21 Jan My Journey

“Eve was created to know and walk with God and to make him known to others by reflecting his character in her life…By naming us as his image bearers, God has made a relationship with himself the strategic center for his purpose for humanity and for the world.” Carolyn Custis James Half the Sky

Hi everyone! I’m Cori Sullivan, and you may have seen me on stage last week being introduced as a new staff member at Mosaic, so Morgan asked me to share a little with you about my journey in faith and at Mosaic (and then I’ll invite you to something at the end!), so here goes:

When I was a little girl in elementary school, I used to walk with God to school, in a way. At the time, Jesus was my friend. I told him all the silly thoughts that popped up in my head. My family and I didn’t attend church, however; how I “met” Jesus as a little girl is another story for another time.

In middle school my child-like wonder was lost—some would say even shattered. My home life was chaos and stayed on that path through high school. I had lost Jesus, but He had not lost me.

In high school I met a boy, who 4 years later became the young man I married, in a church surrounded by Jesus loving people who helped disciple us in the Word of God. This is when Jesus became my Lord and savior. I had found God again and could “see” that He always knew me and His grace was always there.

Seventeen years later I am still finding God, or rather discovering Him and in doing so discovering who I am. It’s been a lot of unlearning and un-doing what I thought I knew, in order to learn more truths about who God says He is, and because of that who God says I am.

As intricate as this journey has been and continues to be, it’s also simple. I am a child of God, an image bearer, whom He calls daughter, helper, beloved, cherished and chosen. He is my Good Father and He desires to give me all the wisdom, strength, peace and purpose that I need.

This is who I am now, a woman of God, who loves the journey God has taken me on, who loves to walk with others through that journey as they discover who God is and realize he has always known them, loved them, and his grace was ever present.

Here at Mosaic, as a new Associate Pastor on this great team, I am excited to be in a new lane, where I can run this race that has been set for me, for others, for His people, for all people.

At Mosaic, I have had the opportunity to go on my first mission trip to San Luis Potosi, Mexico. The boy I married went first with our eldest son and came back with more of God, more love, more grace, and more passion for all of God’s people. The next summer I went with our second son and saw how much love children could give and receive. And yet again, discovered my Heavenly Father in new light.

Not only do I love missions, but I have loved leading and multiplying community groups for many years, serving in many ways around the church, and being involved in Leadership 215.

I have also had the opportunity to be a part of our TGA (The Gospel And) leadership team since the beginning. It’s a team of amazing people who are devoted to learning and growing and leading others to see all people as God’s image bearers. We seek to learn what it looks like to walk in that truth, day in and day out in our lives, in our families, in our community, our church, our city, our nation and our world. We lead others into conversations around sometimes polarizing topics in an effort to provide an opportunity to do as the Bible says: love your neighbor as yourself, bear one another’s burdens, walk humbly and do justice. We gather at the church building and in homes to both unlearn and learn. To let God renew our minds, and hearts and souls with His truth. We gather to learn how to love each other better, to extend ourselves, to reach across natural barriers, with humility so that others can know, hear and trust that we see them as God’s image bearers. It’s simple, yet vulnerable, challenging, yet powerful.

It’s been one of my most favorite places to be in our church! And as such, I would be remiss to not extend the invitation to you to join us in this work. Next Friday evening, January 26th at the church, we are gathering again to extend ourselves, to be stretched and also to reach out; not only for ourselves, but for others, for God’s image bearers. We will continue our discussion of The Gospel and Diversity. Specifically this event will focus on crucial conversations around the intersectionality of nationality and Kingdom of God citizenship. We’ll explore what it looks like and feels like to “be an American” through different lenses and filters. Ultimately we’ll hope to walk away with a greater understanding of the diverse realities each of us live with; learning to care about why our brothers and sisters care about the things they care about. We encourage you to come, walk with us, and be a part of this amazing community, God’s Mosaic.

You can register here and let us know you’re coming (and if you need child care!).

All the best,

Cori Sullivan