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2012-02-01 issue:

'Following the cloud' one step at a time

Couple starts congregation 15 months after discovering Mennonites.

by Annette Brill Bergstresser of Mennonite Church USA

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When Karen and Steve Mascho of Gladewater, Texas, first encountered Mennonites in April 2010, they never imagined that 15 months later, they’d be planting a Mennonite church in their own community of about 6,500 people.

Grace Mennonite Fellowship attends Audrey Rutella’s sobriety birthday celebration (front row, from left): Ashlee Shadix, Michael Sosebee, Audrey Rutella, Wendy Clement (friend): (back row, from left): Cody Cagle, Amber Bogenschutz, Steve Mascho, Karen Mascho, Howard Oliver, Chiquita Armstrong, Mike Mascho. Photo provided.

The Maschos were in northern Indiana, having their recreational vehicle repaired, when they toured the Menno-Hof Amish-Mennonite Information Center in Shipshewana, Ind.

“I thought, These people believe what I have felt in my heart for years,” Karen Mascho says. The Maschos had been longing for a congregation that would stay connected throughout the week.

After returning home, Karen—who works as a special-needs teacher—read the book about Mennonite history she had bought at Menno-Hof and began researching Menno­nites online. After discovering the restorative justice programs at Fresno (Calif.) Pacific University, she and Steve became involved with a Houston-based prison ministry. Steve, who is on disability due to a heart condition, also has been active with a motorcycle ministry for more than 10 years.

Karen credits the website of Paul Williams, associate pastor of Mechanic Grove Mennonite Church in Quarryville, Pa., with having deepened her understanding of Mennonites’ faith and beliefs. An April 2011 visit to Plow Creek, a Mennonite intentional community in Tiskilwa, Ill., clinched her decision to become Mennonite. In May, she called Mauricio Chenlo, denominational minister for church planting for Mennonite Church USA/Mennonite Mission Network.

“I told him we were looking for a church that would share our vision of reaching out to people on the fringes of society, and asked if he could send some missionaries,” Karen says. “He said, ‘If you want a church there, think of yourselves as church planters.’ ”

Two weeks later, the Maschos were attending a church planting seminar in Oklahoma City sponsored by Western District Conference. Karen recalls an exercise with her table group. “I felt compassion for the hurting, the lost, the dying, the oppressed and the poor in a way I never had before,” she says. “God was shaping my heart for service.”

In June, they attended a prayer meeting where they learned that a number of residents of the local public housing development had expressed interest in a Bible study. Karen contacted the people on the list, and six of them came to the first weekly fellowship meal and Bible study July 7 in the housing authority’s meeting room. They began studying the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus’ teachings. In August, they added meetings on Sunday afternoons and chose a name for their congregation: “Grace Mennonite Fellowship.”

Currently Grace Mennonite has 18 participants. Most were unchurched or had not been to church since childhood. They are actively involved in each other’s lives, from attending sobriety anniversaries to writing to family members in prison to having game nights. At Thanksgiving, they expanded the local churches’ annual Thanksgiving meal by adding a delivery option, reaching 250 more people.

“We welcome all people who want a relationship with Jesus and a community and are willing to be accountable and be encouraged,” Karen says.

She marvels at the way things have fallen into place, one step at a time. “We’re following the [pillar of] cloud,” she says. “God’s opening these doors for us, and we’re just walking through them.”

A Spirit-led connection for the Maschos has been their close relationship with Metro Mennonite Church of Oklahoma City, also a recent church plant. The Maschos met five members of Metro Mennonite at the church planting seminar and became members of the congregation that weekend. “They basically adopted us,” Karen says.

The Maschos plan to pursue Pastoral Studies Distance Education through Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary; both Western District Conference and Mennonite Women USA have contributed toward their tuition expenses.