Immigrant Churches call Mennonite Church USA beyond its comfort zone.

Philadelphia Praise Center (PPC) and Nations Worship Center, two Franconia Mennonite Conference congregations, call the same South Philadelphia neighborhood home.

Worship at Philadelphia Praise Center. Tim Moyer, Franconia Mennonite Conference.

Transplanted immigrants from Indonesia comprise the majority of members of both groups. The religiously motivated riots in 2000 in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city, brought many Indonesian Christians to Philadelphia seeking asylum and new homes.

Leaders of these congregations deal with both the spiritual and practical implications of being new immigrant congregations.

“We always deal with immigration issues,” Beny Krisbianto, leader at Nations Worship Center, says. “After 9/11 it has become hard to apply for citizenship.” Finding work, accessing health care, negotiating the complex immigration process and learning English are challenges community members face daily. “Justice belongs to everybody, including immigrants here on American soil. I believe Jesus is also a refugee. Even though our citizenship is in heaven, we can’t ignore hurting people and those who face injustice in their lives,” he says.

Aldo Siahaan, the PPC pastor, was not a member of the Mennonite church before he came to the United States. Through the help of Bastian Yosin, an Indonesian Mennonite pastor from Central Java, and from reading Mennonite theological materials, Siahaan grew to appreciate the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition.

“The core message of the gospel is not only in the pulpit but in our daily lives,” Siahaan says. “I can see where the love of Jesus is not only in talk but in the act. That really impressed me. And also the message of peace; I think this world needs the message of peace.”

Steve Kriss, Franconia Conference director of communication and leadership cultivation, lists a number of attractive characteristics of these immigrant congregations.

“The vibrancy in their congregational life and sense of possibility broadens what it means to be Mennonite,” Kriss says. “These congregations are entrepreneurial. They don’t disconnect the work of evangelism from peace and justice.”

Philadelphia Praise Center opens its building for local Muslims to use for prayer during Ramadan. Photo by Tim Moyer.

On a Sunday morning at the Philadelphia Praise Center, morning worship begins with music sung in three languages: Indonesian, English and Spanish.

“We are growing as a multicultural church,” Vina Krisnadi, PPC member and Franconia Conference board member, says. “The leaders of these congregations acknowledge that this sensitivity to other languages and cultural expressions can be a struggle.

It is not easy to worship in several languages at once. It would be easier to preach without translation.

“But that is not what God said to us,” Siahaan says. “We try to be respectful of one another. We try to learn Spanish songs and learn English songs and be supportive of one another.”

Siahaan preaches from the narrative of the early church in Acts, challenging the congregation to daily discipleship and evangelism. He urges his listeners to understand that the church ought to be in the streets meeting people where they live and work. The congregation responds by praying for Haitians affected by recent hurricanes and views a YouTube segment on the growth of underground house churches around the world. After the service, a group from the church walks over to the Indonesian Muslim community center to participate in a meal and celebration to mark the end of Ramadan.

The connection to the Muslim community began when Siahaan became aware of the need in the Muslim community for space to gather and pray during Ramadan. The congregation reached consensus in 2007 to open their building and provide food during this Muslim time of fasting and prayer. Siahaan called Indah Nuritasari, a leader in the Muslim community and offered their church space for the prayer and meal at the end of each day of fasting.

Siahaan explains what this meant for his congregation to offer hospitality. “Because of the persecution that they had experienced in Indonesia, this is an opportunity to show love of God, to show the mercy.”

Ahmed Munjid, a doctoral student at Temple University, Philadelphia, and a leader in the Muslim community, affirms the friendship between the two communities.

“I and many al-Falah Mosque members learned that friendship is something necessary in our social life and that friendship enables us to do more both for our ‘self’ and for others,” Munjid says.

Some churches in the South Philly neighborhood opposed PPC’s decision to offer hospitality. The church received calls from pastors. “You are not supposed to open the church to the Muslim. The presence of the Lord will leave from your congregation,” Siahaan recalls other pastors saying.

While criticized by South Philadelphia churches, the relationship with the Muslim community helped PPC members find their Mennonite identity. “Anabaptist perspectives make sense to Indonesian Christians because they were marginalized in their home country and continue to live on the margins here in the [United States],” Steve Kriss says.

Through networking with Indonesian Mennonites in California and in Java and through the help of Indonesian Mennonite leaders, PPC joined Franconia Conference in 2006. Nations Worship Center joined Franconia Conference in 2007.

“I am glad to be a Mennonite,” Krisbianto says. He admits that before he moved to the Philadelphia area from Iowa City, Iowa, he thought that Mennonites were like the Amish in Kalona, Iowa.

Relationships between the immigrant communities and Franconia Conference’s more established, ethnically European-Mennonite congregations have fostered rich avenues for learning. The new relationships have also prompted calls from these immigrant communities for more political advocacy on the issues of immigration.

These congregations have much to offer Mennonite Church USA in their ability to build connections in local communities, their passion for multicultural expressions in worship and their concern for peace and justice in the world through reconciliation with the local Muslim community.

Asked what his congregation has to offer the wider Mennonite church, Siahaan hesitates before responding.

“Humility. I believe we need to go out from our comfort zone. This country is luring people with so many things. And I know Mennonites have done so many good things, but with all our resources we can do more. I’ve seen how the immigrant church is more passionate to reach out. They (people outside the church) want to see us; they want to see Jesus through us. Let’s make Jesus visible through our life,” Siahaan says.

Like the early believers in Acts, these congregations are listening to how the Spirit is calling them to reach out both at home and beyond. With a growing population of immigrants from Spanish-speaking countries, PPC supports a couple from Mexico doing ministry in South Philadelphia.

Both congregations are planting new churches in Indonesian communities outside Philadelphia. Krisbianto and the leadership at Nations Worship Center are supporting a new church in the Washington area, and Siahaan and PPC are beginning to establish a house church in the Pittsburgh area.

Ken Beidler lives in Philadelphia, writing, working on pottery and parenting. He attends Oxford Circle Mennonite Church, in Philadelphia.