All of us have the choice to build barriers or bridges with our lives and talents. Carolyn Moore, the founding pastor of Mosaic Church in Evans, has chosen to be a bridge builder and break down barriers. She oversees a church that started in her living room and is now celebrating 19 years of weekly worship.
While in seminary, she became deeply interested in exploring what the church should really look like and how it functioned best. Her research connected her with the Church of the Savior in Washington, D.C.
A man named Gordon Crosby started a church there based on small groups – small groups who were on a mission to be the authentic church meeting tangible needs. His model has since impacted churches around the world, including Mosaic. (https://www.mosaicchurchevans.org)
“A lot of our folks just don’t ‘fit’ in more traditional worship settings,” Carolyn said when asked to describe those who call Mosaic their church home. “We serve a lot of people who are coming out of addictions, we serve a lot of single moms, we have a tremendous ministry here for folks who have disabilities in their family. We serve folks who are trying to put their lives back together for one reason or another. They just seem to fit here. And we try to develop ministry around them so that they are being discipled out of their brokenness and into Christ.”
She added, “For a lot of years, I was just trying to make a church a sustainable congregation. But I would say in the last 10 especially, and certainly coming out of covid, we really do see ourselves as a missional community. The year before the covid hit, we started a whole separate nonprofit just to house our local ministries. So, the Mosaic Center is housed under this roof.
“It operates Monday through Friday and every one of our local ministries has really blossomed – and opened a whole other door into the community through that.” (For more about the center, https://themosaiccenterevans.org/)
While carrying out her duties of overseeing the church, and its staff, Carolyn also wrote a book. (Released in September called When Women Lead: Embrace Your Authority, Move Beyond Barriers, and Find Joy in Leading Others. It’s available wherever books are sold. Although she has long enjoyed writing, she never envisioned herself as an author, even though this is her fifth book, with more likely in the future.
Carolyn began writing this book by asking herself the question “What are the barriers women face that we’re not acknowledging? How do you help a woman lead past those barriers so that she can lead successfully?”
In the book’s 256 pages, Carolyn tackles many of the barriers women face in leadership. She said they’re issues not only faced by the church, but by women in leadership in general. The barriers include Theological, Perception, Biological, Resources, Financial and Pastoral Care.
“The first half of the book is about the barriers and the second half of the book is about the strategies to lead beyond,” she said. “I start with identity and authority because everything starts there. If you don’t know who you are in Jesus, none of the rest of it matters, and if you’re not willing to stand up and take authority over your call, never mind what the world says about you. If God has called you, you have to take authority. Otherwise, they will see the fear, smell it and they will not respect your leadership.”
Carolyn has some very specific ideas about what makes a healthy church. She describes it this way: “A healthy church always makes room for the least, the last, and the lost among us. That means, too, that a healthy church is messy…community is messy. A healthy church has a heart of peace, not a heart of war.”
