The Blahs

For the next few posts I thought I'd share some of the ups and downs of church planting with you.

For us, starting Journey Church has been a series of crazy emotions. Sometimes I feel like a cork in a lake on a windy day. When I was a kid every now and then we would go fishing just off the Arkansas River at this park where you could fish from the bank. I remember sitting on the bank watching my cork bob up and down in the water for hours at a time. When I fell asleep after a long day of fishing I would see that cork bobbing up and down in the water through out the night.

Sometimes, like today, it seems like I'm helplessly sitting on the water not doing much of anything at all. Just waiting. Don't get me wrong, there's lots of activity going on. There are meetings and plans and planning meetings. There are times of hanging out with people who may or may not be part of what we are doing in launching this church. But there are days like to day where I just feel like....we may go home with no fish tonight.

What if we do all this work to connect with people who don't go to church and at the end of the day there is nothing to show for it? I don't think that will happen but its those kinds of things that haunt my dreams at night. Its those endless hours of waiting for what might happen and might not that keep me restless. It's days like this one that make me want to go to sleep on the bank and wake up and try again tomorrow.

What would good days be like if we had no bad ones though? They would be very hard to measure and even harder to appreciate. Here's to good days ahead. As for today I think I will watch my cork just a bit longer. Then maybe I'll take a long nap, just to see what happens when I wake up.

Things are happening

Cool things continue to happen as we get ready to start Journey. We are currently putting together a team of people a (launch team) that will help us get Journey started. It seems God has been doing some weird things to cause things fall in place for us. We have a place to meet as a launch team in falls. A really nice room above Community Bank in Falls. We will start having launch team meetings on the 21st. There are several cool things we plan on doing in Falls over the spring and summer to get to know people there.

And it seems now the Y in Falls has agreed to let us start using their facility to have services in begging next Fall. We look forward to amazing things happening at Journey over the next year. Who knows what the future holds be we sure hope to make positive impact in peoples lives in Falls and get to know them better.

Satellites

The night sky above our house in the country is amazing. You can actually see the hazy belt of the Milky Way. It hangs overhead like a cosmic ghost. Sometimes during the summer Danell, our girls and I go out and lay on the trampoline in the back yard to just behold the wonder, the magnitude of it all. It is overwhelming. There is something I’ve noticed about our nights on the trampoline. When you look long enough at a dark sky you start to see things that escape the eye of most people down here not looking up. Every few minutes you can spot a satellite blazing a trail high in the atmosphere. You can’t miss them. They are the fastest moving objects in the night sky.

Sometimes I think God is like those satellites. He is up there at work all the time. Much like those satellites that are controlled from down here, He is also down at our level, working all the time. One time Jesus said "My Father is always working, and so am I." God is always working above us, around us even in us. But most of us live our lives looking down rather than up. We fail to take the time to look and see the wonder of what God does. We fail to look up and consider the possibility that He may have something amazing for us to be a part of. What if this week you and I became fully aware of all that God was doing around us? What if we began to notice the people around us that He was at work in? What if we were to lay back on the trampoline of our own existence and say, “God, where do I fit in all of this?” We might be amazed to find God has a part for us to play. This week look up. God is blazing a trail across the night sky above us. We just need to see where He’s going and follow.

2010 is coming in

It is hard to believe that we have spent over one year now in Wisconsin. So much has happened. We are keyed in on a location for the start of The Journey Church. This new church will be a satellite, of sorts, partnered with our current church New Life Community Church in Plymouth. The Journey Church will be coming to Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, hopefully as early as next Fall. We are calling it the church for people who don’t like church. So many people in our culture today have problems, issues or distrust of organized religion. We like to think of The Journey Church as disorganized religion with a very specific purpose. That purpose is to take down as many barriers as we can that stand between so many people and church.

The Journey Church will be a place where people can approach God without being judged, hassled and hopefully without being bored. If you are not comfortable in most churches Journey may be just the place for you. We hope people from all kinds of backgrounds will attend. Journey will truly be a place where you can come as you are. We believe all people are on a spiritual journey. So whether you are a skeptic, an un-convinced observer or a fully devoted follower of Christ you will feel right at home. Questions about God, faith and spirituality will not only be tolerated but welcomed.

At Journey we believe God radically loves people, all people and has an awesome plan and purpose for everyone on the planet. We look forward to getting to know the people of Falls and hope to make many new friends as The Journey Church begins its journey next Fall. Thanks to all of our friends, family and faithful supporters for all you are doing to make The Journey Church a reality.