Sunday June 10, 2007 - The Power of Everybody...to do a Great Work

Coming off of In the Zone, I began a 4 week series of messages called The Power of Everybody, a look at what God can do through a group of people who are committed to working together for His sake. This series is based on the book of Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem.

This first week we had a pile of rubble and a silver cup as our props, demonstrating the mess that Nehemiah and the people faced and the position he left to fix it. And it was a powerful word. I believe that God is calling The Journey to step forward into a better future - in several different areas. And as we will learn repeatedly in the coming weeks, "It's everybody time!"

Services were good today, specifically in the 2nd service where the altar call at the end had many leaving their rubble next to the pile of rubble at the altar. There was a release as we called out to God at the end of that service.

We introduced a new song For Your Glory that fits in with our mindset these days - the chorus goes: For Your glory, for Your kingdom, for Your Name Oh Lord, Here I am..." God, may the Journey be all about living for the glory of You and Your great Name!

Our attendance today was 147... :)

Sunday, June 3 - In the Zone - Staking our Claim

Today we closed out the In the Zone series with a look toward the future - staking our claim on the treasure of the kingdom that God desires to expand through us. The Zone series was easily the most pointed and "nitty-gritty" set of messages I have ever preached, but that's what made it so good. We are managers of God's things, and He blesses us to bless others. We learned so much - I learned so much in this series, and it was a call to our church to come to a higher level than what we've lived at before, and I am thrilled to see the response as the Journey lives in the blessed place.

In today's service, Elizabeth Kesselring, our associate pastor's wife, brought some of our pre-schoolers up in front of the church to show some of the different things they've been learning. It is good to see young children hiding God's Word in their hearts as they are taught here at The Journey.

That and having the kids with us in the beginning of each service was a great boost - I miss having them in with us, but for the sake of space, they have their own separate worship time. But we started out with Every Move I Make to include them in our time of worship and praise.

Today's service was good - we had 141 today, and if you missed out on being here, this entire series is now available for sale ($12) at the church back table.