Citizens of the Celestial City, A Church Formed Across Borders

By Zacharie René 

Across Mosaic Conference, new communities of faith often emerge not from buildings or strategic plans, but from Scripture, relationships, and a longing to follow Jesus faithfully. Citizens of the Celestial City (CCC) is an emerging Mennonite fellowship shaped by migration, resilience, and discipleship.

CCC did not begin with the intention of planting a church. Its roots stretch back more than a decade, to a small Bible club formed in Haiti in 2013. What started as a small gathering for children and youth to read Scripture and pray together, slowly expanded into multiple Bible classes across five different communities. Known as the Hope and Love Ministry, these gatherings combined biblical teaching with worship, life-skills learning, and moral formation, reflecting a holistic vision of Christian nurture.

As leaders walked closely with the youth, especially young teenage girls, deeper needs became visible. Many lived in precarious circumstances where even basic hygiene items were inaccessible. In a context where help often came with harmful expectations, these vulnerabilities exposed young people to serious risks. In response, the ministry began providing monthly hygiene kits and practical support such as replacing worn sandals. These acts were not seen as only charity but as pastoral care through concrete Gospel-grounded expressions of dignity and love.

Over time, the children grew up. Some remained in Haiti; others migrated to Brazil, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and the United States. Life scattered them across borders, but the spiritual bonds remained.

In 2023, after leaving Haiti, I remained in contact with several former participants. One former member reached out and asked if we could continue Bible study online. That simple request reopened a door I did not realize God had been preparing for years. I began leading online Bible studies again, and soon felt prompted to invite others former members, friends, believers seeking depth, and people longing for community.

What emerged has become more than a Bible study. It is a spiritual home for a dispersed Haitian people longing for Scripture, connection, and shepherding amid isolation, displacement, and vulnerability.

Today, Citizens of the Celestial City has participants in Haiti and across the diaspora. Many face disabilities, social marginalization, economic hardship, or immigration uncertainty. These realities have deeply shaped the community’s identity and practices.

Because of distance and accessibility challenges, gathering online is not a convenience—it is a necessity. Teaching and worship are conducted in Haitian Creole, ensuring clarity, dignity, and full participation. CCC is not built around performance or location, but around presence, mutual care, and faithfulness to Christ.

The community’s name reflects this theological grounding. Citizens of the Celestial City affirms that before belonging to any nation on earth, we belong to the Kingdom of God. It expresses the conviction that the Church is not merely an institution, but a people shaped by heaven’s values while living faithfully on earth.

Many members have experienced loss, displacement, and exclusion, sometimes even within traditional church settings. CCC emerged as a space where people are not reduced to their limitations, but recognized as bearers of God’s image. Faith, resilience, and communal survival are deeply embedded in Haitian culture and naturally align with Anabaptist commitments to shared life, mutual aid, and discipleship.

Worship within CCC follows a Mennonite spirit and rhythm. Gatherings include simple, reflective singing, Scripture reading, teaching, prayer, and open sharing. There is room for silence, testimony, and communal discernment. Worship is unhurried and relational. Participants are invited to pray, reflect, and speak as the Spirit leads.

Though the community is not physically together, members experience God’s presence through consistency, prayer, and pastoral follow-up. To strengthen connection beyond weekly gatherings, I have launched an online radio ministry and mobile app. The radio offers teaching, encouragement, worship, and Scripture throughout the week, serving as a spiritual companion that sustains communal life beyond scheduled gatherings.

Our challenges include limited resources, health concerns, immigration uncertainty, and the complexities of serving a largely disabled and marginalized population. We navigate these challenges through patience, flexibility, prayer, and shared leadership. We move slowly, listening carefully, refusing to build faster than people can grow.

My encounter with the Mennonite church through Mosaic Mennonite Conference deeply shaped this ministry. Values such as peace, community, simplicity, mutual care, and discipleship are not theoretical, they are lived realities in CCC.

Several pastors now participate in our studies and have expressed a desire to transform their own congregations into Mennonite-style communities. I have begun working with some of them separately, accompanying them in discernment and formation as they await further guidance and structure.

Our hope is not rapid expansion, but faithful formation. We dream of a rooted, healed, and discipled Haitian Mennonite community, locally and across the diaspora. We envision accessible spiritual formation, leadership development, and communities shaped by peace and mutual responsibility.

We invite the Mosaic Conference to pray for:

• wisdom and discernment in leadership,
• spiritual and emotional healing for members,
• provision for those living with disability and instability,
• unity across distance,
• and faithfulness as we continue to listen for God’s leading.

Citizens of the Celestial City exists because God met a scattered people through a simple question: Can we keep studying the Word together? From that question, a church was born that bears witness to the truth of Ephesians 2:19: “So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God.”