Published: July 25, 2024
LANSDALE, Pennsylvania– Mosaic Mennonite Conference has received a $1,250,000 grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. to provide learning communities and coaching for congregational leaders and their congregations; funding for congregational learning experiences and missional experiments; and targeted supports for Mosaic’s growing community of leaders of color.
The project is being funded through Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregations Initiative. The aim of the initiative is to encourage the flourishing of congregations by helping them deepen their relationships with God, enhance their connections with each other, and contribute to the vitality of their communities and the world.
The five-year project, titled “The Vibrant Mosaic Program,” is designed to integrate the Conference’s missional, formational, and intercultural priorities into congregational life. It seeks to build resilience among Mosaic congregations through spiritual practices, deepening relationships, common mission, and a sense of belonging.
The Vibrant Mosaic Program includes three components:
- Learning communities of congregational leaders who participate in up to two years of classes and travel, along with targeted coaching as they implement what they’ve learned on a congregational level.
- Congregational missional experiments and learning experiences funded by $5,000 microgrants and focused on each congregation’s growth edge.
- Specialized support and gatherings for leaders of color to learn, build relationships, and cast vision.
“We believe that vibrant, thriving Mosaic congregations are missional, intercultural, and formational, embodying the reconciling love of Jesus in our broken and beautiful world,” shares Vibrant Mosaic’s codirector, Rev. Dr. Emily Ralph Servant, Mosaic’s Leadership Minister for Strategic Priorities.
“The Vibrant Mosaic Program will provide congregations and congregational leaders with opportunities to strengthen their rootedness in our tradition while also increasing their missional, intercultural, and formational capacity through education, on-site communal experiences, spiritual practices, and relationship-building.”
Mosaic Mennonite Conference is a community of congregations and non-profit organizations that stretches from Vermont to Florida and from New Jersey to California, with global connections in Mexico, Colombia, India, and England. The conference was birthed in the early 18th century in southeastern Pennsylvania, split in the mid-19th century into two distinct conferences, and experienced a reconciliation and merger in 2019 that blossomed into Mosaic Conference the following year. Since that time, the conference has integrated several networks of congregations and experienced a wave of emerging communities from across the country, shifting the demographics of the conference, as well as creating an influx of members that do not share a common history.
“In the midst of the disorientation that often comes with rapid growth, Mosaic Conference has been exploring how to ground our congregations in our rich theological and communal tradition while also remaining open to transformation through relationships with new brothers and sisters among us,” shares Executive Minister Rev. Dr. Stephen Kriss. “Our desire for the Vibrant Mosaic Program is to cultivate resilient congregations who, together, recognize God in our changing reality and respond with courage and creativity.”
The implementation of the Vibrant Mosaic Program has already begun. This summer and fall, program staff are making plans for an anti-oppression training for staff and board members (scheduled for September 5-7); a summer intercultural competency training for course instructors, program staff, and interpreters/ facilitators; and the first wave of course revisions with coaching from The Kaleidoscope Institute’s founder, Eric Law.
Beginning in January 2025, Vibrant Mosaic will launch its first cohort. Five congregations will be added each year. Congregations who are interested in participating should talk with their leadership minister.
Vibrant Mosaic’s grant funding will support the program through June 2029, with a plan in place to integrate it into the conference operating budget so that the program is fully sustainable by 2033.
Mosaic Mennonite Conference is one of 238 organizations that have received implementation grants through Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregations Initiative. Reflecting a wide variety of Christian traditions, the organizations represent mainline Protestant, evangelical, Catholic, Orthodox, peace church and Pentecostal faith communities.
“Congregations play an essential role in deepening the faith of individuals and contributing to the vitality of communities,” said Christopher L. Coble, Lilly Endowment’s Vice President for Religion. “We hope that these programs will nurture the vibrancy and spark the creativity of congregations, helping them imagine new ways to share God’s love in their communities and across the globe.”
About Lilly Endowment Inc.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly, Sr., and his sons, Eli and J.K., Jr., through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. A principal aim of the Endowment’s religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians in the United States, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of diverse religious traditions by supporting fair and accurate portrayals of the role religion plays in the United States and across the globe.
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