Informal Sunday - It's Bring Your Lawn Chair Sunday
Flowers on the Grounds
Adult FMCers in the "Slowest" Race Contest
Church in the Round
Working with the Youth
A welcoming faith community committed to Making peace, Seeking justice, Serving as the hands, heart and voice of Christ
Welcoming Statement
First Mennonite Church seeks to be a welcoming community to all who come our way, and as one expression of our hospitality we are a member of the Supportive Communities Network, a network of Mennonite and Brethren congregations that support full inclusion of LGBT people in the life of the church.
Christopher (Chris) Walson passed away on July 5th. Chris’s father and stepmother, Bob andEmilie Walson, planned the memorial service at FMC on August 27.
John Jay Boyce passed away on September 10th after a brief illness. John’s wife, Jeanne, and their son Solomon and family arranged the memorial service at FMC on September 17th.
Sam Carpenter has been named to head the Hoosier Environmental Council (HEC). Sam will move to full-time work leading the group on December 1, 2022
Nathan and Alicia Kurtz welcomed their new son, Theodore (Theo) Ray Kurtz, born June 22. He joins big brother Harrison in the family.
Nolan Schloneger and Caitlyn Zegiestowsky were married on July 23rd at the Sweeney Chapel on the campus of Butler University. They are living in Broad Ripple. Caitlyn is a graphic designer working for Salesforce. Nolan is in his last year of law school and will be working for the Barnes and Thornburg law firm after graduation. Nolan is the son of Kevin and LisaSchloneger.
David and Maria Gress Stoesz were married on October 15th. They live in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. David is a fire specialist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service on the Mississippi Sand Hill Crane Refuge. Maria has an in-your-home pet care business. David is the son of Randy and Ellen Stoesz.
Heidi Boschmann Amstutz had a milestone occasion when she completed her first full marathon, running the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon on a windy, rainy November 5th and achieving a long-time goal.
The fall work day at FMC was perhaps a milestone event as ten hardy workers braved snow and cold winds while cleaning up fallen branches and leaves.
Milestones is a new feature to help our church family keep in touch. We would love to feature your news. Please send it to Gaynel at the church office (email hidden; JavaScript is required) or Carol Mullet. (email hidden; JavaScript is required)
Sunday School Class: Kindergarten – Grade 2 Co-Teachers: Heidi Amstutz and Melanie Schmucker Enjoy their views and opinions! (Not all were present when we asked our questions.)
Olivia Amazan – K
Jonas Carlson – 1st
Ian Girard – 1st
Gabriel McCormick – 1st
Gabriel Rondinella – 1st
Eleanor Yoder – 1st
Weston Yoder – 1st
Vera Cornelius – 2nd
Isabella Rondinella – 2nd
Nora Schmucker – 2nd
What is your favorite food?
Olivia
bread & butter
Ian
cupcakes
Gabe M.
cake
Eleanor
skinny popcorn
Weston
hashbrowns
Nora
Pizza
What is your favorite pet or animal?
Olivia
cats & dogs
Ian
foxes
Gabe M.
all animals
Eleanor
cats & a crayfish named Fred
Weston
dogs
Nora
dog named Pepper
What do you enjoy doing at recess?
Olivia
looking for bugs
Ian
tag
Gabe M.
playing with friends
Eleanor
staying inside, playing & screaming at the top of my lungs
Life is hard. The path is never easy and our journeys are so often full of obstacles along the path. There is an overabundance of things to keep track of and far too many reasons to be anxious and afraid. We all need ways to stay calm and keep moving forward. We need ways to express our uniqueness and ways to divert the stress that inevitably builds up along the way.
Making art is one of the best ways I know to calm the mind and lift the heart. Thomas Merton said it best when he said, “The Purpose of Art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.”
The weather has begun to get cold and crisp and, once again, I am in awe of the colors outside my window. I have a craving to participate in the beauty around me. I can relate to Robert Henri when he said, “The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.” Fall beauty puts me there. I find joy in playing with color even if it does not live up to the images outside the glass door. In fact, there are so many positive things that happen in the process of making art, many of which I witnessed in the acrylic painting classes I taught this spring at the FMC. Hopefully, it is just the beginning of many such art adventures.
Starting in February, each month I set up a simple painting in the fellowship hall for a multi-aged group of adults who gathered, talked and laughed while I led them through a step-by-step process to complete their own paintings. The group, some from the church, some invited by members in the class, congratulated each other on their successes and encouraged those who felt uncertain. It was an atmosphere of positivity and, at times, pure childlike joy and wonder. I heard one woman proclaim in delight, “This is so much fun; I had no idea how much I would enjoy this!” Others talked about how relaxing it was as the room was enveloped in silent concentration. One person said the class was a reminder to her of how important it is to take a few hours out of her schedule to make art. Art is a wonderful source of self-expression. “Art is coming face to face with ourselves,” according to Jackson Pollock. Louise Bourgeois said, “Art is a way of recognizing ourselves.” In my own life, art helped me find myself. It gave me a feeling of pride and a sense of identity when I was in high school and in college. This is why I am very excited about possibly starting classes for kids some time this year. I am preparing to lead a paint party for an 11-year-old girl’s birthday. I hope it is the first of many!
In encouraging me to do the spring class, a friend said that painting “lifts the soul” and I agree. Art can be a spiritual experience that is difficult to express in words. Many people, like myself, use art to transcend their circumstances, to heal and relieve anxiety. Art can take us to a place of “flow,” a term used to explain the phenomenon where a person becomes so involved in what they are doing they become unaware of the passage of time. It’s a lot like meditation.
In the spring classes, there was definitely a “flow,” as evidenced by the artists’ surprise when they realized our two hours had quickly passed. Each month, class was always over too soon, but people seemed to enjoy their finished art and expressed an eagerness to do more. After all, “The world always seems brighter when you’ve just made something that wasn’t there before,” noted Neil Gaiman.
Collaborative poem by congregation of First Mennonite Church Edited by Shari Wagner
Come, Holy Spirit, like a hummingbird to surprise us! Like a breath of wind stirring the forest. Like lightning’s illumination.
Flow, Holy Spirit, like a river, providing power, unleashing passions, rising, falling, and joining, like the Ganges, mountain, plain, and ocean.
Refresh us, Holy Spirit, like a cool sip of water, like birdsong in the morning, the breeze rustling sycamore and aspen, sweet earthen scent of forest floor.
Engulf us like blue sky and the glow of dappled sunlight through willow. Wrap us like a scarf, a weighted blanket, or the last wind of winter, its promise of spring.
Holy Spirit, look upon us as a parent beholds their newborn child. Walk beside us as our companion. Support us when reviled with a lawyer’s fierce defense.
Be the beautiful, iridescent dream, crashing wave and bubbling fountain, hang glider we launch with, swift racecar delivering gifts, warmth of a community kitchen where all things sustain us.
Wake us up to live another day— doing, loving, seeing! Be our gentle task-giver, healing therapist, the laughter as we cry, fresh air through the vent, waft of pine and campfire.
O shimmering Spirit, spit, flare, diminish, then rise again to leaping flames! Be our common language, our conscience, the yeast for the bread we break.
Bristle, ever-present Spirit, like static in our ears! Charge us like fur on a long-haired cat. Be the musical notes on the staff of the wind, the divine within us all.
Collaborative poem by First Mennonite Church congregation of Indianapolis Edited by Shari Wagner, June 5, 2022
Throughout my years, tomorrows ran up ahead beyond my outstretched arms. When I was nine, tomorrow was ten. When I was ten, tomorrow was eleven. Tomorrows seemed close — they pulled me like a magnet. But when I thought to have gained tomorrow, it moved ahead like a mirage.
Tomorrows offered clean slates to me, but didn’t watch what I wrote; they seemed to hold promises, but they never gave reports on promises fulfilled; they even offered agenda but never ever attended the meetings.
And so, for all those years, like a wanderer seeking a promised land but never reaching it, I sojourned in todays but never set foot in tomorrows …
until now in my 80s I am at home with yesterday, today and tomorrow.
The past couple of years have been all about processes and journeys. The new hymnal Voices Together had a journey all its own. From the beginning, the committee that put the hymnal together invested a lot of time on the process. I, myself, have also had an adventure in getting acquainted with the hymnal and its resources. This is part of that journey.
In 2008, the discussions started around creating a new hymnal. Hymnal: AWorship Book was starting to show its age. A committee was formed, and the group started the process of building a new hymnal. Their first step was to ask music directors and leaders from Mennonite churches in both the US and Canada to complete a survey sharing their favorite songs from Hymnal: A Worship Book, Sing the Journey and Sing the Story. The committee traveled to many churches throughout the US and Canada, including urban and rural congregations. These trips also included visits to churches where members are part of “non-traditional Mennonite” ethnic groups so they could learn about songs these groups were using in their worship services. There was also a HUGE fundraising campaign initiated to raise the money to publish this new book. Finally in the fall of 2020, 28 years after Hymnal: A Worship Book came out, Voices Together was published.
My personal experience with the new hymnal began in January 2019 with my first trip to the Music and Worship Leaders Retreat at the Laurelville Retreat Center in Pennsylvania. At the gathering, we were given a booklet containing some of the songs that were being considered for the new hymnal. For 40 hours, (minus the time for sleeping and eating) we were singing the new songs and looking at some of the resources that would be included in the new hymnal. I was in HEAVEN!! Singing with all those people and learning many new songs—it was food for my soul. At the retreat, we also learned that many of the songs we have grown up with or learned to love, had been slightly changed to make them more inclusive. There were songs from many different cultures and languages. It turns out that the new hymnal has almost 200 songs in 50 non-English languages, ranging from American Sign Language to Zulu. There are also contemporary Christian songs.
The next year, January 2020, I went to the retreat again. As before, we were introduced to many new songs and worship resources. The committee had worked very hard to make this hymnal useful in a variety of situations for anyone, whether pastor or layperson, to find prayers, songs, and readings. We were also given ideas on ways to use the songs in worship. One resounding theme was the inclusion of songs from Anabaptist and women artists. We learned about the amount of time the committee spent reviewing music and words, getting copyrights, changing texts (if allowed), and debating what should finally be in the hymnal. It was obvious that a lot of thought and work went into the creation of this worship resource.
Then the pandemic hit!
Production was slowed and Voices Together, that was supposed to be released in the Fall of 2020, was pushed back to January of 2021.
In the meantime, I found out the hymnal was available through an app. I couldn’t wait to see everything that was included. After downloading it on my tablet, I spent a lot of time scrolling through the songs, looking for old favorites and starting to play through the new ones. I also purchased the recordings of 70 of the over 800 songs included in the hymnal. The songs were recorded by several different groups, Calvin Community Church, Hesston College Bel Canto Singers, Eastern Mennonite University Chamber Singers, Menno Singers, and the Camps with Meaning Ensembles. I fell in love with many of these songs and have used them in the services at FMC (I sometimes forget that you all don’t know them!) Many of them spoke to me in different ways. I also took a course through AMBS that introduced new songs, then gave participants a chance to talk about them, work through how to incorporate the songs and introduce the hymnal and its resources to the congregation.
I found songs that quickly became some of my new favorites, including VT 802, “Draw the Circle,” VT 582, “My Love Colors Outside the Lines,” VT 6, “Let’s Walk Together,” VT 42, “Could It Be That God is Singing,” VT 9, “Come Away from Rush and Hurry,” and VT 299, “God Lights a Lamp,” written by two of the presenters at the Laurelville retreat. There are so many I cannot name them all.
Soon after the hymnal came out, my dad ended up in the hospital and passed away. The new hymnal has several songs that have been helping me through this loss. They are songs that I find I cannot sing, but listening to them helps with the pain and sorrow. VT 653, “Nothing is Lost on the Breath of God” is one of these songs, which many of you know, as we have used it many times at FMC. The most significant song that has been added to my playlist is VT 612, “When Pain or Sorrow/Hold On”. This song was written by Anabaptist artist Adam Tice. At the Laurelville retreat, he told the story of a family member and the pain that follows when persons take their own life. When we sang this song, there was not a dry eye in the house. It is on the recordings from the hymnal, and the words speak of confusion, doubt, great sorrow, and yet the peace and feelings of support that can come from my church family. All these songs remind me that we have a God who loves us. We are a church together, and we help each other—whether it is in what we say or what we sing. Sometimes songs can say what is difficult to express only in words.
I thank you all for your patience and your willingness to try new songs as we travel on this journey of learning the new hymnal. I hope you have found at least one or two songs that you have grown to like, if not love. And the journey continues…
John became a friend soon after I moved with my family to Indianapolis in 1991 so I could attend law school. I met him here at First Mennonite Church. I base this tribute on a wonderful friendship of 30 years.
A lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law. What do you read there?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And Jesus said to him, “You have given the right answer.” The next story following this vignette in Luke is that of the Good Samaritan. I should say first that although the word “lawyer” is used in this translation, legal experts in Jewish society at that time served a different function than lawyers do in our society. But I start the eulogy with that vignette because I think John saw the people in his personal and professional life as neighbors, and he did his best to love them as he loved himself. John once told the story of being asked this question, “How do you maintain a good attitude toward people who come before you in court, given the bad things they are accused of doing?” John replied, “They are God’s children too.”
Is there a kind of naivete in trying to love your neighbor as you love yourself? I believe John had a cup of realism that was just as full as his cup of idealism. I think that he saw the world as it is, filled with many beautiful things, but also as a place where people sometimes do awful things. He seemed to be good at letting go of the bad stuff, and in seeing humor in situations that were silly or absurd.
John was capable of getting angry when he saw that people were abused, and he was committed to protecting people from abuse when he was in a position to do so. He served in a number of professional positions where he was responsible for persons and programs that intervened in the lives of children and families where abuse and/or neglect had occurred. He had a large measure of knowledge and wisdom regarding the psychological and legal issues associated with abuse and neglect. This doesn’t mean that he never made mistakes, because knowledge and wisdom don’t always lead to the right decision or judgment in complicated and messy interpersonal situations. But we as a society would be blessed if all of the persons in such positions had the trained mind and the warm heart that John had.
Another way in which John loved his neighbor was his commitment to change policies and structures, not just individuals. He knew that one can’t be a good neighbor if one lives in a neighborhood where some people are treated differently or even excluded. He stood up for a society with just and equitable social and economic structures.
I would like to sum up with a paragraph from a letter I wrote on John’s behalf in 1995, when he asked Governor Evan Bayh to appoint him to a vacant seat on the Circuit Court bench in LaGrange County, Indiana. The focus of this paragraph is on John’s professional life, but it describes his personal life as well.
“John would be an excellent judge because of his strong commitment and idealism regarding social and economic justice. He has attempted to live out this commitment as a lawyer for Legal Services Organization of Indiana, Inc., where he has worked since graduating from law school. His willingness to work in a position which is demanding but pays only a modest salary demonstrates that his values and beliefs are more than just words. What John believes is such an integral part of his life that he practices it wherever he goes and whatever he does. This means that John has a great deal of integrity, honesty and straightforwardness. John will not say one thing, and then proceed immediately to practice or implement something completely different. His approach may not always be politically expedient, but it is refreshing to see someone live in a manner which shows greater concern for integrity than for what he can get for himself. With the public’s cynicism today regarding lawyers and public officials, John is the kind of person who would do his small part as a judge to build confidence in the idea that public officials are truly servants of the people. This value is sometimes given lip service by those in public life, but John is a person who would give it real meaning and substance.”
John was appointed by Governor Bayh to the position as judge of Circuit Court in LaGrange County.
It is with great sadness and a tremendous sense of loss that I must say “Goodbye” to my good friend, John Boyce. He fulfilled the law to love his neighbor as he loved himself. The neighborhood has lost a kind and a thoroughly decent man.
Shared by Paul at First Mennonite Church on September 17, 2022 during the memorial service for John.
In consultation with FMC healthcare professionals and commission leadership, Trustees and Pastors have developed the FMC Covid-19 Plan. Decisions for whether, and how, we engage in worship services and other activities at FMC are based on cues from local institutions, while understanding that we will follow all published national, state, and local mandates/ordinances. To reduce risk as much as possible, the FMC Covid-19 Readiness Guidelines have been jointly developed by the Pastors and Trustees, FMC medical professionals, the Worship Commission, the Faith Formation Commission, and the Facilities committee. Please familiarize yourself with this document and be prepared to follow practices described therein.
FMC is currently holding indoor, in-person worship services, and masking is optional in the sanctuary and fellowship hall most Sundays.
Masks continue to be required in all non-sanctuary, non-fellowship hall spaces (e.g., classrooms). To be as inclusive and accommodating as possible, the third Sunday of each month is designated as “masks required” in the sanctuary and fellowship hall. Reminders are sent to newsletter subscribers and signage is posted around the building.
Additionally note that some restrictions on the service and consumption of food and drinks have been loosened, contingent on certain factors (size of group, meeting time, meeting space). Potlucks are still prohibited.
Contact email hidden; JavaScript is required if you would like a link to join our Sunday morning service virtually and/or to receive our weekly newsletter. The office can also put you in touch with FMC leadership if you’d like to raise questions or concerns about the Covid-19 Plan or Readiness Guidelines.
In consultation with FMC healthcare professionals and commission leadership, Trustees and Pastors have developed the FMC Covid-19 Plan. Decisions for whether, and how, we engage in worship services and other activities at FMC are based on cues from local institutions, while understanding that we will follow all published national, state, and local mandates/ordinances. To reduce risk as much as possible, the FMC Covid-19 Readiness Guidelines have been jointly developed by the Pastors and Trustees, FMC medical professionals, the Worship Commission, the Faith Formation Commission, and the Facilities committee. Please familiarize yourself with this document and be prepared to follow practices described therein.
FMC is currently holding indoor, in-person worship services, and masking is optional in the sanctuary and fellowship hall most Sundays.
Masks continue to be required in all non-sanctuary, non-fellowship hall spaces (e.g., classrooms). To be as inclusive and accommodating as possible, the third Sunday of each month is designated as “masks required” in the sanctuary and fellowship hall. Reminders are sent to newsletter subscribers and signage is posted around the building.
Additionally note that some restrictions on the service and consumption of food and drinks have been loosened, contingent on certain factors (size of group, meeting time, meeting space). Potlucks are still prohibited.
Individuals or groups wishing to make use of indoor facilities must have a representative receive approval from Trustees and clearance from the church office prior to meeting at FMC. The process is initiated by submitting this form.
Contact email hidden; JavaScript is required if you would like a link to join our Sunday morning service virtually and/or to receive our weekly newsletter. The office can also put you in touch with FMC leadership if you’d like to raise questions or concerns about the Covid-19 Plan or Readiness Guidelines.
