Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Stephen Kriss

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. 

Waiting and working and hoping

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Steve Krissby Stephen Kriss, director of leadership cultivation

The Spanish words meaning “to wait” (esperar) and “hope” (esperanza) suggest that there’s a ready connection between the two.   We wait for something that we expect to happen.   We don’t wait for things that we don’t anticipate will actually occur.

There are places designed for waiting (train stations, hospital waiting rooms, airports, the checkout line) and there are places where we unexpectedly end up waiting, where it’s less comfortable or hasn’t been prepared for the necessities of waiting (traffic tie ups, outside buildings).   The places of unprepared waiting tend to create more agitation and desperation.  After living in New York City for a few years, I’ve learned to prepare for unexpected waiting by carrying a book.  Nowadays, with my iPhone, I’m always ready to work (or at least surf the web) while waiting.

Waiting with hope means that we expect something to happen.  In Advent, we wait in anticipation of the arrival of Immanuel, God with us.  I’d say that I anticipate God’s arrival most days, hope for it, spend a lot of my waking hours anticipating the Spirit’s arrival and incarnation in time and space.   Sometimes I’m able to notice steps toward the fulfillment of God’s intention; other times I’m surprised by the sudden inbreaking and transformation.    With the story of the birth of Christ, we have generations of preparation and months of incubation, but on one surprisingly normal and joyous night, “the anointed one” comes into flesh, bone, blood.

While I know that God is with us in all time, in all space, and in all spaces, there is something special that we wait for in Advent, some holy moment that we expect to see, feel, taste, maybe even touch.   While Jesus warned us not to chase those moments, the sheep-tenders and the learned ones were provoked to come and bear witness to the Incarnation, to drop their work for a moment or to focus their skills for awhile toward the manger in Bethlehem, to witness, to be present, to offer gifts in worship.

I find waiting to be pretty annoying.  But hoping can seem even more ridiculous.   Believing that God is going to do something, to enter and transform what seems ordinary can be both difficult and at times unwelcome.

What we know about resiliency, however, is that to lose hope is to lose purpose.   I’m not “a glass half empty” kind of guy, but I notice too often places where Christ’s presence is not quite yet: in the gaps between the privileged and the poor; in the spaces between loneliness and community; in the struggles for healing and wholeness; in the overwhelming sense of busyness that permeates privilege; in the spectrum from tradition to transformation.   I see glimpses and sometimes full incarnations of the path of Immanuel too: in working across culture, language, and human boundaries to share resources with Mennonite partners in Allentown, Philadelphia and Norristown; in work with veterans; in seasonal congregational initiatives to share and worship with neighbors; in our learning to love all of the places and people that God loves.

Early Mennonite settlers in southeastern Pennsylvania often used the catch-phrase “work and hope” as they faced the struggles of persecution, migrating into the unknown, and finding their home in a new world.   In our working (doing), I believe we’re waiting, too.   In our working, we’re hoping and believing (some days more than others) that Christ came two millennia ago into crushing politics, often misguided religiosity, and hard economics, and that the Spirit of Christ might come again, through us, in us, to us, for us as much as for the whole world.   With anticipation, we wait, we work, we hope.

Franconia Conference gathers to celebrate, pray, confer, listen

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Garden Chapel Children's Choir
Garden Chapel’s children’s choir led a rousing rendition of “Our God” at Conference Assembly 2013. Photo by Bam Tribuwono.

Franconia Conference delegates and leaders gathered November 2 at Penn View Christian School in Souderton, Pa. to celebrate God still at work.   With a packed auditorium for a third united assembly with Eastern District Conference, representatives gathered to listen and pray, to celebrate newly credentialed and ordained pastoral leaders, and to work alongside one another after an over 150-year rift created two separate Mennonite entities.  The theme “God still @ work” was an extension of the 2012 theme, “God @ work.”

With singing in Indonesian, Spanish, and English led by Samantha Lioi (Peace and Justice Minister for both conferences) and Bobby Wibowo (Philadelphia Praise Center) and translation into Franconia Conference’s worshipping languages, delegates and representatives from nearly all of the Conference’s congregations from Georgia to Vermont gathered to confer around a board-crafted statement on the Conference’s increasing diversity in ethnicity, experiences, faith practice, and expression.   The gathering was punctuated with points of celebration including testimony from Peaceful Living led by Joe Landis and Louis Cowell from Salford congregation, a youth choir from the revitalizing Garden Chapel in Victory Gardens, NJ, and a moment to mark the upcoming November retirement of Franconia Conference Pastor of Ministerial Leadership Noah Kolb after 45 years of ministry, which was met with rousing applause and a standing ovation.

Noah blessing 2013
Noah Kolb was recognized and blessed for 45 years of ministry. He will retire in November. Photo by Bam Tribuwono.

In a shortened one-day event, delegates spent the morning together around tables with Eastern District Conference to continue to deepen relationships across conference lines.  Business sessions were separate, and Franconia’s included a significant amount of time in conversations among table groups, conferring over the board statement and then reporting on those conversations to the whole body.  Delegates and representatives were encouraged to mix across congregational lines to better hear and experience the diversity of conference relationships.

For many, including Tami Good, Souderton (Pa.) congregation’s Pastor of Music & Worship, who was attending Conference Assembly for the first time, the table conversations were holy spaces.  Each person at her table was from a different congregation.   “I saw God at work in the gracious listening, especially in the time when we talked about the conferring statement,” Good reflected. “There were disagreements, but everyone was graciously listening and hearing.  Everyone actually wanted to hear each other.  It was a beautiful time.”

The conferring time, along with an afternoon workshop led by the Franconia Conference board, focused on prayer and visioning for the Conference into the future.   Conference board members Jim Longacre (Bally congregation), Rina Rampogu (Plains congregation), Jim Laverty (Souderton congregation), and Klaudia Smucker (Bally congregation) served as a listening committee for the daylong event.  They reported seven themes of consistent and continued conversation: engagement, diversity, shared convictions, authority, polity, the role of conference, and the reality of changing relationships and engagement.  Board members noted that there is much response work to do to continue the conversation and discernment process.

Bruce Eglinton-Woods, pastor of Salem congregation (Quakertown, Pa.), said, “The challenge is speaking clearly on what we believe and where we are at, which is often a challenge for Mennonite leaders. My hope and prayer is that we can trust God and release the idea of keeping it all together. We need to let God do the holding together.”

Franconia Conference delegates spent time conferring and praying together. Photo by Bam Tribuwono.
Franconia Conference delegates spent time conferring and praying together. Photo by Bam Tribuwono.

According to Rampogu, one of the longest standing Conference board members, “the hardest part about this kind of meeting is that there isn’t enough time. We want to share and to talk together,” she said.  “That is a positive sign.  People want to connect.  My hope and prayer is that we keep our goal in mind, keeping our mission focused on equipping leaders to empower others to embrace God’s mission, with Christ in the center and churches focused on missional activity.”

In business sessions, delegates selected a number of positions by 97% affirmation including a 2nd term for conference moderator John Goshow (Blooming Glen congregation) along with board member Beny Krisbianto (Nations Worship Center), as well as ministerial and credentialing committee members Rose Bender (Whitehall congregation), Ken Burkholder (Deep Run East congregation), Mike Clemmer (Towamencin congregation) and Chris Nickels (Spring Mount congregation).   Randy Nyce (Salford congregation) who is completing a term as finance committee chair and board member reported on Conference finances, noting an 11% decrease in financial contributions from congregations.

“I was surprised and pleased that the attendance at Assembly 2013 was so strong; seeing the room filled to capacity was an affirmation of how much the delegates and guests in attendance care for our conference,” Goshow noted.  “Franconia Conference is all of us who are members of our 42 churches and our Conference Related Ministries.  It is my hope and prayer that together we chart a course that will advance God’s Kingdom in exciting and wonderful ways.”

Listen to the podcast.

Conference Assembly 2013 Highlight Video from Franconia Conference on Vimeo.

Conference review report released; board acts on immediate recommendations

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Stephen Kriss, skriss@mosaicmennonites.org

Franconia Conference’s Review Steering Committee met with the Franconia Conference Board of Directors on May 4, 2010, to receive the review and recommendations of LaVern Yutzy, consulting associate Mennonite Health Services. Yutzy was commissioned for the review by the Franconia Conference Board in response to questions around decisions related to staffing and proposed vision made earlier this year. He developed the report and recommendations after a process of interviews and consideration of responses from the Conference community. Both the board and the committee received Yutzy’s work as an independent consultant based on the content offered through the listening process. After careful and deliberate conversation, the board moved to receive Yutzy’s report and to follow through with the immediate recommendations as outlined in the review.

The board’s immediate actions include:

  • Receiving the resignations of the moderator and assistant moderator after a reconstituted board is situated this summer.
  • Appointment of a nominating committee comprised of members of the Review Steering Committee who are not currently seated on the board (Donella Clemens of Perkasie congregation, Mike Derstine of Plains congregation, Beny Krisbianto of Nations Worship Center and Joy Sutter of Salford congregation). The nominating committee will receive nominations for additional open board positions—including Conference Moderator, Assistant Moderator and Finance Committee Chairperson.
  • Withdrawal of the plan to lay off all Franconia Conference staff as was outlined in February 2010.
  • Appointment of an interim staff leadership team of Noel Santiago and Ertell Whigham that may serve through July 2011.

The Review Steering Committee will continue in its role through 2010 though Yutzy will not be meeting regularly with the group. The committee will continue to receive feedback and to work to discern a path toward a hopeful future for the Conference community. Yutzy’s report suggests a high-level of engagement across the Conference in response to the review and looks forward to continued engagement with delegates and the broader constituent community. The committee has established the following timeline for the review and implementation of the recommendations.

  • The Review Steering Committee (Donella Clemens, Mike Derstine, Randy Heacock, Beny Krisbianto, Jim Laverty and Joy Sutter) will now receive feedback by email at feedback@mosaicmennonites.org regarding the content and recommendations of the review through May 28, 2010. This feedback may also include nominations for the roles of finance committee chairperson, moderator, assistant moderator and at large members recommended to serve in a reconstituted Board of Directors of Franconia Mennonite Conference. Nominations for those positions will be received until June 30, 2010.
  • The review will be posted immediately on www.review.mosaicmennonites.org additional updates and timeline information will also be posted to the Conference website at www.mosaicmennonites.org
  • A newly constituted board will begin to serve after affirmations of new members by delegates in late summer 2010.

The committee wishes to express appreciation to LaVern Yutzy for patient listening and engagement in the development of the review, report and recommendations, in helping to find a way that Franconia Conference may continue to bear witness of Christ’s way of peace and to extend God’s healing and hope to the world.

Click here to view the Franconia Conference Review and Recommendations prepared by LaVern Yutzy.

Click here to download and view a PDF of the Review Steering Committee’s process for the recommendations.

Review Steering Committee develops process, expresses appreciation, invites prayer

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Stephen Kriss, skriss@mosaicmennonites.org

The Franconia Conference Review Steering Committee met April 28, 2010, at the Mennonite Conference Center in Harleysville, Pa., to continue to develop a path for discernment and communication for the upcoming Conference Review report and recommendations. The review, being performed by LaVern Yutzy, consulting associate Mennonite Health Services Alliance, is scheduled to be released in mid-May to delegates and constituents. Review Steering Committee members include Donella Clemens (Perkasie congregation), Mike Derstine (Plains congregation), Randy Heacock (Doylestown congregation), Beny Krisbianto (Nations Worship Center), Jim Laverty (Souderton congregation), Karen Moyer (Rocky Ridge congregation) and Joy Sutter (Salford congregation).

The steering committee wishes to express appreciation for the response and high-level of engagement around the review over the last weeks. While the review and recommendations are being constructed by Yutzy, the committee considered themes and recommendations from the report at this week’s meeting. Yutzy is set to present a draft to the steering committee this weekend with a scheduled release to Franconia Conference’s board of directors at a joint meeting with the board and committee on May 4, 2010.

On Monday, May 3, the steering committee will meet again at Harleysville to continue to develop a path for considering the recommendations that come from Yutzy’s review and further development of a venue for the conference community to consider and offer input into the review’s recommendations and forward process. The review is not intended to answer all questions around recent decisions regarding staffing, but rather to navigate together toward a hopeful future. The review will be available at www.mosaicmennonites.org upon public release in mid-May.

The steering committee calls the Conference to continue in prayer—both communally and individually—as we prepare to move together, to receive and process the review recommendations. The review and recommendations are intended to provide a path forward for Franconia Conference that together we will continue to proclaim and incarnate Christ’s way of peace, healing and hope.