If you’ve been at Mosaic for any period of time, you’ve likely heard my conversion-to-faith-in-Christ story a time or two (or three!). That’s because it was THE pivotal moment of life.
So much of what I am now–the relationships I have, the career I am in, the field of study I have chosen, the person I married–can be traced to a single night on a college campus in a small chapel.
I was so thankful to have encountered the living presence of Christ in such a powerful way, and so thankful to be freed from sin’s grip, that it was only months later when I began to ask:
How did this group get here?
Why was this group of students gathered?
Where did it come from?
As it turned out, that group (now known as Every Nation Campus) was there because one individual (and his family) decided to go.
They decided to go from Los Angeles to Houston, Texas, and to the University of Houston to begin a new campus ministry, and they trusted God to impact lives there with the power and love of Jesus.
That trajectory and those words: from, to, and go, encapsulate an overarching, life-changing theological theme in the Christian Scriptures: the theme of mission.
Perhaps you have heard of something called the Imago Dei. Translated from Latin as “the image of God,” Imago Dei captures who we are: precious, unique, and worth caring for.
More recently, theologians have “discovered” a parallel theme: something called “Missio Dei,” meaning “the mission of God.”
Missio Dei is the big idea that the God of the Bible is a God of mission; He is missional at his core, and therefore He has sent His Son, who has sent His Spirit, who has sent His church into the world (that’s you and me!).
If Imago Dei captures something ontologically unique about us (our design), Mission Dei captures something teleologically unique about us (our purpose). These twin ideas hold in tension our “being” and our “doing.”
Without a deep sense of mission, churches and ministries (like people) wither, bicker, fragment, and decline.
I’m thankful to say that, just like my first campus pastor back at the University of Houston, Mosaic sees itself as being “sent.” We do not exist for our own benefit but for the benefit of others!
The crucial value of mission (the last topic in our We Have a Part to Play series), and what I believe is an exciting opportunity to live that value out in a brand new way, is what we will be talking about this Sunday.
I hope you’ll be there to hear an exciting vision cast for where we will be going in 2026 (you read that correctly) and how we get there.
Thanks for being on this journey together–we really do have a part to play for good and for God in the world.
Morgan Stephens, DMin
Lead Pastor
P.S. We’ll be on God’s mission, inviting the community to our annual Fall Festival this Sunday! There are a few more volunteer spots I wanted to remind you about and note that access to the church from Highway 183 will be closed that afternoon after services. Come on around to Jekel Circle!