The Sanctuary Hum - A Chorus of Resistance

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.