global

By Marathana Prothro, Mennonite Church USA

Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership and Western District Conference (WDC) together announce a ministry transition for Gilberto Flores, director of Denominational Ministry and Missional Church for Executive Leadership. In addition to giving overall leadership for Denominational Ministry, Flores also ministered to the needs of five area conferences including Franconia Conference. Beginning in February 2009, Flores will leave his post with Executive Leadership to begin ministry with WDC as associate conference minister for Texas.

Flores said his choice to enter conference ministry was independent of his decision to resign as director of Denominational Ministry and Missional Church. The opportunity to work with WDC was presented days after his official resignation from Executive Leadership.

“Gilberto will help us enter the next phase of church development and growth in Western District Conference and specifically in the Texas area,” said Dorothy Nickel Friesen, conference minister for WDC. “Gilberto has incredible skills, and his missional perspective will push us to become the church we should be.”

As associate conference minister for Texas, Flores will work alongside Nickel Friesen to provide services to pastors and congregations in the Mid-Texas Region and give overall leadership and direction to the church planting programs and nurturing of new congregations, all on behalf of the conference. The full-time position, among other things, includes the following responsibilities: supervision of church-planting pastors throughout the district; consultation with congregational search committees; advocacy for pastors and congregations to elected or appointed conference leadership; development of communication links to missional church initiatives.

Flores will continue his ministry with Executive Leadership through Jan. 31, 2009. When he began the director position in December 2007 the Executive Leadership ministry known as Congregational and Ministerial Leadership changed to Denominational Ministry. With the new name came a new structure that includes seven denominational ministers, rather than four, who oversee relationships with the 21 area conferences of Mennonite Church USA. The transition resulted from conversations with and prompting from conference ministers in 2007.

Flores has a ministry journey that includes 23 years of varying roles in the Mennonite church in Latin America and more than 15 years experience in serving in the United States. While in Latin America, Flores and his wife, Rosa, served as pastors, church planters and missionaries in different countries.

In addition to his pastoral duties, Flores was academic dean of SEMILLA, a Mennonite seminary serving all Central American Mennonite denominations; director of CONCAD, an ecumenical organization focused on human and community development; and director of Fraternidad de Iglesias Evangélicas de Guatemala, an ecumenical organization focused on social development, pastoral leadership and peace-justice advocacy.

Flores and his wife moved with their four children to the United States in 1993 to serve as church planters in San Antonio, Texas. Since then, Flores has worked as a director with the former General Conference Commission on Home Ministries, the Anabaptist Biblical Institute (IBA), Mennonite Mission Network and Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership where he currently is director of Denominational Ministry and Missional Church.

Flores has two master’s degrees, one in theological studies with a focus in pastoral theology and another in sociology with a focus in religion studies. He has published multiple essays on a variety of topics.

“Gilberto has brought uncommon insight on our missional vision, combined with unique relational skills with area conference leaders. He has tirelessly traveled across the span of our conferences, offered counsel to conference ministers, and been a helpful and guiding presence on behalf of the staff of denominational ministers of Mennonite Church USA,” said Jim Schrag, executive director for Mennonite Church USA. “We wish him well in his new position of ministry with Western District Conference, for which he is clearly suited and called. We will miss his leadership in Denominational Ministry and his leadership in the missional church calling of Mennonite Church USA.”

By June Galle Krehbiel for Mennonite Church USA

Pastors Day will kick off the Mennonite Church USA convention in Columbus, Ohio next summer. It will be the first convention to devote an entire day to resource pastors, according to Gilberto Flores, who is director of denominational ministry and missional church for Mennonite Church USA and serves as the denominational minister for Franconia Conference.

The theme for the event is “Pastors as Missional Leaders,” and scheduled presenters include Darrell Guder, Lois Barrett and Jim Schrag.

Keynote speaker Darrell Guder is considered one of the main leaders in the missional church movement. He is professor of the theology of mission and ecumenics and dean of academic affairs at Princeton (N.J.) Theological Seminary and an ordained Presbyterian minister. His book entitled “The Continuing Conversion of the Church: Evangelization as the Heart of Ministry” received the 2001 Book of the Year Award from the Academy of Parish Clergy.

Lois Barrett of Wichita, Kan. will lead small group discussions. She is director and associate professor of theology and Anabaptist studies of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary–Great Plains Extension. Barrett pastored Mennonite Church of the Servant in Wichita, Kan. and has served as executive secretary of the Commission on Home Ministries for the General Conference Mennonite Church. With Darrell Guder and other writers, she authored two books with a missional theme: “Treasure in Clay Jars: Patterns in Missional Faithfulness” and “Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America.”

Jim Schrag, executive director of Mennonite Church USA, will speak on the pastor’s role in the denomination while Gilberto Flores will facilitate all sessions.

“Pastors work hard and sometimes feel very isolated,” says Flores. “Our giving a whole day to this event will help pastors recognize its importance as well as their importance to the denomination. If pastors are not leading the local congregations into a missional imagination, it may be difficult for the congregations to move forward. Pastors are key people for the church.”

The event will create a common table for pastors during the convention week.

“We expect that pastors will engage each other and share about their own congregations, imagining together about the missional church and the future of our denomination as a missional denomination,” Flores says. “At this convention we can be in a peers meeting–not only enjoying our time with others, but building our dreams together about what God is calling us to do.”

Pastors Day will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, June 30, 2009.

Columbus 2009 will be held in Columbus, Ohio from June 30 to July 4, 2009. Check the webs site of Mennonite Church USA for updates and registration information.

by Rosabeth Birky Koehn for Mennonite Mission Network

As a Mennonite with a growing global consciousness, Lydia Longacre works hard at good stewardship. At age four, her money already has reached Ecuador.

Longacre’s congregation, Swamp Mennonite Church in Quakerstown, Pa., chose to participate in Mennonite Mission Network’s mission bank project. Through this program, Longacre helped support the ministry of Iglesia Menonita de Quito (Quito Mennonite Church) as it reaches out to Colombian refugees and local children.

Since September 2005, Mennonite Church USA children have been dropping their allowances and earnings into the little blue globe-styled banks in order to help fund Mission Network-supported projects around the world. In April 2008, donations topped $100,000.

According to Sandy Miller, director of church relations at MMN, “The goal of mission banks is to help children learn how to share Jesus in ways children can.”

Longacre reported, “It makes me feel good to give people money because they might not have food. I set the table to get money to put in the [mission] bank. It was hard sometimes, but I wanted money to put in the bank to help people.”

Banks come with curriculum focused on a particular area of need in an international location. Lessons geared at children’s time, Sunday school and family time at home teach children what mission workers and partner organizations are doing around the world. With a clear idea of where their money is headed, children can contribute to the work of the missional church.

According to Cindy Weaver, minister of Christian education at Swamp, kids get excited about giving when they know specifically what they are giving to.

Weaver said that between January and May, Swamp children raised more than $800 to support Iglesia Menonita de Quito’s community outreach, which includes providing temporary housing for Colombian refugees and organizing peace education for children in marginal neighborhoods.

César Moya and Patricia Urueña are co-pastors of Iglesia Menonita de Quito and have been working there through a partnership involving Mission Network, the Colombian Mennonite Church and Central Plains Mennonite Conference since 2000.

Originally from Colombia, the couple understands the situation refugees are fleeing in that country. They offer their time and energy to help the refugees find the support they need in a new home.

To explain one way their church uses funds from Mission Network, Moya and Urueña shared a story.

In March 2003, a family of Colombian refugees appeared at the doorstep of Iglesia Menonita de Quito. They had come to the Ecuadorian capital to escape violence in their home country.

The mother, father and four children arrived at the church with these words on their lips: “Do you speak of love for your neighbor? Is it true that you help people in need? Please help us for we have no place to go.”

At the time, the church could only offer the family two cramped Sunday school rooms. Today, enabled by financial support from Mission Network, the church rents a small house on the outskirts of the city where displaced Colombians can find temporary lodging.

To date, the house has sheltered 10 families, one at a time for several months each.

Ever since Iglesia Menonita de Quito started aiding refugees, congregants have generously contributed their time and material resources. However, the amount of need quickly surpassed the church’s ability to provide.

“It was then,” wrote Moya and Urueña, “that the help from [MMN] became important and this partnership provided money exclusively for the needs of the Colombians.”

Swamp member Marie Gehman witnessed first-hand how Iglesia Menonita de Quito uses money from Mission Network for this and other purposes. During the same time young Longacre was setting the table to earn mission bank money, Gehman was studying at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (University of San Francisco, Quito) and partaking in the ministry of Iglesia Menonita de Quito.

She assisted with the Peace Education Project, a program that includes workshops about violence prevention and the formation of Christian values. This program is also supported by mission banks.

Children from neighborhoods surrounding Iglesia Menonita de Quito regularly deal with issues related to domestic violence, alcoholism, drug addiction, gang life and single-parent families. In collaboration with the local neighborhood board, the church brings these children together once a month to learn about living peacefully, even within violent circumstances.

For Gehman, however, it was obvious the peace education did not go just one way. She recalled one class when children were making bracelets to give to someone else.

“I was helping a group of about six young children string their beads and tie knots, but I still couldn’t speak Spanish very well and, therefore, was having some trouble communicating,” she said.

“Fortunately, one of the children came to my rescue and helped me with the names and decided to help me make my bracelet, too. At the end, she gave her bracelet as a gift to me.”

*Translation from Spanish by Laverne Rutschman

by Laura Lehman Amstutz

Eastern Mennonite Seminary is experimenting with different ways of expanding the learning process.

During the spring semester, six students and one professor tested the limits of online and in-person education with a “hybrid” course called “The Jesus Movement in the Early Context.”

The students were all service workers living in various locations in Israel/Palestine. The major component of the course was a research project based on their interests and work in these regions of protracted conflict.

For example, Becki I. Day from Lancaster, Pa., is a volunteer at Nazareth Village, a re-creation of the town as it would have appeared in the time of Jesus. She spends her days herding sheep for the Village. She chose to research sheep and shepherding in the first century as her project.

“I gained new insights into Jesus’ view of shepherds and the importance of shepherds in the Bible,” Day said.

“It was great to study things that are relevant to where I am living and relate directly to my work,” she added.

David P. Landis from Harleysville, Pa., spent his time developing and promoting the Jesus trail, a new hiking trail intended to re-create the routes Jesus would have walked in Galilee.

“I took this course because it strengthened the work I was doing with the Jesus Trail,” said Landis. “The course provided historical and theological context to the impetus behind Jesus’ travel.”

“The students were the most enthused, passionate, well informed and engaged of any students I have ever related to,” said Linford L. Stutzman, associate professor of culture and mission at EMS. “The students agreed that living in Israel made their research incomparably more engaging and rewarding to them personally and gave them insights they might otherwise have overlooked.”

The course incorporated a combination of online instruction, directed student research, intensive seminars on location and student teaching of others in Israel.

From January through March, students engaged in online discussion around research questions having to do with the context of Jesus’ ministry in the first century.

“This course was unique in that the focus was not first of all on Jesus’ teaching, or even how people reacted to Jesus,” said Dr. Stutzman. “Rather, it was about how Jesus’ message affected people in light of how they lived and other features of their lives that aren’t part of the recorded biblical accounts.

“Because students worked independently on their research and chose topics that interested them and related to their personal experiences, there was a level of authenticity that doesn’t always happen when studying others living in distant times and places,” he continued.

“The most exciting part of the course for me was discovering parts of Jesus’ life that I never knew before, which made the life and teachings of Jesus so much more real and relevant for me,” said Tara Kreider from Harrisonburg, Va.

In April, the seminary students presented their research to an EMU undergraduate cross-cultural group Stutzman and his wife Janet were leading.

“The teaching component of this course was helpful in providing an avenue for us to share our research with others, offering a unique classroom that included the broader world in our learning,” said Landis.

“For me, the most exciting part of the course was sharing my research with a group of students by taking them on a hike on the Jesus trail for a day,” he said.

Anita L. Rhodes from Dayton, Va., studied food and hospitality and shared her research through a meal for the undergrad students.

“We had a full first-century meal complete with hosts, servants and even sharing the Lord’s Supper together,” said Rhodes. The meal was served on the floor, the room lit with oil lamps.

“The combination of first-hand experience in the land, research and teaching was definitely unique,” Rhodes continued. “I loved the fact that we got to put our new-found knowledge to use right away by teaching the undergraduate cross-cultural students.”

Eastern Mennonite Seminary is planning more courses like this with both an online and in-person component. In the summer of 2009, Stutzman will teach “The Christian Movement in the Mediterranean” that will involve students who are living and working at sites of the early church.

JESUS TRAIL Mar-19-2008
By Judith Sudilovsky Catholic News Service

TABGHA, Israel (CNS) — As the two hikers reach the parking lot of the Church of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes, a group of tourists scrambles into their waiting air-conditioned bus.

The hikers, Maoz Inon, 32, and David Landis, 25, have just taken a short hike down from the Mount of Beatitudes to the shore of the Sea of Galilee on part of the new Jesus Trail hiking route they have mapped out over the past five months.

“Can you imagine what it would be like for a hiker after walking the route for some hours and then to arrive here, or at another holy site? It is different than arriving on an air-conditioned bus,” said Inon.

The two young entrepreneurs — Inon, a Jewish Israeli, and Landis, an American Mennonite tourist who divides his time between Israel and other travel destinations — met over the Internet when Landis came across
Inon’s travel blog.

For several years Inon had toyed with the idea of mapping out a hiking trail along the route of Christian holy sites in Galilee. He found a partner in Landis, who shared his passion for hiking and world travel.

Landis mapped out the trail using Global Positioning System navigation and Google Earth, which offers searchable satellite imagery and maps.

The 40-mile trail, which follows the pre-existing Israel National Trail as much as possible, begins in Nazareth and passes through places of Jesus’ ministry: Cana, the site of the wedding feast and Jesus’ first miracle; Tabgha, where Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes; and Capernaum, which served as Jesus’ home base during his ministry. The trail also includes traditional Israeli tourist sites such as Zippori, famous for its Byzantine mosaics, and the Cliffs of Arbel, with their
panoramic views.

The trail culminates at the Mount of Beatitudes. An optional return route of equal distance passes through additional sites on a circuit back to Nazareth.

Most of the trails are accessible to all hikers, with varying degrees of difficulties. Public transportation is easily accessible from many parts of the trail.

The trail follows the growing trend in pilgrimage hikes such as the Way of St. James to Spain’s Santiago de Compostela and the St. Paul Trail in Turkey, said Inon. A group from Harvard University is putting together a trail following in the footsteps of Abraham — from eastern Turkey, through Syria, Jordan and ending in Hebron, West Bank — as an interfaith peace-building project, he added.

The Israeli Ministry of Tourism has been considering a similar idea for almost eight years, but the wheels of bureaucracy turn slowly, said Amir Moran, who is working on the planning of the Gospel Trail for the Ministry of Tourism and the Galilee Development Authority. The Ministry of Tourism path, which will in many places follow the Jesus Trail, will include marked paths, parking lots, shaded areas, rest areas and other facilities, Moran said. The project, which is expected to be completed in about two years, will cost between $2 million and $3 million, he said.

“We as a public group need to make sure the tourists have a safe path to follow. There are things we as public officials can do which Maoz can’t do. I very much support Maoz’s initiative. The idea is a very
natural one,” said Moran.

Though it may be hard for the Western mindset to comprehend, Inon said with a grin that he and Landis expect no financial compensation for the work they are doing. They hope their path will attract more tourism to the area and encourage people to spend more time in northern Israel, eating at local restaurants, buying supplies from shops along the route
and visiting the small villages and Christian monasteries in the area.

“You give and you get,” said Inon, adding that they both enjoy the work they are doing and the people they are meeting along the way.

“Hiking is a much more humble way to travel,” said Landis. “You are in contact with people that you meet, you have to work for it and appreciate it more.

“You can connect with the way Jesus walked and lived as a real person. It is something that is moving and living. It is not just something that happened a long time ago that existed in one place, but something you
can participate in in a different way.

“Jesus didn’t build churches,” he added. “Jesus met people by walking from village to village.”

Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service www.CatholicNews.com Used with permission of CNS

Jim Bishop bishopJ@emu.edu

John Tyson, an Eastern Mennonite University student, said he “had thought about it for some time and felt that the time and place were right.”

And so, early on Easter Sunday, the junior biblical studies and philosophy major from Lansdale, Pa., was baptized in the Jordan River into the community of faith.

What made the experience even more special was that Tyson was baptized by Linford L. Stutzman, associate professor of culture and mission at EMU, and the baptism was witnessed by the 29 students in his Middle East study group. Dr. Stutzman and his wife, Janet M. Stutzman, are leading the cross-cultural seminar during the university’s spring semester.

“The community I’ve experienced in this cross-cultural group and the journey we are sharing is something special,” Tyson said afterwards. “I’ve been active in the Mennonite church for several years, but traveling with this group has been the place where I’ve been most at home with God and the world.”

“John had asked about the possibility of being baptized several weeks before Easter, when our group was still in Jerusalem,” said Stutzman. “I mentioned that the Jordan River runs through the back of Kibbutz Afikim, and that we would be there over Easter. Perhaps that would be a good opportunity.”

The EMU group arrived at Kibbutz Afikim, secular Jewish agricultural commune, on Mar. 17. On Easter Sunday morning, they rose early and assembled at 5:30 for the 20-minute hike to the Kibbutz graveyard, which overlooks the Jordan. There, the students led songs and read scriptures as the sun rose over the Golan Heights.

The group then hiked down toward the Jordan.

“I recounted the journey of learning and faith that everyone is traveling on this cross-cultural, paralleling the journeys of faith in Scripture, how wilderness and water are so much a part of it, and how baptism connects to these stories–Moses and the Hebrew children crossing the Red Sea, the Hebrews wandering through the wilderness then crossing the Jordan to the promise, John baptizing in the Jordan, Jesus being baptized in the Jordan. All of these places and events have been part of the group’s travels, and all relate to the meaning of baptism,” Stutzman recalled.

Tyson then recounted his own journey of faith and why he chose to be baptized at this point in his life.

“I decided that taking this step was appropriate and the time and place and people only confirmed that,” he said. “For me, water baptism symbolized the life of God at work in the world through things we often take for granted but that create new life.”

The men waded into the middle of the Jordan, and Stutzman poured water over Tyson’s head. They then returned to shore, where students gave encouragement and blessings, and sang several songs.

Tyson has been attending Souderton (PA) Mennonite Church since age 17 and is a graduate of Christopher Dock Mennonite High School. He will serve as an intern with Franconia Conference this summer.

It is the fifth time for Linford and wife Janet, a former director of alumni/parent relations at EMU, to lead a cross-cultural program in the Middle East. The group is scheduled to return to campus Apr. 22.

Lora Steiner
lsteiner@mosaicmennonites.org

ELKHART, Ind. (Mennonite Mission Network and Franconia Conference) — Last year, Mennonite Mission Network and Franconia Mennonite Conference collaborated on the first Youth Venture experience in Israel.

This summer, Franconia Conference will again partner with Mission Network to offer another Youth Venture learning experience in Nazareth, Israel, and will add a new location: Mexico City, Mexico. Both trips will take place in July 2008.
“This is a relevant collaboration because it brings Mission Network’s skills and Franconia conference’s relationships together,” said Steve Kriss, director of communication and leadership cultivation for Franconia Conference.

The Israel experience will be led by David Landis, Franconia conference associate for communication and leadership development, who also led last year’s trip. The group will begin its time in Nazareth volunteering at Nazareth Village, a first-century recreation of life during the time of Jesus.

They will then travel to Jerusalem and Bethlehem, where they will live with Palestinian families in the West Bank.

Landis hopes this year’s trip will be more educational and experiential and allow participants to meet with Israelis, Palestinians, Christians, Muslims and Jews.

An orientation will be held in the Philadelphia area.

The Mexico experience will be led by Franconia Conference staffer Lora Steiner, and will be hosted by Mexico Mennonite Conference, one of the Franconia’s partners in mission.

The first part of the trip will be spent in Mexico City, participating in service projects with local Mennonite churches and living with families from the churches.

The group will then travel to Oaxaca to explore some of Mexico’s past and current context, visiting Mayan ruins, a coffee plantation, and exploring the city.

Mennonite Mission Network works to partner with area conferences, congregations, and other groups in order to promote collaboration and networking.

“This partnership [between Franconia and Mission Network] allows us both to bring our vision and passions together and to work on these trips collaboratively instead of each trying to do something alone. It’s been a wonderful way to bring all of our unique gifts together,” said Arloa Bontrager, Mission Network Youth Venture director.

Both trips will focus on building relationships and understanding the complex issues and perspectives that affect people in both regions.“These experiences are an important way to cultivate young leaders by giving them the opportunity to be out in the world and not only to serve, but to experience and learn as well,” said Kriss.

Youth Venture offers young adults age 14-20 the opportunity to join with other teens for one-to-four weeks of service in July or August. Youth Venture recruits a team leader and invites participants into groups that will live and work together in various North American and international mission projects, pray, and study the Bible together.

“We want youth and young adults to come away with a vision for a lifetime of service and mission, whatever that may look like for them,” said Bontrager, “Hopefully their understanding of the world and how God is working can be shaped and expanded through these experiences.”

For more information visit Service.MennoniteMission.net

View article at http://mennonitemission.net/Resources/News/story.asp?ID=1218

View the photo album