As part of the Conference Assembly Scattered Delegate process calling for further discernment around the Indian Creek Farm Property, the Franconia Mennonite Conference Vision and Finance Team invites written proposals for possible uses of the property. Proposals should support training leaders in the context of reasserting positive Anabaptist values, and give a practical witness in the community of peace and justice. These may be submitted by March 12. Mail to Attn: VFP Team, Mennonite Conference Center, 771 Route 113, Souderton, PA 18964, or email to Karen Moyer, chair, at mightychicks@juno.com.
Bally Mennonite Church will be holding fundraising auctions on Saturday, March 10, with a silent auction beginning at 5:30 p.m. and a traditional auction, featuring goods, services, gift certificates, crafts and antiques, from 6:30 – 9:00 p.m. A light dinner will be served from 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. The auctions will benefit our Senior High youth and families traveling to the Mennonite Youth Convention, San Jose 2007. For more information, please contact Sallie Reed at 610-845-7780 or email ballysallie@juno.com.
The Young Adult Worship Encounter scheduled for February 25 has been rescheduled for Sunday, March 11, from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. at Franconia Mennonite Church. All young adults are welcome to come for an evening of worship and Breaking Down Walls. Come hear the testimony of David Sowhanger, a former Muslim. Worship will be led by teams from Franconia and Souderton Mennonite Churches.
All are invited for soup and lively discussion at Penn Foundation’s monthly educational program, “Soup Talk,†on Tuesday, March 13, from 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. at Zion Mennonite Church in Souderton. William Killgore, M.A., Director of Employee Assistance Program, and his wife, Lori Killgore, Business Development Officer with Lehigh Valley Educator’s Credit Union, will be speaking on the theme, “Setting a Budget and Sticking With It.â€Â There is no fee, however, a $5 donation is suggested. Pre-registration is required. To register, please call 215-257-6551, ext. 345.
Penn View Christian School is pleased to present, The ApologetiX, the Christian band that performs “biblical parodies of today’s mainstream hits and the best of the classics.â€Â Tickets are on sale now at the main office, $20 in advance, $25 at the door. For more details, contact the school at 215-723-1196 or email sschrag@pennview.org. “Parents, bring your kids. Kids, bring your parents!â€
Anyone interested in Prison Ministry is invited to a seminar on Mentor Training to be held at Living Faith Fellowship, 582 Moyer Road, Souderton, PA, on Friday, March 16, from 6 – 9 p.m. The facilitator of this training is Don Smarto, President of Youth Direct Ministries, a national outreach to high risk youth. For more information, contact Liberty Ministries at 610-287-5481 or email elliottb@libertyministries.us.
All are invited to enjoy the comedy and drama of Ted and Lee as they perform “Live at Jacob’s Ladder†at Souderton Mennonite Church on Friday, March 16, and Saturday, March 17, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $5 and are available at Provident-Berean Christian Bookstore in Souderton and at the door. Music, comedy, drama, and improvisation all dance together in this lively and moving production about the power of forgiveness, based on the Genesis story of Jacob and Esau. For more information, visit www.soudertonmennonite.org or call 215-723-3088.Â
The Perkasie Patchwork Coffeehouse will feature a double bill of regional performers on Saturday, March 17, at 7:30 pm at the Perkasie Mennonite Church.  Russ Rentler will open with his mix of folk, Celtic and blues-inspired tunes with multiple instrument changes. “Group W” includes three of the best folk performers of Bucks County, who all sing and play various instruments, including flute, hammered dulcimer and mandolin. All proceeds from refreshment sales will go to “The Worm Project”.  Adults $9, over 65 - $7, students 13 & up - $4, 12 & under free. For more information, visit www.perkmenno.org or call 215-723-2010.
A Lunch Time Lecture – “A Timeline of Coverlets & Quilts,â€will be held on Wednesday, March 21, 12 noon, at the Mennonite Heritage Center, by quilt historian, Nancy Roan. Bring a bag lunch and enjoy a presentation of beautiful coverlets and quilts. Coffee and cookies will be provided. For more information, call 215-256-3020 or email info@mhep.org.
A Fraktur Class for advanced students (members of previous fraktur classes) will be held on Saturday, March 24, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Mennonite Heritage Center. Taught by Louise Hutchings, participants will create a fraktur design based on large lettering filled in with color and motifs. For registration information, call 215-256-3020 or email info@mhep.org.
On Sunday March 4, 2007, at 9:30 AM, Stephen Kriss will be the guest preacher at Methacton Mennonite Church, 3081 Mill Road, Norristown, PA 19403. Steve is the Director of Communication and Leadership Cultivation for the Franconia Mennonite Conference of Mennonite Church USA.
Congregations and Pastors Address Pornography Together
Plan to attend the seminar, Thursday evening, March 29, from 7 – 9 p.m. and Friday morning, March 30, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on the issue of pornography. The Seminar will be held at the Souderton Mennonite Church Fellowship Hall. The Thursday evening session is open to both lay leaders and pastors for teaching on the issue by Brenda Martin Hurst. The Friday morning session is especially for pastors, chaplains, and other ministerial staff persons, with credentialed leaders expected at both sessions. Brochures will be distributed soon with more information and plans for registration. Or call 215-723-5513, ext. 110 to indicate you will be attending. Pastors, be sure to invite key lay leaders to come with you to the Thursday evening session.
Bible Survey and Anabaptist Hermeneutics
Who might you encourage to attend the course with Marion Bontrager (Hesston College) on Bible Survey and Anabaptist Hermeneutics? The course will be held at Conestoga Mennonite Church, Morgantown, PA, April 13-14, May 11-12, and June 8-9. The course can be taken for three hours undergraduate credit ($945) or audit ($150). To register, call 866-EMU-LANC or email Julie.siegfried@emu.edu. This is a basic Gateway Course that all new credentialed leaders are expected to have taken in college or seminary.
Additional Scholarships have been made available for the Damascus Road Anti-Racism AnalysisTraining, March 2 – 4, in Philadelphia. To apply, please contact Sharon Williams, sharonw@designforministry.com or 610-277-1729.
Karen’s Place, the coffee shop ministry of Doylestown Mennonite Church, will kick off their 7th Annual Blues-Rock Madness Month on Saturday, March 3, featuring the blues-rock trio, “Raging Grace.â€Â Karen’s Place will be open three consecutive Saturday nights in March from 7 – 10:30 p.m. There is no admission charge. For information, call the church office at215-345-6377 or visit the website at www.karensplace.org.
The Camerata Singers, a 32-voice chamber choir from Bluffton College in Ohio will perform at Zion Mennonite Church on Sunday, March 4, during the 9 a.m. worship service. The music is designed for a worship service of sacred music that praises God and offers guidance for living a Christian Life. For directions or more information, call the church at 215-723-3592.
A Wood Graining Workshop led by folk artist Jim King will be held at the Mennonite Heritage Center on Saturday, March 10. Participants will grainpaint a softwood 5 x 7 picture frame and a small document box. A repeat class will be held on Saturday, April 21. For registration information, call 215-256-3020 or email info@mhep.org.
Hesston College and Swamp Mennonite Church present in Concert, An Evening with Baritone Tony Brown accompanied by Ken Rodgers on Sunday, March 11 at 6 p.m. at Swamp Mennonite Church, 2125 Rosedale Road, Quakertown, PA. Refreshments will follow the concert. For more information and directions, call 215-536-7928.Â
All are invited to an illustration presentation by Dr. Chris Kraft on Tuesday, March 13, 7:30 p.m., at the Mennonite Heritage Center. Kraft, Professor Emeritus of the University of Delaware, will speak on “Travels with the Apostle Paul: the Bible & Archaeology, History, & Geology.† For more information, call 215-256-3020, or email info@mhep.org.  The website is www.mhep.org.
What to do with unused items in your home? Donate those items to Care & Share Shoppes, Inc. Your donation of unused quality items to the Care & Share Thrift Shoppes helps support the work of Mennonite Central Committee, meeting human needs in the name of Christ. Bring donations of clothing, household items, and furniture to Care & Share Shoppes Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. For further information, call 215-723-0315.
It’s hard to believe that 15 years have passed since our congregation first began to relate to our sister church in Puebla, Mexico. Little did we know that what began as an initiative of Franconia Mennonite Conference and the Conference of Mennonite Churches in Mexico would eventually become a thriving relationship between our two congregations.
Last week a group of 6 persons from our congregation (Pastor John Ehst, Bill Gotwals, Alex and McAllister Tellado, David Landis, Arnold and Marlene Derstine) attended the anniversary weekend of our sister church. This annual celebration of God’s faithfulness in the life of the church seemed an appropriate setting to also recognize and celebrate 15 years of walking beside each other as congregations. It was a time to both reminisce about the past as well as dream about the future.
Initial conversations with the Maranatha congregation began in 1992. In the spring of 1993, the first of many exchange visits took place. A team of four persons from Franconia went to work along side our Mexican brothers and sisters who had recently purchased a new property for the church. Over the years many from our congregation have been encouraged and blessed as the chorus, young adults, youth teams and mixed groups have had the privilege of visiting with Maranatha and participating in the life and ministry of their congregation. Throughout the years we have also been blessed to receive groups from Maranatha through which many significant relationships have been established.
Our weekend together was a significant reminder of the many meaningful relationships that have developed and grown over the last 15 years. It was also a reminder that our relationship together actually began long before the sister relationship emerged.
Perhaps the most meaningful part of the Sunday morning celebration was giving thanks for and recognizing the dedication and service of faithful leaders both past and present. It was a blessing to have David and Shirley Yoder there with us. David and Shirley are the original church planters of Maranatha. The congregation was moved as David expressed the overwhelming joy he and Shirley experienced in coming back to the church for the first time in 35 years and witnessing God’s faithfulness in bringing forth fruit from the seeds that were sown.
Maranatha is indeed a congregation that has come a long way since the early 1960’s when David and Shirley used the living room of their home as a chapel for Sunday morning services and weekly bible studies. On this Sunday the auditorium was full of people and praise as we celebrated God’s faithfulness together through inspiring worship, prayer and hearing God’s word.
It was encouraging to reflect on how God has brought us together – two congregations with distinct cultures but the same vision and desire to be salt and light here on earth. Throughout the weekend we took time to think, dream and pray about our future together as partners in the Gospel. We look forward to how God will continue to use this relationship to further His kingdom.
“When we’re all gone, this church will disappear,†stated an older gentleman from a church whose population of young adults is virtually nonexistent.
When I began working for Franconia Mennonite Conference in early 2006, it didn’t take much time to realize that many young adults are loosing connection with their home congregations, both unintentionally and intentionally. Many leave for college, begin an international service term or settle into jobs, shedding familiar connections to explore an adult role within their surrounding community.
As a young adult often feeling this same disconnect, my curiosity was sparked to investigate the situation. Though much has been presumptuously stated about why young adults are not connecting, it seems that a lot of what is heard are words and ideas not supported by experiential investigation.
In order to explore our questions, we decided to visit students from our conference’s congregations at various colleges. Food and drinks always seem to gather college students, so spaces were set up at restaurants and coffeehouses for conversation. We hoped to bring an atmosphere of hospitality to the students in a manner that wouldn’t beg them to come back to church, but rather honestly seek the best ways to mutually listen, understand, and support.
Although it might seem obvious, we clearly discovered that the very act of going and listening is the most practical starting point for understanding each other. In a world where those close to us are often separated by vast geographic distance, it takes a lot of energy, time and financial investment to make these journeys. Yet these precious resources of our culture are what we sacrifice because we care. An incarnate sacrifice indicates that we are committed to actively pursuing relational understanding.
The incarnation is a foundation of the Christian experience. In John 1:14, Jesus initiates his relationship with humanity when “the Word became flesh and dwelled among us.†Jesus came seeking new human relationships.
We all believe that relationships are the core of our meaningful experiences. Much energy in the church has been invested into the familiar phrase, “strengthening our personal relationship with God.†Young adults have directly and indirectly communicated that we understand what it means to be in relationship with God by how we are in relationship with others. As Jesus said, “Whatever you have done for the least of these, you have done for me.†We show how much we care by what we do.
Making the sacrifice to walk alongside each other on the journey indicates how much the relationship is valued. Many young adults do not hear from their home congregations while they are studying and serving far from home. Some have indicated that theyfeel their congregations view college or international experiences as a time to “sow wild oats†as prodigal daughters and sons, later to return to the way things have always been or suffer guilt otherwise. For many, these experiences are the first opportunity to freely explore difficult issues. This period of questioning is a time of trying to grasp how experiences interact with integrity to the world around us and nurture healthy, holistic relationships.
For many, the church has been a place that privileges those who seem perfect and successful. Idealistic morality is the socially rewarded goal, it’s a standard that all of us fall short of attaining. Our personal struggles are then the most difficult to discuss. By restraining from these difficult, personal conversations, we stress and damage the relationships within the community, eventually producing a desire to escape what seems like a facade.
Much of the pain that estranges us from our church community is due to broken relationships. We grow up in a tightly connected group seeking to explore what it means to personally follow Jesus with our daily decisions. It’s a difficult process that often separates us from each other. For the church community to holistically engage this learning process, we need to be able to re-imagine how to move toward each other.
Our hospitality, whether social or theological, indicates the approachability of our community’s relationships. Hesitancy to begin the journey is perceived as fear from the perspective of those who are ready to explore the path ahead together.
Creating and sustaining these connections takes gracious energy. We need to show up and meet each other where we are at if we are going to take relationships seriously. We all know this is the truth, and we all desire it. We need to ask ourselves whether we are willing to courageously invest in this grace, whether we are going to make the journey?
All of us, young and old, do not want to suffer this journey of exploration alone. Young adults desire wisdom and guidance from older adults who are willing to ask difficult questions with them. Many older adults who have lived through difficult questions are waiting to be asked about them. We are all hesitant to approach that vulnerable moment where the incarnation becomes paradoxically personal and communal, where words become flesh to bring forth grace, truth and ultimately new life.
Our Church is skillfully playing out the story of the Exodus. Having eagerly taken the mantle of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness, we have left Egypt, bound for the Promised Land. Still, in order to get to that promise we must first experience God’s teaching in the desert in a time of change, confusion, exhaustion, and longing. Like the Israelites, we don’t easily recognize where we are and why we are here. Whether we recognize our state or not, we are in the midst of a massive shift that causes tensions to flair and lines to be drawn.
On one side of the line are those who identify with the Israelites who began to idolize Egypt. Sara Groves describes the situation in her song “Painting Pictures of Egypt,â€
“I’ve been painting pictures of Egypt, leaving out what it lacked. The future seems so hard and I want to go back…the past is so tangible I know it by heart, familiar things are never easy to discard…caught between the promise and the things I know.â€
The people on this side of the line are unsure of the future. They want to go back to the way thing used to be, preferring “the good old days†and “the way things were.†In this unsureness, it’s easy to forget that change is part of God’s design; just look at like the seasons.
Those on the other side identify with the Israelites who began to mistrust Moses and that the desert experience was mandated by God. As Alan Roxburgh explains in his book The Sky is Falling!?! Leaders Lost in Transition these are “a people for whom transition became the norm.†For them the “way things were†is a disconnected ideal of the past that must be in the past for a reason. They are full of distrust, cynicism, and questions because they see a Christ in the pages of the Bible that means something more powerful than what they see manifested today. They are searching and trying to create a Body of Christ that is real and true to Christ.
As these sides contest for the future the line between us, once just a groove in the sand, is becoming a canyon. Congregations desperately trying to revive the ways of old are slowly dying. New faith communities, defying anything tried and true, come and go with the wind. All the while the world watches and finds us less stable than the changing times and increasingly irrelevant.
Our problems lie in an inability to communicate with each other and work together to form a relevant Body of Christ. These problems exist because of fear, stubbornness, and pride as we prefer the misery of today over the mystery of tomorrow. In our stubbornness and resistance to change, we dig in our heels and close our hearts dismissing each other’s ideas and questions as ridiculous. Pride keeps us from moving, knowing that opening ourselves to each other might suggest that we’ve been wrong in the past.
To become a community that can truly call itself the Body of Christ we will need to put aside these things and communicate with each other. We must build relationships that are open to accountability, honest enough to voice our fears, trusting enough to let one another lift us up, humble enough to give and receive grace, and above all infused with God’s love. Making it a priority to care for each other truthfully and lovingly in action, not just words, will require personal sacrifice of comfort and a willingness to go beyond surface issues. To do this we need to recognize, cultivate, and encourage people who are able and willing to reach across the canyon to develop these relationships.
A bridge is already under construction that brings together the strength of the past with current innovation to create a relevant Body of Christ. But we are barely grasping what it is we need to do because it will take almost all of us to create something that is powerfully real and true.
German wanderlust poet Rainer Maria Rilke advocates in Letters to a Young Poet to live life’s questions so that in living them we might find both ourselves and potential answers. This has been an important assertion for me as I have ministered with, among and to young adults. Now that I am approaching my mid 30’s, having more or less survived my own young adulthood, I am beginning to be able to say something from my own experiences and responses. I am probably too postmodern to be comfortable calling them answers, but I’m ready to suggest that there’s something significant in the questions.
The significance of leading, living and ministering as a young adult is rooted somewhere in a pull between nurture and encouragement; frustration and angst. Young leaders are formed in that crucible of experience, between the kind and gracious words of persons in the generations before them while yet often being compelled by frustration and the unfulfilled visions within the community of those very same faithful people. I find myself still struggling between that tension of not knowing if I can even call myself a person of faith, because I am also a person of doubt and cynicism.
The tension between nurture and honest angst is essential for a new generation of leaders. Nurture alone might allow us to settle into status quo. Angst suggests that there is still discomfort that compels levels of response, energy, and creativity. We surely need nurturing communities and words of encouragement. But frustration and angst enables us to beckon those faith-rooted communities to the yet unseen, unfulfilled, unrealized possibilities of living the reign of God.
As Mennonites, unfortunately, we have managed to tame our history and our communities in a way that makes it difficult to bring up those yet unfulfilled possibilities without suggesting a kind of disloyalty. The massive institution-building of the 20th century has left much for the next generations to maintain in a time that privileges fluidity over staticity. Questioning the institutions and directions of our heritage or seeking new paths and venues for faithfulness can quickly be viewed as disrespect or lack of appreciation.
At a meeting for emerging leaders in Philadelphia, Fuller Seminary Professor Eddie Gibbs suggested that these are tough days to lead. He said that he’s seen many frustrated and tired young leaders. In that recognition he begged young leaders to continue the difficult work ahead for the sake of the Good News in a new day. His quick assertion brought tears to my eyes. I know from my peers and from those who are a decade younger than me that this is not an easy time to care deeply about faith. Or to live your questions and doubts.
I was 24 when my home church in the mountains of Western Pennsylvania invited me to become one of its pastors. These days that call seems like craziness and my willingness to take on the task seems like a combination of blind faith and naivete. But it was also amazing to be able to live out a sense of hope that emerged in the space between angst and nurture with a congregation that called me their own. I pastored with the congregation for six years and in those years the congregation grew, I believe, because we were learning to live questions of faith and doubt, angst and encouragement.
The struggle in ministering with, learning from and calling forth young adults is to learn a sense of living in
the tension of angst and nurture. It’s a significant space that Jesus must have known, calling disciples with strong and sometimes abrasive personalities toward a goal that wasn’t always clear and had yet to unfold. In between there’s a recognition of the present good that hopes and lives toward what is yet unseen. It’s ultimately a step of faith, calling young leaders with questions and dreams different from our own generation, embracing hope and waiting for things yet to come.
There’s a fragile hope that emerges between gracious nurture and angst-inspired questioning. Theologian Miroslav Volf recently suggested that “Christians should be our own most rigorous critics—and be that precisely out of a deep sense of the beauty and goodness of our faith.†For those of us who believe in the beauty and goodness of the faith, we need not fear the doubts and questions of a new generation
of seekers and leaders. In fact, the faith requires it to be relevant both today and in the unfolding days ahead.
In these times of rapid cultural change, hope is a rare commodity. In a time where relationships are quickly and easily severed because of disagreement and change, living with hope is a radical act. Encouragement and nurture require a posture of open-handedness with young adults who may or may not receive it to the ends that might be our own preference.
Living with the angst of young leaders about the current situation requires a level of confidence in the value of the work that we’ve done in the past and a willingness to change when confronted with contemporary realities.
Ministering with, working with and calling forth young adult leaders is not for the faint-hearted, easily winded or precariously perfect. It requires a willingness to enter into the confusing and questions of discipleship and dissonance. It requires us to live our individual and shared questions to discover a deeper sense of the beauty of the faith we say we know and trust.
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Arnold & Marlene Derstine, 
Our weekend together was a significant reminder of the many meaningful relationships that have developed and grown over the last 15 years. It was also a reminder that our relationship together actually began long before the sister relationship emerged.
David Landis, 
Although it might seem obvious, we clearly discovered that the very act of going and listening is the most practical starting point for understanding each other. In a world where those close to us are often separated by vast geographic distance, it takes a lot of energy, time and financial investment to make these journeys. Yet these precious resources of our culture are what we sacrifice because we care. An incarnate sacrifice indicates that we are committed to actively pursuing relational understanding.
Much of the pain that estranges us from our church community is due to broken relationships. We grow up in a tightly connected group seeking to explore what it means to personally follow Jesus with our daily decisions. It’s a difficult process that often separates us from each other. For the church community to holistically engage this learning process, we need to be able to re-imagine how to move toward each other.
