Mosaic Church of Bellingham

I found this quote by an old co-worker and scholar, Dr. Peter Davids. I found it to be a challenging and encouraging statement of what we are trying to do as church planters and participants.

“A church is a structured gathering of followers of Jesus in which (1) they are trained to follow Jesus, (2) they engage in prayer and worship together, (3) they support one another, including financially, and (4) they eat the communal meal together in anticipation of the return of their Lord and the great banquet of that day. The church is not an institution “left in this world” to evangelize the world and then to be removed from it to a “heavenly home,” but a subversive group that is even now living what will be the future life of the world when Jesus returns and is recruiting those around it to join in the subversion. The church is a colony of the kingdom (a kingdom that is going to take over the whole world), a foreign entity within each of the nations of the world, whose allegiance and lifestyle is determined by their great Leader, and the members of which are seeking to invite others into their colony.”

Dr. Peter H. Davids is Professor of Biblical Theology at St. Stephens University in New Brunswick. He also provides both traditional and non-traditional practically focused biblical-theological training in a kingdom of God context to churches, theological training institutions and Christian leaders from a multi-denominational background.

I found the following quote by David Fitch to be a great reminder of what we are about.
Blessings, Matt Atkins
“The landscape of post-Christendom demands we think about church planting with a new eye for faithfulness, truth and integrity. Among the new missional leaders, church is the name we give to a way of life, not a set of services. We do not plant an organized set of services; we inhabit a neighborhood as the living embodied presense of Christ. Missional leaders now root themselves in a piece of geography for the long term. We survey the land for the poor and the desperate, not just physically but emotionally and spiritually as well. We seek to plant seeds of ministry, kernels of forgiveness, new plantings of the gospel among “the poor (of all kinds)” and then by the Spirit water them, nurture them into the life of God in Christ. We gather on Sunday, but not for evangelistic reasons. We gather to be formed into a missonal people sent out into the neighborhood to minister grace, peace, love and the gospel of forgiveness and salvation. The biggest part of church then is what goes on outside gathering. If the old ways of planting a church were like setting up a grocery store, now it is more like seeding a garden, cultivating it, watching God grow it amidst the challenges of the rocks, weeds and thorns.”

As I begin this post, I want to recoginize the work of people like Steve Ogne and Randy Roland who first shared these diagrams with me and a number of others. Over the past few years, there have been many times that definition came to experiences that many of us were having but didn’t really understand. Seeing this diagram was one of those experiences.

As you check out the diagram and the description, you will see that these are very broad categories and generalizations. They are not meant to describe everything about every church. The placement of the cross is meant to illustrate the primary place that the message of Jesus is communicated.

Historic                 Contemporary                     Missional

In the “historic” church, the building itself represented a gathering place and a community symbol. In many places, the church building was the tallest building in the town. You can probably look back at pictures of Bellingham and find that Assumption was the tallest building for many years. By the way, some of the best preacher in the world are still preaching/teaching in traditional churches!

In the “contemporary” model of church, the formality of the building gave way to the “box store” or “business park” location. This was not a move to “sell out”, it was a move out into the community and away from a focus on “religious” buildings. The message of Jesus is presented through services that speak to the seeker. These types of churches have literally changed the face of the church in N. America (and a few other countries). In the past 35 years we have experienced the growth of “mega-churches” for the first time in history. This has presented great challenges as well as brought incredible blessing.

When you look at the missional church, things become more of a blob, than a box or a building. It is not that the missional church doesn’t meet in buildings, they do (whether its a home or another type of facility). The issue is that the missional church does not find its “center” in a building. It finds it’s center (and therefore locates the message of Jesus) in the culture that it finds itself.
Of course all of this brings up a great question; “what is the message of Jesus and how should it shape how we live our lives?” I will deal with this in a future post.
This can make things rather confusing. How do people get connected? Where do we get to know people enough that we can experience “community”? How are programs developed to meet the needs of children? Youth? College age? Young couples? These are great questions and they are ones that the missional church (including Mosaic) is learning to deal with.
We hope you will learn with us. Our hope is that as we seek to be the community that God has called us to be, we will find organic ways to develop community amongst all the various demographic groups, but that none of them will become isolated from the whole. We believe discipleship happens best when the parts all work together in their learning process.
If you have a desire to be a part of building community with a particular age group, or you would like to see something going on for young couples, families, or whatever, let us know. You can contact any one of the pastors or you can talk to Leila Hobart as she has volunteered to help get people connected.

Blessings!

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. If you have never heard about the “Lenten Season”, let me give you a quick overview.

Traditionally, Lent has been about “fasting”. It was designed to emulate the 40 days of fasting that Jesus did in the wilderness (Luke 4), but was put before Easter in recognition of the death of Jesus and to prepare people for the resurrection celebration after a season of “cleansing”.

Lent has broadened to include the practice of fasting from pleasures or habits that people feel might be good to let go of for a season. Although this can be really helpful, especially when the pleasures or habits are destructive and/or sinful, it really misses the point of a “fast” that is true to God’s desire.

So, let me take you a passage that could alter your entire Lenten season, your life and maybe even our community. Listen to Isaiah 58:

“Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you (God) have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’
“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.

4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.

5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD ?

6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

11 The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.

12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

13 “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and the LORD’s holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,

14 then you will find your joy in the LORD,
and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land
and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”
The mouth of the LORD has spoken.

WOW! What a challenging fast. Does this include being set free from our own bondage, oppression, yokes and nakedness? ABSOLUTELY! This is a wonderful opportunity for us to invite the Holy Spirit to liberate us and free us to walk in the joy and light that He desires.

Can you imagine how this would change the Lenten season, if Christ-followers all around the world would listen to Isaiah and fast for the next 40 days in the way of Isaiah 58? What if we stopped exploiting workers, cease from our fighting (we need to get the war out of our hearts and allow the Prince of peace to rule there), loose the chains of injustice, untie the cords of the yoke, set the oppressed free, break every yoke, share our food with the hungry, provide the poor wanderer with shelter, clothe the naked and not turn away from our families.

Isn’t it possible that our celebration at Easter would be much more rich and meaningful? Doesn’t it make sense that the Easter celebration would be wild and crazy because those who have been bound or oppressed would be joining us with shouts of joy? Wouldn’t our light break forth like the dawn and would we not find joy in God that we have never known?

LET’S TRY IT AND SEE!

Things have been a little random for me lately. I have been studying the book of John, but find myself intrigued by small sections of the narrative. I seem to get stuck and end up spending inordinate amounts of time pondering things that I am not sure matter to other people, but capture my heart.

For example; I have been reading about John the Baptizer and started thinking about why people came out to hear his messages and more importantly, decided to change and even get baptized (Jn. 1:19-34). John doesn’t tell us much about what he was saying, so I looked at the other writers to see what their accounts would say. I am not sure that I would have gone out to hear John’s message. It was not very encouraging, at least not on the surface.

But, something in the essence of what John was saying, not only caught people’s attention, it gave them hope. In Luke 3, after Luke records that John had called the people a “brood of vipers”, told them not to trust in their lineage, to give away their extra coats and to change the way they were living; Luke says, “with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.” Where is the good news in that? I must have missed something in the text. Either that, or I just don’t understand what they understood about what John was saying.

This preaching was some how good news to them. In the message of “you need to change”, apparently there was also a message of “God is present to change you and to do a new thing in your midst.” In other words, instead of just an empty challenge to change, there was hope that change was possible and that it was the beginning of something really new.

“Hope”, I have discovered, has two sides. On the one hand, I love a message of hope, a message of good news. On the other hand, I don’t really like messages of hope. Why? Because in order for hope to be hope, it means that my current reality is not what I was “hoping” for. Hope forces me to look at reality. If I am really going to experience the joy of hope, I have to first experience the pain of my reality. Hope has two sides.

I like to think of God’s of hope to all mankind, like a guy who goes to the doctor because he is not feeling well. Maybe he has not been feeling well for days on end and just can’t seem to figure it out. So, off to the doctor he goes. After a battery of tests, the doctor comes in and says, “Well, I have good news, we figured out the problem. You have a slight blockage in a couple of artery in your heart. It is not a significant problem and we can take care of it by putting a couple of stints in, and opening up those arteries. But, your lifestyle needs to change or this problem could repeat itself and could be much worse if it happens again.”
“Wow”, the guy thinks, “that is really good. I am glad it is nothing major”. Now, is this a message of hope? To the guy who has not been feeling well is this truly good news? The answer is “yes” and “no”. It is good news in that it brings to light why he has not been feeling well. It is good news in that it gives him hope of feeling better in the future.  But, it is bad news in that it tells him that his life has to change or this will not solve the problem. In the message of hope, there is also a severe reality check.

Paul talks about hope as that which comes from, not just an embrace of our reality, but a willingness to hold on and never give up.  “…we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame (disappoint us), because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Rom. 5:3-5 TNIV)

Wow, this is difficult!  Are you sure that hope does not disappoint us?” The idea that “hope does not put us to shame” is a hard idea for me to grasp. Eugene Peterson in The Message says; “we’re never left feeling shortchanged.”

I don’t know about you, but I find life is full of times when I feel short-changed.  I find that my hopes rarely get completely fulfilled and I am left with the need to hang on even longer.  Hope has two sides!  It keeps me looking forward with anticipation and it causes me to see the reality of the world around me.

So, what keeps us going?  When even hope comes with the message, “things must change”; what keeps us holding on and moving forward?  I really only have one answer.  The same answer that gave hope in the hearts of people as John the Baptizer called to them from the river bank.  The same answer that Paul gave to the Church in Rome as they were being challenged to hang on in the midst of suffering; “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

The answer has always been and will always be, God’s presence.  Reality is bearable, the future has hope, because God is present in all of it.  Circumstances might be exactly the same, but God is present in our circumstances.  This (and sometimes only this) is the message of hope.

John the Baptizer came preaching that things needed to change.  He came proclaiming that change was not only necessary, it was possible.  He came with a proclamation of hope;  the world is hard, but God ( “His kingdom”) has come to the world.

Don’t lose hope!  Don’t ever give up!  Why?

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.”

On August 26th, the Mosaic Community gathered in the front yard of the Atkins’ for a one year celebration of the great things that God has done in and through our lives. We enjoyed great food, great music, fun times and a time to toast Jesus for all the things He is doing in our community. Here is a quick overview of the comments and reflection that Matt Atkins shared during this time.

Since then….

• Our children took flowers to neighbors during our bbq
• Many served at the YL BBQ Beef Barn
• We helped out on the Rebound WC Board meetings & single mom’s help
• We gave out Bless Bags for homeless
• Tree planting with Roosevelt CC
• Lighthouse Mission Thanksgiving Meal
• Rebound Women Christmas baskets
• Coffee cards & Christmas Cards for all BHS Staff & Faculty
• Christmas Dinner Delivery
• Hosted Molly Knight & Noah (YWAMer) for 6 weeks
• Raised money for Charity Water
• Hosted tables at the YL banquets
• Served at Benefit X – fund raiser for SHH (AIDS Hospice)
• Yard clean up at SHH
• Met with Jesse P. of Slum Doctor to help plan AIDs awareness event.
• Fircreek Workday
• Hall’s Extreme home makeover
• Ski to Sea – first time in 15 yrs of min. in Bellingham that I (Matt) have been at the finish line serving.
• WMS Landscaping
• RCC & Bethel CRC Be an Offering Day
• Helped Amy McMurtrey go to Africa
• Supported Ben & Tammy on the Seattle to Portland Bike Trip
• One of our interns (Jacky) is serving SHH one day a week by cooking
• Individuals/Families – neighborhood bbq’s, parties, park clean-ups, etc…
• R&Brews, Film & Friends, Get To Know Others Brunch/Dinners, Diakonos & Leadership Community Gatherings
• Giving has gone from a few hundred bucks to over $10k/month

Unfortunately, most of the western church lives as if the church is primarily an institution that exists for the benefit of its participants. They would never say that this is what is believed, but in the way that we live, it is clear that the mission statement and the things we say we “believe” don’t necessarily line up with our actions.

We are trying to live differently at Mosaic. We are trying to live as if the church is primarily people who join together to carry out the mission of God on the earth. Carla sent us a link to a site that is really helpful, www.friendofmissional.org. Here is a list of some of the things we are learning as we grow into a missional church.

* From programs to processes
* From demographics to discernment
* From models to missions
* From attractional to incarnational
* From uniformity to diversity
* From professional to passionate
* From seating to sending
* From decisions to disciples
* From additional to exponential
* From monuments to movements
Our next year will be filled with learning to live lives that are intentionally oriented around the life and teaching of Jesus, our Savior and Lord! We believe that as Jesus-followers, this is our primary purpose in life. Everything else needs to be adjusted so that our “rhythm” (way of life) has room in it for obedience to Jesus’ instruction, both written and spoken through His Spirit.

We believe this is best lived out as a community. An individual who serves others (”let’s their light shine before men…”) is a powerful testimony of the life-changing power of Jesus. A community that serves together is like a city on a hill, that shines (through good work/actions) for all to see. These communities not only testify to the glory of God, they also change the perception, and therefore influence, of the “church” (ekklesia) in our community. Changing the perception and the influence of the church in our city and county, is why we believe God has called us together. We firmly believe that the “church” is primarily people who gather together to carry out the mission of God in the world and in doing so, who BLESS the city that we live in and bring glory to our Father in heaven (Matt. 5:1-16).

Jesus says in Matt. 6:14-15, that if we do not forgive those who sin against us, neither will we experience forgiveness from our Father in heaven. This is not a suggestion that will make life happier, it is a command. Jesus does not even qualify the statement. He doesn’t say, “when you are ready, think about forgiving those people who sin against you.” He just says it straight out! “Forgive and you will be forgiven. Don’t forgive and you won’t experience forgiveness.” Period!

It has been said, “Holding onto un-forgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting someone else to die.” Think about that for a minute. The only person that is going to suffer if you hang on to un-forgiveness, is you.
I had a conversation recently with a person who had been abused in terrible ways as a child. She was happy, excited about life and able to talk about her past even though it was incredibly painful. She even said that she wasn’t glad that it happened, but she knew God had done wonderful healing in her life and even used this pain for good.

How could she do that? How could she look back at something so painful and yet believe that God was working in her life and using it for good? There is only one answer. Forgiveness. This young woman had come to know the same truth that marked the life of a famous Bible character named Joseph.

Joseph (Gen. 37-50) was a young man who experienced great things from God and terrible things from the hands of those he was supposed to be able to trust. After being abused, beaten and left for dead by his own brothers, he was was sold into slavery and taken to Egypt. He was put to work as a slave and eventually achieved a level of leadership in the house of a prominent political figure. Some time later he was falsely accused and thrown into prison. He spent the next few years having his hopes dashed and his dreams crushed.

But God had not forgotten Joseph and he was delivered and rose to a high level of political office. In the midst of all the pain and difficulty, Joseph came to understand something that is absolutely profound.

In Gen. 50:19-20, Joseph speaks to his brothers, the very ones who beat him almost to death and then sold him as a slave. Joseph says to his now very afraid brothers, “…am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Wow! How could he do that? It is obvious he is not justifying their behavior because he calls their actions evil and even says that this was their intent. If you read the previous chapters you will find that he doesn’t make this statement because his trust in his brothers was restored, he tests them. No, something else has gone on in Joseph that goes way beyond this. Joseph, somehow, understood what forgiveness was and what it was not.

Here are some thoughts about forgiveness that might be of help:

What forgiveness is not:

• Forgiveness is not forgetting – Gen. 45:4
• Forgiveness is not denial – Gen. 45:24
• Forgiveness is not trust – Gen. 42-45
• Forgiveness is not the absence of anger – Gen. 42-45.
• Forgiveness is not excusing – Gen. 50:20
  

What forgiveness is:

• Forgiveness is entrusting the outcome to God, the righteous Judge. The word “forgive”, literally means to “bear up” or “to carry”. It means that we let go of the grudge that we are carrying and entrust the outcome of our lives and the lives of all those who have hurt us to God. It is not some magic phrase. It is a lifestyle. It is a lifestyle of acknowledging that we are not God. God is God, and I am not Him! The sooner we learn this the better. When we forgive someone, we make a decision to let God be God. We stop trying to determine the outcome of their lives and we leave the outcome of our lives in God’s hands.
• Forgiveness can happen even when we don’t understand all the “why questions”. Some people say that they will forgive when they understand why the pain happened. Really? Will that really help? Think about it for a minute. What if you never understand why? What if you do and you don’t like the answer? Then what? True forgiveness happens whether or not we understand. It is given because we trust God, not the people who hurt us.
• Forgiveness is surrounded by confusion. In other words, it may not make sense. We don’t forgive because it makes sense in light of the circumstances. We don’t forgive because someone has finally asked us for forgiveness. We forgive because we are told to and because it is consistent with what it means to trust God with our whole life, even our pain.
• Forgiveness happens progressively but always begins with a choice. Forgiveness is often like peeling an onion. With each layer, there is more onion.
• Forgiveness has to be given freely. No one can make you forgive them. Not even God will force you to forgive. Forgiveness is something that we do in response to God, not because he puts us in a situation where we have no choice. We choose to give it to God because we have received the same thing from Him. He has forgiven us and called us to put our lives in His hands; past, present and future. The act of freely forgiving is one of the greatest acts of trust that we can do. We turn over our hurt and pain and let God carry it for us.

Whatever has gone on in your life. No matter how painful or hurtful or destructive. Know this, what people intended for evil, what the enemy of your soul intended for evil, God intends for good! Turn it over to Him. Let God be in charge of the outcome of your life and the lives of those who have sinned against you. FORGIVE!

Here is a letter from the family that Amy is working with. As part of the stuff that we sent with Amy to Mozambique, the Thompson family got their kids involved and one of them wanted to send a butterfly costume. Here is what happened…

Dear Misha,

It has been hectic busy here. We are enjoying it so much though. Wanted to write this e-mail about 4 weeks ago already, but had no time to sit down and actually do it!!!!

Thank you for all the beautiful stuff you send with Amy. Please can you tell everyone in church thank you. All the cosmetics for the babies is a huge blessing.

We dressed Aninha. At first she was a little bit unsure, but it took only a few minutes, before she laughed. Especially when she saw herself in the mirror. (Pictures) She keeps the outfit in her bed and when she wakes up in the morning she starts to put on her wings. She has they sweetest little giggle.

I also attached a photo of Pascal and Pietro (our two oldest boys) with Aninha. Then also a picture of our family with Ashley and her fiancée Daniel. They were here for a couple of weeks and left on Thursday – back to Texas.

Amy is doing really well. Enjoying every minute. She is off today with Luis (who is on staff) and two visitors, to do a house visit with Idrussi. His family is somewhere in a refugee camp that started after the floods of 2000. So they are traveling quite far today to go and see if they can find his family. Social Welfare in Mozambique require of us to twice a year visit family – if there is any and if we can find them. I think they are in for a real culture experience.

Thanks again for everything. Will write again soon. Enjoy the pictures!!!

Much love
Rika

Some of you may not be aware, but Sunday was the Global Day of Prayer, which culminated in our area with a rally-type-thing at one of the area churches. We were invited….

How do I say this without it sounding like I am down on the culminating rally, the Global Day of Prayer or the whole “Operation Rolling Thunder 24/7 prayer movement”, I am not. I think that prayer (and giving by the way) is one of the few ways that actually demonstrates that we believe God is alive and is the One on whom we depend. We cannot do the work of God’s kingdom without God’s help, period!

But…. And…. uh…. yeah, I don’t know how to say this next part, so here goes…

Sunday was also the biggest event of the year in Bellingham, and while many were attending church services and gathering together for prayer and worship as part of the Global Day of Prayer, our community was in Fairhaven throwing a party. Many of the people who “should” have been in church were there too. Some were racing. Some were supporting racers. Some were spectating and some were serving. What do you think? Could it be that serving in this way is a type of prayer that touches the heart of God as well as the hearts of people?

“The most eloquent prayer is the prayer through hands
that heal and bless.
The highest form of worship is the worship of
unselfish Christian service.
The greatest form of praise is the sound of
consecrated feet seeking out the lost and helpless.”

Billy Graham

This is what I am talking about. Prayer is not just the act of lifting our voices and hearts to God with praise, petition, silence, etc… It is also the lifting of our hands in service and blessing to others. James says, “This is pure and undefiled religion, to care for widows and orphans in their distress and to keep oneself unstained (unpolluted) by the world.” (Jms. 1:27)

“Religion” in the book of James is not a negative thing like so many think of it today. We might understand his point better if we used the word, “spirituality”. James is saying that the life of a “Christ follower”, that does not manifest itself in the way of service to others, is really not the kind of life that God desires for his children.

The Message says it this way: “Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.”

Now, I know that we were not directly helping the poor, the widows, the homeless or the loveless at Ski To Sea. But, we were out with many who feel unloved and uncared for by those of us who call ourselves Christ-followers. We were living in their midst and being present (incarnate) with them. We were serving with nothing to gain from it. We were being a part of our community and enjoying the beauty of Bellingham and its people. In short, we were interceding for Bellingham by being present, rather than absent. We let our light so shine before Bellingham, that hopefully, they saw our good work (service) and will one day glorify our Father in heaven.