Mosaic Niagara fall update

"If you want to know who God is, look at Jesus. If you want to know what it means to be human, look at Jesus.  If you what to know what love is, look at Jesus.  If you want to know what grief is, look at Jesus.  And go on looking until you're not a spectator, but you're actually part of the drama which has him as the central character." 

N.T. Wright as quoted in the preface of ReJesus by Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost

I've said it before and I will say it again - I'm a bad blogger.  My last post was in April when the snow was almost gone and the grass was just starting to green up.  Now here it is the end of November.  Summer is long gone, the leaves have largely turned colour and many trees are already pretty bare.  Where does the time go?

Since my last post, Kim and I continue to volunteer with Beyond the Streets Welland and we have joined the BTS Team which helps lead it.  We have met and continue to meet such amazing people as we serve here.  The team and volunteers are such beautiful and selfless people who give so much of themselves for the sake of others who no expectation of anything in return.  We also love meeting the friends who come for the weekly meal as well as groceries and clothes distribution.  They are walking through significant challenges of many different kinds but despite that, they are amazing people and have lots of love and friendship to give to each other and to us. 

I continue to be part of the Kinsmen Club of Fonthill & District and they have (foolishly 😉) elected me President for this year.  It is a genuine privilege to work with this group of men, to have fun with them and to serve the community together.  Kim continues to work as an EA at a school in Welland.  It is hard work - often very challenging and energy draining - but she loves the students at that school and shines as brightly as she can with them.  

As you probably know already, our hope for Mosaic Niagara is to discover a way of doing and being the church of Jesus that is different than the traditional way.  Church isn't a building and it isn't that thing that we do in the building on Sunday mornings or any program.  Church is people and we want Mosaic Niagara to be Jesus centred and people focused.  In that way, we believe we can more intentionally focus on helping people grow as followers of Jesus without the pressures and distractions that maintaining and paying for buildings, programs and staffing can sometimes carry with them.  That is why we envision Mosaic Niagara to be a network of smallish, family sized groups of people doing life and faith together and why we intend not to have weekly Sunday worship, paid spiritual leadership or buildings that require money and people power to maintain.   

My time as interim Pastor at the Vineland UM Church is shortly coming to an end.  And it has been a genuine joy to work with and serve these people.  I don't know what will be next after this in terms of work but we are trusting God since this position is currently the bulk of my salary.  I will continue to drive school bus I can't earn enough to make a living doing that.  So we wait, seek and pray.

I love the quote from N.T. Wright at the top of this blog and in all of the different contexts that I've described to you, we are trying to be part of the drama that reveals Jesus.  Our hope is that people will catch glimpses of Jesus in us and that in seeing Jesus, they will see God find relationship with Him.  

I believe that some of the relationships we have been developing are deepening and feel like I can see the beginnings of our first family group for Mosaic Niagara.  The next few weeks will tell.  We appreciate your support through your interest and prayer for us.