I’ve been writing about the Generosity Initiative at Mosaic. It’s been going really well in the pre-launch and private phase. In just a couple weeks, we’ll start the public phase. We had this super short preview video, almost like a commercial, created to promote things and get people excited. Check it out! It’s really fun to see this stuff coming to life on the screen after so many months of work.
Earlier this year, I had the chance to teach twice at the first ever Acts 29 Conference in Guatemala. My friends at Casa De Libertad hosted the event. The Holy Spirit’s presence was palpable. We all had the overwhelming feeling that God was in the process of doing something unique at this event, and in Guatemala . . . all of Latin America really. Yancey Arrington was one of my fellow conference speakers. He writes about this sense of God’s timing on HIS BLOG. Acts 29 was in the process of making a new website, so they took awhile to get around to posting the video. Disclaimer: this was my first time teaching through an interpreter! I co-taught this session with Jay Bauman who leads Acts 29 Brazil. I got to visit Jay’s church in Rio De Janiero last fall while teaching at another Acts 29 Conference there. My church also has the privilege of supporting financially all that Jay is leading in Brazil.
I’ve been writing about the generosity initiative that Mosaic Church is launching later this year. I’ve shared the process we went through in deciding to get some outside help. Then I shared the four basic stages of the plan. And lastly, I shared the way we came to choose the name and subtitle. We landed on calling our generosity initiative GET LOUD-Let’s Actually Change Our World. With the language decided on, we needed to figure out the look of it all.
Earlier this year, I had the chance to teach twice at the first ever Acts 29 Conference in Guatemala. My friends at Casa De Libertad hosted the event. The Holy Spirit’s presence was palpable. We all had the overwhelming feeling that God was in the process of doing something unique at this event, and in Guatemala . . . all of Latin America really. Yancey Arrington was one of my fellow conference speakers. He writes about this sense of God’s timing on HIS BLOG. Acts 29 was in the process of making a new website, so they took awhile to get around to posting the video. Disclaimer: this was my first time teaching through an interpreter!
What’s in a name? Can’t we just go before the people, tell them the needs and leave it at that? Do we really need to come up with a name and a logo? I asked myself these questions earlier this year as Mosaic church began planning it’s generosity initiative with the help of Generis and ultimately I realized that your people need an identity to attach to vision. It’s the way our minds have been trained to work in our culture, and to be honest it’s just good shepherding to communicate clearly. We spent a couple months working on the look and language of our generosity initiative. Here is how that went.
Each summer, our Lead Pastor goes away on vacation for three weeks in a row. I love knowing that he does not worry about the church while he’s away because he knows that there is a great team in place back home. I usually cover the pulpit at least once while he’s gone. We are in the book of Acts, so I picked it up at Acts 19:21-41 teaching on how the Gospel Confronts Idolatry. You can catch the audio, or the video below.
Last week I had the opportunity to spend the week with 175 middle and high school students from Mosaic Church. It’s not something I would usually do. Was it worth my time? I don’t have a particular calling to students and I have no unique gifting with teenagers. But when our student ministry pastor asked me to consider going, I prayed about it, and decided that it was in fact, a good use of my time even though I’m in one of the busiest seasons of my working life.
Earlier this year I wrote about our churches decision to hire a company that specializes in Generosity Initiatives. We are now well into the planning on this process and I’d have to say that it has gone extremely well. Our tasks are on track. The project is moving forward and we have greater clarity overall. Generis and our rep, Chris Willard have done a great job.
I’m kind of an organized guy. I might be a little obsessed. I don’t have a problem though. I can stop anytime I want to. Really. To me, knowing what you need to get done in a day, or a week, or a month, is really important. So I use a list app called Wunderlist. Let me tell you what I’ve found works for me.
Gospel centered vision + Spirit led implementation leads to health. Health leads to growth. Growth leads to lack of space. Lack of space leads to a call for more space. Call for more space leads to a need for more financial fuel. The need for more financial fuel leads to . . . well, that’s where the real confusion sets in. Do you hire a generosity company or go it alone? How much will it cost? Is it really worth it? These are hard questions that every growing church faces.
I am one of those weird people that has been blessed with incredible clarity about my role on this planet. I know what I’m supposed to do with my life. Outside of my faith and my family, I’m supposed to help bring vision into reality. It’s that simple and easy (which is to say, it’s incredibly complex and difficult). I help bring vision into reality in my own local church as an Executive Pastor, and I help bring vision into reality outside of my church by coaching, speaking at conferences and now writing books.
Okay, you won’t make millions of dollars. That was a straight up lie. I’m sorry to have disappointed you.
BackstagePastors.com is designed to be a website for Pastors who spend most of their time off stage. This is the place where you’ll find super practical articles on all sorts of ministry related needs and issues. Right now it’s new, but I hope to see a large group of writers develop in this space. Discipleship Pastors, Missions Pastors, Operations guys, etc. etc. If you want to write about preaching prep or leading worship, you’ve come to the wrong place, but if you want to write about facilities and budgets and counseling and HR and . . . you get the point . . . this is your place. Let me tell you how it works.
The Bible is clear that we should care for widows and orphans and my church is pretty awesome at caring for orphans. In the last three years, our people have adopted nearly 100 children into forever homes. But up until recently, we have not put too much focus on the other half of the verse-caring for widows. I’m trying to be a catalyst for change on that front and to kick-start that effort, I spent a weekend teaching on it at our gatherings.
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Phil Taylor
My name is Phil. I spent 20 years pastoring (mostly executive pastoring) and now I serve churches all over through consulting on buildings and brands at Plain Joe Studios and coaching Executive Pastors. My wife and I have three kids and one grandchild. I’m into running and kayaking.
