This weekend, Mosaic in Los Angeles hosted the Mosaic Conference.
Mosaic MSC led in worship with many of the songs from their new album – Glory and Wonder.
Erwin McManus spoke an inspiring and powerful message called “Breathe.”
Here are notes from Erwin’s message:
As speakers, our goal is actually to create an encounter with God.
You cannot communicate something that is not inside of you.
Erwin creates a message by connecting deeply with Jesus, listening to His voice, and considering passages from the Scriptures already memorized.
Be aware of people who need to be on stage.
Someone asked Erwin: “How did end up becoming a preacher?”
Erwin: “I guess I had something to say. I discovered things that God wanted to say through me.”
More information is not deeper. Depth comes from a relationship with Jesus.
Two most boring people are those who have never suffered and those who are stuck in their suffering.
Go through a door that scares you!
Open up your imagination to allow God to fill your mind with the future He wants you to create.
Historically, Christianity has assumed the worst about the future and became a hopeless religion. The best we could do was hoping for life after death.
Instead, we should live in the ideal and call others to do the same.
4 Keys to Creating a Powerful Message:
Prayer, Scripture, Experience, and Imagination
5 Environments to create as a speaker:
The Roman Empire was turned upside down before the New Testament was pulled together. The Church was the living New Testament!
Share our lives through the Scriptures.
We need to become better storytellers – telling the story of God at work in and through our lives.
1. Earth –
In Jesus’ parable of the soils, the soil is the human heart. The essence of who you are is your character. When we communicate, people are trying to decide if they should trust us. The measure of our authenticity comes down to our willingness to share our lives with others.
All we have is what Jesus is doing in our lives as proof He is
Never use the stage for your own personal therapy. We don’t speak because we need others to help us but because others need us to be more honest to help others.
The best communicators in the world break through their need to protect themselves and instead give the gift of knowing them.
Do people know the information but not know you?
Take your ego off the table and let people see your own journey. They need to see the process I went through to get where I am.
Inauthenticity comes from fearing we are inadequate. Embrace being inadequate and know God can use you anyway!
2. Fire
For what are you willing to die? What makes you mad?
If you don’t have an ideal worth your life, then it’s not worth talking about.
If Scott Harrison hadn’t had a fire for providing water for people then Erwin would never had the concern.
Fire will always consume dry wood. You can’t run from a fire when you are a tree.
Set a fire!
We are always trying to put out fires in our church because we don’t have a fire within us big enough to consume the smaller fires.
We aren’t angry enough. We are too passive in a world of injustice.
We keep the people who are easy to manage. Sometimes the people who create the most crises can also be the ones who create the most momentum.
3. Water
The organic connection with people. The speaker is speaking to you rather than at you.
Jesus told the woman at the well He was the living water because the woman needed water.
Jesus used the language of the people to whom He was reaching out.
Unfortunately, Christians use language that the world doesn’t understand.
We are baptized into the community of Jesus.
Communication comes from the same root word as communion.
Without communion, we lack the ability to communicate.
Perhaps Adam and Eve communicated without words until the Fall.
Too often people use words to hide.
God can take over the conversation when we create the space for Him to do so.
Our soul travels faster than our brain. God is speaking. They maybe listening to the speaker, but they are hearing from God.
4. Wind
When we walk with God and develop relationships with others, before they realize it, they have begun a conversation with God.
We feel we have to say the same thing the same way or else we may be considered a heretic. As a result, we’ve lost the ability to see the new because we’ve disconnected from God’s heart.
God said He is doing a new thing, but Solomon said there is nothing new under the sun.
Who do you believe?
Every time you come to the Scriptures, come with open eyes and an open heart.
Allow the Spirit to guide!
We need to retranslate our beliefs to match God’s Word.
We are designed to see the invisible!
We need to allow God to give us a fresh insight to help people see God and themselves differently.
5. Wood
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick.”
Cast vision on life change AND show them how!
Consider The Anvil and The Hammer at the back of Artisan Soul.
Three narratives that are really important:
1. The narrative of intimacy.
Is there anywhere that I belong? Is there anyone with whom I belong?
Every human being needs to know they are loved.
People need to belong before they believe.
The Church needs to become inclusive rather than alienating the very people we are to reach.
It doesn’t mean you agree with every decision they make, but they are still loved.
2. The narrative of meaning.
We intrinsically need to believe.
Cliche answers do not help people come to faith. Let people come with their doubts and questions.
Be honest when you don’t know.
The Scriptures tell us about God and tell us about humanity.
The Church is to help people find meaning not dispense information.
The Church lost its voice in the world because we stopped being trustworthy.
3. The narrative of progress.
Can I create the life I long for?
Is there a future in my future?
Can we become the person we want to be?
Humans live beneath our intention.
The human ideals are the phantom pain of what it means to be created in the image of God.
The Church has to become the place where we are creating the future. We are to be God’s creative agency rather than being stuck at the past.
We should become the place for inspiring creativity.
We are to create the future the rest of the world needs!
Preaching is a transmission of life from soul to soul! Preaching is an artform, and we are God’s poem!
We have the greatest story to tell! The story is being written on our hearts and through our lives!
People are desperate to meet people who they know who met God.
