The Mosaic Program
Mosaic is a transformational two-year program for congregations and their leaders to embrace peacemaking as core to Christian discipleship.
About the Program
This two-year program will fundamentally transform how participating congregations understand themselves and their communities, and they will be empowered to be countercultural places of reconciliation and healing, communities seeking to live out Jesus’ calling to be embodied peacemakers.
What you and your congregation will gain
Participating church leaders will gain a series of learning outcomes from their participation in Mosaic, including:
What you can expect:
Personal Growth
Strengthen your individual skills to create and foster peacemaking.
Broader Impact
Expand your capacity to impact others through local and global church work, social media, and more.
Community Engagement
Deepen your agency in spiritual communities to practice peacemaking.
Leadership Development
Develop an ability to teach, lead, and model peacemaking.
Historical Awareness
Gain a historical framework for the contexts we work in related to weaponized theology, colonialism and decolonization, and racial/economic supremacy.
What you can expect
Year 1: Leaders Cohort
Mosaic’s first year is a training ground for church leaders. Through immersive education, workshops, and a strong cohort community, Mosaic leaders will learn to live as peacemakers in both local and global contexts.
Year 1 Programming includes:
- ReStory US Pilgrimage
- Ireland/Northern Ireland Trip
- Christian Leaders Gathering & Peacemakers’ Retreat
- Monthly online seminars with global peacemakers
- Membership in a community of fellow clergy navigating the divisions and injustices of our day
Year 2: Congregation Transformation
Mosaic Year 2 puts that learning into practice through direct engagement with Mosaic congregations. With Telos guides, congregations will form peacemakers and engage with conflict and injustice in the surrounding community, reconsidering what it looks like to serve their neighbors.
Year 2 Programming includes:
- Congregational Peacemaking Summit
- Listening to Understand Pilgrimage: Local Edition
- Community Mission Re-evaluation
- Contextualized Learning
- Christian Leaders Gathering
Mosaic Program Trips
Cohort participants travel with us through our two immersive experiences in the US South and Ireland/Northern Ireland. These journeys offer an unparalleled opportunity to explore the historic and contemporary sources of conflict and what it will take to transform these seemingly intractable divides and wounds.
ReStory US Pilgrimage
Through a relationship-driven journey in the American South, we seek to tell a more true and honest story of America’s past, so that we might better do the necessary work of healing and repair. This experience uniquely equips Christian leaders with the skills and knowledge necessary to navigate controversial issues in the US and those facing their own local contexts.
Ireland/North Ireland Trip
The lived context in Ireland/Northern Ireland provides an excellent opportunity for American Christian leaders to see the role theology, Christian practice, and faith communities played and continue to play in both fomenting and perpetuating conflict but also in the work of peace, justice, and reconciliation.
Peacemakers Retreat & Christian Leaders Gathering
The final Cohort gathering (Peacemakers Retreat) is a time of reflection, fellowship, and mutual support. Past cohort alumni and other Telos-network Christian Leaders are invited to join for the second half of the week for more focused conversations on mobilization, movement building, and strategy.
Listening to Understand Pilgrimage: Local Edition
With the support of several strategic partners, Telos works with you to build bridges in your community and guide your congregants to listen, learn, and begin the work of repair.
Mosaic Resource List
The following resources are written, produced, and created by trusted voices in our Telos network, addressing pressing issues in a variety of key areas. These are the books, articles, videos, and podcasts we’re engaging with together in our Mosaic cohort:
Readings
- How the Word is Passed, Clint Smith
- The Beloved Community, Charles Marsh
- Finding Peace Here and Now, Eric Clayton
- Blessed Are the Others, Andrew DeCort
- Daily Prayer, Pádraig Ó Tuama
- Becoming Kin, Patty Krawec
- Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings, Joy Harjo
- The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Peacemaking, John Paul Lederach
- Apeirogon, Colum McCann
- Faith in the Face of Empire, Mitri Raheb
- Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan
- “After Innocence,” Christa Ballard Tooley, Comment Magazine
- “Dreamer of Dreams,” Greg Thompson, Comment Magazine
Watching / Listening
- Field Notes Podcast, Episode 26: Christine Warner Interview – Learning from the Snail
- “Imagining Peace” (TEDx Talk), Pádraig Ó Tuama
- “‘We the People’ – the three most misunderstood words in US history” (TEDx), Mark Charles
- “Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice, Love, and Humility in Troubled Times,” Soong-Chan Rah, Biola University
- “The Danger of a Single Story” (TED Talk), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
This all sounds amazing, but what’s the cost?
Participation in Mosaic is supported by a grant through Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregations Initiative. The total program cost for participation in Mosaic is $2,000 for one church leader or $3,000 for two leaders from the same congregation. This fee covers the full two-year program, with the majority of costs—including travel, accommodations, and immersive learning experiences—covered by grant funding.
Words from our Alumni
My experience with the Telos cohort was revolutionary. The amount of stories, history, data, and experiences was rich. Every conversation, presentation and person met on the cohort was a gift that enriched my life. Peacemaking has become something tangible…”
2023 Cohort Member
My resolve for justice and solidarity with the marginalized has been forever shaped by being part of such a thoughtful and thought-provoking group.”
Adam B.
2024 Cohort
The Peacemakers Cohort helped to solidify in my mind what it means to be a peacemaker… The more that Christians practice [peacemaking] in their everyday lives and are empowered by and follow promptings from the Holy Spirit, the more that God’s shalom will be witnessed in our communities and around the world.”
Lisa W.
2022 Cohort
Additional FAQ
General FAQ
How is Mosaic different from Telos’ past Peacemakers Cohorts for pastors?
What can I expect from the Mosaic Peacemaking Program?
When you sign up to be part of the Mosaic Peacemaking Program for congregations, you’re signing up for more than a workshop; you’re committing to joining a multi-year cohort of ministry leaders who understand peacemaking as central to discipleship, and who share your commitment to learning together and becoming equipped to engage in the work of peacemaking in your local community. This multi-year program includes intentional learning in a variety of modes and mediums in Year 1, as well as the support you will need to launch a local peacemaking initiative in Year 2.
Year 1 of Mosaic includes monthly virtual workshops with leading scholar-practitioners, two immersive travel experiences (a ReStory US pilgrimage in October and an Ireland/Northern Ireland trip in February), as well as a Peacemakers Retreat and Christian Leaders Gathering in June.
Year 2 includes a congregational peacemaking summit in your community (facilitated by Telos) and a local pilgrimage (facilitated by local congregations with Telos support), along with another Christian Leaders Gathering in June of the cohort’s second year.
What commitments are expected?
As part of the Mosaic program journey we ask that participating church leaders commit to sowing generously into the fruit of your own life and ministry, as well as the lives of the larger cohort, by committing to the following:
- Attending all Cohort travel experiences, barring extreme circumstances arranged in advance.
- Attending all virtual cohort meetings, barring extenuating circumstances discussed in advance, and completing monthly assigned readings.
- Completing in a timely manner all cohort surveys or evaluations.
- Sharing regularly and widely—on your physical or digital platforms—about your experiences and learnings with the Mosaic cohort.
- Completing a final reflection on our June 2026 retreat at the end of Year 1.
- Completing all programming aspects of Year 2.
- Disseminating congregational surveys and evaluations about programming in Year 2.
- Reviewing and contributing to cohort online spaces.
- Investing in ongoing peacemaking work in your congregation beyond the Mosaic program, including maintaining an ongoing relationship with Telos.
Who should apply?
Mosaic is purposefully interdenominational. We believe this program will be transformational for any congregation earnestly seeking to live out their faith as peacemakers. While we are mitigating costs for participating congregations, it will require a significant amount of time for leaders in the first year (including travel) and leaders and congregants in the second. Churches should only apply if they are confident they can participate in all aspects of the program, and are dedicated to implementing, renewing or revolutionizing a lived-out peacemaking presence for their church in their community. Up to two church leaders can apply on behalf of their congregation. It’s important that this be a decision made by your church leadership body, as this program is about more than pastoral education and training, but about church engagement and implementation.
Travel Questions
How physically demanding are the trips?
It looks like we’ll be visiting vulnerable communities. Will we be welcome there? Is this poverty tourism?
What about airfare?
Where will we be visiting as part of the ReStory US trip? Who will we be meeting with?
We will plan to visit New Orleans, LA; Jackson, MS; Selma, AL; Montgomery, AL; and more. We will visit landmarks of the civil rights movement, meet with local leaders, and explore how history continues to shape the present. While itineraries may vary based on schedules and partners’ availability, a typical trip includes:
- Visits to museums and historic sites that focus on crucial aspects of our history, from slavery, to Jim Crow, to the civil rights movement.
- Meeting with peacemakers from civil rights leaders and movement builders to nonviolence educators. We also meet with public historians, artists, and community stakeholders.
- Participation in a Kingian Nonviolence training.
- Discovering the impacts of racial injustice on climate, the environment, and medicine.
- A visit with indigenous communities in coastal Louisiana, examining the effects of climate change in their community.
- Learning about enslaved women from Alabama who endured unethical medical experiments and helped shape modern gynecology, and how racial disparities in healthcare persist today.
- Exploring local culture through art and cuisine.
- Sharing space and meals with locals from diverse communities.
Interested in Supporting our Work?
Your support allows Mosaic to invest in leaders and congregations ready to pursue a better way. By donating to Mosaic, you're helping build communities where peace is practiced, justice is pursued, and love is embodied.
