Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

formational

Bicycles, Fishing, and Bacon – But Mostly Bikes

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by Scott Roth, Leadership Minister

Many of you know I have a passion for bicycles, fishing, and bacon.  These have always been little hobbies of mine and throughout them I have put Jesus at the center.  I know it sounds silly to say bacon and Jesus, but there has been fruitful ministry with bacon over the years.

There is an old phrase that I love, “When life gives you lemons…make bacon.”  Well it seems this phrase has been rewritten during this season of COVID-19 to be, “When life hands you a pandemic…go ride a bicycle!”

There is a bicycle revolution happening right now in the United States.  Bicycle shop sales are up 71% and inventory of new bicycles is scarce.  People are out riding bikes in record numbers!  We have not seen this transportation trend in our culture since the car revolution.

Bicycling ministry has been a passion of mine over the past five years.  As the director of Bike & Sol and a pastor, I have been afforded so many opportunities to enter into people’s lives in deep meaningful ways.  Bicycles can make someone very approachable when riding around. When someone rides a bike, they may be enjoying the natural high that happens when endorphins run through our body, letting us know we are having a good time.

Why do I promote bicycles so much? The answer: Church. If you want a really, really, really easy way to be missional and get to know people in your neighborhood, go ride a bike.  Ride around and say hi to your neighbors.  Find others that want to ride and go connect.  Riding is such a safe and easy way to social distance and get around.

You can ride on trails, roads, or wherever makes sense to ride.  This is a really low hanging fruit way of doing relational ministries.  It’s really simple.  You pedal and talk about your life and ask questions about the people’s lives around you.  How was your week? What was work like? How’s the family?  Listen and engage.  Bicycles create such a neutral ground for us to interact.

What about discipleship ministry?  Just as you can reach out missionally, you can also reach those who are within your own faith community.  Pray for someone that God may be calling you to mentor and disciple and ask them to go for a ride.  Just ride and talk and enjoy the nature around you.  Maybe a peer of yours needs some time with you, or maybe there is someone in your congregation who needs an invitation to ride.

There are so many opportunities that are available right NOW for being Christ-like in a healthy, positive way with a bicycle. But what happens after the pandemic?  We hope that we can keep this momentum going and keep on pedaling with our neighbors and folks in our communities at large.

However you choose to use them, bicycles are an opportunity.  With our bicycles, there are simple ways that we as the church can be relevant and relational in our neighborhoods and our faith communities.  If you have questions or thoughts or want ideas on riding ministries, please contact me directly at scott@bikeandsol.com

COVID-19 News & Updates

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Give to the
Shalom Mutual Aid Fund



 

“Keep loving each other like family.”
(Hebrews 13:1, CEB)

What is the Shalom Fund?

Eastern District & Franconia Conference has started a Shalom Fund to support pastors, congregations, and ministries in direct response to the Coronavirus and the ensuing economic crisis.   We are seeking to raise $100,000 to respond to the most vulnerable within our membership and neighborhoods by empowering local ministries to meet real needs with Christ’s love and generosity in a time of fear and anxiety.

Read: Why Support the Eastern District & Franconia Conference Shalom Fund?

Who is being helped?

Our first wave of resources are being shared with Eastern District & Franconia congregations who are already distributing food in their South Philadelphia neighborhoods, beginning with eggs and potatoes to supplement canned meat that has been provided by Mennonite Central Committee.  Shalom Fund distributions are also immediately going to Ripple Community Inc (a Conference Related Ministry (CRM) in Allentown that serves adults who are experiencing homelessness, living with mental illness, or have other conditions or experiences that can leave them isolated and alone), and Crossroad Community Center (a CRM which has been operating for nearly 60 years as a witness to Jesus by providing for the physical and spiritual needs of one of the most difficult neighborhoods in Philadelphia).

Just today, we have received projected initial needs of $50,000 for our congregations and these two CRMs alone to assist pastoral incomes, building mortgages, and mutual aid within the congregation and neighborhoods.  These needs have been identified across our Conference and are immediate.

Who Can Give?

Everyone!  If you have wanted a way to help others during this difficult and confusing time but didn’t know how, this is the fund for you.  Whether you are an individual or family, a business owner, a youth group, someone who likes to run fundraisers, or a congregation with special or endowed funds, your contributions are vital.

Webinar

  • Considerations for Gathering Together Again – Leadership Ministers Scott Roth & Emily Ralph Servant, Dr. Sherri Binder, Executive Director of Ripple Community Inc., and Dr. Mariana Bernui from Drexel University hold a conversation on the possibilities for worship that bears witness of our love for God and our neighbors in a time of pandemic.

Pause and Reflect Before Reopening –  MCUSA

Guidelines for Consideration

Music Considerations


Cleaning and Disinfecting Considerations


Distribution of Food

(Updated: April 21, 10:00 am EST)

Technology:

  Need some personal assistance? Contact one of our staff persons below:

For children & families:

Worship and devotional resources from around MC USA:

Finances:

Online Support:

  • Celebrate Recovery program at Franconia Mennonite Church is now offering online small groups.  Please contact 215-723-3220 or communications@franconiamennonite.org if interested.
  • Alcoholics Anonymous
  • Help for Domestic Violence Victims – sadly, the stress of these times can lead to higher rates of violence. If you are not safe in your home due to domestic violence, there are places to turn to. Call PA Coalition Against Domestic Violence at 1-800-799-7233 or if you’re unable to speak safely, you can log onto thehotline.org or text LOVEIS to 22522.
  • Suicide Prevention Hotline – these can be very lonely times. If you or someone you need to talk or are in crisis, please call 1-888-273-TALK.  In the event of an emergency, dial 911.
  • Mental Health support (YouTube video) – provided by Maureen Gingerich, social worker (Blooming Glen congregation)

How to find volunteer opportunities:

  • Contact a volunteer agency or center directly to inquire about their needs
  • Visit PA211 for volunteer opportunities posted by agencies seeking volunteer help; or
  • Register at ServPa to create a volunteer profile. When prompted, choose “COVID Volunteers” as your “organization”, then follow the links.

Anti-Asian discrimination/racism resources and statements:

Assistance:

UPDATED: May 7, 9:00am EST

We are in a very different time. Join together with other leaders from across our Conference in Zoom conversations and feel free to pass this information on to youth leaders in your congregation.

Are there other conversations that you would like to have? Or like to lead? Please let us know!

Leading and Pastoring in a Time of Social Distancing

Share, brainstorm, and support one another as we pastor during the Coronavirus epidemic. Potential topics for discussion include worship (planning and formats), pastoral care, communication, connection in isolation, self-care, partnership with congregations in the conference and in your community, supporting one another.

  • Every Wednesday, 10-11am EST – led by Mary Nitzsche and Josh Meyer (English)  new Zoom link beginning 5/27: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81324082049 
  • Every other Thursday night – 9pm EST/6pm PST – led by Aldo Siahaan and Hendy Matahelemual (Indonesian).  The Zoom link to join this conversation is: https://zoom.us/j/262849343
  • Every other Wednesday night  – 7pm EST/4pm PST – led by Noel Santiago and Marco Guete (Spanish).  The Zoom link to join this conversation is: https://zoom.us/j/557606813

Spiritual Formation for Youth in a Time of Social Distancing

All youth leaders are welcome, we will be connecting, sharing, and praying for our ministry settings as we work with the Holy Spirit for creative community engagement. We can share ideas and practices and resource one another. We can also all just enjoy some time together.

  • Weekly – Thursday mornings, 9:30 am – led by Brooke Martin
    The Zoom link to join this conversation is: https://zoom.us/j/500032991

Prayer

  • Pray with us through the summer.  Every Wednesday through August 19, 12:00-12:30pm EST/9:00-9:30am PST,  led by Noel Santiago, Marta Castillo and Jeff Wright.  (For info, email nsantiago@mosaicmennonites.org) The Zoom link to join this conversation is: https://zoom.us/j/961945265
  • Centering Prayer in a Time of Disruption – led by Jessica Miller and Franco Salvatori – Tuesdays at 3:00PM EST through the end of May.  Zoom link to join is: https://zoom.us/j/99895914233

We will continue to look for opportunities and conversation together in new ways and formats over the next weeks.

(Updated March 26, 2:00pm EST)

If you know of other reputable sources for information of ways to help, please send them to communication@mosaicmennonites.org.

Shalom Fund

Eastern District & Franconia Conference has started a mutual aid fund to support pastors, congregations, and ministries in direct response to the Coronavirus and the ensuing economic crisis.   We will seek to respond to the most vulnerable within our membership and neighborhoods by empowering local ministries to meet real needs with Christ’s love and generosity in a time of fear and anxiety.  Give now.

Blood Donation

Blood donations are seriously needed as many blood drives have been canceled. To find a blood drive near you follow the links below:

  1. Miller-Keystone Blood Center:  https://www.giveapint.org/blood-donor-center-locations/.  St. Lukes Hospital in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania is sponsoring a blood drive the first week of April (more information here).
  2. American Red Cross: https://www.redcross.org/give-blood.html.  For those near Lansdale, PA, there is a drive being held this week (last week of March) at Towamencin congregation (Facebook Event Page).

Food Banks

From PBS NewsHour: “Due to panic surrounding the virus, donations to many local food banks are down significantly. This is the case in Washington state, where dozens have already died from the virus, and states like Ohio, where food banks have seen volunteers cancel shifts. Supermarket chain Harris Teeter on Friday said that key items in its stores may be out of stock due to high customer demand, and some food banks in Washington state have reported that people have come to their facilities for the first time because their regular grocery stores don’t have what they’re looking for….  Organizations like Feed America allow you to search for food banks in your area. Many food banks across the U.S. are now putting their resources toward dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak directly.”

  1. Feeding America Directory of Food Banks
  2. A list of organizations offering direct services related to COVID-19.
  3. Donate to Ripple Community, Inc, a Conference Related Ministry that is providing food and services to the homeless in Allentown, PA while other local organizations have closed.

Medical Supply Donations

The St. Lukes Hospital Network in Pennsylvania is one of many hospitals that is currently receiving donations of medical equipment and accepting homemade masks or the supplies to make them.  For the full list of what you can donate and drop-off locations, check out this page.  For instructions on how to sew the masks, download this pdf.

Estos son tiempos y días extraños

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Por Marco Güete, Ministro de Liderazgo de Florida

“Si no puedes volar, corre. Si no puedes correr, camina. Si no puedes caminar, gatea. Sin importar lo que hagas, sigue avanzado hacia adelante.” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Estos son tiempos y días extraños. No hay otra manera de calificar lo que está pasando en el mundo. Nuestra libertad se ha limitado, en realidad no tenemos libertad para ir donde más nos gusta ir o donde la necesidad nos pide que vayamos. Si lo hacemos tenemos que tomar precauciones extremas. Este es el momento de ver el lado positivo de la situación, considerando el contexto geográfico, de salud y económico de otras personas y el mío mismo.

Aprender a cocinar con mi hija, Vanessa, y mi esposa, Sandra

El “Coronavirus” nos está haciendo experimentar algo nuevo, raro, desconcertante. Nos entristece, nos hace enojar. No lo podemos negar ni tampoco podemos culpar a nadie.  Aquí está y no se ha ido. Me inspiran las palabras de Martin Luther King Jr. “Sin importar lo que hagas, sigue avanzando hacía adelante.” Yo agregaría: o lo que pase. Es hora de hacer cosas nuevas y diferentes, soñemos de nuevo. “He aquí, yo hago nuevas todas las cosas” (Apocalipsis 21:5)

Holding Our Faith in Tension Between Life and Death

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by Mary Nitzsche, Associate Executive Minister 

For the past four weeks, credentialed leaders have been meeting through Zoom to care, support, and resource one another (learn more here). We have discussed how we are adapting and using new forms of worship, encouraging financial generosity without pressuring or shaming, communicating with our members, offering pastoral care, and navigating end of life and funeral planning challenges.

During this week in particular, we are discovering new ways to walk through the events of Holy Week without being together. Questions emerging from our conversations have included: What about the palm branches we ordered? How do we do footwashing, especially for those who live alone? Do we explore meaningful ways to share communion at a distance or wait until we gather again? Should we postpone our Easter celebration until the pandemic is over?

Hae Lah, Ser Luther, and the twins Em See and Em Thee greeted the Whitehall Palm Sunday truck and were excited receive not only palms but balloons and paper bags with candy and eggs inside! Photo by Rose Bender

In response to these questions, creative ideas emerged: sending an email with instructions for making palms at home to wave during the call to worship; adapting a simple Maundy Thursday or Good Friday service to a Live Stream format; inviting members to submit a one-minute video giving witness to resurrection in the midst of COVID-19 to be played during the Easter service; sending a care package to each family with children as an alternative to an egg hunt.

Perhaps one of the most important questions raised was What do we believe about resurrection in the midst of so much uncertainty, loss, and suffering? The COVID-19 pandemic reminds us that illness, loss, grief, and death are a part of our human reality as a global community. We are being forced to acknowledge, not deny or avoid, our human limits, brokenness, and mortality.

Our faith has been shaken. How can a loving God allow so much loss, suffering, pain, and death? Like the crowd that lined the streets to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem with waving palm branches, we cry out, “Hosanna, save us Lord.” Do something quick to fix our horrendous mess!!

Instead of immediately and miraculously answering the crowd’s cry for salvation, Jesus faced a week of ridicule, hatred, and questioning by the religious and political leaders, betrayal and denial by his disciples, and a brutal and cruel death on the cross.

We are invited to consider the core tension of our faith as Jesus boldly stated, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it” (New Revised Standard Version, Luke 9:23-24).

The journey from death to life is one of pain, suffering, and loss. This pandemic invites people of faith to hold in tension fear and trust, despair and hope, death and life. The cross and the empty tomb remind us that new life springs forth from death.

After Jesus was crucified, the disciples went into hiding behind locked doors. They were consumed with grief and the loss of Jesus, their teacher. They were uncertain of their future. The first Easter morning, the women returned with the too-good-to-believe news that the tomb was empty and Jesus had been raised to life.

As we take up our cross and daily follow Jesus during this time of COVID-19, what glimmers of hope are you holding onto that point to new life? How can you bear witness to the good news that actions of love overcome evil leading to life in the midst of despair and death?

Whether We Live or Die, We are the Lord’s

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by Gwen Groff, Bethany congregation

Gwen Groff

Lent begins with the reminder, “…to dust you shall return.” In this season we hear Jesus tell his followers, “I’m turning toward Jerusalem. I’m going to die there. Come with me.” It is a counter-cultural invitation. If much anxiety is rooted in our fear of death, we have to stop avoiding death. We are in the right season for this.

In the last sermon that I preached with a physically-present congregation, I quoted Julian of Norwich, using the familiar words in our hymnal. “All will be well, and all will be well, all manner of things will be well.”

At that time, I had no notion of the journey we were embarking on. I did not know we would not gather the following Sunday. I did not know COVID-19 had already arrived in our small, spaciously populated state.

Julian of Norwich

“All will be well” is not a glib platitude. Julian, born in 1342, lived through three rounds of the Black Plague, the Peasants’ Revolt, and part of the Hundred Years’ War. Before she heard God’s revelation that “all will be well,” she had been so severely ill that she was administered last rites. To say “all will be well” was not an optimistic claim that we will not experience suffering. It was a promise that in our suffering we are held within God’s being.

Since that Sunday, Paul’s assurance in Romans 14:8 has been repeating internally, as I walk, cook, and sit in silence: “Whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.” That also is not a glib promise. It does not deny death or the pain of death. But it affirms that just as God holds us now as we live fully and love life, God holds us as we face death, as we move through death, and as we discover what follows after death.

Those words from Scripture first came alive for me when a friend described her midwest community’s response to the Palm Sunday tornadoes of 1965. She was a child in Indiana when 137 people died and 1200 people were injured on that one Sunday. She experienced, up close, the reality that people you love die, people grieve hard, and relationships with those people and with God continue.

I marveled at her attitude in the acceptance of death. She is a person in love with the world, life, and people. But she has a real sense that death is not the end, and that “Whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.”

I have at times thoughtlessly associated the acceptance of death with despair or purposelessness.  A neighbor said to me last week, “If COVID-19 would have happened the year after my husband died, I’d have been out there trying to catch it. But not now. I love life again. I want to live.”

Acceptance of the reality of death is not a death wish. And loving life doesn’t create a fear of death. We may fear death most when we sense we haven’t lived fully.

Another neighbor in the “high risk” category summed this up: “I want to live to be a hundred. But if I die now, boy—we’ve had a good run.”

I take Paul’s words in Romans to mean our life with God somehow continues through death and beyond. Can I hold that hope if my parents (in their 90s), quarantined in a nursing home, fall ill? Can I remember that promise if I am short of breath? And can I maintain that perspective if civilized society starts to disintegrate? How can we, as the body of Christ, behave as if we know that whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s?

Through the Valley of Shadows

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Give to the
Shalom Mutual Aid Fund*


Steve Kriss

by Steve Kriss, Executive Minister

My last article was about 10 days ago. We were beginning to glimpse the seriousness of the coronavirus.  We slowly began to reconsider and reschedule events.

To be honest, I wasn’t prepared for the rapid change in the situation that would mean that nearly all our member congregations, from California to Vermont, wouldn’t physically gather. Then, I wrote that I’d still get tacos and pho and go to the gym.  For now, those of us who live in Philadelphia can still get take-out, but, with non-essential businesses closed, I’m doing my workouts in the basement at home.

Leadership is tested in changing situations.  We continue to prioritize localized decision-making across our Conference that is responsive to the needs of the community, emphasizing love of God and love of neighbor.  Pennsylvania Governor Wolf said that our commonwealth has not seen this kind of disruption since the Civil War.  Yet God is with us and the Spirit empowers us to be and share the Good News, even when the best thing we can do is to remain in our homes as much as possible.

In the meantime, nearly all our energy is going into bracing for what might come, honoring our government’s suggestions on best practices around gathering and distancing.  Financial needs have emerged quickly among vulnerable individuals and communities in our Conference.  We will need to act together to share our resources well in the weeks and months ahead.

Across our Conference, we are still meeting.  Many congregations are finding ways to use new technology (like Zoom and Facebook) as well as renewing older technology (like phone calls) to stay connected.  We really do need each other in this time, both to make it through and to maintain hope that there will be life after the crisis.  Conference staff are gathering pastors virtually to dialogue together in English, Spanish, and Indonesian.  We are gathering for prayer weekly and are offering online equipping as well.  We are in this struggle together.

Yet Asian American neighbors are experiencing acts of aggression and racism in this time.  We cannot be people of fear but rather people of love who speak and act in ways that don’t allow racism to flourish in our midst.  I am committed to ongoing accompaniment and advocacy for the Asian American members and communities across our Conference: the peace of our land is dependent on the recognition of God’s imprint on each person.    I encourage all of us to choose our words and actions wisely and sensitively so that we are people of healing and hope.

While many of our Conference Related Ministries have shut down, our human service providers are experiencing higher degrees of need.  Our retirement communities are especially vulnerable and operating at high levels of vigilance.  We will do well to remember Frederick Living, Living Branches, and the Community at Rockhill in prayer.   Ripple Community Inc in Allentown has committed to remaining open and accessible to those people who need food and accompaniment; they’re looking for partners to prepare sandwiches and to help supplement the sudden influx of needs in the community center there.  Crossroads Community Center in Philadelphia has also seen an increase in needs, particularly for food.  As a long-term ministry presence in the Fairhill neighborhood, Crossroads has credibility to provide resources during this time. Together as a conference community, we’ll look for ways to support both of these urban ministries in the coming weeks.

The familiar words of Psalm 23 have become a guide for me in these days: “Even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil …. Surely goodness and love will follow us all the days of our lives, and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”  We trust in God’s care, even in this overwhelming time, and we look for ways to express our trust in God while extending God’s love and care for our neighbors.

Watch the video of Executive Minister Steve Kriss on Facebook Live Tuesday, March 24, talking about living our formational, missional, and intercultural priorities in a time of crisis.

*The Shalom Fund supports pastors, congregations and ministries in direct response to the Coronavirus and the ensuing economic crisis.   We will seek to respond to the most vulnerable within our membership and neighborhoods by empowering local ministries to meet real needs with Christ’s love and generosity in a time of fear and anxiety.

Resources for Ministry During Social Distancing

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Give to the
Shalom Mutual Aid Fund*


(Updated: March 26, 9:30 am)
Technology:
Need some personal assistance?  Contact one of our staff persons below:
For children:
Worship and devotional resources from around MC USA:
Finances:

  • Everence announces initiatives aimed at providing financial support (The Mennonite)

*The Shalom Fund supports pastors, congregations and ministries in direct response to the Coronavirus and the ensuing economic crisis.   We will seek to respond to the most vulnerable within our membership and neighborhoods by empowering local ministries to meet real needs with Christ’s love and generosity in a time of fear and anxiety.

Online Support:

What I’m Reading: Seeing the Unseen

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by Noel Santiago

I’ve been reading and studying The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural World View of the Bible by Dr. Michael Heiser.  I have found Dr. Heiser’s work immensely helpful in providing a framework for understanding the supernatural worldview of the Bible.

Beginning with the idea of a divine council, as noted in Psalms 82:1 where God takes “his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment…,” and unpacking what he calls the “Deuteronomy 32 world view” (especially verses 8-9), Heiser brings forth this framework.

The basic idea is that God has a “divine council” comprised of children of God that help administer the work of God. This motif carries through the Old Testament and into the New Testament. After the ministry of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit, humanity—as God’s image bearers—are invited back to a seat at his council.

Much of this framework resonates with my faith upbringing. From the time I can remember, I’ve always had a sense of a spirit realm that was active: one for God’s glory and purpose and the other for the purpose of darkness and corruption. Our church community  would pray, preach, and share with and for people’s salvation to see them come to Christ. We would also pray for the sick and demon-possessed and regularly see persons healed and delivered. Regularly we would take food to a family in need, collect offerings for those who were lacking, serve and practice hospitality. All of these things were part of how we understood and practiced faith.

When I began studying and working in a different culture and context, I had to learn that others practice their faith differently. While I have valued and integrated much of these other expressions and learnings, I often noticed that the realm of the supernatural was underrepresented. It’s not necessarily that others didn’t believe it, but perhaps they focused on it less. Others acknowledged this sphere when it was discussed, but did very little to engage with it. I didn’t always know what to make of this. 

When I discovered this book that highlights the ancient Hebrew and near-eastern worldview,  I found myself identifying deeply with it. For me, this topic accounts for an unseen realm that is at work in interactive ways with the seen realm. We might not always be aware of this interaction but it is more present than we might imagine. 

The challenge, of course, is not only seeking to know and/or understand this unseen realm and its interaction with what we see, touch, and engage; we also need to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, “that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2b).