April Fools, Mosaic Church, 3D Movie



A few weeks back Spouse played at Fathom, an “all age club” in
Downtown Chattanooga. I was not impressed with the
management of the venue but I really liked the space. The place is
very large and every available wall is covered with art. The main
room has concrete floors, hand painted faux stain glass windows, a
huge stage, open industrial style ceiling, and exposed HAC systems.
There are glittering glass mosaic lanterns and globes hanging
everywhere. The ladies room is painted purple.

Now to make it more interesting, the room I just described is the
meeting space for the Mosaic Church. I bet you can see where this
going. Last week Spouse and I went. Yes we did. We went to
church.

We liked it. We both liked it. Good music (more about that latter),
a decent sermon, comfortable seating (including sofas), Fab coffee
and pastries. The coffee and pastries are during, not after. There is
no traditional structure. The service consists of people coming in,
getting coffee and breakfast, sitting on sofas or at tables with
chairs, listening to the music, or humming or singing along or
standing in front and swaying with it. Very low key, very
comfortable, not alarming in any way. After about thirty minutes
the minister, Tim Reid, came out in jeans and an untucked shirt.
There was a prayer, then a bible reading, then a sermon. The
sermon was really more of a talk, relating the reading to life. It was
simple and fresh and relevant.

We liked it. So we came back. This week, we had music, lunch,
palm stems, and a semi-topical sermon. After church most of the
congregation went to the movie Meet the Robinsons. Oh Ho...
Very cool movie. GO SEE IT. It is 3D, really impressive
compared to what passed for 3D when I was a kid, and a number of
good messages. 1. What you do matters 2. Families sometimes
look strange 3. Failure is part of the process of success 4. Keep
moving forward. If you loved the Jetson’s you will like this one.

SOME THINGS I LIKE ABOUT MOSAIC: The actual space,
the downtown location, the young congregation, the support of the
arts, the informal service, the sofas, coffee. I like the box near the
door for offerings. I like feeling like I am in church built from the
ground up based on what someone would think organized worship was who had
never ever seen or participated in a church service.