Jeff Wright

What I’ve Been Reading to Stir the Imagination

April 25, 2024 by Cindy Angela

by Jeff Wright

Every so often, it is good to step back and ask, “What am I reading?” How do we stir the imagination and prime the pump for what’s next in our lives and ministry? Here’s my current reading list:

Emilio Alvarez, Pentecost: A Day of Power for All People (IVP, The Fullness of Time Series: 2023). The Fullness of Time Series is a series of slim volumes designed to introduce evangelicals to the traditional church calendar. Previous works on Advent, Epiphany, and Lent are each excellent in creating an intersection between evangelical missional passion and “high-church” liturgical worship. This small book on Pentecost reminds us that Pentecost isn’t just for Pentecostals.

Tim Brown, with Erik Kratz, The Tao of the Backup Catcher: Playing Baseball for the Love of the Game (Twelve | Hatchette Book Group: 2023). This book represents a lot of intersections for me. I’ve been the backup catcher (also known as, “the 25th guy”). I played baseball not because I was good at it, but because I love the game. I’ve always admired the career of Erik Kratz from afar (and now that I live much of the year in Upper Bucks County, fanboy Jeff would like to meet up some time…).

As pastors, most of us will labor without preaching to large congregations, or appearing on TV, or writing a book. We labor for the love of Christ and His church. Kratz’s story has many pearls of wisdom for those who serve in the work of the Lord.

Michelle Hershberger, Why Did Jesus Die? And What Difference Does It Make? (Herald Press, The Jesus Way Series: 2019). Another strong volume within an important and readable series of slim books. Hershberger does a fantastic job unpacking the meaning of atonement. The elders at Blooming Glen (PA) just read this book, and held a series of lively discussions about Christology. I’ve always believed that we can have vigorous and productive discussions in the church with the right resources. Hershberger has given the church a small theological gem to process a big (maybe the biggest) question in our faith.

Stuart Murray, The New Anabaptists: Practices for Emerging Community (Herald Press: 2024). This book is the long-awaited sequel to Stuart’s earlier book, “The Naked Anabaptist: The Bare Essentials of a Radical Faith.” (Herald Press: 2010). In this volume, Stuart and a band of UK collaborators clothe the Anabaptist movement with a set of spiritual habits and practices that unify the people of God around love for Jesus, serving our neighbors, and making peace. Perhaps if all of us who call ourselves Anabaptist or Mennonite put on this suit of Jesus-centered service and peacemaking habits, we might not have as much to divide over.

These four books will inspire some, irritate many, encourage most, and entertain readers of all manner of attention spans. This spring, take a break from all the gardening and lawncare, pour a glass of iced tea, and open one of these books…you’ll be glad you did.

Jeff Wright

Jeff Wright is a Mosaic Conference Leadership Minister. He is also a member of the Missional Priority Team and the official old curmudgeon of the conference staff. When not reading, or cheering for his beloved Los Angeles Dodgers, he is serving as interim pastor at Blooming Glen (PA). He has dreams of batting 9th and playing backup catcher for the Mosaic Conference baseball team.

Pruning, Planting, and Harvesting as Metaphors on Rural Church Life

October 26, 2023 by Conference Office

By Jeff Wright

People often ask me what Mosaic Conference is like. How can a rural/suburban cluster of churches in southeast Pennsylvania provide anything meaningful to churches in Florida, New Jersey, Vermont, and California? What holds us together in a season of disintegration and polarization?

Though I have spent nearly four decades living in southern California, with its morning rush hour and beloved freeways, I have found my time in rural-suburban southeastern Pennsylvania to provide new ways of responding to these questions. Three rural metaphors help me to understand and appreciate the work of Mosaic Conference.

First, we aren’t afraid to prune that which isn’t fruitful. For years, Mosaic has been laboring to become more formational (centered in Christ), intercultural (united by Christ), and missional (inviting others to Christ). These are our priorities. Nothing else is as important. Pruning and transplanting create healthier and stronger crops.

Second, we aren’t afraid to plant new crops. I had no idea before coming to Pennsylvania that there is a difference between sweet corn and seed corn. Apparently, some land is suited for one and some land for the other. The hard work is finding out what your soil supports best. In Mosaic Conference, we are planting a variety of churches and Conference-Related Ministries (CRMs). Rather than conforming to a unified set of behaviors, our churches and CRMs are committed to common values–centered in Christ, united by Christ, and inviting others to Christ. For our churches and CRMs to grow these values, we need to be pioneers and try new things. And, very likely, to fail sometimes.

Pruning and planting are risky businesses. We fear we may whack away too much. We worry that planting something new may be an inadequate return on our investment, which leads to a third metaphor.

We harvest not based on hard work but on abundant prayer. We can plant the best seed, in the straightest rows, using topflight equipment and state of the art fertilizer, but unless it rains abundantly, mixed with warm sunshine, there won’t be much harvest. Prayer is our rain and sun. When we pray, our work is multiplied and our pruning and planting turn into an abundant harvest.

Doing church is a risky business. Staying focused on who God is calling us to be, and pruning away what is not part of that call takes courage. Planting new ways of staying centered in Christ, united by Christ, and inviting others to Christ is risky. Committing the harvest to God’s care through a life of prayer is risky.

What do you think Mosaic congregations and CRMs need to prune to be more focused on who God wants us to be?
What new seeds does God want Mosaic congregations and CRMs to plant in our rural and small towns, in our cities, and across the globe?
What kind of harvest are you praying for?

Mosaic Conference, as a historically rural people with a growing urban influx and increasingly global reach, is a risky business of pruning, planting, and harvesting.

Jeff Wright

Jeff Wright is a Mosaic Conference Leadership Minister who comes alongside churches in urban California and rural Pennsylvania. He serves as intentional Interim Pastor at Blooming Glen (PA). Jeff and Debbie miss the beach, freeway traffic, and taco trucks. They love Wawa coffee, road trips, and small-town diners. A loyal fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Jeff is already anticipating March 20, 2024, opening day for the Dodgers.

Learning to speak the Gospel like a Pennsylvanian…

May 25, 2023 by Cindy Angela

by Jeff Wright

Almost 16 months ago, Debbie and I loaded up our SUV, left the sun-soaked, desert beauty of southern California and drove east. We arrived in Souderton, PA to snow.

The call of God I experienced as a young adult, to become a missionary in the US, began anew. After 35 years as an Anabaptist missionary family serving in Southern California, I was now turning a page – from life as an urban Anabaptist missiologist to an interim pastor in a small-town, 270-year-old, Mennonite congregation. The plan was to serve one year – and leave feeling lucky I hadn’t done too much damage.

We make plans…and God laughs.

My interim service has so far been about fulfilling three buckets of work: preaching with zeal and joy, leading the church staff to renew their work with healing and purpose, and aligning the congregational leadership and ministry systems to be more transparent, more faithful to the Gospel, and more effective in expressing love for our neighbors.

Almost immediately, I realized there was a language barrier. My dialect of English, shaped by southern California and lots of different cultures, was often unintelligible to my new friends. I needed to use a dialect of English that paid attention to nuance, to deeply interconnected family systems, to the availability of resources, and to the new landscape that made a 15-minute drive an adventure in trying not to get lost. Learning to speak Pennsylvanian has not been easy.

But God is faithful.

When Speaking Pennsylvanian, Slow Down. It quickly became clear that to be helpful, I would need to accept the urging of leadership to stay longer. The breakneck speed of life in southern California combined with the whipsaw nimbleness required of church life to adapt to new realities wasn’t going to work in southeast Pennsylvania. My one-year assignment became 18 months, and now has been lengthened again. The local pastoral search committee is working hard. I’m glad they are taking their time, even if it means I must keep working at being cautious and slow in this different environment.

When Speaking Pennsylvanian, Speak Up. In my previous life, the role I grew into and was most comfortable involved speaking quietly and behind the scenes, recruiting, equipping, deploying, and supporting pastors. Now, to my constant astonishment, people want to know what I think. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with telling people what I think. It is just that now someone else is initiating the request for me to speak up and speak out. It’s unnerving. When I speak, the people listening are not looking for me to engage in moral mumbling. They want me to speak with clarity, and to sound a call. They want me to proclaim what it really means to follow Jesus within the triple cocktail of contemporary crises: an accelerating post-Christendom, the long game of chronic COVID, and the advent of our culture becoming a digital Babylon.

When Speaking Pennsylvanian, Say It Again (and Again). Mission work in southern California is frequently about finding new ways to say things. I’m learning that the Pennsylvanian dialect of faith is not bored by repetition. “More will be revealed.” “Recruit, equip, deploy, and support.” “You’re either in ministry…or in trouble.” These are all aphorisms that I use regularly in my Pennsylvania ministry. The communication challenge in Pennsylvania isn’t so much to be original – it is to be repetitive without becoming a self-parody.

Most days, when I remember how to speak, it goes well, and I get to see the grace of God flow in Pentecost-shaped forms of the Gospel in new tongues.

The opinions expressed in this content are those of the author and may not reflect the official policy of Mosaic Conference.

Jeff Wright

Jeff Wright is a Mosaic Leadership Minister serving churches in California and Pennsylvania. He is also serving as the interim Lead Pastor at Blooming Glen (PA) Mennonite Church. Recently, Jeff and Debbie rented a PO Box at the Blooming Glen Post Office to facilitate the flow of mail between Pennsylvania and their permanent home in Riverside, California. This may have been the most cross-cultural thing Jeff has ever done in his life (eating scrapple comes in a distant second).

Visiting San Francisco Chinese Mennonite Church

January 19, 2023 by Cindy Angela

By Wendy Kwong

Editor’s note: Wendy Kwong serves as a Cantonese (Chinese) translator for Mosaic Conference.

In November, I attended San Francisco Chinese Mennonite Church (SFCMC) for their 42^nd anniversary, Thanksgiving, baptism, and new membership celebrations. My journey was packed with memories, generous hospitality, and God’s love, provision, and hope.

My first meal was some bubbling hot meat congee in a clay pot, served with fluffy and tasty Chinese crullers, and a full table of authentic Hong Kong dishes that brought me joy! I was surprised that someone paid in advance for our bill. That was a Chinese style of friendship that I had almost forgotten.

Most of my days in San Francisco, I used public transportation and carried my groceries. This is not my life on the East Coast, but it was when I lived in Hong Kong. I was exhausted, but I am sure I needed that kind of exercise to stay healthy. Chinese grocery shopping in San Francisco’s Chinatown was incredible.

As part of my trip, I joined Jeff Wright, Mosaic’s California Leadership Minister, to finally meet the SFCMC leadership face-to-face. This was much better compared to meeting on Zoom. It was easier for me to translate when I could see actual facial expressions. Agenda items were addressed clearly in Chinese, questions were answered, and some decisions were left to be made by the congregation.

The blessing of plentiful Chinese and American food almost blocked the entrance of the church kitchen on this celebration Sunday. Guests and church members filled the sanctuary and overflowed into the hallway. We praised and thanked the Lord, and we sang familiar hymns in two languages. The sermon, “We Need Each Other,” reassured SFCMC that Mosaic Conference is walking with them in the transition of their founding pastor’s retirement.

A baptism at San Francisco Chinese Mennonite Church. Photo by Joshua So.

We heard a testimony of healing from non-stop bleeding. We also heard about an answered prayer for the discharge of a hospitalized mother, and a new membership certificate was presented to a sister who already been loved and cared for by the congregation and vice versa. It was such an honor and a blessing to share the first communion with the newly baptized. A traditional Chinese folk dance and an electric clarinet performance enchanted us, and finally, a group picture was taken to mark the occasion.

Sharing the gospel with two Cantonese-speaking non-believers on this trip was unexpected for me. A widow’s heart was incredibly hardened to the gospel, but she is a very caring person. Unfortunately, she saw the weaknesses of many Christians and said she only believes in herself. I am trusting the Holy Spirit will open the door for her one day because her deceased Christian mother interceded frequently for her daughter’s salvation when she was still alive.

I was upset to hear what happened to the widow, but God sent an elderly widower to strengthen my faith a few hours before I flew back to Philadelphia. He challenged me with theological questions, but at the same time he was very open to share his authentic feelings about the Christian faith. It was such a blessing to talk to him. I am very thankful that he was willing to pray with me and that he asked me to visit him the next time I am in San Francisco. Both the widow and the widower will be on my mind, and I hope to see them one day in heaven.

Wendy Kwong

Wendy Kwong grew up in Hong Kong and accepted Jesus in a Chinese (Cantonese) Mennonite Church in Philadelphia in 1994. She did translation work while raising her sons. She is energized by playing badminton and working with children. Wendy and her husband (Kam Wong) have two grown sons and live in Lansdale, PA and attend Souderton (PA) Mennonite Church.

On Fasting…

December 15, 2022 by Cindy Angela

by Jeff Wright

The call to fast ought not to be a throwaway line.

In almost five decades of deciding and trying to follow Jesus daily in life, I have seen the call to fasting used as a spiritual punchline far too often. Christians have a tendency to call one another to fast when they really, really want us to pray, or they really, really think I need to lose weight. Fasting often gets treated like the spiritual equivalent of hot fudge sauce on our vanilla ice cream intercessions … if we fast (or at least throw around the language of fasting), then our prayers must really, really be sincere, and we must really, really be spiritual.

Yeah, I don’t think so.

Fasting, if we are open to the spiritual habit, ought to be fun. After all, fasting at its best is about laying aside things that want to capture us – the 24-hour cable news, the screens we carry around with us, that second piece of pie. Fasting is about saying “no” so that we are able to say “yes” to increased time spent in the company of Jesus. Fasting opens the door joyfully to enable us to pray boldly and learn to forgive extravagantly. Fasting creates a pathway toward Christlikeness.

We’re into Pathways right now in Mosaic Conference. Our pathway begins with prayer and fasting and leads to discernment, which invites us to being formational, missional, and intercultural as churches. Then (and only then) the pathway will guide us to ask the pertinent question of whether or not membership in Mennonite Church USA (MC USA) helps or hinders us on the path forward.

My hunch is that MC USA membership is truly not a central issue in our walk with Christ. Finding the pathways to Jesus that bypass the over-stimulated world we’ve created and help us bond together as a church full of missionary disciples seems way more important than the current denominational feud. Fasting is a pathway to put aside the anxieties of our stuff, and listen thoughtfully to the Jesus who loves us, accepts us, and forgives us, even before we’ve thought to ask for it.

Maybe, if we begin the Mosaic Pathways Process with true fasting and honest prayer, where we end up in our discernment, and whose brand name we cherish, won’t really matter … because we will have rediscovered Jesus, our ever-present Savior, teacher, Lord, and friend.

Jeff Wright

Jeff Wright is a Mosaic Leadership Minister for California and the Intentional Interim Lead Pastor at Blooming Glen (PA) Mennonite Church. He is not an expert on fasting (lock up your pies!), but at this stage of his life and ministry, he is willing to give up a weekly slice of blueberry pie, his favorite, if it would help him discover new pathways to get to know Jesus better.

Seeking The Spirit, Discerning a Pathway

November 10, 2022 by Cindy Angela

by Jeff Wright

Annual conference assemblies are not often considered to be transformational events. For Mosaic Conference, annual Assemblies have been nothing but transformational.

In 2022, Mosaic Conference Assembly met together in person for the first time. Following the reconciliation of Eastern District Conference and Franconia Mennonite Conference in 2019 and two years of COVID-driven virtual meetings, the delegates met on November 5, 2022 at Souderton (PA) Mennonite Church for a day of discernment and decision-making. Delegates and friends gathered to seek the Spirit and explore the Assembly theme of Chesed—God’s constant, steadfast, and faithful love—from Psalm 116 and 117.

During three worship times, multiple delicious snacks, three business sessions, and one pleasant luncheon, Mosaic Conference worked hard at the continuing task of transformation from a system concerned mostly with organizational detail into a formational, missional, and intercultural community. The gathering was animated by life together in the Holy Spirit and fed through the encouragement of the scriptures, acts of praise and worship, and remembering Jesus in the celebration of Communion. Although there was contentiousness related to the denominational decision-making process and outcome from the Mennonite Church USA Special Delegate Assembly in Kansas City in May 2022, by the end of the day, for many, the uncertainty had given way to a cautious, even hopeful, optimism.

During the morning delegate session, Angela Moyer Walter, one of the pastors of Ripple congregation in Allentown, PA and Roy Williams, pastor of College Hill congregation in Tampa, FL, were affirmed as Mosaic’s next Moderator and Assistant Moderator, respectively, effective January 1, 2023.

The delegates also heard from and affirmed a new congregation, Iglesia Evangélica Menonita de Oración y Adoración, located in Philadelphia and a new Conference Related Ministry (CRM), Amahoro International, based in Los Angeles.

The major building block for this delegate Assembly was a listening process initiated by the Mosaic Board. During the month of September, approximately 80% of the Conference’s communities and ministries had opportunity to dialogue with one of a ten-person Listening Task Force. This Task Force collated and discussed the data and submitted nine findings to the Board for their further consideration.

The Board distilled those findings into a single, four-point “Pathway” document, presented to the delegates. The Pathway document called for an increase in prayer and fasting, along with a call to walk together and begin a two-year strategic planning process, allowing for clarifying priorities and relationships. The document also offered congregations the opportunity to suspend membership in Mennonite Church USA while remaining within Mosaic Conference. This last point would result in a change of the current Mosaic bylaws, if affirmed.

Vigorous conversation in table groups and reporting to the wider delegate body permeated the afternoon sessions. At the end, delegates had to offer one of three possible choices to move forward: affirm the Pathway document, affirm the Pathway document with reservations, or withhold affirmation of the Pathway document. Of the delegates who voted, 81.5% expressed a preference with or without reservations for the Pathway document.

No one is claiming the process that was followed, nor the Pathway document itself, proposed a perfect solution to the challenges of a community amid theological dissent and social change. But a pathway is necessary. It is the next effort to maintain and grow a strong Mosaic identity. We gathered yearning for consensus; we finished the day with a pathway forward.

Jeff Wright

Jeff Wright lives in Riverside, CA and Souderton, PA, and serves as Mosaic Leadership Minister for California and intentional Interim Lead Pastor at Blooming Glen (PA) Mennonite Church. After his treasured Los Angeles Dodgers were eliminated from the Major League Baseball Playoffs, he conceded that it would be OK if the Philadelphia Phillies went to the World Series.

An Urban Minister Reflects on Farming and Prayer

June 30, 2022 by Conference Office

Most of my life I have lived at the western edge of the Sonoran Desert. Inland southern California has neither enough good topsoil or enough water to have sustainable harvests without assistance. We import food or someone else’s water to build up our topsoil.  Living in Pennsylvania this year has helped me to think about the different ecosystems of my life. 

As a more regular inhabitant of PA, I have come to recognize that God’s good creation (above sea level) and all of God’s very good humanity are dependent on two things: six inches of healthy topsoil and the presence of rain.  Without those two ingredients, nothing God has made for the land survives. 

In the church, we need a healthy ecosystem too. It is built on the spiritual topsoil of historic longevity, the complex relationships of closely-knit families, and many people of different cultures. Spiritual topsoil also requires distribution into wild areas, cultivated spaces, and lived-in realities.  But we also need rain.  The atmosphere needs to be stirred and water vapor needs to be condensed into drops that fall on our organized topsoil, creating watersheds of life and hope together.  In short, we need a vision shaped by two ingredients that engage in a constant and complex relationship of restoring life together.

So how do I pray these days for the congregation I am currently serving and the churches I continue to be privileged to serve as a Leadership Minister?  

First, I am learning in new ways to pray with an end in mind. That is, I pray for a good harvest (Matthew 9:37). I pray that our churches would conspire together to labor that all may come to know Jesus Christ as our ever-present Savior, teacher, friend, and Lord.

For that harvest to happen, I also pray for good soil (Matthew 13:8). In our “good soil” I pray that the interplay of our traditions, experiences, and the ever-present, ever-compassionate Holy Spirit will make the Word of God a living thing in our lives that bears good and abundant fruit.

Third, I pray for rain (Hebrews 6:7).  I pray that the atmospheric conditions of turbulence in my congregation and in Mosaic Conference are stirred up by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God in such a way that the water vapor condenses, and fresh water falls into our common life. We who were once parched find ourselves quenched.

It is my observation that I have spent too much time, energy, and treasure on worrying about things that are not the main thing.  I choose to pray for a return to collaborating on a great harvest, made possible by healthy, fertile topsoil, and refreshed from the turbulent atmosphere giving us the water we need for life together.

 I realize that the church I currently serve and the Conference I have been serving have all the ingredients needed to fulfill God’s first great commission: to be stewards of all He has made.  As we hold a vision for a great harvest, tend to the precious and thin layer of topsoil, and welcome the turbulent rain that makes us whole and alive, we fulfill our great purpose as the people of God.

As we hold a vision for a great harvest, tend to the precious and thin layer of topsoil, and welcome the turbulent rain that makes us whole and alive, we fulfill our great purpose as the people of God.

In this season of reimagining the church in the post-pandemic realities of our time, may we seek a great harvest, not shriveled relationships. May we tend to the precious resources God has given us together, and not walk away from one another.  May we welcome the turbulent rains – soft showers and strong storms – that keep our souls thriving.

A Mosaic of Californian Hospitality

May 19, 2022 by Conference Office

For through him [Jesus] we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
Eph. 2:18-22, NIV

In the body of Christ, there are no strangers, only fellow citizens of the Kingdom, brothers and sisters whom we have not met. In my new role as Associate Executive Minister, I recently visited California, to get to know some of our California congregations better. The brothers and sisters, pastors, and leaders of the Mosaic churches there welcomed us and each other with open arms and hearts.

We can know that we are welcomed and accepted by God. God showed us the ultimate hospitality by giving us access to the Father by one Spirit through Jesus Christ. Since we have all been welcomed in by Christ, we welcome each other in with love and grace.

Soon after I arrived on Friday night, about 20 of us enjoyed a meal of gratitude and fellowship together as we talked and learned to know more about each other and our families, lives, and ministries.

(L-R) Marta Castillo, Martin Ejiofor, Chidi Ihezuoh, Mukarabe Makinto, George Makinto, Chuwang Pam, Grace Pam, Cherokee Webb, Effiem Obasi Otah, and Jeff Wright at LA Faith Chapel. Photo provided by Marta Castillo.

On Sunday morning, “Bishop” Jeff Wright, his wife, Debbie, and I worshipped and celebrated a full service at LA Faith Chapel together with a mostly Nigerian congregation. Lively, Spirit-filled worship songs kept our bodies moving and our voices raised in praise to God. Several young people sang a special song. We shared a time of blessing, prayer, and anointing for the seven leaders from the congregation who are in the credentialing and transfer process with Mosaic. A couple who had been married the previous day danced joyfully down the aisle as they gave thanks to God. After the service, we shared a delicious meal which featured “puff balls” (delicious balls of fried dough).

During my trip, I experienced a truly joyful mosaic experience of fellowship. We enjoyed a quick stop to celebrate a birthday lunch with Pastor Virgo at Jemaat Kristen Indonesia Anugerah (JKIA) in Sierra Madre, CA, breakfast with Pastor Jeff Wright and Makmur Halim, and a tour of the Joyful Music & Arts School in Los Angeles with Pastors George and Mukarabe Makinto with a bonus lunch overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

A shout out to Leadership Minister Jeff Wright for the relationships and connections that he has built over the years that have resulted in blessing and growth for pastors and churches. There were many words of affirmation and respect expressed for Jeff which I also echo. Thanks be to God!

Jeff Wright

Jeff Wright

Jeff Wright

Jeff Wright

Wendy Kwong

Jeff Wright

Jeff Wright

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