create the world you want to live in

I might word it differently now but I could, and would, still say the exact same things.

I recently interviewed Ashley on the podcast and she said when she and Naeem moved to Charlotte to start Mosaic, it was their chance to create the world they wanted to live in. That has stuck with me because it’s true for so many things.

Not only do we have the opportunity to change ourselves, we can also make change. Instead of saying “I hope things get better. I hope someone does something about this. I hope life isn’t like that for my children.” we have the power to make change. To create the world we want to live in.

Naeem & Ashley, thank you for leading us to be a consistent church. The fact that our mission & vision still align to the original idea God gave you is only confirmation that we’re following His leading (instead of fads, trends, numbers or so many other things that try to redirect us). Our tag line may have changed a few times, but Mosaic is still full of open & accepting people and a passionate pastor - now pastors! - who allow anyone to come in as they are, without requiring anything from them.

I’m not the kind of person who credits God with every single thing that happens in life. As people who have been given freewill, I wholly believe we have an enormous amount of freedom to make choices and live into any manner of direction in our lives. God is not a puppeteer pulling strings and controlling our moves; we have autonomy over our actions. That being said, I can look back on my life and see distinct times that His hand was present. Some of them were His protection, where the result of a poor choice I made should have ended very differently. Other times His spirit so loudly guided me that I felt it physically in my body or undoubtedly in my soul. Moving to Charlotte was one of those times for me.

God brought me to Charlotte and I can list a variety of reasons why. But I believe the main one was to be part of this team. To learn and grow and deconstruct and reconstruct and lose myself and find myself and lose my religion and find Him all within the confines of a safe and loving people who know and preach a safe and loving God who can handle it all. To open my eyes to what church can and should look like and proclaim it from the rooftops until the whole city knows it, too.

Here’s to the next 15, Mosaic. Thank you for trusting me so. It is truly my honor and my joy to be in your lives. Let’s keep putting our hope into action to create a world that looks more like Jesus.