Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Steve Kriss

Web development coordinator to focus work internationally

by

Stephen Kriss, skriss@mosaicmennonites.org

David P. Landis resigned last week as web development coordinator for Franconia Mennonite Conference effective immediately. Landis, formerly of Harleysville, Pa,, had slowed his workload over the last months as he prepared for his marriage to Anna Dintaman this spring. He had worked for the last several years from the Middle East, having worked previously with the Conference in communication and leadership cultivation. Landis is resigning to focus his work on international project development in the Mediterranean region. His work for the Conference will be reassigned on a contract basis.Upon receiving the resignation, Conference Executive Minister Noel Santiago wrote, “David . . .your creativity with the web was excellent and took us to a whole new level. Your passion and commitment to the kingdom as expressed through your work in Jerusalem and other parts of the world has enhanced and deepened our global relationships. For that I am very grateful.”Landis is currently living in Harrisonburg, Va., preparing for a longer-term overseas venture. Earlier this year, he and his wife Anna published a guidebook, Hiking the Jesus Trail published by Village to Village Press. For the last several years, Landis’ work was supported through the generosity of Deep Run East Mennonite Church, Franconia Mennonite congregation and Philadelphia Praise Center as a conference-based initiative to build healthy and growing partnerships globally as is outlined in the Conference’s Vision and Financial Plan.

Franconia Conference moderators announce resignations

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Stephen Kriss, skriss@mosaicmennonites.org

Blaine Detwiler, Franconia Mennonite Conference board chair and moderator, and Randy Heacock, Franconia Conference assistant board chair and assistant moderator, have issued their resignations in accordance with the Conference Review Report near term/immediate recommendations as approved by the Board earlier this spring. Both Detwiler (Lakeview congregation) and Heacock (Doylestown congregation) agreed to submit resignations upon affirmation of new board chairs/moderators which happened earlier this week with the affirmation of John Goshow as moderator/board chair and Miriam Book as assistant board chair/assistant moderator. Goshow and Book assume their responsibilities on August 1, 2010. Detwiler and Heacock’s resignations are effective July 31, 2010.

On behalf of Franconia Conference, Rina Rampogu (Plains congregation) continuing conference board and executive board member adds “Blaine’s visionary leadership style with both a meek and lively spirit along with Randy’s insight and wisdom helped us to think and move Franconia Conference into God’s kingdom in a new way. We pray that God will continue to bless them personally, their work and ministry with their congregations and beyond that their faith and love for the Lord will strengthen even in this transition time.”

To view letter from Blaine Detwiler, click here. 

To view letter from Randy Heacock, click here.

Franconia Conference announces staff updates

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Stephen Kriss skriss@mosaicmennonites.org

Several Franconia Conference staff have shifted job responsibilities this summer. Jessica Walter terminated her position with Franconia Conference in May this year as she began a position with Care & Share Shoppes in Souderton, Pa, as bookstore manager. Jessica worked with the Conference for nearly four years in communication and leadership development. Her work has been assumed by other conference staff. Gay Brunt Miller is working with leadership resource coordination while communication tasks are divided between Carla Ferrier, Steve Kriss and Melissa Landis, however the future of Intersections is still in discussion as costs for print publications continue to rise with increased movement of information via the worldwide web.

Sandy Landes has requested a leave of absence from her work as prayer coordinator this summer. She will re-evaluate her work and role this fall. Sandy will still pass along prayer requests to congregational coordinators by email in the summer months.

LEADership minister Jenifer Eriksen Morales is on maternity leave due to the birth of a daughter earlier this summer. Jenifer intends to resume work in September. Other conference staff are providing short-term oversight and guidance during the summer months for congregations where Jenifer serves as LEADership minister.

With new board members affirmed, agenda set for August Franconia Conference meeting

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Stephen Kriss, skriss@mosaicmennonites.org

After receiving over 145 responses, seven new Franconia Conference board members
have been affirmed for service and leadership, effective August 1, 2010. All new board
members received over a 90% affirmation in both emailed and written ballots. The new
board members will be introduced on August 12, 2010 at 7 p.m., at an all-conference
meeting at Christopher Dock Mennonite High School in Lansdale, Pa.

Board members and their affirmed positions include:

  • John Goshow, moderator and conference board chair, Blooming Glen
    congregation
  • Miriam Book, assistant moderator and conference board vice chair, Salford
    congregation
  • Randy Nyce, conference board finance committee chair, Salford congregation
  • Marta Beidler Castillo, member-at-large, Nueva Vida Norristown New Life
    congregation
  • Joe Hackman, member-at-large, Salford congregation
  • Beny Krisbianto, member-at-large, Nations Worship Center
  • James Longacre, member-at-large, Bally congregation

Review Steering Committee member, Mike Derstine (Plains congregation) remarked
that the affirmations indicate strong support for the new board members in the midst
of a difficult time for the Conference community. The new board members and
moderators were suggested in response to the Conference Review conducted by
LaVern Yutzy of Mennonite Health Services Alliance earlier this spring and were
intended to help with further alignment of the conference’s work and trajectory toward a
hopeful future.
The all-conference meeting is intended to offer a time of blessing and introducing the
new board members, prayerful reflection and conversation on the conference’s recent
history and future as well as a brief update on the conference’s finances. All delegates
as well as interested persons from the Conference community are encouraged to
attend.

CLICK HERE to download agenda PDF

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.

Franconia Conference Review Steering Committee receives feedback, revises timeline for reconstituting the Conference Board

by

Stephen Kriss

The Franconia Conference Review Steering Committee expresses appreciation for the feedback on the Conference Review composed by LaVern Yutzy of Mennonite Health Services Alliance. As the timeframe for responses ends this weekend, the committee is moving ahead with the reconstitution of the Conference’s board of directors, naming at least five persons to open roles including moderator, assistant moderator, finance committee chairperson and at large members. The committee will receive nominations until June 9, 2010. Nominations for board positions can be sent by email to the Franconia Conference Nominating Committee (Donella Clemens, Mike Derstine, Beny Krisbianto, and Joy Sutter) at nominations@mosaicmennonites.org. The committee is abbreviating the nominating period to move toward fulfillment of the review’s recommendations while working with the board’s timeline for upcoming meetings.

The Review Steering Committee intends to submit a suggested slate of names for affirmation by conference delegates to the current board at the scheduled June 21, 2010, meeting. Following the approval of the slate, the committee plans to initiate public meetings sometime in mid-July that will offer time for delegate feedback and response as well as presenting a financial update of the Conference’s situation. In the meantime, the immediate recommendations from the report approved by the board in early May move toward fulfillment. Noel Santiago and Ertell Whigham continue to negotiate their interim staff leadership roles while other staff work toward the implementation of the LEAD platform among conference congregations.

The Steering Committee continues to appreciate the hearty engagement with the review process, including affirmations and nominations as well as challenges and concerns. While numerous nominations for the open board positions have already been received, the committee anticipates further suggestions and invites prayerful consideration as the discernment process continues over the next weeks. Over the next days, the committee intends to solicit nominations from conference pastors and looks forward to the contributions of current and future board members toward a hopeful future.

Centro de Alabanza begins public worship in South Philadelphia

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Stephen Kriss, Philadelphia Praise Center

I know I am a child of the 1980’s when in the midst of a moving worship event, I am drawn to a line from the A-Team, “I love it when a good plan comes together.”

At the time of the first Sunday morning worship of Centro de Alabanza de Filadelphia in June, I couldn’t remember where the line came from. but it was what came to mind. After years of planning, preparing, waiting and building relationships, a Spanish-speaking Anabaptist worshiping community is evidencing itself in South Philadelphia.

To use the more biblical Pauline framing, it was a recognition of the many parts that bring the community together and extend the Good News with each person in the Body of Christ carrying out a task, using a gift. To be in the midst of that expression made flesh was to be overwhelmed by the movement of God around the globe, across the connections that make up Franconia Conference from Jakarta to Mexico City to Blooming Glen to Kansas to Philadelphia to Washington. And on the first launching date of worship, we gathered together to celebrate, to listen, to wonder, to worship, to rejoice, to move ahead.

Centro de Alabanza is the Spanish-speaking expression of Philadelphia Praise Center. Begun less than five years ago, Philadelphia Praise was birthed among immigrants from Indonesia with an intent to “reach the nations” according to Pastor Aldo Siahaan. It was a journey begun in earnestness with a sense of calling but not a strong sense of how to actually accomplish this Pentecost vision of many people of different tongues, tribes and nations worshipping together.

Soon after it’s birthing, Philadelphia Praise Center connected with Franconia Conference through friends at Souderton Mennonite Church via Mennonite connections that ran back through Indonesia as well. Philadelphia Praise Center has become the largest Mennonite congregation in Philadelphia, a group of people living, working and worshipping in South Philadelphia, which has likely emerged as the urban neighborhood with the highest percentage of Anabaptist congregations in the country—speaking Indonesian, Cantonese, English and Khmer. And now Spanish.

With the migration of members of the LaPaz congregation in Mexico City, formerly pastored by Franconia Conference Leadership Minister, Kirk Hanger, the foundation was established for Spanish-speaking outreach alongside the primarily Indonesian congregation. The Spanish-speaking home groups and possibilities have continued to proliferate, opening the possibility of a new expression of praise in this barrio of 8,000 Spanish-speaking immigrants, mostly from Mexico.

On the first Sunday morning worship, all the parts of the body carried out their role. Members of Blooming Glen Mennonite Church who have been supporting the Spanish-speaking initiative joined in worship. Maria Byler, a Goshen College student working in South Philadelphia for the summer, provided translation from Spanish to English. Indonesian members of the congregation played instruments for the worship while the songs were sung in Spanish. Spanish-speakers from across the neighborhood and from sister congregation New Hope Fellowship in Alexandria, Va., made the trek northward on I-95 along with their pastor, Kirk Hanger, who was preaching for the kick-off worship in Spanish.

Afterward, the 60 of us ate together, speaking in Spanish, English and Indonesian. We celebrated over food from Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras. It was a spicy table of communion. And its all the Lord’s doing. And it’s marvelous in our eyes. Gloria a Dios.

Philadelphia Praise Center continues to worship bilingually in Indonesian and English on Sunday at 9:30 am. Centro de Alabanza worship in Spanish and English begins at noon. A multilingual fellowship and food time begins around 11am. Home groups meet throughout the week in Chin (an indigenous language from Myanmar), English, Indonesian and Spanish.

Learning to like funny cake and wear batik

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Stephen Kriss, Philadelphia Praise Center

We still eat Mrs. Benner’s funny cake* from Landis Supermarkets at the Mennonite Conference Center, though some days Claude Good or other staff banter in Spanish and someone could be caught decked out in Indonesian batik. In these pages, you’ll see not only the stories of who we are becoming, but who we are—an increasingly polyglot people ministering and witnessing through the strengths of a historic community. Diversity is more and more not a message we preach, but a reality that we live. We find ourselves both invigorated and challenged with the pushes and pulls that diverse communities encounter. For those of us who are legacy Mennonites with deep biological roots sometimes this is disorienting. For those of us who find our lives newly woven into the Anabaptist fabric, the navigation can be confusing as well.

These are exciting days to be a part of Franconia Conference, I think. Though it’s not an easy time, it is a time of re-imagining and re-discovery. In the pages of this issue of Intersections, we see how some of those possibilities are incarnated with gifted leaders who are responding to God’s call toward credentialed pastoral ministry. We see how Conference Related Ministries extend the mission of the church through ongoing work and new partnership. We can read about how the Ambler congregation responds to the pain and possibility in their community and about new opportunities to engage with our British partners through the Anabaptist Network.

It’s a different time in Franconia Conference. We haven’t any bishops and our newly credentialed ministers are as likely to be Asian as they are to be a Derstine. We’re invited to negotiate together differently, understanding differing priorities of time and money, ways of leading and following, of saving and giving away. And these differences don’t just exist on the conference-wide level, it’s the reality in the life of our congregations as well. Our leaders have a unique challenge to listen well and lead with clarity in the midst of changing dynamics.

As I read these stories and as I have traveled among diverse Franconia Conference congregations over the last few months, I wonder what it is that we need to learn. I’ve just started an Italian language class. It’s a few hours a week that pushes me to say things in new ways, to watch for patterns, to listen carefully. I know that these days, my Italian is about as fluent as a toddler’s. I need to keep focused on my work as I struggle to learn, following up on assignments and listening to Italian when I can during the week. This educational venture requires both my careful attention and a bit of vulnerability.

One of the things this issue of Intersections suggests is the hopeful possibilities that are out there when we keep learning, responding to our communities, to God and to the faithfulness of the past, the potential of the present and the mystery of the future. Slovene thinker Slavoj Zizek says that when everything seems to be askew we need to learn, learn, learn. In the midst of a time when diverse experience, background and perspective is our everyday encounter, we find ourselves pulled closer and closer to the realization that to glimpse the reign of God requires childlike openness as Jesus suggested in the Gospels.

Openness to learn—whether it’s learning to like new foods, speak new languages or respond to unfamiliar situations—requires both humility and boldness. It’s an opem admission that we don’t exactly know what we are doing and the boldness to be able to learn even in the midst of possible failure. In my Italian class, the more I speak the familiar words of Spanish, the less Italian I actually learn. It’s easier to fall back on the more familiar than to press into the struggle of learning something new. Learning requires us to confront what we don’t know and to move away from assumptions of our own omniscience, which we say belongs to God alone anyway.

Intersections continues to highlight how and what we’re learning and who we’re becoming. We tell these stories to offer hope for the journey, to equip us for the path we’re on and to strengthen our faith for the road ahead. May we continue to learn as we live the stories of fruitfulness from humble beginnings and illuminate the lessons that emerge in the midst of striving toward boldly embracing God’s mission in these days when some of us are learning to like funny cake and others are finding ways to sing God’s praise in languages we have never imagined.

*A vanilla cake and chocolate syrup breakfast pie distinct to the suburbs just north of Philadelphia.