MCC East Coast Celebration Come to Philadelphia Praise Center (PPC) this Sunday, August 3 at 6 p.m. to learn about some of MCC’s urban programs. Summer service workers from New York, Miami, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia will be sharing about their experiences. The PPC worship team will lead in opening and closing worship. Refreshments will follow the program. Please invite your congregations!
Child Safety 101
Franconia Conference School for Leadership Formation presents Child Safety 101: Child Protection for Congregations on Thursdays, September 11 and 25 and October 9 and 23 from 6 – 8 p.m. at the Mennonite Conference Center, Souderton, PA. Julie Prey-Harbaugh will serve as the instructor. Please see the attached brochure for further information about this important resourcing event.
Anabaptist Vision and Discipleship Series
The Anabaptist Vision and Discipleship Series for Fall ’08 is entitled, DIGITAL DISCIPLESHIP: Forming Faith in an Electronic Culture. The seminar will be held November 7 – 9 at Hesston College. For more information, visit www.Hesston.edu/AVDS ; email micheleh@hesston.edu ; or call 620-327-8292.
Thank you for your support of the July half-price sale at the Care & Share Shoppes in Souderton, PA! Over $19,200 was raised to benefit flood clean-up by Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) in the Midwest. Our next half-price sale will be on Monday, August 25 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. All items in the three Shoppes are half-off ticketed price with a few exceptions, and must be removed the day of the sale. For directions or questions, call our automated phone line at 215-723-0315. Shop where your purchase is a gift to the world!
Zion Mennonite Church invites the community to a free Outdoor Family Movie on Friday, August 15. “Evan Almighty”, rated PG, will be shown by the barn and will begin at dusk or 8 p.m. (In the case of inclement weather it will be shown in the Fellowship Hall). The movie and popcorn are free, drinks and candy will be sold for a minimal cost. For more information, call the church office at 215-723-3592 or visit the website at www.zionmennonite.org.
On Saturday, September 27 one of the most inspirational writers of our time is visiting Lancaster, PA to talk about the great lessons she has learned on her journey through life. Paula D’Arcy, author of Song for Sarah, Gift of the Red Bird, and Sacred Threshold will speak at Neffsville Mennonite Church, 2371 Lititz Pike, Lancaster. Tickets are $15 for the public presentation (7:00 p.m.) and $50 for both the Meet the Author reception (5:00-6:30 p.m.) and the public presentation. Get additional information or purchase tickets for the event online (www.On-the-Journey.org) or by calling Kairos: School of Spiritual Formation at 717-669-2957.
Job Openings
Care & Share Shoppes of Souderton, PA is seeking a part-time Assistant Manager for the Variety Shoppe. They are seeking someone with experience and enthusiasm to maintain and create attractive and inviting displays for the Variety Shoppe. This position requires a high energy, customer service- focused, and organized individual. The ability to motivate volunteers and staff and to lead by example are key qualifications. This person must also be physically able to lift up to 25 pounds, and remain standing for long periods of time. For a complete job description and application, contact Sarah Bergin, Executive Director, at skbergin@verizon.net.
Dock Woods Community is seeking an Administrative Assistant to work 32 hours a week with benefits. The hours are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Tuesday and Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The candidate should be detail-oriented with the ability to work independently and provide administrative support to several departments. Interested candidates should send resume along with salary requirements to HR Department, Dock Woods Community, 275 Dock Drive, Lansdale, PA 19446 or email resume to llepp@dockwoods.com.
In order to grow spiritually and become more missional, sometimes congregations have to take a rest, step back and reevaluate who they are and where they are going.
This usually happens during times of pastoral transition, when intentional interim pastors are brought into a congregation to prepare them for the next pastor. The interim period often turns into a time during which churches assess strengths and weaknesses, examine communication patterns and address conflicts.
Ray Yoder, who has pastored in Franconia, Eastern District, LancasterandAtlantic Coast Conference congregations, says that one of the first things he usually requires when stepping into a congregation as an interim pastor is that the church participates in a consultation with a team of people from outside the congregation. This process involves filling out questionnaires and being interviewed to determine the strengths and needs of the congregation, and the end result is eight to twelve recommendations that give attention to particular areas of congregational life. This, says Yoder, “becomes a kind of road map” for the interim period.
Other intentional interim pastors agree that a formal assessment is important.
Bob Petersheim, current pastor of Swamp Mennonite Church, says that any number of issues can get in the way of a church’s mission: power dynamics, poor communication, lack of a focused mission, knowing who is authorized to do what, how conflict gets resolved, or just a lack of skills to carry out a goal.
Petersheim says that no matter what the conflict is about, those root issues are always the same, and it’s important to address all those aspects within a congregation. “You don’t just focus on what’s out of order and what’s broken,” says Petersheim, “the job is to get down to the foundation, so that if you put that in order the church has the most chance of getting mission and ministry done.”
Yoder adds, “I call it a net-mending ministry; the net needs to be repaired in order to go fishing again.”
All pastors interviewed for this article agreed that they love their work and seeing people grow in their relationship with God and each other.
Dan Graber is currently serving as interim pastor at both the West Swampand Whitehall Mennonite congregations; he uses interim ministry as a way of encouraging members to explore their gifts, and he invites both men and women to preach on Sunday mornings.
Petersheim agrees that it can be an empowering time. “It often increases the congregation’s awareness of lay leadership gifts. There’s often a fresh sense of ‘Oh, we can do well through times of transition!’”
Yoder says that after he’s been in the congregation about a year, the church holds an evening healing service, which includes a corporate prayer of confession and renewal. “No matter how deeply we love each other, we still cause wounds and offense with one another because of our imperfections, and there’s a need for acknowledging that, confessing and forgiveness.” He adds, “Quite often, the incentive for calling in an interim is that there had been a crisis, or pain of some sort in the congregation, and that then creates a readiness to do something different. My view is that that’s the Lord’s doing.”
Petersheim says that it’s not just useful to have an interim pastor after a period of crisis; it can be useful during any transition. “It’s a preventative measure—for the same reason you get your oil changed before there’s a problem.”
Pastors agree that interim ministry can be an enriching time for both congregations and pastors. Yoder says that one of the most rewarding parts is “meeting a whole group of wonderful brothers and sisters in the Lord.”
“I love challenges,” says Petersheim. “I love situations that rely more on being intuitive or prayerful, giving room for the Holy Spirit to move.”
“We’re an impatient society and impatient for change,” says Petersheim, “and one of the challenges is to help people live with the tension of doing transformation work. It does take time, and it’s unsettling. But when churches embrace that work, and are willing to live with that tension, it bears good fruit.”
Emma Frederick, co-pastor at Perkasie Mennonite Church with her husband, J. Mark, works to set up a pastoral care team and a prayer ministry in the congregation, and encourages people to pray specifically for the interim process. “Prayer ministry needs to go alongside these intentional interims.” she says, “[Otherwise] What we’re doing is on our own steam.”
For interim pastors, the challenges are also unique: intentional interim pastors work in congregations for a minimum one year, and a maximum of two and are therefore frequently working themselves out of a job.
“I love the work,” says Petersheim, “but every calling has its cross. The cross in interim work is that you grieve the losses every year or two.”
Petersheim notes the importance that intentional interim pastors stay with a congregation no longer than two years.
“When you’re doing an intentional interim, particularly if things were conflicted, you’re addressing functions and power systems, so it’s easier for people to trust you in not being biased towards building your own future. You have more room to affect change when people know that you’re not a candidate for the long-term,” he notes.
As for other challenges of the job, some intentional interim pastors build in sabbaticals at the end of each assignment to give themselves time to grieve the loss of relationships and transition well into the next position. And the frequent job transitions mean that health care coverage and regular paychecks aren’t always guaranteed.
Intentional interim pastors from Eastern Pennsylvania gather together each month for prayer, support and brainstorming. The group, coordinated by Jenifer Eriksen Morales, Minister of Transitional Ministries for Franconia Conference, also meets quarterly for an all-day equipping time with a resource person. Last fall, four Mennonites conferences worked together to hold a week-long training for intentional interim pastors, an event that happens every few years in the United States and Canada.
Training and support are important for interim pastors because they know that what works in one congregation won’t necessarily work in the next, and that in each situation, the pastor needs to enter as a learner, a partner and a listener.
“Every congregations has a kind of personality and a soul,” says Petersheim, “and an intentional interim needs to know that personality, its dysfunctions and its strengths.”
That the Lord so clearly called us to this 20-year term of church planting in Mexico City we could never doubt. This certainty is what carried us through many testing times and experiences.
Kenneth L. Seitz
I’ve heard many different people say that if you want to make God laugh you should tell him your plans. Many of us are planners by nature, we want and are supposed to know where we are going, how we will get there, when we will go and what we will do while we are there, among other controllable variables. However we simply cannot plan for everything…sometimes it rains on our beach vacation, sometimes our ideas flop.
In the winter of 2006 I found myself at the edge of a vocational cliff. I could either continue on the path I was walking, the one that made sense financially and was easy to plan, or I could leave the graduate program I was in and pursue what really inspired me.
It didn’t make sense for me to leave mid-semester to pursue ministry but it also didn’t make sense to me to stay on a course that left me unmotivated and unhealthy. Therefore after listening to the internal nudging of God, coupled with the external signs of affirming friends, family, pastors and “coincidence,” I left what made sense and took a running dive off that cliff.
Sometimes we feel a strong urge by God to do what is contrary to our plans or to what makes sense with where our life seems to be heading. Something that requires a leap of faith…like leaving a promising graduate degree program in School Counseling to pursue working for the church. Or picking up your family and moving to Mexico City to minister among strangers. Or planting another church after experiencing the pain of having one fail.
Some people call this strong urge from God a calling, others are not so comfortable with that term, but following God’s lead and taking these leaps require a sense of faith. Taking the leap cultivates faith that the direction you are being led towards, though contrary to any of your plans and perhaps contrary to the plans of those near and dear to you, will bear fruit.
In this issue you will read about people who have and are following their callings despite what, at times, made sense to them. You’ll read of men and women willing to commit to love and walk with a congregation through the often tumultuous space of transition…only to leave once the transition is moving toward health and begin the process again with another congregation.
You’ll read of three newly credentialed leaders who traveled confusing and sometimes tough roads never guessing that God would lead them to their current ministries. You’ll read of new and successful leaps of faith in established Conference Related Ministries. You’ll read of a couple coming to the marriage altar pursuing hope despite all life experience to the contrary. And you’ll read about a young woman about to take a leap of faith of her own to learn and grow in another country.
My own leap of faith has led me somewhere I never imagined…here; writing, collecting and assembling the stories of an amazing group of people who are bound together by a shared pursuit to following God’s leading. Becoming a story collector and teller is nothing I could have planned but what a beautiful fruit it has been.
The stories in the following pages tell us of the unplanned and amazing fruit that has and is already springing from acts of obedience to God’s leading. While some are too new to tell exactly what the fruit will look like, all of these stories share the common thread of faithful followers listening to God’s call, the voice of the Spirit heard internally and externally, and following that lead through the good times and the difficult.
When Krista Ehst leaves for the United Kingdom (UK) in September, Franconia Conferencewill take another step toward deepening our relationship with the Anabaptist Network in the UK. From seeds planted in 2005, rooted in a relationship of shared vision and values, this Partner In Mission relationship is beginning to grow in ways that intend to strengthen both partners.
Our British “siblings” are establishing Anabaptism freshly where it only existed fleetingly in the late 16th Century and was quickly snuffed out by persecution. In the midst of a post-Christian culture they have fresh opportunities to incarnate Anabaptist theology unattached to any cultural assumptions. They are experimenting and finding ways to follow Jesus and make disciples in a society where the church is generally seen as irrelevant. Franconia Conference leaders know there is much to learn from their experiences.
One way we can learn is by embedding one of “our own” on the ground in the UK to learn alongside our British counterparts. Krista Ehst has been named as a one-year intern to this role.
For the past two summers she has participated in the Ministry and Service Inquiry Programs, spending the summer of 2006 working under the leadership of Pastor Eve MacMaster at Emmanuel Mennonite Church in Gainesville, Fl. The summer of 2007 found her working with Steve Kriss and Jessica Walter at Franconia Conference. Her studies and experiences have fostered in her a deep interest in biblical and religious studies and a growing passion for the life of the church, in particular the Anabaptist and/or Mennonite church.
Krista says that she finds the possibility of interning with the Anabaptist Network in the UK appealing for a variety of reasons. At the most basic level, it gives her the chance to experience and engage with the church and with Anabaptism in a new and different context. She believes that Mennonite Church USA is in a time of change and transition, and the future shape of that broad body and many individual congregations is unclear. More intention than ever is needed in how we practice and enter into church with one another, and part of this intentionality needs to happen through engaging and learning from other church communities around the world.
As Krista looks to ground herself in a Mennonite community that will strive towards faithful discipleship and peacemaking, the opportunity to immerse herself in the Anabaptist Network, which is asking so many questions about these core Anabaptist values, seems invaluable.
She is also fascinated by the state of the church in the UK, as well as in much of the rest of Europe. In an increasingly secularized culture, the Anabaptist Network seems to have provided many churches with the tools to enter into conversations about how the Christian church can continue to be relevant, and also seems to give many resources for living out beliefs and values in practical and meaningful ways. These are conversations and resources churches in the US are in need of as well, and she would value the opportunity to bring some of these back to Franconia Conference.
Krista believes that she would also benefit from learning what it means to work for a broad, ecumenical church network while continuing to develop writing, communication and organizational skills. She believes the experience will push her to further develop and articulate her own sense of faith and belief and her commitment to the Mennonite and Christian church.
Krista will live in East London, a multicultural and mostly under-churched area of the city, where there is a significant Muslim population. There she will divide her time between working with two Urban Expression church plants and working for the Anabaptist Network. Her assignment will include hands-on experience in ministry such as involvement in a spiritual exploration group, teaching children, helping to develop new initiatives, collecting stories of teams moving into urban communities and pioneering relevant expressions of church, as well as providing administrative support for church leaders and the Anabaptist Network.
Franconia Conference leaders are committed to finding ways for the broader conference community to benefit from this partnership and from Krista’s experiences and learnings. We will look for a variety of opportunities for Krista to share her learnings with us while in the UK. As well as upon her return to the states.
The further we walk into this partnership, the more convinced Franconia Conference leaders are of the potential and value of this relationship for our future. We may face a strange new world, but also one replete with opportunities for sharing the Good News and proclaiming the present and coming Kingdom of our living God.
The Spirit of Jesus empowers us to trust God in all areas of life so we become peacemakers who renounce violence, love our enemies, seek justice, and share our possessions with those in need.
As weddings go, this one was by far the most frenzied I have been part of.
I had begun meeting this couple months earlier. They wanted me to marry them. For the groom it was a second time. His first wife had abandoned him and their five children in search of the loves and the excitement of night life the local bars afforded her. He struggled mightily with work, cooking supper for little ones, sports schedules, homework, laundry piles, lonely days and tiredness. He lived on weak coffee and cigarettes. He admitted there were times when the rifle in his closet would be an easy answer.
She had never married. She had never been asked. In her family girls just didn’t. Instead a woman hooked up with a man…for as long as it lasted. And when it was over she took her children and moved on. To another place, another chance, another man. For as long as it took.
When he asked her to get married she hardly saw the point of it. But he persisted none-the-less. At our sessions together she wandered back and forth with stories of previous loves and how odd it was to be thinking of a wedding. Of making vows. Of what a wedding actually was…and what you did there. She said at the end of our time that she wanted it to work…but that she was stricken with doubt. After all, men had been parading in and out of her life for a long time. Why should going to a church and making promises in front of a whole lot of people end that parading pattern? But she agreed to buy the dress and move forward.
He was more confident. I am not sure why. He had little reason to be confident of anything given what his life had offered thus far. But oddly, he was. They would live in his house with his children and hers.
The day of the wedding brought the excitement you would traditionally expect. There was the usual fanfare. The arrival of the groom with his children resplendent in their tuxes and bows. The bride hid herself downstairs with her ladies so as not to be seen by the groom and be jinxed.
Now, you expect that a wedding will bring with it a certain decorum. A solemnity tinged with beauty, grace and fine dress. But many of the guests were not used to the formality of a church service. For some it was merely a stop on the way to the local VFW where a reception was planned. For others a wedding was merely a strange curiosity to observe. Guests arrived in their sports cars and loud trucks.
The piano in the corner brought the assembled crowd to some order. Some order. Flower girls were the first to make their entrance. They were cute as they dropped their petals and then stood in the front waiting, fidgeting, fussing and then pushing. Bridesmaids came next and stood guard over the fussing. Then the bride in her new dress came walking down…her hands trembling. She stood beside her groom. The piano stopped but the “holy hush” never arrived. I began to speak, loudly, to be heard over the din, “Good afternoon, friends and neighbors!”
I learned something about peace that day. As a Mennonite I more quickly see peace as a Beatitude…as a placard reminder that peacemakers are blessed by God. And my memory can well rehearse the many historical stories of our tradition…that you can have peace but it often comes with a great cost. And that peace is something we carry with us. What I began to catch a glimpse of that day I spotted in the eyes of the both the bride and groom as they stood there in front of me…in the middle of irreverent racket.
As I asked her to repeat after me, “To have and to hold from this day forward,’” her voice began to crack. “For better, for worse, for richer for poorer…for the rest of our lives,” words which for me are merely a job became for her a rush of tears…of wishes and hope. The road of his life was littered with pain. But he was not looking back, not this day.
At the altar of “I do’” you could see in his dark eyes a pursuit. That for him, for them, peace was worth looking for.
In June Kenneth L. Seitz, a key church planter in Mexico City from 1958-1978, died. During their years in Mexico, Kenneth and his wife, Grace, established five congregations. Their ministry left an invaluable impression of the lives of many in Mexico City and in Franconia Conference. The following are a handful of tributes from those touched by Kenneth’s life and work.
My earliest memories of Kenneth Seitz and his family include being their neighbors. While our families traveled different paths, we intersected at numerous points along the way. At his father’s funeral, Ken Jr. likened his father’s story to a series of migrations – from Pennsylvania farmer, to college/seminary student, to pastor in West Virginia and, at age 42, a move to Mexico City as a pioneer church planter. Later years included pastoral assignments, at Line Lexington and Finland, then chaplaincy and retirement in Virginia.
This hardly represents the typical story for Mennonite people born in 1916. But in the words of a tribute by Richard Benner, Kenneth and Grace Seitz represent an Anabaptist version of Tom Brokaw’s “greatest generation.” A greatness achieved not through military service but through loving, dedicated service to Christ and the church. Why else would they attempt at mid-life to learn a new language and adapt to a strange culture, risking significant impact on their family of six children?
Franconia Conference is deeply indebted to Kenneth and Grace for their service, making sacrifices we would today consider excessive and unnecessary. But as he looked back on their service in Mexico City, which is foundational to all our Conference’s involvement in that city for the past 50 years, Kenneth wrote:
That the Lord so clearly called us to this twenty-year term of church planting in Mexico City we could never doubt. This certainty is what carried us through so many testing times and experiences. I thought of this as our most important contribution to the Lord and to the church, these twenty years in midlife, forty-two to sixty-two years of age….For the little or much that was accomplished to God be the glory.
To which I can only say “amen,” and give thanks to God for Kenneth and Grace and the example they left for future generations.
James M. Lapp, Preaching Pastor
Salford Mennonite Church
The reason I am writing is to tell you thanks. I want you to know that your missionary labor has changed the life of many people that you don’t know (like me); that your prayers for the congregation, El Buen Pastor (The Good Shepherd), that you founded because of the love of Jesus has been a great blessing. The congregation still exists and blesses not only the families that are a part of the congregation who find the love of Christ and receive discipleship. It is not only the families who receive this blessing but also those who know us.
I am a doctoral student at the National University of Mexico. I want to tell you that my life is very different; being a part of El Buen Pastor church fills my life with the light of God, of hope in salvation, the love that I can share with all those around me. My family does not attend but I know the moment will arrive when they will yield their hearts to Christ.
I give thanks to God for your life, for having renounced yourself to follow Christ to the Pantitlan colony to found the congregation that today has taken me in as a loving family; the congregation through which Jesus has supplied all my needs and has restored in miracle form much of what I lacked due to my faults.
Lastly, I want to tell you that you have given a double gift to the Lord: In love you gave your life to his service and with that you have produced much: Thanksgivings, praise and many lives that are now living for His glory. Be joyful!
II Cor. 9:12-13: This service you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of praise to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God.
Areli Rosas Navarrete El Buen Pastor
I believe the first time that I met Kenneth and Grace Seitz was in Mexico the summer of 1959. That summer I sang in a group called the Hartville Singers. We traveled from Ohio to Oregon to Mexico City to Florida and back to Pennsylvania. We spent about a week in Mexico City where we had several programs.
Those days in Mexico City left an impression on me and in 1966 I, with Emma, was back, this time to form part of the missionary team. Kenneth became a mentor to me as a young 24 year old. I consulted with him on cultural items, personal struggles and theological reflections. I remember the intensity with which he would speak of calling people to faith and of the church. He was an evangelist, pastor and Bible teacher and a man of prayer. I will never forget when our second daughter was born and was on the verge of succumbing to the infection with which she was born, how Kenneth interceded for her as the missionary families gathered together in Puebla. That evening our daughter began to gain strength for what has been a wonderful life.
I had the opportunity to work with Kenneth in the Bible Institute as well as in planting a church in the area in which he and Grace lived. I learned to appreciate his caring and loving spirit so much so that when he and Grace terminated their service in Mexico I desired that his “mantel” be wrapped around my shoulders for my ongoing ministry in Mexico. The Lord has blessed my life through Kenneth. I count myself as one of many who have been privileged to be “graced” by God’s servant, Kenneth Seitz.
J. Mark Frederick, Jr., Intentional Interim Pastor
Perkasie Mennonite Church
I got to know Kenneth in a new way soon after our arrival in Mexico in 1959. He went along on an investigative trip to an isolated area of Mexico where the indigenous group, the Triquis, lived. We needed to decide if that place was where our family would settle. At the end of the bus route we hitched a ride on the back of the pickup of the road engineer who was working on the new road into the Triqui area.
We were told that when the engineer got to a certain cave in the road building, he was met by the devil and told that he could not proceed, because beyond that point was the devil’s territory. They came to an agreement that he could go ahead, with the stipulation that the devil could do what he wants with the drivers using the road. When the machinery moved in the Triquis assumed their lights were the eyes of the “monsters.”
We got to the end of the newly built road and started out on foot for several miles to where the Triquis lived. Kenneth was a big help in making the decision that this was a good place to work (the Triquis were considered one of the more difficult groups to work with). After introducing ourselves to the leaders we spent the night in a rustic cabin. The next day we climbed a mountain on foot then went down to a lower altitude to the tribal home of two Wycliffe women. It was an exhausting trip.
Once we as a family were settled among the Triquis in that rustic cabin, Kenneth and Grace visited us. We only found out later that their sleep was disturbed by the mice (or perhaps rats) running around. We are grateful that they were uncomplaining guests.
Peace Fellowship meets in a place rather incongruent with its name: a local Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall.
Peace Fellowship, an emerging partner congregation with Franconia Conference, is a multiracial congregation located in the northeast quadrant of Washington, D.C. It sits east of the Anacostia River in the Kenilworth-Parkside neighborhood, right on the border with Maryland.
Like many churches, Peace didn’t want to just be located in a random neighborhood; it wanted to be in a place where it could reach out to the community around it, therefore, geography has always been important. From the start, the church has been intentional about locating itself on the east side of the city, which has significantly higher rates of poverty and crime.
“The church has a real mission for the community and neighborhood,” says Keith Lyndaker Schlabach. He and his wife, Rachelle, began attending Peace about a year ago and he says that outreach, as well as the diversity of the congregation are what drew them in.
Ellen Adjei also liked the multiracial character of the church, as well as its emphasis on social justice and “how that fits with being an evangelical.” She says most of the time, people who are interested in social justice aren’t Christians, and she’s been encouraged by the way in which Peace combines those aspects of faith.
Peace is a fairly small congregation, and church elder Raymond McGhee says that being small brings its own challenges. Sometimes Peace doesn’t always have the resources or expertise necessary to address the problems it sees so it works with organizations like Jubilee Jobs, which provides job training and placement services.
The diversity of the congregation also brings challenges. Recently, members held a dialogue about race and class. McGhee says the the church wants to openly acknowledge and address the differences.
Yet members of Peace are continually energized by the possibilities. “We’re really excited about what God’s doing in this church,” says McGhee.
Peace began meeting six years ago in the home of pastor Dennis Edwards and his wife, Susan. As the church grew, it moved to a rec hall, then to the VFW hall, and is now hoping to purchase a house which was confiscated because of drug activity and is located just a few blocks from where Peace presently meets.
Pastor Edwards began the church after leaving his position at Washington Community Fellowship, a Virginia Mennonite Conference-affiliated congregation located on Capitol Hill. Edwards came to Washington Community Fellowship after his advisor told him about an opening at a multiracial and multi-denominational congregation in Washington, D.C. When he became the lead pastor, Virginia Conference leadership offered to ordain him and Edwards, who was already ordained in a different denomination, accepted.
“All of my Christian life I’ve had an affinity…to what I later would learn are Anabaptist values.”
When Edwards left, he says he wasn’t sure what he was going to do; he only knew that he wanted to live somewhere east of the river.
“I felt like…I needed to be more deliberate in fulfilling that call in my life,” says Edwards, “and living in a neighborhood and being in a community that needs some tangible witness of the gospel.”
Friends—including members of Washington Community Fellowship—encouraged him to plant a church, but Edwards was hesitant to do so because he had started a church in New York City and knew how difficult church planting could be. Eventually, though, Edwards began holding Sunday evening worship in his home.
Edwards says the emphasis on building relationships and being present in the community requires a strong commitment on the part of Peace’s members.
“We may discourage some people because we tell them it is about building relationships,” says Edwards. “I know we have lost some people because of that—not in a mean way, but they realize it’s going to take awhile, that they need to be deliberate about it. So some people have not stayed around because they found it to be awkward for them personally.”
Peace Fellowship is celebrating its sixth anniversary this summer with a party for the community, one that includes food and games, as well as an introduction to their Vacation Bible School program. Church elder Lynne Eggert says that churches in the area have generally been more inwardly focused, so Peace wanted to do something a little different, “We wanted to have something that showed the community love.”
As a child, I loved to play church with my sister. We sang songs of faith, read scripture and I “preached.” It was not in the realm of my thinking or imagination at this early age that one day God would call me to be a pastor. My parents were people of deep faith in Jesus and served many years in either a congregational setting or in a Mennonite institution. Their love for Jesus and the Mennonite church inspired me to consider how I might serve the church.
I was a shy child and slowly developed confidence and leadership gifts during my college and young adult years. I graduated from HesstonandGoshen colleges, served a year in voluntary service and gained work experience as an elementary school teacher and support staff at Goshen College before taking several classes at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) to test an emerging call to ministry. When I became pregnant with our first child however, I put seminary on hold.
By the time my husband, Wayne, completed his seminary training at AMBS and accepted a call to pastor Wooster (Ohio) Mennonite Church we had two young daughters and I was very content as a stay-at-home mom with a variety of opportunities to further develop my gifts as a lay person in the congregation.
When my children were both enrolled in elementary school, I began sensing a call to ministry again, but I resisted, unsure that the timing to return to seminary was in the best interest of my children. The call persisted, and I decided to share it with Wayne and the elder team.
One of the elders, Beulah, served as a mentor to help me further test my call and learn to own it as separate from Wayne’s call. She encouraged me to enroll at Ashland Theological Seminary as a next step in the discernment process. I experienced motivation, energy and joy through my seminary studies, accompanied by affirmation of my call. While at Ashland, I studied under professors and with students from other faith traditions which deepened my identity and theology as an Anabaptist/Mennonite.
Near the end of my seminary experience, I was prepared to seek a position as a pastoral counselor when Ohio Mennonite Conference approached Wayne and I, to consider the regional pastor position. Though I did not have the proper credentials, training or experience for this role, Mark Weidner, Conference Minister, graciously encouraged me to accept the call later serving as an advocate and mentor. I stepped out in faith, believing that God would provide. For the next twelve years, I thoroughly loved ministering to pastors, lay leaders and congregations while using my counseling skills and developing other ministry skills.
Another surprise came in November 2007 when the Franconia Conference consultant, working with the Blooming Glen Pastoral Transition Task Force, called to ask if I was open to a conversation regarding an associate pastor position. Again I wondered if I had the proper experience to serve on the pastoral team of a large congregation. I wondered if there would also be a ministry opportunity for Wayne. After naming my struggles to God and talking with Wayne, I felt led to step out in faith and test this new call.
After my interview, I felt cautiously optimistic, but the doubts and questions persisted. My family’s previous transitions were focused on Wayne’s call, not mine. It felt risky to move ahead without Wayne also securing a job. The invitation came for me to be a candidate. Wayne and I needed a sign to be sure of God’s direction. The following day, in a meeting, the devotional was about Abraham’s call to go, leave his security and follow God to a new land.
Several mornings later I awoke earlier than normal with Proverbs 3:5-6 on my mind, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths.”
With these signs from our God, who works in surprising and mysterious ways inviting us to risk, I accepted the pastoral position at Blooming Glen and have confidence that God will continue to provide what is needed.
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In order to grow spiritually and become more missional, sometimes congregations have to take a rest, step back and reevaluate who they are and where they are going.
Emma Frederick, co-pastor at 
That the Lord so clearly called us to this 20-year term of church planting in Mexico City we could never doubt. This certainty is what carried us through many testing times and experiences.
My own leap of faith has led me somewhere I never imagined…here; writing, collecting and assembling the stories of an amazing group of people who are bound together by a shared pursuit to following God’s leading. Becoming a story collector and teller is nothing I could have planned but what a beautiful fruit it has been.
Blaine Detwiler, 
My earliest memories of Kenneth Seitz and his family include being their neighbors. While our families traveled different paths, we intersected at numerous points along the way. At his father’s funeral, Ken Jr. likened his father’s story to a series of migrations – from Pennsylvania farmer, to college/seminary student, to pastor in West Virginia and, at age 42, a move to Mexico City as a pioneer church planter. Later years included pastoral assignments, at 
Once we as a family were settled among the Triquis in that rustic cabin, Kenneth and Grace visited us. We only found out later that their sleep was disturbed by the mice (or perhaps rats) running around. We are grateful that they were uncomplaining guests.
As a child, I loved to play church with my sister. We sang songs of faith, read scripture and I “preached.” It was not in the realm of my thinking or imagination at this early age that one day God would call me to be a pastor. My parents were people of deep faith in Jesus and served many years in either a congregational setting or in a Mennonite institution. Their love for Jesus and the Mennonite church inspired me to consider how I might serve the church.
After my interview, I felt cautiously optimistic, but the doubts and questions persisted. My family’s previous transitions were focused on Wayne’s call, not mine. It felt risky to move ahead without Wayne also securing a job. The invitation came for me to be a candidate. Wayne and I needed a sign to be sure of God’s direction. The following day, in a meeting, the devotional was about Abraham’s call to go, leave his security and follow God to a new land.