Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Launch what?

Today I was surprised to see this as an Amazon recommendation. It's a book called Launch and was penned by Nelson Searcy who started the Journey church at the same time we were starting Mosaic in New York City. It's fine that he's writing a book. But it is this that is more than slightly bothersome.

No money? You guys started with about a million dollars from the Southern Baptist Convention and about 5 staff members? Remember??? I do. And so did we at Mosaic. I would never dream of saying we started with no money or no staff members. That would be about as ridiculous as...well...you saying that.

Now, I'm not one to call someone else a liar, but I'm not sure deceptive is a strong enough word here. I hesitate to say anything because I'm not apt to trying to defame people publicly. This is extremely frustrating because it is simply not true.

I just wonder how much more inside is not true.

8 comments:

monts said...

i'm speechless

Agent B said...

ouch.

a million bucks, eh?

...!

g13 said...

remember when we had lunch with this guy in 2001? he reminded me of a baby boomer trapped in a twenty-something body.

smart guy, but i wasn't a fan.

DJ Word said...

I am mentioning something related to both last post and this.

After reading about your friend's death, I decided to go the Mosaic website to see what was going on there.

I typed Mosaic NYC and then Mosaic Church NYC in the google search engine. Journey came up ahead of Mosaic on both searches. In other words they are using a program or service to put them to the top when you are searching for another church.

I may need to blog about this phenomena.

Bastards

Dustin said...

hey rick,

actually, Mosaic merged with the Journey near the beginning of this year. So that is why it is coming up as the Journey. I too was surprised the first time I typed that in and got the journey!

Anonymous said...

Very disturbing, equally disturbing is the phrase - "how did they doi it? ..."proven strategies..." etc.

I guess Christ is no longer building his church. Nelson is! And if we're operating in the human realm, since when can "prove" a "strategy" by looking at the lessons from a single church plant. I wouldn't choose my toothpaste that way, why would I choose my church building "strategy" that way?

Dustin, you should look at the blurb for this book each day, and then give Bob Hyatt a hug and thank him doing what he does.

Dustin said...

Yes Bill, it is very disturbing. It makes me very upset to see how church has been commodified and turned into a business with "proven strategies" and such. This is the kind of crap that cheapens what church is and turns more people off from the church than brings people in (no matter what the numbers say in the appendix). Plus, it's the kind of stuff that feeds on desperate church planters and appeals to the worst part of us, the part that is looking for the "key" to growth and desiring to build ourselves a little kingdom. Much more could be said but I'd probably regret some of it.

it is a good reminder and makes me very exciting for what is going on out here (not that we have got it all figured out by any means), but at least I can sleep at night feeling good about who I am and what we are doing.

Hey Bob, you've got a big hug coming your way!

APE said...

the merge w/ journey has gone kaput though, mosaic is getting back on its own feet, i hope...