Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Josh Meyer

Reflections from Impact: Holy Land conference

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Impact: Holy Land
Archbishop Elias Chacour speaks at the Impact: Holy Land conference. Photo by Ben Wideman.

by Josh Meyer, Franconia congregation

I tend to be fairly cautious about most Christian conferences.  At the risk of sounding overly-skeptical, I’m not thoroughly convinced of the long-term benefit of such events, and wonder if they don’t play into a kind of consumerism within the Christian sub-culture of the West: lots of marketing, lots of money, lots of “celebrity Christians,” lots of glossy pamphlets and slick websites.  They’re not all bad, of course, but I generally feel uncomfortable with many aspects of “the big conference machine.”

However, I must admit when I received an invitation to attend the Impact: Holy Land conference, I was intrigued.  If you’re going to have a conference, I thought, there aren’t many issues other than the situation in the Middle East that are worthy of special time and attention.  And so, with a bit of hesitation, I registered for and attended the event.  I’m so glad I did.

It was a richly challenging and deeply hopeful three days of relationship-building and peace-building, of learning and growing.  The speakers and participants were comprised of a diverse group of individuals, with varied theological and political backgrounds and beliefs, but who were united by a love for Jesus.  We listened to stories, wrestled with difficult topics, asked pointed questions, studied the Bible, tried to disagree agreeably, and worshiped together throughout the entire event.

There’s not room in one short blog post to capture all of the wisdom and grace and hope that was shared during our time together, but here’s a brief sampling of some of the thoughts that struck me and continue to shape my thinking about the Way of Jesus in general and the Holy Land in particular:

  • “The greatest tool to fight injustice is actively seeking peace and reconciliation with those who are persecuting us.”
  • “The most deadly weapon in conflict is dehumanization.  When we dehumanize the other and buy into an ‘us vs. them’ mentality, it’s a breakdown of the image of God in other people.”
  • “If your theology is not a blessing to and good news for your enemy, then it’s not a Christian theology.”
  • “Part of loving your enemy means listening to their story, learning their history, and getting to know their narrative.”
  • “You cannot have justice without reconciliation.”
  • “Whenever people ask if I’m for a one-state solution or a two-state solution, I always reply that I’m for an 11 million-individual solution.  Every single person living in the Holy Land needs to be transformed and needs to be part of the solution.”
  • “As Mother Theresa teaches us, if we have no peace it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”
  • “We Christians do not have exclusive control over the Holy Spirit.  Sometimes God works through those who believe differently than we do.”
  • “Dr. West reminds us that justice is what love looks like in public.”
  • “Love cannot be legislated, but as our hearts are transformed by the love of God we will necessarily change our policies.”
  • “Politics is about policies that impact people.  If there are policies in place that are hurting people, then challenging those policies is the right and loving thing to do.  So yes, there are times when love is political.”
  • “We must expose injustice to the point that it becomes so uncomfortable that people have no choice but to do something about it.”
  • “We need to exchange weapons for worship, conquest for community, and the pursuit of power for the pursuit of peace.”

I attended this conference with a desire to learn about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.  And while I did learn more about the situation, I also learned about much more than simply the religious and socio-political struggle in the Holy Land.

I learned about God’s deep love for all people.  I learned about conflict and reconciliation and justice.  I learned about the power of story, the power of forgiveness, and the power of God using ordinary people to do small things with great love.  I learned about my own distorted ways of dealing with conflict and relating to those who disagree with me.  I learned about social justice and the fierce urgency of now.  I learned about the imperative call to express our faith not merely in belief but through concrete, tangible, loving action.  And most importantly, I learned once again that the good news of Jesus is for all people: saints and sinners, skeptics and dreamers, Arabs and Americans, Israelis and Palestinians.

Successful Conference, Seminary partnership concludes

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IME
Steve Kriss (top right) and Derek Cooper (second row, fourth from the right) have partnered for five years to take seminary students on intercultural learning trips, including this spring’s trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. Photo by Dennis Dong.

by John Tyson, Salford congregation

Theological educators believe headfirst immersion into unfamiliar cultural terrain is a requirement for preparing church leaders in the context of the twenty-first century. For students at Biblical Theological Seminary (Hatfield, Pa.), a lifelong commitment to intercultural ministry begins at the second year mark of their LEAD Master of Divinity Program.

To meet the complex and unconventional demands of intercultural education, Biblical Seminary and Franconia Conference have partnered together to create the Intercultural Ministry Experience (IME). For the past five years, Franconia’s director of leadership cultivation, Steve Kriss, and Biblical’s director of the LEAD program, Derek Cooper, have led a total of seventy-five students on journeys far and wide, from Israel/Palestine to Italy to Cambodia and Vietnam.

For Dr. Derek Cooper, the ten-day trips abroad produce formative insights and questions that dwell with students well beyond their time in seminary. “It is my favorite component of the LEAD program, and students receive a very concentrated educational experience,” said Cooper. “Students always come away from the trip changed, challenged, and more culturally aware. It’s completely transformative.”

“We also talk a lot about contextualization, and we learn much about how the local Christian community addresses issues relating to history, culture, politics, and world religions,” Cooper added.

Josh Meyer, associate pastor of Franconia congregation (Telford, Pa.), participated in the 2011 trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. Meyer identified practices of learning and listening as the educational core of his experience. “This was not a mission trip where rich, white Americans did a service project and ‘brought Jesus’ to the forgotten corners of the globe,” he said.  “Rather, this was a learning experience where we went as students, not saviors; as listeners, not experts; as those interested in exploring ways in which God was already living and moving and active in the culture, not as those bringing Jesus to a place where, prior to our arrival, God was not present…This approach to cross-cultural study resonated deeply with my own wariness of short-term missions and helped to shape my thinking on how we as people of faith engage with the rest of the world.”

The required IME provided Donna Merow her first opportunity to explore spaces beyond U.S. borders. Now pastor of Ambler (Pa.) congregation, Merow recalled how her trip to Israel/Palestine transformed both her understanding of ancient scripture as well as the present Israeli/Palestinian conflict. “The reality of walking where Jesus did, of visiting his birthplace, the village he called home, the Sea of Galilee, and the site of his death has changed the way I read the Bible,” Merow explained. “Seeing and touching the separation wall, staying in the homes of Palestinian Christians, and visiting one of the multigenerational refugee camps has made me ask hard questions about government policy and church practice.”

For many travelers, encountering weathered, historically nuanced places reveals how tender the balance is between the past and the future. This was one of the major lessons absorbed by KrisAnne Swartley, associate pastor of Doylestown (Pa.) congregation, on her trip to Italy. “I was struck by the history there, and how it is preserved and revered, and how that can be both a strength and a weakness,” Swartley reflected. “The strength is in remembering our story, remembering how the faithful who went before us worked through questions of faithfulness in the midst of change/struggle. The weakness can be that we are so trapped by traditions of the past that we become irrelevant in the present and into the future. I continue to think about this balance, to pray that I remember and learn from the church of the past but also [have courage] to walk into the future bravely, not afraid to let go of what was as the Spirit gives new wisdom.”

While this spring marks the end of the Biblical/Franconia IME partnership, its conclusion is cause for celebration, according to Kriss. “The model proved to be an effective partnership because both the seminary and the Conference benefitted,” he said. The Conference offered resources of intercultural education and global networking, he observed, while the seminary provided students who were positioned to deeply engage.  “The surprising outcome,” Kriss said, “was to build relationships with Anabaptist students on campus which helped Conference congregations to have new connections with potential pastors.   And these new potential pastors had already been shaped somewhat by Anabaptist ways of engaging the world.  It was a fruitful endeavor, not without struggles at times, but one that represents effective and strategic partnering in healthy ways.”

What I spent all my life becoming

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Josh Meyerby Josh Meyer, Franconia

Born into a family with a rich spiritual heritage, I quite literally grew up in the Church.  I was dedicated as an infant at a Baptist church.  A few years later my mom was offered a job as the Director of Christian Education at a Lutheran church in the area.  We worshiped and participated fully in the life of that church for most of my adolescent years.  As I matured in my faith and grew in my relationship with Jesus, I began exploring other faith communities and ultimately attended a non-denominational and then a Brethren in Christ church during my high school years.  While in college I attended a more charismatic Vineyard church, and upon graduation joined the pastoral staff at a United Methodist Church.

I’m grateful for this diverse religious background, particularly because it has taught me one of life and ministry’s most important truths: it’s about Jesus.  Whether it’s a Baptist, Lutheran, non-denominational, Vineyard, United Methodist, or Anabaptist church, what ultimately matters is the death and resurrection of Jesus.  I’ve been influenced by a number of different theological traditions, but most importantly, I’ve been influenced by the person and work of Christ.  It’s this influence, this relationship, that drives and sustains me, that gives me life and hope and meaning and purpose, and that I’m pursuing with everything I have and all that I am.

From a young age, I have been drawn to the life of faith and in my early high school years began articulating a desire to “become a pastor one day.”  Part of me wondered whether these were the naive pipe-dreams of adolescence; however, as my faith grew and relationship with Christ deepened, the desire to pursue full-time ministry intensified.  During my college years, this calling—this vocational clarity—became undeniable.  Eugene Peterson writes about this in his memoir The Pastor, saying that pastor was “not just a job so that I could make a living, but a way of living that was congruent with what I had spent all my life becoming.”  Peterson’s words resonate deeply with my own experience: an inward calling to ministry that makes sense of and is in accordance with all the ways God’s been moving in my life to this point.

In addition to this inward calling, I have also felt an outward affirmation from the community of faith.  I’ve had people speak into my life—peers and mentors, pastors and parents, colleagues and congregants—who have affirmed some variation of the same message: “God’s gifted you for ministry.  You’re wired to be a pastor.”  I was initially uncomfortable with these conversations and unsure how to respond.  Over time, however, I have come to cherish these interactions as one of the ways God is continuing to confirm my call and invite me to pursue vocational ministry.

John Ruth has written that, “The way we do church is the evidence of what we believe.”  I’ve found that to be true.  Our beliefs have a profound influence on the way we do church, and my own Anabaptist convictions eventually led me to pursue ministry in the Mennonite church.  While I’d never actually been part of a Mennonite church, I align so squarely with Mennonite thought and theology that the process has felt very much like a coming home.

Looking back over the past few years, I have to marvel at the way God’s led me to serving in Franconia Conference: a chance meeting with a Mennonite pastor at an ecumenical training event; a late-night conversation with a Conference staff member at a restaurant in rural Vietnam; a meeting with a seminary professor who encouraged me to put my Anabaptist beliefs into practice by filling out the MLI (the first step toward becoming a pastor in Mennonite Church USA); an invitation to join a local Mennonite pastors group despite the fact that I was, at the time, a Methodist pastor.  On the surface, all these random “Mennonite connections” seemed coincidental, comical, and—to be honest—sometimes a bit creepy.  However, I can now see how each of these experiences were part of God’s unique calling, a way of bringing my wife Kim and me to the Mennonite church in a way we never could have imagined.

I look forward to listening to, learning from, and leading in the Mennonite church.  More than anything, I can’t wait to see how God continues to draw us into inspiring stories, using them to disrupt our complacency and remove our fear so that we might strive after Jesus together.

August Ministerial update

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Josh Meyer
Josh Meyer

Update from Noah Kolb, Pastor of Ministerial Leadership, on behalf of the Ministerial Committee.

Just two quick updates this month:

  • Kristopher Wint has been called by the Finland congregation to serve as an associate pastor alongside of John Ehst.  He begins full-time in August.
  • Josh Meyer has been called by the Franconia congregation to serve on the pastoral team as pastor of preaching and teaching. He begins full-time in September.