Discerning Mosaic’s Missional Practices in a Globally Connected World

by Noel Santiago

Mosaic’s vision is to “embody the reconciling love of Jesus in our beautiful and broken world.” As a community that celebrates and extends God’s grace, justice, and peace, we shape our common life around three deeply interrelated priorities: missional, intercultural, and formational. When Mosaic talks about missional, what we mean is that “we are committed to participating in the healing of our world by sharing and living out the Good News of Jesus.” These are not separate projects, but different facets of the same call to follow Jesus together.

Today, we live in a highly networked, relationally dense world. Messages, money, and people can cross borders in seconds, but so can harmful assumptions, power imbalances, and old colonial patterns dressed up in new language. As Mosaic’s relationships increasingly connect across regions and continents, we are asking hard but hopeful questions about what faithful mission looks like now. Can our identity and mission be confined by national borders? How do we structure partnerships that reflect genuine transformative mutuality rather than one-directional help?

These questions shape the current work of the Missional Priority Team (MPT). The MPT is currently made up of Jeff Wright, Marco Güete and myself. We are discerning: How are we presently participating in God’s mission with our global partners in ways that are reciprocal, just, and decolonizing, while remaining rooted and accountable in our local contexts? How is God inviting Mosaic to practice mutually transforming mission in a globally connected world, where we expect to be changed as we walk with others?

We are also exploring what specific practices, partnerships, and structures will allow Mosaic to embody the reconciling love of Jesus with, not just for, our global neighbors. Finally, we are asking how we, as the MPT, can best support Mosaic’s missional vision in light of these global realities.

As your ministry engages across the street and around the world, what have you found helpful in cultivating mutually transformative relationships? How have these relationships helped your ministry more deeply understand and respond to what God is doing in your particular context? What challenges are you facing, and what questions do you have, as you relate with neighbors near and far?

We invite you to share your experiences, insights, and struggles so that, together, we can grow in practices that embody the reconciling love of Jesus in a globally connected world. As we do, we invite your prayers and your questions. Together, we seek to follow Jesus in ways that honor the gifts, voices, and leadership of others near and far, trusting that God’s mission is always larger than any one place, people, or plan.