Can anything good come out of Hollywood??

A friend of mine has from time to time done street ministry in different areas of Los Angeles. If you think you would never see something, it is probably there in LA. The human race doesn’t confine itself to any kind of box in this city!

So about a year ago he was in the city, and went to a church where he had known the pastor from street ministry days. He enjoyed the message and sent me a link- which I ignored for a couple weeks. The church is in Hollywood, I was in no mood to hear something from there. But since he liked it, I decided to listen. It was not anything like I expected! I had never heard anything like this before!

This is preaching that goes way outside the box! I was mesmerized- this guy does not fit anyone’s mold, and I would be interested in your impressions?

You would have to listen to Erwin McManus of Mosaic Ministries. You can find his messages on YouTube- Erwin McManus sermons. The first one I heard was entitled "Fresh Start” and another one I really liked was "Resilience.”

I have enjoyed all of his messages that I have listened to, they all stretch my perceptions and challenge the way I think of spiritual matters!

Has anyone here heard this man speak?

That's a name I haven't heard in years. I didn't know he was still around or in active ministry.

He was new to me- But he recently turned 65 and is dealing with "being old." Pshaw, as they say- Old is when you give up! Too exciting to be living in these wild days to cede anything to Satan!

I did like his message on Resilience- very helpful to those tempted to feel old!

Hi brother Tom! It’s interesting that you just came across him. It happened to me too. I actually listened to an interview that Jon Gordon did with him that I can’t even remember how I came across. But it blessed me to hear a little bit of his testimony and story. He seems to have a winsome spirit about him. Authentic. It made me want to read his books, which I have not done yet. You mentioning him here caused me to remember that I had heard that interview and so I looked back in my history to find it because it had stuck out to me at the time. I may check out his message on Resilience now too. He does seem unorthodox from an evangelical standpoint when I listened to him and Jon Gordon talk about Mosaic (they don’t even call it a church really do they?).

Sometimes the endless discussion of traditional Christian themes gets old- Calvinism vs Arminianism- Pre-trib vs Mid-trib, heresy vs kingdom revelation, gifts vs cessationism.

This is not even close to any of that! Hard to describe, but I would find myself listening more than once- "What did he say??' "I didn't know that" and "I never saw it like that before!"

Some of it is light and fun, some is passionately deep.

Fasten your seat belt, you don't know where he might take you!

They call it Mosaic because it is a number of traditional and non traditional ministry directions, from feeding the destitute to running conferences for different denominations and groups- some Christian, some not. He has a clothing business- just because he likes to wear things nobody makes.

He loves the concept of being created in the image of the God of creation- and what that means on the earth in people- he explores that in his messages. He takes you to the profound glory, the expansive grandeur, and the richness of intimacy with the Savior in your one on one.

Erwin is the guy who, if you were sitting beside him on a plane, you would forget to get off when it landed.

I have met a couple people who didn't care for him. But- quite frankly, these were not interesting people to begin with...??

He loves the concept of being created in the image of the God of creation- and what that means on the earth in people- he explores that in his messages. He takes you to the profound glory, the expansive grandeur, and the richness of intimacy with the Savior in your one on one.

This sounds rich! 🙌😄

I started listening to a podcast that he did with his son I think?

It was on the topic of overthinking, which I’ve been accused of (and admitted to).

He defined it in a way that I had not heard before, which was helpful.

"Overthinking - the endless running of negative scenarios”

Fascinating!

Thankfully, the Holy Spirit is faithful to help me have victory over these patterns of overthinking that can creep in from time to time. 🙏

Anyway, thanks again for posting brother Tom! I appreciate your candor.❤️

Right now, he is preaching themes from his latest book- "Mind Shift.”

He tried very hard to get the book placed in book selling world away from Christian categories and into Business and Psychology venues as he wanted non-Christians to read it. Reaching un-spiritual people is his thing, and he wants to go where they hang out.

Many of those people are wealthy, self assured, mockers of God, and desperately lost as they laugh together at how stupid Christians and religious people are. McManus loves to get into that arena with them, loving them into seeing how blind and wrong they are. Not a lot of people are situated and capable of that sort of outreach!

The latest message deals with the passivity inculcated into modern Christian thought and practice, contrasted with the active energy Jesus spoke and practiced. He goes into "Ask, Seek, and knock.” Again- a very fresh perspective for me!

For example, we read this into the passage- "Ask and it will be answered unto you.” But the Word says, "Ask and it will be GIVEN unto you!”

Wow! It is amazing how we read from mindsets we don’t realize we even have, and thus miss things that are right in front of us!

I use the app (Mosaic) on my iPad and watch the messages from that, they are also on YouTube.

And thank you Caleb for the conversation!

Wow! It is amazing how we read from mindsets we don’t realize we even have, and thus miss things that are right in front of us!

Amen! This has been happening to me quite a bit lately, which is stretching me a lot (the threads on Israel is a very present example). It’s often not comfortable to have my paradigms challenged. Yet when we avail ourselves of the grace needed to be humbled, it is quite rewarding.

As for McManus’s niche in ministering, that’s awesome. I love hearing when Christ Jesus reaches people while defying our boxes or paradigms!

I was not aware that there was a Mosaic app. Thanks for sharing! I will continue pondering this discussion.