For the first time, we will have 3 different types of groups for people to participate in. We will continue to make available semester long groups that are focused on a specific subject or book. These groups will continue to offer participants and leaders a group with less structure and a shorter time commitment (8-12 weeks). From now on, we’ll be calling these “Journey Groups.”

But we’re adding the option for new groups or existing Journey Groups to decide to be considered a “Family Group.” These new types of groups will be closed off at certain number, and will be encouraged to meet regularly for at least a year. They would hopefully be able to focus on multiple themes in a year. And it’s in these groups where we think things like deep spiritual growth and a fuller sense of community will be easier to experience.

Finally, we have the relatively new concept for us of Meetups. Meetups are ongoing groups that are the least structured and require the least amount of commitment. But they will be focused around interest or affinities – like a film discussion group, or gardening group.

To see all of the options available for this Spring, visit the Community page. But hurry, most new groups begin this week!

Any women are invited to show up, get to know each other better and have some fun. Jaime Graves is the point person for this meetup. So check with her for details on this month’s gathering.

• January 1st
• February 5th
• March 4th
• April 1st
• May 6th

This list will be sent quarterly financial updates no matter what state Mosaic’s finances are in. But there will also be a few triggers set in place that will cause an email to be sent. These triggers are:

1. if our account balance at the end of a month is $2000+ less than the balance at the end of the previous month
2. if we have spent $2000 or more than what we’ve taken in for that month
3. any time that we have to pull from our savings account or emergency fund
4. any time that the staff is late being paid

The list will automatically include anyone who is:

1. on a team at Mosaic
2. in a Journey or Family Group at Mosaic (but not Meetups)

But if you don’t fit those criteria and/or you would like to make sure you are on the list, you can email us and we’ll add you. Then, you hopefully wouldn’t hear from us until the normal finance update at the end of the quarter!

And, of course, just as with the Weekly Email list many of you are already on, you could unsubscribe at any time for any reason using the option at the bottom of each email.

• setting up the welcome table
• setting up the communion table
• getting chairs & tables in their places
• setting up the kids room
• turning on the screens
• communion table clean up
• furniture back to normal
• taking down the welcome table

There’s a lot more to these lists, but you get the idea. It is important work, and it’s not that hard to do when you are a part of a team. Heck, it could even be fun and help you get to know new people. With the staff a little smaller now, this help is more needed than ever. So if you’d be up for taking a shift once a month or so on the Setup Team, email Sam and let him know.

Hello, Richard here.

I am not the kind of guy to say “God did this” or “God told me to do that” or “God found me the best parking spot at the grocery store.”  I can, however, see that God has brought me on a specific journey over the last 3+ years.  I went from never wanting to work at a church again, to being a full time music pastor between Servant Church and Mosaic.  I’m not exactly sure what a “calling” is, even though I took an entire class on it at Fuller, but I can say confidently that I feel called to be serving at these two communities.

I look forward to what is in store for Mosaic, and I look forward to making more music with the Mosaic Band.  There are going to be some changes in the way that the band works.  For the most part, it has been the same six or seven people onstage most Sundays over the past couple of years.  I want to change that, no… WE want to change that.

Mosaic is blessed with lots of gifted artists and musicians and we want to start incorporating more of them into liturgies on Sundays.  If you are a musician and would like to play every once and a while please shoot me an email so we can get to know each other and see what it would take to get you more involved.

I’d also love to hear from you if you have experience running sound, or would be open to learning.

I, your pastor of Noise and Sounds, am going to start a monthly blog series in 2012.  I’m going to exercise my ‘Music Pastor’ muscles and talk about music, theology, and whatever.  What I’m not going to do is post about Christian bands making ‘Christian Music’ because if that’s the way they approach it it’s probably going to suck.  I also won’t be posting cool music trying to show that I am cool and I’m a Christian and Christians are cool and they’re relevant and you-should-be-one-too.

Here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to talk about whatever the hell I want and it might have to do with music, theology, Mosaic, or not.  I’ll try not to say stupid stuff all the time.

For today what I’ll do is talk about one of my favorite records of the last few months: Portamento by The Drums. Their last album was one of my favorite indie-pop albums, like, ever.  This one is ever indie-poppier.  What caught my interest the most, however, was the opening track, The Book of Revelation.

As some of you know, I spent much of my time in Seminary studying apocalyptic literature, theological anthropology, and the Book of Revelation. Chase Roden and I taught a Revelation class a couple of years ago, and I think it is absolutely my favorite text ever written.  It is not, as many seem to think, a timeline telling us what the end of the world will be like.  It is so much more beautiful than that, and so much more powerful.  It is an epic letter of encouragement to some desperate people who were being killed because of their faith in Christ.

Back to music; I remember back in high school when The Smashing Pumpkins’ classic Melloncollie and the Infinite Sadness was released. They played the song Zero a lot on the alternative stations.  During the breakdown there’s a line where Corgan whines ‘God is empty, just like MEEEEEEE’. I love singing along to my favorite songs, but was always quiet during that line. It was so hard for me to say those words.

Well, The Book of Revelation chorus so catchily says ‘Well I’ve seen the world and there’s no heaven and there’s no hell/And I believe that when we die we die/So let me love you tonight.’  At first I thought the same thing, I can’t sing this!  Then, after some calculated thought I decided that maybe I could.

I do allow for a Christian faith which states that heaven is not necessarily a place we get to go when we die. Instead, the hope of the New Testament Christian is physical resurrection in the new heaven and new earth (see Book of Revelation 21). Heaven is, instead, the place where God lives. Also, it has been clear for millennia that some Christians do not believe in a ‘hell’ with fire and brimstone and eternal damnation and all that business. Some believe that all will ultimately be ‘saved’ (whatever that means), and many believe that when you die you die, unless you are granted ‘eternal life’ at the resurrection.

I would probably fall into the latter camp, at least from a Biblical perspective. Here’s a paper I wrote in Seminary that shows you what I thought about the subject several years ago, someone please read it and remind me what I think about that.

After thinking about all of this, I don’t have a problem singing along to the Drums sometimes now. I have a feeling that we are singing these lyrics for different reasons though, as the singer is using the lack of an afterlife as an excuse for copulation. I can only agree, however, with lots of theological gymnastics and caveats.  Either way, listen to Portamento and listen loud, sing along if you like.

Elizabeth and Dave took time to interview each LT/staff person involved and then developed these stories with hopes it would be helpful in providing a glimpse of who we are as a community. They will soon be looking for new ways to tell stories about who we are through the lens of various Mosaicians.

On Saturday, December 24th at 6:30 pm we’ll have a Christmas Eve liturgy at Space12. This will be a shorter, simpler liturgy composed of music, readings, and candle lighting. If you are familiar with a Lessons & Carols service, it will look a lot like one of those. There won’t be any childcare. But kids are totally welcome. You can even bring them in their pajamas if you’d like so they can get right to bed when we are done around 7:15.

Then on Sunday, December 25th – Christmas Day – we will have our regularly scheduled liturgy at 5:00 pm at Space12. Come as we celebrate together the arrival of God’s gift to the world that is Jesus. It’s alright with us for you to wear pajamas on that night as well. Although we really shouldn’t make a habit of that type of thing.

*There’s really only about a 5% chance this will happen. But you should come anyway.

Along with her art, there will also be available a brand new coffee blend in her honor – “The Lodowski Blend.” And all of Elizabeth’s art sales along with the sales of “The Lodowski Blend” will go directly toward her living and medical expenses.

For more info on the event, check out the Facebook page. 

This Sunday, November 27th, we move into the new year of the church calendar as we enter into the season of Advent. Advent is a time of waiting and preparation as the church readies itself for the celebration of the incarnation. In the midst of the rush towards Christmas, our culture consumes more - more hurry, more buying, more stuff. But the church is invited instead to stop, breathe, and receive the gift of waiting. So our four liturgies leading up to Christmas will reflect this movement of the church, as we gather to wait, hope, and journey together.

It’s always a meaningful time for us. And if you’ve not had the chance before to experience the Advent journey with a community, we think Christmas and the gift it represents will mean all the more if you come along with us.

It will be held on Thursday, December 1st at St. David’s Episcopal Church, 301 E. 8th St, beginning at 7:00 pm.

All are invited to gather for this annual World AIDS Day service of remembrance, which marks one of many World AIDS observances for 2011. This service consists of reflection, music, drama, poetry, prayer and the annual AIDS Bell banner. The Care Communities sponsors this along with other HIV/AIDS organizations and the St. David’s community. If you know someone who is living with HIV/AIDS or has died from complications,  please join in this annual Service.

If you want details about the Service, please contact Roger Temme, Outreach Director for The Care Communities, at 512.459.5883 or e-mail at roger@thecarecommunities.org

Sad Accordions will be playing The Mohawk this Saturday night as part of ((sounder))’s record release show. Doors open at 9, and the show starts at 10. $6/$8 minors.

Then on Tuesday night, The Whiskey Priest will be headlining a show at The Carousel Lounge, along with our own Picardy the Third & B.Sterling. That show starts at 8.

Come join us for what will surely be two great nights of music, fun, and Seth Wood’s beard tugging!

From Sept 11-Oct 23, our community will take part in a season called Growing Young. We will together explore a new aspect of what it means for our church family to grow young together. You don’t want to miss this time! In the very least, you can expect some worshipful liturgies, a workshop (and more!) that would not put you -or the kid in you- to sleep.

We are super-excited about this season and hope you will participate in our Sunday liturgies or our Growing Young Workshop on October 15th.

A team of highly qualified therapists from The Center for Relational Care have agreed to guide us Mosaicians through a workshop on how to understand one another’s emotional needs, the needs of our church family’s kiddos, and how to help kiddos respond to their peers’ needs at their own level. This is a workshop intended to pertain to our ENTIRE church family; it is not only for parents or kids’ volunteers by any stretch.

We are happy to say Servant Church is partnering with us at this event as well!

Mark your calendars: Sat, Oct 15, 9am-3:30pm at Servant Church on Cherrywood and 38 1/2 Street.

*Childcare provided for the portions of the workshop where they are not included.

Come to Space12 on September 3rd at 3:30pm for a crash course in this style of renegade media. Some supplies will be provided, but please feel free to bring paper, staplers, old magazines/books/photos/posters/etc that can be destroyed, markers/pens, tape/glue, scissors/xacto knives/whatevss… or if you wanna get fancy, your laptop and digital camera.

There is a small chance we’ll reschedule the Sept 18 meeting if we feel attendance will be compromised much by ACL. Each meeting will be scheduled to happen just before or just after liturgy; more details on all this to come!

Sunday, August 21
3:30pm
Space12