by Marta Castillo
April 10, 2023
The Pathway Forward Steering Team is up and running with a task that seems large … even God-sized! Our mission is to lead a two-year strategic planning process to set a pathway within our priorities and in alignment with our vision and mission, which will serve to guide us for the following 3-5 years in our work together as congregations, conference related ministries, board, and staff. This work will also clarify our relationship with Mennonite Church USA, with each other, and with other Anabaptist communities.
We, the Pathway Forward Steering Team, are humbled by the largeness of the scope of the task. We are also hopeful that our desire to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit and keep Jesus in the center of our work will be a part of God’s ongoing kingdom work in our conference.
Our first step was to fully invite the Holy Spirit into this work. As stated in the Pathway Forward document, we “recognize the holy possibility present in living into our vision; we have committed to embodying the reconciling love of Jesus in our broken and beautiful world as a community celebrating and extending God’s grace, justice, and peace. We recognize that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we shape our relationships and work around missional, intercultural, and formational priorities with Jesus at the center of our faith.”
We have met as a larger team, as well as in a smaller coordinating group every other week. We have also met with Grovider, our consultants, and will continue to meet with them once a month to sort out our roles and purposes and how we will collaborate as teams.
Currently, our Pathway Forward Steering Team is seeking to frame questions for information gathering, name key Scriptures, and create an interactive and relational framework for respectful, joyful, and honest conversations around the hopes, dreams, and challenges that we have for each of these priorities:
Missional
As God’s people, we are sent to heal what has been broken in our relationships, neighborhoods, and the world by sharing and living out the Good News of Jesus.
Intercultural
As human beings made in the image of God, we acknowledge, own, and celebrate our cultural differences, allowing ourselves to be changed by the relationships we build across cultures, while we work together for racial justice.
Formational
As Anabaptist Christians, we are called both to know and to follow God in our lives. As we build relationships and share the Good News, we become more and more like Jesus.
We invite you to send us forward-looking hopes, dreams, questions, Scriptures, and thoughts related to our Mosaic missional, intercultural, and formational priorities. Email the team at pathwayprocesssteeringcommittee@mosaicmennonites.org.
We invite you to fast and pray for us as we fast and pray for the team, the Pathway Forward, and Mosaic Mennonite Conference.
Marta Castillo
Marta Castillo is the Associate Executive Minister for Mosaic Conference. Marta lives in Norristown, PA, with her husband, Julio, and has three sons, Christian, Andres and Daniel and one granddaughter, Isabel.
The opinions expressed in articles posted on Mosaic’s website are those of the author and may not reflect the official policy of Mosaic Conference. Mosaic is a large conference, crossing ethnicities, geographies, generations, theologies, and politics. Each person can only speak for themselves; no one can represent “the conference.” May God give us the grace to hear what the Spirit is speaking to us through people with whom we disagree and the humility and courage to love one another even when those disagreements can’t be bridged.