- andy
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History
Tonight I want to share with you my heart for our group and where I believe God is starting to take us. This past year, the majority of our weeks were focused around evangelism – what does God desire, how do we share him with others, etc. It was exciting to see what God was doing. Jeremy had challenged our group to consider outreach and in doing so, encouraged us to evangelize those around us.
Now, looking ahead, the question has been, what’s next? Where is God taking us? And during the year I began to wonder, Who is Mosaic? What’s our identity? What passion has God put on my heart?
It began for me at men’s retreat where I spent time asking God those questions. I believe God met me there and gave me some answers to those questions. (I’ll get to those later)
Next, Ruth and I started conducting an internal survey. What did people like about Mosaic, what could be improved, changed, etc? It was during this time, that we were advised to set a structure for Mosaic before setting a teaching/topic schedule. So, during the next month or so, we started discussing options. This led us to a model for Mosaic that we want to discuss with you and how we see it working next year.
Model
We plan to form “small groups” where each group is led by a person/couple on the leadership team. These groups will form at beginning of the year, and then stay together throughout the year. Of course, we hope to include some flexibility, but the intent is to develop community friendships at a deeper level within Mosaic. I believe this addresses the #1 concern of people we spoke with. Our group desires to know each other more and we believe by using 1-2 weeks/month in fixed groups we can foster an environment where we can be authentic, pray for each other, and outreach where God is calling.
Leadership Team
I want to next introduce our new leadership team. We’ll do more formal interviews etc as we continue in the fall, but want you all to be aware of who God has added to our team!
Samuel and Jennie Pino
Andy and Rachael Stutzman
Ryan and Sarah Sinks
Drew and
Don and Connie Wildfang
Values
Now, I’d like to spend some time and review the list of values that we chose this year and talk about I see us supporting these in the following year.
Authenticity
I believe this is one of Mosaic’s best traits. We plan to continue fostering this in interviews. I believe we will be working to change our interviews slightly now that many have shared their personal testimony. This doesn’t mean we abandon personal testimony, but alter it for people who’ve shared in the last year or so they can share what God is doing today in their lives.
Prayer
This is the area that I believe will affect our community the most. When we pray for each other and honestly present ourselves to God, he can and will do amazing things. Remember when Adam sinned in the garden. Do you remember what God asked? He wanted to know where Adam was. We know that he knows all things, so that wasn’t really the reason. He wanted Adam to come to him. He wants relationship with us and it is in prayer that we establish that relationship. It is my desire that we desire that fellowship in prayer individually and collectively. I plan to pursue this in our small groups and in Mosaic next year.
Outreach
This last year, we pursued areas where we could collectively serve - Angels Dinner, etc. You remember when I mentioned men’s retreat? It was here that I began asking the question “What has God gifted Mosaic uniquely and how might we use that in outreach?” I believe one of the overwhelming traits of Mosaic is the number of kids that are represented by the parents in our group. I know not everyone is married, and not everyone has kids, but as a group, we have a lot of kids and great parents and everyone has had experience with family. So… what does this mean?
1) There are a lot of families in this group are that are very busy raising their kids to love God. This makes it difficult to plan outreach events, etc.
BUT, because God has gifted our group with great parents, we have an opportunity to be a model for others. This summer, I have been more struck than ever about how messed up families are in our world. It doesn’t matter if you’re single, married, etc. Families are being torn apart and in the midst of this we have a group uniquely gifted in this area. I don’t have specifics, but wouldn’t it be awesome to offer a parenting class to other young families from our neighborhoods, work, etc where we get to counsel/work alongside them? Imagine what it would be like to offer hope to kids, parents, etc.
Currently, we do not have specific corporate outreach plans. We will offer teaching on marriages and parenting from time to time and we will be praying that God stirs in our hearts the places where he wants to use us – whether individually or collectively.
Community
I believe our community is formed by these other values. As we come alongside and encourage, pray, and challenge each other God transforms us into a community. He is the one who brings the spirit of unity and blesses our efforts.
So, I’m excited as we plan and pray about next year. I believe God has a lot in store and I can’t wait to get started!
