Horizon Weekly | 13 May 2020
Watch an online interview with Jon Las
Submitted by Mosaic Church
When the COVID-19 restrictions for public gatherings were put in place, Mosaic Lloydminster received emails informing them that they could not use their rental venues, a performing arts theatre and an old Presbyterian sanctuary, for worship gatherings. Their team made dozens of calls in search of a webcast venue, but to no avail; all public spaces had shut down. But then a church member offered his boxing gym.
On March 22, with ten people on the team, Mosaic set up the boxing gym as a webcast venue and ran their first online-only worship. They have always aired their Sunday services on Facebook Live, which regularly attracted 300 to 400 live viewers. At that first online-only service they saw 1,300 live views and a couple of thousand replays with seven individuals responding to the invitation to trust Christ. In the next two weeks, others responded: three, then four, then one, in the middle of the week during Pastor Jon Las’s online devotional.
Excited about the growing reach of their online service, they prayed for at least ten people to say yes to Jesus on Easter Sunday. The Easter online service had 1,500 live viewers, their highest live viewership yet. At the end of the service, 19 people made first-time decisions for Jesus, which makes a total of 34 people saying yes to Jesus since the government-issued physical distancing and isolation directive. The team is busier doing follow-ups now than they were before the pandemic. In a sermon, Pastor Jon Las said, “We may be witnessing the beginnings of a massive spiritual revival.”
The church continues to stay connected through Zoom “DGroups,” Pastor Jon’s online morning devotionals and a team of college-age guys who run errands for shut-ins. The guys also deliver flowers weekly to church members and adherents with a note from their pastor.
Mosaic was launched in April 2014 and has since seen 554 people receive Christ as Lord and Saviour. They track the numbers in keeping with their cherished catchphrase: Every number has a name; every name has a story and every story matters to God.
As Pastor Jon Las put it, “At Mosaic, we’re not keen on the phrase ‘It’s just a number’ because each number is a person with a name, loved by God and for whom Christ died.”
