Aaron Loy's Ragamuffin Blog

Mosaic Thoughts on Communication

One of the things we do pretty regularly as part of the protege program is prepare and deliver 5 minute talks. (These are uniquely challenging because of how focused having just five minutes forces you to be!) The talks also give us a chance to put into practice some of the things we've been learning and give each other feedback on what we're doing well and where we need to grow in our communication (a big part of the program). This morning Hank Fortener, Mosaic campus pastor of the Mayan downtown joined us. His input and feedback is always so good and this morning was no exception. He are some of the things he shared that really stood out to me. I hope they prove as helpful to you as they were for me: 

Never share a story for the first time from the stage. Tell it to friends, family, and whomever else first. Find out when and if people laugh or cry, or if they don’t connect with it at all.

Constantly refine your ideas for your message with friends. Have people in your life that you can continually go to and ask, “Does this make sense?” “Does this resonate?” “Can people relate with this or is it just me?”

Anything more than 10 days is too long to be preparing for a message. You need to be speaking from a place of authenticity and personal journeying with whatever you are speaking about.

Never assume that people want to hear what you have to say. Every time I stand up at the Mayan I assume that everyone there is busy, skeptical and that they have somewhere else to be.” When I am starting my message, I want everyone to lean in and think, “I’ve been there. I know what he is talking about. I can relate with that.” Then I can begin to take them on a journey.

Don’t be predictable or presumptuous. The last thing you want is to try to create an “aha” moment or represent yourself as an expert and be so predictable that everyone knows where you are going and gets there before you do. It’s like watching a movie and quoting the main character’s line before he says it, and you think, “This is cheesy.” You do that and every skeptic in the room is going to think, “What a dork. I am smarter than this guy.”

Ask yourself, “Why does this matter?” For example, I recently had to speak on the topic of going to church and so asked myself “Why go to church?” Well the often pat Christian answers don’t work for someone like the gal I went to lunch with yesterday, who is an activist and has more friends and meaningful relationships than she knows what to do with. She has community, she has a purpose, she is serving humanity…Why should she go to church? I approach my subject from the eyes of the most skeptical persons I can imagine. I tear apart my belief piece by piece, strip myself of easy answers and really wrestle with it. And if at the end I no longer have an answer, then either I don’t have a message or I need to be honest about it at the beginning of my message.    

unchristian

I am currently reading David Kinnaman's UnChristian for one of my classes and really enjoying it. I know most of us probably didn't need a book to tell us how poorly the Christian community is perceived by the wider culture (and often rightfully so, in my personal opinion), but I've been pleasantly surprised and personally challenged. That's not to mention that it has my mind spinning about our ecclesiology - taking all of this information into account, how should the church respond? For those of us who are passionate about seeing new churches started (and for those brave souls who are passionate about overhauling existing churches), how do we effectively minister in a post-Christian culture where we are increasingly perceived with skepticism and distrust? The book is causing me to wrestle and that's a good thing.

Here is something that I just read and had to share. "When asked to describe what Christianity is like, outsiders offered these provocative analogies:

The Titanic - a ship about to sink but unaware of its fate.

A powerful amplifier being undermined by poor wiring and weak speakers.

A pack of domesticated cats that look like they are thinking deep thoughts but are just waiting for their next meal.

An ostrich with its head in the sand.

A hobby that diverts people's attention.

These images capture an idea we repeatedly encountered in our research - Christians are sheltered."

Whew. I don't know about you, but that stings a little.

Free Mosaic Resources

Hey friends, I wanted to make you aware of a couple of free resources from Mosaic. The first is a brand new resource we are using in our communities called "Breathe." Breathe is a very simple and very practical response to the need we saw to help people get into the scriptures and to begin to respond to it with their lives. The booklet consists of 25 favorite passages of Mosaic leaders - ones they have found to be transformational in their own lives.

For each passage there are a couple questions to help the person begin to reflect on the meaning, a very short reflection written by a Mosaic leader, six environments in which they can potentially respond to that scripture, and then a place to record what happened when they applied it their lives. It is a really simple "journal syle" tool designed to help meet a BIG need: not absorbing more information about scripture, but actually responding to it and allowing it to begin to shape us. Check it out! (You can download it for free HERE.)

The second resource I wanted to let you know about is a magazine that is currently being used at Mosaic's Westside gathering. The magazine is a visually-heavy booklet designed for people who are new to the community or just checking it out for the first time. Unlike the Breathe booklet, this probably isn't one that you can begin using in your own context right away, but hopefully it can serve to get your own creative juices flowing and perhaps even cause you to consider tossing the three-fold "visitors brochure" with the three color template you copied out of Publisher that you are currently using. I know your current "brochure" prints at Kinkos for .25, but is it even worth that much? What percentage of them do you think get tossed after Sunday? I tell you what, you hand me this on Sunday morning and you've got my full attention! (Note: I have it started on page 10. Click back to check out the whole thing from the beginning.)

Relational Intelligence & The Most Relational Man

My good friend Steve Saccone released his first book just a couple weeks ago: Relational Intelligence: How Leaders Can Expand Their Influence Through a New Way of Being Smart. He has some great things to say in this book and although I'm not quite all the way through it yet, I'd definitely recommend it for anyone who desires to grow in their capacity to lead others.

Mosaic will be doing a relational intelligence series this next month based on Steve's book. If you're looking for a good laugh, check out this video created by some of the protege crew and friends. Ever seen the Dos Equis commercials about "the most interesting man?" Well, my friends, I introduce you to the "The Most Relational Man in the world."

Gauging Spiritual Maturity

Perhaps no other factor plays a more central role in shaping a church’s ethos than how it measures spiritual maturity.

As an inherently spiritual community, the church’s gauge for spiritual maturity essentially defines success for its congregation. In other words, the church’s measuring stick identifies the goal that everyone ought to be shooting for. Is the ultimate aim to accumulate a wealth of theological knowledge? To be passionate about humanitarian issues? To be an outspoken republican? To become a central leader in the church? To live a life of simplicity? To not do anything "bad"? 

The easiest way to get a feel for how a church gauges spiritual maturity is by looking at its leadership. These men and women represent the kind of lifestyle, discipline and/or giftedness that is deemed worthy to lead (and thus most valuable) in that community. In a way, they represent the quintessential believer because they set the bar for what it means to be spiritually mature, or at least spiritually mature enough to lead everyone else.

If a church says that true spiritual growth is revealed by acts of compassion, but the majority of its staff has theology degrees and spends most of its week in the church office, then it is the latter that comes to be understood by the community as the standard for spiritual maturity. Although that church might really believe that spiritual maturity ought to be fleshed out through acts of love in theory, it is communicating through its own action that in actuality theological education is the ultimate gauge for maturity.

This is extremely important for leaders to understand because whenever certain qualities are considered more valuable than others by a community, that community will find itself attracting, developing and retaining people with those qualities. Over time, the community inevitably becomes a reflection of its leadership.

Don’t believe me? Take a moment to think of an established church near you that places a very high value on biblical knowledge. They probably teach through the scriptures verse by verse, use lots of big words with extensive theological meaning, regularly examine the original Greek and Hebrew texts, argue that one biblical translation is superior to all others, generally assume that people will bring a bible to church, encourages extensive note taking on Sunday morning and most of their staff have a seminary degree or its equivalent. Okay, are you picturing it? Now survey the general characteristics of that congregation. I’d venture to guess that the church you are picturing has a very high theological IQ compared to most churches. Chances are that its members (like its leaders) would blast most of yours in bible jeopardy. These are the sort of people they attract, retain and develop because that is how they have come to define spiritual maturity.

Although the details change, the story is always the same. Churches that use the Knowledge Gauge are really good at bible trivia and enjoy lengthy theological debates. Churches that use the Financial Generosity Gauge have white teeth, pleated pants and large budgets. Churches that use the Tolerance Gauge have a smorgasbord of sin issues and very few hard conversations. Churches that use the Faithful-To-Show-Up-Each-Week Gauge have apathetic congregations and less and less young people. Churches that use the Involvement-In-Church-Functions Gauge have very full calendars and lots of single women. Churches that use the Frugality Gauge have small budgets, organic produce and no parking issues. It all comes down to how you measure spiritual maturity and how that value is reflected in your leadership.     

So how does your church measure spiritual maturity? What is your gauge? What cherished "spiritual" characteristic is most clearly modeled by your leaders as the most important? Is there consistency between this and what your church says it values most? Or how about between this and what you are asking of your people? If not, what needs to change? And most importantly, what does your gauge say about what you believe as a church? Is it biblically sound? Or did it generate from somewhere else?

(In part 2, I'll be looking at the way Mosaic gauges spiritual maturity and how that fleshes itself out in the church. It's probably not what you think...)

What moves you?

This past week the proteges and I had to create a piece of art in response to the questions "What moves you?" and "What do you desire?" It was fun. Some did spoken word pieces, some created videos, some wrote songs and some of us created photography pieces. The poster below was my piece. All of the photos are of Lincoln, NE and can be found here. 

Admittedly, the real work of my piece had little to do with my fine motor skills. (I used a really cool free program called Shape Collage and printed through my new favorite online printing company: Poster Brain.) No, the real work came as I paged through over 8,000 photos of the city of Lincoln. As I perused the work of so many talented photographers, I found myself captivated by the city to which Megan and I have been called. And as I paged through picture after picture for hours on end, I began to pray for the city.

I prayed for the people of Lincoln who today find themselves without hope. I prayed for those trapped by poverty. I prayed for those drowning in religion. I prayed for those who have succumbed to the apathy of a life without dreams. I prayed for those who will join us in creating a new movement in the city of Lincoln. And I prayed for those who will shape the spiritual landscape of Lincoln's future, many of which do not yet know Christ.

Father, may your spirit blow like a mighty rushing wind throughout the city of Lincoln. Prepare us and the city of Lincoln for all you are preparing to do.

"In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below...And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." - Acts 2:17-21

Belong Before Believe (part 2)

Creating a culture where people can belong before they believe is a practical application of our first core value: Mission is why the church exists. At first glance this might not seem like a big deal. After all, many Christians would nod their head in agreement with this statement. The mind of the seasoned Christ follower might even jump to relevant passages like the Great Commission in Matthew 28 or Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 9. However, it is in praxis that this core value often becomes problematic.

Every church has got to decide which voices they are going to listen to. In most churches, it is the loudest, most persuasive, most powerful, or sometimes just the most deliberate Christian voices that get listened to. But the conversation is essentially the same: everyone vouching for their own preferred brand of Christianity. Mosaic essentially ignores these voices of religion in order to better hear the voices of humanity.

There are always any number of conversations going on throughout Christendom that church people consider to be of immense importance. The details of these conversations are always in flux - traditional/contemporary, emergent/emerging, modern/postmodern/post-postmodern, and a never ending plethora of theological asterisks. But as a movement whose very purpose for existing resides outside of its four walls, Mosaic just isn't all that interested in engaging in such "internal" conversations. We want to spend the best of our time, energy, passion and creativity on connecting people to God who wouldn't normally associate themselves with church.

This doesn't always involve a choice. After all, we are not a divided humanity. At our core we all desire, need and long for the same things. Mosaic speaks into those things that are true of us all. However, in those times when we must choose, we will always choose to ignore the voices of religion and internal religious conversation in order to begin new conversations with those who do not know Jesus.

Belong Before Believe

Mosaic puts great emphasis on being a community where people can belong long before they believe. This is really just a reflection of our value for those who don’t normally associate themselves with church. Have you ever walked into an environment and felt totally out of place?

I remember a rather memorable evening spent at a local gay bar. A friend of ours was performing that night and we decided to get a crew together to come out and support him. We had a really good time, but as a straight, church-going, rural Midwestern married man, suffice to say that it was a little out of my element. I had never been to an event MC’d by a drag queen, had never seen so many fashionable men under one roof, and I’m pretty sure there were a number of brilliant puns used seamlessly throughout the night that just didn’t register for me. I was out of my element. And as hard as I tried to fully immerse myself in the experience, and as wonderful as the company really was, I still felt like an outsider.   

I think that church can often feel the same way to those who aren’t familiar with it. Often times it is just assumed that people know all of the ins and outs. But sometimes what we don’t realize is that over the years, we’ve developed a highly complex (and often bizarre) subculture. This subculture has its own language, norms, values and rules – most all of which are unwritten. To someone on the outside looking in, it can look really strange at best, and uninteresting and alienating at worst.

Mosaic is a community that desires to deconstruct this sort of “insider” culture by creating an inclusive space where people don’t need to know the secret handshake or subscribe to a set of beliefs to be a part of the community. Everyone who wants in is already in. There’s no process. No membership. Just a community of people from all walks of life that recognizes and respects the unique journey of each individual, and who embraces that individual regardless of where they fall on the spiritual spectrum.

What this means practically is that at all times there are a number of people throughout the Mosaic community – people who serve on various creative teams, who are a part of small groups, who travel with us overseas and serve with us locally in humanitarian projects, who attend Sunday gatherings and who consider Mosaic their home – who are not professing Christians. And that is not just okay, but it is precisely what we desire to see happen.     

Our hope is that Mosaic will be a place where all can encounter God and pursue what He might desire for them on their time, when they are ready.

Theology in Film

“In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations. The new needs friends." - Ratatouille

I know, it's tempting. I've done it. You've done. We've all done it at one time or another. But resist that natural urge to criticize the things you don't subscribe to. It's a waste of your time and energy. Instead, go create something beautiful with your life that serves humanity. Life's too short to be a critic.

Crave Lounge

This last week I was a part of an experience put on by various Mosaic artisans called the Crave Lounge. It was beautiful. We lounged, we shared, we reflected, we dreamt and we jumped off of trampolines (see below). I walked away from the experience and thought, you know, just about any church could pull off an experience like this, but few actually do. You see, I think the thing that really sets Mosaic apart from so many faith communities is not its location, its lead pastor, or its talent, but rather its willingness to continually risk in creating things that are new, beautiful and transformational.

I love my community.

Epic Mistakes in Ministry

You ever think back to something you did and wonder to yourself, What was I thinking?! Perhaps it was your first ministry gig or one of the first times you were trusted with significant responsibility and you did something of such epic stupidity that it still makes your face hot to think about it?

When I was in my early twenties, I was hired as the part time worship pastor for a church plant in Lincoln, NE. I had previously sworn to never work for a church. As a wounded pastor's kid, I had spent most of my young adult life avoiding church people. So when I took the job, I did so with more than a little hesitation and with a big church-person-sized chip on my shoulder.

So you can about imagine how well I handled it when anonymous comment cards started coming in attacking myself and the worship team for (of all things) wearing hats on stage. All of the bad pk memories came flooding back as I remembered the people who had caused me to tuck tale and run from religion so many years ago. Adding to the fire was the fact that these comment cards represented a direct contradiction to the vision of our church (the reason I was there in the first place). I was primed and ready to flip.

Then one week I received a particularly scathing comment card. Its author took cheap shots at various members of the worship team for their unacceptable attire on Sunday mornings - particularly their wearing of hats - and what they believed that reflected about their character. And in true coward form, it was once again anonymous. I was livid. But ya know, it probably wouldn't have been that big of a deal if I hadn't been on deck to preach one of my first sermons that coming Sunday.

Are Denominations Dead?

I saw an interview with Mark Driscoll a while back in which he predicted that over the next decade denominations will be replaced by informal networks, such as his Acts 29. I remember thinking, "Wow, that is a rather extreme conclusion to come to." But now years later, here I am preparing to plant a church and wrestling with the question, Is there any good reason to align with a denomination?

Now I'll admit that I've sort of been around the block when it comes to denominations. My family roots are Methodist, most of my childhood was spent in a rural Baptist General Conference church, middle school, high school and college were spent in three different EFCA churches across two states, and today I find myself at a (albeit rather unorthodox) Southern Baptist Conference church on the west coast.

I like to think those 'cross-cultural' experiences have made me more balanced. But they have also left me without connection or obligation to any one denomination. So my question is: In a time when denominations are by-and-large decreasing in membership and increasingly viewed with skepticism by non-believers, are there any good reasons for aligning with a denomination rather than simply partnering with a network? (That is not a rhetorical question. I am really wondering.)

Question for God

If I get a Q & A session with God after this life is over, one of the first things I am going to ask him is why every church seems to come with its very own crazy tambourine lady. Is is it part of some cosmic equation? A bet between the powers that be? Or just a cruel joke?

Church Planting w/ Erwin McManus & Co. (pt 3)

This is the 3rd and final installment of my notes from last week's church planting class at Fuller Seminary with various leaders from Mosaic.

Octavio Martinez:

I am at a place where I just don’t care what people think of me unless they’re a non-believer.

I love my Christian brothers and sisters. But I just don’t care if they are worried that I am slipping from the faith, not focused enough on soul formation, or praying for me (or my demise) because I am meeting with a non-believer at a local bar in Whittier.

The church will actually become a reflection of you – your DNA, your virus, etc. You cannot ask people to do something you’re not doing. They are going to watch how you live. That is their only frame of reference. So you may be able to talk a great game about being missional, but if you’re not living it, it doesn’t matter.

Church Planting w/ Erwin McManus & Co. (pt 2)

This is 'part 2' of my notes from last week's church planting class at Fuller Seminary with various leaders from Mosaic.

Erwin McManus:

You cannot inspire passion when you start from a narcissistic core. It can’t be about your need to feel important, your need to be valued, your need to lead, etc. It has to be about what this tribe needs.

Passion and excitement are different. Lots of communicators can generate excitement. It is all about the moment, like fireworks. Passion is generated by sustained risk. Passion is generated by people watching how you live, what you are willing to risk.

When people sense that you are risking greatly for your own good, they might be willing to risk for their own good. But when you risk for the good of others, they will begin to risk for the good of others.

We need to stop asking what kind of church we want to plant, and start asking about the kind of world we want to create.