I hope you, like our Mosaic staff, are feeling encouraged by the meaningful and impactful Easter weekend services we had. Allow me to break down three things for you about them:
- We had record attendance totals for both Good Friday and Easter Sunday morning, which is incredible to consider. Thank you so, so much for all you did to serve that day, pray for this church and to invite whomever you did! From the special music to the stories to the dance and what I hope was a compelling introduction to our new series (more on that in just a moment), it was a great day.
- One of our amazing members was generous enough to take outstanding, professional photos of our congregation that day in a variety of environments. You are welcome to check out some of those photos here.
- What we began this past Sunday was something that is near and dear to my heart as a pastor and Christian leader, and I wanted to bring you into the loop of what we are undertaking and why. Here goes:
You may know that this new series is called “Lost and Found”, and it looks at the ways we get lost, and the ways Jesus finds us. Above all, it seeks to answer a question looming in the background:
What is the mission of God in the world?
After all, if the Father sent the Son, who has sent the Spirit, who sends the church into the world, what is all that sending about? These questions exist in the branch of Christian thinking known as missiology–and that’s what this series aims to explore.
Why did Jesus come to the world at all? One specific way he tells us is in Luke 19:10, where he delivers this punchline to the end of his encounter with Zacchaeus, the tax collector:
“For the Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost” (NASB).
Jesus said he came to seek and save all that has been lost in the world. Great! That’s amazing!
So….what was lost?
In what ways is the world lost, or separated, from God?
The answer to that question will drive the kind of church (any church you are a part of) and how that church expresses its values in the community–and it drives ours as well.
Principally, the Christian Scriptures describe four primary areas of lostness, beginning all the way back in the Garden in Genesis 3, where we see that:
a.) People are lost from God
b.) People are lost from themselves
c.) People are lost from one another
d.) People are lost from creation
The good news is that person of Jesus, His Gospel and the Christian Scriptures all give us robust resources to address each of these four areas of lostness, and over the course of the next few weeks, my aim is to create wonder and gratitude for all that God has done to “find” us in each way, and for us to discover again what it looks like and feels like to be “found.”
Even our series graphic has been designed to be a tool that reinforces all of this:
At the center would be you, me, a human being; and the four concentric circles represent each of the four areas of lostness for us to consider and to allow the Gospel to address.
How do we get lost? We get lost from God, ourselves, others and creation, and Jesus wants–and has promised–to renew all things and make them new.
I’m looking forward to digging in and opening the door for Christ to find us in new ways.
I’ll see you Sunday as we continue in part 2 of what it looks like for Jesus to find those who are lost from God.
Much love,
Morgan |
