Taking it on the Road

We've started a new series. I'm kind of excited about it. It's covering Life Stewardship--looking at all that God has given us and seeing at what God would have us do with it.

I get kind of nervous about what I'm gonna find out about myself. This last Sunday we had what we call a 2nd tier leadership meeting. We're thinking about putting a survey out there and asking people what they think about about how we do things at Mosaic. So, we polled the 2nd tier leader for their answers and the wording of the questions.

Of course Worship Music was first on the chopping block. That's my area so I was nervous and ultimately left the meeting very frustrated. It seemed that the survey was going to lean toward consumerism...I thought we covered that when we first started this project.

This morning though as I went to God about it, the scripture I read was even more frustrating...it was in Leviticus about how God and the people responded to an offering that was acceptable. There was all these details in regard to how the offering was to be prepared, what could and couldn't be offered and what was unacceptable and the penalties for having an unacceptable offering. It was maddening and needless to say I didn't feel up to the task...how can I meet all those exacting standards to please God, to offer an acceptable sacrifice of worship?

It hit me as we were coming up with wording for the survey in staff meeting. Christ is the only sacrifice acceptable to God...now, for us, for me. The best I can offer God, as far as Worship at Mosaic is concerned and how I direct the flow of services is to lift up Jesus Christ. That will shape how we word the survey, too. That's needs to be the bottom line for all we do at Mosaic.

Update

It's been a while...we're not at Interplayers anymore...we're at The Second Space Art Gallery...a lot has changed.

We now do two services instead of one. Someone we trusted stole from us...several thousand dollars in credit card fraud and the fencing of sound equipment. It was sad...but we recovered.

Attendance is up, budget is down...I'm writing again...documenting all this.

There are just four of us on staff...John still the lead pastor...I'm in charge of Sunday and bands, as well as the direction of the teaching. Charlie...well he's Charlie...tech, facilities and youth.

Stephanie writes it all down....except this.

PRAISE GOD...and Pass the Coffee

This is from Pastor John to the congregation at large:

Dear Mosaic Fellowship,
I just wanted to share a quick praise with you. For months now we’ve been wrestling with the best way to get the Coffee Shop and art studio renovation work permitted and done so we can be up and functioning in our neighborhood. Well, we’re finally seeing some great progress. The architect has finished the needed drawings which will go to the city today or tomorrow for permits. Thursday we’ll be starting the actual renovations. The entire ceiling and east inside wall needs two layers of drywall for fire code. This will take a couple of weeks to complete and then we will just need to install counters, equipment and seating. Please join us in thanking God that we’re finally able to move forward on this.

He WANTS us!

These last few weeks I've been building my desk in my basement. I'm making my own space down there. It really is kind of neat, but it has not been without its difficulties.

In addition to waiting for the space to be cleared and all I actually had to build the desk, one of those Sauder jobs. But, you see, I'm not very mechanically inclined. I had to follow the instructions ever so carefully to get it right and even then I screwed it up a few times and had to undo some of the work and redo it the righ way. Eventually, I got it finished and I am very happy with the work.

I think building Mosaic is very similar. The instructions that God has for a perfect church are very particular, and we are bound to screw it up to the point of having to re-work a few things from time to time.

I'm glad that God is so graceful though. He really has blessed our endeavor so far. He gives us grace where we don't have the know how. We can't ruin His work. I guess that's the wonderful thing about it--he includes us in the process because he loves us and is excited to see what WE are going to become through it! HE doesn't need us, he WANTS us!

The Need for Entertainment

We really don't have anything for children at this point, that is children from 6 onward. We expect them to just sit in service and be quiet. Up front we talk about how Mosaic is to be a family and everything is casual. Kids getting up to go to the bathroom two or three times in the service is really a distraction for some people.

The thing is many of our members come from churches where there was a well organized kid's program in place. They are used to dropping the kids off and getting what they need from church. So, we now have a generation of church goers who don't know how to train their kids to both sit in church or to serve at church. They like their kids are their to be entertained, except they might call it being fed.

Visionary or Team?

I've been pondering this since I watched the opening ceremony to the 2008 Olympic games. They didn't hand over the artistic vision to a committee they handed it over to a visionary directory and supplied him with the resources to pull off what we envisioned.

As I struggle with the direction of the Worship Arts at Mosaic, I wonder if this is the direction that would be best for us--to communicate a vision for a worship service to a creative team as opposed to just giving them the sermon notes.

CHINESE STUDENT VISIT:

"We said our final farewells to the 14 Chinese exchange students we hosted last week just last night (Thursday) as they came through Spokane on their way from Glacier Park back to Tri-Cities and on to China. A HUGE THANKS to all of you who hosted these great kids. God did work and much seed was planted and tended. One of the students wanted to be baptized in the Tri-Cities before returning to China. That may happen today! Looks like there will be more opportunities to do this in future years and even send some of our own to China to teach others for a couple of weeks. Praise God for a global Gospel!"