Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Jeff Wright

What I am Reading … a Colorful Collection

by

by Jeff Wright, Conference Leadership Minister

A confession is in order at the beginning of this article.  I am irredeemably old school.  While I own e-readers (“Love and Saint Augustine”, by Hannah Arendt is on my Kindle app right now) and listen to podcasts (I’m working through the final season of West Wing Weekly) and music (try the Hillbilly Thomists on Spotify),  I’m still old school.  There is something good about holding print, paper, and binding in your hands and engaging in the physical art of reading.  

In the midst of multiple crises, there does not always seem time enough to read.  I sometimes find my glasses still on, and a book cradled to my chest when I am awakened at 3:00 am. Books are a sign of joy, in my humble opinion.  Even books with hard messages can offer hope when the print, paper, and binding are a physical reminder of the power of the word.

In the past few months, some of the books that have been challenging me are books with the word “color” in the title.

The first of these, “The Color of Compromise,” by Jemar Tisby (2019, Zondervan Reflective), is a steely-eyed critique of the white church in America. The complicity of how the white church in America is fostering and giving life to systemic racism is explained.

A second book of color, “The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap,” by Mehrsa Baradaran (2017, Belknap Press), is a detailed examination into the ways in which credit, the lubrication of capitalism, has been denied to African Americans as a matter of repeated public policy choices at the federal level from the emancipation of slaves until today.  

A third book, “The Color of Law,” by Richard Rothstein (2017, Liveright), examines the ways zoning laws were created to form segregated, gerrymandered communities. My colleagues on the City of Riverside (CA) Human Relations Commission (on which I serve as a commissioner) are reading this book together to assess how our own twenty-seven local neighborhoods are victims of such segregationist policies. 

It would be (and has been) easy to become completely despondent after reading those books.  But two additional books have given me hope.  

First, “Rediscipling the White Church: From Cheap Diversity to True Solidarity,” by David W. Swanson (2020, InterVarsity Press), offers the fruits borne of years laboring to truly be a leader of an authentically multicultural church.  

A second book is “True to Our Native Land: An African American New Testament Commentary.” Published by Fortress Press in 2007, Brian K Blount is the General Editor of this good-sized desk volume.  I’m not generally a fan of one-volume New Testament commentaries. I think too much gets cut out to make it useful.  But I make an exception with this book. 

The beautifully written essays are coupled with scholarly depth. The relevant sidebars on the text’s application to the African American condition today make this a book you just have to add to your library.  

One word of caution:  Do not take this particular commentary to bed to read.  It is big enough to hurt when you drop it on your face as you fall asleep.

Crossing Frontiers and Cultures

by

by Jennifer Svetlik, Salford congregation

Debbie & Jeff Wright

“I’m a white boy from Oklahoma,” shares Jeff Wright, leadership minister, based in Riverside, California. Yet, somehow, Jeff has found ways to connect and support with congregations who are culturally different from his upbringing.

“I’d always had a sense of calling to international mission,” Jeff reflects. “For a variety of reasons that never worked out, but I try to live out the definition of mission offered by David Bosch: to ‘cross frontiers in the form of a servant’.” Jeff’s work crosses frontiers as he interprets for those at the Pennsylvania core of the conference what it means to be church in California. He also works to serve as a human transcontinental bridge, connecting brothers and sisters in the same conference, but living on opposite coasts.

Jeff works with three Indonesian churches in southern California: Indonesian Community Christian Fellowship (Colton, CA), International Worship Church (San Gabriel, CA), and Jemaat Kristen Indonesia Anugerah (JKIA or Grace Indonesian Christian Fellowship; Sierra Madre, CA). He also accompanies San Francisco (CA) Chinese Mennonite Church, a Cantonese speaking church, in his conference leadership role.

“These churches are immigrants and first- and second-generation Americans,” and offer unique perspectives, Jeff reflected. “They have a global view of their lives, and many of them go back to their home countries often. This global perspective is part of these congregations’ DNA.”

As leadership minister, Jeff assists pastors with credentialing, coaches, and troubleshoots challenges they bring to him. He also prays regularly for the pastors and their congregations and connects them to other conference staff and resources.

“Working intentionally at intercultural competency is challenging for me, in a good way,” Jeff reflects. He has begun learning the Indonesian language, and he finds conversations with Chantelle Todman Moore, the conference’s Intercultural Leadership Coach, particularly helpful.

“To have a conference that is intentionally dedicating resources to and training for intercultural competency is an amazing gift that isn’t always available to other conferences because of size, capacity, or vision,” Jeff reflects.  “These are the things we need to pay attention to in order to be the church in North America.”

Jeff first connected with Franconia Conference twenty years ago when he was a lead consultant in the conference’s vision and finance plan. Currently, aside from his leadership minister role, he also serves as pastor of Madison Street Church, a Brethren in Christ (BIC) congregation, in Riverside, CA and as president of viaShalom, a small nonprofit missional resource agency.

Jeff considers himself an “Anabaptist without borders.” He came to faith in the Mennonite Brethren (MB) church, was previously a pastor of a General Conference (GC) Mennonite church, has been a conference minister for MCUSA, and is now a pastor of a BIC church.

“Not being a ‘cradle’ Mennonite has helped me to learn from the different traditions,” Jeff reflects. “I appreciate the piety of the MB, the commitment to unity of GC, the holiness perspective of the BIC, and the commitment to scripture of MC USA.”

In his free time, Jeff either has a book in his hand, is watching the LA Dodgers, is attending a minor league baseball game, or is riding his bike.

What I’m Reading: Baseball, Dr. King, Missiology, and More

by

by Jeff Wright, Leadership Minister

What passes for winter in southern California gives way to springtime by February.  As I write, it is 81°F in my home in Riverside, California and 28°F in Souderton, PA.  Pitchers and catchers have reported for spring training. Now is the perfect time to read a good book about baseball, Ballpark: Baseball in the American City. The author, Paul Goldberg, is a Pulitzer Prize–winning architecture critic, and he writes with a concise understatement about the intersections of the greatest sport ever created and the magic of urban architecture. Baseball is a game of pastures brought into the city. We Mennonites might have some missional concepts to learn from such an exercise.

For Black History Month, I re-read A Testament of Hope:  The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. This time around, I have been particularly moved by Dr. King’s early writings and speeches.  In his 1958 essay, “An Experiment in Love,”  Dr King shapes a powerful theological reminder that Christian social justice begins with Agape – the ideal of sacrificial love. “Agape,” writes King, “ is a willingness to go to any length to restore community.” May we have ears to hear such a profoundly simple and difficult word.

I’m always on the lookout for new voices in urban missiology.  Sean Benesh is a Portland-based urban church planter and social entrepreneur whom I can’t get enough of.  It might be easy for us Mennonites to dismiss Benesh as far too evangelical or hipster for us but this would be a big mistake. Benesh’s latest two books, The New Cartographers: Helping Social Entrepreneurship Develop a Map for Local Church Ministry + Church Planting in the New Frontier and Intrepid: Navigating the Intersection of Social Entrepreneurship + Church Planting, are full of practical ideas for launching new expressions of the church that are sustaining and sustainable. Benesh says with a utility of words what I’ve been wishing to say about ministry for the past thirty years.

Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery is a powerful book that my small group is reading… and feeling the weight of its truth. Authors Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah remind me, as a thirteenth-generation  American immigrant from England, that the good news of the gospel often is first bad news for the way I’ve assumed the world works. This book has become a part of my penitential reflections during Lent.

Finally, I’m enjoying The Pietist Option: Hope for the Renewal of Christianity.  Postmodern Mennonites are not always comfortable with “pietism.” We tend to equate it with ignoring the world as it is, and assuming the world that is to come is not a healed version of this world. Early pietism was not so stained by quietism.  Indeed, Pietism had a profound impact on the Anabaptist movement in North America. Brethren in Christ Bishop Perry Engle said, “I like to think these bold and serious-minded believers [18th century Anabaptists in Pennsylvania] were ‘sweetened’ by their personal experience of a heartfelt and life-changing relationship with Christ.” As a lifelong  Anabaptist, no one has yet accused me of being “sweetened” in the Lord. But as I grow older, it seems a compliment worth seeking.

How to Pray for our New Churches

by

by Jeff Wright, Leadership Minister

“I desire, then, that in every place [we] should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument…” – 1 Timothy 2.8 (NRSV)

Franconia Conference is amid a lot of transition.  New congregations from across the US are aligning with the traditional core of Franconia congregations in Eastern Pennsylvania.  A merger with Eastern District is in process.  Churches from California and perhaps even Florida are joining the conference or at least exploring relationships.  Ties with international partners are expanding.  These are wonderful days to be a part of this historic body of believers.

Of course, the challenge is always one of communication across the human barriers of language, culture, and geography. Those from the center of conference life in Eastern Pennsylvania might wonder, “What can I do to encourage this growing movement?” It might sound trite, but I believe our prayers are the most powerful and effective offering we can make on behalf of the new expressions of Church that God is aligning with us in Franconia Conference. 

So, how ought we to pray for these new and emerging Franconia Conference congregations?

Wayne Nitzsche (right) prays for Jessica Miller at her installation service, November 2016

First, pray in the simple language of the Lord’s prayer that the Kingdom of God will come to Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Sarasota, Tampa, San Francisco, Mexico City, and elsewhere, just like it does in Souderton and Harleysville and Heaven.  In every place, God is at work.  Knowing that a dedicated band of Jesus-followers are simply praying, “Thy Kingdom Come…” is an amazing encouragement. 

Second, as you pray, remember that many of our new Franconia congregations have experienced significant trauma in recent years.  For example, the church in California came to Franconia out of a painful process.  Furthermore, they live with a constant anxiety regarding immigration status—even though most of our California members hold legal standing in the US.  Other new congregations aligning with Franconia have also experienced trauma of various kinds.  Praying for healing and increased empathy are gifts of hope for our new congregations.

Third, when you pray, be open to the changes God is putting in front of you.  Restoring the 175-year rift between churches in Eastern Pennsylvania will be transformation for Franconia Mennonite Conference.  A new name for this God-movement is coming.  As a conference of churches, we speak many languages.  While, in my experience, Franconia has done an outstanding job in learning to be intercultural and multi-linguistic, we still have room for growth.  New congregations from across the country and around the world will change the way we do church in our local congregation—and that is a blessing!  May we receive it as such.

Finally, pray for our pastors.  A small team of three friends, who encourage me in my work as a Leadership Minister (and pray for me in my role!), join with me in praying each day for a different Franconia Conference pastor that I am privileged to walk with in ministry.  We pray for their health and well-being.  We pray for their marriages and their families.  We pray for them to be resilient and tough.  We pray for them to be tender and broken.  It is the singular honor of my work to offer regular and sustained intercession for the pastors I serve with in Franconia Conference.  Your intercessions on behalf of the pastors and the staff of Franconia Conference are a treasured gift.

Perhaps in our postmodern, busy, overscheduled, hyperactive world, prayer has become a relic of a season past and gone from us.  I hope not!  May we, as an old/new conference of churches from New England, to Florida, to California, and beyond, be linked together by the simple, powerful proposition of praying for one another.

Embracing God’s Cakrawala

by

by Jeff Wright, leadership minister

In the last two years, Franconia Conference has welcomed new congregations from California.  Three predominantly Indonesian-speaking congregations and one predominantly Cantonese-speaking congregation have affiliated with the conference.  I’m privileged to work with these churches and I’m sure the future ahead—for both the conference and these congregations—will look very different because these churches are in our midst. 

Celebrating Chinese New Year with Jemaat Kristen Indonesia Anugerah (JKIA).

To be culturally Californian is to be optimistic in general, and to look toward the Pacific for imagination.  Our new California churches are from across the Pacific—young, entrepreneurial, and hard-working immigrants from many Indonesian cultures as well as well-established immigrant families with ties to the always growing, always reinventing city of Hong Kong.

As I work with these churches, they bring to mind five Indonesian words that tell a story of holy imagination: seeing God at work in our many and varied neighborhoods across the Los Angeles basin and the San Francisco Bay area.

The first of these Indonesian words, Cakrawala (cha-kra-waa-la), points to this imagination.  Cakrawala means “horizon.” But more than just a fixed point out there somewhere, Cakrawala also speaks of perspective and outlook.  It invites us into a story, not just an intersection of longitude and latitude. The new churches in California invite us to embrace God’s perspective and outlook – God’s Cakrawala – as we do God’s work together as Franconia Conference.

The second Indonesian word that comes to mind is, “Sahabat (sa-ha-baat).”  In relational cultures, everyone is a friend.  But to be a Sahabat is to take on a deeper level of friendship and relationship: a Sahabat is a best friend.  Jesus describes his followers this way in John 15:12-17.  No longer are disciples of Jesus servants—we now become Jesus’ best friends.  Our new churches in California live with the vital exuberance of people who have discovered a new best friend in Jesus Christ.

Celebrating Chinese New Year with Jemaat Kristen Indonesia Anugerah (JKIA).

Being best friends with Jesus means that, third, we become “Guyab (gu-ye-aab)” to one another.  Jesus’ friendly embrace makes us a people that are “in togetherness”—a people committed to carrying one another’s burdens. Paul’s call to the churches in Galatia (Galatians 6:1-5) embodies the principle of Guyab; a church “in togetherness” is a loving center of God’s mission of burden bearing, forgiving, restoring, and discerning.

Jesus’ befriending of us, and our willingness to be in togetherness has the effect of “Peremajaan (pee-re-maa-ja)” —literally, “Making young again.”  The promise of Revelation 21:5-7 is the promise of God making all things new (young).  The ugly wreckage of sin no longer holds sway.  God’s Cakrawala is to restore, renew, and refurbish that which is broken. God does not abandon us, but makes us Peremajaan—young again, full of life.

As we follow Jesus, our Sahabat, live out God’s missional call to Guyab, and wait for the great repair work of Peremajaan, we must become a Ragan (rah-gan) church – a diverse community of faithfulness.  In the Franconia churches in California, the people speak several Indonesian dialects, Cantonese, Mandarin, Spanish, Dutch, and English.  Most Franconia Conference members in California are bilingual, even trilingual.  They point the rest of us to the great event described in Revelation 7:9-12.  Our Franconia Conference churches in California know that the Church cannot be focused on its mission without being more and more an expert in diversity (Ragan).

God’s outlook for the church is not much different in Indonesian than it is in English: to follow Jesus who seeks to befriend us; to embrace one another in togetherness; to let God’s transforming work make us young again; and to be a church full of diversity.  May such a Cakrawala be shared and true in Souderton, Philadelphia, Southern California, San Francisco, and beyond.

Encouragement in the Bay

by

by Jerrell Williams, Associate for Leadership Cultivation

Joshua So, pastor of San Francisco Chinese Mennonite Church, second from left, along with his wife, Anita So, with Steve Kriss, Leadership Minister Jeff Wright, and Jerrell Williams. 

(Reprinted with permission from The Mennonite)

This past week I got the chance to accompany Steve Kriss, Franconia Mennonite Conference executive minister, and Jeff Wright, Franconia Conference Leadership minister, on a trip to San Francisco to visit San Francisco Chinese Mennonite Church (SFCMC). This is a Cantonese-speaking congregation of around 35 members that is considering joining Franconia Mennonite Conference.

After worship, we talked with Pastor Joshua about his expectations of Franconia Conference and how he envisioned the relationship. The theme of encouragement came up repeatedly. Pastor Joshua wanted encouragement and support from Franconia Conference. He wanted to know if Franconia Conference would be in relationship with his church and continue to encourage the members, even though they are far away. If it joins Franconia Conference, SFCMC would be the only Cantonese-speaking congregation in the conference. We attended worship with the congregation and spent a day with Pastor Joshua and Anita, his wife, in the Bay area. The congregation was lively and hospitable; everyone greeted us when we came. We met several members of the congregation during lunch and heard their stories and experiences in the United States.

This experience showed me the importance of encouragement for churches. SFCMC has felt alone for a long time. Its biggest request from us on this trip was that we check in with them and encourage them. Whether we’re there physically or we send them a text on a Sunday morning, they want to know we are praying for them and thinking of them.

Worship at San Francisco Chinese Mennonite Church.

 

Hearing of the needs of this congregation made me think of Paul and how he wrote letters to different churches. These letters sometimes were ones of correction for when the church lost its way, but many of them included words of encouragement to congregations. Paul saw it as important to send encouragement to the church whenever he got the chance.

All churches at times need support and encouragement from other churches. Franconia Conference can play a huge role in encouraging and connecting its congregations. Being a conference isn’t only about keeping churches in order or in line. Most of the work is being willing to be present with them. Churches need to know they are being prayed for, thought of and loved. Sometimes a reminder is all we need.

Leadership Ministers Reflect and Refine

by

by Stephen Kriss, Executive Minister

For generations, one of the primary tasks of Franconia Conference was to provide leadership accompaniment with congregations and credentialed leaders.  The call to serve as a bishop was a serious call to lead, serve and offer wisdom and counsel.  It was a weighty role.  I grew up with a bishop in my home community in Allegheny Conference and for some of us in Franconia, we remember those days, too.   Our bishop still wore a plain coat on Sundays and he preached long sermons.  I still remember being surprised to see him visiting his sister one day while working on the garden to pick green beans and he was wearing a flannel shirt, conversing (not preaching) and laughing.

For almost a decade now, our conference has framed this work as leadership ministers.  We have attempted to find footing alongside congregations to invite, provoke and accompany during rapid cultural changes.  Our conference is now served by a team of ten leadership ministers: men and women from different generations, with different cultural backgrounds and different language capacities to continue to cultivate God’s dream among our 45 congregations.  It’s a key task and incarnation of what we do together.

Our leadership ministers met the end of March, during what we hope will be the last heavy snowstorm, at Mariawald Retreat Center near Reading to review and reimagine our work together.  Some of us weren’t able to get there due to the snow, so we used Zoom to connect with these colleagues.  Some colleagues left early and some stayed later to wait out the storm.  In the meantime, we enjoyed the lovely and hospitable space of Mariawald, hosted by Catholic nuns from Africa who are now in Berks County as part of their vocation of serving God and the church.  The snow was stunningly beautiful even though we may have been ready to move onto spring.  It was in some ways metaphoric of the difficulty and possibility of doing our work in this time and space.

Together we began the task of refining our work.  We will continue to work around the Conference’s approach to ministry and leadership which is formational, missional and intercultural.  We will continue to align our ministry staff around those ongoing priorities.  We are beginning to work together to understand how to include congregations at our farthest distances now with a staff representative based in California to serve our congregations there.  And we’re evaluating best practices to serve congregations that are close by to us too, sometimes just blocks from where we live or less than a mile from the Conference office at Dock Mennonite Academy.

Franconia staff: (front) Aldo Siahaan, (L to R) Mary Nitzsche, Wayne Nitzsche, Noel Santiago, John Stoltzfus, Jeff Wright, Mike Clemmer, Randy Heacock and Steve Kriss.

I am grateful now for a full staff team after over a year of navigating through changes.   We are beginning to learn together, to laugh, to build deeper trust.  We are leaning in toward our individual gifts and callings recognizing our invitation to serve God in the way of Christ’s peace through our historic and growing community.   As a Conference, we are privileged to be resourced well through ongoing generosity and wise stewardship.   I continue to be grateful for the sense of care and mutuality that we have together and the divine invitation to continued transformation by the power of the Spirit in this journey of faith, hope and love together.

New Members Join the Conference Team

by

As 1 Corinthians 12:14 states, “For the body is not one member, but many,” and as it is said in Ecclesiastes 4:9, “Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor.” So too, is it with Franconia Conference. Each member of the Franconia Conference team being a vital piece, bringing their gifts and talents to further the work of the Lord. This month Franconia Conference welcomed several new members to the team including two new board members and new staff.

At the March 19 Conference Board Meeting, Yvonne Platts of Nueva Vida Norristown New Life and Cory Longacre of Souderton Mennonite Church were welcomed as new board members. Yvonne was affirmed by board vote. Cory was affirmed by the board to replace the assembly-appointed board member Smita Singh who resigned this past fall. He will therefore be on the ballot at the fall 2018 Assembly for delegate affirmation. Both Yvonne and Cory bring long-standing Anabaptist roots within Franconia Conference and deep connections to their local communities.

Yvonne Platts was baptized at an early age in the Mennonite church and has grown up at Nueva Vida Norristown New Life. Yvonne serves within her congregation on the Enlarging Our Place in Gods World Leadership Team. Her primary work is with Family Services of Montgomery County as a Community Outreach Worker with the Norristown Violence Prevention Initiative, from whom she received the Outstanding Service Award in November 2017.  She is also a member of Roots of Justice Inc. which addresses issues of racism and other oppressions, creating awareness, understanding and knowledge toward building a just society for people groups in churches, organizations, and community. Currently, she is actively working within the Norristown School District to train Circle Keepers for Restorative Justice Peace Circles. Training and equipping community members to become Circle Keepers is a deep passion of Yvonne’s, as she hopes for the establishment of community based alternatives to juvenile detention.

Yvonne is a graduate of The Center for Urban Theological Studies and holds a Master of Science in Restorative Practices and Youth and Family Counseling from The International Institute of Restorative Practices. There is no doubt that Yvonne Platts has a deep drive for peace and justice and will bring her dedication to social justice to her work with Franconia Conference.

Pastor Angela Moyer of Ripple in Allentown and a member of the Conference Board stated that she has volumes of admiration and respect for the work Yvonne does in the community. Executive Minister Steve Kriss says, “Yvonne is well equipped to think and respond in the best interest of the whole of the Conference with her long history at Nueva Vida Norristown New Life.”

Cory Longacre comes to the Conference Board recently finishing his third-and-final three year term on the Souderton Mennonite Church Board where he spent the last three years as chair. Cory grew up at Swamp Mennonite Church,  settling in after college at Souderton with his wife Linda. He first accepted Jesus at Spruce Lake Camp around the age of 13 and was then baptized at age 15 at Swamp. He is a graduate of Dock Mennonite Academy, both the former Penn View Christian School and Christopher Dock Mennonite High School. He also received his Bachelors in Business Management from Eastern Mennonite University where he met his wife Linda, whom he married in 1993. They have 3 children: Olyvia, age 19, Davry, age 15, and Zeke, age 11.

Cory currently co-owns TNC Self Storage and is Fleet Operations Manager at Perkiomen Tours. Previously he spent 20 years with Farm & Home Oil Company where he started in sales, then after 4 years transitioned to management, moving his way to Vice President where he spent several years before ending his time with the company.

“Cory brings a wealth of experience as both a community and business leader. He is both reflective and entrepreneurial — assets for our Conference,” said Steve Kriss.

Cory is grateful for the opportunity to serve.  “I look forward to joining Franconia Conference Board,” he says, “to help guide and discern as our conference continues to grow and evolve while maintaining our Anabaptist values.”

Joining the Franconia Conference in staff roles, are Jeff Wright as a LEADership Minister, Chantelle Todman Moore as Intercultural Leadership Coach, and current LEADership Minister Marta Castillo, who is increasing her time with the Conference and becoming the LEADership Minister of Intercultural Formation.

Jeff Wright will serve as a LEADership Minister, specifically working with Franconia Conference’s three congregations in Southern California: Indonesian Community Christian Fellowship, International Worship Church, and Jemaat Kristen Indonesia Anugerah (JKIA or Grace Indonesian Christian Fellowship). Jeff has served in a dual role as pastor of Madison Street Church, a Brethren-in-Christ congregation in Riverside, California and as president of viaShalom, a small not-for-profit, since 2009. viaShalom is a missional resource agency that currently operates three ministries: commonGood, a local, asset-based community development effort; viaGLobal, which support St. Francis Primary School located in Morsul, Rajshahi in Bangladesh serving approximately 80 Christian families belonging to the Santal minority; and Urban Expression North America, “a consultancy specializing in creating and sustaining urban incarnational experiments, and affiliated with similar ministries across Europe.” Bike and Sol, run by Pastor Scott Roth of Perkiomenville Mennonite Church, is a project of Urban Expression and has worked closely with Jeff. Jeff has also done consultancy work with various congregations both in Franconia and Eastern District Conferences.

Jeff holds a Bachelor of Arts from Tabor College, a Master’s of Divinity from Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary and earned his Masters of Business Administration with a focus in church management from the Graduate Theological Foundation. In addition, he has a Post-graduate Diploma in Applied Theology from Spurgeon’s College in London. He lives in Riverside, California with his best friend/wife Debbie. They have two adult children who he said also married their best friends. Jeff enjoys time with three grandchildren and the “church mascot/beagle-terrier puppy, Madison”, who lives with them and constantly digs up their backyard!

Steve Kriss says, “Jeff has long term relationship working as a Mennonite Church USA Conference leader. His experience and commitment to California and his capacity at developing new leaders will be a gift to our Conference, as we live into our bi-coastal reality.”

Jeff says, “I’m very excited to be part of a larger and diverse team that works collaboratively toward a common vision of being the church. It is a unique privilege to work with Franconia Conference among the new member Indonesian churches in Southern California.”

Chantelle Todman Moore comes to Franconia Conference as Intercultural Leadership Coach, where she will focus her work with our 15 urban congregations, looking at cultivating next generation leaders, focusing on persons age 15-35. She has also been tasked to think about what it takes for persons of color in ministry leadership to flourish and how that can be cultivated within Franconia congregations.

In addition to taking on this role with Franconia Conference, Chantelle is the co-founder of unlock Ngenuity a consulting, coaching and therapy business. She previously served as the Philadelphia Program Coordinator for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and as a Program Director at both Oxford Circle Christian Community Development Association and Eastern University. Chantelle holds a Bachelors of Arts in International Community Development from Oral Roberts University, a Masters of Business Administration in International Economic Development from Eastern University, and is a Qualified Administrator for the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI).

She says she is “passionate about embracing diversity and difference as a gift, seeking justice as a mandate and being moved to act by love.” Chantelle lives in Philadelphia with her spouse, Sam, and their three daughters.

Pastor Aldo Siahaan of Philadelphia Praise Center and a member of the Conference LEADership Minister team was on the board of MCC East Coast at the time of Chantelle’s employment there. He says, “Chantelle is a hard worker, full of creativity and always mixes her work with laughter.”

When asked about bringing Chantelle on in this new role for Franconia Conference, Steve Kriss stated, “Our Conference has become increasingly urban and intercultural over the last decade. Chantelle’s experience in working with urban leaders and congregations will strengthen our capacities in cultivating and accompanying current and emerging leaders. Her energy, honesty, commitment to the church, and willingness to ask hard questions are traits I appreciate about her and look forward to her bringing to her work with Franconia.”

Marta Castillo is not new to the Franconia team, but will be increasing her time. After serving almost five years on the Conference Board, Marta joined Franconia Conference as a LEADership Minister in in 2016, while simultaneously serving as co-pastor at Nueva Vida Norristown New Life.  She stepped away from the position at Nueva Vida in December, as she felt the Spirit leading her elsewhere.  At the time she did not know that “elsewhere” would include increased time with Franconia Conference. The Conference is grateful to have Marta move into the role of LEADership Minister of Intercultural Formation. The daughter of Franconia Conference-rooted mission workers, she has been shaped by all four of the linguistic cultures in Franconia Conference, growing up in both Vietnam and Indonesia. While being a primary English speaker, she lives in a bilingual family and community of English/Spanish speakers.

Marta is committed to prayer, along with active engagement of diverse neighborhoods with the message of Christ’s Good News. She is passionate about the intercultural work of unity in cultural diversity, antiracism, and racial reconciliation. She graduated from Eastern Mennonite College with a major in Elementary Education and is currently taking classes at Eastern Mennonite Seminary. Marta lives in Norristown, PA, with her husband, Julio and two teenage children, Andres and Daniel.

“Marta’s flexibility and linguistic capacity, her depth of spiritual practice and her experience working with pastoral teams combine to make her a uniquely gifted leader in our Conference,” said Steve Kriss.  You can read more about Marta here.

The staff and board of Franconia Conference are well-equipped to continue to lead the Conference into whatever God has in store. As Executive Minister, Steve Kriss stated, “these additions complement an already strongly gifted staff and strengthen our capacity to serve our growing Conference.”