Mount Pleasant, PA — The 26th Annual Music and Worship Leaders Retreat (MWLR) at Laurelville Mennonite Church Center (LMCC) served as an opportunity for encounter between Mennonites and Catholics in January, as featured speaker Abbot John Klassen OSB, Bridgefolk co-chair, shared concerning Benedictine practices of hospitality.
During their time together, music and worship leaders were inspired and taught by many experienced leaders, including Klassen and Mennonite pastor Isaac S. Villegas. Contained in teachings were various steps and challenges in the area of hospitality among churches. Overall, the planning and resource team created “…a space where change [could] take place”, giving leaders the opportunity to sit back, soak in and worship God as they assessed their current worship styles and brainstormed for years to come.
“What began with a ‘test drive’ of the new hymnal and song books, 26 years ago,” shared Ken Nafziger, “has progressed into a reunion of familiar ground, where we can inspire each other at a long-standing training event.”
Nafziger and Marlene Kropf, have both served as retreat planners and been long-time participants in Bridgefolk. So when the theme of “Hospitality” emerged for the annual Music and Worship Leaders Weekend, their obvious choice for a presenter was the abbot of Saint John’s Abbey in Minnesota, which regularly hosts Bridgefolk conferences. “After all,” notes Kropf, “who knows more about hospitality than Benedictines?”
Nafziger and Kropf also invited Isaac Villegas, pastor of Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship (Chapel Hill, NC), to be a presenter. Villegas, who was raised as a Roman Catholic, chose to become an Anabaptist-Mennonite while a student at Duke Divinity School.
What neither Kropf nor Nafziger knew was that Villegas had recently spent a week at the Collegeville Institute of Ecumenical and Cultural Research at Saint John’s Abbey and had joined the Benedictine community for daily prayers. His reflections on receiving monastic hospitality and Abbot John’s presentation on the Benedictine Rule complemented each other and inspired the conference.
Angela Dietzel, Program Director for the Laurelville Center, began the weekend’s time with an invitation to take a few breaths and invite God to step in and allow energy and renewal into their lives. From there, the program fell into place with opening worship and greetings from the resource and planning team.
Isaac Villegas, pastor of Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship and co-founder of the Rutba House, set the tone of the weekend, sharing that prayer should be at the heart of a Benedictine life, ultimately reflecting a lifestyle of hospitality. As followers of God, taking moments and pauses throughout the day — or in the case of a worship leader, a worship service — should be welcomed and cherished. Taking advantage of the idea that the Lord is moving and speaking. Villegas went on to teach that in those pauses is where the listening occurs, which should be the first rule of worship.
The guest speakers creatively narrated the weekend’s teaching, by working with each other on the given topic of hospitality. As Klassen carried on the teachings in hospitality, he gave a simple rule of “opening up to the one who knocks.” Notwithstanding that when a door is opened, an immediate need for a “hospitality audit” should be in order, because believers can often be inwardly focused, in turn unintentionally shutting out those who are seeking hospitality. Abbot Klassen’s words cut deep, sparking in participants to think outside of the box, including considering what a “present day foot washing” would look like.
In the concluding Sunday morning worship service, Abbot Klassen and Pastor Villegas offered a joint homily based on the story of Peter and Cornelius in Acts 10. Both told a moving story of how their vision for God’s hospitality was expanded and transformed.
Also memorable for many retreat participants was a highly anticipated HymnSing Plus — two hours of nothing but quality singing with 200 powerful voices. During HymnSing Plus, Ken Nafziger and Marilyn Houser Hamm, along with their worship band, led the group through songs from the Hymnal, Sing the Journey and Sing the Song. With melodic voices raising “Arise, Your Lights is Come”, “I Will Come to You in Silence”, and “Alleluia, the Great Storm is Over”, to name a few, the group was also introduced to new verses for “Rain Down”, authored by Jeff Raught.
Based on news release from Laurelville Mennonite Church Center and report from Bridgefolk participants.