perspective

I spent all of last week at local pastor's licensing school. To say that there was a diverse group of people there is to make the understatement of the year. There were people in our group of 53 that I would be proud to serve with. There were also people in our group who were the polar opposite of me in every way. (That's putting it nicely isn't it?) Regardless, however, it was very obvious to me that they all had a love for Jesus and a desire to see others know Him. I spent most of the week frustrated by a variety of parts of the school experience, but it was a great lesson to see that everyone there, regardless of the label that I would like to slap on them, had a heart to help others love Jesus. That's really the point, isn't it? It was a good reminder.

wincing quote

I've been reading tons of books for the Licensing process to become a local pastor. Most of them have been a waste of time. Here's a quote from one of the books that made me chuckle and wince, all at the same time:

"It is a sad commentary on our witness that the persons in our society who are most indifferent toward the poor, most enthusiastic about guns and war, most relucatant to rehabilitate prisoners or provide treatment for drug addicts and AIDS victims, [those people] make the strongest claims about having a Christian nation and argue for prayer in public schools."

True! Ouch!

At Journey, our hope is to break this cycle and truly follow Jesus' commands to love our neighbors, embrace peace, and offer the kingdom of God to those around us. May we be that kind of people!

logo and updates

Here's the almost completed logo:



This is pretty much the idea. The tagline will change color and we're good to go.

As an update on the finances...keep praying for money. The financial campaign at St. Paul's has been much more sparse than we anticipated and we're quite a ways away from the goal that we had. Keep praying that God will provide the finances so that we can get set up with a space and start-up equipment. We may have to push back the public launch of Journey, but we can still begin to function as the Journey community without a rented space and a public launch.

God will provide. He always does.

Journey Sunday - 7/9/06

Don't forget that this Sunday is designated as Journey Sunday at St. Paul's. This is the week that people will be giving one-time gifts toward start-up expenses for Journey, as well as making a long-term commitment to helping fund Journey.

Please be in prayer for the people of St. Paul's to seek God and what He is calling them to give (or not give). Also, please be in prayer for yourselves and what God might be calling you to give towards the one-time gifts. [Remember that we as Journey participants will not be giving commitments to the campaign, just for the one-time gifts. Our ongoing giving will be our commitment at the point that we shift to Journey full-time.] While you're at it, pray for the men who have our business plan in hand...that they would feel called by God to help us get our start with a generous donation.

See you Sunday. There will be a team meeting at 5:30 pm on Sunday evening. Lori will be leading since I'll be off to spend a week with the kids at church camp. Blessings!

Spiritual Development

This diagram comes from Gateway Church in Austin, TX. The pastor is also the author of "No Perfect People Allowed."

These are the steps of personal development. Love God first. Love people because you love God. Build character because you love God and you love people. Build Christ's Church because you love God, love people, and have grown in character. Simple. Clean.

Connecting

Great quote that ties to my previous post: "When two people connect...something is poured out of one and into the other that has the power to heal the soul of its deepest wounds and restore it to health...In recent days, I have made a shift. I am now working toward the day when communities of God's people, ordinary Christians whose lives regularly intersect, will accomplish most of the good that we now depend on mental health professionals to provide. And they will do it by connecting with each other in ways that only the gospel makes possible." - Dr. Larry Crabb

What a vision of the church! An admirable goal for Journey...

community concept

Nobody stands alone. What a great concept. I'm reading a book right now that talks about the concept of community, and the author's church has a policy...nobody stands alone. It's a literal policy and a figurative policy. Literally, they make sure that no one is left out of conversation and all people are made to feel connected at church. Figuratively, it's their philosophy to walk along side of people and ensure the concept of community through relationships, small groups, etc.

The book states, "If churches do not help connect people into the community of Christ in meaningful ways, then we have failed in the full ministry of [restoring authentic relationship] that the Lord has entrusted to us."

It's not our job...it's our ministry to make sure that nobody stands alone.

We need to embrace this now in the Core Team phase before we ever launch Journey to the public. We must engage each other now...not later.

Re:Discover

Here we go:

Journey...Re:Discovering Jesus Together

Mark and I will be playing with logo #1 from below and we'll let you know what we come up with.

On Tuesday, at 10:30 am, I have my interview with the committee for licensing. Pray for that. Also, pray for meetings with some of our contacts to happen...building and money.

Sunday, June 25th is the congregational information meeting. Please try to be there to show your support and to share input. Also, we'll meet as a core group that evening at 5:30 pm.

meeting schedule

We'll meet again this Sunday the 18th at 9:00 am. The following week, Sunday the 25th, we begin meeting in the evenings at 5:30. That same day, the 25th, there will be a congregational meeting at 9:00 am for St. Paul's to discuss the financial side of this church plant. Please plan to be there in support of Journey. I'll be updating the calendar page of the website so that you can check there for meetings and information.

Here are three logo concepts in no particular order. Please weigh in:

Tag line...

QUESTION: I was looking at the banner on our webpage and began to wonder...when someone reads "A Christian Community," will they understand that we're a church? I love the concept of community and I really wanted to stay away from the word "church," but will people understand that Journey is a church instead of a planned christian sub-division/housing development?

Please share your thoughts...

website

Here's the link to our new website. Take a look around and let me know what you think. Certainly some of the content will change as we continue to talk about what some of the components of the ministry will look like.

How's everyone coming on their books? Is anyone still in need of one? Just let me know...

Marketing?

I'm reading a book called Church Marketing 101. Many dislike the concept of marketing in connection with church. The author tackles that and explains a simple definition of marketing: managing perception. Put in that light, whether we like it or not, all churches are invovled in marketing. Every time we do (or don't do) something, we are marketing our church, our selves, and our God. Scary. Good marketing therefore manages well the perception that others have for your product or service. The author assumes that most people who are reading this book are currently in an existing church and must evaluate where they are and determine where they want to go. Many readers will have to undo poor marketing. Many will have to completely change the public perception of who they are. What a blessing to be reading this book now as we are embarking on something new and have the marketing in front of us!

The author says, "Marketing must first affect who we become before it can affect those we pursue. If it does not, we promote hypocrisy and drive people even farther away."

This is vital! We must all be on board with who we as a church community are becoming. We must understand the vision and direction. We must understand the love that God has for us is just the same as the love He has for anyone else on this planet regardless of background. We must market to ourselves before we market to others.

It's my hope that all of us will be reaching out to the people around us as we near the public launch of Journey. Certainly it's a little ways off still. We can still be building relationships with others...earning the right to share with others. Before we do that, however, we must clearly understand why we are setting out to do this new thing. We must clearly understand why we would undertake such a large task with so many unknowns instead of staying with an established church with very few unknowns.

It is the hope that we would resemble the church that Jesus intended. It is the hope that we can share Jesus with people who have given up on the church or denied the church or been hurt by the church. It is the hope that we can grow in Christ and resemble Him so that we offer an appealing picture of faith in Jesus. It is the hope that people will look at our church and at us and see Jesus instead of a nice building or slick programs. We must market this to ourselves before we market it to others.

Next meeting: Sunday, June 11th at 9:00 am

jOURney

Well...it's official! From here on out we will be referred to as Journey with a focus on the OUR. I'm in process of developing something for the web and choosing a domain name. Once that site goes live, I'll send you all the link. I'll also be working with some people on a logo for print/advertising purposes.

Now that we have the name chosen, we need to think about some sort of tag line to go along with it. We talked on Sunday about developing some sort of phrase that would give a nugget about who we are...something that would explain and create interest. One that I gave as an example was: Journey, a convergence of community and faith. It could be something like a community of Jesus followers or simply a Christian community. Basically we decided to stay away from using the outright word "church," but we need something to key people in to who we are. So...give it some thought and weigh in on that discussion.

Beginning this Sunday we will meet right after the 8:00 service. This isn't our permanent time, but with holidays and graduation, this is the best short-term solution. We'll already be at the church for one of the services so it saves us a trip and eliminates an evening meeting during the week. We will meet each Sunday from 9:00-ish until about 11:00 from May 28th through June 18th. Then on June 25th we'll shift to Sunday evenings for the rest of the summer. If you need to come late or leave early while we're meeting on these mornings, that's fine. This Sunday we'll spend some time sharing stories and we'll discuss what Children's and Youth Ministry might look like at Journey where we're seeking to learn and live the ways of God through authentic missional community.

Name Update and Misc.

Mission: “Seeking to learn and live the ways of God through authentic missional community”

Loving God

Loving People

Building Character

Building Christ’s Church

Prayer Points

Hi, team. Here's the blog...a little later than I anticipated. Chaos!

Keep praying:

1. for the development of the Core Group: relationally, spritually, etc.
2. that God would supply the finances and therefore a location and equipment for the launch
3. for God to widen our circles of influence and show us people outside the church to reach out to and build relationships with in preparation for the launch
4. that God would open the path for my licensure through the UMC to move quickly and smoothly