Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

formational

Holy Hospitality

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By Ben Sutter, benjamins5@goshen.edu, Franconia Conference Communications

One thing I’ve experienced this first week of living in Philadelphia is hospitality. I arrived last Monday at one in the morning and was picked up by my boss, Steve Kriss. Steve took me to his own house, because my more permanent housing arrangements hadn’t been settled yet. He welcomed me into his life and his work for three days, allowing me to live with him. He embraced my questions and my musings as he began to describe the city and the conference. He helped me start recognizing and thinking about the nuances and characteristics that I would run into in this new setting. I felt acknowledged and accepted into his work in the conference. Steve showed me only the beginning of the incredible hospitality that I have encountered in my first eleven days in Philly.

Last Wednesday I was welcomed into the home of Pastor Aldo, one of the pastors of Philadelphia Praise Center. Aldo lives in a home with five other Indonesian young men and an older woman we call “Ibu” or “mother”. I’ve come to dearly love staying in this house, even though I’ve barely been there a week. Everyone in the house is busy, but they’re all interested in each other’s lives. Food is a very important part of how we relate to each other. Almost every time I open the front door and come back to the house, the first question I’m asked is if I’ve eaten yet. Whoever is home at mealtime eats together. I fill my plate with rice and noodles and Ibu always tells me that I need more. She takes my plate from me and adds at least one more heaping spoonful.

My roommates Yonathan and Ardi have embraced me as a friend and brother in Christ. They’ve taken me around the city and shown me the ropes. Yonathan showed off Chinatown and the Redding Market, while Ardi explained the train system to me and took me to the train station to buy my ticket to work. They’ve treated me to food, buying me McDonalds and Phileo Yogurt. We hang out together in the evenings, watching TV in the house and walking around the city.

This past Sunday, I attended my first services at Philadelphia Praise Center, one in Indonesian and a second in Spanish. I was amazed at everyone’s willingness to include me. People welcomed me as I walked into the sanctuary, shaking my hand and saying “hello,” “hola,” or just giving me a big smile. Even though languages were different, communication was possible.

In the Indonesian service, I listened to the message through a translator speaking into a head set. The songs weren’t translated, however, and many were sung in Indonesian. Most of the songs showed English translations alongside the Indonesian words on the screen in the front of the church, but I found myself drawn to singing the Indonesian. It was too hard to follow both the English translation and the Indonesian words sung by the congregation. Singing the Indonesian words, even in my poor pronunciation, made me feel apart of the community. It didn’t matter if I knew exactly what I was singing or even if I was doing it well. All that mattered was that I was joining the community in praising God. I could tell that at the core of whatever I was singing, God was being praised—God received the glory.

I’m excited to see where this summer takes me. I have felt embraced by the conference and supported by its people. I recognize the presence of God in the relationships that I’ve begun to foster and the barriers that I’m beginning to help break down. I pray that as I continue my work, I will continue to see God’s dream for the world revealed in authentic and tangible ways.

 

Youth and leaders dream for the future

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Photo by Tim Moyer

by Angela Moyer
Youth Pastor, Rockhill Mennonite Church

Dreaming about direction for Youth Ministry in the Franconia Mennonite and Eastern District Conferences was the topic of conversation for the gathering of pastors, youth leaders, Conference Related Ministry directors, and youth on Monday June 6th, 2011. Visioning and conversations were held around round tables with multiple opportunities to share table conversations with the entire group.

Jenifer Erickson Morales began the evening by facilitating conversation about the roles of children and youth in Scripture. It was evident that children and youth held significant roles in the story of God’s people. Marlene Frankenfield and Scott Benner shared historical perspectives of youth ministry in Franconia and Eastern District Conferences which revealed certain trends and patterns reflecting the values of fellowship, faith, and service. Intentional mentorship and discipleship of youth has been a significant piece in the stories of both Conferences.

Common themes of the evening were desires for relationship building and resource sharing among Conference churches, youth calling for deeper spiritual conversations, and desire to include the contributions of youth into the regular ministries of the church. Geography, culture, finances, time, and priorities were all acknowledged as significant barriers to achieving these goals. Finding the balance between fellowship/programming, discipleship/faith formation, and levels of support to congregations will be a task for the Conferences as direction for youth ministry is defined.

[podcast]http://mosaicmennonites.org/media-uploads/mp3/Envisioning the Future of Youth Ministry (full).mp3[/podcast]

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Keeping my heart wide open

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Klaudia Smucker, Bally
pastorklaudia@ballymc.org

“I am not planning on preaching,” I told one of my seminary professors. “I’m more interested in pastoral care and counseling.”

“Ask your minister anyway, and see if he can fit you into the preaching schedule,” he said.

James Waltner, my minister at College Mennonite at the time, said “Of course we can fit you into the preaching schedule.” I remember sitting up front before giving my first sermon, and having the feeling of wanting to run off the platform.

I began my student internship, not planning on being a pastor. But as the year went on, my seminary practicum, “Minister in the Church,” held many surprises. I preached, I led worship, I did pastoral care and counseling, and I loved every minute of it. I remember thinking, “This is the job I always wanted to do. I just didn’t know it.” My spiritual director noticed how enthusiastic and focused I was when I talked about my church work. She encouraged me to continue to seek God, and wait for answers. I prayed that if ministry was the right direction, it would be affirmed by others.

As I finished my practicum, I was sad to be ending something I enjoyed so much, and happy that I discovered something I loved. I decided to continue to work part time at my nursing job, and work my way through seminary, hoping that answers would eventually come. In my last week at the church, Nancy Kauffmann, on the CMC team, took me out to lunch and asked me if I had ever considered pastoral ministry. I said, “Yes. This practicum has opened whole new possibilities for me. I’m just not sure about the timing of it all.” She said, “I can’t promise you anything until we talk to the church board, but James and I believe you have gifts for ministry. We’d like to recommend hiring you to help us fill in some gaps.”

That was the beginning of my ministry journey, although as I look back, I can see that God’s hand was on me, leading, guiding, and bringing others my way to encourage me in that direction. When I preached a sermon as a 16-year-old on youth Sunday in the early 70’s, a woman came up to me afterwards with tears in her eyes, and said, “If you were a man, you could be a preacher some day.” I remember hearing a woman speak with passion and inspiration and thought, “I want to do that for others.” After I gave a presentation in a committee meeting once, a woman said, “God has something in mind for you.”

Not all of the 12 years that I have been in ministry have been easy. Sometimes it has been hard, sad and all-consuming. I have laughed, cried, and lamented along with people as I’ve walked with them through marriage, births of children, difficult issues, personal illness and loss. All of those things inform my preaching, and remind me that life is uncertain. My faith has been strengthened as I’ve watched people trust and follow faithfully in the midst of extreme difficulty. I have felt God’s hand on me along the way, sometimes through wise and trusted mentors, sometimes after time in prayer, and sometimes in the voice of a stranger at the right place, at the right time. As I continue to walk forward in what God has called me to, my prayer is to keep my heart wide open as I continue to listen for whatever is next on the journey.

Called into blessing: Liberty Ministries executive remembers his own journey

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Bob Thompson with Gay Brunt Miller
info@libertyministries.us

In the fall of 1998, Ann Angelichio, a 16-year Liberty Ministries prison volunteer, called the church where I served as an elder. She was seeking volunteers to preach in a new Thursday night chapel service at Montgomery County Correctional Facility (MCCF). Our pastor asked the elders if any of us would be interested in doing this ministry. When I heard the request, I remember thinking, “No way would I want to go into prison to preach.” I only wanted to teach in our “safe” Sunday school.

But I could not get the idea out of my mind. Every time I thought about it, I would dismiss the idea.

A week later, I decided to call Ann to “at least find out more” about prison ministry. Ann’s enthusiasm about prison ministry was contagious. By the end of our conversation I told her I would go to the volunteer orientation class to “at least find out more about it.”

The orientation session was educational and answered more questions than I could have ever imagined. The expectations were high, the commitment level was serious. The fear factor was daunting.

Part of the class was to complete a background check form. A few weeks later I received a call from Ann. “Bob, you were approved to go into Montgomery County Correctional Facility as a volunteer—what Thursday night could you start?” I remember a very long pause after her question. She suggested that I go in with another volunteer first. The next day I got a call from an experienced volunteer telling me when to meet him at the prison.

My heart raced as we were escorted through the long hallways and seven iron doors to reach the chapel deep inside the prison. None of the inmates were there yet. I was relieved. As groups of inmates were released from their cells, the room was soon full. The choir assembled at the front of the chapel and started the service with singing and rejoicing. I was amazed that the a cappella choir sounded so good. Even though I recognized none of the tunes, some of the lyrics were familiar. My heart calmed by the time Larry finished preaching. A guard announced it was time to wrap up. Larry gave a benediction, and we were escorted back to the prison lobby.

Outside the prison Larry asked what I thought about the service and prison ministry. I could only say that it was “great” and “I wanted to do it.” There was no more “at least” thinking. The next week I started preaching at 8 p.m. on the third Thursday of the month and have been involved in increasing ways ever since.

After several years I had the opportunity to teach a Bible study to the residents of Liberty House. Teaching men who were transitioning from a life of incarceration to one of freedom in Christ and freedom in the world convinced me of the importance of a ministry like Liberty. Men who have been in prison need a safe place to live and time to make changes in the way they want to live after becoming followers of Jesus Christ. Liberty Ministries provides that environment.

This realization led me to join the board of directors and eventually become board chair. My 37 years of professional experience in the business world has been indispensable in leading the ministry in new directions.

In the fall of 2010 I became the Executive Director. It is an honor, privilege and challenge to be in this a position. Many changes are taking place in the ministry that will help us be more responsive to the needs and expectations of our community. By implementing the best practices available in all areas of our ministry, we are seeking to be the finest faith based residential program for ex-offenders in Pennsylvania.

I am convinced that serving God wherever He calls us, and whatever He calls us to do, is one of the greatest blessings a Christ-follower can experience.

Is your teen almost Christian? — Part 2

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Nate Stucky & Marlene Frankenfield

mfrankenfield@mosaicmennonites.org

natestucky@hotmail.com

Almost Christian by Kenda Creasy Dean has grabbed the attention of not just persons that minister with youth but church leaders across all denominations. Nate Stucky, Ph.D. student at Princeton Seminary, returned for more conversations with church leaders, youth leaders and parents at Zion Mennonite Church (Souderton, Pa.) on April 14. Nate challenged the group with three practical ways to intentionally communicate a passionate faith with young people:

1. Tell Your Own Story: Find a way to tell your own story of faith to a young person, and then let the young person share their story. As you tell these stories, try to give God “agency.” In other words, make sure God is an actor in the story. What does God do in these stories? If we don’t answer that question, I think we fail to follow the example of scripture. Three different stories you might tell:

  1. Fill in the blank: If it weren’t for ________, there’s no way I’d be following Jesus today. Name one person for whom this would be true and tell the story of how that person impacted your life and shared Jesus with you.
  2. Dark Night of the Soul: Share the story of a time when God seemed most distant. How did you navigate that time? What did God teach you in the midst of it? How did that time shape your faith?
  3. Thin Spaces: Where and when do you consistently feel closest to God? Through music, art, nature, acts of service? Pick one place and tell a young person how you discovered that space, why you think God consistently finds you there and what that thin space might reveal about who God is.

2. Building the Constellation: While there are many benefits to the professionalization of youth ministry over the past few decades, one unanticipated and unfortunate byproduct is parents treating youth workers like “the hired help” to do youth ministry. In reality, youth ministry is the calling and work of the entire congregation. Each young person needs as many people as possible surrounding him or her to encourage and nurture the seeds of faith. Mark DeVries talks about having a constellation of support around each young person. Parents might benefit from making a list of the people who make up the constellation of support around their teen (teachers, youth sponsors, pastors, family friends, peers, coaches, etc.) and then intentionally building relationships within the constellation to provide as much support and encouragement as possible for the teen. Let the teen know that all these people care about their faith!

3. Participation in the life of the church: What might we learn from interrogating the bulletin each week? Do adults know why we sing? Why we pray, read scripture, receive an offering, take communion, baptize, and preach? Each element is presumably there for a reason, and adults and teens each stand to learn something from asking hard questions about why they exist in the first place. By having these conversations, we can’t help but increase the whole community’s vocabulary of faith. Additionally, Kenda reminds us that in order for any of these practices to be “Christian,” we have to explicitly connect the practices to Jesus. We practice “X” because we follow Christ.

When Nate asked Kenda Creasy Dean what one thing she would want to tell parents, she gave a simple and profound challenge: “Do one radical thing for your faith; do it in full view of your youth; and tell them you do it because you follow Jesus, not just because you are a wholesome or nice person.”

In an age when we feel like we are losing ground in passing on faith, perhaps we need to avoid being fearful and recognize that that the Holy Spirit is already acting in the lives of our young people and that we can come alongside and more actively share our stories of faith.

Same mission, same values, new urgency

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Marta Castillo, Conference Board,
Nueva Vida Norristown New Life
castillonnl@gmail.com

Intercultural, missional, and formational are words that beg to be defined more clearly and deeply in our hearts and minds. When many of us read, “For at least the next two years, the conference board has prioritized for Ertell Whigham and conference staff to work at being intercultural, missional and formational”, we can affirm those priorities as God-honoring and life-giving. Yet some of us may take a wait and see attitude on how being intercultural, missional, and formational will be “brought to the center in such a way everyone embraces them as the driving force behind why we do ministry and how we do ministry.”

This issue of Intersections is full of examples of how the priorities of being intercultural, missional, and formational are already being put into practice within Franconia Conference. God is actively defining these words for us as reflected in these stories of how God’s people are responding to the movement of the Spirit. As often is the case, we are trying to catch up and get on board with what God is already doing among us.

God’s formational work in the life of Ertell Whigham has brought him to this place of leadership among us and on the journey. God developed in him a deep appreciation for community, peace, honest communication, conflict management skills, and a deeply held vision for how the church can be a witness in the world. The prayer trainings referenced in the story of “Learning to Listen” highlight the central role of listening prayer in the formation of God’s people. “Prayer is finding out what God wants to do and asking God to do it.” We find evidence of God’s molding and directing in the story of the calling of Klaudia Smucker in her stated desire “to walk forward in what God has called her to” and her prayer to keep her heart wide open. God’s love for process and formation is reflected in the testimony of Samantha Lioi that “in God’s maddening slowness there is expansive room for healing. There is so much space to become the people we are.” Bob Thompson was moved by God from “no way” to “I am convinced that serving God wherever He calls us, is one of the greatest blessings a Christ-follower can experience.”

From the solid base of God’s formational work comes our missional response. The Whigham article states, “Whigham plans to encourage everyone from the pew to the pulpit and beyond to become more clearly passionate about the conference’s vision: equipping leaders to empower others to embrace God’s mission. Overall, he believes his role is “to continue to bring clarity for what that means and for every person to be able to think and pray about how they can represent that [vision] in their particular context, as it relates to the whole.” God’s mission is to reconcile the world to himself through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Mission is happening in the Lehigh Valley through Ripple, an eclectic Anabaptist urban worshiping community “moving toward Jesus as our center.” As the conference board visits and listens to the testimonies of the churches, we hear story after story of how congregations continue to embrace God’s mission.

Our missional response is naturally taking us down the path to being increasingly intercultural. The Partner in Mission relationship with Mana de Vida Eterna is described “as another example of how the Lord is working through relationships to connect congregations and conferences across what may have formerly been seen as boundaries that were not to be crossed.” In Allentown, a peace pole becomes a symbol of unity and “a common desire for respectful relationships.” Ertell Whigham is quoted as saying of the beginnings of Nueva Vida Norristown New Life, an intercultural, multilingual church, “As I looked at [these] three churches . . . all professing to serve the same Christ, called to be one people, it just felt like we needed to do something different in order to be something different for God,” Whigham said.

The priorities set by the conference board for the next two years, being intercultural, missional, and formational, are not new. Neither is the conference’s vision: equipping leaders to empower others to embrace God’s mission. Yet there does seem to be a new urgency and a new commitment, to “do something different in order to be something different for God”. Embrace God’s mission!

Learning to listen . . .

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Sandy Landes, Doylestown

For three Sunday evenings in February, March, and April, pastors, prayer intercessors and persons wanting to learn about prayer intercession came together for times of teaching, worship and prayer. Noel Santiago, Leadership Minister for Spiritual Transformation for Franconia Conference, taught on the Basis for Intercession, the Practice of Intercession, and the Power of Intercession. With an average attendance of 60 persons from churches throughout the region, there was a positive response to the teachings and the opportunity to practice what we were learning.

A team from Salem Mennonite Church helped us experience God’s presence with great joy as they led in worship at the first session in February, held at the conference center. Noel’s teaching focused on the Basis of Intercession, and some of the key points in that teaching included:

  • We are bi-locational, being seated in the heavenly places with Christ (Eph. 2:6) and living on earth. We will reflect the world we are most aware of, heaven or earth.
  • We are like Adam, God’s representatives on earth. (Psalm 8:5-6).
  • We have been given authority by God to pray forth what God wants to see happen here on earth, hence we pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

The second session in March was held at Franconia Mennonite Church due to the wonderful attendance in February. The Practice of Intercession was the focus and we learned:

  • God is always speaking and has a variety of ways of communicating with us. Are we listening?
  • Prayer is finding out what God wants to do and asking God to do it (1 John 5:14).
  • This definition puts our relationship with God at the center and our primary posture in prayer becomes one of listening.
  • One of the challenges is that sometimes we are too quick to pray instead of waiting to hear what is on God’s heart for a person or situation.
  • One of the ways the will of God is accomplished on earth is that it is spoken.

An encouraging part of this evening was taking the time to listen to God and write down the words, thoughts and scriptures we heard. We then turned those words into a crafted prayer, which we were encouraged to keep praying

April 3 was the culminating session of this series and it focused on hearing God for one another, the Power of Intercession. The evening began again with worship and testimonies of how God has answered prayer and changed the way we pray as well as the ways we experience our relationship with God. Some of the main points covered were:

  • Two of the most important factors in our life are what we believe about who God is and who we are.
  • If you are not being shaped by the love of God, you are probably being shaped by your experiences.
  • “The kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power” (I Cor. 4:20).
  • God’s word has power, and embedded in that word is the power to accomplish it (Isaiah 55:10-11).

We closed the evening with another time of listening to God for each other, writing a prayer and then speaking the words of encouragement to each other. Many were blessed by this exercise of hearing a word for another person and trusting that it was God speaking. The group was remindeded to discern the words given to them with others, to judge the word according to biblical principles, and to pay attention to the character requirements of scripture. Those who attended these sessions came away with new understandings of God and what it means to pray by listening first.

More teachings on prayer are being planned, and there will be continuing opportunities to practice what is being taught.
For updates check out prayer.mosaicmennonites.org.

Encountering fierce Love, taking the risk to lead

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by Samantha Lioi, Whitehall
samanthalioi@gmail.com

Call is a slippery word in divine-human relations, and there are always at least two in this tango: God can be slippery as we look and listen and follow, and people are pretty slippery when called by God. It happened with all the greats. “But…I am only a boy,” says Jeremiah. Peter falls at Jesus’ knees in the boat crying, “Go away from me, Lord!” Even after much reassurance, Moses says, “Lord, please send someone else.” I get it. To be called is to be responsible. Seriously, visibly responsible. In the good company of prophets and apostles, when I look at my ability to live with integrity, I don’t know if I want all that responsibility.

It’s interesting to me that the biblical folk who come to mind first—and those whose call stories I’ve mentioned so far—are men. They are men whose stories are comforting and familiar as they resonate with my own experience. Maybe I should pay more attention to the women God called. At the garden tomb, Mary Magdalene doesn’t say, “Jesus, I don’t think I can…I’m still processing that thing with the seven demons.” There’s no hedging. In love and joy she runs from the empty tomb and comes shouting to Peter and John: “I have seen the Lord!”

I grew up thinking people who had women as pastors couldn’t be taking the Bible seriously. I was 20 years old and a sophomore in a biblical interpretation class at Houghton College when I was required to think about both sides of this. I remember exactly where I was sitting when I learned that scholars with a bias against women in church leadership consistently defended the translation of Junia (a woman’s name) as Junias (a man’s name) in Paul’s list of greetings in Romans 16, because he calls her an apostle. In this context of honesty about the stickiness and complexity of biblical interpretation, I began to welcome the idea that I, or any woman, could be a pastor. Not that I wanted to be. I felt a general call to ministry throughout college and in the years that followed. But a pastor? Me? No—not interested (read this as I was scared to death). Six years after that class, and after much prayer and conversation with mentors and our small campus-based Mennonite fellowship, I began seminary. I enrolled as an M.Div. student so that, I told myself, I would have the authority to preach—but still without any intention of pursuing pastoral ministry. I loved theology and I wanted to study the Bible in more depth. People I trusted had been telling me to go. It felt like the unavoidable next thing, plunked down in the middle of my path.

A key to my ongoing conversion to the Gospel has been receiving and trusting the powerful, unending flow of God’s love. This deepened during my time in Elkhart and Goshen as a student at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary. My new friends and professors showed me grace as I had not known it before. They modeled and encouraged me to accept the underlying good God has woven into the universe, the undergirding Love that will not let us go. I have encountered a fierce Love indeed, and One who can be trusted. It is only in that love that I take the risk of leading others in walking the way of Jesus. And, I practice not taking myself too seriously as I live with the delight and the struggle of feeling things deeply, finding myself frequently moving through deep springing joy and grieving compassion and doubt. Like many of us, I face the temptation to despair, the temptation to do nothing, the temptation to be defeated by the impossibility of complete integrity. So I am as messed up as everyone else—thanks be to God for the freedom to minister in my weakness, and not from pretended worthiness!

Like every other disciple of Christ, I’m called to maturity. Like everyone else, I’m called to die. No wonder I resist the gift and weight of leadership! Yet, at the center of our faith is a poor man from an ethnic minority whom we say is God with skin on. Holiness inseparable from ordinary human living. Flesh and muscle and bone. Bread and wine. A seed that falls into the earth and dies, and is drawn up by water and sun through the soil, and bears much fruit. A long, slow view of pain and hope and saving. And in God’s maddening slowness there is expansive room for healing. There is so much space to become the people we are.

Amazingly, knowing Christ’s church as well as I do, I love it enough to stay. And amazingly, it seems the church is saying the Spirit is empowering me to keep practicing this pastor-prophet-poet-preacher-pray-er thing: in listening, speaking, tugging, laughing, living beside. Resisting God and saying yes, and learning to trust like the Magdalene when I don’t know what that yes will mean. In all of it, called by inescapable Love.