(posted September 5) “Witness Together” is an equipping event open to anyone within a Mosaic congregation, Conference-Related Ministry, or partner in ministry. Join us at Zion Mennonite (Souderton, PA) on Friday, Oct. 31, 4-8 pm for worship and workshops on formation, mission, and intercultural transformation. Dinner provided. Learn more about the workshops and speakers: mosaicmennonites.org/assembly/equipping/.
Zion Mennonite Church
Zion Mennonite Nursery School – “My Toddler and Me” class
(posted August 26) Zion Mennonite Nursery School’s “My Toddler and Me” class is moving to Tuesday mornings, beginning September 16, from 9:30–11:00 a.m. Each week includes Circle Time with a short Bible lesson, story, songs, and fingerplays, plus a simple craft tied to the theme. It’s a wonderful opportunity for toddlers to socialize and for parents/caregivers to connect with other families. This FREE program meets at Zion Mennonite Church in Souderton. We hope to see you there!
Zion Mennonite Church and Indonesian Light Church Worship Together
On June 11, Zion Mennonite Church (Souderton, PA) invited Indonesian Light Church (Philadelphia, PA) to join together for worship and communion.
“It’s a natural thing if we’re around people who share the same culture, language, and background,” Pastor Hendy Matahelemual of Indonesian Light Church said at the opening of the joint worship. “But we worship a supernatural God, the One who will unite us to a new spiritual family that enriches us in fraternal love, mutual cooperation to build and complete each other.”
After the worship service, the two churches enjoyed a picnic lunch together.
Zion’s Bean Bag Program Receives Grant
Zion (Souderton, PA) Mennonite Church launched the Bean Bag Food Program in 2016 to offer a steady supply of food for students who rely on school lunches. The program has grown to serve students at ten schools. Recently, the program received a $3,500 Everence Financial® chapter grant to help provide local students food to take home on weekends.
The Everence chapter grant program supports organizations that help people with basic needs such as food, housing and health care. The grants are made possible when members purchase many Everence products.
“We’re happy to encourage a program that we know is so important to many local families,” said Randy Delp, Managing Director for Everence in Souderton.
Anyone interested in helping to provide meals for kids to take home may contact Zion Mennonite Church, 149 Cherry Lane, Souderton, PA 18964. Please make checks out to Zion Mennonite Church with memo: BBFP.
A Joint Sunday School Experiment
by Jordan Luther, Zion (Souderton, PA) congregation
If your congregation is like mine, then you are familiar with the revolving door of Sunday school attendance most summers. This summer, however, the situation was different. With most of our congregation still worshiping from home, we needed to rethink how we do Sunday school—especially for our children.
Our youth group has been meeting virtually for youth group and Sunday school throughout the pandemic. One day I floated the idea about meeting as a joint Sunday school class of all ages, K-12. I was clear from the beginning that I could not teach this class alone. I needed help.
When I asked the youth group if they would be willing to help, I was amazed with their response. Not only did they agree to help, but they agreed to be co-leaders and share responsibilities with me!
The following week at youth group we built our five-week summer Sunday school curriculum from the ground up. The youth were really helpful during the planning process, sharing what they believe is most important for Sunday school from a kid’s perspective. I learned two lessons that I hope never to forget from these sessions.
The first lesson the youth taught me is that stories are important. Stories are easier to remember than Bible memory verses. (Sorry Psalms and Romans … maybe another unit!) The youth shared with me about which Bible stories are relatable and memorable to them.
We took notes on our favorite Bible stories and made a plan. Thankfully, all of the stories the youth chose were featured in Shine On: A Story Bible curriculum which made reading and sharing the story much easier for our younger classmates.
Second, the youth taught me that Sunday school should be a fun experience. “Don’t be boring,” was one youth’s advice to me. “Adults like to talk; kids need action.” This comment made it crystal clear that playing games is important to our faith development too.
A different youth suggested that we should create original prompts in Quiplash 2 and Drawful 2, two online games that we play regularly together, as a way to have fun while going deeper into the Bible story. The youth and I created the prompts ahead of time after reading the Bible story together. Our prompts were meant to inspire everyone’s imagination and give us permission to wonder about some of the missing details of the story. Think Jewish midrash meets Family Feud. That was our Sunday school environment.
Our joint Sunday school sessions had their hiccups too. Sibling rivalries are just as apparent on screen as they are in-person. Poor wifi connections meant the occasional robot voice and frozen screen.
Even with these hiccups in mind, I am still grateful for this joint Sunday school experiment. It was a great opportunity for our younger kids to reconnect, our youth to lead and participate in the planning process, and for me to consider fresh approaches to family ministry.
Water the Seed
by Jordan Luther, Zion congregation
I was told that I would become a pastor. Not by any one person. Just by everyone. In the tight-knit, southern community of my upbringing, it is not uncommon for adults to forecast the vocations of children.
Grade school teachers would send notes home to my parents with remarks like, “He’ll make a good pastor someday.” The babysitter often mentioned to my parents how the way I played with the other kids reminded her of a pastor. My aunts and uncles, several of whom are pastors themselves, would defer to me to say grace before family meals.
No matter where I went, the comparison followed. My recollections of childhood are fundamentally linked to friends, family, neighbors, and strangers telling me that I will become a pastor.
Though many noticed pastoral gifts in me in my early childhood, I did not interpret these gifts as a call. I insisted to everyone that my call was more likely to the Major Leagues as a professional baseball player or in the rodeo as a bull rider. Those seemed like more attractive options to me. However, unbeknownst to me, a small seed had been planted in my heart.
The adults in my life did not plant the seed. Rather, I believe God had planted it there and entrusted my community to water it and give it a chance to grow. Every time someone affirmed pastoral gifts in me, this seed received life-altering rain.
Eventually, this seed emerged from the depths of my heart into the forefront of my consciousness. It was time for me, and the rest of the world, to see what God had planted in me.
I remember I was in church the first time I truly felt God calling me into a life of ministry. Our children’s minister was teaching a lesson on the different gifts Christ left the church. He began by reading, “The gifts he gave were that some would be…” (Ephesians 4:11, NRSV). When the phrase, “pastors and teachers,” was read aloud, I felt a warm sensation start in my chest and consume my entire body. It was as if hearing those words awakened the seed that was buried deep within me.
I remember sharing with our children’s minister what I felt; I remember explaining that I believe God is calling me to become a pastor. He agreed. So did my parents and our pastor when I shared the same experience with them later that same day.
This is the moment when I felt called to ministry.
The rest of my story of call is best summarized as watering the seed. I am grateful that my church, family, and community did not stop watering the seed after I expressed my initial sense of call. The church in particular has been there for me as I continue to grow into my calling, giving me space to learn and fail through the support of encouraging relationships.
If I can recommend any advice from my call story, it is this: water the seed. Water the seed in yourself and others. For who knows what God has planted in our hearts until we give it a chance to grow.
God is Present: Introducing Ebenezer Mennonite Church
by Jennifer Svetlik, Salford congregation
Ebenezer Mennonite Church began in June 1958 as part of the Hispanic ministry of Grace Mennonite Church in Lansdale, PA. It started as a community for Puerto Ricans who came to the area to work in summer agriculture. Rev. Guillermo Chewing was the first pastor and Earl Stover also played a vital role in the church. In 2005, the church became independent from Grace, moved to Route 113 in Souderton with a new pastor, and changed its name to Ebenezer Mennonite Church. In November 2009 the church moved to the Zion Mennonite Church building in Souderton, PA, where they continue to meet, with Bible study at 11:00 am and worship at noon on Sundays.
“God in his mercy has been present in our congregation, manifesting his power and sovereignty in the midst of trials, in the process of changes in our church,” says Hilda Vinces, a leader in the church. “We have had sick members in which God has manifested his power by giving them healing, and we feel his Holy Spirit in our midst because he has strengthened us when church members have passed away.”
In addition, Hilda shares, through technology, “Ebenezer has been able to reach other people internationally. Although the church has diminished in number of members for different reasons, the Lord has brought new members. God has blessed us for being firm in our faith in Christ.”
Iglesia Ebenezer had previously been a part of Eastern District but left when Grace congregation became independent. Now the church seeks to join Franconia Conference because they recognize the value of relating to and uniting with other local Mennonite Churches.
“Through the Conference we can … acquire resources that will help us grow as a church and to learn from others and their ministries, and apply these ideas, led by the Holy Spirit, to our own church,” Hilda adds.
Iglesia Ebenezer represents some of the initial work in Eastern District Conference ministering alongside Spanish speakers. We are glad to welcome Ebenezer as a congregation of Franconia Conference at the same time as we are in the process of reconciling with Eastern District,” Franconia’s Executive Minister Steve Kriss reflects. This is all reconciliation work, he points out—learning from shared history, honoring a shared story, and believing that God is bringing the congregation and the two conferences together to do a new thing.
The Latinx community continues to grow in Bucks and Montgomery counties where many of our congregations have been rooted for generations. We hope that with the sisters and brothers at Ebenezer, we will continue to cultivate a vibrant Anabaptist witness and community together.
Congregational Profile: Zion Mennonite Church
Zion Mennonite Church, Souderton, PA, asks you to pray for youth who will soon be baptized, for their new Associate Pastor of Faith Formation, Jordan Luther, who will join them in June, and that Zion may grow in grace as they follow God’s call in their community. See the below video to learn more about Zion and their Bean Bag Food Program.