Investing in the Future of Mosaic Church

Luke 20:45-21:4 - What is Jesus doing by bringing attention to this poor widow?

1. Even though it’s about a poor widow’s gift, Jesus doesn’t rebuke the wealthy for giving at the temple. All should give - rich and poor and everyone in between. The issue is about the sacrifice made.

2. Small amounts are significant. So if you feel your giving doesn’t makes much of a difference compared to the overall need, think again. Jesus saw the widow’s two coins and said that she had put more in than anyone!

3. External obedience is always trumped by internal obedience. You may look good to everyone, but Jesus knows what is happening on the inside and what the gift really costs. Remember God looks at the heart, not the actions.

4. Both the wealthy and the poor must beware bypassing the heart, but the wealthy are in more danger as their sacrifice is often less. The widow gave ‘all she had to live on’ and so had to trust God fully because she was so vulnerable and defenceless. If the wealthy don’t give sacrificially then it may mean they are never challenging where they put their hope and trust. 

5. Look at the contrast of investment and reward:

Teachers of the law
flowing robes > people’s attention
greeted in public > people’s approval
most important seats/place of honour > people’s respect
devour widows’ homes > people’s belongings
pray lengthy prayers > people’s admiration

actual result - punished most severely

Widow
generous in poverty > God’s provision
gives in secret > God’s attention
makes sacrifice > God’s pleasure

actual result - true recognition of her sacrifice

These lists force us to ask fundamental questions:
What do you really want in life? What is the reward you really seek?
Your money will follow your heart, values and desires.
The teachers made their choice - they ultimately wanted a reward from people. 
And the widow chose her reward from God. 

Questions:
1. Why do we find it hard to talk about money?
2. What stands out to you from this story? 
3. How are you like the teachers of the law?
4. What is attractive about the poor widow?
5. For further study, read the parable of the rich fool together in Luke 12:1-34 and discuss it.
6. How does 2 Cor 8:7,9 give us insight as to how the gospel sets us free from greed?

Practical ways to defeat greed and idolatry

1. Treasuring Christ and His Kingdom.
“But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” (Phil 3:7-8)

The more I see the richness of Christ and His Kingdom, the easier it is to see the shallowness of my idolatrous heart and the emptiness of the world’s riches.

2. I trust in God’s promises for every need to be met (for my family and the church).

“My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19)
“God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” (2 Corinthians 9:8)
“Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)

Our experience has been again and again that God comes good as we take steps of faith in giving.

3. We set aside money every month to give and are ready to give as the Lord leads in special offerings. Every year we’ve been married we try to increase our giving.

I take my cue here from Paul’s teaching that giving should be regular and free - disciplined and spontaneous. For example, he says in 1 Corinthians 16:1-2
“Now about the collection for God’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.”

This points to the wisdom of planned, regular, disciplined giving. Sporadic giving with no plan will probably mean you are not treating giving as an integral part of your worshiping life. 

Perhaps that is the next step for you – simply decide to give regularly a percentage of your income – And if you ask “how much?” my answer is start with the Old Testament standard (10%) and build on that, as God prospers you. It is hard for me to imagine God’s people, after the glories of the cross, giving less to the church than the saints of the Old Testament.

It is also good to keep growing in generosity. If you don’t put something like this in place, you will call more and more things needs which are in part only wants. Or as wages increase your standard of living increases, but your giving doesn’t.

4. We try to protect our hearts from idolatry by creatively finding ways to give sacrificially so it shows us what we truly value.

As we give sacrificially we find our hold on these things loosens and their hold on us loosens.

Questions:
1. What else do you do to help defeat greed and idolatry?
2. How can you support each other in this at Mission Group?
3. What proportion of our income should we give to the local church?
4. What do you do if you are in debt? Mosaic runs a CAP money course, which helps you budget your income and expenditure. Is this something it would be wise to do?
5. What are your particular giving challenges practically? No income, debt, student, family, etc.
6. What are your particular giving challenges internally? Is it hard to trust God? What stops you giving more?
7. Please spend time in the next week or so with your accountability partners talking about your finances. What are your challenges and where can you grow in generosity?

Lastly, spend some time this week praying as a Mission Group for God to provide the £30,000 we need to move into the next phase of growth as a church family.

Committing to the Future of Mosaic Church

Please try and do these questions in your Mission Group over the next two weeks.

In twelve months’ time we are going to move from being one church in one location to one church in three locations. We feel this is the best way to reach local and diverse people.

Questions:
i)          Is everyone clear on the upcoming changes. Do you still have any questions?
ii)        Now that you have time to think about the transition, how do you feel about it?
iii)        What do you think the benefits of moving to three gatherings will be?
iv)        What will be the cost for you?
v)        What are you most excited about/apprehensive of?
vi)        How will it impact your mission group?
vii)      Are you involved in Mosaic? Would you like to serve on any teams or start any training e.g. 6.30 leadership?
viii)      Have you talked about the next Mission group Sunday?

The Future:
How do we move forward into these plans? Seven ingredients…

1. More Mission & More Community:
First, the idea is that as people gather together closer to their homes, they will take greater ownership of their communities and be able to invite people who only want to travel a short distance to worship instead of simply commuting into a one, large gathering.
The mission is huge.  In London, around 10% of people go to church once a month while in Yorkshire the percentage that goes to church once a month or more is 0.9 percent; evangelicals account for only 0.4 percent – similar to Japan.
But we must engage in community as well.  Too much focus on mission means people feel overlooked and forgotten, especially those who have been around the longest.
So what is the answer? We must aim to grow in both.

2. More Communication:
We must keep talking about this transition.  To do this we need you simply to be honest.  The worst thing to do is suffer in silence and slowly drift from our church family.
You don’t have to agree, don’t have to be happy, it is okay to go on a journey.  But please communicate.

3. More leaders.
Matt 9:37 ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few’ and in a church like ours, growth can be held back by a lack of leaders. God will only give the harvest when there are enough leaders to care for those He brings.
Simple way to think about this is that every leader needs to triple himself over the next 9-12 months.  Can you think of two people you can train up/recruit to do your job?
Three things we look for in our leaders:
i)          Character
ii)        Competency
iii)        Chemistry

4. More Hospitality:
As we multiply we expect to grow.  This will mean that all of us need to practice hospitality.  1 Peter 4:9 “Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.”
Think of Sundays like your lounge at home.  Arrive early to welcome guests and give them the best seats (at the back).

5. More Grace:
Grace means we can fail but not be failures.
We will do everything possible to make this transition work, but we need to be upfront about the fact that it might not.
A gathering may not reach the community we want to reach.
Leaders may have to learn on the job and so gets things wrong.  And it will be okay.
We will also need grace towards each other.
1 Peter 4:8 “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”

6. More Courage:
We said last week that putting mission first - above personal preference, above playing it safe, is crucial for Mosaic.
Otherwise we end up as pastorally-driven (prioritizing caring for each other) rather than missionally-driven (prioritizing reaching the unchurched).
However we have a long way to go on this.  Why are there so few people from Yorkshire who are part of Mosaic?  We musn’t fool ourselves into thinking we are more successful than we actually are given that much of our growth is from new people to Leeds and transfer growth.

7. More investment
As we look to raise £30,000 in our special offering next week, please take time to carefully consider how much you can contribute.
Four things we are investing in:
Steve and Leanne Vaughan (Dublin Church plant)
Dave Horsfall (Intro and More)
Paula Nice (church wide administration)
Keith Nichols (Seacroft)

Questions:
1.  i. What are your top three things you want to invest in? why?
2.  ii. Remind yourselves that we are saved by grace through faith. (Eph 2:8-10) Therefore these ingredients should not be a burden! Rather an opportunity for us to work together (‘good works God has prepared in advance for us to do’ ) as a community for the sake of the city.
3.  iii. What ingredient seems the hardest to give? Why?

Understanding the Future of Mosaic Church

There are two important things we communicated this Sunday. (1) In twelve months time we will change from being one church in one location to one church in three locations across Leeds (2) In six to twelve months time, Steve and Leanne Vaughan will church plant in Dublin.

We are moving to this multi gathering model of church because we believe it combines the best of having the resources and stability of an established church with the momentum and mission of church planting.  In other words, we are becoming a city wide church with local missional impact.

Details about the changes are listed below and after you have read them it would be good to look at the following questions in your mission group:

1) How do you feel about this transtition?
2) What are the biggest challenges you can imagine for Mosaic?
3) What are the biggest opportunities for Mosaic?
4) How does it impact your mission group?
5) How do you feel about Steve and Leanne moving to Dublin?
6) How does this transition help you in mission and community?
7) Have you thought about the upcoming Mission group Sunday yet?  what could your group do to invest in mission and community?
8) Are you disappointed in any way?
9) What makes you most excited?
10) Find out what gifts, talents and strengths you have in your mission group.  How can these be used to serve in mission group or on a Sunday?
11) What sort of church would help you reach your friends?
12) Please pray for Mosaic in this transition.  Pray that God would give us wisdom with how to proceed, pray for venues for the gatherings to meet in, pray for those finding this change difficult.
13) Please pray for our Special Offering at the end of February.  We are looking to raise £30,000 to invest in Steve and Leanne Vaughan, Dave Horsfall, Paula Nice and Keith and Anna Nichols (East Leeds).

The Future of Mosaic Church FAQ

About the Changes

What will be changing?
Over the next twelve months we will transition from one church in one location to one church in several locations across the city. Initially we hope to have neighbourhood gatherings in the North, North Central and the South of the city. However in time the number of these gatherings will hopefully grow.

What will be staying the same?
The local neighbourhood gatherings will share the same DNA - vision, values and legal identity, as well as resources, finances and website – but will gather locally. Each gathering will be made up of mission groups focused on different places, passions and people as they are now and will be led by one or two leaders and a core team. We are hoping to retain much of what we love about Mosaic (community, discipleship, mission, training and sending) and scatter across Leeds to help us in our mission to reach the city. Each gathering may look different but will place a high value on worship, preaching and evangelism in order to serve our mission groups.

Why are we making these changes?
Partly because we feel this is the best strategy to remain city-wide but have local presence in our communities. It should enable us to maintain a church planting mentality, whilst retaining the stability of being an established church. We hope it will lead to deeper community and stronger outreach. Also, as the lease on our current building comes to an end in 12 months’ time, we believe it is better for us to invest in ministries and mission rather than trying to buy or rent (and then run) a larger building at considerable cost.

How do these changes fit with Mosaic’s vision and mission?
We believe these changes are directly in line with our call to ‘join God’s mission to build a community that transforms the world’. By going local, we hope it will enable more opportunities for mission to friends and neighbours through mission groups, and it will increase involvement and commitment in each of the local gatherings.

When will the changes happen?
We plan to begin the first gathering (North Central Leeds) in September this year, at which point we would move to just a morning gathering at our current building. We will look to moving fully to three neighbourhood gatherings (South Leeds, North Leeds and North Central Leeds) at the beginning of 2013, when our lease runs out on the building.

Will I get to see people in the other gatherings?
Yes. We will bring together all the neighbourhood gatherings fairly regularly - either to pray, hold training and equipping events, for events such as LOVE:NATIONS and for city-wide celebrations.

How can I input into what’s happening?
We would value your thoughts and comments. Please speak to your mission group leaders, or catch any of the elders (Matt Hatch, Dan Chadwick or Steve Vaughan) on a Sunday.

How can I find out more?
As well as speaking to your mission group leaders with specific questions you may have, we will look to keep you updated through our regular Sunday communication.

Neighbourhood Gatherings

Where will the neighbourhood gatherings be located?
We are initially looking to begin with three neighbourhood gatherings in South Leeds, North Leeds and North Central Leeds, where a number of our mission groups and mission group clusters already gather. Meeting venues for these gatherings will most probably be hired, and it is likely to be several months before the exact location of these venues will be confirmed. As part of this we are closely in communication with other church leaders across the city.

Which neighbourhood gathering will I go to?
You are free to choose which gathering you are part of. It would make sense to go to the one closest to you. We appreciate that for some people it means not seeing all your friends on a Sunday. While we acknowledge this will be hard for some, we feel that the mission must keep pushing us out into the city. It is the same for church planting - while it is always painful to say goodbye to friends, ultimately we want to be able to send people to take the gospel to the city and beyond.

Who will lead the neighbourhood gatherings?
We will ask one or two people to lead each neighbourhood gathering with a core team of people supporting them. We have not decided who will lead the gatherings, but Matt Hatch will initially be involved in all three gatherings, with himself and Dan Chadwick overseeing them all as elders of Mosaic.

When will the neighbourhood gatherings meet?
It is likely that the North and South Leeds gatherings will meet on Sunday mornings and North Central Leeds will gather on Sunday evenings. The exact days and times of these gatherings will be dependent on a number of factors (such as venue) and so it will be much nearer the time before they are confirmed.

Will each neighbourhood gathering be the same?
Each gathering will retain the DNA of Mosaic though it may be expressed differently depending on the location. The proper word for this is ‘contextualisation’ and simply means we need to gather in ways that best reach the people we are focused on.

What provision will there be for children?
Whilst many of the details are still to be worked out, we believe there will be kids’ work provision at both the North and South Leeds gatherings.

Which neighbourhood gathering will I go to if I’m a student?
We would encourage you to consider all of the three neighbourhood gatherings when deciding. We hope that each of the neighbourhood gatherings will have diversity, particularly in terms of ages, to best enable us to better reach the communities where the gatherings will be located.

How will serving teams work?
Each neighbourhood gathering will have a number of serving teams similar to those we have currently – with hosting teams (welcome & café) as well as technical teams (sound & visuals), ministry teams (kids & students) and a musicians’ team. Serving teams will not be centralised and therefore we will need to raise up many more leaders and people willing to serve each other. If you’re not already on a serving team, why not fill in an ‘I’d like to find out more about serving’ card on the welcome table and someone will be in touch.

Mission Groups

How will these changes impact mission groups?
Hopefully the changes won’t change anything major in terms of mission groups; the changes are really happening in order to aid and further the mission of our groups. They will still be communities of mission, growth and care. They will still remain as a vital ‘place to belong’. They will still be overseen by a coach.

Will each mission group be ‘part of’ or ‘linked to’ of one of the neighbourhood gatherings?
Whilst there will be space for flexibility, each mission group will most likely link to and be part of one of the three neighbourhood gatherings. Hopefully with each gathering being more geographically focused it will aid the mission of each group whether your group is based around ‘people’, ‘passions’ or ‘places’.

What if I’m in a non-geographical mission group?
Ideally each group will link with a specific gathering. If there are a number of similar mission groups linked to different neighbourhood gatherings, this will hopefully strengthen and bring breadth to every neighbourhood gathering and still allow space for ‘cross-gathering’ clusters and events (especially on Mission Group Sundays).

Will we still emphasise accountability groups?
Yes. We hope that everyone finds an accountability group via their mission group or friendship network.

Dublin Church Plant

When will this be happening?
Steve and Leanne would like to go within 6-12 months (God willing). However for this to happen, there are lots of practical things that need to fall into place - house and jobs being the main two. Your prayers will be greatly appreciated.

Will we be sending a team?
Yes, but it will only be a small team as we want to be sensitive to the Irish culture and sending lots of English people would be a barrier. Please speak to Matt Hatch if you have any questions regarding this.

Who will ‘replace’ Steve?
Steve will not be replaced directly, especially as the structure of the church is changing so much. Dave Horsfall already now oversees ‘Intro’ and ‘More’ and the local gathering leadership teams will assume oversight of the different mission groups. We are also looking to raise up more elders across the church who will help oversee all three gatherings.

How will the Dublin church plant stay connected with Mosaic?
Similar to The Oak, the Dublin church plant will have a close relationship with Mosaic, while at the same time developing links with other local churches in Dublin and Ireland.

What support does the Dublin church plant need?
Firstly, your prayers would be much appreciated, for gathering a team, for the practicalities of moving to Dublin, and for seeing God impact the city. As Dublin is in the top five most expensive places to live in Europe, Steve and Leanne will also need to raise between £60-80,000 for the first two years. As part of this year’s special offering we will be giving towards this total - please see the Special Offering Information Pack for more details on this.

Other Mosaic Questions

How will the neighbourhood gatherings work together?
The idea is that by staying as one family in several locations we will get the benefits of a big church, such as sharing resources and expertise, while local gatherings will be able to be innovative and creative so they can reach the people in their locality.

Where will future additional neighbourhood gatherings be?
Where mission groups start to multiply and cluster together, there will be potential to start a neighbourhood gathering. Currently we are praying that our mission groups in Holbeck and Seacroft continue to grow and will be some of the first to multiply.

How will the changes affect staffing and finances?
We are currently looking at both the impact to staffing and to finance, and whilst we have a lot of details still to work though, we hope to be able to give an update on both of these things in a few months’ time.

Will there be a central office space?
Yes. We are hoping to have a central office space, with the possibility of a small meeting space as well.

How will we benefit from shared resources?
As one church with multiple gatherings, sharing resources will not only enable us to be more efficient, but will crucially enable us to do more as a church. Resources not only includes finance, but also many other things such as people, knowledge and skills. We hope that by doing this we will also be able to reach some of the poorer areas of the city.

What are Mission Group Sundays?
Four times this year we will not gather at The Warehouse for a normal Sunday service. Instead we will use this time for mission groups to invest in community and mission. Some mission groups may cluster together. We will be holding Launchpad at The Warehouse for those not in mission groups or who are visiting the church.

How does The Oak fit into all of this?
The Oak will remain a separate church, but as a church planted out of Mosaic we will continue to have a close relationship.

What will be happening to the FP programme next year? / Can I still do the FP programme next year?
We will still run FP next year. As with previous years, there will be the same training, discipleship, serving and leadership elements to the training. As well as being involved in city-wide ministries, FPers will also be part of one of the three neighbourhood gatherings. We are expecting quite a few people to apply for a limited number of places, and so would advise on getting applications in early. To find out more speak to Hannah O’Shea or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

JESUS IN PRAYER - UNITY IN LOVE

John 17.20-26 showed us both the heart of Jesus and the importance of unity in the church. This week he is praying OUT - down the generations for all future believers that would come to him through believing the message the disciples went on to spread (vs20).

Discussion Questions and Applications

Please use some or all or these - whatever you see fit

(1) How does prayer reveal our hearts?
—- When and why do we pray?
—- Why do even non-Christians pray - what do that reveal?

(2) What is the context of Jesus’ prayer?
—- What is about to happen?
—- How does this heighten the importance of what he prays?
—- How does that give us an insight into Jesus’ heart?
—- What might you have prayed in those cirumstances? How does that reveal your heart?
—- How is pressure like a fiery furnace that reveals what is really in our hearts? (or like a tube of toothpaste?)

Suggestion = use question 3 if you haven’t done 1-2

(3) Jesus is (a) in prayer (b) under pressure and (c)  facing death?
—- How do these things reveal our hearts and reveal what we build our lives on?
—- where has your heart/foundation been revealed recently?

(4) From verses 21 and 23 what is at the heart of Jesus’ prayer?

(5) From the second part of verses 21 & 23 (and John 13.34-35) WHY does Jesus pray this?
—- What is his logic?
—- Why is unity in love so important?
—- Why is it so powerful?

(6) What kind of love does Jesus show? Think back to the footwashing?

TIP = costly (things, time and emotional energy), impartial and forgiving (unconditional and undeserved)

(7) Why do we find it hard to love people like this?
—- What does worldly love often look like?
—- Why is it hard to love people different from you or people who are ‘needy’?
—- Why is it so hard to forgive people?

(8) Where do we receive the power to love like Jesus loves?
—- See the ‘EVEN AS’ in verse 23. What is Jesus saying? Why is this so staggering?

(9) Pray for friends and family that don’t know Jesus, that they might see the love of the church community and believe the message.

(10) Pray for Mosaic Church (and your MG) that we might be ‘united in love’ demonstrating the love of God to Leeds