College Mennonite Church Fall 2018

Born in February 1980 to Nathan and Virginia Carter

in Klamath Falls, Oregon, Tina was welcomed to the

family by an older sister, Penny. Growing up in Ore-

gon and Colorado, Tina developed a love of nature.

As an adult, Tina has lived in Indiana, Michigan, and

New York.

Tina met her husband Adam Hartman while

employed at Oaklawn Psychiatric Center. Together

Adam and Tina have two young boys, Dakota (4) and

Briggs (1). Tina has worked at Yellow Creek Menno-

nite Church for the past 14 years and has a passion

to serve the church using her organizational and

administrative skills.

Tina enjoys spending time with her family—playing

games, reading books, camping, and riding bikes. In

her spare time, you can find Tina curled up under a

blanket reading a book or listening to a podcast. If

time allows, you might find her knitting too. Tina loves

road trips and dreams of the day she can take her

boys on a road trip to the Pacific Northwest, showing

them God's beautiful creation, the mountains,

deserts, and ocean.

Please give a warm welcome to Tina and her family

as she joins the CMC staff as congregational

administrator. —Marty Lehman

In this issue:

Welcome, Tina Hartman

Advent Worship

Strategic Priority #1

New Member Profiles

Homebuilders 70th Birthday

Advent Practices

Welcome, Tina Hartman!

2 SING! Fall 2018

We worship together

Every Sunday

9:15 a.m. – Songs for Gathering

9:25 a.m. – Off-site Worship

Radio: WGCS 91.1 FM: the Globe

Online: www.collegemennonite.org

Greencroft Communities: Ch. 13

9:30 a.m. – Worship service

Interpretation in Spanish and, on

request, American Sign Language

11 a.m. – Fellowship and Christian

education classes for all ages

Pastoral Team Phil Waite, Pastoral Team Leader &

Outreach

Marty Lehman, Administration

Daniel Yoder, Christian Formation – youth

Pamela Yoder, Pastoral Care

Talashia Keim Yoder, Family Ministry

David Maldonado, Outreach

Madeline Maldonado, Outreach Rex Brake, Pastor of Deaf Christian

Fellowship

Luis Tapa, Guest Pastor

College Mennonite Church is a welcoming congregation of Mennonite Church USA,

an Anabaptist community of believers.

To learn more go to: www.collegemennonite.org

www.mennoniteusa.org

Advent Worship

This year I’ve started listening to the BBC’s weekly broadcast of choral evensong, a choral prayer service in the Anglican tradi-tion. At every evensong service, Mary’s Magnificat is sung, keeping with a tradition going back many centuries of reciting or singing this passage from Luke 1 in daily prayer. What would it do to us to say or hear everyday, “God fills the hungry with good things, but sends the rich away empty?” I stumbled across an astonishing statistic in the Wall Street Journal this fall. In this country, median retirement savings for households in the 50-54 age range (my age range) are $11,000. This means that the households headed by someone of this age have less than $11,000 saved for retirement. How can a nation whose per capita wealth exceeds that of any other have so many people who have so little? Mary’s Magnificat reminds us that this is a spiritual question. Whatever our political views, our Christian faith calls us to address it, to wrestle with it. And it calls us to action. In our tradition, we associate Mary’s Magnificat with Advent. As Mary anticipates the coming of Jesus, she does so recognizing the profound disruption of the status quo that he will bring. Change is coming! This Advent season, I invite us at CMC to pray this prayer daily, soaking our souls with its celebration of the coming of God’s justice and its hold upon our own hearts to live into God’s will.

—Phil Waite

SING! Fall 2018 3

Strategic Priority #1 states “We will embrace diversity

and improve our practices related to welcoming and

actively including and inviting others into our physical

space and spiritual community.”

One of the goals for priority #1 is “transforming our physical space to be more welcoming and to promote relationships and a sense of belonging.” As the pic-tures show, our physical space has been trans-formed.

Where Are We Going as a Congregation? What Is God’s Dream for the Future of CMC?

4 SING! Fall 2018

Continued on next page

Donna Morris Priest lives in Goshen with her hus-band Steve. She became a member at College Mennonite on October 14, transferring her member-ship from Goshen City Church of the Brethren. Donna is the mother of three grown children—ages 34, 38, and 48. Her two youngest children are adopted from Colombia. She has two grandchildren living in Arizona and one in Georgia. In 1999 Donna moved from Iowa to North Manches-ter, Indiana. She worked at Manchester College while also taking classes. She was a single parent at the time and proved to herself that she could indeed raise her children and be a college student.

What she thought would be a temporary move to Indiana turned into a permanent stay. She met her husband Steve, which kept her in Indiana. Steve is a substitute teacher in the Bethany and Fairfield school systems. While Steve attends church with Donna, he has decided not to become a member at this time. Since Donna is retired, she is involved at Camp Mack during the summertime. She works with chil-dren’s programing, which she enjoys very much. Donna grew up attending churches of several differ-ent denominations as a child. Her parents didn’t attend church, but they made sure the children did. She has been attending Church of the Brethren congregations since she was 23. After being intro-duced to the Church of the Brethren denomination, she embraced Anabaptist values and the peace position. Donna and Steve live within walking distance from CMC. Due to the close proximity, they decided to give it a try one Sunday morning. They were warmly welcomed and continued to attend. They enjoy the sermons and Sojourners Sunday school class. Steve also enjoys attending Men’s Fellowship. Donna is involved in helping in the CMC kitchen, attends Mennonite Women, and enjoys engaging with international students. Welcome to CMC, Donna!

—Marty Lehman

New Member Profiles

Donna Priest

Donna Priest

SING! Fall 2018 5

Jonah Hochstetler was baptized on September 16 and became a member of College Mennonite Church. In his faith statement, he said that, while he has struggled with his relationship with God for much of his life, over the last several months he has started reaching out to God for help instead of turn-ing away. Jonah grew up at College Mennonite Church and is the son of Lori Miller Hochstetler and Jay Hoch-stetler. His sister, Sarah, is a junior at Bethany. His grandparents, Jim and Nelda Miller, were members of CMC for many years before moving to Lagrange County. His great-grandparents, S. Paul and Vesta Miller, were also long-time members of CMC. To say that Jonah has deep roots in our congregation is an understatement. Jonah attended school in the Middlebury system until sixth grade, when he transferred to Bethany. He credits his experience at Bethany as an important part of his faith development. He appreci-ated the opportunity to discuss issues of faith with his teachers. He was a busy high schooler—running cross country, singing in the choir, and participating in theater and CMC MYF. The Mennonite Church USA convention in Kansas City was Jonah’s first convention, and it was a high-light. It was the first time he was with a large group of Mennonite youth, from all across the country, who shared beliefs similar to his. Jonah’s MYF years were also enriched by the service trip to the Mexico border. It was a rich learning experience for him and today helps him understand the issues that many immigrants face in the Goshen community. Jonah is currently a first-year student at Goshen College, studying psychology, with a minor in busi-ness. He loves Goshen College! He is running cross country and also helps in the toddler room on Sun-day mornings. Attending church is important to Jonah, as he grew up attending Sunday worship. While it was not required of him, his family always attended, and he wanted to attend. Now he enjoys walking across campus on Sundays to Sunday morning worship and connecting with his CMC family—and his mother and sister. He enjoys the interactions with the little CMCers in the toddler room, as it takes him away from academics and allows him to enter the world of children for an hour.

—Marty Lehman

Jonah Hochstetler

6 SING! Fall 2018

In the chronology sec-

tion of College Menno-

nite Church 1903-2003

is this entry: “October

1948 Homebuilders

Sunday School class

organizes.” In a histori-

cal sketch of Home-

builders, Al Albrecht noted the age-related nature of

Sunday school classes in the 1940s: “As these

members [youth] married … they joined the Young

Married and then Homebuilders class.” (The sketch

is not dated, but it was after 1994, since Al mentions

meeting in the Koinonia Room.)

But Homebuilders stayed Homebuilders, and as

CMC grew in numbers, so did Homebuilders. Even

as “homebuilders” became “empty-nesters,” the

name stuck. In the 1990s, Sunday morning attend-

ance exceeded 100. In April 2006, a spring social

attracted 102 persons, at $13 each. At some point

Homebuilders moved to an 8:00 a.m. starting time to

free up classroom space for other classes.

In many ways Homebuilders was a church within a

church. It had two financial arms, a “Mission Fund”

run through the CMC treasurer and its own bank

account. At its peak the Mission Fund disbursed

over $9,000 yearly to persons and agencies at home

and around the world. Many of these were ongoing

commitments. The checking account was used to

pay class expenses—coffee, social events, and

expenses of the Caring Committee, such as cards

and flowers.

In a chapter titled “Community” in College Mennonite

Church 1903-2003, Rachel Jacobs comments on the

“mini-church” like characteristic of Homebuilders:

“Homebuilders is a striking example of a well-

developed caring network, with a large group of

service representatives …. These people help

coordinate meals,

visits, cards, and

assistance for mem-

bers who are in ill

health or who have

suffered a death in the

family.” For many,

Homebuilders was

their true spiritual community.

Homebuilders has been a Bible study class, consist-

ently using the International Bible Lessons (Uniform

Series) as implemented by Mennonite church pub-

lishing. There were occasional interruptions, such as

when CMC commissions wanted an audience or

members shared their faith/life stories. The many

retired pastors and professors in the community

provided excellent teaching. The class periods

usually began with singing and prayer.

In 2008 Homebuilders had 174 names on the class

roll and an average attendance of 100. (This is an

estimate of several aging memories.) Homebuilders

kept meticulous financial records, membership rolls,

and lists of class officers and committee members,

but nary an attendance report. In the following dec-

ade there was a rapid decline. Members aged,

deaths occurred, and few new members joined. An

aging cohort found it difficult to get to Sunday school

at 8:00. (For a while a section of Homebuilders met

at 10:45.) For members living at Greencroft, the live

video presentation of the worship service made it

tempting to stay home altogether. In fall 2018, the

active membership was about 10, and average

attendance about six. It seems unlikely that Home-

builders will celebrate a 75th anniversary.

—Carl Metzler

Homebuilders 70th Birthday

SING! Fall 2018 7

Advent Practices The season of Advent is a time for all of us to watch and listen for Jesus entering the Big Story of God’s people, as well as the ways Jesus enters our own stories. A daily practice, whether experienced indi-vidually or in community, opens us to this awareness. Below is a suggested daily practice for people of all ages that is connected to both our Sunday worship and the family Advent materials we are distributing this year. 1. Light the candle(s), saying the Advent word

that goes with each candle: Hope (Week 1), Peace (Week 2), Joy (Week 3), Love (Week 4), Jesus (Christmas). You might sing a song, such as “Peace before us,” using each candle’s word in place of “peace.”

2. Read the day or week’s scripture passage and

devotions/reflection (found in your Advent re-source from the church). Consider also reading or reciting Luke 2:1-20.

3. Reflect: Where has hope (or peace, joy, love, or

Jesus) entered your life today? 4. Pray a simple prayer. 5. Blow out the candle(s), perhaps singing a song

again, such as “He came down” with the Advent word of the week.

Deepening our faith requires time. Discipling Com-mission sees Advent as a prime season for develop-ing practices that deepen faith, and so we are com-mitted to equipping the entire church family to do this. On December 2 and 9, members of the commission will be handing out Advent supplies. Pick up your set of candles for this year, an Advent wreath if you don’t already have one, and a devotional. Our families of children ages birth-grade 5 this year are receiving a wonderful resource from Illustrated Children’s Minis-try, and copies of this are also available to others in the congregation upon request. May Jesus enter your life in real and unexpected ways this Advent season!

-—Talashia Keim Yoder for the Discipling Commission

8 SING! Fall 2018

Sing! is a publication of College Mennonite Church. Send inquiries to communications@collegemennonite.org. Marie Clements, Managing Editor Don Garber, Copy Editor Photographers include Dottie Kauffmann, Rex Hooley

COLLEGE MENNONITE CHURCH 1900 S Main St. Goshen IN 46526-5218

Office hours: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Mon.–Thurs. Phone: (574) 535-7262 E-mail: cmc@collegemennonite.org