When moving to a new place one of the first things I do is find a church. Before moving back to California I already knew the first church I was going to check out. I have been to Mosaic once before a little over 2 years ago at their Beverly Hills campus. Â What drew me there in the first place was Erwin McManus.
I have been listening to Mosaic’s podcast for at least three years. And I read one of McManus’ books, “Wide Awake.” I respect McManus’ and have learned a lot from him over the years. I checked to see which campus is the closest to where I was moving. It happened to be at The Mayan; a night club in downtown Los Angeles. It’s at 7PM. I love that! For some reason Sunday nights are much more appealing than mornings…maybe its me wanting to sleep in, haha.
I happened to get to church more than an hour before service. Why? Because I couldn’t find any parking at my apartment complex. I had never been there before, so I gave myself plenty of time in case I got lost. It’s super easy to get to and 10 minutes from my place.
The closest Starbucks is a 5 minute walk, so that’s where I killed my time. When I got back to The Mayan, the greeters handed me 2 things. One was the info. card/notes/announcements (I think. I know it had the info. card, but I can’t find it now to see what else was on it). And here is the other paper:
I found out at the end of the service what it was all about. Chick-Fil-A contacted McManus to help them create a video to inspire leaders. McManus threw out a few ideas and they finally decided to highlight a 5-year-old boy (I can’t remember his name). He came to Mosaic to raise money to buy backpacks for kids who don’t have one. For the video they were re-telling the story. They needed to film an audience cheering for him. And that’s what we became 🙂 We did about 8-10 takes of clapping for different scenarios. So…be on the lookout, haha. I have no idea where it will actually be shown, so it’s not that big of a deal, but still cool to be a part of it and hear a little bit of the story.
Moving on. The way everything is set-up is clever. There is an option for everyone. First are seats in rows like most churches do. Behind those are bar tables with stools. On the higher level are a couple of rows of chairs and tables/stools behind them. And then there is a balcony. I didn’t go up there, so not sure how the layout is. They used a bar area as their connection table.
The doors didn’t open till 7. I don’t know if they do that every week or if they had to close it off because of filming.
The decor of the Mayan is pretty cool. Lots of faux rock walls. They don’t use it, but there is ginormous disco ball above the stage. A DJ is in the corner mixing some great beats for the background music. And they have ushers/greeters around to direct people to seats once the service is started. It was FULL. There were people standing in the back. I made a mental note…make sure to show up on time.
Worship was really good. It was led by the guy that does worship for their San Diego campus. I only knew one song, but I really liked the others. The song I knew was Phil Wickham’s “Cannons,” so that should tell you a little bit about his style.
Erwin came out and did his message. Many of you who go to church know there are times you go into a service and it’s like someone told the pastor what you are going through. That of course happened to me tonight. The series they’re in is “Narrative: Live Your Story.” Â Basically McManus is sharing stories about parts of his life to encourage us. He began talking about James 1:2 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials.” He moved into Jesus’ trial where Jesus quotes Deuteronomy saying: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”
These are the verses I needed to hear. This is what I need encouragement on. Whenever I make big decisions fear and doubt creep in. I’m sure I’m not the only one. So, of course that is what I am struggling with now. Finding a job is probably the biggest stress factor in my life. If I can’t find a job, then I’m going to feel like a failure, like I made the wrong decision, etc., etc.
Instead of stressing I need to trust in God and cling to “every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Stressing is going to get me nowhere. I know that.  All I can do is apply to as many jobs as I find, enjoy the time I have living the life of leisure, and learn how to be a frugal gal 🙂
It was a great message and McManus shared a lot of cool stories of some of his trials and how God provided, so I would encourage you to listen. Here is the link to the podcast. Look for the 1/23/11 message, but all of his messages are good of course.
It is way past my bedtime and I am going to visit some of the cutest twin girls tomorrow, so until next time…PEACE OUT!
The One... 