Sunday, December 5, 2004

Week 2 of Advent, dealing with Hope and the story of John the Baptist really was fantastic at The Journey. I have enjoyed the first two weeks of Advent, as it has brought a whole new dynamic into our worship and our service.

Focusing on hope, we sang "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "O Holy Night," two songs that speak about the hope that we have because of Jesus' birth. And I will say "wow!" to the worship that we experienced. It was incredible - quite honestly the best worship service we have ever had. And worshipping with Christmas carols nonetheless! I pray that every service we ever have is like that.

I preached the 2nd week of Advent's theme on hope from the story of the birth of John the Baptist and Zechariah's song in Luke 1. It went very well, as the theme of hope because of Christ's coming really sprung out from Scripture. Advent is fantastic.

On top of all this, we had 65 in the service, which was good, altough still low because of some sickness that was going around. But we did have two women raise their hand that they prayed with me to begin a new relationship with Jesus Christ - Dory Gibson and Sherry Johnson. I was very excited about this, and I am praying that we will see them begin to grow and attend more consistently.

Another note - Andy & Kim Becker were back again, and I had the opportunity to visit with them for a while on Thursday the 2nd. I really like them, and I pray that this place becomes more and more like home for them.

One final thing - I am finding that as we grow, that it is so easy to lose our focus, and for different forces and interests try to determine what directions we should take as a community of believers. Some will vie for political involvement, some will push for more social involvement, and others will push for more denomination involvement - all of which are good for various reasons. It is my prayer that we continue to be a revolutionary community - bringing about revolutions of the heart that result in people who live for God, who want their communities and their homes to be better, and who tell others about the changes that God has brought in their own lives. Identity and mission are important for us to keep and remember.

We are The Journey - a church or assembly of believers - imperfect and diverse - who agree on six fundamental core beliefs (the virgin birth, the deity of Christ, the blood atonement, salvation by grace through faith alone, the second coming of Christ, and the inerrancy of the Bible), but who allow liberty beyond these beliefs. God has used us tremendously because of our ability to not pigeon-hole ourselves and isolate or ostracize others. We adhere to the Apostle's Creed (see our website at www.thejourneynh.com), and embrace several values that we want to keep as distinctive to us. We are not sold on denominationalism, or on politics, or on becoming social activists. Our purpose is clear - we are inviting people on the journey toward God, together in community, to reach our culture.