Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Joe Hackman

Worship Leader Training Sparks Interest

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Deadline extended for local worship leader training event.

Swamp Mennonite Church will host “Sunday Morning Spark,” a day-long worship leader training seminar on February 19, 2011. The event will feature workshops led by respected pastors and leaders on topics covering the spectrum of worship leading activities, including corporate prayer, Scripture- reading, story-telling, effective liturgy, and creative congregational involvement.

“This event was birthed from our own need as a church,” says Emily Ralph, Swamp’s Minister of Worship. “We were looking for a resource for our own worship leaders, something that could empower and inspire them on Sunday mornings.”

After an unsuccessful search for existing resources, Swamp’s Worship Planning Team decided to plan their own seminar, gathering talented presenters on the most pressing topics for today’s congregations.

“And now we’re just too excited to keep this great event to ourselves,” Ralph says. “This is a need many
congregations have, so we want to help provide these resources for other churches as well.”

Although the seminar is labeled as a worship leader training, the workshops would also benefit pastors, song leaders, worship teams, Sunday School or Bible study leaders, or even children’s storytellers, Ralph
adds.

The day will consist of five workshops and a lunch from 10am to 3pm, with a bonus session at 3pm that will offer registrants an opportunity to share stories and reflect on the workshops. Workshop leaders include Sue Conrad, a worship leader for the 2011 Mennonite Church USA convention in Pittsburgh, worship pastor Sandy Drescher-Lehman, prayer coordinator Sandy Landes, pastor Blaine Detwiler, and Franconia Mennonite Conference’s director of communication, Steve Kriss.

Throughout the seminar, Swamp Mennonite will be partnering with Hackman’s Bible Bookstore of Allentown to provide worship resources at discounted prices. In addition, Hackman’s will be giving away a free copy of Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals (Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson- Hartgrove) to each church that attends. Owner Joe Hackman, who is also a worship leader at Swamp, feels that this seminar will be invaluable to the churches his store serves. He is pleased to support it in any way he can, noting that the workshop schedule is “very, very impressive!”

As a result of increased demand, the registration deadline has been extended to February 12. Registration is free and donations will be received to cover the cost of lunch. Nursery care is available
but children must be preregistered.

Swamp Mennonite Church is located on Rosedale Road in Quakertown, Pa. For the most updated information or to register, visit the church website, JustSwamp.com, e-mail Emily Ralph, Minister of Music (Emily@justswamp.com) or call the church office (215-536-7928).

Franconia Conference announces board candidates and sets August public meeting

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Stephen Kriss

The Nominating Committee of Franconia Mennonite Conference announces seven candidates for open board positions and an election/affirmation process that will commence immediately by written or email ballot.   The seven candidates are:

Moderator:  John Goshow
John Goshow is retiring this fall after 33 years of service and leadership at Penn Foundation, Sellersville, Pa, where he served as president and CEO for the last decade. John and his wife Janet live near Perkasie, Pa, and are the parents of three adult children. They attend Blooming Glen Mennonite Church where John is a Sunday school teacher. John has served on the Board of Directors of Mennonite Health Services Alliance and in local and regional associations for community building and behavioral healthcare. He brings experience with organizational leadership as well as a social work background, combined with years of service connected with the church.

Assistant Moderator: Miriam BookMiriam Book is lead pastor at Salford Mennonite Church near Harleysville, Pa.   Originally from Lancaster County, Pa, Mim came to serve as part of the pastoral team at Salford after over 20 years of service in Mennonite Church denominational agencies where she worked with area conferences and overseas ministries as well as convention planning.  Mim brings gifts of connectedness across the denomination, a commitment to cultivating the gifts of both male and female leaders and acuity for administration and fair process.  She and her husband, Jim Lapp, live in Harleysville, Pa. and are parents of three adult children.

Finance Committee Chairperson:  Randy Nyce
Randy Nyce is church relations manager for MMA/Everence based at the Souderton (Pa) office.  He and his wife Juanita and son Garrett have recently relocated to Hilltown Twp, Pa, where they live in a three-generation household after a decade of living in Philadelphia.   Having grown up in Franconia Conference, Randy worked as a teacher at Philadelphia Mennonite High School and as executive director at Germantown Mennonite Historic Trust.  Randy had worked with stewardship education in his previous congregation (Circle of Hope Brethren in Christ in Philadelphia) and currently helps facilitate young adult Sunday school classes at Salford Mennonite Church.

At-large members:

Marta Beidler Castillo

Marta Beidler Castillo lives in Norristown, Pa, where she is serves as an associate pastor at Nueva Vida Norristown New Life congregation.   Marta grew up in both Vietnam and Indonesia, the daughter of Franconia Conference-rooted mission workers.   She’s committed to the intercultural work of antiracism and racial reconciliation.   Marta lives in a bilingual Spanish/English household with her husband, Julio and children, Andres and Daniel. With broad mission experiences internationally and in a US urban location, Marta is committed to prayer along with active engagement of diverse neighborhoods with the message of Christ’s Good News.

Joe Hackman
Joe Hackman lives in Lansdale, Pa, with his wife Angela and daughter Ila.  He grew up attending Swamp Mennonite Church at Quakertown and currently serves on the pastoral team at Salford Mennonite Church.  Joe is a student at Eastern Mennonite Seminary in Pennsylvania, returning to school after several years of teaching at Christopher Dock Mennonite High School.  He’s passionate about the possibilities for Anabaptism in a postmodern context, loves working with young leaders and has worked hard to build bridges between the established and emerging congregations of Franconia Conference.

Beny Krisbianto
Beny Krisbianto lives in Philadelphia where he serves as lead pastor of Nations Worship Center, a congregation comprised mostly of recent immigrants from Indonesia.  Beny relocated to Philadelphia to begin a new Anabaptist congregation in South Philadelphia after completing studies at Jubilee School of Theology in Iowa.  Since coming to Pennsylvania, Beny has studied at Eastern Mennonite Seminary toward a certificate in Anabaptist leadership.  Beny is fluent in English, Javanese and Indonesian.  He’s gifted at calling forth new leaders and committed to establishing Anabaptist congregations within the Indonesian immigrant community on the East Coast.

James B. Longacre
James B. Longacre attends Bally Mennonite Church where he grew up as son of the pastor.  Jim has been active in the congregation’s leadership and believes that the Anabaptist/Mennonite way of telling and living the Good News is particularly relevant in today’s world.  Jim is an attorney specializing in employee benefits law, working with a regional firm in Reading, Pa.   He and his wife Ann along with their children Ben, Sam, and Zoe moved back to the family farm near Bally, Pa after years of living in Washington DC and now can frequently be found at youth sporting events throughout southeastern PA.

Upon affirmation of conference delegates, the new board members will begin service in September 2010.   The moderator and assistant moderator positions are open due to the impending resignations of current moderators Blaine Detwiler and Randy Heacock. Two at-large board positions are available due to the resignations of Karen Moyer and Yvonne Platts that followed the approval of LaVern Yutzy’s conference review report earlier this spring.  As approved by the board, the nominating committee moved to reconstitute board leadership by receiving nominations from across conference constituency for all open positions.  Current and remaining board members include Jim King (Plains congregation), Jim Laverty (Souderton congregation), Rina Rampogu (Plains congregation) and Nelson Shenk (Boyertown congregation). Conference staff members Noel Santiago and Ertell Whigham will continue to meet with the board but do not have voting privileges as was recommended by the conference review report and approved by the board in May.

After prayerful discernment and consideration, the nominating committee presents this slate of qualified and committed leaders to help guide Franconia Conference toward a hopeful future. The seven candidates were selected from among those nominated based on skills, gifts, commitment and representation from across the Conference community.  The selection process requires a quorum of votes to affirm the new candidates by July 26, 2010.

Nominating committee members Donella Clemens (Perkasie congregation), Mike Derstine (Plains congregation), Beny Krisbianto (Nations Worship Center) and Joy Sutter (Salford congregation) have worked alongside the Review Steering Committee and current Conference Board to assure a transition that opens possibilities for the continued historic witness of Franconia Conference congregations, embodying Christ’s peace while recognizing our diversity of experience.  The nominating committee is grateful for God’s leading and the Spirit’s movement in the midst of the discernment process.  According to Mike Derstine, “We are impressed by the willingness and enthusiasm that all seven persons have for offering their gifts of leadership and wisdom to the present and future ministry of Franconia Mennonite Conference.”

CLICK HERE to download the ballot as a PDF.

A ballot will be sent by email and by the US postal service to all delegates for a signed or emailed response from each delegate. Emailed responses should be sent to ballot@mosaicmennonites.org.  All ballots will remain confidential. Franconia Conference bylaws require a 50% quorum and a two-thirds vote to affirm the candidates for service on the board.

The Review Steering Committee also announces an all-Conference meeting of prayer, update and introduction of new and current board members for August 12 from 7-8:30pm at Christopher Dock Mennonite High School in Lansdale, Pa. This meeting will include prayerful reflection, a financial update from the Conference and a timeline for further work rooted in the Yutzy conference review commissioned by the board earlier this year that seeks to guide in the alignment of the Conference’s work, staffing, finances and future.

A grandfather’s legacy: Lessons from a milk truck bookstore

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Joseph Hackman, Salford

When I was young I heard much about a milk truck. My grandfather purchased a milk truck in 1947 and converted it to a bookstore on wheels. He traveled the roads of Montgomery, Bucks, and Lehigh counties and sold Bibles, devotionals, and children’s books.

A Christian bookstore on wheels seems a bit antiquated today. If my grandfather were starting out in ministry now, I’m not sure that he would convert a milk truck into a bookstore to communicate Good News. But even though his methods might seem outdated today, stories from the milk truck and the lessons that go with them have informed my own sense of call. And as my licensing now becomes another part of my own story as a pastor, I reflect on how the milk truck will always be part of my journey.

Good News

Traveling the roads of Montgomery, Bucks, and the Lehigh counties, the bookstore on wheels always gave my grandfather opportunities to come in contact with those who never heard the Good News. His method was simple. Park in a neighborhood and knock on doors and invite them to visit the truck. I share my grandfather’s passion to share Christian faith with those who have not grown up in the church. Nothing gives me more joy than sharing Good News with those who have not grown up in the church, or with those who desire to hear it again for the first time.

Ecumenical Relationships

In 1989 my parents bought the bookstore from my grandfather, and my family spent many hours working there. The bookstore gave me an awareness of how small my Mennonite tradition is. My grandparents and parents formed close relationships with Lutherans, Presbyterians, Baptists of all stripes, and Catholics. Forming these relationships gave me an understanding from an early age of the diversity and beauty of the larger Christian church. The experience of my grandfather, and later my parents, modeling ecumenical relationships has given greater understanding of who I am as an Anabaptist Mennonite, as well as a better understanding for who I am as a part of the larger body of faith.

Risk Taking

We may not see milk trucks on wheels serving as bookstores today. But when my grandfather first started the ministry, he was looking for ways to be culturally relevant that would meet people’s needs. In the 1940s, there were few Christian bookstores, and even fewer mobile Christian bookstores. My grandfather wasn’t afraid to take creative risks, in business or in ministry, to communicate the Gospel. This creative risk taking is something that informs my own call to ministry. The church has often held a posture of resistance to culture. Going forward, I hope to discern with congregations when to resist and when to engage culture.

In my office I have a picture of my grandfather standing next to his milk truck. Wherever I go in ministry, I hope to keep the picture close. It reminds me of my grandfather and his life in Allentown. But it also reminds me of my own calling to ministry. It reminds me of my calling to share the Good News, especially to those who have not heard it. It reminds me of the importance of building relationships with Christians from all backgrounds. And it reminds me to take risks in efforts to communicate the Gospel. I’m blessed to have the example of my grandfather be part of my own call to ministry, and I’m hopeful for the ways this story will continue to inform my future journey as a pastor.