Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Souderton Mennonite Homes

Creating Helpful and Spirit-Filled Community

by

by Jennifer Svetlik, Salford (Harleysville, PA) congregation

Margaret Zook

“How lifegiving it is to recognize that our congregations are not just alive on Sunday morning,” shares Margaret Zook, Director of Collaborative Ministries for Mosaic Conference. This new part-time role serves as the team leader for accompaniment relationships with Conference Related Ministries (CRMs).  

“There is such a richness in our CRMs,” reflects Zook. “They each have a unique origin and focus on meeting a particular community need.”  Zook anticipates assisting congregations and CRMs to bring their skills and knowledge together more intentionally in order to create a more helpful, just, and Spirit-filled community.

Zook brings a wealth of experience to this new role, having worked for and leading several CRMs in southeastern Pennsylvania. For over 20 years she served as Executive Director of Souderton Mennonite Homes, a CRM that was created in 1917. Then five years ago, after Souderton Mennonite Homes merged to become part of Living Branches, Zook was called back to serve as Director of Church and Community Relations. She has also served on numerous boards of community organizations, including 10 years on the board of Penn Foundation, another CRM.

Wib and Margaret Zook celebrate their anniversary COVID-style.
Photo provided by Margaret Zook

“I have thoroughly enjoyed working with CRMs through my professional life and board work,” shares Zook. “These experiences have made me see the value of being connected to and supported by the conference.” 

In her role Zook will visit the CRMs and relate to their boards and leadership. She will listen to and share the stories of their missions, successes, and needs across the conference. “I am delighted to have the opportunity to walk along the existing and new and emerging CRMs,” Zook explains. “Hearing, seeing, and sharing the transforming work that is being done is such an honor.” 

Zook knows the value of a conference network for these organizations. “A foundation of faith and a connection to church sets CRMs apart from other nonprofit organizations,” she shares. “It gives a sense of accountability that is a stabilizing force for an organization.” 

Margaret Zook and some of her grandchildren.
Photo provided by Margaret Zook

Most of Zook’s life has been in southeastern Pennsylvania, both intentionally as well as by birth. “I have loved my congregation [Salford] and my community,” Zook reflects.  She has a fairly large extended family, which includes ten grandchildren. She enjoys visiting her family in Florida and Colorado and staying in touch with them however she can. 

Zook and her husband value walking together, and currently have a goal to walk the entire Perkiomen Trail, in sections. She is an avid reader and is a member of two book clubs. She enjoys gardening and friendships.  

Professionally and personally, Zook identifies her faith as a motivating factor for life. “My faith drives me in a way I can’t put fully into words,” she explains. “It is who I am and what I do, and it leads me to service. I believe God has placed us here to make this earth a better place, to serve the beautiful earth and its people.”

A Synergy of Missional Engagement

by

by Mike Clemmer, LEADership Minister & Pastor at Towamencin Mennonite Church

Today’s Souderton Mennonite Homes (Living Branches) began as Eastern Mennonite Home of the Franconia District in 1917.

This past week, I had the wonderful opportunity of leading a litany of blessing and rededication for the Souderton Mennonite Homes’ Living Branches 100th Anniversary. This service was the final event of a year-long series of activities that gratefully acknowledged the past 100 years, while also casting a vision for serving the community in the years to come. Living Branches is the first and oldest established partnership in ministry with the Franconia Conference. Currently, there are 18 Conference Related Ministries (CRMs) that represent an array of extensions of the reign of God into local communities through nurture, witness, care and discipling. After my experience at this service, I wondered, how are we doing in supporting our CRMs?

At their core, Conference Related Ministries have a unique collaborative relationship with Franconia Conference and represent a fruit of faithfulness in the church’s history and future. CRMs have usually been born out of a deep desire to care for people in need, both in church communities as well as the physical community in which they reside. All the CRMs also have their own stories to tell. This is true of Souderton Mennonite Homes.

In the early 1900s there were no local retirement communities. Leaders in the Mennonite community wanted to find a way to care for the aging population in their congregations. They saw a need and collectively asked, how can we care for our community? Prior to this point, care for the aging happened within families. Although there was a heartfelt sense of love and responsibility for their older members, and care was provided for grandparents and parents by the younger generation –  this often meant that the sick or elderly lived out their days confined to a bed, without easy access to proper care.  At this time in our country, making ends meet was hard enough for many families and some simply could not provide adequate care. Much like in Acts 6, Franconia Conference leaders conferred about this great need and the seeds of the possibility of forming this “ministry” together were planted. On October 7, 1915, the Conference approved the project and appointed 12 trustees – all who understood that they would not be creating an institution, but rather, a “home,” embraced by the church. The Conference then looked to its congregations to help support the project financially, and the goal of $6,000 was surpassed as the trustees collected over $19,000. Shortly thereafter, the “Eastern Mennonite Home of the Franconia District” opened its doors in 1917 and the partnership with Franconia Conference has continued.

Stories like this one could be told by many other Conference Related Ministries. Indeed, the Conference has partnered with a variety of ministries in many areas of need including bringing help to disabled or special needs persons, collaborating in areas of aging and mental health, engaging together in camps and retreat centers, as well as working together in creating educational facilities and church plantings.  By ministering together, our churches are achieving a synergy of missional engagement in our communities. We are truly the church when many members are working together to form one body in Christ – a body that shares resources and invites collaboration with many gifted volunteers – as we together exercise mutual care and love in showing hospitality to all those in need. After all, the church exists to benefit others. How are we doing at supporting our Conference related ministries?

Running toward God (& the joy of finding the right ministry match)

by

Joy Sawatzkyby Joy Sawatzky, chaplain, Souderton Mennonite Homes (reposted by permission)

I am scheduled to be ordained into pastoral ministry February 9 at Souderton Mennonite Homes.  It’s a service that affirms God’s call on me to lifelong ministry to the Church, and gives me the credentials and oversight to do so through the Franconia Mennonite Conference.

I have been almost this close to being ordained before… twice.  And each time I found a reason not to accept the invitation.  Each time the reason was the same.  It was because I was not convinced that I was ‘called’ to this life of service to the Church – for a lifetime.

In the movie “Runaway Bride”, Maggie has a tendency to run away when it comes to a marriage commitment.  Maggie has just left another groom standing at the altar, and has jumped aboard a FedEx truck as an escape route.

Ellie: Where is she going?
Fisher:  I don’t know, but she’ll be there by 10:30 tomorrow.

Like Maggie, I wasn’t always sure why I ran away, but just knew it wasn’t right – knew it in that place where I discern what God is saying to me.  I knew it wasn’t the time.  I was not running away from God or even God’s call (in the larger sense).   I have been running toward God since I was a kid, after making a serious personal commitment to God’s loving and sustaining grace at our church camp, and have always lived a life pointed towards God.

Oh, I have thrown a tantrum or two at God since then, but never veered from that early innocent desire to be connected to and in service with my Creator – to live that life that God created me for. The verses that I live by are from Psalm 139:13 – 14:

For it is you, o god, who formed my inward parts;
you knit me in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made,
wonderful are your works;
I know that well.

Here at SMH I have found a place of ministry that fits with God’s call on my life.  The time is right.  I am not even tempted by all the FedEx trucks on the road!  Thanks be to God for this marvelous gift!

Joy Sawatzky will be ordained at Souderton Mennonite Homes at 2pm on February 9, 2014.  All are welcome to attend!

Living Branches names pastoral care & service team

by

Russ Mast
Russ.Mast@livingbranches.org

When visionary leaders from Franconia Mennonite Conference founded Souderton Mennonite Homes and Dock Woods Community, serving older adults and families in the name of Jesus was at the heart of their mission. When the Boards of these two ministries came together to form Living Branches in 2008, we again affirmed that the vision and vitality of our shared ministry is rooted in and guided by Jesus. “Recognizing the importance of our faith heritage to our mission, we wanted to ensure that pastoral care played a prominent role in Living Branches,” explains Edward Brubaker, President/CEO. “We also felt that service to others was core to our Anabaptist Christian identity.”

This past fall, Living Branches combined Pastoral Care and Volunteer Coordination across the three campuses to create a unified Pastoral Care and Service Team. After interaction with a number of good candidates, the Pastors, Volunteer Coordinator and Living Branches leadership unanimously decided to call Ray Hurst to serve as our first Director of Pastoral Care and Service. Ray leads a gifted new team, which includes Jim Derstine, Pastor at Dock Meadows (Zion Mennonite); Lorene Derstine, Pastor at Dock Woods (Plains); Mark Derstine, Pastor at Souderton Mennonite Homes (Blooming Glen); and Lynne Allebach, our Volunteer Coordinator (Methacton).

Ray brings more than 20 years of ministry, pastoral care and social service experience to Living Branches. He began his ministry in Kansas, where he served as Co-Pastor of Tabor Mennonite Church in Newton for 11 years. Ray then became Lead Pastor of Community Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg, Virginia, for a decade. Both were larger, multi-staff congregations. Ray moved to the Philadelphia area three years ago when his wife, Brenda, accepted a call to serve as Pastor of Frazer (Pa) Mennonite Church. Since moving to Pennsylvania, Ray has served autistic youth and adults living with mental illness. He also worked for a year as Executive Director of Good Samaritan Shelter in Phoenixville.
Ray earned a Master of Divinity Degree in Pastoral Counseling from Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from Trinity College. He is an avid gardener and is passionate about the Christian call to work for peace and justice.

“We have a strong interest in nurturing the ongoing faith development of older adults,” says Ray. “Our faith isn’t finalized when we reach a certain age; rather, we can always continue to mature in our faith journey.” Ray and his team are creating spaces to talk about questions of life and faith in the context of community. Ray recently started a column in a monthly resident newsletter titled “Roast Preacher” where he invites conversation with residents around an aspect of faith that he is pondering.

With these changes, the Dock Woods and Dock Meadows chaplains are now referred to as pastors, which had already been the tradition on the Souderton Mennonite Homes campus. As Ray explains, “For some, the term ‘chaplain’ can signify a shorter-term ministry to an individual. At Living Branches, however, we’re looking to form meaningful relationships for the balance of a person’s life, and we’re also tending to the wider faith community on all three campuses. We feel this new language embraces our Anabaptist heritage of faith in the context of community.”

Another way we’re embracing our Anabaptist approach to spirituality is including Volunteer Coordination in the Pastoral Care and Service Team. “Serving others is at the heart of the Gospel,” added Ray. “By including Volunteer Coordination in our vision for Pastoral Care, we are helping others connect more fully with service as a wonderful, life-giving spiritual discipline.”
In addition to engaging our residents, their families and staff members around issues of spirituality, our Pastoral Care and Service Team strives to be a resource for area pastors and coordinators of congregational health ministries. One way we do this is through annual Pastoral Care to Seniors seminars.

As Ray summarizes, “We are here to be expressions of Christ’s love, as we minister to the needs of the whole person—mind, body and spirit.”