formational

Christopher Dock, Conferences Name Youth Minister

December 12, 2011 by Emily Ralph Servant

Christopher Dock Mennonite High School, Franconia Conference and Eastern
District Conference celebrate their ministry partnership by naming John Stoltzfus
Conference Youth Minister.

“Youth are a key segment of God’s community. They are ambassadors of Christ
here and now, but also the future leaders of our congregations,” said Dr. Conrad
Swartzentruber, principal of Christopher Dock. “It’s exciting to see two
conferences join our school in this focus on youth ministry. John Stoltzfus has a
passion for helping youth become radical followers of Christ. We are pleased to
welcome him to our team.”

In his new position, Stoltzfus will become campus pastor for Christopher Dock’s
365 students, and will encourage, support and promote youth ministry in the
churches represented by the two conferences, which are part of Mennonite
Church USA. It is the first time that all three entities have collaborated on a youth
ministry position.

“I look forward to youth ministry connections growing between our member
churches, our two conferences and the school community,” said Warren Tyson,
conference minister for Eastern District Conference and a member of the
Christopher Dock Board of Trustees.

Stoltzfus comes to his new position after 10 years as associate pastor at
Lombard Mennonite Church, which is part of the Illinois Mennonite Conference. A
graduate of Eastern Mennonite University and Eastern Mennonite Seminary
(Harrisonburg, VA), Stoltzfus has also served with a Christian Peacemaker
Teams in Colombia, and participated in China Educational Exchange, a program
of Eastern Mennonite Missions, Mennonite Mission Network and Mennonite
Central Committee that is now known as Mennonite Partners in China.

“I found John’s insight, understanding and commitment to engaging in the work
of intercultural transformation and relationships to be both relevant and sincere,”
said Ertell Whigham, executive minister for Franconia Conference. “This was
particularly evident as he shared experiences and learnings from his ministry in
China. I thank God that we are moving ahead and look forward to John’s arrival
and our work together.”

John Stoltzfus 2 — John with his wife Paula and children Justin, Lilianna, and Elaina. (They are expecting their fourth child in December).

The Youth Minister position is full-time, and involves partnering with youth
workers in congregations and at Christopher Dock to “actively invite every youth
to commit to a personal relationship and everlasting adventure with Jesus Christ,
mentoring them towards a supportive church community and empowering them
to bring healing and hope to the world.” In addition, Stoltzfus will be charged with
providing support, training and resources to those who minister to junior and
senior high youth, so that they are better able to carry out the youth ministry
mission and vision of Franconia and Eastern District Conferences. He will begin
his work in January.

“I am excited about this new venture of journeying together with the youth and
community at Christopher Dock and Franconia and Eastern District
Conferences,” Stoltzfus said. “I look forward to discovering how God is at work
among us and calling our young people to be faithful followers of Christ in our
world.”

John Stoltzfus will begin as Conference Youth Minister in January 2012.

Conference Finance Update: October 2011

December 12, 2011 by Emily Ralph Servant

The 2011-12 fiscal year is two-thirds over. Congregational giving has fallen behind expectations these past two months by $16,500. Expenses have exceeded the budget by $7,500 at this point in the year. This is the time of year when we typically would see the conference fall behind on its net income, but we’re a little more behind than expected.

A sampling of the various activities of the conference during the months of August & September:

Bobby Wibowo, Philadelphia Praise Center, and Keith Schoenly, Bally (Pa.) Mennonite, work on a new song at the Eastern District and Franconia Conferences Worship Cohort, which met this autumn in preparation for the joint Conference Assembly.

$10,050 in Missional Operations Grants (MOG) was disbursed during this period. Two congregations received grants for leadership development (Georgia Praise Center and Oxford Circle Mennonite). Two other congregations received grants for outreach ministries (Greensburg Worship Center and Nations Worship Center). To apply for a MOG, see your LEADership Minister.
$15,393 in Area Conference Leadership Fund scholarships were disbursed during this period for 8 current and future ministry leaders.
Franconia Conference hosted the “In The City For Good” church planters conference in Allentown, in cooperation with Mennonite conferences from Virginia to Ontario. About 80 persons from nearly a dozen ethnic and language groups attended.
Franconia Conference launched a new website, which we hope will be more user-friendly. We have also started live video-streaming Pastors and Leaders Breakfasts and other conference events. If you have not been able to attend these events, look for them online.
Noel Santiago led a seminar “Transforming Our Region: Church and Marketplace Partnerships” for local pastors and business leaders.

Other tidbits:
LEADership Ministers logged over 19,000 miles on the road so far this year, mostly in meetings with their assigned congregations and leaders.

Where do funds for Missional Operations Grants (MOG) come from? Estate gifts are put into the Ministry Resource Fund, held with Mennonite Foundation. Twenty percent of this fund is used annually for MOGs. Please keep MOGs in mind when you are doing your estate planning.

Young people need to be part of renewing the church

December 5, 2011 by Emily Ralph Servant

By Sheldon C. Good
Mennonite Weekly Review

I might get in trouble for saying this, but I think religion is failing young people. I believe the church is the living body of Christ, the primary vehicle for extending God’s love. But bad religion, and in some ways the church, is stifling good religion — our ability to more fully join in God’s movement in the world.

Young people can and must be part of renewing the church. There’s a movement of young people right now who are fired up about moral and spiritual issues. We need to tap into this energy.

A bit about people under 30: We’re some of the most educated, technologically savvy, globally connected people ever. But we’re coming of age in turbulent economic times and in a polarized political and religious climate.

Many young people love the church. They may have been baptized in a congregation and may have lots of church friends and mentors. But for many of us, church isn’t working and has been or perhaps still is painful.

So how and why is religion failing young people?

Partly because of increasing polarization, according to Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell. In the landmark book American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, they show how since the 1990s young people have disavowed religion at unprecedented rates.

Many young people, the authors say, are uneasy with the linkage between religion and conservative politics. The number of religious conservatives and secular liberals is growing, leaving a dwindling few religious moderates.

Pew research shows that more than a quarter of people under 30 say they have no religious affiliation — four times more than in any previous generation when they were young. People tend to become more religious as they age, yet young people today are the least overtly religious generation in modern U.S. history.

Yet those of us under 30 are fairly traditional in our religious beliefs and practices. We pray and believe in God at similar rates as our elders. We are no less convinced than previous generations that there are absolute standards of right and wrong. We believe the best faith is lived out in creative, Christlike love.

For too long, the church has reflected the polarization and miscommunication of society. Life isn’t about being right or wrong, Democrat or Republican, Catholic or Mennonite. Good religion addresses the world’s deepest moral and spiritual questions.

Young people need to be on the vanguard of renewing the church and the world. In fact, we already are.

Young people today are building bridges across faiths. Young people are challenging assumptions of what worship looks and sounds like. Young people are on the front lines, leading protests at military academies and protesting economic injustice and greed in Occupy demonstrations.

Here are two more opportunities for renewal in ourselves, in our churches and in our world.

1. We need to do Christian formation together. Though texting and Facebook are compelling ways of staying connected, young people want and need deep, face-to-face conversations. We need to move from living as individuals in worldwide webs of communication to intimate communities of believers sharing God’s redeeming love.
2. We need to heal our broken world together. Young people are increasingly liberal on social issues. We care less about the culture wars and more about broader social, economic and environmental justice. Rather than allowing our differing viewpoints to hinder conversations, we need to honestly listen rather than jump to defend ourselves.

I don’t think young people want to be less religious. We are plenty spiritual. But our generation will continue losing our religion unless we find ways to live and share the peaceable way of Jesus with a broken world.

Adapted from a chapel presentation given Nov. 30 at Christopher Dock Mennonite High School in Lansdale, Pa. Reprinted by permission of Mennonite Weekly Review.

Eastern District and Franconia gather on “holy ground”

November 21, 2011 by Emily Ralph Servant

by Stephen Kriss, skriss@mosaicmennonites.org

Gwen Groff, pastor at Bethany Mennonite Church in Bridgewater Corners, Vermont, drove the seven hours south for the joint Franconia and Eastern District Conference Assembly on November 11-12 for what she suggests became a “beautiful cacophony.”

Groff and more than 300 others from across both Conference communities along with Mennonite Church USA representatives gathered Friday night at Penn View Christian School in Souderton, Pa, in the first joint worship service for both Conferences since 1999. The opening worship, which featured a combined cross-conference, multi-ethnic and multilingual worship team, kicked off the gathering switching swiftly back and forth between Creole, English, Indonesian, Spanish and Vietnamese—the worshipping languages of the 60 congregations that make up both conferences.

Groff describes her experience, “I always look forward to the singing at Conference Assembly worship services. Coming from a small congregation, I enjoy the big sound, the full harmony. When I come into an Assembly worship space, if I see that we’ll be using the blue Worship Book hymnals I like to sit in the center of it all to be surrounded by the four part harmony. When I see a screen and projector, instruments and microphones, I usually take a seat on the periphery.

“This year I found myself most moved by the kind of singing I usually hang back from. Singing all together, with some singing in Indonesian, some in Spanish, some in Vietnamese, some in English and some in Creole, was disorienting in a way that was challenging, enlightening and beautiful. In worship there is often an invitation to sing or pray each in our own language, but this year the multicultural worship team was leading in all the different languages, switching languages between verses, between lines, singing in different languages at the same time. There was no right language to be singing in at any particular moment. We all could experience how it felt to be singing new words and not knowing if we were pronouncing them correctly. We all knew how it felt to be a little off balance. It wasn’t about political correctness (or it was what political correctness should be). It was about leveling the ground as we worshipped together, and it was holy ground.”

While energetic music and multiple languages marked the shape of the worship, Rev. Dr. Dennis Edwards, pastor of Peace Fellowship Church in Washington, DC, a Franconia Conference Partner in Mission, focused intensely in an evening message that explored the possibilities of the assembly theme, “Unity and Maturity in Christ” based on Ephesians 4. The whole of the worship gathering was broadcast in five worshipping languages and available online through a live stream. Over a dozen persons from a variety of congregations helped to coordinate technology, translating, and communication for the event.

The spirit of gathered worship was framed further through Saturday’s joint delegate session held around tables that considered the further cooperation between both Conferences in a move toward healing the 1847 historic rift between the groups. Overwhelmingly, representatives from both conferences gave permission by raising green cards that suggested a continuation to explore life together more extensively and collaboratively. Considering the future of the conferences, Sam Claudio, Jr., associate pastor at Christ Fellowship in Allentown said in a time of reporting, “Hopefully we’ll be able to be a positive witness [in a way that people will say], look how they came together after this long division in love, in peace, in charity, in grace.”

After recognizing the affirming move, Dave Hersh, moderator of Eastern District Conference responded, “I’m really excited about what we’ve accomplished. Your direction to us is loud and clear. We’re going to continue working together.”

The conferences divided for business sessions, but re-gathered for lunch and a commissioning worship that recognized each person’s role and contribution in both conference communities. In general business, Eastern District Conference marked the transition of Ron White of Church of the Good Samaritan (Holland, Pa) into the moderator role succeeding Hersh of Grace Mennonite Church (Lansdale, Pa). Marta Castillo of Nueva Vida Norristown (Pa) Mennonite Church was affirmed as assistant moderator for Franconia Conference for a special one year term.

First time Franconia Conference delegate Derek Cooper of the Doylestown (Pa) congregation said, “I appreciated the worshipful tone. Beginning and ending the assembly in worship united the community and guided our interaction throughout the weekend. I also appreciated the prayer ministry. It created a Spirit-led presence that saturated the building.”

View the photo album

Three Bhutanese-Nepali churches emerge across Pa.

October 11, 2011 by Emily Ralph Servant

By Sheldon C. Good, Mennonite Weekly Review
Reprinted by Permission from the Oct. 17 issue

Ser Darji, left, translates from English into Nepali a sermon by Donna Mast, far right, during Darji’s licensing service Sept. 4 at Crafton Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh. — Photo by Dale Miller

More than 20 years ago, 13-year-old Ser Darji lay paralyzed in a refugee camp in Nepal. He could barely talk and had an irregular heartbeat and swollen hands and legs.

He had developed beriberi, a disease caused by lack of nutrition, that was killing 30 refugees a day in the camp. Barring a miracle, doctors said, Darji wouldn’t live more than three months.

“I was sent home that day, but the word ‘miracle’ kept ringing in my ears,” said Darji, now 35, speaking to Allegheny Mennonite Conference on Aug. 6.

The story of Darji’s recovery, his journey from Bhutan to India to Nepal to Pittsburgh, and his passion for church planting, are a testimony to his unwavering faith in God and Jesus Christ.

Today, he’s a licensed minister in Allegheny Conference of Mennonite Church USA and pastor of Bhutanese Nepali Church of Pittsburgh. The church is one of three Bhutanese-Nepali Mennonite groups emerging across Pennsylvania.

Darji wasn’t always a Christian. In Bhutan, his home country, he was a deeply religious Hindu boy.

“My family belonged to a Nepali-speaking tribe,” he said. “Buddhism is the official religion of Bhutan, and practicing Christianity was and still is absolutely forbidden in the country.”

After doctors diagnosed Darji with beriberi, the mother of one of his friends — who was a Christian and a nurse — said she would pray to Jesus for healing.

Darji and the woman made a deal.

“If Jesus did not heal me as she claimed he would, she had to become a Hindu. But if Jesus did heal me, then I had to agree to become a faithful follower of Christ for the rest of my life,” he said. “Praise God, I started feeling better the very next day.”

In a month, Darji was almost completely healed.

“Since that day I have tried to live my life following Jesus and being faithful to him,” he said.

In the ensuing two years, his family renounced him, and he was beaten mercilessly, but he “tried to be faithful always.”

Darji, who now lives in Pittsburgh, says he still has a burden for Bhutan.

“I strongly believe that God’s plan in bringing me and other Bhutanese to the United States is so that we can be well-trained to re-enter Bhutan as missionaries,” he said.

That’s partly the role of Bhutanese Nepali Church of Pittsburgh, where Darji pastors. The congregation meets at Crafton Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh and is in the process of joining Allegheny Conference. About 80-100 people attend Sunday worship. All are political asylees.

Darji has translated parts of MC USA’s Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective into Nepalese. He has other plans too.

“We would like to establish a strong church among the Bhutanese-Nepali community in Pittsburgh, that will be able to train and send out missionaries to Bhutan,” Darji said. “It is my desire that any missionary sent through our church will represent the unique Mennonite witness for Christ.”

In August, Donna Mast, conference minister for Allegheny Conference, presented to the conference her dream for the Bhutanese-Nepali congregation.

“I dreamt that the conference would embrace Ser [Darji], and that we would be ale to find it in our hearts to contribute to his salary,” she said Oct. 5.

As a church plant pastor, she said, the conference is working toward supporting his salary.

A voice for the voiceless

Sandeep Thomas, a fellow Allegheny Conference licensed minister, has been working with the Bhutanese-Nepali group since 2007. He helped connect them to Mennonites.

“I was kind of the bridge-builder,” said Thomas, who immigrated with his family to the U.S. from India in 2000.

Thomas hosted a gathering at his home near Pittsburgh that included Darji and conference representatives. Darji, he said, soon “found he was comfortable with and liked Mennonites, especially [their belief in] adult baptism and peace witness.”

Since the church joined Allegheny Conference, Thomas’ bridge-building role now includes navigating the church through the denominational systems.

“I am helping them put together their legal and financial framework,” he said. “That’s not particularly what an immigrant church thinks about when they set up the church.”

Thomas thinks the relationship between the Bhutanese-Nepali congregation and Allegheny Conference can be mutually beneficial.

Like many Mennonites, he said, the Pittsburgh congregation is good at “practicing poverty and justice issues and helping people.”

But the Pittsburgh group also has a strong desire for outreach and evangelism.

“That’s something the denomination has been a bit reticent about,” he said.

Thomas noted the Bhutanese-Nepali group’s vision of sending missionaries back to Asia.

“This is something that could energize the Allegheny conference and get them thinking in ways and challenge them in ways they haven’t been before,” he said.

Overall, Thomas sees a natural connection between Mennonites and persecuted groups like the Bhutanese and Nepalis.

“Mennonites are good at giving a voice to the voiceless,” he said. “This connection is happening because Mennonites are paying attention to people on the margins.”

Spreading statewide

Bhutanese-Nepali Mennonite congregations are also emerging in eastern Pennsylvania.

Aldo Siahaan, pastor of Philadelphia Praise Center, a Franconia Mennonite Conference congregation, is coaching a new church plant in Scranton.

“My friend took [a group of Nepalis] to an Indonesian church, but they want to have their own group, with their own language, so we’re trying to help them,” Siahaan said.

Siahaan is coaching the Scranton group with help from Shankar Rai of Lancaster. Rai is pastor of Bhutanese Nepali Church of Lancaster, which has been gathering since 2009.

The congregation joined Lancaster Mennonite Conference in March. About 50-70 people worship on Saturday at West End Mennonite Fellowship in Lancaster.

Rai, a Bhutanese Lancaster Conference licensed minister, originally connected with Mennonites through a refugee friend sponsored by Mountville (Pa.) Mennonite Church.

Rai said his church is planning a “grand event for all Nepalese-Bhutanese Christians in the U.S.” The event will include worship, speakers and seminars for church leaders, youth and new believers.

He is planning the event for Aug. 31-Sept. 2, 2012, somewhere in Lancaster.

Like Darji in Pittsburgh, Rai resonates closely with Mennonite beliefs of adult baptism and a trinitarian God.

“I read the Confession of Faith and realized we believe the things that are in that document,” he said.

Communing with each other and the world

October 11, 2011 by Emily Ralph Servant

by Emily Ralph, eralphservant@mosaicmennonites.org

Every year, followers of Jesus around the world join together in remembering his death and resurrection through the act of communion. World Communion Sunday is a celebration marking that through his death, Jesus broke down the wall of hostility between people groups and that through his resurrection, Christ formed a new family of disciples world-wide.

Swamp’s children walk around the globe — Swamp’s children encircle and walk around the globe singing “I am the Church” on World Communion Sunday. Photo by Abby Mason.

Whether wearing clothes from countries around the world, as they did at Plains in Hatfield, Pa., or sharing a spaghetti dinner with the church down the street, as they did at Ripple in Allentown, Pa., Franconia Conference congregations spent October 2nd remembering this holy communion with the world-wide church.

“This remains one of my favorite services of the year,” said Sharon Ambrose, a member of Swamp (Quakertown, Pa.). “I find it so meaningful to celebrate with Christians around the world.” In addition to sharing communion bread from other countries and reading Scripture in multiple languages, Swamp’s service focused on expanding circles of concern from the congregation to the world, both locally and globally.

Church elders pray behind the communion table at Nueva Vida Norristown New Life. Photo by Emily Ralph.

At Nueva Vida Norristown New Life, Pastor Marta Castillo also encouraged her congregation to evaluate how their actions affected believers around the world. “On World Communion Sunday,” she said, “we need to think about how we commune with the Body of Christ that is hungry . . . with the Body of Christ that is persecuted. . . with the Body of Christ that are immigrants.”

Souderton (Pa.) Mennonite Church celebrated with the theme of hospitality from Acts 2, which describes how the early church worshiped and ate together, sharing their possessions. The congregation used a braided bread of different colors to remind them that people from many nations were celebrating the Lord’s Supper with them. As members of the congregation approached the communion tables, they were joined on the big screen by photos of people celebrating communion around the world.

Souderton--world communion bread — Souderton used a braided bread to remind them that people from many nations were celebrating the Lord’s Supper with them. Photo by Alyssa Kerns.

Ambler celebrated more than World Communion Sunday—the congregation also hosted a regional CROP walk to end hunger that afternoon. Ambler’s preschoolers mixed and bagged trail mix for those who would be “praying on their feet” and, with issues of global hunger on their minds, the congregation worshiped around tables. On each table was a cut-out of the earth with facts and quotes about the condition of the world printed on it, said Pastor Donna Merow. “These became part of our silent confession as we prepared for Communion,” she reflected. “We served one another [around the tables] and then enjoyed an international meal together before heading out to walk to raise funds for global relief efforts.”

On World Communion Sunday and throughout the rest of the year, we are being formed as Jesus-followers, joining God’s world-wide mission to invite all people to participate in God’s kingdom. “Marking this day gives us an invitation to remember our sisters and brothers in places far from us,” said Samantha Lioi, associate pastor at Whitehall Mennonite. “Hearing scripture in three languages and being asked to choose from a variety of breads reminds us we are sojourners as Jesus was, not quite at home but creating welcome places wherever we pitch our tents.”

Managing Conflict from a Christian Perspective

September 26, 2011 by Emily Ralph Servant

by Emily Ralph, eralphservant@mosaicmennonites.org

Harleysville, PA–Pastors and conference leaders gathered at the Mennonite Conference Center for a resourcing time around managing conflict. Rev. Dr. Barbara Moses, the principal of Philadelphia Mennonite High School, encouraged the leaders to take control of conflict situations in the only way possible: by controlling themselves.

“The only way to get the best of an argument is not to enter into it,” Dr. Moses told the group. And entering into an argument includes more than just words, she said–it’s also about body language, tone of voice, and attitude.

Not all conflicts can be resolved, but they can be managed, according to Dr. Moses. To manage them in a way that brings glory to God and benefits those involved, Dr. Moses suggests using the acronym S.A.F.E.R.: a silent tongue, attentive ear, faithful heart, edifying perspective, and respectful response.

And part of that response is to THINK first, she added. This means making sure that your response is true, helpful, inspiring, necessary, and kind.

“Know your triggers,” Dr. Moses encouraged. “A trigger is anything that sets you off.” By identifying your triggers and taking responsibility for them, you can help others to communicate with you in healthy ways, she said.

Ever the educator, Dr. Moses ended her workshop with an interactive exercise in which groups of conference leaders worked on commercials to communicate some of the techniques they had learned.

Hear the commercials and listen to the full podcast:

[podcast]http://www.mosaicmennonites.org/media-uploads/mp3/Managing Conflict Pastors Breakfast.mp3[/podcast]

Franconia Conference launches new website

September 26, 2011 by Emily Ralph Servant

Harleysville, Pa.–Franconia Mennonite Conference has launched a new website design as part of an ongoing restructuring that will provide better communication and a clearer presentation of the purpose and function of the conference.

The new site continues to provide popular features like the conference calendar, photo galleries, and a redesigned directory of conference congregations, conference related ministries, and staff. In addition, it now includes cleaner navigation, localized video and audio pages, an easy-to-search church locator, and integration with conference social media like Twitter and Facebook.

“The new website offers a clear visual and virtual image of the real postures of ministry of Franconia Conference,” says Director of Communication, Steve Kriss.

The new design by graphic artist Tim Moyer (timoyer.com) incorporates the conference’s core values of being formational, missional, and intercultural with rotating photographs on the homepage, submitted by Conference congregations. Clicking on the photos takes web visitors to a feed of articles related to each core value.

Ertell Whigham, Franconia Conference’s Executive Minister, encouraged the design team to draw attention to these values. “It’s for two reasons, really,” he said. “First, so that everyone who is a part of Franconia Conference gets a consistent message and second, so that we all have clarity on the conference’s direction.”

In addition to the beauty and functionality of the new design, the site has also been cleaned up on the back end (the structure of the site that ordinary visitors don’t see), which will lead to improved site performance and security as well as more efficiency for staff. “It will take less time to maintain the site while being easier to keep up to date,” says Emily Ralph, Associate Director of Communication. “That means it’ll be more cost effective in the long-run.”

“It’s been a labor of love, creativity, and persistence,” said Kriss. “We hope that it not only informs and shapes the Conference identity, but also invites into an ongoing conversation through more effective connectivity, equipping, and empowering.”

Continue the conversation:

Submit photos of how your congregation has been formational, missional and intercultural for possible inclusion in the homepage rotation. (eralphservant@mosaicmennonites.org)
Share videos from your congregational life on Vimeo or YouTube. (send suggestions to FranconiaMC)

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