Wednesday, November 08, 2006

The ministry of rescuing people is one of the most intense ministries. When a person is so bound up they cannot get out by themselves, it is necessary that some outside force joins them in saving their life. Just like a person who is drowning needs another person to help them, so does a person who is emotionally and spiritually drowning. They must want to be rescued, but someone needs to be there to help carry their load. But when someone truly comes out of the kingdom of darkness and lives an abundant life in the kingdom of light, there is an equally intense joy.

We feel blessed to be in the ministry to rescue, restore, and rebuild people and communities. God continues to enlarge our territory as we remain faithful to what He has already given us. We have prayed for a facility that would allow us to house our Freedom Ministries. Two weeks ago we were offered a perfect building at a perfect location, Praise God. We will spend the next six months getting the building ready to open.

Our Freedom ministries will consist of four major components: a place for people to experience emotional healing, a place for addiction recovery, a safe place for pastor's and wives who are experiencing marital crisis, and a training facility to help equip Christians to minister within their own church family.

We are very excited about the potential of the Freedom Center in the Five Points Community of east Knoxville.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

I have really been slack in my commitment to blog at least once a week. So many things are happening that I rarely take the time to stop and blog it. I am going to do better. The last month has been an exciting journey and somewhat dangerous. The exciting part is the continued blessing and growth that is occuring at Mosaic. We reached 60 in attendance this month which is a record for us. God continues to draw new people and I cannot remember a single Sunday when we didn't have a first time visitor. It is not just the people that has made Mosaic such a phenomenal place to be, but it is the Spirit of the living God. Our worship times are saturated with God's presence. The openness and willingness of the people to allow the Holy Spirit to lead our worship creates an atmosphere of great expectation. Our prayer times have been powerful and we are seeing God miraculous answer our prayers.

The highlight for me is our Wednesday night prayer gatherings. They are my favorite times of the month. The cry of the people as they intercede for others, even other people they do not know is incredible. I feel blessed to be a part of it. If there is anything I have learned over these first eight months it is how desperately we need God to show up. The things and issues we are praying about can only be answered by God. There is no human that is wise enough, strong enough, or powerful enough to meet the needs of those who are crying out to God, or those we are interceding for. Spiritual warfare has become a daily part of our ministry.

The enemy is not impressed with growing churches, big budgets, or wonderful preaching as long as it is done in human strength with human methods. But if we begin to do things in the power of Almighty God, we are going to get his attention. If we begin to go into the kingdom of darkness, especially some of the darkest places, and begin to rescue captives by the power of the Holy Spirit, then lead those captives into the kingdom of light, you will find yourself in a battle, a spiritual battle. As long as we don't do anything that threatens the enemy we will not experience intense battles. But if we engage the enemies' children in a strategic attempt to make them God's children, the battle is on. The only answer is prayer and the Word of God. So we are completely desperate and reliant on God. He is our only hope. Of course, that is the way He wants us to be.

We thank you and praise you Lord Jesus, Master, that you are our only hope. Thank you for rescuing us in our time of need.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

What a great month! We hosted our second mission team in partnership with Friendship Baptist Church. A group of 18 came from South Carolina and did some great ministry. We went door to door promoting our outdoor movie night. We were able to see many people as we scattered out into the community. We had 75 people come to the movie as we all sat in our lawn chairs or blankets under the stars. It was a great night. We plan on having one more movie night before it gets too cold.

The next day we woke up and boarded up a crack house that is next door to our offices. The house is owned by an elderly woman and she asked Mosaic if we could help her. We cleaned up the entire property by removing trees and shrubs, cleaned up a fence line, and mowed a very neglected yard. The area is now safer because of the hard work of so many people.

August 6th we baptized new believers for the first time. Three people made a commitment to follow Jesus Christ and were baptized at Grace Baptist Church, our partner church. It was a very exciting night.

Our car care ministry continues to be a blessing to the community. We have so many people who have automotive needs and it is such a blessing to serve them. We will have one more car care on October 28th before we break for the winter.

Another ministry that is growing and bearing fruit is our partnership with Vine Middle School. We are developing a three way partnership that includes an urban school, an urban church, and a suburban church. We believe this partnership could have a tremendous impact on the community.

In August we tied our highest attendance twice with 53 people and we had two people express a desire to join Mosaic, not counting the three that were baptized. We have finalized our membership process and I believe it will be a very important piece to the Mosaic process of leading people to a transformed life in Jesus Christ.

I want to thank one of our ministry partners, Teen Challenge, who has provided us with free office space. It is such a blessing to be in the community we are serving every day. God has been faithful. He has supplied every need in His timing. I believe it is because the Mosaic family is committed to prayer. Our prayer gatherings have been so inspirational and deeply spiritual. God has heard our prayers and answered them. We are praying about where to continue meeting for our prayer times. We would love to stay at Vine Middle School but we may need to move to a new location. No matter where we move to, we must continue to pray. It has been the heart of Mosaic Church.

Friday, July 28, 2006

July was a pivotal month for Mosaic Church. Our leadership team has been wrestling with our membership process, and we feel good about where God has led us. We had our first luncheon and invited everyone who was interested, or simply curious about what it means to be a member at Mosaic. At the conclusion of our time together, over 20 people expressed interest in moving forward in the membership process. Praise God!

Our most exciting news is the number of people who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. We will be baptizing three people on August 6th at Grace Baptist Church. Once again we will be leading their Sunday night service at 6:00 and we will have the privilege of baptizing Emily, Adrain, and Karis.

The first weekend of August we will be hosting our second mission team this summer. This team is partnering with Mosaic and Friendship Baptist Church, one of our partner churches in Knoxville. They will help us with our first outdoor movie event in downtown east Knoxville. We want to provide a family safe activity as we introduce the community to Mosaic Church. We will also be doing door to door ministries and hopefully some renovations on a few homes.

Lastly, I want to thank God and Teen Challenge for giving us office space at no cost. We are now in the inner city every day with opportunities to serve and minister in a much more effective way. God has proved His faithfulness to us once again.

Friday, June 30, 2006

Many times we have a preconceived idea of how things are going to be and God shows you very quickly that He has another plan. Our ladies from Barbados have returned home. After four weeks of staying in Knoxville we realize that God had different plans for these two ladies than we anticipated. One of the ladies became ill and we had to take her to the hospital on three separate occasions. The doctors were unable to find anything significantly wrong. After the third trip to the hospital I became suspicious that her problems may not be physical but spiritual. Over the next week Kristi and I were able to have some in depth conversations, and I ended up taking her through a shortened version of the steps to freedom. I believe wwe experienced some significant spiritual breakthroughs. Both of them were able to sing with the Grace Baptist Church choir's latest cd recording. They also served at Knox Area Rescue Ministries and Teen Challenge as well as Mosaic Church.

Four great blessings were given to Mosaic this month. While we have seen people come to Christ for salvation out in the community, the first person to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior at Mosaic happened this month. It was a young man named Adrain and we are excited about discipling him and preparing him for baptism. He is a very special young man to me and he is becoming a real part of our family.

The second great gift came from the Tennessee Baptist Convention. After spending a day with us in Knoxville, they asked us what they could do for us. I mentioned that we would love to go to the Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York to observe their ministry. Within in a couple of days they had worked up a budget for us and gave us the gift to attend the Pastors and Leaders Conference at the Brooklyn Tabernacle. So Claude and I, along with our wives, traveled to New York and attended the conference in Brooklyn. It was an inspiration and encouragement to all of us. What a blessing from God and we praise Him for His abundant provisions. We also want to thank the TBC for their generous support.

The third great blessing was also from the TBC this month. They extended our monthly financial support through October 2006. We receive $2,000 a month from the state convention inTennessee.

The fourth great blessing was the awesome presence of God at our first prayer gathering. We had 11 people show up and it was truly a time to cry out to God for the souls in our community and church. It was a great way to end a great month of God's infinite blessings. Our next prayer gathering will be on July 12th at Vine Middle School at 7:00pm. If you can attend you will not want to miss what God does.

I want to thank Almighty God for who He is and calling us to serve Him in the city of Knoxville. We praise Him for using us to show His love to so many who struggle to believe God really loves them. We thank you Father for your Son who gives us abundant life and sets us free. We also thank you for your Spirit who empowers us to speak boldly the truth that delivers us from darkness into the light. Jesus alone is the answer.

Sunday, June 11, 2006

We have been given a wonderful gift for the month of June. Two ladies from Barbardos heard about our church and have been following us on our web site and blog. They have taken four weeks of vacation to come to Knoxville on a mission trip to serve with Mosaic. Sophia and Starlene arrived on June 6th and have been serving in the inner city of Knoxville with us. Starlene is a singer and Sophia is a dancer. They will be leading us in worship each Sunday in June and will also be leading in other places.

There have been a multitude of opportunities and many potential partners for Mosaic. We are diligently seeking God for wisdom. We are also beginning a mid week prayer gathering in June. We will be meeting the second and fourth Wednesdays of the three summer months. We will begin on the 28th of June at Vine Middle School at 7:00pm. We know the only hope for people is the freedom and liberty that Jesus Christ can provide. The war is waging and our two offensive weapons are the word of God and prayer. We must engage the power of God to see the miracles of God. We are excited about praying for the community and interceding for others.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Life at Mosaic can be an emotional and spiritual roller coaster. One day it looks like people are being transformed by the love and power of Jesus Christ, and another day it feels like no one is interested in changing or experiencing freedom of any kind. It is in these times that so many get discouraged and wonder why they are even serving. Thoughts of giving up can cross the mind of the most dedicated servant of Christ.

It is at this time that God's word rushing across our heart and mind like a cool drink of water on a hot summer day. "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9. I wonder how many people have missed the harvest because they gave up in the heat and warfare of summer and never experienced the harvest that could have been theirs?

God uses these difficult times to draw us into Him. He wants us to find satisfaction in Jesus Christ alone, and He wants us to redefine our definition of success. For the child of God success must be measure by how connected we are to the vine, not by how much fruit we are producing. As a matter of truth, God produces the fruit not us. Our only responsiblity is to remain in Him, stay connected to the vine. Apart from Him we can do nothing.

With that in mind, it's not our responsibility how people react or respond to the freedom that Jesus Christ alone offers. What matters for the believer is discovering and understanding the connection or lack of connection to the True Vine, Jesus Christ. Harvest is coming and we will see it, but we cannot give up. We must persevere through the summer so we can experience the frutifulness of the harvest.

So many wonderful things are happening at Mosaic and through Mosaic. Our ladies are growing in their relationships with the ladies from Serenity Shelter. A safe place for women who are experiencing some level of crisis in their lives. Mosaic ladies provide a wonderul night of food, activities and relationship building on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of every month. Seeing those ladies come to church on Sunday is truly fulfilling.

Housing is something we continue to discuss and explore but God has not released us to do anything yet. He continues to close some doors and open others. The need is tremendous.

One new ministry that God has begun is in the area of precovery. As we work with many adults we can see the burden of many years of addiction and bad choices. Recovery is and will always be a big part of what we do at Mosaic. Recovery is long, hard and requires many resources. We have been discussing how we might be involved in the lives of children and teens before they enter a life of bondage and chains. Precovery is a word we are using to engage children and teenagers to equipped them with hope and a future. We are connecting them to educational opportunities and mentoring. I look forward to the doors God will open in the area of precovery.

We are going to begin a week night prayer gathering starting in June. It is important that we understand the spiritual realities we deal with each day. We are not wrestling with flesh and blood, but spiritual rulers in dark places. It is vital that we deepen our prayer life, both privately and corportately.

We sense that something great is about to happen, some break through, opportunity, or miracle. We wait patiently with great expectations. Keep praying that we will not grow weary in doing good, but remain connected to the True Vine, Jesus Christ.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

It has been three weeks since we have blogged an update on what God is doing at Mosaic. We have been overwhelmed by God's grace and favor. Each month we have been blessed with new members who come to Mosaic seeking a deeper relationship with God. Everyone who comes to Mosaic seems to be on a very intentional journey with God. Every time someone comes, I can't wait to hear their story.

Our first Car Care was a wonderful day of ministry and building relationships. We serviced almost 20 cars and met many new friends. The mostly single women who participated in this ministry were very appreciative and as we noticed with their cars, the ministry was certainly needed. We also had one woman who visited Mosaic on Sunday. We believe this ministry is going to be very effective for the community.


Housing is a very serious topic for us right now. We have met with city and county officials, realtors, contractors, and will meet Friday with the Knoxville Housing Partnership. We are ready to launch out and purchase our first house. We have volunteers in the wing to help renovate the houses and we certainly have potential renters. We have selected two houses that meet our criteria and now we simply have to work out the financing.

We are currently walking with a few people to help them in their journey. Jobs, housing, and staying clean and sober are daily issues on the streets of Knoxville. Mosaic church has become a safe place of refuge for many people who need to encounter God. We feel blessed to be a part of someone's journey with God. We simply tell people that God loves them so much, that He has sent us to tell them and show them, that God loves them. Some are responding to the Father's love. We are experiencing miracles right before our eyes. Praise God!

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

We have seen an explosion in the five ministries that we believe God has called us to focus on. There are two foundational bedrocks that Mosaic Community Church is built on: we are a multi-ethnic, cross cultural community; and we are an externally focused community of believers. God has blessed us in both areas. We currently have four different ethnic groups attending Mosaic. It is beautiful to see the diversity and beauty of God's children. God has also provided many opportunities for us to care about people.

We have developed a strategic plan in the ministry of Mosaic Housing. Through investors, the city and county of Knoxville, volunteers from our partner churches, and God's favor we are moving into new territories. We hope to purchase two houses and one multi-unit building this year and completely renovate them. We want them to be available for those individuals God has allowed us to minister with as we walk together. We are always looking for investors to purchase the houses and we are always looking for volunteers, both skilled and unskilled, who can give their time to hands on renovation. Please visit our web site if you are interested and email us.

Another ministry that is blooming by the grace of God is our women's crisis ministry. We have embraced a local women's crisis center where we have one of our own ladies staying right now. Through that relationship and the providence of God, we have established relationships with most of the women at the center. Our ladies provide a meal two Wednesday nights a month and they eat with the ladies at the center and share life together. Mosaic's ladies provide an activity after supper or they gather together for time of spiritual and emotional encouragement. We also take a van on Sunday mornings to pick up any ladies who want to join us for our 10:30am worship gathering. Of course part of our ministry for the ladies is to provide housing when they graduate from the program.

Our Automotive Ministry begins this month, April 22nd. We provide oil changes, minor repairs, and honest assessments for low income individuals and families. We also provide a hospitality area with food and drinks while the people wait on their cars. Our Automotive ministry is located off of Magnolia and N Mary St. from 9:00am-1:00pm.

Our mentoring ministry is just beginning. God has opened a door for us in the area of mentoring children who have at least one parent in prison. Three of our members have gone through the interview process and we are simply waiting on a child to be placed with us. What an exciting opportunity we have to influence and shape the lives of God's precious children. With Mosaic and our partner churches we have almost twenty potential mentors at this point.

Our fifth ministry is in the earliest stages of development. It is a food ministry called Angel Food. It is a program that allows people to buy $75 worth of groceries for $25. We hope to have this ministry in place by late Spring.

Mosaic's mission is to rescue, restore, reconcile and rebuild people and communities by the transforming life of Jesus Christ. Two of our precious individuals in the Mosaic family are currently in a rehab center. The ministry of rescuing never ends, but we know it is the heart of God. Jesus said I have come to preach good news to the poor, heal the brokenhearted, and set the captives free. We are so grateful that Jesus did that for us, and feel it is an honor and a privilege to walk with others on their journey to physical, emotional, and spiritual freedom.

Monday, March 13, 2006

Since we have shared the Mosaic vision at Grace Baptist Church two weeks ago, God has opened up so many doors. Our capacity for ministry has expanded and the opportunity to invest in the lives of people has multiplied.

We were able to move one of our new friends into his first house in Knoxville and we were all excited. Thank you to all the people who donated household items for him. The man is the bass player in our praise band and sings soloes on a regular basis. He also officially joined Mosaic in March.

We have seen ministry opportunities increase with women who are on the streets and desperately want a new start. God has allowed us to join Him in binding up the brokenhearted and setting the captives free.

The last two weeks we have been in meetings with city and county leaders to share with them Mosaic's vision. They have been extremely supportive and encouraged us to move forward. They are especially excited about our housing ministry. We are learning that having a home, a safe place to live, covers a multitude of issues. People really do make better life decisions when they have something for which they are responsible.

Please continue to pray for us as we launch out into many new ministries this spring. Car Care begins in April, Amachi mentors are being recruited, Tamar Ministries is beginning (caring for women in crisis), housing is getting ready to explode, and the church is gaining momentum.

We will begin providing CHILD CARE on Sunday, March 26th. Our worship begins at 10:30am and we hope more families will have the opportunity to worship with us as we minister to their preschoolers.

God bless and keep praying.

Todd

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

What a night at Grace Baptist Church! Sunday night, February 26th, God allowed us the opportunity to share our vision and story at Grace Baptist Church, our primary partner. We were able to dedicate our first baby born in the Mosaic family, little Emmitt. Claude did a wonderful job sharing his heart about his journey from Grace to New Orleans and now back to Knoxville. Stanley was awesome as he shared about the Amachi program. There were 20 people from Grace who signed up to be an Amachi mentor. Many others signed up for car care, housing, and women's crisis ministries.

Diahn and the praise band were totally anointed by God. When Diahn began singing her solo, there was a hush over the entire place. God was moving in the hearts of people and touching that deep place inside of them that awakens their heart. When Donald started playing that baby grand piano, tears began welling up in people's eyes. It was a blessed night, ordained by God.

We are thankful for the opportunity to lift up Jesus Christ; the rescuer, restorer, reconciler, and rebuilder of our souls. We simply wanted to communicate what we believe Jesus is doing in the inner city and offer them an invitation to join it. Many did and many will as the word continues to ripple through their church family. We were given a nice computer, which I have been praying about, and someone has a house they want us to use for ministry purposes. Praise God.

We will be meeting with the city director of community development and the county director in the next two weeks. Please pray that God would give us unbelievable favor in those meetings. It will be very important to the direction God moves us, especially in the area of housing.

We are finalizing our plans as we ask the question, what does it mean to be a member of Mosaic? We do not want our membership to look like what the traditional model has historically looked like. We are also beginning to develop our strategy for launching our car care ministry, housing ministry, women in crisis ministry and our Amachi Mentoring ministry.

It is so exciting to join God in what He is doing. Thank you Lord Jesus for allowing us the privilege to walk with you.

Todd

Friday, February 17, 2006

It has been an incredible week. God has gone before us in so many ways. I can see how relationships I have been in for years were really divine appointments. God has placed and is placing key people in the Mosaic circle of influence. While meeting at Mayor Ragsdale office with one of our partner churches, I bumped into Mayor Ragsdale. He sat down and talked with me for approximately 20 minutes. He was very interested in what we are doing in the city. Three days later I received a personal letter from the mayor letting Mosaic know he is available to help in anyway he can.

This encounter is truly God's timing because we are beginning to move out and implement our servant evangelism outreach ministries. We are praying and seeking God about five doors that seem to be opening for us right now. The first is a car care ministry. We are going to begin providing free oil changes, minor repairs, and honest assessments to low income families. We plan to begin in March. We are looking for a sponsor or business to provide the funding we need to reduce the cost to Mosaic. There will be many facets to car care Saturday that will provide a variety of ministry opportunities to the residents of the community. One of them will be a ministry called Angel Food. They provide a quality box of food at a low cost. We can take orders and provide the people with the box of food that they pay for.

Another important ministry that is crucial to life is housing. We have people who have come alongside us to make our dream of affordable housing a reality. We looked at eight houses this week and discovered that there are numerous houses or buildings for sale. Many of them need some repair and we have a contractor, partner churches and the city who are willing to be involved in providing affordable transitional and/or permanent housing for low income families.

We also want to get deeply involved with Knox Area Rescue Ministries and some of their friendship evangelism ministries.

Lastly, we hope God will allow us to become an Amachi church. Amachi is a mentoring program facilitated by the Knoxville Leadership Foundation. It places mentors with children who have at least one parent in prison.

One more big opportunity happens Sunday, February 26th at Grace Baptist Church. They are our primary partner church and they have asked us to share our entire vision with them in their evening service at 6:00pm. We are excited about the opportunity to share our message of hope to as many people as possible. Jesus really does bring hope. I hope if you are in the area you will come and be a part of this special service.

Jesus wants to transform your heart, heal every wound, and provide freedom and liberty that brings peace. God bless you. Todd

Monday, February 06, 2006

PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW. We had a wonderful day at our launch service. We had four different cultures represented, that we are aware of: Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White. We discussed what it means to be a multi-ethnic congregation. The leader of our denomination, Dr. Walter Taylor, came and blessed us as he prayed over us and encouraged us. We had 50 people in attendance and ten people expressed an interest in joining Mosaic Community church.

Now that we have established the church and have gained some stability in our Sunday morning worship services, we will begin to focus on our outreach to the community. One of the first outreach ministries God has called us to is an automotive ministry for low income families. We are praying about and planning for the new ministry to begin this Spring in March or April. We will also begin some women's ministries as we partner with existing ministries in the city.

I am encouraged about the days ahead. I want to thank all of you for your prayers and support. God bless. Todd

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

LAUNCH SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 5TH. We have been moving toward this day for over seven months. The day we will officially begin Mosaic Community Church. Even though we have planned and prayed for many months, our launch Sunday will go down in history as the inaugural worship service.

We are sending over 1000 post cards to residents around our community. We are planning to serve breakfast, give away gift bags, and begin a new sermon series. The sermon series is going to be a desription of our church. We will convey that message with an acrostic of our church name; MO-S-A-IC.

MO - Multi-ethnic and Open (Feb. 5th)
S - Safety (Feb. 12th)
A - Authentic (Feb. 19th)
IC - Incarnational Compassion (Feb. 26th)

We truly want to see people released from captivity so they can find liberty and freedom in Jesus Christ. If you need a safe place to worship, and you are looking for people who will care about where you are and where you have been, I encourage you to visit Mosaic.

This Sunday, January 29th we will have a special guest give her testimony. She is visiting Mosaic and she is a former crack cocaine attack. God has delivered her and she is praising Him and giving Him the glory. Praise God! He is still setting the captives free.

On a personal note, my family and I are moving into our new home this weekend. After almost eight months of being without our own home, we are finally moving to a new place. God has been so gracious and has always met our needs. My parents have allowed us to live with them for the last five months and they have been so generous and hospitable. I can only praise the Lord Jesus Christ and thank Him every moment of the day. He truly does rescue, restore, reconcile, and rebuild. He has taught Kristi and I so much and He is still not through teaching us. As a matter of fact, He is not through with any of us. He is always scanning the horizon to find people who want something more than they are experiencing in this world. He is looking for people who will bring glory to His Name. It is a precious Name, the Name that is above every Name, JESUS.

God bless. Todd

Friday, January 20, 2006

I believe Vine Middle School is going to be the perfect place for Mosaic Church to worship our Lord. This past Sunday was our first Sunday at Vine and it was very comfortable for us. It was a clean building and it had heat. That may not sound like a big deal but we have gone without heat a couple of Sundays. Vine will allow us to grow and expand our Sunday morning ministries. Thank you Lord.

Donald led our worship and he shared a tremendous burden that he was carrying on his heart. His mother's cancer has returned and she is once again receving chemotherapy. His heart was aching but it added to his authenticity as he led worship from his heart. Please pray for his mother. We had two families express an interest in joining Mosaic. We rejoice for their eagerness to be a part of God's family.

Now that we are somewhat stable in our Sunday morning worship, we are ready to launch our new church. SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 5th @ 10:30am we will officially begin Mosaic Community Church with what is called in the church planting world, a launch service. On Super Bowl Sunday we will begin what we believe is a supernatural work of God. A multi-ethnic, multi-cultural church that exists to rescue, restore, reconcile, and rebuild people and communities by the transforming life of Jesus Christ. Built on relationships and an outward community focus, we hope the name of Jesus Christ will be honored and glorified and His power will be practically evident by all who experience His touch.

We are also in the beginning stages of instituting our elder leadership. We hope to have an elder commissioning service at the end of February or early March. We are also at the beginning stages of developing home groups to build relationships and continue our journey as we grow and mature into passionate followers of Christ.

Many excited things in the days ahead. Praise the name of Jesus Christ who is our Great Redeemer. He alone is worthy to be praised. Everyone is invited to our launch service on February 5th and we hope you will bring someone with you. God bless you.

Todd

Thursday, January 12, 2006

We have experienced what many new church starts experience, a multitude of different buildings to worship in. It is a wonderful reminder that the building is not the church. Our church, the Mosaic congregation, has worshipped in at least seven different buildings. I am excited to announe that our eighth should be where we are going to land for awhile. The Knox Co School system has granted us approval to meet at Vine Middle School beginning this Sunday, January 15th. Our worship will begin at 10:30am

We will meet in the auditorium that comfortably seats 500 in nice theatre style chairs. The school is a performing arts school so the stage is equipped with the necessary equipment and outlets for all of our multi-media needs.

The consistency of having a permanent location will allow us to effectively plan our launch Sunday. We are looking to launch on February 5th, Super Bowl Sunday. I will write more about that later.

Vine Middle School is located on Martin Luther King Jr. Ave, between two public housing projects, Walter P. Taylor and Austin Homes. The location allows us to remain in the community we feel led by God to display His love, grace and mercy. I can only say thank you Almighty Father for allowing us and trusting us to serve your children with compassion and love. We are grateful and very humbled to be used in this capacity.

We would like to invite you to come and worship with us. Everyone is welcome.

Todd

Monday, January 09, 2006

On the road again. That has been the theme of our weekly worship services. Sunday we met at Angelic Ministries on Central Ave. It was a wonderful time of worship and celebrating God's faithfulness. The worship team did a fantastic job ushering us into the presence of the Father. We had at least six first time guests and over thirty people were in attendance.

We believe God is finally bringing us to the place where we will worship, at least for a little while. Vine Middle School has opened up there auditorium to us and we are very grateful. We hope the paper work that needs to be completed by the Knox Co school board will be completed this week, and we will have good news in the next day or two. Vine Middle is in a great location on Martin Luther King and places us between two public housing projects, Walter P. Taylor and Austin Homes. It also keeps us around the Five Points Community where we feel led to minister.

Once we meet and work out the bugs in the auditorium, and get our routine down, we will announce our launch date. It will be the culmination of seven months of prayer, planning and much sacrifice. Our small, but growing congregation is very excited about the days ahead. We believe God is doing something extraordinary and bringing many pieces of a puzzle together. I believe, in the next couple of years, we are going to see a visitation by God on the inner city of Knoxville, that will be undeniably God.

In my sermon yesterday I talked about the few references in the Bible that called certain men "friends of God." It was said of Moses in Exodus 33:11. It was said of Abraham in James 2:23 and Isaiah 41:8. It was said by Jesus when he called his disciples friends in John 15:15. I believe it could also be said of the Apostle Paul who said he would much rather leave this earth so he could be with Jesus.

I believe being a friend of God is a deep level of spiritual intimacy with God. It goes beyond being a child of God or a servant of God. It seems to go to a deeper place of relationship than most believers want to go. How we get there goes beyond simply laying out formulaic principles that has the potential to kick us into some kind of performance trap. I looked at some characteristics that were common to each man to see if we can understand something of what it means to be a friend of God.

I know there are probably many similarities between these men who were called God's friends, but I want to focus on three and specifically one. First, they all had a passion and desire to know God. It is obvious we must be a God chaser if we are going to know God deeply and intimately. Second, they all had traumatic, dramatic experiences in their lives. Most of those experiences involved suffering and plenty of it.

The last similarity I noticed was each one experienced a change of location. Moses was born a Hebrew, lived in Pharoah's palace, killed an Egyptian, lived in the desert, then back to Egypt, but this time as a Hebrew. Abraham moved from Ur to Canaan. The disciples left everything they had to follow Jesus and Paul left the intellectual life of a Jewish Pharisee to minister to the Gentiles. I believe there is something significant about a change of location and a change of culture. Paul said, "I have become all things to all men so that I might wen some..."

Paul notes the primary responsibility for change lies in the one moving into the new culture. He did not try to change their culture, he changed so that he could gain credibility so they might listen to the message of Jesus Christ. He certainly did not engage or condone sinful or inappropriate behavior to be like them. But he did focus on adapting, or changing to the culture he was in at the time.

I believe it is something very God-like to leave your comfortable culture and go to a new culture, a new place. It expands our view and perspective of life. It widens our narrow scope of what we experience as our reality. And we begin to care and become friends with people who can give us a more complete picture and understanding of who God is. Something is missing when we hang out only in our Ur. Beth Moore says UR stands for Usual Routine. As a matter of fact leaving one culture for another is what God did when He left His divine culture to come slumming with the human culture. Perhaps that is why people are so touched and changed when they go on short term mission trips. The problem is we get back home and settle back into our UR, usual routine, and slowly drift away from something that is transforming.

I hope and pray that many Christians will begin to be challenged by getting outside their comfort zone and leaving their UR. It is difficult, challenging, filled with potential misunderstanding, painful, and sometimes lonely. That is what makes it so real and transforming. It provides us the greatest opportunity to truly and practically be like Jesus. Awesome!

I pray that God will continue to lead us into new places that will stretch us beyond our own personal comfort and will take us out of our UR.

God bless you. Todd

Thursday, January 05, 2006

School is back in session and people are getting back in their usual routines. We are no longer meeting in the old church building. The owner says she wants to make some improvements to the building and feels it is best that no one meets in it right now. I suspect she is trying to use this time to get us to increase our offer on the price of the building. We do not feel led at this time to do that but I still believe that church is a potential part of our future.

I am meeting with public school officials today to secure the use of a middle school in the Five Points area of downtown Knoxville. It will allow us to remain in the location we feel called to and give us some stability on a weekly basis. Once we secure a place to worship, we will schedule our official launch date.

We have been given a tremendous responsibility by God to care for people who are marginalized and isolated. Issues of trust and fear are common walls we bump into often. We have broken through, at least on some small scale, with one particular man. One of our homeless friends is an incredibly talented and gifted musician. Someone heard him play and invited him to Nashville to play and sing on two radio stations. I will be traveling with him this Sunday to Nashville, and on Monday he will perform on the radio. Please pray for God's fullness to be accomplished.

God bless and Happy New Year. Todd