Today was a good day at The Journey. It was a great day as we dove into the Word about developing a mobile faith that moves and grows with us, and there was a great spirit of participation and worship in both services. We also had eight first time visitors with us, which is always tremendous, especially as most of them seemed to really enjoy and be engaged in the services.
The worship was good, specifically as we introduced the song In Me by Casting Crowns. I believe it was well- received, especially by the folks in the second service! It is a song that is based upon letting Jesus Christ do His work in our lives, especially because His work often times seems impossible for us to accomplish - but "when I'm weak, You make me strong. When I'm blind, You shine Your light on me 'cause I'll never get by living on my own ability..." Since we are in the series, Discovering the Possibilities of Faith, this song is the perfect emphasis. It is all about "the power of Christ in me."
The message today was tough to prepare, and quite frankly, I was nervous as I prepared it as to how it would come across (too textbook-ish, too technical), but it came off well and was received well. Our desire at The Journey is to build a safe place of faith exploration, and to build a faith where faith moves forward. You see, the one thing I didn't emphasize (and should have, but it will be emphasized in small groups) is that we want you to explore your faith which means moving forward, not being stagnant. It is the only way to live the Christian life. It is so much better than building a stagnant faith, and thus, a stagnant church. Stagnant kingdoms don't move forward.
It was great to have the visitors we had with us, and God continues to add to our numbers both in people who have been looking for a church home as well as new believers. Yesterday, we had a woman raise her hand that she prayed with me to receive Christ (which was AWESOME!) and I connected with her after the service, as well as hooked her up with a discipler. The other visitors all seemed genuinely enthusiastic about coming back, so we continue to see the Lord add new people.
Our attendance was 126, which is definitely lower for this time of year as we were missing ALOT of our regulars from the second service. But if you missed it, you WANT to pick up a copy of yesterday's message and find out what we mean when we say that The Journey is on a mission, traveling toward God...
Next week we will discuss the third part of our mission, what it means when we say we are traveling to reach our culture. You do not want to miss it!
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Monday, September 18, 2006
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Today marked the beginning of our fall campaign, "Discovering the Possibilities of Faith..." I am so excited about this campaign and what it will mean to The Journey. There are many exciting things that are coming, and this week marks the start of our small groups - which is a GREAT thing!
It was an action-packed day from start to finish - actually, it was an action packed weekend as we did a booth at the Rochester Fair in which we gave out an iPod (congratulations to Mike Poole of Farmington who won it!) and received 50 surveys that we conducted on Church and Spirituality in our area. We had many volunteers who manned the booth the whole day, and it was great interaction with many people from our community.
Sunday morning we began our campaign, and despite sound system problems that seemed to damper the music, we had a good beginning as we talked about the 2nd part of our church mission, traveling "together in community," and how our church can be madeover by following this part of our mission. The video Coming Back/Islands was a great close to the message, an exclamation point about the need to draw out of our isolated shells and become linked with others in the body of Christ.
Sunday night was also phenomenal as we did a Night of Worship. What a great crowd we had, and what a great wave of the Spirit swept over as we sang, declared, took communion, and did a time of free worship. It is a great thing to experience God's people uninhibited in worship, declaring the truth and rejoicing without holding back.
Thank you, Lord, for another fantastic day at The Journey.
It was an action-packed day from start to finish - actually, it was an action packed weekend as we did a booth at the Rochester Fair in which we gave out an iPod (congratulations to Mike Poole of Farmington who won it!) and received 50 surveys that we conducted on Church and Spirituality in our area. We had many volunteers who manned the booth the whole day, and it was great interaction with many people from our community.
Sunday morning we began our campaign, and despite sound system problems that seemed to damper the music, we had a good beginning as we talked about the 2nd part of our church mission, traveling "together in community," and how our church can be madeover by following this part of our mission. The video Coming Back/Islands was a great close to the message, an exclamation point about the need to draw out of our isolated shells and become linked with others in the body of Christ.
Sunday night was also phenomenal as we did a Night of Worship. What a great crowd we had, and what a great wave of the Spirit swept over as we sang, declared, took communion, and did a time of free worship. It is a great thing to experience God's people uninhibited in worship, declaring the truth and rejoicing without holding back.
Thank you, Lord, for another fantastic day at The Journey.
A long break...
Well, August and part of September has gone by, and during that time, I was able to take a much needed break in planning for the fall and in looking ahead for the church. As you might have noticed, we stopped posting during that time (the longest stretch that we have had since I began doing this blog in July of '04). Our attendance for the last 6 weeks was as follows:
August 6 - 146
August 13 - 128
August 20 - 130
August 27 - 129
September 3 - 131
September 10 - 137
We did have a great 6 weeks with some GREAT stuff happening. I am sure at some point that I will get pictures of our one day VBS back on August 19th, which was a great success (thank you to all who volunteered, and to Brenda Bumford for all your hard work). We also did a booth at the Rochester Fair that produced many surveys and contacts (thank you to all who manned that booth, and thank you to Randy Tullis for over-seeing that).
During the time I was on hiatus (which was a break mostly from preaching, not from the rest of my routine), Rod, Ed, and Lee all took turns speaking, and then Dr. Gary Pinion spoke last week - and everyone did a fantastic job. I am thankful that there was the chance to take that long of a break (4 weeks)...
Now we get back into the swing of things, and we project a great fall season of "Discovering the Possibilities of Faith..."
August 6 - 146
August 13 - 128
August 20 - 130
August 27 - 129
September 3 - 131
September 10 - 137
We did have a great 6 weeks with some GREAT stuff happening. I am sure at some point that I will get pictures of our one day VBS back on August 19th, which was a great success (thank you to all who volunteered, and to Brenda Bumford for all your hard work). We also did a booth at the Rochester Fair that produced many surveys and contacts (thank you to all who manned that booth, and thank you to Randy Tullis for over-seeing that).
During the time I was on hiatus (which was a break mostly from preaching, not from the rest of my routine), Rod, Ed, and Lee all took turns speaking, and then Dr. Gary Pinion spoke last week - and everyone did a fantastic job. I am thankful that there was the chance to take that long of a break (4 weeks)...
Now we get back into the swing of things, and we project a great fall season of "Discovering the Possibilities of Faith..."
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