{"id":3618,"date":"2016-12-06T16:32:39","date_gmt":"2016-12-06T21:32:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/?p=3618"},"modified":"2017-06-01T00:39:36","modified_gmt":"2017-06-01T04:39:36","slug":"open-doors-pastor-beny-krisbianto-makes-a-new-home-in-west-philly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/2016\/12\/06\/open-doors-pastor-beny-krisbianto-makes-a-new-home-in-west-philly\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Doors: Pastor Beny Krisbianto makes a new home in South Philly"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"beny-24\"

Pastor Beny Krisbianto SEM ’15 with wife Angelia and daughter Jesslyn at the new location of Nations Worship Center in an historically Italian-American neighborhood of South Philadelphia. (Photo by Jon Styer)<\/p><\/div>\n

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT\u2019S HAPPENING WITH PARADISE GARDENS AT 15TH & RITNER? VARIOUS RUMORS FLYING \u2018ROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD – NONE OF THEM ESPECIALLY GOOD<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2026 Posted on an internet site, that comment summed up many conversations of locals in the predominately Italian South Philadelphia neighborhood in 2012. Vacant for 12 years, the nondescript two-story building had been well used by an Italian-American civic association and the fraternal organization Knights of Columbus.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people had memories of this place. Many life events were celebrated here,\u201d said Pastor Beny Krisbianto SEM ’15, a native of Indonesia who leads Nations Worship Center. \u201cSo I understand their worries. The rumor was that Buddhists were going to make it a temple, and there would be statues out in front. Then we told them we were Mennonites, and we had to explain that in two public meetings. Three hundred came to the first one. Thirty came to the second one.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Nov. 20, that patience paid off. His congregation of about 120 Indonesian immigrants welcomed a host of guests, including neighborhood and city officials, to their celebration worship service of the new Ritner Street location. Among them were leaders from Franconia Conference, of which Nations is a part.<\/p>\n

\"beny-10\"Krisbianto\u2019s pastoral conviction, discovered as a high school convert to the Church of God in his predominantly Muslim country, has taken him on a long journey. \u00a0Fifteen years ago, he earned a scholarship to a Bible school in Iowa, where fast food restaurants closed at 6 p.m., he said, and \u201ccorn was all around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, called to minister to Indonesian Christian refugees\u00a0escaping religious persecution in their homeland, Krisbianto came to find in Anabaptism an acceptance of the dignity of all humanity, and Christ\u2019s call to love all. He worked for five years, often one class at a time, to finish an MDiv degree at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, gaining a strong theological basis for the emotional connection he felt with the displaced.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart was touched,\u201d he said, describing the confusion and frustration of recent immigrants who had suffered so much, \u201clost everything,\u201d and could not communicate to find jobs, health care or education for their children. It was important that they have a safe space to come to, and someone to trust.<\/p>\n

Mark Wenger, director of pastoral studies at EMU Lancaster, remembers Krisbianto \u201cwrestling out loud about what to do with undocumented immigrants\u201d in a class presentation on the Bible, the church and immigration. \u201cHe declared his insight and conviction from one of the Anabaptist authors he read that \u2018the church must do what God calls it do,\u2019 despite government pressures,\u201d said Wenger, who preached at his former student\u2019s ordination service.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you come to the doors of our church, we do not ask if you have a green card or if you are a legal resident,\u201d Krisbianto says. \u201cOur church is welcoming them, helping them, loving them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though a pastor, Krisbianto says his primary job is as a social worker. In 2008, he wrote an essay for Franconia Mennonite Conference titled \u201cThe Indonesian pastor\u2019s cell number is 911.\u201d This is still true today, even as the flood of refugees has trickled off because new leadership in Indonesia has stabilized tensions. Many have returned to Indonesia but many stay.<\/p>\n

Krisbianto\u2019s congregation holds services in English and Indonesian. Two years ago, he returned to Indonesia to preach, meeting his future wife there. He and Angelia have a five-month-old baby, Jesslyn, one of the newest members of Nations Worship Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT\u2019S HAPPENING WITH PARADISE GARDENS AT 15TH & RITNER? VARIOUS RUMORS FLYING \u2018ROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD – NONE OF THEM ESPECIALLY GOOD \u2026 Posted on an internet site, that comment summed up many conversations of locals in the predominately Italian South Philadelphia neighborhood in 2012. Vacant for 12 years, the nondescript two-story building […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":242,"featured_media":3625,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[916,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-winter-2016-17","category-magazine","issues-fall-winter-2016-17"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/242"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3618"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3750,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3618\/revisions\/3750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}