Our mission at Mosaic is to make healthy,
committed disciples of Jesus Christ, first locally, then globally
...that
the world might know that Jesus Christ is Lord.
... A community of
faith
led by prayer
empowered by the Holy Spirit
energized by the gifts of many kinds
of people
who are called to reach
beyond the walls
to be in mission
near and far -
-
a demonstration on earth of God's divine community...
...
all in the name of Jesus Christ.
Envision
It
When we talk about a church being
led by prayer, we are talking, of course, about more than just making sure
someone prays at the beginning of every meeting. We are also talking about
more than the daily "God, here's what we need next" kind of praying.
We mean, in fact, the significant prayers that shape a life into what it
was created to be …
Like the prayer of salvation - that moment when a person gives him- or herself
completely over to the divine will of God. Mosaic seeks to be a place where folks
can find Christ - many for the first time - and where they can make a commitment
to follow Him completely.
And like the prayer of healing. Because once a person makes that commitment
to follow Christ, there is still so much work to be done! God does his work
on us, sculpting out of a scarred and broken soul a new creation … helping
us discover those hurts that have become a chasm separating us from the joy
that is rightly ours as children of God. As the knowledge of our own brokenness
becomes real, the work of healing becomes a work of prayer … seeking
the balm of God's Spirit over the past, the pain, the fractured relationships.
It is not easy work, or fun, but those who go beyond salvation to this place
of healing find wholeness. At Mosaic, we want you to come as you are -- broken
pieces and all -- but allow the work of prayer to take you from that place
of brokenness to a place of healing.
Then comes the prayer of discernment - of discovering how God wants to use us
for the sake of helping others to find their own joy. The old saying is, "Play
to your strengths." It holds true in the Christian life, also. To be
used by God, we must discover what our strengths are.
What are your gifts? What is God calling you to do? For what purpose has He uniquely
created you? That is a work of prayer, too … listening as God teaches
you about yourself, reminds you what you were made for, then gives you direction
for the future.
When we say we believe God has called Mosaic to be a place led by prayer, we
are not only talking about prayers for the everyday stuff of life - though those
can be good, too - but giving God the lead at every turn. We want this ministry
and its people to be led by prayer, because we want Mosaic to be led by God.
Once a person gets to that place
in life where s/he has experienced God's saving grace and has found healing
for past pain, s/he is ready to be gifted to go out into the world to serve
others. As we've said already, we believe God instills in each human being
a set of gifts to be used for His glory. And we pray for God to empower
through His Holy Spirit what he has given through creation.
In other words, we aren't looking for a few really talented people to come and
do a bunch of service projects with us. We are looking for folks who are so excited
about their faith in Jesus that they can't wait to go out and share it with others.
We are looking for people who are compelled by the Holy Spirit into ministry.
Know the difference between a rocket on the tarmac and a rocket in space? One
has been made to be a rocket, and the other is being a rocket! The presence of
the Holy Spirit in a person's life is the difference between being created to
be a human being, and being all God created you to be.
Does that mean that if you are not already in Christ, then you have no place
here? Not at all! In fact, our heart and focus is for being wiith folks who have
not yet experienced the grace of Christ ... with the hope that we can share what
we have found in Christ in a way that makes it exciting and compelling. No matter
where you are in your journey, Mosaic wants to meet you there. But we also want
to challenge you not to stay there, but to grow in Christ.
We've talked already about the power
of Spirit-led gifts, so the real focus of this phrase is on the power of
many kinds of people working together. In Revelation 7:9-10, John the prophet
paints a beautiful picture of what the kingdom will look like when we see
it in all its fullness at the end of time.
"I looked," John wrote, "and there was a great multitude that
no one could count, from every nation and tribe and people and language,
all standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing robes
of white and they had palm branches in their hands, and they cried out with
a mighty shout, 'Salvation belongs to our God!'"
Our vision is for Mosaic to be a picture on earth of this heavenly scene … with
folks from every nation, tribe, people and language gathering to worship God
together. That's a tall order, I know, but we believe that unless we are intentional
about building diversity into this community of faith, we will quickly become
just what we don't want to become … monochromatic, culturally insensitive,
globally out-of-focus.
Mosaic seeks to be a place where people of many backgrounds and experiences
can gather together and appreciate one another as we are. We don't want to
become a melting pot, ignoring differences and promoting sameness; we want
to be a mosaic, each "piece" uniquely shaped by life-experience
and contributing to the whole not so much by blending in as by shining forth.
One of the best things about getting
beyond our own hurts to a place of peace is that we can now serve joyfully
out of our abundance. Mosaic's mission is to equip healthy disciples of Christ
to be in ministry around the world - wherever the world's deep need and our
deep passion collides.
We want to be a picture of Acts 1:8 lived out in a local community of faith: "Behold,
you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my
witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth." That
means sharing the good news in relevant ways to people in our own neighborhood,
to folks in our country, and to those around the world who have not yet heard.
In other words, we want to be actively engaged in sharing the good news of Jesus
Christ locally, regionally, and globally. And it is not just so we can give,
but so we can receive a God's-eye view of the world ... We expect to have meaningful
relationships with Christians around the world so that we never run the risk
of losing touch with our connection to the global Body of Christ.
If you've been in church much at
all, you've prayed it. Most of us have prayed it countless times, but I
wonder if we really mean it when we repeat the words Jesus first taught
us to pray: "Thy
kingdom come … on earth
as it is in heaven."
If we don't really mean it, then why bother praying the prayer? If we do mean
it, then how are we allowing the kingdom of God to be revealed through us?
Mosaic seeks to be a place where that line of an ancient and holy prayer
becomes a present and relevant reality among us … God's kingdom as
it was meant to be, with all His children gathered together as one - honoring
Him in their prayers, in their work, in their worship, in their living and
in their loving.
That is our vision of what the Church can be when the Church - the living Body
of Jesus Christ - is at its best. And that is our dream for Mosaic.
