Mercyview Launch in Pictures
- Filed under: baptism, church planting, communion, Gospel, Jesus, kingdom of God, mercyview, preaching, resurrection, sabbath, sacraments, sacred space, urban, worship
- Date: Apr 26,2011
It has been 11 months since my family moved to the urban core of Tulsa, Oklahoma to plant Mercyview. Within our first few months here, God graciously brought a humble band of urban missionaries around the mission and vision of Mercyview. Since that time, we have sought to plant the Gospel deeply in our lives, praying that out of this, God would graciously plant His church in the center city of Tulsa. And I’m humbled to say that He has!
But what is the church? Is it an institution? It is a building? Is it a worship service? Well, when I say God has planted His church here, I mean that He has planted His people in a particular time and place to cultivate the knowledge of the rule of His Kingship. George Ladd says, “…there can be no objection to the recognition that the church is the organ of the Kingdom as it works in the world.” God is building His church, His redemptive Kingdom agents on mission, here in the urban core of Tulsa and we are stoked!
The church began with the deep belief that Gospel transformation typically happens best in smaller groupings of people. We have experienced this firsthand in our time here with our missional community. Our missional communities are inter-generational, small groups that meet weekly in homes, sharing meals, prayer, the Scripture, and our lives with another, as well as participating in missional endeavors.
At the turn of the new year, I felt that God was moving us to provide another environment for individuals to experience the Gospel, community, and mission at Mercyview through a gathered worship experience.
We began to talk about this as a community and I was blown away at how God was already moving in the hearts of those that were a part of this to move in that direction. We made plans to launch a worship gathering on Easter Sunday, knowing that God was going to have to provide a space, sound equipment, kid’s items, etc. We stepped out in faith and asked the Lord to meet us at the point of our need.
Well, this past week, we celebrated the launch of Mercyview’s first worship gathering on Easter Sunday!
God graciously provided a space that seats around 125 people, has rooms for children’s ministry, an abundance of parking (which is a precious commodity in Midtown Tulsa), and room to grow at Tulsa Adventist Academy, in the neighborhood just to the east of the University of Tulsa called Turner Park. We had churches, organizations, and individuals donate special financial gifts, sound equipment, kid’s items, and Bibles to help us with our launch. And I am so proud of our team – they did an amazing job in pulling this together in a short amount of time!
Now, we haven’t arrived. The goal has never been to launch a worship gathering. Our goal will always be to find our identity in Jesus and to live in the freedom that His grace and mercy bought for us. This will happen in our gathering. But it will also happen in our scattering. It will happen in the neighborhoods we live in, the businesses we work in, and the places we play. God willing, He will continue to build a people who will make Him famous in Tulsa and beyond.
Here are some pictures from our special day:
