Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Pathway

Mosaic Board Paves the Way for Annual Assembly and Beyond

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by Jennifer Svetlik

On September 30, 2024, the Mosaic Board’s agenda focused on actions for the November 2 Annual Assembly and Mosaic’s future. The Board opened with the week’s praying scripture, Heb 13:1-3, and reflected on what it means to keep on loving each other as siblings in this moment.

The Board unanimously approved the membership of Bethel Worship & Teaching Center (Levittown, PA), Ark of Christ (Orange County, CA), Resplandece Mennonite (Miami, FL and Barranquilla, Colombia) as congregations of Mosaic, and The Worm Project as a Conference-Related Ministry. Profiles of these four communities will be released in October in Mosaic News so that they can be introduced prior to being welcomed at Assembly.

“These four ministries represent the diverse languages, cultures, and contexts of Mosaic with both local and global impact,” shared Executive Minister Stephen Kriss. “We are grateful for the opportunity to embrace and recognize each as a new member with their unique gifts and possibilities.” 

The Board also reviewed feedback from the seven delegate preparation sessions that took place throughout September. These sessions were an opportunity to learn more about Mosaic’s strategic plan, the Vibrant Mosaic program, and the Pathway Steering Team (PST)’s recommendation on affiliation with Mennonite Church USA (MC USA), and to respond and ask questions. Delegates were highly engaged in these meetings. Many delegates indicated trust in the PST’s discernment process over the past two years, and desired more understanding of how a partnership, rather than membership, with MC USA might work. 

“There was a lot of gratitude for the work of the PST, the work that God is doing amongst us, and the abundant opportunities that lay before us,” shared Conference Moderator Angela Moyer Walter. “Many delegates also need time to digest and reflect on what the PST had two years to work with.”

In response to delegate feedback, the Board shaped a resolution that gives space and a timeline for a more fully developed plan for partnership with MC USA. 

It reads, “To affirm, with gratitude, the work and recommendation of the Pathway Steering Team to establish a robust partnership with Mennonite Church USA, and to bring recommended bylaw amendments for delegate discernment at the 2025 Mosaic Conference Assembly.” 

On Oct. 2 delegates received the Assembly docket, which includes this resolution and a supplemental document that offers more information about the rationale and implications of the board’s resolution. The resolution does not include a bylaw change at this year’s Assembly. 

“The Board discerned that this resolution is the best next step for Mosaic Conference to move forward together and live into our Conference vision and priorities. Partnership allows us to do that best; it does not mean withdrawal from MC USA, nor does it mean the status quo,” explained Kiron Mateti, Board member and PST member (Plains [Hatfield, PA]).  

“So much changed in the last month in terms of public communications that shaped what kind of partnership could be available. This resolution provides more space for clear, healthy discussions between Mosaic staff and MC USA and opportunities to provide more understanding to all about the hard work partnership would entail,” Mateti continued.

“Sometimes it feels like the opportunities that Mosaic has in our new strategic plan to live more deeply into our mission and vision have been overshadowed by the question of affiliation with MC USA, a question that affects some communities more than others,” Moyer Walter added. “There are congregations that have long-standing relationships within MC USA, and others who have much less relationship with MC USA.”  

Responding to the text of the resolution, MC USA Executive Director Glen Guyton shared, “Mosaic Mennonite Conference is a beloved part of MC USA. We value the relationship that we share and will continue to share with the people who comprise Mosaic. The Executive Board and Staff welcome continued dialogue and collaboration with Mosaic leadership as we discern together.”

Mosaic Conference’s Annual Assembly, the third-ever in-person gathering of the delegate body, will feature Rev. Dr. Dennis Edwards sharing with groups of leaders on Friday, and preaching on biblical humility during Assembly worship. 

“God has brought us this far and will continue to be with us. I am very excited about the opportunities ahead of us, and what the Spirit will do among us,” Moyer Walter encouraged.  

Jennifer Svetlik

Jennifer Svetlik is the Editor/Development Coordinator for Mosaic.

Conference Board Affirms Anchor Statements for the Strategic Plan  

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Mosaic board members gathered at Bethany Birches Camp for a retreat. 

On May 17-19 the Mosaic Conference Board met at Bethany Birches Camp (Plymouth, VT) for an offsite, in-person retreat. The Conference Board, which meets 6 times a year, supervises the business of the conference, including conference committees, and ensures that the conference is maintaining alignment with its vision and following the lead of the Spirit into areas of growth and change.  

The group gathered for worship, prayer, relationship building, and an equipping session on discernment and decision making, led by Mosaic Leadership Ministers Rose Bender Cook and Noel Santiago. The board also affirmed the Anchor Statements from the Pathway Team Strategic Plan.  

The anchor statements form the framework for the strategic plan, which is currently being developed by the Pathway Steering Team with support from the consultant organization Grovider. The anchor statements cover five areas: reconciliation, leadership development, relationship building, clarity/identity, and communication and articulates how Mosaic will work toward those five areas. Each anchor statement has corresponding objectives and activities in the strategic plan that are currently under development. (download the Anchor Statements here in English, Spanish or Bahasa Indonesia) 

“I affirm the hard work, which is not fast work, of the Pathway Steering Team to attend to all of the details of creating the strategic plan,” shares Conference Moderator Angela Moyer Walter. “They have been discerning tangible steps for us to live into our vision, to embody the reconciling love of Jesus in our broken and beautiful world.”   

During the board meeting, members of the board echoed this sense of affirmation of the frequent meeting, listening, discernment, and planning that the Pathways Steering Team has done. They affirmed the process so far and invoked God’s continued blessing on the work.   

“The Pathways team has gone through the forming, norming, and storming stages, and I think we are entering the performing stage,” reflects Kiron Mateti (Plains [Hatfield, PA]), board member and member of the Pathway Steering Team. “Getting concrete steps on paper is encouraging. All these strategic words are a little new to me, but they are just tools to communicate the concrete ways Mosaic can live out our Mission and Vision, keeping our Missional, Formational, and Intercultural Priorities in mind.”  

Mateti continued, “The session with Rose and Noel could not have come at a better time. I am quick to enter “decision-making” mode and weigh the data and steps in a logical way but entering into “discernment” is a practice and a habit. As Noel put it, ‘discernment is what God reveals and decision-making is what we do with that.’”  

The Pathway Steering Team will provide the Board with the Anchor Statements (done), strategic plan, and affiliation recommendation (in progress). Graphic by Kiron Mateti. 

The full strategic plan, and a recommendation around the question of affiliation with Mennonite Church USA, will be brought by the Pathway Steering Team to the board meeting on August 19. By the end of August, the board will set the agenda for the November Assembly.  

“Now is the time for praying for the Pathways Steering Team. These commitments are the crux of moving forward together as Mosaic, and they give me hope,” Moyer Walter reflected.  

We encourage you to reach out to your Lead Ministers, or the Pathway Team members, with your questions and feedback.   

It’s Your Turn: Pray & Engage the Pathway Forward  

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The Pathways Steering Team has diligently listened, prayed, and discerned over the last year. Together with Grovider, our consultants, we have sought to collect and organize thoughts, feelings, and opinions from the variety of voices represented in our Conference community, under the direction of the Holy Spirit. 

The first outlined point of the Pathways Document approved by delegates in 2022, reads, “To share in the practice of continued prayer and fasting so that we may discern, yield, and listen to the Spirit among us.”  In preparation for our Assembly on November 4, the Pathways Steering Team and the Mosaic Board invite everyone to fast and pray each Wednesday between now and November 4. There are weekly guiding scriptures to focus your prayer and fasting time. An online, Mosaic prayer group meets each Wednesday at 12 pm ET/9 am PT. To join the group, click here at that time for the Zoom connection.  You may also host a time of prayer in your congregation. Regardless of when it is done, fasting and praying together to surrender to God is important.

During the spring and summer months, The Pathway Steering Team met with various focus groups throughout the Conference. We now offer you this working document and summary of what we heard from the focus groups and interviews and say, “It is your turn.” Please prayerfully read the document and share it with anyone who would be interested. Have conversations with other leaders in your congregations, Conference Related Ministries (CRMs), and around the Conference. Ask the questions: What are the various pieces of our mosaic? What can we affirm? What is missing?

At our Delegate Preparation Meetings from September 23-28 (click here for registration to these meetings), we plan to process the report with delegates further.  We hope delegates will read and process the report with others in their congregation prior to the Delegate Preparation Meetings and come prepared to discuss the findings.  The input we gather at these Delegate Preparation Meetings will inform our agenda and discernment at our Assembly gathering on November 4 (register here for Assembly, as a delegate or a guest). It will also help us develop proposed priorities for the Strategic Plan. In order for the official strategic planning to begin in January 2024, as outlined in the original Pathways Forward proposal, the identified priorities will need to be approved by the Conference Board and Mosaic staff by the end of 2023. 

Prior to Assembly, the Mosaic Board asks you to also review the guiding documents of our Conference. We will be using these as we navigate through the tensions and areas of dissent in the Conference.  These documents were adopted by Franconia Conference in 2015 and folded into Mosaic’s framework in 2020. Please familiarize yourself with these important, foundational documents.  

In the coming year, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Board and Conference Committees will lead discussion and discernment in areas of current tensions within our Conference. Such topics include nationalism, immigration policies, patriarchy, poverty, economic inequality, human sexuality, white supremacy, racism, and oppression. The purpose of these discussions is to hear different perspectives and be mutually transformed.  

As we think about the potentially challenging work we have ahead of us, we desire to bear witness to God’s church together. How do we find clarity in our differences and work at loving one another and being people of God’s peace? How can we be the church and be a counter-cultural alternative to the world around us?   

God is creating our mosaic:  together, the broken and beautiful pieces form a representation of Christ for each other and the world. 

Photo by: Marta Castillo

God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful: wise counsel, clear understanding, simple trust, healing the sick, miraculous acts Proclamation, distinguishing between spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues. All these gifts have a common origin but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when. (1 Corinthians 12: 4-11, MSG) 

Pathway Process Continues Work 

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As part of the Pathway Process that was affirmed by a majority of delegates at the November 2022 Conference Assembly, the Pathway Steering Team (PST) continues to work on the two-year strategic planning process, as developed by the Mosaic Board.  

June and July were critical months for Mosaic’s Pathway Process and the PST.  During these two months, 16 focus group sessions (which included 125 participants) and 14 individual interviews were performed by the PST. Those that were included in these focus groups and interviews were: Board members, Conference committee chairpersons, Conference Staff, Conference Related Ministry (CRM) leaders, and Credentialed Leaders.  

The interviews and focus groups provided continued dialogue and data gathering regarding Mosaic’s strategic planning process, with the purpose “to set a pathway within our priorities, to clarify our relationships with each other, other Anabaptist communities, and Mennonite Church USA.” 

The dialogue questions, designed by the Steering Team and Grovider consultants, were the next step for the Pathway Process, following the 2022 Listening Tour and feedback from congregations, leaders, and CRMs throughout the past year.  Led by members of the PST and Grovider consultants, all sessions and interviews were completed by late July.  

Moments of hope, vision, optimism, pain, frustration, clarity, and complexity were all part of the dialogue.  Stories illustrated how the Spirit is currently working through our congregations and CRMs.  While sometimes difficult for peace-loving participants to share, challenges, fears, conflicts, and disappointment were also named. Many expressed their expectations, hopes, and dreams for the future. Overall, the dialogue was rich and diverse, as leaders from congregations and CRMs, staff, and board members grappled with our calling and priorities as a conference and broader denomination, amid the challenges of this season.   

In the coming weeks, Grovider Consultants will consolidate the data from the focus groups and interviews and provide the Pathway Steering Team with a memo of the findings. The Pathway Steering Team will share feedback with Conference delegates before and during the fall Assembly on November 4 for further discernment and discussion.   

We encourage you to continue to fast and pray for listening, discernment, and yielding to God’s Spirit in the work of the Mosaic Conference and the Pathways Process.