“Brokenness and Beauty”
Rob’s Report to Mosaic Church
22 February 09

I.
        Nearly two and half years ago my family and I moved to DC. It was, for us a return to the city and an escape from a very unhealthy church.  I was broken and in need of healing.  I remember my interview with the board.   It was the worst interview of my life.  I felt very much like I was just going through the motions.  There was very little passion or excitement in me.  I was tired. 
But you called me anyway.  In many ways you were as desperate as I was for a change.  Your little congregation was dwindling.  The building was falling apart, literally.  The first time I preached here as part of my interview I wore a coat and tie.  It was August.  The air conditioning wasn’t working.  It was so hot.  You knew that not too many pastors would consider coming into this situation and I knew that there weren’t too many churches I could pastor.  There just aren’t that many churches in the city, in our tradition, that can pay a pastor full time.  It many ways it was a match made in heaven.  We came together in our common desperation and brokenness.

II.
        In my first year as pastor of National Church I was content to preach and do what was expected of me.  But I wasn’t prepared to lead.  Leading change is what got me into trouble before. That’s not to say that we didn’t attempt to make some innovative decisions.
Our first year together we spent a lot of time trying to reconfigure the power structure of our church; inviting our guest congregations to become more than guests sharing power in an equitable and respectful way.  Much work was done on this plan.  But it ultimately failed.   All the congregations that inhabited our building  at that time were, for various reasons, unable to share leadership.  
It became very clear to me.  What we needed more than anything was a healthy, vibrant, beautiful church.  We needed to do and be something significantly different.  I think in our first year together as National Church we could count the guests from our neighborhood on one, maybe two hands.  It required no hands at all the count those who returned.  Our church was dying.  That was obvious to most.  But when we began to face the reality of death, resurrection became a possibility.   

III.
         I won’t recount the events leading up to the story we call Mosaic.  What can be said is that, by the grace of God, we began a conversation about more than what it would take to get people in the building.  We began to ask questions as to what it means to live in the story of Jesus.  This is important. Mosaic, at its best, was never an attempt to “reach out” to our neighborhood.  Mosaic is the fruit of a conversation about what it means to live together as a community of Christ-followers.  We weren’t going to pursue a new “attractional” model for post modern people.  We weren’t going to become cool so as to reach the cool people.  We weren’t going to contemporize worship so as to reach young people.  We were simply going to return to the very heart of Jesus’ teachings in the Gospels and begin asking simple questions about what it means to know, love, and serve God in the way of Jesus.
         This conversation is ongoing and dynamic.  And, it must be said clearly, we are at the beginning of this conversation.   Mosaic is still in the early infancy.   We are healthy but fragile.  We are a baby church. 
         I’ll not forget when I first suggested “Mosaic” as the name for our new church to the board.  I uttered the name with fear and trembling. I half expected people to laugh at the idea, or worst, say nothing.  We had acknowledged in previous conversation that our diversity was our strength and that our diversity needed to be preserved and nurtured.  The name “Mosaic” came out of our commitment to diversity.  Little did we know the word “Mosaic” would take on a life of it’s own.  The image of broken pieces placed together by the artist’s hand to create something beautiful has become a central part of our identity.  Our first common confession acknowledges that everyone is broken and in need of healing.
         Bruce John said to me in the early days of Mosaic, how mosaics are made of broken things that other people would have thrown away, like old plates.  I thought about that.  How beautiful!  And I got to thinking about my story; the story of a pastor literally discarded by a former church.  This is to say that I am merely one of the broken pieces of our mosaic, just like you.  We say it often, we gather as broken pieces to create something beautiful for God. 

IV.
         We are now one year into the Mosaic story.  And we continue the conversation.  We have a mission statement now, newly tweaked.  This is it:

Our mission is to become a diverse community of friends who know, love and serve God in the way of Jesus.

         I hope you like it.  More importantly I hope you’ll commit it to memory, chew on it, and live into it.  We could shorten in a bit more.  It seems to me that the heart of our mission is to become a community of friends living in the way of Jesus. This means two things.  1) We have know one other well  enough to be good friends. 2) We have to know Jesus well enough to  live in his way.  
         We talk a lot about the sacrament of relationships at Mosaic.  That is, we believe that the way we love each other can be a visible sign of God’s invisible love.  Jesus taught clearly that our love for one another will be the primary means of declaring his presence in the world (John 13.35).  Here’s the problem with all this talk about loving one another; we’ve got to know one another if we are going to love one another.  We have be with one another for love to grow and mature.

V.
Hospitality, one of our common practices, is the space we create for love to be given and received.  I don’t know for sure, but if I had to pick one of our common practices as absolutely essential to the health and vitality of Mosaic in these early days, I think I would have to pick hospitality. 
Don’t get me wrong, worship, compassion, basin and towel service, learning, and play are all extremely important.  But if we aren’t nurturing friendships, hanging out with one another, serving together, playing together, sharing one another’s dreams and bearing one another’s burdens; then in the words of Paul we will be a like “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1Cor. 13.1).  Simply put, we must create space for one another for love to prevail.   
         So this is my appeal to you. Get engaged.  Join one of our smaller groups.  Take advantage of “Ledo Sundays.”  Participate in our play dates.  Come at 10:30 on Sunday mornings (come earlier many do), get a cup of coffee/tea/hot chocolate and sit down with someone you don’t know very well and have a conversation.  It could be that this is the most pleasing thing you’ll do for God all Sunday morning!
         As I said, the heart of our mission is to become a community of friends who know, love and serve God in the way of Jesus.  That means we have to know one another well and that means we have to know Jesus well if we are going to live in his way.

VI.
         So here’s the second part of my appeal to you this morning.  Develop a spiritual formation plan beginning this Lenten season.  A spiritual formation plan is an intentional process of developing intimacy with God through the means of grace.  The means of grace are activities that heighten our awareness of the presence of God in our lives.  Prayer, scripture reading, meditation, silence and solitude, service, fasting, public worship, journaling, Sabbath keeping, are but a few of the means of grace you could practice as a part of your spiritual formation plan. 
         Here are some initial steps you might want to take: 1) Get a good daily prayer guide. We make one available called “A Guide to Prayer.”  It is excellent. 2) Set aside sacred space and time daily or weekly prayer. 3) Consider a Lenten fast.  Fasting is the discipline of blessed subtraction.  Ask yourself, what could I subtract from my life that will create more space for God and others this Lenten season?  Fasting is much more than giving up coffee or chocolate for Lent.  Fasting is a sort of spiritual de-cluttering. My family has traditionally fasted from television during the Lenten season.  Whatever Lenten fast you observe, make sure you subtract something that creates space for the nurturing of relationships with others and God.

 

VII.

         I’ve never been much for outlining a vision plan for the coming year.  I’ve learned that following Jesus is much too unpredictable for that.  But what I would mention are some of the things I think we will need to do in the coming year.
 

VIII.

         I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Mosaic is the only church I’ve ever pastored that I would attend even if I were not the pastor.  I love our Christian community and I am very engaged and committed to serving you for the long haul.
         I love working with Taryol and Drew.  They make me a better pastor.  Jane, Abby, and Lilly are a constant source of joy and laughter.  They make me better person.
         I am grateful to Mosaic for being so loving and supportive of me and my family.  We are all broken pieces who gather to create something beautiful for God.  May God give us the grace to create a beautiful community to God’s glory.

SDG

Respectfully Submitted,
Rob Kazee
Pastor,
Mosaic Church of the Nazarene.  

 

           

        

 

 

 

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