The Origins Event (July 23-24 in Downtown L.A.)!

Posted on April 21, 2010

We hope you can join us for our inaugural event this summer in downtown Los Angeles!

Get all of the details here.

July 23rd – Serving the City (free opportunities)
July 24th – Conference at Club Nokia (register here)

The themes for the conference includes mobilizing for the mission of Jesus through creativity, activism, and equipping.

Presenters so far include: Amena Brown, Dan Kimball, Dave Gibbons, Erwin McManus, and Margaret Feinberg plus many others…

What are some questions you would like to be discussed during the conference?

What are some of the ways we can help mobilize those who come for the mission of Jesus?

How can we help those who come mobilize those in their sphere of influence?

The Divine Commodity (Free for Kindle)

Posted on April 20, 2010

Check out The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity by Skye Jethani. For a limited time, you can receive a free copy on your Kindle. Click here for this special deal!

Skye is part of the Origins Network and is most well known as the managing editor of Leadership Journal, a publication of Christianity Today International. . To listen in on a conference call with Skye that we did a few months back, click here.

“Thoughts on Calling” by Tim Morey

Posted on April 13, 2010

“Thoughts on Calling” by Tim Morey

Tim is pastor of Life Covenant Church in Torrance, CA and author of Embodying Your Faith: Becoming a Living, Sharing, Practicing Church

If we are to live into our calling, failure is necessary.  Often when failure comes (emphasis on when, not if) we see it as an aberration at best – a painful detour or distraction from our true calling.  We often feel that our failures detract from the efficacy of God’s call on our life, and commonly they shake our sense of whether we have understood God’s call at all.  At times we wonder if we have misheard God and need to move in another direction altogether.

But even when failure does lead to an adjustment in life direction, it does not occur outside the scope of our calling.  In God’s hand, failure, like a woodworker’s lathe, becomes a tool by which he shapes our lives and makes us fit for his purposes.  God uses our failures to purify our motives, to equip us with tools we didn’t know we needed, to adjust our direction when necessary, and to deepen our convictions on who we are and what we are called to do.

Consider Moses.  Moses was made for a purpose: to be a rescuer.  Even in his birth narrative there are hints to who he will become, and circumstances are sovereignly arranged in such a way that he grows up with a consuming passion to see his people freed from oppression.  In his first attempt to live this out, he fails dramatically, murdering an Egyptian and fleeing for his life.  How despondent he must have been – forever barred, so he thought, from living out the purpose for which he knew he was created.  But still his God-given shape came out.  When he sees some thugs bullying some young women as they draw water from the well, his rescuer-self comes to the surface and he drives the men away.

Might things have occurred differently for Moses and his people had he not killed the Egyptian?  Very likely yes.  But still God was at work.  For decades Moses lived and worked in the very wilderness in which he would lead his people in decades to come.  Moses didn’t know that rescuing his people would require him to have an intimate knowledge of the desert, but God did.  Even Moses’ failure contributed to the shaping of his call.

This morning we wrapped up a church planter assessment center, where, as always, some are recommended to go into church planting and some are not.  For many, not being recommended is received as a devastating declaration of failure.  It is not.

Today I’m remembering the pain of feeling certain God was calling me to plant a church yet not being able to do so.  I was about to graduate from seminary and Samantha and I were shocked to find that the church planter assessment center we attended not only recommended we plant, but urged us to do so as soon as possible.  We had an offer to plant a church to reach young adults in San Diego, and we were charging headfirst into it.  But soon the project began to unravel, allowing me to recognize the gnawing unease in my belly I was trying to ignore.  We backed out of the project.  The wound stung, and my already sizeable insecurities deepened.  But as I look back now I can see what I couldn’t see then: I wasn’t ready.  I was neither incapable nor especially immature, but there were experiences (both good and bad) over the next five years (spent as a staff pastor in a church in Los Angeles) that dramatically shaped my philosophy of ministry, my spiritual life, my leadership capabilities, the refining of certain gifts, etc.  Had we planted a church then it might have made it, but it would have almost certainly have come at great cost to myself, my family, and those I led.  I have no doubt that God in his grace would have used me, but taking that road likely would have brought much larger failures, and brought pain to many people.

God does not spare us from every failure.  This is not malice, but grace.  Through this tool we are further shaped into the image of Christ and moved deeper into our calling.

Free Teleseminar & Free Books

Posted on April 12, 2010

Eric Bryant is hosting a  free teleseminar on Wednesday, April 14th at 1:00pm Pacific Time (4:00pm Eastern) with Tim Morey and Renee Johnson.

SIGN UP FOR THE TELESEMINAR HERE

Tim Morey // 1:00-1:30pm Pacific Time

Tim Morey (M.Div., Bethel Seminary; D.Min., Fuller Seminary) is founding and lead pastor at Life Covenant Church in Torrance, California. He also serves on the Evangelical Covenant Church’s national church planting team and as an adjunct professor teaching practical theology at Talbot School of Theology. Learn more about Tim and his book, Embodying Our Faith: Becoming a Living, Sharing, Practicing Church, at http://embodyingourfaith.com/

Renee Johnson // 1:30-2:00pm Pacific Time

Renee Johnson is a nationally known speaker & writer for her 20-somethings generation. She is passionate about the struggles she has experienced through her own personal sufferings and has over 400 blog posts to prove it. Renee’s new devotional book, The Faithbook of Jesus is both relatable and inspiring, written for 20-somethings by a 20-something. Each devotional will have a daily verse, commentary, prayer, and a quote from a real 20-something. Learn more at www.devotionaldiva.com.

We are giving away 50 free copies of each of their books! You need to have a US mailing address to win. For Renee’s book you need to be willing to pay for shipping. Just email Belinda at belinda@mosaic.org. and provide her with your mailing address.

Listen to previous Teleseminars here!

Origins Project Forums

Posted on April 7, 2010

Join the conversation for the Origins Project Forums at http://originsproject.ning.com/!

New conversations include:

How hospitable is your church community? by Rob Schellert

Church in Schools? posted by Justin Ihara

Getting Free, Quality Bible Lessons for Those Who Need Them posted by Matt Dabbs

Recommend any good Christian Leadership magazine/journal? posted by Rob Schellert

Protect the Pulpit posted by Stephen Webb