Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Frederick Mennonite Church

Where Everybody Knows Your Name and Your Prayer Requests

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A Visit to Frederick Church’s Third Sunday Breakfast

by Noel Santiago

The Pennsylvania countryside keeps its secrets well. Tucked off Colonial Road in Perkiomenville sits a small brick meetinghouse that has been faithfully doing the work of the church for over seventy years. If you were not looking for Frederick Church, you might drive right past it.

But if you had been inside on the third Sunday of May, you would not have wanted to leave.

The morning began the way many good things do: with food shared together. Egg casseroles. Sausage burritos. Salsa. Coffee. Whoopie pie, shoofly pie, and funny cake. The meal sets the first rhythm of the church gathering, a simple practice of being present to one another. Around these tables, people become family.

Once a month, Frederick sets aside the typical Sunday rhythm and gathers in the fellowship hall for what they call their Third Sunday Breakfast. There is no printed order of service, no projected screens. People call out hymn numbers, and voices rise together. Scriptures surface amid conversation. Stories tumble out: funny ones, hard ones, deeply personal ones.

In the middle of it all, a birthday is named. Those gathered turn toward the named person and offer words of blessing. Without prompting, another member is lifted up in the same way. As the congregation moves between laughter, tenderness, and song, the message of the morning quietly delivers itself.

The hymns, the prayers, and the scriptures all pointed in the same direction: God’s faithfulness. Not as something to be explained, but as a reality that had been lived, tested, and found true by the people in the room.

What struck me most was not the singing, the scripture, or even the food. As good and meaningful as each was, it was the listening that stayed with me.

When one member spoke words of care over another, those gathered leaned in. When prayer requests were shared – joyful and difficult alike – the congregation received them with care. That attentiveness, the willingness to truly hear one another, is rarer than we might think. It is the mark of a community that has learned, over many years, to take each other seriously.

What I witnessed on that third Sunday was a congregation that has learned, perhaps without ever calling it discipleship, how to care for one another in the way the church was always meant to. The gathering itself became a demonstration of the gospel, expressed not through a formal sermon but through story, song, shared bread, and prayer.

The morning ended the way family gatherings do: with people lingering. No one was in a hurry to leave.

Frederick Church is a place where the ancient work of becoming God’s people is still being practiced—one hymn, one scripture, one prayer, one breakfast at a time.

Noel Santiago

Noel Santiago is the Leadership Minister for Missional Transformation for Mosaic Conference.

Congregational Profile: Frederick Mennonite Church

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by Greg Law

Frederick Mennonite Church began around 1950 when some Perkiomenville Mennonite Church members wanted to expand their outreach further west. The original meeting place was the Bertolet Meetinghouse (which had no indoor water or bathrooms) in Frederick, PA. In 1966 our current location was built (with indoor plumbing) across the street from the Bertolet Meetinghouse with an addition in 1994.

The first minister was unsalaried which was common for the time. Gradually, we moved along until we had a full-time pastor.  After his departure, we had a half-time interim pastor. Over the past few years, we mostly utilize a “self-employed truck driving preacher” from within the congregation as our main speaker.

Once a month we forgo the normal Sunday morning routine and have a potluck breakfast together in the fellowship hall. This is followed by a free form gathering around the same tables where each person is encouraged to share. We share prayer requests, concerns, how God is speaking to us, and sometimes choose a song to sing together.  We really do feel like a family!

Being a small congregation presents challenges, but it also provides the opportunity of being able to know each other pretty well.  We have a weekly women’s Bible study and a monthly men’s breakfast which are both open to anyone from Frederick or beyond.

The Bertolet meetinghouse

Twice a year we partner with several other small Mennonite congregations for a joint service and picnic in the summer and a rotating Thanksgiving service.  Frederick also hosts two hymn sings in the old Bertolet Meetinghouse in June and October.  For many years there has been a nursery school in our church building that runs during the school year.  This has provided some connections to the local community.

Our location does not help us in our desire to be more connected to the community, since we are not on a main road nor centrally located. However, we are on the same road used to get to the Goschenhoppen Folk Festival, so we do get a lot of traffic for a few days in August. We open our church building for interaction, prayer, cold water, and bathrooms during the festival.

Perhaps the biggest recent change for our congregation has been having a “roommate.”  Through a God-led encounter, we connected with a small Assemblies of God congregation (“Ignite”) that needed to relocate its meeting place.  From that encounter, we now have two congregations using the same building at different times.  Frederick uses the building first, then Ignite follows.  Both of us overlap in the lobby between services and we have been known to even sneak in on each other’s services.  The shared space has worked well and we are grateful that our church building is being used more regularly.

We love what Jesus has done for us and want others to know Him too!  The pandemic has changed worship patterns, and we’ve seen many views of Grant’s sermons on Facebook.  Only time will tell if any of those watching from home choose to unite with local congregations. We’d love to see new faces.

Frederick Mennonite is like a gem: small but precious, hidden until you can see the inner beauty. Come visit us – if you can find us! (526 Colonial Rd, Frederick, PA 19435)

All Together in One Place

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by Chris Nickels, Pastor at Spring Mount Mennonite Church

On Sunday June 4, five Franconia Conference congregations (Wellspring, Methacton, Spring Mount, Frederick, and Providence) gathered in Skippack to worship together and have a picnic.  Skippack has some historical significance, being the place where Mennonites first settled in  Montgomery County.  A few centuries later we are still here, seeking to live out a vision of faithful witness to Jesus Christ.

In the beautiful surroundings of Hallman’s Grove, tucked within a residential neighborhood just east of the village, I was reminded of the life and Spirit that surrounds us. One’s senses could pick up the sights and sounds of creation as well as a gentle breeze— especially meaningful on this day of Pentecost that was the focal point of our gathering.

We celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit to the first followers of Jesus (Acts 2), and the gifts of the Spirit present among us today. Worship included speaking and singing in different languages, and a recitation of the Lord’s Prayer included nine languages (Spanish, Indonesian, English, German, Greek, Italian, Kannada, French, Vietnamese). Pastor Sandy Drescher-Lehman of Methacton Mennonite Church presented a children’s story about the birth of the church—complete with birthday cake! —and she and the children led us in a fun birthday song.

We prayed for each other, for our pastors, and also for a local food pantry, all of which reminded me of our common mission in central Montgomery County.  Our pastors took turns giving a short message about how we have been living out God’s mission and how we are being empowered for ministry by the Spirit. The picnic, organized by members of each church, provided plenty of delicious food and space to build relationships with one another.

The event was a team effort among our congregations, and I think we are discovering that we really enjoy working together and are being blessed in our common activities and growing relationships. Despite the small size of our individual congregations, we are noticing that we benefit from diverse membership and from the wisdom of our elder members. We are realizing that our small congregations can be a blessing to our conference and also to our local communities. We have unique gifts to offer, and by the end of our time together I felt energized for how we might continue to share the love and light of Christ together.

Unity in Thanksgiving

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By Sandy Drescher-Lehman, Pastor of Methacton Mennonite Church

Four Franconia Mennonite Conference churches met on the Sunday before Thanksgiving to proclaim the One who unifies them even amidst the diversity of opinions, theology, wealth, and political persuasions among other things. Ideas had been brewing in the hearts of several pastors of small churches in close proximity to each other for some time, to find ways to support and resource each other.  Last summer, that dream became a reality as the pastors began to meet together. One of the outcomes of those meetings was this joint Thanksgiving worship service.

The pastors and congregations of Wellspring Church of Skippack, Frederick Mennonite Church, and Spring Mount Mennonite Church gathered at Methacton Mennonite Church on November 20 for the anticipated and momentous event!  People who usually have plenty of room on their benches, were packed in like smiling sardines.  Singers who ordinarily can identify every voice, were overwhelmed with the grand blend of harmonious praise. A colorful mountain of boxes and cans and bags began to grow in the front of the sanctuary as people streamed in with their offerings of food to be shared with their neighborhood food pantry. An open conversation among the four pastors,  inspired comradery with other churches who also have an average of 15-30 members and who also each share the vibrancy of unique vision and mission intentions, centered around following Jesus Christ. Three pastors were happy to hear Mike Meneses share the Word and four song leaders led their congregations in a round of “Go now in peace,” (#429 HWB).

Friendships were lit and fanned into beautiful flames as we then spent informal time together around the tables of food and drink, with hopes of more joint ventures to come.  Emulating what was shared at Conference Assembly two weeks earlier, we celebrated what is being planted and watered in our separate congregations and were inspired to notice how God calls us to grow into the days before us.