Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Marta Beidler Castillo

Communing with each other and the world

by

by Emily Ralph, eralphservant@mosaicmennonites.org

Every year, followers of Jesus around the world join together in remembering his death and resurrection through the act of communion. World Communion Sunday is a celebration marking that through his death, Jesus broke down the wall of hostility between people groups and that through his resurrection, Christ formed a new family of disciples world-wide.

Swamp’s children walk around the globe
Swamp’s children encircle and walk around the globe singing “I am the Church” on World Communion Sunday. Photo by Abby Mason.

Whether wearing clothes from countries around the world, as they did at Plains in Hatfield, Pa., or sharing a spaghetti dinner with the church down the street, as they did at Ripple in Allentown, Pa., Franconia Conference congregations spent October 2nd remembering this holy communion with the world-wide church.

“This remains one of my favorite services of the year,” said Sharon Ambrose, a member of Swamp (Quakertown, Pa.). “I find it so meaningful to celebrate with Christians around the world.” In addition to sharing communion bread from other countries and reading Scripture in multiple languages, Swamp’s service focused on expanding circles of concern from the congregation to the world, both locally and globally.

Church elders pray behind the communion table
Church elders pray behind the communion table at Nueva Vida Norristown New Life. Photo by Emily Ralph.

At Nueva Vida Norristown New Life, Pastor Marta Castillo also encouraged her congregation to evaluate how their actions affected believers around the world. “On World Communion Sunday,” she said, “we need to think about how we commune with the Body of Christ that is hungry . . . with the Body of Christ that is persecuted. . . with the Body of Christ that are immigrants.”

Souderton (Pa.) Mennonite Church celebrated with the theme of hospitality from Acts 2, which describes how the early church worshiped and ate together, sharing their possessions. The congregation used a braided bread of different colors to remind them that people from many nations were celebrating the Lord’s Supper with them. As members of the congregation approached the communion tables, they were joined on the big screen by photos of people celebrating communion around the world.

Souderton--world communion bread
Souderton used a braided bread to remind them that people from many nations were celebrating the Lord’s Supper with them. Photo by Alyssa Kerns.

Ambler celebrated more than World Communion Sunday—the congregation also hosted a regional CROP walk to end hunger that afternoon. Ambler’s preschoolers mixed and bagged trail mix for those who would be “praying on their feet” and, with issues of global hunger on their minds, the congregation worshiped around tables. On each table was a cut-out of the earth with facts and quotes about the condition of the world printed on it, said Pastor Donna Merow. “These became part of our silent confession as we prepared for Communion,” she reflected. “We served one another [around the tables] and then enjoyed an international meal together before heading out to walk to raise funds for global relief efforts.”

On World Communion Sunday and throughout the rest of the year, we are being formed as Jesus-followers, joining God’s world-wide mission to invite all people to participate in God’s kingdom. “Marking this day gives us an invitation to remember our sisters and brothers in places far from us,” said Samantha Lioi, associate pastor at Whitehall Mennonite. “Hearing scripture in three languages and being asked to choose from a variety of breads reminds us we are sojourners as Jesus was, not quite at home but creating welcome places wherever we pitch our tents.”

A month of ordinations marks God’s calling pastoral leaders

by

by Noah Kolb, Plains

Three ordinations in 30 days—this is probably the most ordinations Franconia Conference has ever had in one month! These ordinations bear witness to God’s Spirit at work in calling persons at various stages in life and the impact of leaders and congregations on preparing persons to receive that call. These ordinations represent a significant journey of persons being “equipped to empower others to embrace God’s mission.” They undergird our call to be intercultural, formational and missional. God continues to call women and persons of other cultures to leadership among us. Ordination is the church’s way of recognizing these whom God is calling to lead and who are prepared to make long-term commitments in response. It is an incredible joy for me to act on behalf of the Franconia Conference in affirming and confirming the work of God’s Spirit in “setting apart” credible leaders for the mission to which God has called us.

Marta Castillo
(ordained May 7 as associate pastor at Nueva Vida Norristown New Life)

Marta Castillo first responded to God as a child of missionary parents in Indonesia. She renewed that commitment when she moved to Norristown and joined Nueva Vida Norristown New Life. Having served faithfully in most every leadership position in the congregation she was called to a pastoral responsibility. Her spiritual leadership and responsiveness to the Holy Spirit was affirmed at her ordination, which was conducted in two languages. There was great rejoicing and celebration as the multicultural congregation gathered to worship and celebrate. As a woman married to a Latino, she and her family enrich the congregation and provide wonderful leadership. The ordination was a confirmation and blessing for Marta and the congregation.

Jenifer Eriksen Morales
(ordained May 15 as a conference LEADership Minister)

Jenifer Eriksen Morales was nurtured in the womb of the church at Alpha Mennonite. Her childhood pastor, Henry Swartley, was a great model and nurtured her to love the church while also challenging it. After a brief time in social work Jenifer responded to affirmation and a call to church leadership. Her ability to adapt to changing and difficult experiences has prepared her to do “Transitional Ministry” in Conference and churches. Her ordination service brought together many different people with whom she has journeyed. Most noticeable was the large number of children and young adults as well as neighbors. Together they blessed her and set her apart for the ministry to which she has committed herself. She and her husband are members of Souderton Mennonite, the congregation that called for her ordination.


(ordained June 6 for ministry to people from India)

came to this country from India in 1994 for theological training. After several years in this country, Paulus and his family discovered Plains Mennonite. He was attracted to Anabaptism and “servant leadership.” Paulus has a deep passion for his people and in 2005 began a fellowship for Indian families in the local area. Plains blessed this ministry and called for his credentialing. Four years later Paulus was ordained on a Sunday morning. He was blessed by the presence and participation of the congregation and many Indian families. Testimonies were shared and leaders gathered around him in prayer and blessing. A wonderful intercultural potluck followed the service.

Same mission, same values, new urgency

by

Marta Castillo, Conference Board,
Nueva Vida Norristown New Life
castillonnl@gmail.com

Intercultural, missional, and formational are words that beg to be defined more clearly and deeply in our hearts and minds. When many of us read, “For at least the next two years, the conference board has prioritized for Ertell Whigham and conference staff to work at being intercultural, missional and formational”, we can affirm those priorities as God-honoring and life-giving. Yet some of us may take a wait and see attitude on how being intercultural, missional, and formational will be “brought to the center in such a way everyone embraces them as the driving force behind why we do ministry and how we do ministry.”

This issue of Intersections is full of examples of how the priorities of being intercultural, missional, and formational are already being put into practice within Franconia Conference. God is actively defining these words for us as reflected in these stories of how God’s people are responding to the movement of the Spirit. As often is the case, we are trying to catch up and get on board with what God is already doing among us.

God’s formational work in the life of Ertell Whigham has brought him to this place of leadership among us and on the journey. God developed in him a deep appreciation for community, peace, honest communication, conflict management skills, and a deeply held vision for how the church can be a witness in the world. The prayer trainings referenced in the story of “Learning to Listen” highlight the central role of listening prayer in the formation of God’s people. “Prayer is finding out what God wants to do and asking God to do it.” We find evidence of God’s molding and directing in the story of the calling of Klaudia Smucker in her stated desire “to walk forward in what God has called her to” and her prayer to keep her heart wide open. God’s love for process and formation is reflected in the testimony of Samantha Lioi that “in God’s maddening slowness there is expansive room for healing. There is so much space to become the people we are.” Bob Thompson was moved by God from “no way” to “I am convinced that serving God wherever He calls us, is one of the greatest blessings a Christ-follower can experience.”

From the solid base of God’s formational work comes our missional response. The Whigham article states, “Whigham plans to encourage everyone from the pew to the pulpit and beyond to become more clearly passionate about the conference’s vision: equipping leaders to empower others to embrace God’s mission. Overall, he believes his role is “to continue to bring clarity for what that means and for every person to be able to think and pray about how they can represent that [vision] in their particular context, as it relates to the whole.” God’s mission is to reconcile the world to himself through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Mission is happening in the Lehigh Valley through Ripple, an eclectic Anabaptist urban worshiping community “moving toward Jesus as our center.” As the conference board visits and listens to the testimonies of the churches, we hear story after story of how congregations continue to embrace God’s mission.

Our missional response is naturally taking us down the path to being increasingly intercultural. The Partner in Mission relationship with Mana de Vida Eterna is described “as another example of how the Lord is working through relationships to connect congregations and conferences across what may have formerly been seen as boundaries that were not to be crossed.” In Allentown, a peace pole becomes a symbol of unity and “a common desire for respectful relationships.” Ertell Whigham is quoted as saying of the beginnings of Nueva Vida Norristown New Life, an intercultural, multilingual church, “As I looked at [these] three churches . . . all professing to serve the same Christ, called to be one people, it just felt like we needed to do something different in order to be something different for God,” Whigham said.

The priorities set by the conference board for the next two years, being intercultural, missional, and formational, are not new. Neither is the conference’s vision: equipping leaders to empower others to embrace God’s mission. Yet there does seem to be a new urgency and a new commitment, to “do something different in order to be something different for God”. Embrace God’s mission!

Norristown congregation celebrates twenty years

by

Norristown, PA—Nueva Vida Norristown New Life (NVNNL) Mennonite Church celebrates its 20th anniversary on Saturday and Sunday, July 17-18.

“Taste the Flavors of NVNNL” on Saturday, July 17, 4 – 7 p.m. features a gospel concert with James Crumbley of Tampa, Florida. Crumbly teaches Jazz Ensemble, Adult Voice Ensemble and Songwriting at the Patel Conservatory, which is a part of The Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center in Tampa, Florida. He also serves as Music Director for the Youth Theater Company ensemble, and chairs the music department at Middleton High School where he teaches chorus and orchestra.

An intercultural meal, featuring cultural delicacies from the 15 cultures and countries of origin represented in the congregation, will also be served. Donations for the meal and concert will be received.

An outdoor celebration worship service will be held on Sunday, July 18, 10:45 a.m. James Crumbley and the bilingual NVNNL worship team and pastoral team will lead worship. A special offering for the congregation’s multi-faceted capital campaign, Enlarging Our Place in God’s World, will be received.

In July 1990, Nueva Vida Norristown New Life was formed by the joining together of three “legacy” Mennonite congregations in town—Fuente de Salvación, Bethel and First. First Mennonite Church was started in 1917 by Franconia Mennonite Conference as its first mission. First Mennonite began Bethel across town as a sister congregation in 1959. After several years of sharing First Mennonite’s building, Fuente joined the Franconia Conference in 1985.

“We’d been meeting together once a year for worship and fellowship meals. On one of those occasions in 1988, God showed us, “This is my church–why are you worshiping in three different locations?” said Pastor Ertell Whigham, former pastor of Bethel. “We realized that if we wanted to be a witness in Norristown, we needed to be one multi-lingual and intercultural congregation.”

NVNNL purchased the building of the Bethany United Methodist congregation at Swede and East Marshall Street. The ministry teams, Church Council, Elders and Pastoral Team represent the ethnic diversity present in the congregation and community. Pastor Whigham, Pastor Marta Beidler Castillo and Pastor Angel Tamayo comprise the current Pastoral Team; all are associate pastors in a shared leadership arrangement.

The congregation’s presence in the Norristown community is realized through five summer outdoor worship services, Precious Life Learning Center, The Benefit Bank, ASSETS Montco micro-enterprise training, Center 4 Youth, and through the congregation’s involvement with the Hospitality Center, Crossroads Gift and Thrift Store, and the Norristown Ministerium.

The church is located at 3 and 25 East Marshall Street, Norristown. For information regarding the anniversary events or the congregation, contact the church office at 484-322-0442, nnl3@juno.com or www.norristownnewlife.com.

Franconia Conference announces board candidates and sets August public meeting

by

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.