Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

intercultural

MWC executive secretary preaches in Philadelphia

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by Adrian Suryajaya, adrian_190192@hotmail.com

[singlepic id=3024 w=320 h=240 float=right]”There is not one culture that fully knows who Jesus is. That is why we need another culture to complete the character of Jesus.” That is the heart of the message Mennonite World Conference’s new executive secretary Cesar Garcia gave the congregation at Philadelphia Praise Center (PPC).

On January 29, Garcia made his Franconia Conference debut at PPC–a growing multiethnic and multilingual congregation in South Philadelphia that worships in English, Indonesian and Spanish.   “I am amused to see the little print on the bulletin that says ‘Multiethnic Church’,” said Garcia. “By being a multicultural church, you can be an example to other churches in North America.”

His message, affirming the call of multiethnic congregations, became a form of confirmation for the congregation according to Aldo Siahaan, PPC’s lead pastor. “As a pastor of a multiethnic church, I felt that Pastor Garcia’s message was an affirmation of what the church has been doing and it will always be a vision of Philadelphia Praise Center,” he said. “It is not easy and each culture needs to learn from one another. However, this will not become a hindrance because we believe that this is God’s plan for the church.”

Garcia offered God’s vision in Revelation 7:16-17 about what could happen if the church heeds God’s calling and remains faithful. “We will find consolation and satisfaction in God,” he said. “There will be no more emptiness in our life as long as we are faithful to heed his calling.”

Lindy Backues, a member of the congregation’s elder team, also felt the resonance of God’s plan for Philadelphia Praise Center through Pastor Garcia’s message. “I am very, very, very enthusiastic about the message!” Backues said. “Cross-cultural congregations are very rare [and] relevant today because it forces us out of our comfort zone. . . . It is easy to love people from the same culture. However, if we can reach out and love our brothers and sisters from other cultures, then the love that Jesus speaks about is fulfilled.”

Garcia, born in Colombia, is the first executive secretary for Mennonite World Conference who is a native of the 2/3rds world.  He began this position this spring and recently completed graduate studies in California.  Garcia and his family, along with the main offices of Mennonite World Conference, are now relocating to Bogata.

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Allentown Mennonites gather for Tet worship celebration

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[singlepic id=3001 w=320 h=240 float=right]The Mennonite Church USA congregations in Pennsylvania’s third largest city hadn’t to anyone’s recollection gathered for worship together until Sunday, January 29, at the Vietnamese Gospel Mennonite Church.  The four diverse communities—Vietnamese Gospel Mennonite Church, Whitehall Mennonite Church and Ripple all associated with Franconia Conference and Christ Fellowship, an Eastern District Conference congregation—met together to celebrate Tet (Vietnamese New Year) through an eclectic multilingual worship that featured singing in three languages, Scripture reading in six languages, and storytelling from each congregation on the theme of God’s abundance in a time of scarcity.

Vietnamese Gospel Mennonite Church pastor Hien Truong welcomed those gathered, explaining, “Vietnamese New Year is a marking of springtime.  It’s a time of new growth and a special time of asking forgiveness and moving into new ways of building relationships.”  While planned by a team from the four congregations, the gathered worship took on a Vietnamese flair with scripture blessings distributed to adults and traditional li xi gifts ($2 bills in red envelopes) for children.  Afterward, the congregations enjoyed a carry-in meal that was held together around Vietnamese New Year foods.

According to Rose Bender, pastor at Whitehall Mennonite who also helped plan the gathered worship, “The worship service was such a joyous occasion for me because of the great diversity of God’s kingdom that was represented.  It was a foreshadowing of heaven—all nations, all tribes—declaring God’s glory! . . .  I am so excited to see what God is doing in the Lehigh Valley—and encouraged by four small congregations coming together and proclaiming God’s bounty as we face a new year.”

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God’s new thing in 2012

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by Ertell Whigham, Executive Minister

As I think through all of the ways that we have heard and seen the testimony of God working among us in our communities and congregations in 2011, I continue to be encouraged by the unlimited possibilities of what can be accomplished when we share our God-given time, talent and resources with a genuine spirit of cooperation. In this issue we recount some of what has come about over the last year and I notice that God is continually calling some new movement forward.

Revelation 21:1-8 tells the story of God doing a new thing. It’s a new Heaven, new earth, new relationships and more. This is not merely recycled, but fresh, recent, unused, unworn. The basic message is that through an encounter with God–nothing has to remain the same. We are not merely stretched or reconstituted but transformed. It is important that we understand that my suggestion of a new experience is not in any way saying that what God is doing or has done needs to be updated or improved but should be seen as an invitation to allow our total being to be transformed by God’s new thing. We also know that God alone brings forth new creations, even in our new human inventions we are simply repurposing elements that God has made in the past. New creations require the Spirit to bring life.

This past year much has happened that has enabled us get a taste of God’s new thing. Sometimes what may seem to be the same experience is indeed new when we allow God to give us a new attitude or help us to see through new lenses. For example when I read the story of how the community worked together in Vermont following the devastation of Hurricane Irene, for me, it gave a new meaning to the history and tradition of “barnraising”. Or when I see the collaborative efforts of Plains and Perkasie congregations and our Conference partnership with Eastern District as we work through our shared vision for youth ministry, it opens the ways for many new possibilities and models for ministry. In reading of Indian Creek’s initiative and listening to the experiences of all of our CRM’s, I know that even with long and faithful ministries, it’s possible for God to interrupt and create something new.

In this issue, Jim Laverty and Rina Rampogu write of what Conference board and staff heard over this last year of listening carefully to the life of congregations in the Conference. We are a varied assortment of God’s expressions of love, struggle and faith. In this same struggle, a long struggle at that, we notice that congregations are also feeling God call forth new things from their midst. It is this very thing that Franconia Conference, as we are together, must nurture to call forth, to do our best to be prepared for and transformed by God’s new thing among us. This means new relationships. This means seeing differently. This means changed perspectives. This doesn’t mean that our past is discredited, but recognizes that God is in fact asking us in this space and time to be transformed, to let that new thing occur, to no longer simply be stretched like elastic only to snap back into the same shape, but to be transformed like alchemy through the touch of God that makes all things new.

The year 2012 is not an ending as the world claims around us, rather a beginning in which God makes everything fresh and full of hope again through the life of Christ, the power of the Spirit and the ongoing witness of God’s people. Isn’t it amazing, our God, the same yesterday, today and forever, makes every day new, can renew all things and is even expecting to transform our lives, our hearts, our congregations, our ministries, and our relationships so that the message of Jesus Christ might break forth through us even in 2012.

Board members visit congregations

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by Jim Laverty, Souderton & Rina Rampogu, Plains

Over the past year members of the Franconia Conference Board have been visiting Franconia congregations. During our visits we celebrated each church’s vision and mission, clarified the role of Franconia Conference and communicated the board’s desire to be servants of the conference churches, to stand beside the good work each church is doing for their members and the world and to be accountable to Franconia churches in a new and better way.

We were excited to see what is happening in conference congregations:

  • Collaborative relationships, affinity groups (or learning communities) with churches, Conference-Related Ministries (CRMs) and Partners in Ministry (PIMs).
  • Service to communities through community-building events, sports camps, support groups, pre-school programs, community gardens, and meals.
  • Opportunities for everyone (gender, age, background) to get involved inside and outside of church services.
  • Creative approaches to talking about following Jesus with people from different generations, cultures, ethnicities, and language groups.
  • Effort to get along in the body of Christ, providing mutual aid and support through Sunday School classes and increased participation in small groups.
  • Goal-setting, clarifying and reviewing roles, and aligning budget with vision and values in cooperation with LEAD teams.
  • Solid lay and pastoral leadership. Strong preaching, prayer ministry and blended worship in the spoken-language of the congregation.

Some of the challenges that congregations are facing:

  • Financial limitations, decrease in giving, and learning how to grow people who will commit to being generous with their time, talents, and treasure.
  • Fluctuation in worship attendance and coming to terms with what it means to be in fellowship with people coming and going on a regular basis as well as a loss of membership due to relocation.
  • Understanding the changing nature of our world.
  •  Communicating stories of what God is doing in congregations while respecting people’s privacy. Learning how to communicate across the generations.
  • Building community when congregation and community are made up of people who speak different languages.
  • A need for support and advocacy in facing changing immigration policies and their implications (worship service times, hospital visitation, transportation).
  • Unemployment among church members. Dealing with conflict in relationships (separation, divorce).

We discussed what it will take to continue to build confidence toward Franconia Conference:

  • Modeling healthy approaches to dealing with major conflicts and crisis. Encouraging unity in diversity.
  • Clear communication. Relational face-to-face meetings with members of conference and board.
  • Ongoing relationship with LEAD minister and guidance in pastoral searches, staff reviews, and conflict mediation.
  • Fostering relationship with CRMs.
  • Offering a prophetic voice to help us to see God at work in the world in a positive way and to witness to the world about what the body of Christ is.

We discussed what confidence will look like:

  • Celebrate the ways that diverse congregations can share in what they have in common, dialoguing on critical issues.
  • Encourage better connections (such as pulpit supply) and partnerships (such as church planting mentors) between urban, suburban and rural congregations
  • Recognize Conference Related Ministries and their missional value.
  • Clarify the rationale for introducing LEAD and the concept of the E3-vision for churches in Vermont and other locations that aren’t close to the conference offices.
  • Tell more stories to fan the flames of how Franconia Conference is living out our vision and values.
  • Train congregations in children and youth ministries as well as worship (such as blended music during worship services).
  • Provide financial aid for documented and undocumented students who have been accepted into Mennonite and non-Mennonite institutions of higher education.
  • Incorporate more non-ethnic (non-Swiss German) Mennonites into leadership positions.

Congregations expressed appreciation for the ongoing support they have received from Franconia Conference in areas of leadership development, provision of meaningful learning and sharing opportunities for pastors and leaders, and for being a point of contact for ongoing pastoral resources.

Two are better than one

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by Mary Lou Cummings, Perkasie, cominghome@verizon.net

Hawk Mountain
Plains and Perkasie junior youth enjoy a hike on Hawk Mountain. Photo by Rob Kerns.

Let’s face it, teenagers like to hang out in groups—and the more kids in the group, the better.

So what is a church to do when its life rhythms produce periods with small teenage populations? Perkasie and Plains congregations are creatively working together to provide lots of new experiences for their junior youth by pooling their programs.

Two years ago Plains had a handful of junior high girls and only a few boys. Perkasie had four boys. One of the boys from Perkasie, however, attended Plains activities and several knew each other at school. Eventually Dale Gahman of Perkasie, mentor for the boys, and Pastor Dawn Ranck, who oversees “the younger half” of the Plains congregation, got together to brainstorm how to work together.

The groups clicked right away. Now the two groups meet together for fun experiences most months, and they bring their friends—with about 15 or more showing up. They have gone hiking to Hawk Mountain and have picked and donated to Manna on Main Street and FISH organizations. They have attended an Iron Pigs baseball game, bowled, and gone on a scavenger hunt looking for disguised adult friends. There are plans for a service day at Ten Thousand Villages in Lancaster followed by a camp-out. All agree that it is a lot more fun to do these things with more people.

The two groups still reserve some months for their own separate activities. Each congregation provides adults who share in the leadership. Ranck initiates a twice-a-year meeting in her home for the leaders to sketch out the year’s activities and then creates flyers of each event for the kids and parents.

“I wanted to provide experiences for these young people that would be lots of fun, but would also stretch them–help them meet new people, and do things they wouldn’t ordinarily do,” says Gahman. “We try to include service projects in the planning. It’s great to see the kids having fun and liking the group.”

“One of the great things,” says Ranck, “is that by alternating the planning, sometimes leaders are able to just ‘show up’ and enjoy the kids. It’s working well and I think it is a good model for others to try.”

Conference Finance Update (December 2011)

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Dance Team
Nueva Vida Norristown New Life received a grant for creative youth ministry which was partly used to develop a sacred dance team that helped to lead worship at Conference Assembly 2011 at Penn View Christian School in November. Photo by Stacy Salvatori

The 2011-12 fiscal year is almost over. Congregational giving continues to be behind expectations so far this year, by $34,000. Expenses have come back to expectations, running $2,850 below budget at this point in the year. We are currently in the time of year (December and January) when congregations usually make up for giving shortfalls, so we are praying for this to continue. 26% of congregational giving usually comes in these last two months.

A sampling of the various activities of the conference during the months of October & November:

  • $1,200 in Missional Operations Grants (MOG) was disbursed for youth ministry to Nueva Vida Norristown New Life.
  • The annual Conference Assembly meetings occupied of lot of staff time these past two months. Developing worship themes, partnering with Eastern District, contacting the guest speakers, translating into four languages, organizing the Prayer Room, coordinating video recordings, and so on, took a lot of energy; for both the assembly scattered meetings and the main meetings at Penn View Christian School.
  • Sandy Landes continues to lead a weekly prayer gathering at the conference center, but also led a day of prayer and fasting and a teaching on prayer.
  • Conference leaders attended the Constituency Leadership Council in October, a meeting of the “elders of the denomination”, who spent this time reflecting on the convention in Pittsburgh and church-wide communication.

FinancesOther tidbits:

  • The conference relies on contributions from congregations for approx. 60% of its operating budget. 27% of the revenue comes from conference-owned property subsidies, and 4% from conference related ministries. The other 9% comes from a variety of sources.

Unexpected mutual aid helps save church building

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By Sheldon C. Good Mennonite Weekly Review

Nueva Vida Norristown New Life Church was on the brink of foreclosure of its 104-year-old meetinghouse in the summer of 2011. — Photo provided

When Nueva Vida Norristown (Pa.) New Life Church acquired a 9,000-square-foot office building adjacent its meetinghouse in November 2007, a local realtor projected it would only take six months to fill it with tenants. Then the Great Recession hit.

“Little did we know that a week after we closed on the building the economy — local, national and global — would tank,” said church member Jim Williams.

The six-month plan didn’t work. The building had one tenant, an attorney’s office, that relocated in 2010. ASSETS Montco, a small business training program, moved in as planned in 2008, but was hit by economic hard times and closed in 2010.

By last summer the congregation was on the brink of foreclosure of its 104-year-old meetinghouse, listed as collateral for the new building’s mortgage. The church property is less than 10 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

The past four years have tested the 100-member congregation’s faith that God will provide for a situation they discerned as God’s leading. Thanks in part to a mutual aid effort by Franconia Mennonite Conference churches, the Norristown congregation has extra time to firm up its financial footing.

From the beginning, the building purchase has been part of a larger congregational vision.

In 2007 Nueva Vida Norristown New Life launched “Enlarging Our Place in God’s World,” a $2 million capital campaign. The campaign seeks finances for the office building and meetinghouse renovations to create a base for intercultural ministries of racial justice and reconciliation, economic access and opportunity for disadvantaged people, and income generation to support the ministries.

Working with a church consultant and other professionals, the congregation developed a long-term strategy. It includes renting the office space to pay off the building’s mortgage and then to fill it with community-oriented ministries.

“People will go into an office building, but they might never go into a church,” Williams said. “If you can expose people to the gos­pel, there’s a chance they will begin to connect with the congregation.”

More than 30 potential tenants have looked at the building.

“Their reasons for not signing vary; most people cannot pay the going rate,” he said. “Market values for rent space have come down over the past few years, and the church is willing to take less than the going rate.”

Norristown Office Building
The 9,000-square-foot office building adjacent Nueva Vida Norristown (Pa.) New Life Church. — Photo provided

Without rental income, the church could only cover the interest on the office building’s mortgage.

“We have never missed a payment, even though we’re paying three points higher than today’s interest market,” Williams said.

Several pastors and leaders in Franconia Mennonite Conference, of which the congregation is a member, learned of the plight. Conference moderator John Goshow met with leaders from seven sister congregations to propose a mutual aid effort.

In September, they initiated a conference-wide appeal for $95,000 to satisfy the mortgage’s needs for a year. To date, 14 churches, businesses and individuals have committed $64,300.

Goshow said the situation shows how conferences and congregations can work together.

“A pastor told me recently that when a church is in trouble, we have to reach out and help,” he said. “And Nueva Vida Norristown New Life is a model church that is really making a difference in their local community.”

Williams said he never expected the conference to initiate a mutual aid appeal.

“It’s a display of true community,” he said. “They saw we were in trouble and said, ‘we want to help.’ We attribute it all to the movement of God.”

Even when they were almost foreclosed on, Williams said, the congregation still had faith God would provide. Through this journey, their faith has been strengthened.

“We still believe we’re doing God’s will in this,” he said. “We can fill a huge void in the Norristown area. We are prayerful and hopeful that we’ll be able to meet our obligations and move God’s vision forward.”

If the church can find tenants for all three floors, Williams projects good cash flow.

“We continue to receive inquiries, which is a good indicator that businesses are looking to grow again,” he said.

Reprinted by permission of Mennonite Weekly Review.

UN Art Ambassador to visit Ripple Allentown

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On Sunday, January 8, 2012, at 4 PM, Ibiyinka Alao, UN Art Ambassador from Nigeria, will be the guest speaker at Ripple. Ripple meets at Christ Fellowship Church, 12th & Chew Sts., Allentown. Ibiyinka Olufemi Alao is an artist who recently represented his country — Nigeria — and became the first place winner of the prestigious United Nations International Art Competition amongst 61 countries. His entry “Girls and a Greener Environment” chronicles the life of a girl-child from infancy to adulthood and the values she acquires along the paths of life.

In between exhibitions, Ibiyinka finds himself giving open lectures at universities and schools, and setting up workshops in community centers across the country. As Nigeria’s Art Ambassador, Ibiyinka is available for speaking engagements, participation in seminars, panel discussions, workshops and exhibitions. www.ibiyinka.com

Ibiyinka’s presentation at Ripple will be followed by an interactive painting workshop, then dinner in the fellowship hall of the church. Everyone is invited to attend this inspirational, active presentation. For more information, visit www.ripple-allentown.com