Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Jemaat Kristen Indonesia Anugerah

Responding to the Need in Indonesia, Regardless of Religion

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The church knows no geographical boundaries. When there is a call for help from across the globe, as a church, we are called to act. When the second wave of the pandemic hit Indonesia where vaccines are still limited, Mosaic congregations rose to action.  

Photo provided by Britannia Worotikan.

Four Mosaic churches, Salford (Harleysville, PA) Mennonite Church, Philadelphia (PA) Praise Center, Jemaat Kristen Indonesian Anugerah (JKIA) (Sierra Madre, CA), and International Worship Church (IWC) (San Gabriel, CA), raised funds to assist with needs related to the pandemic in Indonesia. Together the churches raised over $17,000. Through a Missional Operations Grant, Mosaic Conference gave an additional $15,000. Altogether $32,937.32 was sent to Indonesia through JKI Anugerah, to support vaccination programs and humanitarian aid.

A fundraising effort collected funds for Semarang City and Makassar, Indonesia to be distributed by JKI, a Mennonite organization in Indonesia. JKI began a free vaccination program in June 2021. The vaccines were provided for free from the Indonesian government, but the funds raised contributed to the facility costs, workers’ wages, and meals. To read more, click here. 

Boarding school students are vaccinated in Indonesia through the free vaccine initiative, supported in part through Mosaic churches and Conference. Photo provided by JKI Injil Kerajaan.

“The free vaccine initiative and aid toward the marginalized community that was impacted by the Covid 19 Pandemic is very strategic ministry for the church; this way the church can be salt and light to the community”, said Pastor Virgo Handojo of JKIA.

Hanah Sinjaya, the head of YABBM foundation, almost gave up on helping those in need in Indonesia, because she couldn’t afford the costs needed to run the free vaccine clinic and offer humanitarian aid. Thanks to the moral and financial support through this initiative, the free vaccinations program and humanitarian assistance continue to run today, reaching to the narrow alleys where many people live in the city of Makassar.

On Monday, August 30, 2021, Mosaic funds helped vaccinate 423 people from two Islamic Boarding school in Indonesia. Each person was also provided a free lunch, mask, gloves, vitamins and groceries to take to their home. In a country where 87% of the population is Muslim, the initiative offered a show of support and solidarity with all persons. 

Photo provided by JKI Injil Kerajaan.

“Today, God has a unique way of gathering us all. A Pastor and a Kyai (an expert in Islam) stand together, side by side, so we can all be healthy. In the midst of the danger of Islamic Radicalism that wants to use the Taliban victory as a weapon of influence, today we show something different to spread goodness and unity”, said Gus Nuril Arifin, Head of Soko Tunggal, Islamic boarding school. 

“…today we show something different to spread goodness and unity.”

– Gus Nuril Arifin

Photo provided by JKI Injil Kerajaan.

Congregational Profile: Jemaat Kristen Indonesia Anugerah

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(Baca dalam bahasa Indonesia)

Affiliations: Franconia Mennonite Conference and Indonesian Mennonite Association
Address: 191 West Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre, CA 91024
Pastor: Virgo Handojo, Ph.D., CFLE

In 1989, Rev. Virgo and Jeanne Handojo, through Ms. Ruth Heck, met with Ms. Dina Boon. They were asked to clean the house of Ibu Dina Boon from dark powers. The International House Fellowship was born in the home of Dina Boon’s mother.

At the end of 1990, this family alliance developed into 30-50 people from 10-13 different nationalities. Through this alliance, the Indonesian Christian Congregation of Grace was born on September 19, 1992 at the Free Methodist Church, Pasadena. The first service was held Sunday, September 20, 1992. A few months later the church moved to the Sierra Madre Congregational Church. 

Vision, Mission, Priority and Strategy of JKIA Church
Every member is a minister. JKIA exists as a means and tool to bring God’s government (God’s Kingdom) and God’s glory by carrying out the Great Commandment (Matthew 22: 36-40, Deut 6: 5) and the Great Commission (the Great Commission, Matthew 28: 18-20).

JKIA Priority are Evangelism, Fellowship, Discipleship, Worship and Healing (Acts 2: 41-47)

Church Strategy
Organization: simple, adaptable, and flexible. The church is a community of believers, not a business organization. Focus on serving one another. (Acts 2:42)

The Church is the Body of Christ – not an organization (Matthew 26, Luke 12, John 10; 1 Peter 5: 1-2; Acts 20:17, 28; Titus 1: 5-7,1 Cor 12:27)

Emphasizes love and unity not profit. Focus on relationships and mission rather than organization (Ephesians 4: 3)

Function through spiritual gifts, talents, and skills, not through elections.

The formula for congregational relations: the better the relationship, the better the level of trust and the fewer rules to govern (the greater the relationship, the greater the trust level). Galatians 6:10; 1 Peter 4:17; 1 Timothy 5: 1-2

JKIA Church Structure
Service is done by lay people, and shepherds complete it so that lay people are able to serve well. The people are the ministers; the pastors and elders are the administers. (Ephesians 4: 11-12) Lay people must be given the freedom and power to determine and create services.

Pastors or elders must be given the opportunity to educate and lead (Hebrews 13:17). Each member is encouraged to create a new service. The person who creates the service is the person who has authority and control over the service, not a priest or other member.

JKIA Values:  We appreciate relationship with God and with others, we respect each person and we value holistic services. We respect the values ​​of God’s Kingdom.

Embracing God’s Cakrawala

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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.

From a California Dream to a Bi-coastal Reality

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by Steve Kriss, Executive Minister

Mary Nitzsche and I made our first trip to visit the California congregations since the three were welcomed into our Conference in November.  International Worship Church (IWC) in San Gabriel, Jemaat Kristen Indonesia Anugerah (Grace Indonesian Christian Fellowship) in Sierra Madre and Indonesian Community Christian Fellowship (ICCF) in Colton are located within an hour of each other, all to the east of Los Angeles along the 210 and 10 freeway corridors.   They are located in a stretch of large suburbs that flow into what is known as the Inland Empire.  Each suburb is distinct, but these communities – sometimes more like cities themselves – merge together to create the US’s second largest metropolitan area.

We spent time with each congregation.  If you hustled, you could likely attend each congregations’ worship gathering, all on the same Sunday.  Mary and I split the responsibilities, though, so we would have time to visit with each group.  Mary brought greetings to the English worshipping community at International Worship Church at 11:00 am and preached at JKIA at 2:30 pm.  I preached at the Indonesian language service at IWC at 12:30 and at ICCF at 5:30.

There was food afterward the worship services.  After over a decade of walking alongside Indonesian congregations, I recognize the gracious island hospitality and celebration that remains intact here in the States as well.  At IWC, I had a bowl of spaghetti brought from the kitchen, when the servers realized that I didn’t eat seafood, which was the main dish provided for lunch.  At ICCF, there was an anniversary celebration which included traditional Indonesian satay, rice and soup, along with karaoke that was a mix of pop, praise songs and traditional hymns.

There is new opportunity and challenge by being bi-coastal.  We’re navigating the legal requirements necessary for credentialed leaders in California, which are different from Pennsylvania.   We’re having to learn new geography, time zones and context.  We are moving toward adding a staff person based in Southern California, as well.   Aldo Siahaan, Conference LEADership minister and pastor at Philadelphia Praise Center is also initiating an online Zoom call for Indonesian speaking pastors across our Conference.    These things will help to ensure our flourishing together.

There is still a sense of surprise for me that we are here in this time and place.  This trip meant beginning to think and care for California in a way that I haven’t before – as a pastor.  What is the Spirit provoking through this holy experiment?  In what ways can we live and move into this time and space, where God’s capacity is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or imagine through the power at work within us (Ephesians 3.20)?

As we begin to move into this space, beyond dreams and into new realities, I invite your prayers for us together.  I’m still grateful for the overwhelming sense of the Spirit’s direction at assembly to welcome the California congregations to become part of us.  And in that welcome, I believe there will continue to be transformation.

Life Together Gets More Interesting

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Since 2011, Franconia and Eastern District Conferences have come together for an annual fall Assembly holding separate business sessions, yet enjoying joint times of worship on Friday evening and Saturday morning, sharing in the recognition of newly credentialed leaders, and lunch. This year on November 3 and 4, 2017 they gathered at Dock Mennonite Academy in Souderton, Pennsylvania to do the same. However, new this year, a time of joint meeting was held on Saturday afternoon that focused on reviewing recommendations from the Exploring Reconciliation Reference Team that the two Conferences voted to commission at the 2016 Assembly.

The Assembly was centered on Psalm 133:1,3b, “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.” The theme was Life Together, as the focus of the Assembly was that while these two conference may have split 170 years ago, they continue to do life together.  A large part of the Assembly business this year was to look at whether these conferences would take the next step in their relationship, to look even more intentionally at reconciliation and what it would look like if they were to merge into one conference.

The weekend began with Friday night worship led by Tami Good of Swamp Mennonite Church, which included a worship team of folks whose first languages were Indonesian, Spanish and English and who came from congregations in South Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Upper Bucks and Montgomery Counties. The opening prayer was given in Indonesian, Spanish, English and even Pennsylvania Dutch. Videos were shown that highlighted  Souderton Mennonite Church’s Vocation as Mission internship program, “for young adults actively pursuing God’s kingdom in local communities.” Highlighted were the fact that the interns come from congregations across both conferences — most not even realizing there were two conferences — and the relationships built between the interns through Bible study, leadership and social issues trainings, as they worked side by side with local non-profits, businesses and ministries. The other video shown was about the ministries of Deep Run East and Deep Run West — one Franconia Conference church and one Eastern District church that happen to be across the street from one another. Their pastors, Ken Burkholder of Deep Run East and Rodger Schmell of Deep Run West, shared about how their congregations do ministry in such close proximity and how their relationship has changed over the years since their initial split. The worship time was followed by the annual ice cream social provided by Longacres Dairy.

Saturday morning, delegates began their day in separate Eastern District and Franconia Conference business sessions. This was a historic day for Franconia Conference as they became bi-coastal and accepted four new congregations as members, one from Flushing, New York and three from the Los Angeles, California area. Bethany Elshaddai Creative Community in New York is pastored by Hendy Stevans and has been connecting with Franconia Conference for about two years. Hendy is currently a student at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, attending classes at the Lancaster, Pennsylvania campus. The congregations in the Los Angeles area consist of Jemaat Kristen Indonesia Anugerah (JKIA) pastored by Virgo Handoyo, Indonesian Community Christian Fellowship pastored by Makmur Halim, and International Worship Church pastored by Buddy Hannarto. All three have had relationships with Franconia Conference for over a decade. The four congregations’ members are largely from Indonesia and joined with Franconia Conference pastors Aldo Siahaan of Philadelphia Praise Center and Beny Krisbianto of Nations Worship Center to share in a song. To learn more about these congregations check out their congregational profiles here. Following the 98% vote of affirmation to welcome these congregations, the delegates joined in singing songs in both English and Indonesian as a welcome.

The joint Franconia and Eastern District Conference Saturday worship was a time of song, remembering those who have passed on in the last year, and anointing 15 newly credentialed leaders. Following the anointing of the newly credentialed leaders, the leaders were dispersed throughout the auditorium and those in attendance were invited to be prayed over by them. It was truly a time of commissioning and sending forth. There was also a time of recognition of the Centennial of Mennonite Women USA and a video celebrating Eastern District and Franconia Conference’s shared Sistering Committee, a local chapter of Mennonite Women USA.

Following lunch by Landis’ Market, the delegates from Eastern District and Franconia Conferences joined one another around tables to hear from the Exploring Reconciliation Reference Team. The team reviewed their report that had been previously sent to the delegates, which can be accessed here. They also highlighted their recommendations. At their tables, the delegates were then invited to discuss any affirmations, concerns or questions they had regarding the report or the recommendations put forth. These were recorded on sheets of paper and submitted to be compiled and shared with those tasked at carrying out the recommendations, should the delegates vote to move forward with them.

The core recommendation from the team is that Eastern District and Franconia Conference “enter a formal engagement process for the purposes of healing and reconciliation and with the intention of becoming a single, unified conference by November 2019.” In order to do this, the team recommended the forming of two teams: one to work intentionally at addressing the “spiritual and emotional components of reconciliation,” known as the “Healing and Reconciliation Team”, and the other being the “Identity Development and Structural Implementation Team,” tasked with managing “the process of forming a single unified conference, with particular attention to the structure, staffing, financial, and cultural realities of creating a single conference from the two existing conferences.”

Nancy Kauffman, Mennonite Church USA Denominational Minister for the two Conferences, closed the joint time in prayer.

After a short break, the conferences gathered in separate rooms where their delegates recorded on flip chart paper their largest affirmations and concerns regarding moving forward with the recommendations. Present were David Brubaker and Roxy Allen Kioko, consultants from Eastern Mennonite University who had been hired in 2016 and were working with the Exploring Reconciliation Reference Team. Following this and some open microphone time for questions and answers, the delegates voted. With a 90% affirmation from Franconia Conference and a 99% affirmation from Eastern District Conference, both agreed to move forward with working at reconciliation and exploring more formally what a merged conference will look like.

This means that over the next few weeks, both Conference Boards will be looking for nominations for the two teams presented in the recommendations. The goal will be to have these teams appointed no later than the end of the calendar year. According to the recommendations, there is a goal for the Healing and Reconciliation Team to hold a Reconciliation service at a Spring 2018 Assembly, and planning will therefore need to begin quickly. The Identity and Structural Development Team will, over the next two years, work to develop a shared mission and vision, a new organization chart and budget to be presented to the delegates in 2019. Therefore, a decision on whether or not these two conferences will merge will not come until 2019. Over the next few weeks, leaders of both conferences will work to address questions raised about the process. Keep your eye out for more information on that.  Nominations are due by Friday, December 1 at midnight.

To close this historic day, the two conferences joined together in song as they continue to look forward to Life Together.

 

 

 

Historic Decisions & the Promise of God’s Good Work

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by Stephen Kriss, Executive Minister

At our annual assembly earlier this month, our delegate community affirmed two historic decisions that have potential to reshape our Conference.   These were not easy and quick decisions, but rather the fruit of relationships and what we believe to be the leading of the Spirit.  The Spirit relentlessly invites us toward transformation.  We have discerned this time to say yes to the invitation.

These two movements will challenge the best of who we claim to be as followers of Jesus.  The reconciliation process with Eastern District Conference sets out to reunite our communities into one body after over a century of separation.  This kind of reconciliation work has been a hallmark of our identity as Anabaptist/ Mennonites.  However, it’s a path we’ve rarely had the courage or humility to walk to restore relationships after theological/ecclesialogical differences in a way that offers a witness of the power of Christ’s peace.  This affirmation intends to frame the work needed to restore the right fellowship that was torn asunder by disagreements and to work to acknowledge historic wounds.   Admittedly, though, the details of this path ahead are yet to be determined.

This affirmation to move toward a unified conference, likely with a new name, means embracing a new identity that honors our shared past, our divergent paths and the truth of the reconciling power of Christ that we believe can transform us and the world.  This is work that is local in the very spaces where some of our fore-parents resettled on this continent seeking a place of peace and flourishing.  This will be hard work, but also a work of grace, the work of the Spirit among us.

At the same time, our Conference affirmed four new member congregations.  All four congregations are comprised mostly of immigrants from Indonesia.   These communities are an outgrowth of our global connectivity, our commitments that began over 100 years ago to seek to share Christ’s peace cross culturally with those who are also seeking a place of peace and flourishing in this hemisphere.  These four communities extend our Conference in ways we may not have imagined before, stretching us now from southern Vermont to Southern California.

This move to welcome into membership the new congregations was shaped around our commitments to family and hospitality.  These are core values and metaphors for our understanding of ourselves as a community.  We are family — sisters and brothers.  We extend gracious hospitality because we have received the gracious hospitality of Christ.  We know that Christ again shows up when we extend that hospitality to others. Our overwhelming affirmation together of these four new communities is holy — the work that God has called us to for this time.  The Spirit continues the gift of Pentecost among us, drawing us together across ethnicity, language, tribe and geography.

At a recent lecture at Swarthmore College, I heard Eboo Patel assert that people who climb mountains should not complain that climbing a mountain is difficult.   We have discerned a path forward that is not easy and is unfamiliar.  Jesus proclaimed that it’s not the easy path but that the burden itself is light.  It is in such spaces that we rely on God, where we trust the Spirit who gives life to continue to guide us.

At the same time, we use all of our capacities.  We use our strengths.  We learn from those who have gone before us.  We prepare for the journey ahead.   We approach humbly but boldly.   We continue to work and hope.

I am not naïve, nor should any of us be.  This is a time when the church is more often being torn asunder rather than united together across differences.  We have discerned together to attempt something that is countercultural: to seek reconciliation and to continue to be reshaped as the people of God across cultural boundaries.  May God strengthen us as we continue to live the good work that Christ has begun and promised to sustain in us until the fullness of salvation.

Delegates Begin Conferring for Assembly

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This year, Franconia Conference delegates are being asked to consider two main agenda items at the Fall Assembly: One being four congregations for membership, three of these congregations come from California and one from New York. All four are Indonesian congregations and have ties to Franconia’s Indonesian congregations in South Philadelphia. The second item delegates are being asked to consider is the recommendations from the Exploring Reconciliation Reference Team, which states that the team recommends that Eastern District and Franconia Conferences, “enter a formal engagement process for the purposes of healing and reconciliation and with the intention of becoming a single, unified conference by November 2019.”

Both of these items are monumental for Franconia Conference. Therefore, delegate discernment around them began this past week at two Assembly Scattered meetings. These meetings are an opportunity for delegates to gather together and discuss the agenda items and ask questions of conference leadership. The scattered meetings began last week, one being held on October 5 at Franconia Mennonite Church and a second on October 10 at Swamp Mennonite Church with combined participation of around 100 delegates. Two more scattered meetings are scheduled for this coming week: October 16 at Nueva Vida Norristown New Life and October 17 via video conference. Currently, 61% of Franconia Conference delegates have either attended or are registered to attend an assembly scattered meeting.

These scattered meetings provide vital discernment time as together, delegates work to confer around whether or not to admit four new congregations as members and whether or not to continue to envision a single united conference with Eastern District. The hope is that by the end of Assembly 2017, Franconia Conference will know if they have 4 new member churches and whether or not they will be working to implement a team to envision a united conference with Eastern District (EDC), so that in November of 2019 they will be able to vote on whether or not to merge with EDC.

Admitting the four congregations as members would make Franconia a bi-coastal conference. Modern technology makes relationships across great distance a bit easier.  At one point in Franconia’s history, leaders used to take 7-hour buggy rides to visit constituents; now, it would be a 7-hour bi-coastal plane ride. As Steve Kriss, Executive Minister, said in a recent article, “In the past, we have worked at church planting in Hawaii.  We have maintained long term partnerships with congregations in Mexico City.  For 50 years we have traveled the six-hour trip back and forth to our congregations in Vermont.  This will have some similar characteristics; there will for sure be challenges, but I believe that we’ll learn and be stronger by cultivating these partnerships together.”

Since 2011, Eastern District and Franconia Conferences have been working together more formally with their leadership, meeting on a regular basis and sharing in joint assemblies each fall. Congregations in close proximity have also worked at building relationships. At the 2016 Conference Assembly, both conferences agreed to implement an Exploring Reconciliation Reference Team (read more about that here) to see if Reconciliation was possible between the two Conferences. That team not only believes reconciliation is possible, but also believes there is a possibility for merger as laid out in their final report. However, there is still work to be done before merger can be considered. This year at Assembly, delegates will discern if they believe God is calling them to that work.

As the Conference continues to work to equip leaders to empower others to embrace God’s mission, there is much prayer and discernment to be done.