Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Stephen Kriss

The Hard Work of Pentecost 

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by Stephen Kriss

Editor’s note: Executive Minister Stephen Kriss began a sabbatical on May 22. He will return to his Mosaic role on August 30. He wrote this article before he left on sabbatical. 

In mid-May, Rose Bender and I taught an intensive “Introduction to Mosaic” class. This Mosaic Institute class is for recently credentialed Mosaic leaders or those who are exploring credentialed ministry in our Conference. It’s a quick immersion into Anabaptist theology, intercultural practice, Mennonite history and polity, and our Mosaic story.   

In this class, students shared their life stories with each other.  Because of the diversity of this group, the contexts took us from Africa to Argentina, California to New York.  Listening to each other’s stories requires calmness, attentiveness, and curiosity. There were stories of trauma and hope, of hurt and healing. I continue to be amazed by the depth of faith that new leaders in our Conference bring to our community. 

This past Sunday we celebrated Pentecost, which also marks the third anniversary of naming ourselves “Mosaic Conference.”  Pentecost seems full of possibility. I’ve often thought that Pentecost is about sharing and expressing, receiving and speaking.  But it is also about listening.  It is about hearing in a language that is familiar but not to all.  It’s about the Good News being expressed in multiple ways (see Acts 2).   


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The hard work of Pentecost is listening.  We imagine the vigor of tongues of fire, the forceful rush of wind, the murmur of words spoken in our preferred language. But it also required attending our minds to listen to the words in the midst of it all.   

We are now in our third year of being Mosaic, and it is hard work. We have experienced shared joys and traumas. We face the risks of both secularism and Christian nationalism, which in very different ways, can make authentic, Jesus-centered witness controversial and difficult.  In this last year, we lived into our brokenness more than I would have hoped and have been challenged by differences in decision-making and disagreements.   

Yet, I strongly believe in the possibility of Mosaic, and I believe that it is Good News of reconciliation and welcome.  We are now in the work of the fruit of the Spirit of Pentecost. That fruit consists of listening, discerning, and understanding how to be together across cultural, language, political, economic, geographical, and theological differences.  For some of us, this can seem like a lot to bear, for others, it’s ongoing joy.  It can be both. 

It takes concerted effort to not jump to conclusions but to allow stories to unfold and to hear perspectives that are usually more complicated than we originally imagined. The hard work of listening allows those who are wounded to also find ways to speak, to be heard.   

The hard work of Pentecost is welcoming holy hope and curiosity in wondering what the Spirit is doing in bringing and binding us together.  May we continue to be transformed by the Spirit of Pentecost. 

Don’t miss the Conference-wide Pentecost Worship Service!

Sunday, June 11, 2023
7:30 PM ET / 4:30 PM PT

Organized by Mosaic Worship Cohort

Stephen Kriss

Stephen Kriss is the Executive Minister of Mosaic Conference.

When We Are Not of One Accord: Moving Forward on the Pathway

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By Stephen Kriss 

Mennonite historian and retired pastor John Ruth once told me that if you don’t have gelassenheit, you really don’t have anything as a community.  Gelassenheit (yieldedness) is a hallmark of our Mennonite story. In our historical moment, it’s a counter-cultural thing.   

Gelassenheit is a willingness to put my own conscience or belief in the context of community and to yield my own position to the discernment of the group. It is the opposite of fight or flight. It’s remaining, staying, maybe even holding to your own viewpoint, but yet yielding. 

While this yieldedness has possibilities for abuse, it also has an immense power in our time of individualism and consumerism.  Typically we humans think of ourselves first and then those we consider like us (by biology, ethnicity, geography, politics, faith, language, or citizenship.) Our commitment to those who are different diminishes within diversity, rather than strengthened through intentional engagement.   

It is the opposite of fight or flight. It’s remaining, staying, maybe even holding to your own viewpoint, but yet yielding. 

In Mosaic, we are trying what can feel like an impossible thing by holding together some of those differences under the Spirit of Pentecost. We choose this community together, continuing the commitments of baptism to give and receive counsel and to identify with Jesus by walking together.  We choose, in the face of diversity and adversity, not fight or flight, but engagement and connection. 

At our recent Conference Assembly, we discerned a pathway together, a compromise with a two-year maximum timeline.  While 81.5% of us found this to be an affirmable option, 20% of us didn’t. Our task now as Mosaic leaders is to hear the reservations of that 20%, some who think the process is too quick while others too slow, and to diligently include those concerns going forward. 

We are not a community that simply allows the majority to rule.  We take the concerns of everyone seriously.  In this way, the church can bear witness to the reconciling love of Jesus in a way that isn’t evidenced often in political or economic realms.  We are still one community, with one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God who is above all and through all and in all even when we are not quite of one accord.   

I am committed to hearing the concerns and cautions (I read all the ballot comments before writing this article). A red vote didn’t mean you don’t love or know what it means to be Mosaic, nor that you weren’t ready to go the second mile in the spirit of Chesed.  It meant you thought the plan was imperfect, not the best option, or you hoped for something else.  I hear that. We all need to hear that, and also continue to move forward. 

As a leader, I am committed to the principle of leaving no one behind.  It comes from battlefield tactics and understandings.  But it also comes from my sense of faithfulness in believing that the loudest or quickest person doesn’t negate the perspectives of those who speak more quietly or slowly or have yet to discern.  God speaks in rolling thunder and in the still small voice as well. We need space for both and time to consider our way.  There are times when we need to be quick and responsive, but also times when we need to be slow and contemplative.  We will need to balance these realities together. We are both broken and beautiful, strong and weak. 

In the next weeks, the Board and staff will begin to work at implementing pathway recommendations.  There will be opportunities to begin to help shape this process further together.  All of us will be invited to engage across our varieties of difference in Mosaic.  I hope we will be able to yield to the process of our imperfect discernment for now, trusting the Spirit to keep working within us on the way and beside us in paths of mutual transformation and renewal. 

Stephen Kriss

Stephen Kriss is the Executive Minister of Mosaic Conference.

The Steadfast Love of God in a Time of Change

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by Stephen Kriss

In June, I wrote a Mosaic response related to the outcomes of the Mennonite Church USA Special Delegate Session at Kansas City.  In a second article, I outlined essentially nothing had changed in our relationships together as Mosaic Conference.  Now we are preparing for our annual Assembly, six months after those denominational meetings, and the waters have not calmed for us as a community.  It has become a difficult time to lead and navigate together. Yet, the steadfast love of God is still present. 

In response to the Kansas City meetings, we planned a series of listening sessions in June. The sessions were well attended, but we needed a more focused and intentional effort to hear across the breadth and width of our conference.  The Mosaic Board approved a Listening Task Force made up of gifted and committed leaders.  I am grateful for their steady work.  They set out to listen to every community and ministry.  Though they didn’t accomplish that fully, some clear themes emerged which give a possible way forward together. 

Meanwhile, some congregations and leaders have become increasingly frustrated. And some days that includes me. I have had numerous people repeat to me, “You have a tough job,” or, “I wouldn’t want your job.”  I’m grateful for the recognition of the difficulty of the work.  However, I am committed to walking us through this time together.  We can do the difficult work, and we can do it while allowing the fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control — Galatians 5:22-23) to be cultivated within each of us and our communities. 

We can do the difficult work, and we can do it while allowing the fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control — Galatians 5:22-23) to be cultivated within each of us and our communities. 

The Task Force has done important work of taking time to listen and brought significant recommendations back to the Board. There is a sense of urgency within some of us.  We live in a time of quick responses.  We want to be responsive. At the same time, the transforming work of God often has a different sense of timeliness than we might often prefer. 

As staff, we have begun to work in several areas that are highlighted by the Task Force.  We are working on clarifying the information and needs to help us make good decisions.  We do not all have the information we need.  We will work to identify and define these issues in the next weeks and months.   

I have been in conversation with key partners, including Mennonite Church USA, Mennonite World Conference, Everence, Mennonite Mission Network, Mennonite educational institutions, other MC USA Conferences, and leaders of other US-based Anabaptist networks.  We want to be able to make informed decisions about our future together. 

As Mosaic, our diversity is a strength and a challenge.  We are being mutually transformed together as a community, yet at the same time we also struggle to fully understand how to listen and discern well in ways that will allow us to make decisions together.  What we learned from Kansas City is that we are not at our best with processes that lead to divided votes resulting in winners and losers rather than inclusive discernment. Voting by ballot is one of the least communal forms of decision-making.  I believe we can work at decision-making differently that is honest, patient, and maybe even joyful Spirit-work.

I believe we can work at decision-making differently that is honest, patient, and maybe even joyful Spirit-work.

We are sharing the recommendations to the Board by the Task Force in preparation for the upcoming Assembly scattered sessions where we will hear more from Task Force members and continue conversations together. It’s excellent work. And it’s incomplete work.  We still have work to do. 

Mosaic Conference was born from our commitment to reconciliation; it has grown through our commitments to becoming missional and intercultural.  We are now being tested in our formation and discipleship, how we make decisions about essential and tough issues together.   

Our Mosaic vision to embody the reconciling love of Jesus in our broken and beautiful world is still unfolding even within us. We will physically gather to embody this for the first time next month in the midst of turmoil. Jesus will be present with us. 

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.  His mercies never come to an end.  They are new every morning.  (Lamentations 3:22-23, ESV)  

Stephen Kriss

Stephen Kriss is the Executive Minister of Mosaic Conference.

Choosing Peace in Solidarity with Ukraine 

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Within a few days of the invasion of Ukraine, someone handed me a check and said, “I trust you’ll figure out what to do with this.” As a person of Slavic descent, I have been painfully aware of the situation in Ukraine. I have heard tales of those who left behind family in what would become the Eastern Bloc. I grew up with the fears of the Cold War. I have pastored alongside Ukrainians. The resistance of Ukrainians citizens quickly gets my attention.

At the same time, it has been difficult to figure out how to support and engage while our media blasts out images of the violence. I attended a prayer vigil at a Ukrainian Catholic congregation near my home. I took them sunflowers. I offered support as a neighbor, a Slavic person, and as a representative of Mosaic Conference.

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is Mosaic’s primary partner for response to the war in Ukraine. We carry within us the story of the martyrdom of Clayton Kratz. Over 100 years ago, Kratz, from the Blooming Glen (PA) congregation, volunteered to serve with MCC in Ukraine. While responding to the humanitarian needs among Mennonites and others in Ukraine, Kratz was arrested and never heard from again.

(Read more about MCC’s current work in Ukraine.)

We encourage continued support of our Conference Related Ministries (CRMs) that support MCC’s work. By donating, volunteering, or purchasing at the Care and Share Thrift Shoppes or serving to meet material needs through Material Resource Center, we believe that MCC’s long-term responses will meet real needs.

Additionally, some of us desire more immediate ways to be involved. Finland (Pennsburg, PA) Mennonite Church and Garden Chapel (Dover, NJ) have established prayer times for Ukraine. (See details on how to join virtually on in person.) Vincent (Spring City, PA) Mennonite Church is supporting initiatives toward refugee response through RescueNet and Pastor Dave Mansfield’s connections in Poland.

In offering support as members of the historical peace tradition, the challenge to differentiate between humanitarian aid and aid that goes to support the resistance in Ukraine is not easy. In these times, we need to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves in commingling with other responses. We want to be part of Christ’s ongoing witness of peace while also empowering those on the ground to respond to real needs.

Join other Mosaic congregations in prayers for peace in Ukraine:

Finland (Pennsburg, PA) Mennonite Church: Sunday evenings at 7:00pm, in person 

This is a cross-generational gathering, ranging from toddlers to seniors, from many different congregations and denominations. We gather for a combination of hymn singing and prayer for Ukraine and Russia. For details or questions, please contact Pastor Kris Wint at kris@finlandmc.org, as gathering dates and times may vary weekly.  

Garden Chapel (Dover, NJ): Sunday, March 20, 7:30ET, via zoom 

All are welcome to join for a virtual candlelight service to honor those who have perished in Ukraine and to pray for the hand of Christ to move about the nations. For zoom link and other information, please click here.  

For questions, please call/text Pastor Tim (973) 495-9219 or Maria Hart (973) 932-9993 or email thegardenchapel@gmail.com.  

While considering responses to Ukraine, it’s important to remember that there are many armed conflicts also occurring that are just outside of our media views. The conflict in Ukraine is likely viewed differently than other conflicts because we see it more in real time through the media, while our biases and connectivity have put Ukraine in the foreground. Meanwhile, other conflicts have continued in place without the same level of attention, at times even supported by our own US government as aggressor.

Hands, Hand, Together, Prayer, Community, Creative

Pastorally, I’d like to encourage each of us to respond in solidarity with Ukrainians nearby to us. There are Ukrainian communities throughout PA and concentrated in the New York City metro areas. Sometimes, our prayer presence of solidarity will be welcomed if we reach out to these neighboring communities with support, love, and prayer. For many Russian immigrants, this is also a difficult time as well.

The young priest, Father Oslap, who led the emotional prayer vigil I attended, translated his passionate homily to me in a few words afterward: We must resist. But we must not allow this incursion to teach us to hate.

As followers of Jesus, committed to Christ’s peace, we must also not allow this resistance to justify violence in anyway. We must continue to pray for both Ukraine and Russia and our own nation’s response.

On Being Community in the Time of a Plague

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I’ve been doing some ongoing reading to help root my leadership and response as we continue to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic.  N.T. Wright is a widely respected, Anglican theologian from the United Kingdom.  This summer, I picked up his short response to the pandemic from last year, entitled, God and the Pandemic: A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and Its Aftermath (Zondervan, 2020).  Initially, I listened to the audio version on my drive to MennoCon this summer in July, but I also bought a hard copy for further investigation.  

N. T. Wright is a helpful guide in this time.  The short book began through a provocation from Time magazine for a response to the pandemic.  At only 76 pages, it’s a quick read, and at only five hours, a quick listen as well.  

Wright is not an easily moved character.  He’s deeply rooted in both the history of the church and Biblical narrative.  I appreciate his steadiness in the face of conspiracy, polarity, and emotion.  Wright reminds us that pandemics and plagues happen.  They are part of our human story and experience. He invites us to both intentional lament and response that takes the time seriously, to extend the witness of Christ.   

In the past, the church has responded to plague and pandemic with care for the most vulnerable.  This is the consistent invitation of Jesus toward those of us who follow in the Way.  This is not a disconnect.  The church’s history of care is retold in the book.   

Book Cover © Copyright 2021 by HarperCollins Christian Publishing

Wright also suggests that much of the Western healthcare concept began within the care of the church.  This is important to remember when we consider our faithful response.  The church collectively, and Christians individually, are invited to be part of the healing of the world in physical, spiritual, psychological and social realms.  Wright urges us to not cede this space of healing to institutions outside of the church itself in the day of state-sponsored healthcare like in the UK, or in our context of large, corporate, non-profit and for-profit structures.  The church is about healing, and caring for the most vulnerable. 

“The call to Jesus’ followers, then, as they confront their own doubts and those of the world through tears and from behind locked doors, is to be sign-producers for God’s kingdom.” -N.T. Wright, God and the Pandemic, pg. 64. 

A second observation of caution is the possibility of increased privatization of religious practice through our move to online worshipping communities.  While some of this critique may be generational (Wright is 72 years old), I find resonance in his invitation to maintain a faithful, real-time presence. The virtual world is a realm where the proclamation of Christ is necessary too.  Contemporary technology allows us to extend into more spaces and places than we could have imagined, even pre-pandemic.  At the same time, there’s something sacred in the real time gathering of faithful people face-to-face.  This is a both/and – not an either/or – for our future. 

Wright gives us a helpful charge and grounding with this book.  Though already dated, as it was published in 2020 and the pandemic has persisted beyond what the writer had gauged, I appreciate the reflection that Wright offers and the space it helps hold open for the church to respond in ways that extend the faithful witness of Christ into a tumultuous time. 

This will not be the last pandemic in the human story. We clearly are not yet through this variation of plague and pandemonium.  The challenge remains for us to continue in faith, hope, and love in the way of Christ, empowered by the Spirit to extend peace in our worship and witness, in our healing and steadiness in times of trial and turmoil.   

A study guide accompanies Wright’s book, to use with small groups or your congregation. 

Mosaic Conference Board Continues to Take Shape

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The pieces continue to come together as we approach the one-year anniversary of our newly reconciled conference’s naming as “Mosaic Conference.”  In this month’s Conference Board meeting, we were back face-to-face in our new office at Dock Academy in Lansdale, PA, with several board members also joining by Zoom.

The last months have been a time of transition for the Board.  This was the first board meeting that included Roy Williams of College Hill congregation in Tampa (FL) and Herman Sagastume of Perkiomenville (PA) congregation.  Both joined in their respective positions as chairs of the Intercultural and Conference Related Ministries (CRM) Committees that were set up in the reconciliation structure, approved in November 2019 by delegates of both Eastern District and Franconia Conferences.  Both of the new committees are fully up and running now with members that represent the breadth of experience, geography, and wisdom of our conference.

Roy Williams, the new chair of the Intercultural Committee, has extensive board and leadership experience within Mennonite Church USA.  He brings a sharp attention to issues of finance from his banking background, as well as acuity in asking questions around biblical justice and equity.   Roy has been the long-term pastor at College Hill.

Dr. Herman Sagastume comes to the board as selected from the CRM committee.  Herman joined the committee because of his role as executive director of Healthy Niños Honduras, a Conference Related Ministry. Herman is a globally-minded leader with deep compassion and insight.  The new CRM Committee is moving forward in strengthening connections and understanding with the Conference’s extensive network of diverse ministries.  

At the turn of 2021, Merlin Hartman of Franconia congregation ended his board service at the completion of his second term with Franconia Conference and then Mosaic.   Hartman brought deep commitments to the church and openness to the Spirit’s work in our life together.  His questions and conscientiousness helped keep us moving through the reconciliation process with hope and integrity.  

Beny Krisbianto ended his one-year appointment as the Intercultural Committee chairperson after maxing out his board term of service in 2019 with Franconia Conference.  Beny’s long work with the Franconia Conference board and then an initial term as Intercultural Committee chair helped extend and establish a foundation for the committee and our Mosaic commitments to intercultural transformation.  As an urban and immigrant pastor, Beny was often able to clarify and re-contextualize decisions and movements.  His service and commitment has been a gift to our community as we have moved toward a hopeful future.

With the board transitions, we are continuing to live into our Mosaic dreams.  We celebrate the development of meaningful relationships across geography, culture, and language.  Roy is the first board representative from our Florida congregations.  Our board meeting over takeout Chinese food felt like a gathering of familiar friends.  We are able to laugh together, to hear both upbeat and difficult reports.  Together, we are able to discern the Spirit’s ongoing call as the pieces continue to come together to form our emerging Mosaic reality.  

To learn more about Roy and Herman, visit the Mosaic Board page and click on their photos!

God Multiplies the Small Things

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by Stephen Kriss

I was struck by the powerful words of the songs that we were singing together on Sunday in this former-thrift-store-turned-worship-space packed to nearly overflowing: we are not afraid… we believe… The words were punctuated with amens, raised hands, “Gloria A Dios.” This is Centro De Alabanza, an outgrowth of Philadelphia Praise Center, now a congregation of its own among the growing Spanish-speaking population in South Philadelphia. We were singing redemption songs that add strength and meaning to immigrant life in this thriving and sometimes dangerous city.

Centro 8On Sunday we celebrated the pastoral licensing of Fernando Loyola and Letty Cortes as ministers in Franconia Conference. Letty was radiant, clothed elegantly with gifts she said were from women in the congregation. Fernando, steady, firm, serious as usual in the task of leading. They lead together as a team, the boomerang of the fruit of Mennonite mission efforts from Franconia Conference to Mexico City in the 90’s.  No one would have expected that support for Kirk Hanger, who left his role at Methacton Mennonite to work at church-planting in Mexico City, would have meant that Centro de Alabanza would emerge to join Franconia Conference.

God multiples the small things and the licensing of Fernando and Letty are proof of that.  Fernando tells the story of his conversion as one that takes a lifetime. Letty is the first woman of color recognized as a pastoral leader in Franconia Conference, over 25 years after the first woman (Marty Kolb-Wycoff) was credentialed for ministry in Vermont.

Centro 1In working with credentialing new leaders and in the slow work that we do in establishing new congregations, I cannot help but see all of the connections that make new things possible.  I notice the small things along the way that when invested in the dream of God, result in unexpected blessing and possibility. It is the widow’s mite given in faith and generosity, the mustard seed that grows into a tree, the leaven that transforms the whole loaf of bread.

We ate together after the two-hour plus worship. There was chicken, rice and beans, Coke along with orange, grape and pineapple soda.  I thought of how similar it felt to the times I’ve visited with Mennonite Churches in Mexico City, yet I was still in my home city in the state where I was born.  I fumbled through conversations in Spanish, but remembered best the words that I learned from Ruth Hunsberger, my Spanish teacher at Johnstown Christian School, who learned Spanish herself while working in Puerto Rico in the 40’s.  My Spanish will thus always sound both a bit Pennsylvania Dutch and a bit Puerto Rican.

Centro 3We bring all of those gifts and parts, all of who we are, all of the possibilities and relationships into the great Matrix of God … and they are used. Nothing is lost, everything is found and even the smallest thing can mean real transformation.  Kirk told the story of meeting Letty while washing dishes in Mexico City. A wholly ordinary conversation that has led eventually to this new community flourishing in South Philadelphia and the naming of the first Latina Mennonite minister in Franconia Conference.  And for those small things, which become eternally significant, and the ability to notice them later and to celebrate together over pollo, frijoles y arroz, I am grateful.

Stephen Kriss is Director of Leadership Cultivation & Congregational Resourcing at Franconia Conference.

Giving that changes me

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by Stephen Kriss

The powerful words of Advent readings from Isaiah tend to get lost in this feel-good season of tinsel and twinkling lights. Familiar music, family gatherings and special worship times mark the holiday with a sense of holy regularity.

Steve KrissBut echoes of the prophet’s words linger in our yearning at this time of year to make things right. There’s a sense that Advent and Christmas shouldn’t pass anyone by. There are more efforts in church and culture to be mindful of those who will struggle this season. Sensitivities are pricked by those who ring bells for the Salvation Army and year-end appeal letters from charitable causes.

When I pastored in the Allegheny Mountains, our congregation had an annual Christmas Sharing Fund. It was an attempt at mutuality within our congregation of diverse income levels. Within and sometimes beyond this season it felt that “no one among us lacked anything.” It was one of my favorite times of the pastoral year. I miss those intimate moments of sharing, knowing that some who contributed to the fund could at times be those who received from it.

I’ve been challenged by my friend Mark Van Steenwyk of the Mennonite Worker, an intentional community in Minneapolis. Settled into a middle-class life­style, I’ve learned to trust the mediating work of organizations to handle my charitable giving, which also provides a tax write-off. This popular path of generosity adds a step between giver and receiver that I think usually honors the relationship, allowing a sense of respect to be maintained.

But Van Steenwyk, out of his own reading of Scripture and walking alongside the poor in community, suggests mediated giving doesn’t readily allow transformative relationships to develop between givers and receivers.

My tax-deductible check takes away the receiver’s sense of indebtedness but does little to cultivate the community and connectivity with the poor, whom Isaiah suggests are chosen to receive the Messiah’s good news.

I remember the intimacy of the Christmas fund, knowing the holy bonds created within the church community from that sharing. Though given anonymously, the gifts directly from the church communicated love and offered those who struggled a sense of being in the struggle together rather than getting a handout.

Those intimate gifts demonstrated care rather than creating a sense of dependency.

I wonder how congregations can do more mutual work like that. It requires us to know and trust each other.

I live in a city where I am asked on a weekly basis to contribute money to someone who is homeless, lost, addicted, struggling. Even after living in large cities for 15 years, I can’t quite look away. I wonder if every encounter might render me the priestly character in the story of the Good Samaritan. I rarely respond anymore. And usually I don’t feel guilty.

But Van Steenwyk’s invitation to step out from behind the comfort of charitable check-writing at this time of the year rings in my ears. Giving is ultimately about God, who gives freely, but also about my redemption and transformation.

This season of tinsel and twinkling commingles with the profound invitation of a Hebrew prophet to give and respond out of the call of the One who sustains all human dignity.

This piece first appeared in Mennonite World Review. Reposted with permission.