What is your favorite praise and worship song we do at The Journey? If you don't go to The Journey, what is your favorite Christian radio song or praise song from your church?
Currently for me: All Because of Jesus I'm Alive and Glory to God
Your turn.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Exciting Times
We are in some exciting times right now at The Journey Church. We are down to our last week as a church that meets in one location. As of February 8th (next Sunday) we will be a multi-site church. This is something we had envisioned from the day we opened three years ago, and now it is here. We went last night as a small group and put out close to 1000 door-knockers in neighborhoods surrounding Providence. The Campus Pastor of Providence, Shawn Allen, took a team out earlier in the day and distributed around 1000 as well. We still have 3000 more door-knockers we are going to distribute over the next several days. We are praying for people to be at the previews that God wants there. We believe if people know about what we do and experience it for themselves, we are going to have the opportunity to minister to a lot of people. We are 12 days from preview #1, please be in prayer that God would fill the building with the people He wants there and pray that we would continue to be diligent in our work of ministering to those who have needs.
Reminder: we finish our Re-Elect Jesus series this Sunday. You don't want to miss this last sermon of the series. If you have missed previous installments of the series, click here to watch any on video that you may have missed. Don't forget that this Sunday is the last day the service at West will be at 9:30am, we go back to 9am beginning February 8th.
Reminder: we finish our Re-Elect Jesus series this Sunday. You don't want to miss this last sermon of the series. If you have missed previous installments of the series, click here to watch any on video that you may have missed. Don't forget that this Sunday is the last day the service at West will be at 9:30am, we go back to 9am beginning February 8th.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Takin' it to the People
The above title is the title of the newspaper article that was written about the Journey in today's Lebanon Democrat. It is a feature story that was very well written by J.R. Lind. It was awesome to read the article and think about where God has taken us over the last three years. By the way, The Journey's three year anniversary is this Sunday. The article is coming out in the Mount Juliet News also. Go pick up a copy if you haven't seen it already; it will make you proud to say you are a part of The Journey - I sure am.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Quote
"Anyone who reduces the following of Jesus to an enterprise of the heart, the head, and private interpersonal relations restricts the following of Jesus and trivializes Jesus himself"
Jesus and the Hope of the Poor - (Schottroff and Stegemann)
Jesus and the Hope of the Poor - (Schottroff and Stegemann)
Monday, January 19, 2009
Doors of Opportunity
I have an amazing opportunity today to share the vision of The Journey with Lebanon Democrat & Mount Juliet News. I'm meeting a reporter this morning for a story that will be a feature story in the paper. We are going to be talking about our vision of multiple campuses and why we have chosen to go that direction. I'm excited about the chance to tell Wilson County about who we are and why we do what we do. I hope it reaches readers who can identify with us and would want to be a part of the movement. I believe there will be some doors opened through this article.
We also have our Informational Meeting about the Providence Campus tonight. It will be at Rutland Elementary School beginning at 6pm. I don't know how many people from the community will come, but we are doing our part to let them know what we are about and how they can be a part of The Journey.
Please pray for both of these opportunities today.
We also have our Informational Meeting about the Providence Campus tonight. It will be at Rutland Elementary School beginning at 6pm. I don't know how many people from the community will come, but we are doing our part to let them know what we are about and how they can be a part of The Journey.
Please pray for both of these opportunities today.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Important Providence Campus Dates
Hello all, I hope everyone has had a great week. I have some important dates to relay to everyone in regards to movements happening surrounding the Providence Campus.
* January 19th - 6pm @ Rutland Elementary there will be a community wide informational meeting to share about the new campus. There were adds that ran in the paper concerning this meeting and we hope many people from the church and outside the church will come.
* January 27th and 28th during the day there will be teams of people distributing door-knockers throughout the Providence neighborhoods concerning the Preview Services. **WE NEED WILLING PEOPLE TO HELP OR SUGGEST OTHER DAYS THEY COULD HELP DO THIS
* February 2nd - 5:30pm @ Rutland Elementary there is a Math Night for the school in which THEY NEED 10 VOLUNTEERS TO HELP (this can be a good chance to do some last minute inviting to the Previews, in addition to showing an attitude to serve)
* February 8th, 15th, and 22nd - 10:30am are the three Preview Service dates. This will be a chance for people to get a sneak-peak of what the Journey Church is all about and experience our community of faith
* March 1st - 10:30am is the Grand Opening of the Providence Campus. From this point on, we will have weekly services that will align with our West Campus. Both campuses will be identical services, children's ministry, and group structure
* January 19th - 6pm @ Rutland Elementary there will be a community wide informational meeting to share about the new campus. There were adds that ran in the paper concerning this meeting and we hope many people from the church and outside the church will come.
* January 27th and 28th during the day there will be teams of people distributing door-knockers throughout the Providence neighborhoods concerning the Preview Services. **WE NEED WILLING PEOPLE TO HELP OR SUGGEST OTHER DAYS THEY COULD HELP DO THIS
* February 2nd - 5:30pm @ Rutland Elementary there is a Math Night for the school in which THEY NEED 10 VOLUNTEERS TO HELP (this can be a good chance to do some last minute inviting to the Previews, in addition to showing an attitude to serve)
* February 8th, 15th, and 22nd - 10:30am are the three Preview Service dates. This will be a chance for people to get a sneak-peak of what the Journey Church is all about and experience our community of faith
* March 1st - 10:30am is the Grand Opening of the Providence Campus. From this point on, we will have weekly services that will align with our West Campus. Both campuses will be identical services, children's ministry, and group structure
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Mission
Just wanted to remind myself and all of us what the church and our lives as followers of Jesus are to be all about. We are not called to become better people. We are not called to be good Christians. The ultimate goal of a follower of Jesus is a transformation from self-serving individual to missionary. We are called to be missionaries. This is not the traditional idea of a missionary, who goes to live overseas amidst a population they seek to evangelize. Rather, this is a lifestyle of living on mission in whatever context you may find yourself. We are to live as daily missionaries in every environment we are in.
The church is a missionary sending agency. Her mission is to be a missionary producer and community of faith, love, and hope. The missional role of the church is to reconcile people to God and to each other through the life of Jesus Christ. That is what the church is for. This is who we are supposed to be becoming.
Are you living as a missionary? Do you think the church of Jesus today is living its missional calling?
The church is a missionary sending agency. Her mission is to be a missionary producer and community of faith, love, and hope. The missional role of the church is to reconcile people to God and to each other through the life of Jesus Christ. That is what the church is for. This is who we are supposed to be becoming.
Are you living as a missionary? Do you think the church of Jesus today is living its missional calling?
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Sad Reminder
On Sunday night I took some time to visit a church in Mount Juliet. This is a Baptist church. It has about a 100+ seat auditorium with a big fellowship hall and children Sunday school classrooms. I went to visit them because I wanted to see what is going on in other churches in our community. I got there 20 minutes before the evening service was to start and nobody was anywhere in sight. The parking lot was empty, the lights were off, and I assumed that service had been canceled without me knowing. I decided to stick around, just in case someone popped by. About 10 minutes before service was to start, a few cars trickled in, then another few. I decided to make my way in. When I went inside everyone looked at me with a look of confusion on there face. Someone even asked me, "are you kin to someone here or are you a just a visitor?" I told them I was a visitor and that I was the pastor of a local church who just wanted to fellowship with them for the night. They were so excited that I was there, I would later discover why.
The music we sang were old hymns, but they didn't have a piano player, so we sang along with a tape. We got up and down from the pew nearly 4-5 times as we would sing and sit, then get up to sing again. Several times the guy controlling the tape played the wrong song. The message finally came and it was a message about "laboring for the Lord." It wasn't a bad message, but it was a very scattered message. The entire time I sat in the building, I just wondered if they realized why they weren't reaching people. Their Sunday morning attendance had been 19 that morning, and the interim pastor who was preaching was telling them that God wasn't satisfied with that. However, I highly doubted that any of them were willing to change their patterns or traditions to reach lost people.
I enjoyed being with this small group of people. They were very kind and were very excited that I was there. They invited me to be with them again, and to bring a piano player if I could. I left that night reminded of why there has to be churches willing to make their priority and focus reaching the lost. To reach the lost means to set aside comfortable ways of doing things, it means creating environments in which they feel comfortable to explore faith, without being called out or chastised. I also left thinking about what habits and patterns we have gotten into that may seem find to me and others, but are working against our efforts of reaching people. It was a sad reminder that there are churches dying, and not enough thriving today in our community.
The music we sang were old hymns, but they didn't have a piano player, so we sang along with a tape. We got up and down from the pew nearly 4-5 times as we would sing and sit, then get up to sing again. Several times the guy controlling the tape played the wrong song. The message finally came and it was a message about "laboring for the Lord." It wasn't a bad message, but it was a very scattered message. The entire time I sat in the building, I just wondered if they realized why they weren't reaching people. Their Sunday morning attendance had been 19 that morning, and the interim pastor who was preaching was telling them that God wasn't satisfied with that. However, I highly doubted that any of them were willing to change their patterns or traditions to reach lost people.
I enjoyed being with this small group of people. They were very kind and were very excited that I was there. They invited me to be with them again, and to bring a piano player if I could. I left that night reminded of why there has to be churches willing to make their priority and focus reaching the lost. To reach the lost means to set aside comfortable ways of doing things, it means creating environments in which they feel comfortable to explore faith, without being called out or chastised. I also left thinking about what habits and patterns we have gotten into that may seem find to me and others, but are working against our efforts of reaching people. It was a sad reminder that there are churches dying, and not enough thriving today in our community.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Sunday Evening Reflections
What a great day! We had a phenomenal crowd yesterday. We had every chair out and there were people still sitting in the bleachers. We kicked off the new series: Re-Elect Jesus. I look forward to really challenging our paradigm on our dependence on government over God in our culture and society. There are needs we expect the government to meet that are really the church's job to meet.
We spoke specifically about the fallout's that occur when we begin to compartmentalize our lives into the "spiritual life" and the "real world." We make God a segment of our life rather than the center of our life. This produces two things: 1. We divide the secular and spiritual. We start living as if every decision, conversation, and choice were absent of spiritual implications. 2. We become practical atheist. A practical atheist is someone who claims to believe in God, but lives as if he doesn't exist.
The question that was posed for everyone to reflect on as we closed was: Where is God in your life? Are you shutting Him out, is He a segment of it, or is He at the center?
I look forward to the next three weeks of this series, then we start Providence!
We spoke specifically about the fallout's that occur when we begin to compartmentalize our lives into the "spiritual life" and the "real world." We make God a segment of our life rather than the center of our life. This produces two things: 1. We divide the secular and spiritual. We start living as if every decision, conversation, and choice were absent of spiritual implications. 2. We become practical atheist. A practical atheist is someone who claims to believe in God, but lives as if he doesn't exist.
The question that was posed for everyone to reflect on as we closed was: Where is God in your life? Are you shutting Him out, is He a segment of it, or is He at the center?
I look forward to the next three weeks of this series, then we start Providence!
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Preach It Brother!
I had to post this quote that I read this morning from the book I'm reading, Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton. In his chapter, Theology of the Devil, Merton is talking about the prevailing theology of only talking about sin, punishment, and people who seem to love discussing this. He says,
Wow! Now that is well said and extremely insightful. I agree with his assessment of preachers who only seem to focus on the sin of men and describing to others the punishment forthcoming. Does this mean to avoid all such conversation? No. It does mean that you should not derive pleasure, nor revolve your entire preaching ministry around this topic.
Just thought I would share that today. I love that quote.
It sometimes happens that men who preach most vehemently about evil and the punishment of evil, so that they seem to have practically nothing else on their minds except sin, are really unconscious haters of other men. They think the world does not appreciate them, and this is their way of getting even.
Wow! Now that is well said and extremely insightful. I agree with his assessment of preachers who only seem to focus on the sin of men and describing to others the punishment forthcoming. Does this mean to avoid all such conversation? No. It does mean that you should not derive pleasure, nor revolve your entire preaching ministry around this topic.
Just thought I would share that today. I love that quote.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Sunday Evening Reflections
What a great day today! It was a lot of fun laying out why we want to "ignite a movement" at The Journey. We had a great crowd and great response to the message. I believe we are more and more beginning to see our role and what God has in store for us in the future. It was also a privilege to baptize two people today to start the new year off. We plan and pray to see many more in 2009.
We also had a great lunch after church regarding the Providence campus launch. We gave them some pertinent dates that are coming up and challenged them to see themselves as the leadership cadre that would move the Providence campus forward. We had nearly 20 plus people at the meeting, very exciting!
I cannot wait to see what happens in 2009. It will be the greatest year in Journey history. Thank you everyone who plays such a pivotal role in making our mission happen, you are the heroes of the Journey. As we sang today, God, "We'll run with you, Lead On, We'll run with you, our God."
We also had a great lunch after church regarding the Providence campus launch. We gave them some pertinent dates that are coming up and challenged them to see themselves as the leadership cadre that would move the Providence campus forward. We had nearly 20 plus people at the meeting, very exciting!
I cannot wait to see what happens in 2009. It will be the greatest year in Journey history. Thank you everyone who plays such a pivotal role in making our mission happen, you are the heroes of the Journey. As we sang today, God, "We'll run with you, Lead On, We'll run with you, our God."
Thursday, January 1, 2009
This Weekend @ The Journey
I'm boiling over inside to preach the message I have for Sunday. I knew what I was going to talk about in general for weeks, but earlier in the week God really laid out some things for me to say. I went to bed around 9:30pm (an all-time early for me), but I could not go to sleep. I was praising God for His blessings in my life. I was praying for people in my life and the for the church. I was praying that God would give me a deeper hunger for Him than I've ever had before in 2009. During all that time of prayer, God began to lay some specific things out for me to share this Sunday. I got out of bed to write things God was speaking to me twice during the night. The last time it happened was around 2am in the morning (yeah, five hours after I went to bed!).
Make every effort to be there this Sunday. I'm excited about sharing this message God has put on my heart. I'm excited about baptizing people and celebrating the lives that have been changed. It is 2009, and it will be a year that will surpass any we have had before.
Make every effort to be there this Sunday. I'm excited about sharing this message God has put on my heart. I'm excited about baptizing people and celebrating the lives that have been changed. It is 2009, and it will be a year that will surpass any we have had before.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)