Mosaic masterpiece

The final ministry our staff was able to experience while out in the Los Angeles area was called Mosaic. The lead pastor is named Erwin McManus. They meet in three different locations…one in Pasadena, one in the Beverly Hills High School and one in downtown L.A. The service we attended was the one in downtown Los Angeles held at the Mayan, which is one of the most popular nightclubs in the city. In fact, I was told that the large disco ball inside was the second largest in the entire world. Even though the Mosaic staff began early that morning to clean, air out and set up this nightclub for their service, by the end of the service your eyes were still burning from all the cigarette smoke left from the previous evening. I’ve never experienced church in such an unusual setting.

This service targeted primarily college age individuals. The service began with some very upbeat and loud music which resulted in some very wonderful and energetic worship. Throughout the entire service, 4 young people painted on canvasses off to the side that all seemed to be individualistic with no rhyme or reason. By the end of the service, however, they switched the order of the canvasses around and slid them together which resulted in the spelling out of the word “God” in a very unique style of writing.

Prior to the message, a young man came out and recited a dramatic poetry piece which set up the theme of the evening. Erwin McManus and another of his teaching pastors started the message time by interviewing two men…one was a wrestling official at two different Olympics and the other was one of America’s best swimmers who won many gold and silver medals in the 1976 games. After these interviews, Erwin and his teaching partner discussed together the importance of being part of a team and doing everything that we do in life and ministry with excellence.

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 Mosaic comes both from the diversity of their members and from the symbolism of a broken and fragmented humanity which can become a work of beauty under the artful hands of God. If there were ever any doubt to the Biblical integrity of this ministry, their core convictions makes it clear:

• The Bible is God’s authoritative word to us.
• Jesus is the only hope for a lost and broken world.
• The local church is God’s agent for redemptive change.
• Every Christian is called and gifted by God to serve the Body and seek the lost.
• The church is called to whole earth evangelism.

There was another ministry we had hoped to experience in the L.A. area called Rock Harbor. However, on the weekend we were there, Rock Harbor did not meet. Instead, their entire church family went out into their community doing service projects. Imagine how many lost people we would make contacts with in our community here in Lititz if in place of services one weekend, we went out into our community? Now there’s a thought!