Jesus wants us to “be one”. Towards the end of His earthly ministry the unity of His church was such a concern for Him that, in His great prayer of John 17, He asked God three times that we “be one” as He is one with the Father. Two-thousand years later, His church is still struggling to reach this ideal. The good…
Why do we sing songs at church? Ask people and the answers will vary wildly: to worship God; to praise God; because we love Jesus; because the church makes us sing… Interestingly enough, I can’t ever remember hearing what I feel is the best answer. We sing in church because the Bible tells us to sing. The Bible tells us over and…
Exciting Times Yesterday I browsed through the “connect cards” from the last several months. An exciting pattern emerged: we are seeing an unusual number of visitors who are interested in making Journey their church family and in joining with us in the mission God has given us. Later as I visited with Todd and with several of the leaders, that sense of…
You are the worship team. The corporate you. It’s not the band, the leader or any of the people holding microphones. Don’t get me wrong, they are part of the team, but ultimately, we want every person who walks into the building to feel they are part of the worship. We’ve tried over the years to break the mindset of worship team…
Journey Community Church Leadership Update, June 2018 Our Leadership is so thankful for the faithfulness of God as he leads our church. At times during this “interim” period we feel like the Israelites must have felt – led by God, but somehow “not yet” at home. We look forward to having a Pastor chosen and in place, but we praise God for…
The Elders and Leadership Team of Journey Church have been thinking and praying quite a bit for our church during this time of transition, as you might expect. We have been feeling very comfortable regarding the Sunday worship, the high level of participation of volunteers in support and leadership roles and the general spirit of the congregation overall. However, one of our…
At Journey Church we sometimes have children playing with us in our Sunday morning worship. We’ve had children as young as seven join the team. We love being a teaching church, but not every child is ready to take a leap of this magnitude. Some of you might be interested to hear the criteria we use to decide whether a child is…
How do we pick songs at Journey Church? The easy answer is that the worship leader picks the song for the set and runs them by the Director of Worship and/or the Pastor. The reality is that there are several factors involved. First and foremost is prayer. This goes way beyond asking God, “What songs should I pick?” I ask this often,…