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What It's All About, Part II

As it turns out, my experience on the plane, Saturday, October 20, (see post entitled, What It's All About) was only the beginning of a historic week of salvations we were blessed to witness and record at Mosaic.

That same evening, we hosted an evangelistic crusade for the Latino community living in and around our church. Nicky Cruz was the featured speaker and that night, more than 40 people embraced Christ by faith.

The following day, Sunday morning, Dr. Daniel Sanchez served as a guest speaker at Mosaic and 12 more individuals responded to invitations to receive Christ offered at the end of both services.

By Thursday, October 25, Mosaic's short-term missions team in Antioch (East Asia) sent us a text message to say that they had led nine individuals to the Lord in a span of only four days, including a Muslim woman who was blind. This is truly remarkable; for when we began going to Antioch, there were only 100 known believers among the 9 million or so Asian Muslims in the entire country. Since Mosaic started targeting the city of Antioch (the true name of this town is intentioanlly withheld), however, God has used our people to help bring a dozen people to Himself.

But wait, there's more!

Cesar Ortega, Mosaic's Pastor of Latinos and Benevolnce, led a Guatemalan to Christ that same day, and by the end of the week, Amos Gray, Mosaic's Youth and Children's Pastor, reported that four had come to Christ after hearing him speak at a Lutheran high school in Nebraska.

All totaled then, some 67 people came to Christ via the efforts of our people from Saturday, October 20 through Friday, October 26! And I share such things not in anyway to boast, but only to comment once again on the power and pleasure of God that is uniquely displayed via a people who walk, worship and work together as one in Him via the local church. Indeed, it is the healthy multi-ethnic church that provides us the most effective means for reaching an increasingly diverse, sectarian and cyncial world in the 21st century.

What It's All About

When I first came to Christ and for many years after, I made it a point to share my faith at every turn. In fact, I would often turn otherwise benign conversations into an opportunity for the Gospel. And because of such efforts, I led many people to Christ. Through the years, however, I have become much more passive in this regard. It's not that I don't share my faith anymore, only that I am not nearly as intentional with strangers as I used to be.

That's why a recent experience was so personally inspiring.

On Saturday, October 19, I boarded a flight at 6:00 a.m. bound for Chicago on my way to Boston. As it turned out, the plane was delayed and we sat on the ground for about an hour due to a computer malfunction. I'm not kidding; after some investigation, the pilot told us we would be able to fly that day, but only after the sun came out! There are probably better ways to inspire confdence from the cockpit, don't you think?!

Anyway, as I happily entertained myself with a Sudoku puzzle, I soon noticed the woman (mid-50s) sitting next to me had nothing to read. In fact, at one point she lamented the fact that "of all days," she had packed her books in her luggage. So after reading the airline magazine and browsing the inflight shopping guide, she asked me how to play Sudoku and we struck up a conversation. At the "twenty-minute lull," however, it hit me. I had a book in my backpack she could read; it just happened, though, to be my own book ... my own first copy which had only arrived the day before.

At first, I resisted the temptation to share it with her for fear that it might seem self-promoting, etc. But then, I wondered ... perhaps she is not a believer and who knows, maybe there will be an opportunity to talk with her about Jesus.

And so I asked, "Do you like personal stories of life-change or transformation?" She said that she did and then, pointing her to such accounts at the end of each chapter, I handed her the book. In so doing, I did not at all call attention to the fact that I was the book's author. However, she began to read the introduction and after a while, somehow put it together.

"Is this you? she asked. "Are you the author?" Thus began a discussion about things much deeper than Sudoku!

To make a long story short, I shared Christ with the woman all the way to Chicago. And just as the plane was landing, this woman invited Christ into her life! "Though I have been to church in the past, I never heard such things before," she told me. "No one has ever explained this to me."

While only God knows for sure, from everything I could tell, this was a very authentic and uncoerced confession of faith. And since the woman and her husband live in the Little Rock area, I am hoping to see her at Mosaic soon.

But beyond what God did in her life that morning, it is what God did - or more specifically, rekindled - in me that day that stands out in reflection. Have I become so engrossed in the doing of all things spiritual that I too often neglect being spiritual myself? Though I am now a recognized leader of others, am I still eager to recognize and respond to the Holy Spirit's leadership in my own life, as well?

Good questions for me to address. Good ones, perhaps, for you to consider, as well.

Indeed, this is why I am so passionate about the multi-ethnic church, i.e., it's unique power and potential to advance the Gospel among the lost and disenfranchised on the 21st century. This is what it's all about! And through this experience, I have been reminded not to neglect individually what I am pusuing with others corporately; namely, evangelism. I hope you have been, too.

Why I Wrote the Book

Advance orders of Building a Healthy Multi-ethnic Church are now shipping from the warehouse and the book will be in stores by the end of the month. Recently, I was asked to comment on why I wrote the book. Here's what I said ...

"I wrote this book with a concern that individuals, church planters and reformers establish healthy mutli-ethnic churches built on the solid foundation of the word of God, i.e., a theology (or, ecclesiology) of church planting and development through which Jews and Gentiles walked, worked and worshipped God together as one.

"For more than fifty years, however, church planters and reformers have been encouraged to establish local churches built on the homogeneous unit principle, a principle which states that churches grow fastest when they are homogeneous. And despite the integration of public schools, the workplace and neighborhoods, the local church still stubbornly clings to homogenity. Yet as America grows increasingly diverse, it will be forced to adapt in order to remain relevant and effective in the proclamation of the gospel. Good intentions will not be enough to inspire systemic change.

"So while churches do indeed grow fastest when they are homogeneous, I am not at all certain that they do so biblically.

"In the twenty-first century, I believe it will be the unity of diverse believers walking as one in and through the local church that will proclaim the fact of God’s love for all people more profoundly than any one sermon, book, or evangelistic crusade. And I believe the coming integration of the local church will lead to the fulfillment of the Great Commission in this century, i.e., to people of every nation, tribe, people, and tongue coming to know him as we do."

This, then, is the core of the book's message. This is the prayer of Christ (John 17:20-23ff.).

Mike Leonzo / Living Water in the News

As faitfhul readers know, I post once a week on Wednesdays. Yet today, I'm providing a second post in light of a very nice article that featured the multi-ethnic ministry of Mosaix Global Network partner Mike Leonzo and Living Water Community Church in Harrisburg, PA. The article appeared this past Sunday, October 7, 2007, in The Patriot-News which, according to the paper's website, is Central Pennsylvania's leading news source reaching 436,300 readers weekly. Since Mike has also played the point on MGN's conference coming up this weekend (October 13) at Lancaster Bible College in Lancaster, PA, I thought I would pass along kudos for a friend and partner who is not only striving to build a healthy multi-ethnic church, but also serving to help catalyze the movement toward multi-ethnic churches throughout America and beyond. Congratulations, Mike!

Illustrating Ephesians 2:11-22

NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa, officials said. The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean, then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him.

"It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a 'mother'," ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park, told AFP.

"After it was swept away and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately , it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together," the ecologist added. "The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it followed its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother," Kahumbu added.

"The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers for four years," she explained."Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."

This is a real story that shows that our differences don't matter much when we need the comfort of another. Look beyond the differences and find a way to walk the path together.

"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen." (Ephesians 3:20, 21)

Updates on the Movement from Around the Country

On Saturday, October 6, more than 200 people will attend a Mosaix Global Network (MGN) Conference in Houston, Texas. My good friends, Pastor Ed Lee of Mosaic Community Covenant Church and Pastor Rodney Woo of Wilcrest Baptist Church, are among those who have worked long and hard to bring Mosaix to Houston. In fact, Rodney's enthusiasm was expressed in an email I received from him yesterday which read in part ...

Just wanted to drop you a line and let you know that as of today (October 2) we have approximately 230 people enrolled for the Mosaix Conference. Some of these are volunteers from Wilcrest and the other sponsoring churches. We are receiving calls every day. We were able to get on a the second largest Christian radio station in Houston and one of the largest secular radio stations for an hour in a talk show format. Pretty amazing.

By the way that day, I will be in Chicago speaking to 150 or so folks gathering for the 11th Bienniel Multi-cultural Ministries Seminar sponsored by the Multi-cultural Ministries Bureau of the Central Territory (Midwest region) of The Salvation Army.

I also heard today from Mike Leonzo, pastor of Living Water Community Church in Harrisburg, PA. Some 100-150 people are now expected to attend an MGN Conference scheduled for Saturday, October 13, to be held at Lancaster Bible College in Lancaster, PA. Our dear brother, Jonathon Seda, pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church in Dover, DE is also a part of the conference leadership team. Both multi-ethnic churches have other good news to report: Living Water, planted in 2001, has just moved into a 20,000 sq. ft. facility, the first they have built on 28 acres of land they own in a prime location just outside of the city; and Grace Presbyterian has just hired Kenny Foster, their first African American pastoral staff team member to oversee Community Outreach.

Congratulations to these faitfhul men who are puruing the multi-ethnic vision!

Congratulations are also in order for Pastor Richard Ellis, founder of Reunion Church in Dallas, Texas, which is celebrating it's 10th anniversary on Sunday, October 7. This multi-ethnic congregation meets each week at 10am in the Dallas Convention Center Theater, and following the service Sunday, everyone is invited to remain for lunch. Richard writes ...

It is amazing to look back over the past ten years and see how God continues to sustain this body of believers we call Reunion Church. Many lives have been affected and changed in so many ways. No one could have done it but God. We give him all the credit and glory due His name.

Elsewhere in DFW, Jim Spoonts, Executive Director of MGN, tells me that some 75 or so will attend an MGN Conference on Saturday, October 20, in Dallas/Ft. Worth. This is the fourth year in which MGN has conducted this conference in the area.

And finally, did you notice that our good friend, DJ Chuang, was quoted last week in a Los Angeles Times article entitled, Asian American Pators Often Minister Across Culture Gap? According to his blog, "the angle of this story was the challenges that 2nd generation pastors faced in doing ministry." It is not coincidental that within the last two weeks, the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor and now the Los Angeles Times have all called attention to the movement in one way or another!

It all goes to show as I state in my book, that " ... in the twenty-first century it will be the unity of diverse believers walking as one in and through the local church that will proclaim the fact of God’s love for all people more profoundly than any one sermon, book, or evangelistic crusade. And I believe the coming integration of the local church will lead to the fulfillment of the Great Commission, to people of every nation, tribe, people, and tongue coming to know him as we do. This, then, is the core of our message. This is the prayer of Christ."