You ever step into a moment that was so much greater, so much bigger than you ,and thought to yourself, What on earth am I doing here? Over the past year, I’ve found myself thinking that often. Continue Reading…
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“Dear friends, let us love one another, Continue Reading…
Our First Baptism Service
A couple days ago we had the great opportunity of having our first ever baptism service at Mosaic! On Sunday morning, seven men and women stepped up to publicly proclaim their faith in Jesus Christ. It was awesome. Nevermind that one of our amps caught on fire last week, or that we inadvertantly flooded the back of the Bourbon Theater on Friday when we broke a water pipe retrieving Rivertree's baptismal from the rafters. (Ah, the joys of church planting.)
On Sunday, none of that mattered. Having the opportunity to baptize each person and then to hear our community cheer wildly as they emerged from the water a new creation in Christ, was one of the neatest things I have ever had the privilege of being a part of.
And when the baptisms were over and we entered into a time of worship together, the community of Mosaic worshiped like I have never seen or heard them worship before. Eyes closed, hands in the air, voices shouting praises to God, it…was…incredible. It impressed upon me once more the unequaled power of story. There is perhaps no greater testimony of God's presence and power and grace than a life changed by the gospel. In the end, what else can do we do but praise God?
Above, Erik and I hug after he comes up out of the water. You can hear his story below.
We’ve Launched!
It’s official, Mosaic has launched! Sunday marked the long awaited launch of Mosaic with our first weekly worship gathering. We knew that people were excited about what God was preparing to do in and through this new community, but we were unprepared for the 250+ people who would join us on Sunday! It was an incredible morning in which many months of prayer and preparation all came together.
The best part of the morning wasn’t number of people there, or the fact that people were so excited to be there that we could hardly get them to sit down, or that people were still hanging out over an hour after the worship gathering was over, or how incredible the Mosaic launch team was all morning, or even the beautiful sound of a new church worshiping Jesus together for the first time. Personally, the best part for me (Aaron) was all of stories we heard of God moving in the lives of people.
Sunday morning we saw several people commit their lives to Christ for the first time! We are so excited to see these people impacted for eternity and to see them begin to step into what God has for them! We saw several others recommit their lives to Christ, marking what we pray will be the beginning of a season of renewed passion and purpose in their journey with Christ. We also saw a number of people who have never been connected to a church before tell us they have accepted the invitation to join a conversation about what it means to follow Christ and who now consider Mosaic their new home. That is what it is all about!
Thank you to those who were a part of the big day and to those who have been praying for us and this new work. Sunday marked the start of something beautiful in the city of Lincoln!
(Originally posted at http://www.mosaiclincoln.org/weve-launched/)
Some Creative Inspiration
Alright, so it’s the end of the quarter and I’m up late with seeds and a Red Bull writing a final paper and I need a break, so…confession time. The older I get (and I’m not very old mind you), the less I find myself wanting to read the latest and greatest Christian book to come out and the more I find myself gleaning from the progressives and innovators from other spheres of influence.
I mean, I still learn from the “top dogs” of mainstream Christianity and others out on the fringes, but it’ is hard to find Christian leaders who are doing anything new. I find that to be more than a little frustrating. I mean, the church should be the most creative place on the planet! We should be pioneering on all types of fronts. But too often it seems we just “copy and paste” from others. And there is a lot of recycled junk floating around out there, don’t you think?
Well, in that spirit, here are some fun things to get your creative juices flowing! Much love!
45 Advertisements You Will Never Forget
What moves you?
This past week the proteges and I had to create a piece of art in response to the questions "What moves you?" and "What do you desire?" It was fun. Some did spoken word pieces, some created videos, some wrote songs and some of us created photography pieces. The poster below was my piece. All of the photos are of Lincoln, NE and can be found here.
Admittedly, the real work of my piece had little to do with my fine motor skills. (I used a really cool free program called Shape Collage and printed through my new favorite online printing company: Poster Brain.) No, the real work came as I paged through over 8,000 photos of the city of Lincoln. As I perused the work of so many talented photographers, I found myself captivated by the city to which Megan and I have been called. And as I paged through picture after picture for hours on end, I began to pray for the city.
I prayed for the people of Lincoln who today find themselves without hope. I prayed for those trapped by poverty. I prayed for those drowning in religion. I prayed for those who have succumbed to the apathy of a life without dreams. I prayed for those who will join us in creating a new movement in the city of Lincoln. And I prayed for those who will shape the spiritual landscape of Lincoln's future, many of which do not yet know Christ.
Father, may your spirit blow like a mighty rushing wind throughout the city of Lincoln. Prepare us and the city of Lincoln for all you are preparing to do.
"In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below…And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." - Acts 2:17-21
Crave Lounge
This last week I was a part of an experience put on by various Mosaic artisans called the Crave Lounge. It was beautiful. We lounged, we shared, we reflected, we dreamt and we jumped off of trampolines (see below). I walked away from the experience and thought, you know, just about any church could pull off an experience like this, but few actually do. You see, I think the thing that really sets Mosaic apart from so many faith communities is not its location, its lead pastor, or its talent, but rather its willingness to continually risk in creating things that are new, beautiful and transformational.
I love my community.
Year of the Disney
So far, 2009 has been the year of Disney for the Loy household. In January, we used some Christmas money to purchase annual passes to Disneyland (go twice and they're paid for). We've gone a couple times so far. Last month we got to join my parents in Orlando for a few days at Disney World. And today we are heading back to Disneyland with Megan's parents. That is a lot of Disney! Here are a few of my favorite shots, but for friends and family who are interested, here is a link to the rest of our pics. Now, off to enjoy another day at Disney!
