The Mosaic Story
DuPage County, a once predominantly white, affluent suburb of Chicago has in the last years been undergoing rapid demographic change and is poised to be a majority non-white county by 2030. Despite being a heavily churched area centered around Wheaton College and a plethora of Christian mission agencies and ministries, the Church in general has not been aware of the changes in the community or prepared on how to respond in Gospel ways.
In this void World Relief DuPage, in partnership with Wheaton Bible Church began to host a yearly conference called the Mission On Your Doorstep Conference to equip local churches to respond missionally to their changing neighborhoods. Out of the 2008 conference, local church leaders recognized not only the need to respond missionally to our new neighbors, but the need to do so together. This birthed a network of churches committed to working together in what was first called the Cross-Cultural Ministry Consortium and later renamed Mosaic: one body, one mission. The initial mission statement was: “We exist to foster multi-ethnic Church collaboration for mission across cultures and among the most vulnerable in DuPage County”
Mosaic decided to focus especially on three neighborhoods in the Wheaton/Glen Ellyn area with heavy concentrations of immigrants, refugees and the suburban poor. Sub-networks of 3-5 churches each began to pray, strategize and work together to do mission among these communities known as the Wheaton Square Apartments, the Roosevelt Road Apartments and The Parkside Apartments. A key pastor from each congregation, along with other key agency leaders including World Relief and Outreach Community Center began to meet regularly for prayer, connection and mission strategy. Early on it was recognized that ministry in these communities would need to be incarnational and so Mosaic began to encourage people from local churches (“relocaters”) to move into these apartment complex neighborhoods in order to be present day in and out and to listen to the needs and strengths of the community.
Damon Schroeder, the key catalyst behind both the Mission On Your Doorstep conferences as well as Mosaic was the first facilitator and convener of the Mosaic network which he facilitated along with his other roles at World Relief. In 2009, he passed on leadership to Jonathan Kindberg who came on as the first part-time staff person for Mosaic whose funding came from the churches within the network.
Vision
Recognizing God’s purposes & the changing face of DuPage County,
We envision the cultivation of multi-ethnic Church unity through a movement of prayer & collaborative mission that leads to the transformation of our churches & neighborhoods
Mission
We exist to foster multi-ethnic Church collaboration for mission across cultures and among the most vulnerable in DuPage County
Operations Team:
- Chris McElwee, Wheaton Bible Church, Local Impact Pastor
- Jonathan Kindberg, Mosaic Facilitator, Iglesia de la Resurreccion, Pastor
- Emily Grey, World Relief DuPage/Aurora, Executive Director
- Damon Schroeder, World Relief, US Partnership Director
- Joe Weinzettel, First Baptist Church, Wheaton, Minister of Worship
- Yenner Wuanti, Liberian Fellowship, Wheaton, Pastor
For more information contact: Jonathan Kindberg, Church Network Facilitator for Mosaic: jkindberg(at)mosaicdupage.com
Neighborhood Networks: Churches together working among residents of multi-ethnic and under-resourced neighborhoods for mutual transformation. See map here.
Wheaton Square Apartments (Wheaton)
Parkside Apartments Network (Glen Ellyn)
Roosevelt Road Apartments Network (Wheaton)
Affinity Networks:
Muslim Ministry Network
Relocaters Network
