Tired of Church? - Mosaic Church is the Answer

Church invites people to 'Come as you are'

Dress codes and past histories don't matter at Mosaic Church, which reaches out to people "who've given up on church."

BY JOE RODRIGUEZ
The Wichita Eagle

Mike Hensley was tired of church. He didn't feel he fit in. He just wasn't "feeling it" anymore and hadn't attended regularly for about 15 years.

Then earlier this year, a friend told him about a new church, Mosaic Church. It was small. It didn't matter how he dressed, and the members and the pastor didn't care about his non-church past, the friend told him.

So Hensley went to the church, which holds its services at Truesdell Middle School in south Wichita. And he liked what he saw and what he heard.

"I'm not really a person that's like, all dressed up, as you can tell," Hensley, 24, said after a recent church service. He was wearing a "Sin City" T-shirt, a SWAT cap, shorts and hiking-style boots.

"I just want to be who I am and say, 'This is who I am. I want to get to know more about myself.' "

Mosaic Church started about one year ago with the intention of reaching people like Hensley -- people who have become disconnected with the church because of their past and their concern of being judged by others, according to Pastor Matt Lowe.

Lowe, a former youth pastor at a west Wichita church, decided to start Mosaic because he had a heart for reaching out to those people.

Many other churches also try to reach those who are disconnected.

But Mosaic has taken a more "in your face" style.

When he first launched the church, Lowe went around town putting up signs and poster boards that read: "As Christians, we're sorry for being such self-righteous, judgmental jerks!" Mosaic Church, it said, is a "church for people who've given up on church!"

Many people who have stopped going to church "feel like Christians are hypocrites," Lowe said. "And I recognize that, as Christianity as a whole, that we have been that way to some degree. So I'm trying to take the high road and say, 'Hey, we've got a church here where you can come and you can feel accepted.

"'You can just come here, and you can just see God, you can worship God and you can find God without all of that exterior stuff or worry about your past or what you've done or your sexual orientation or your drug habits.' "

The effort hasn't gone without challenges. Because of the population the church is trying to reach, it's not uncommon for someone to attend a few weeks, then never be seen again, Lowe said.

"We're very specific on our target," he said. "We want to reach non-saved people here."

And he has heard criticism from some Christians offended by the message on the church's poster .

None of it, though, has discouraged him from his vision.

"I really do see this whole room here filled with people worshipping God," said Lowe, standing in the Truesdell school auditorium.

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