any insights that have touched you, made you think, connected with your experience? How do you “Mennonite”? Join the conversation on Facebook & Twitter (#fmclife) or by email.

Simple obedience 'to Mennonite'

August 9, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

by John Ruth, Salford

I was baptized after an emotional week of revival meetings with a tearful preacher in an old store-building at the young Finland Mennonite mission in the hills above “The Ridge” nine miles from the Lower Salford farm of my birth. I was all of eight years old, and in third grade. Other boys from Salford Mennonite families made fun of me, calling me, “Chun the Baptist.”

When Bishop Arthur Ruth of Line Lexington arrived at Finland for the service, and asked me some introductory questions, I felt I was flunking. I knew from Sunday School and family worship that we were saved because “Jesus died on the cross,” but I couldn’t answer the bishop’s follow-up question, “How do we know that?” The bishop helped me out: “The Bible tells us.”

Well, I had known that too. I had memorized a lot of Bible verses. And with all my immaturity I now found the church commending me on the solemn “step” I had taken.

This was only one of some questionable actions I would observe my church taking. So why did I continue to respect it and grow to love it?

I did not rebel when my extra-conscientious parents sent me fifty-five miles west to a two-year-old Mennonite High School at Lancaster (there was no Christopher Dock High School for another decade). I enjoyed my new Lancaster friends, visited their homes, dated a girl, and even got a “plain coat” for my graduation, like my Lancaster buddies.

While working in 1948-9 to earn money for college, I was asked to teach Sunday school in Conshohocken, at one of the many new “mission stations” then springing up in the Franconia Conference – many out of lay initiative. I think my plain coat had caught the attention of the bishops, because they put me in the lot for minister even though I was between my freshman and sophomore years at “EMC.”

Then when the “lot was cast” between me and two other men, both at least twice my age, it fell on me, as it had on even younger fellows like Paul Lederach of Norristown and Al Detweiler of Rockhill. Alas, I hadn’t yet really begun to think for myself. But the church had chosen me, and I chose to be chosen ecause in the voice of the church I heard the voice of God.

Sixty-two years later, my respect for the Church of Christ is a key to my Mennonite loyalty. In its fellowship I found a good wife, and was allowed both to finish college and a Ph.D. program in English at Harvard University, and teach literature for a dozen years at Eastern University. After that, I had a “second ordination,” again under the leadership of a bishop, Richard Detweiler. For thirty-five years I have been making films and videos, writing history books, and leading Anabaptist heritage tours in Europe, while serving as an associate pastor for twenty-two years in my beloved congregation at Salford.

I respect the Church because I believe, as Paul wrote in Ephesians 3, that it is the means by which God makes experiencable the mystery of salvation. Being reconciled to God and each other is what salvation is about. It is what our church is about. Our first confession of faith (Schleitheim, 1527) is about church, because the way we do church is the evidence of what we believe . Not complicated doctrine but simple acceptance of this mystery and living by it is what church is about. Not trying to be “realistic” about politics, war and economics, but simple obedience to the great Pioneer of our reconciliation, is what our church fellowship is, by birth and continuing discernment, about.

When I asked Indonesian members of the Praise Center this summer in Philadelphia why they would want to be a part of our Conference, they said, “Because you know what it is to be marginal” (i.e., non-conformed to the world). We don’t find that sense in other potential fellowships.”

“Well,” I said, “what about the fact that we’re pretty much part of the establishment now?”

“Yes,” they replied, “but at least you have the historical memory.”

I know what it feels like to be touched by that Mennonite memory. Seventy-four years after my immature baptism, though my church is still imperfect and tempted to imitate instead of obey, its noble birth-message of reconciliation makes it where I want to belong, be accountable, and share the mystery of salvation with a whole new set of neighbors.

Learning & Loving God in MCC Summer Service Program

August 8, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

by Ben White & Millie Penner, Mennonite Central Committee

When asked what he was looking forward to as he began his Summer Service Worker term with MCC East Coast, Cesar Solis said, “I’m looking forward to learning . . . the best thing about being a Christian is you get to learn new things every day.” A recent graduate of high school, Cesar is working to discern both what he will do and who he will be. This young man is committed both to learning and to loving God.

Cesar will have plenty of opportunity to learn and love both God and God’s people this summer at New Hope Fellowship in Alexandria, Virginia. Working with a kids club and youth group is one part of his job, but he also has the opportunity to think with others about supporting another church in New Jersey through a significant transition. Cesar has a willing spirit and seems to thrive on taking risks. His pastor Kirk Hanger is working to give Cesar many opportunities to learn. Cesar’s God-given enthusiasm will make his Summer Service term enjoyable. The grant from Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) East Coast Summer Service Worker program makes it possible.

The MCC East Coast Summer Service Worker program is a short term leadership development program for young adult people of color between the ages of 18-30. This Summer Service Worker program partners with churches and other organizations to provide leadership opportunities for young people. The church or organization, along with MCC East Coast, work together to pay Summer Service workers for their efforts. Franconia Conference also contributed to Cesar Solis’ grant.

Summer Service Workers 2012 — This year’s participants in MCC East Coast’s Summer Service Worker program. Photo provided.

In June, MCC East Coast and MCC Great Lakes Summer Service Workers participated in a week of orientation in Philadelphia, PA. Participants learned from largely urban speakers about MCC and what it means to be a young Christian leader of color. Summer Service Workers also form friendships among themselves during the orientation. These bonds of friendship and support are strengthened through regularly scheduled conference calls in which they share their joys and frustrations during their terms of service.

This summer there are eleven East Coast Summer Service Workers from New York City to Puerto Rico who are learning much about leadership and taking risks.

Please pray that East Coast Summer Service Workers see themselves as God sees them—gifted individuals with much to offer the world.

The MCC East Coast Summer Service progam considers new partnerships each year. Interested churches or organizations should visit the website for further details.

Backward Jazz

August 8, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

by Jacob Ford, Franconia

I read Blue Like Jazz backwards. It was the story of a guy who had the whole concept of love figured out, who went into the woods as his facial hair slowly retracted, and eventually ended up as a child in a conservative Christian household.

No, here’s what I actually mean:

Well, first, a little backstory. In June, RELEVANT Magazine published an article on Donald Miller and the new movie based on his book. Like any good pop culture Christian magazine dealing with a potentially good pop culture Christian movie based on a good pop culture Christian book, the article dug down to the inspirations and environmental elements which led to the author writing certain words and not writing certain words in what eventually became the finished book. But what happened next was fascinating. About halfway through the article, the claim is made that Blue Like Jazz inspired not only a mindset and some inspired thinking among its readers, but was instrumental in birth of an entire new concept of Christianity, a “shift in evangelical culture.”

Generally, we’re talking about the newish liberal quasihipster kind of Christian culture (you may recognize us), but it gets much deeper than I just made it sound.

This is where the backwards comes in. Without realizing it, I had already begun to align myself with this new culture, before reading Blue Like Jazz. As I read, I felt my ideas being validated just as much as I was hearing new ones. I was seeing much of my own thinking on a page written by someone else. This connection made it even more personal and frustrating when I read something that didn’t seem to match up with my thinking. It was fascinating. Rather than simply being inspired by a book I was reading, I was reading a book which was inspired by something I was already a part of.

Read the book. Watch the movie. Do both. Read then watch. Watch then read. I’m not one of those parental crazies ranting about how no movie should ever be watched before it is read (I still have something like eight pages left to read and I might go watch the movie anyway before finishing the last few paragraphs just to bother people).

But here’s my unexpected advice: Don’t watch or read it with a totally open mind. Have your own thoughts. Bring your personal opinions. If you love/hate the church, continue loving/hating the church. Yes, be ready to change your thinking, but make sure you actually have your own thoughts. Blue Like Jazz might change your mind on at least a few things you previously thought were unshakable, but it can only change something if it’s already there.

I hope to soon watch Blue Like Jazz backwards. And not in the Benjamin Button sense.

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Franconia Mennonite Church’s Youth and Young Adults are sponsoring a movie showing of Blue Like Jazz at the Grand Theater in East Greenville (252 Main St, East Greenville PA 18041, 215-679-4300) on August 8, beginning at 7 PM. Tickets are $5. For more information about the movie visit http://www.bluelikejazzthemovie.com/.

Learning to listen across generations

August 7, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

by Joe Hackman, Salford (Harleysville, Pa.)

Salford listening — Joe Hackman and Sanford Alderfer from Salford congregation. Salford is focusing this year on learning to listen across generations. Photo by Tim Moyer.

“Thank you for listening!” say several excited young children at the end of every episode of Salford’s Listening Project. Our church has been doing a lot of listening these days.

Last summer we set aside several months for prayer and discerning what God might be calling us to for the next several years. The discernment led us to something pretty basic: learning how to get better at listening to God.

In the next several years we will be learning to listen for God in our personal lives, in our local community, in hospitality, and in difficult conversations. This year we’ve given special focus to learning to listen to God in intergenerational relationships.

One young woman who recently joined our church told me, “The reason I’m drawn to this community is that older people are curious about my family and me. They really want to know who we are and what we’re thinking.”

But trying to get different generations to listen to one another and for God’s movement in those relationships has proven to be a joy and a struggle. Some of our ideas have flourished while others have not.

Salford’s Listening Project invites people from across generations to sit in our old sound booth above the church sanctuary to share and record stories of faith with each other. In a recent episode, two women discussed a time when the church prevented a person in FBI training from serving as a youth sponsor because he was required to carry a gun. For the woman in her 80’s, this was a time when church leadership took a stand and did not compromise on a core belief. For the woman in her 30’s, who was a member of the youth group at that time, the same story created much hurt; she interpreted it as a low point in her experience at Salford. Sharing the story and the different ways it was understood helped both women listen for God’s movement in both the joy and pain of this event.

But intergenerational listening hasn’t always been a success. After Easter we started an intergenerational Sunday school class called “Jesus through the Ages.” We had willing participants (mainly Gen Xers and the Silent Generation) gather around tables and look at scripture passages together, led by a team of skilled facilitators. But, try as we might, the class struggled to thrive.

Why? We’re not completely sure. But we learned that different generations have different expectations for Sunday school and how it should be formatted. We decided to cancel the class after July and encouraged folks to return to their regular classes—which are traditionally split along generational lines.

I remember a few years ago the theme for the Mennonite Church USA Convention was “Can’t Keep Silent,” and I sometimes think of the irony: our congregation believes God is calling us to listen right now! The church is called to offer people a new way of life brought about by the presence of a countercultural, spirit-filled reality. And in a world that is increasingly polarized by talking heads on radio, television, and Twitter feeds, Salford needs to do the hard work of learning to listen to God and to each other; this is a message of good news for our church and our world.

Conference students receive Everence scholarships

August 1, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

SOUDERTON, PA – Everence has announced that three Franconia Conference students are among 42 recipients of this year’s Everence college scholarships. The scholarship program encourages young people to explore the integration of faith and finances while helping them on their educational journeys.

The scholarship awardees are:

Jacob Ford, Souderton, PA; Jacob attends Franconia Mennonite Church and is a student at New York University.
Sarah Nafziger, Mohnton, PA; Sarah attends Vincent Mennonite Church and is a student at Penn State University.
Rachel Speigle, Telford, PA; Rachel attends Blooming Glen Mennonite Church and is a student at Northeastern University.

Nearly 200 students from across the country applied for scholarships for the 2012-2013 academic year. Recipients were chosen based on academics, extracurricular activities, leadership, community involvement and responses to an essay question.

Students wrote essays about someone who models the concept of stewardship.

“We were encouraged to see that so many students have people in their lives who set an example of how to be good stewards of their time and resources,” said Phyllis Mishler, member benefits manager for Everence. “They’re learning important lessons about how much impact a spirit of generosity can have.”

One student received a $3,000 scholarship, three received $2,000 scholarships and 38 others received $500 scholarships for the upcoming school year. For a complete list of scholarship recipients and their photos, visit Everence.com.

Rachel Speigle, Blooming Glen congregation

Everence helps individuals, organizations and congregations integrate finances with faith through a national team of advisers and representatives. Everence offers banking, insurance, and financial services with community benefits and stewardship education. Everence is a ministry of Mennonite Church USA and other churches. To learn more, visit Everence.com or call (800) 348-7468.

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Did you know about the Area Conference Leadership Fund? The ACLF gives grants for seminary training to members of Franconia and Eastern District conferences. Find out more about it or make a donation here.

Observing together what God is saying and doing

July 31, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

To Mennonite Blog #9

by Ervin Stutzman, executive director, Mennonite Church USA

I’ve been a follower of Jesus in the Mennonite tradition for many years. Therefore, for me “to Mennonite” is to instinctively follow the many rhythms and routines that express my core beliefs about Christian discipleship. I engage in particular rhythms of corporate worship and private devotion, action and reflection, exercise and rest, (lots of) work and (sometime too little) play, (too much) speaking and (too little) listening, communal discernment and personal choice. I could expand on each of these routines but I have chosen to address only the last of these several pairs.

For me, “to Mennonite” is to engage in communal discernment about the most important issues in the Christian life. Some newcomers to the Mennonite church quickly observe that our insistence on processing decisions can lead to undue cultural conformity and inertia. To new leaders eager to make changes in the church, processing often appears as a weakness, if not a downright annoyance. Stuart Murray, an Anabaptist from Great Britain, once cited a Mennonite friend who said that “process is the Mennonite drug of choice.” Ouch!

Recently, I met with a congregation of individuals who were mostly new to the Mennonite Church. Although they were part of Virginia Mennonite Conference as well as Mennonite Church USA, some members were hesitant about being identified as Mennonites. They feared that being Mennonite would drag them down, perhaps even lead them down the wrong path. They wished for greater independence from the larger body of Mennonite Christians. They seemed worried that the choices we are making as a national conference, even after communal discernment, might not reflect God’s best for them.

While the downsides of endless discussion and processing seem painfully obvious, there are clear upsides that keep me walking on the Mennonite path toward communal discernment of God’s chosen future. To Mennonite, then, is to join with others in circles of respectful and prayerful conversation, observing together what God is saying and doing in a community of faith. To Mennonite is to listen for God’s call. To Mennonite is to determine to follow where God leads, no matter what the cost.

This does not eliminate the need for effective group leadership. Indeed, it takes courageous leaders to blaze a trail into God’s future. Communal discernment can determine what God is calling us to do; getting it done is another matter! Further, coming to a group consensus can build a strong sense of ownership that will help to move the group along, especially during hard times. I have found that everybody is always lazy toward someone else’s goals. Good processes of communal discernment help us all to own the group’s goals for ourselves.

“To Mennonite” this way requires a strong sense of trust in the group. It appears that many leaders fear to engage groups in a search for consensus. I suspect they are worried that an ambitious radical will wreck the process or that a band of foot draggers will slow progress to a halt. Even more, I sense their anxiety that someone else will get the credit for any forward progress.

After years of leading groups, I have found that God can allay such fears. Consequently, I trust group processes more than ever. I am more likely now to bring my (supposedly brilliant) ideas to groups for testing. More likely to listen for the wisdom of even the quietest members. More likely to trust the Holy Spirit to point the way toward the future. If that’s what it means “to Mennonite,” count me in.

How do you “Mennonite”? Join the conversation on Facebook & Twitter (#fmclife) or by email.

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