update (part 1) church life

Over the next few days, I will update you on what God is doing in my life. I will begin with a snapshot of what is going on with mosaic church.

1. Jesus is being honored and glorified by our leadership. We are trusting in Him and He is the focus of all that we do.
2. I have been blessed with an incredible staff (Walker, Tripp, and Joey) who are continually improving in their dedication to our church and devotion to helping me focus on what I need to focus on.
3. We have some great volunteers who are giving so much of themselves to see the vision of our church carried out.
4. During July we averaged 110 in attendance which is our second highest month ever.
5. Our worship services and environment has become incredible. (thanks to the staff and volunteers)
6. God has brought some new faces to be a part of our church that are going (and already are) do so much to further the Kingdom of God.
7. We have got some office space for very cheap, so while we remain a portable church we will have a central office.
8. We have seen several trust in Christ. We are excited about them being baptized in August!

what you can pray for

God has been burdening me that we need a few couples that are more mature ( age wise and spiritually). We need some strong older married couples that are passionate about our vision to reach the unchurched.

Finances are pretty bad for mosaic church. Please pray that God provides in a supernatural way. Christie and I are exploring the possibility of me working bi-vocationally gain. We'll do what we gotta do!

Other than that, just pray for me to listen to God and not my desires or other peoples desires. There is a great amount of momentum building right now and we don't want to do anything to quench what God is doing!

Thanks for reading and thanks for loving on my family and mosaic church!

God help the outcast

We are all in need of relationships.  Even those who consider themselves to be loners.  Those who are content with just blending in with the crowd and going home after work, school, etc and being by themselves.  

We have seen that most of the people who just go home to be by themselves, actually aren't by themselves.  They watch their favorite television shows which they have become attached to or 

they play World of Warcraft (or another similar game) where they are able to connect with others in a safe environment.  They do not worry about being judged or being a disappointment to others.  They don't have to work extremely hard to fit in, they are just accepted by the common bond that they have with their fellow players.  They have been looking for relationships of acceptance and they have found them.  

as a church leader one word comes to mind......OUCH.  

If there is any environment where people should be able to feel accepted unconditionally it should be the gatherings that we call "church".  I know that we don't accept sins that people delve into or allow people to just fill whatever position they want to without any qualifications, but come on!

Why are there emotionally hurting adults AND TEENAGERS that we just push to the side?  Why do we look exactly like the rest of the world in the people that we accept?  

You might be saying, oh our church accepts all people, we are not judgemental like that.  Maybe, you are telling the truth....but in most cases that is BS.   Look who you spend the most of your time with.  Look who you are concerned with getting plugged in.  Look who you show the most grace to.  How equal are you?

I am going to go out on a limb and guess that Jesus did not show any favoritism nor does God show any favoritism.  So lets start giving everyone the same change to be used by God, 

HE DOES!

top 5 blogs (part 5 of 5)

i'm a good liar   4/29/09

 

I've become excellent at not being transparent but appearing to be so.

 

It is an art. 

 

It is taught at Pastors conference (maybe not directly, but it is).

 

It is the best way to become a successful pastor, leader, employee, spouse, parent.

 

Contemporary Churches have become environments where this is rewarded.  We love to hear some one's confession of  sin, some one's story of growth.  We don't actually want to investigate how they are doing today.  We don't want to look someone in the eye and sincerely ask them about sin.  It may involve more time, prayer, friendship.

 

We like the label of "authentic" without the work that comes with sincere authenticity.  

-will I truly be accepted if people know ____.  

-what will people think of the fact that I ____.

-I really don't want people to use ____ against me.

 

Let's what call it what it IS.

 

We are a culture of liars and typically we are a church of liars.

top 5 blogs (part 1 of 5)

responding to criticism        posted on  7/28/08

 

When someone begins to criticise me or an issue arises in a relationship, there is a simple process that I follow in order to make things right.

 

Step 1: I evaluate my life. I check to see if there is something related to the issue that I need to get in line with God. Usually there is.

 

Step 2: I evaluate (not judge) the other person and see if there is any black/white issue that shows they are clearly not following God.

 

Step 3: I ask someone that I trust about the issue. They usually point out something I can work on as well.

 

Step 4: I pray about resolving the issue.

 

Step 5: I attempt to resolve the issue. Start with you heart! Tell them where you desire the relationship to be.

 

This has been very helpful to me over the past year. I encourage you to follow this or come up with a process to handle relationship issues in your life.

questions about beliefs

if you are a one of the following and are open to discussing your faith and to my questions about it please contact me...

atheist

muslim

jew

jehovah's witness

morman

hindu

i will not try to convert you, i just have questions for a teaching series we are doing

james@mosaiccrestview.com

insight and wasabi

Yesterday I was having lunch at a fantastic sushi restaurant in town with my friend Mark (whom I had a fantastic conversation with).  Just as I sat down a woman came up to me who attended mosaic off and on for a few months.  She exuded that awkward feeling of "i better say hey to him first".  We said our hello's and she asked how my family and I was doing and then I asked her how she was doing......... of course the response went immediately to why she hasn't come to mosaic in a while.  

She said that she loved what we were doing and loved the people at mosaic and that my preaching was incredible (she even said I spoke right to her) but that she was going to a bigger and more established church  (that i won't mention) because it was closer and all the stuff they have. 

TWO THINGS.

One, isn't crazy that someone will pick a church not by the fact that God is growing them but by the things that the church has.  I think having stuff is good, but completely secondary to communicating the truth of scripture in  a way that leads people to get it.  

Secondly, this shows that it is important to single moms for their to be a lot of opportunities for their kids to do stuff.  Our churches must always remember that as we seek to be relevant to families that good preaching and good worship is not enough for that family.   

I wanted to tell her how much better things are for children and students at mosaic, but I realized that she is a christian and is going to church (at least some times).