“Betting It All” by Amena Brown (Origins Event DVD)

Posted on September 30, 2010

“Betting It All” by Amena Brown (Origins Event 2010)

An excerpt from the Origins Event DVD which includes 2 discs with speakers, panels, and small group questions based on the July 24th Origins Event plus a round table discussion with several leaders of the Origins Project. The Origins Event DVD includes almost 3 hours of footage and will be great for leadership development and for small groups!

Some of those included in the Origins Event DVD include:

Margaret Feinberg
Dan Kimball
Dave Gibbons
Erwin McManus
Alan and Debra Hirsch
Rick McKinley
and many others…

To see other clips from the Origins Event DVD, go here!

To order The Origins Event DVD for $49 (includes shipping and handling to US addresses), contact belinda@mosaic.org.

Origins Conference Call with Mark Russell (10/5)

Posted on September 27, 2010

Join us on Tuesday, October 5th from 1-2pm (PST) for a free conference call with Mark Russell, founder and CEO of Russell Media.

Mark has done extensive work in areas of poverty, microfinance and other economic development initiatives in over 70 countries. He is the author of The Missional Entrepreneur the co-author of Routes and Radishes and Other Things to Talk About at the Evangelical Crossroads, and editor and publisher of Our Souls at Work: How Great Leaders Live Their Faith in the Global Marketplace. Recently Mark spoke at The Origins Event in Los Angeles.

Mark will be giving away copies of some of his books through the Origins October newsletter. If you aren’t already signed up, sign up here!

“Love Up Close” by April Diaz

Posted on September 24, 2010

April Diaz is a Fuller Youth Institute Advisory Council member and serves as the Next Gen Pastor at Newsong Church in Irvine, CA.

Love can’t love from a distance. I’ve already been asked a few times “why are you adopting from Ethiopia?” or “why are you going to Malawi with Newsong?” It’s because Love is up close. It’s personal. It doesn’t admire or gaze at a distance. It gets down and dirty. It requires sacrifice. It takes a leap of faith. It’s rarely comfortable.

Easter is a glaring, moving reminder to me of the incarnate Love of our God who came to be with us. He could have done everything from heaven. He could’ve written a check.  He could’ve sent someone else in his place.  He could’ve made excuses about why it wouldn’t work this time.  He could have taken care of it all from a distance. But he didn’t. He chose to be close to us, at the greatest cost imaginable.

A couple years ago, my husband and I did most of our home study paperwork for our adoption. Ugh. But even as I was filling out the tedious questions about our finances, our marriage, our work, I was reminded that Love is up close and personal.

Several months ago we returned from a trip to Malawi. Not to hang with Madonna. To capture a glance of God’s activity in his people there. And to see how our community can be a blessing for the next 10-15 years in that community. It cost us a lot — time, money, comfort, humility. It’s cost our friends and family something. But Love requires us to get close.

Working with youth, the misfits of our culture, requires us to get close.  Sometimes closer than we’d like with a 12 year old boy who’s yet to discover the miracle of deodorant.  Close to families whose lives are falling apart, but would never want anyone in the church to know about it.  It requires working more nights, weekends, and uncomfortable times during emergencies or teaching moments.  It requires us to sleep in cabins and eat raunchy camp food as adults.  But love gets down and dirty by proving itself.  Not just saying “I love you.”

I love you, Baby Ethiopia. Your daddy and I promise to love you up close.

I love you, Africa.  You teach me so much about God our Mother.

I love you, Evolve & Fusion students at Newsong.  Willingly I will give myself to you so you will know my Jesus more.

Help me love you up close more and more, because I know I’m not so good at it today.

Check out more about Love Up Close .

Crave: The Documentary (As Seen at the Origins Event)

Posted on September 21, 2010

We showed Crave: The Documentary at the Origins Event in July. It is a powerful film Erwin McManus created which moves conversations from social to spiritual. Take a look at the trailer:

Mosaic LA Soul Cravings Preview from Mosaic LA on Vimeo.

You can purchase the Soul Cravings Church Kit and the Soul Cravings Prequel online at the Power to Change Resource Centre or call 1-800-667-0558.

Not Like Me Giveaway!

Posted on September 20, 2010

The Free Resource

To celebrate the release of the new Not Like Me book and Not Like Me website, Zondervan is giving away 15 copies to the Origins Project community!

Not Like Me: A Field Guide to Influencing a Diverse World by Eric Bryant helps followers of love, serve, and reach people with whom we might differ, disagree, or even dislike. The new website includes the resources you need for a sermon series or small group series. The site includes articles, short films, small group materials, sermon transcripts, assessments, and other resources.

The winners include: Jim G. from GA, Chris C. from MO, Chip A. from CO, Kendall P. from NC, Matthew S. from CA, Emory D., Chris M. from GA, Wallace H. from MI, David B. from ID, Andrew B. from GA, Cherie from TX, Sandra from CA, Theresa S., and Eddie F.

If you have a resource you would like to give away for free to the Origins Project community, contact belinda@mosaic.org.

Origins Project Online Forums

Posted on September 20, 2010

The Online Forums

Fantastic and insightful conversations happening in the Origins Online Forums. Learn or add your thoughts to the following:

Christians Working in Cross-Cultural Business and Leadership from Tara Russell

New Strategies from Jesse Ross

Protect the Pulpit from Stephen Webb

The Biggest Challenge Facing Evangelicals: An Interview with Scot McKnight Part 1 from Margaret Feinberg

What’s in a Name? by Phil Niemi

Feedback of Origins Event 2010 from Dave Gibbons

Join the conversation at the Origins Online Forums!

Origins Project Blog

Posted on September 17, 2010

The Blog

Origins Project Conference Call – Eric Bryant & Goodie Goodloe

Posted on September 15, 2010

The Conference Call

Origins Project September Newsletter

Posted on September 15, 2010

The recent Origins Project newsletter just went out!

In it you will find information about some of the latest from the Origins Project including some of the recent forums, recent blog posts, the new Origins Event DVD, a conference call, and a free book giveaway!

Keep your eyes open for future newsletters for new updates on events and opportunities! If you would like to receive our free email newsletters, you can sign up here.

Check out the entire newsletter here!

“Party in Lancaster City” by Nathan Kilgore

Posted on September 13, 2010

Nathan and Katie live in Baltimore, MD with their two children, Maria and Justice. You can contact Nathan by emailing contact@nathankilgore.com or visit him at http://www.nathankilgore.com.  Nathan writes:

“I’m a country boy. I grew up on a small farm in southern Pennsylvania. Five other people lived on our road, and they were all farmers, most of them had my last name.  Building relationships with my neighbors was never a challenge in my hometown. But when I got married, my wife suggested that we live in the city. Although the thought terrified me, love brushed my hesitations aside.

For the first year of our marriage, Katie and I lived in Baltimore City. We spent most of the year fixing up our house. Painting the walls, refinishing the floors, replacing old corroded pipes kept us busy days (and nights). Over the year we had met a few of our neighbors. Yet our conversations and thoughts of them usually consisted of,

“Hey, what’s that guys name again who lives beside us?” I’d ask.  “Ummm…I think it’s Ron…yeah, his name is Ron.” Katie would reply.  “Oh. I saw him the other day.”   I’d say, because it was quite unusual that we would
even see our neighbors.  “Did you talk to him at all?” Kate would ask.  “Nah, not really. I said, ‘hey’ when we walked past each other at Home Depot. Does that count?”  “Nah. Not really.” She’d say.  After a short year of living in Baltimore City, Katie and I moved to Lancaster City. I took an Associate Pastor position at a white suburban church just outside of the city.  At my final interview, the Sr. Pastor told me he was looking forward to me bringing  the suburban and the urban populations together. Kate and I were excited, and so we immediately moved into the predominately Hispanic city of Lancaster,  surrounded by a mix of suburban, rural and Amish communities.

Katie and I were optimistic. Moving into the city, we immediately began building  relationships with our neighbors on our street. We found the Hispanic culture  surrounding us to be especially friendly and communal. Katie and I would go for  long walks at night down our street, stopping along the way to talk with our  neighbors sitting on their porches. Getting our suburban congregation on board  with the idea of building  relationships with those in their neighboring city would  prove frustrating tedious. I began to wonder if the only way to get the folks in our suburban congregation to intentional build relationships with those in the city was  for them to fall in love. After all that’s what broke me out of my comfort zone.

Being quite discouraged, a friend of mine recommended the book to me,  “Peppermint‐Filled Piñatas.” Just a few days after ordering it online, I dove into the  book and found myself buried in the book, breaking the silence in our living room every now and then saying, “Yeah…that’s right…Amen…preach it!”  I especially enjoyed the chapter, “Partying to Expand our Influence.” Since Katie and  I both were raised as Pastor’s Kids, the idea of showing our neighbors that us church  folk knew how to have a good time seemed to resonate with us. But most of all, by  this time I was tired of creating programs and strategies to motivate our  congregation to build relationships with those in the city. I was beginning to become  convinced that I was going to have to lay the foundation myself for such a ministry  initiative, reaching out to my neighbors myself in a way that was tangible and  practical.

So we threw a party. A block party. Over a period of a couple of months we saved up  a few hundred dollars for supplies. I went to a rental company and got a Moon  Bounce and snow cone machine. A friend of mine came over with his DJ equipment and pumped some tunes. We took an old piece of poster board and hung it in front of our house the day of the party and wrote on it in huge letters, “BLOCK PARTY TODAY AT 4:30PM. EVERYONE WELCOME.” Then, as the kids were getting out of school and walking down the street, they noticed the snow cone machine sitting in our yard and the Moon Bounce. I shouted to them, “The party starts at 4:30. Come on over, and bring your parents and friends! Anyone can come, it’s totally free!”

Within an hour our tiny yard was packed with over a hundred people. People were introducing themselves, laughing and telling stories about the neighborhood. A lady from the church donated pulled pork sandwiches and hot dogs, and members from our church small group each brought some sort of side dish. I’ll never forget the things that people said to me that night. One person asked, “Why are you doing this?” Another person commented, “I’ve lived on this street my entire life and nobody has ever done anything like this before for us.” One couple that lived a few houses down from us came and admitted, “We’re so glad you are doing this…we’re Christians and we’ve talked about doing this for a long time, but never got around to doing it.”

Over the next several months, Katie and I continued to reap the benefits of the block party. Our neighbors new our names, and we knew theirs! Kids started coming over to our house after school, offering to help Katie plant flowers or walk our dog. Guys from the house next door came over one night and had a poker night in my dining room, and we invited a family down the street to come over for dinner one night, and later discovered that they moved to the city ten years ago from a small African country. “We’ve been here for over ten years,” they said, “and no one has ever asked us to come over for dinner.” About six months ago, there was a tragic shooting on our street. A man was shot right in front of our house, and a few families on our street were evicted days later. The bloodstain from the shooting marked the road and sidewalk directly in front of our house. The next night, Katie and I hung a big piece of poster board on our front porch. This time it read, “Prayer For Our Neighborhood Tonight. 7pm. Everyone Welcome.” I was shocked when people gradually started showing up. It wasn’t long before we were all sitting in a gigantic circle in our yard, right where the Moon Bounce had been sitting months before. I thanked everyone for coming, and opened in prayer, encouraging others to talk to God either silently or out‐loud. Their response and participation was amazing, and I knew that for several of them it was the first time in their lives that they had ever talked to God.”



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