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).