The Astonishing Tales of Costanza – Volume 2
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“The church is not here to meet our needs. We are the church, here to meet the needs of the world.”
- Erwin McManus
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The Sanctuary Hum – A Chorus of Resistance
All across the country, there are numerous sanctuaries humming with the words of passionless pastors, convincing us of their charade. Pastors whose sole purpose could be one of a myriad of hollow goals, such as: increasing their congregation size; making their congregants feel comfortable; or even achieving notoriety in the Christian world. With these as their goals, they fail to speak to our humanity or ignite our passions. They speak empty, hollow words that act only to pacify and placate. Words that satiate what should be an insatiable desire. The end result is the creation of a church geared for Christians. Mosaic is the antithesis.
Mosaic’s ethos centers completely around a missional perspective. In pursuit of this missional focus, they’ve developed an activist mentality. They want not to be shaped by culture but to shape culture. This is the very reason many people in the “church” rail against Mosaic – they are not here to create a comfortable place for Christians to attend. In fact, I feel that Mosaic wants most Christians to feel uncomfortable; Uncomfortable with the fact that so many people in this world will never know the love of God because we never showed it to them; Uncomfortable with the fact that we, who wear the moniker of Christian, are so caught up with our own lives, our own little world and our desire to be comfortable, that we never take the time to show God’s grace and mercy to the world around us.
Probably the core of McManus/Mosaic’s ethos can be summed up in these two paragraphs – McManus follows Jesus’ lead from Matthew 22:37-39. In this passage, Jesus is asked, “What is the SINGLE greatest commandment?” This is where Jesus demonstrates that He is great at philosophy but not so good at math. He answers by saying that (1) you are to Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind but follows this by saying (2) you are also to love your neighbor as yourself.
Jesus’ problem is that he could not separate these two commandments; he understands that the principle theme to the universe is relationship. They are inextricably linked. If you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength, it will flow over into the second of these greatest commandments. You will love your neighbor as yourself. What Jesus tells us is that you CANNOT love God and NOT love people, especially those who have yet to know His love. This is at the foundation of McManus’s ministry.
So The end result of a comfortable church is complacency coupled with a perspective that is focused inward. This is ABSOLUTELY the wrong direction. It is imperative that we, as sons and heirs of grace, learn what it means to lift up our brothers and sisters and how much it costs to truly lay down your life for a friend. (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10; John 15:13).
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***Interesting Note – Probably most interesting is that if you ask McManus if he considers himself, or Mosaic, “seeker sensitive” he would probably say no. McManus speaks to the human condition. He desires all to know the abundant life we are promised in Christ and with that, he is attempting to awaken humanity.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Monday, August 27, 2007
Mosaic - Overview
Mosaic is a community of followers of Jesus Christ, committed to live by faith, to be known by love, and to be a voice of hope. The name of our community comes both from the diversity of our members, and from the symbolism of a broken and fragmented humanity which can become a work of beauty under the artful hands of God. We welcome people from all walks of life, regardless of where they are in their spiritual journey.
another update to follow shortly...
another update to follow shortly...
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
The Astonishing Tales of Costanza - Volume 1
The Astonishing Tales of Costanza – Volume 1
Ok, so I should’ve known better than to be picked up from the airport by Mark Wittig. The dude’s unbridled intensity is matched only by my buddy, Sabo (which is saying a lot). Literally, Mark picks me up from the airport, only to take me straight to the Mosaic HQ in Pasadena. Apparently, Mark thought it’d be better for me to get right to work than unwind from a nine hour traveling experience. Good call.
Remembering my Jewish roots, Mark locked me in the accounting office (you know he had to be thinking: Jew + Money = Good Things), where He and I worked together counting the past week’s tithes and offerings. This allowed us some time to catch up because I hadn’t seen him since Brad Kosar got married (coincidentally this is where I got “girl Brad” to dance with me – she loved it). However, with all this catching up, we made a few mistakes counting – apparently, as we now learn, not all Jews are meant to count money.
Though we had a great time counting together, I did actually do one serious thing – I took the Gallup StrengthFinders Test, learning that my top 5 strengths are: 1. Strategic; 2. Input; 3. Ideation; 4. Command; & 5. Competition. Though I feel this test was dead on with all five top strengths, I would like to call your attention to the summary for “command:”
Command leads you to take charge. Unlike some people, you feel no discomfort with imposing your views on others. On the contrary, once your opinion is formed, you need to share it with others. Once your goal is set, you feel restless until you have aligned others with you. You are not frightened by confrontation; rather, you know that confrontation is the first step toward resolution. Whereas others may avoid facing up to life's unpleasantness, you feel compelled to present the facts or the truth, no matter how unpleasant it may be. You need things to be clear between people and challenge them to be clear-eyed and honest. You push them to take risks. You may even intimidate them. And while some may resent this, labeling you opinionated, they often willingly hand you the reins. People are drawn toward those who take a stance and ask them to move in a certain direction. Therefore, people will be drawn to you. You have presence. You have Command.
On top of helping me understand myself a little better, reading these summaries allowed me some insight into how the rest of the world perceived me. Though I laughed when I first read the “command” summary, I soon realized that in many situations this characteristic can be an invaluable asset or a costly obstacle when interacting with others. It can overwhelm and intimidate or intrigue and draw in; an idea, of which, I need to be very aware.
The last few sentences of the summary articulate something I’ve felt for a while but you need to change out “command” for “passion” (which in many instances, the two are synonymous). And, though passion has the potential to be caustic, most people are drawn to passion and passionate people – it’s magnetic. This is probably because most people desperately desire to be passionate, even to the point where they crave it, yet they are not passionate. Being around passionate people triggers this in them. One person’s passion can consume, encourage and influence another person.
Recently, I’ve realized that, as a believer, your insatiable passion can be the most powerful part of your interaction with non-believers. At first you might equate passionate believers with fanatical believers but there is a fundamental difference. There is freedom, boldness and creativity in passion; these are the things that drive passionate believers. Conversely, fanaticism breeds fear, legalistic and rigid thought with little grace. Thus, your passion is indispensable.
To recap a little, I spent this past week primarily learning about Mosaic’s core values and volunteering in a few service works projects. There is a nuance to the way they’ve enumerated their core values. For starters, one of their main core values is: relevance to culture is mandatory not optional. Compared to a traditional church, this value allows fluidity. Fluidity is paramount to success because we are living in a time where pluralism permeates our culture, mandating an ability to address and answer a myriad of issues.
Further, the pervasive idea underpinning their entire movement can be expressed as: sometimes there is a need to rehabilitate and sometimes there is a need to re-invent; now is the time to re-invent Christianity (albeit while staying doctrinally sound). McManus encapsulates this idea with the statement, “The number one enemy to the movement of Jesus Christ is Christianity.” This statement from McManus’s book, The Barbarian Way, epitomizes the fervency of Mosaic’s desire to re-invent Christianity. And, to tell you the truth, standing alongside of them in this attempt is an awesome thing.
Ok, so I should’ve known better than to be picked up from the airport by Mark Wittig. The dude’s unbridled intensity is matched only by my buddy, Sabo (which is saying a lot). Literally, Mark picks me up from the airport, only to take me straight to the Mosaic HQ in Pasadena. Apparently, Mark thought it’d be better for me to get right to work than unwind from a nine hour traveling experience. Good call.
Remembering my Jewish roots, Mark locked me in the accounting office (you know he had to be thinking: Jew + Money = Good Things), where He and I worked together counting the past week’s tithes and offerings. This allowed us some time to catch up because I hadn’t seen him since Brad Kosar got married (coincidentally this is where I got “girl Brad” to dance with me – she loved it). However, with all this catching up, we made a few mistakes counting – apparently, as we now learn, not all Jews are meant to count money.
Though we had a great time counting together, I did actually do one serious thing – I took the Gallup StrengthFinders Test, learning that my top 5 strengths are: 1. Strategic; 2. Input; 3. Ideation; 4. Command; & 5. Competition. Though I feel this test was dead on with all five top strengths, I would like to call your attention to the summary for “command:”
Command leads you to take charge. Unlike some people, you feel no discomfort with imposing your views on others. On the contrary, once your opinion is formed, you need to share it with others. Once your goal is set, you feel restless until you have aligned others with you. You are not frightened by confrontation; rather, you know that confrontation is the first step toward resolution. Whereas others may avoid facing up to life's unpleasantness, you feel compelled to present the facts or the truth, no matter how unpleasant it may be. You need things to be clear between people and challenge them to be clear-eyed and honest. You push them to take risks. You may even intimidate them. And while some may resent this, labeling you opinionated, they often willingly hand you the reins. People are drawn toward those who take a stance and ask them to move in a certain direction. Therefore, people will be drawn to you. You have presence. You have Command.
On top of helping me understand myself a little better, reading these summaries allowed me some insight into how the rest of the world perceived me. Though I laughed when I first read the “command” summary, I soon realized that in many situations this characteristic can be an invaluable asset or a costly obstacle when interacting with others. It can overwhelm and intimidate or intrigue and draw in; an idea, of which, I need to be very aware.
The last few sentences of the summary articulate something I’ve felt for a while but you need to change out “command” for “passion” (which in many instances, the two are synonymous). And, though passion has the potential to be caustic, most people are drawn to passion and passionate people – it’s magnetic. This is probably because most people desperately desire to be passionate, even to the point where they crave it, yet they are not passionate. Being around passionate people triggers this in them. One person’s passion can consume, encourage and influence another person.
Recently, I’ve realized that, as a believer, your insatiable passion can be the most powerful part of your interaction with non-believers. At first you might equate passionate believers with fanatical believers but there is a fundamental difference. There is freedom, boldness and creativity in passion; these are the things that drive passionate believers. Conversely, fanaticism breeds fear, legalistic and rigid thought with little grace. Thus, your passion is indispensable.
To recap a little, I spent this past week primarily learning about Mosaic’s core values and volunteering in a few service works projects. There is a nuance to the way they’ve enumerated their core values. For starters, one of their main core values is: relevance to culture is mandatory not optional. Compared to a traditional church, this value allows fluidity. Fluidity is paramount to success because we are living in a time where pluralism permeates our culture, mandating an ability to address and answer a myriad of issues.
Further, the pervasive idea underpinning their entire movement can be expressed as: sometimes there is a need to rehabilitate and sometimes there is a need to re-invent; now is the time to re-invent Christianity (albeit while staying doctrinally sound). McManus encapsulates this idea with the statement, “The number one enemy to the movement of Jesus Christ is Christianity.” This statement from McManus’s book, The Barbarian Way, epitomizes the fervency of Mosaic’s desire to re-invent Christianity. And, to tell you the truth, standing alongside of them in this attempt is an awesome thing.
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