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Agency Recap: November 9

On November 9th, the agents of The Journey gathered for a covert meeting and to hear the next stage of the mission...
 
Paul kicked off the meeting some some details about current things happening at The Journey and thanking everyone. We - The Journey - are nothings without you agents. You are the backbone. Paul also gave a financial update and asked all agents to participate in supporting The Journey as things are tight right now. We had some of lowest giving over the last 3 months and fall is our highest expense time of the year. We put on a spending freeze and we trimmed the budget but we also need to increase giving. He talked about encouraging other agents and people along the way and helping them to take next steps and participate. Mark led a discussion and contest. Some people won great prizes...donuts! Mark discussion as about volunteers and how all are all a piece in the puzzle of carrying out the vision. Then there was a video...

Matt shared about relationships. Do you have someone's back? Who has your back? Relationships are an important part of what we do. We talk about 3 key relationships: with God, with other journeyers and with people who don't know God. We hope we are pushing you on a journey to have a relationship with Jesus and to look beyond yourself to others. We design our steps (like groups, Next Steps Night, volunteering and so on) to help you get to a point where you connect with Jesus on your own and where you are missional to look to the needs of others. We can't we just be all about me and God? We looked at 1 John 4, especially verse 12 - if we really want to know God and His love in our life, it doesn't come for a discussion or study (not that those aren't good and helpful) - His love is compete in us when we love others. So that is why we talk about the 3 relationships - there is a unique connect of other relationship with others and our connection with Jesus. We want the agency to be helpful in training but also for you to take next steps with God. We are all busy but if we really want to love God, we need to look beyond ourselves and love others and share God's love and hope. What if we took time to look beyond yourself to share some encouragement with someone at work, to bring someone a meal, or to even help rake with someone in your neighborhood even if it's only for 10 minutes - it will be meaningful for them and it can be spiritual for you.

We ended the evening breaking into our volunteer groups for specific training. Look for other details for your team meetings if you missed.
 

411 - Here are a few things to make note of...
Baptism Meeting - Nov 22

 Christmas Project - Starts on Nov 22 We will be doing something in Kenya and a new project in West Michigan

 We will have some Christmas Invites - Christmas is a great time to invite some to church.
-Dec. Series: Let it Be Christmas (Yes Beatles and Christmas)
-Christmas Eve is coming on Dec 24 - duh- we will have a service at 5 pm. This is a great opportunity to invite someone to The Journey. Look for invite cards.

DON'T GET COMFORTABLE

Randy sent us a great blog post by Matthew May - author about business:

I'm constantly asked about the challenge of complacency -- you know, things are going well, but there's a comfort setting in, and people are riding a different wave than when things were a struggle...The cry is for more money, people, and space to innovate. But wait a minute! That’s probably not how the company started. Somewhere in the company tree is a story of humble beginnings...So, reset the bar. Get back to the future. Get the band back together. Get back to basics. Get back to blocking and tackling. Return to your roots.

I don't want to lose the urgency of when we first start. There are people all around who need Jesus. I feel like I've lost some of the edge as we grow and there are more details to deal with and issues to handle. I personally want to be innovative on how to bring God's love, hope and message in order to reach those not being reached. I want to bring back the urgency form our humble beginning as The Journey. Don't Get Comfortable (it's also a great song by Brandon Heath).

DINO RIZZO on SERVING

 I believe it is the difference between life and death in the Church. When a church turnsinward, it is only a matter of time until they become a non-factor in their community. We have a mandate to move people to serving the cause of Jesus.  Serving that cause can happen in a thousand different ways, but we must not allow Church to turn inward.

-Dino Rizzo

Agency Recap: August 31

This is our first meeting for this year and we transitioned THE AGENCY to all volunteers. As Agents, it's your mission to carry out the vision. If all of the agents accept this mission, our impact will be even greater. We did some evaluation to see if you were carrying out the mission the previous Sunday. Check it out here.

We kicked off the evening by sharing some of our highlights from this past year. We looked at last years goals and how God did awesome things this past year. We also look forward to this new year and the goals we have set. You can see last years goals and this years goals here. The goals aren't just numbers - they represent peoples live and lives changed. We want to reach more people - that means more people in attendance - we want to reach more people who aren't connected with Jesus - we want to help them a first step and begin a relationship with Jesus and be baptized - and we want everyone to take next steps through Groups and Volunteering. We can measure this with some numbers but really it represent people taking first steps and next steps.

Paul shared a key for all agents - it all starts with a relationship with Jesus. We introduced it with our mock Charlie's Angels video. One of our other goals we set for this year is to become more dependent on God - to trust more, listen more, rely on Him more and serve, share and live out of an overflow of Him in our lives. Paul talked about how we can do good things but they won't amount to anything if God isn't in it. He shared from John 15 how God is the vine and we are the branches. The branches need to be connected to the vine to live and bear fruit. God needs to be the life running through our veins and the difference people see in our lives. Paul challenge all the agents to spend 30 days - September - praying for God to do something so big that we couldn't take credit for it, that God would use us to impact others, and so we would be more God-dependent - more connected to the vine.

After this we broke up into our teams were we serve from some team meetings, training, goals, etc. If you missed, make sure you connect with your team coach to be ready for fall. FYI - if you missed, you missed the Back to School snacks, some goofy videos, and a great night.

Comments/Complaints: Unity

Here is a series of posts about how we handle things when people have problems and/or ideas with how we do things at The Journey. We hope this will be helpful for you as you serve at The Journey, but also as you work in the marketplace or even deal with your kids/family...

We don't get many comments/complaints, but when we do we want to handle them properly. We try to avoid a negative spirit in our church while being open to evaluation and comments. When someone makes a comment to someone else, there are a couple ways to respond. It can be something along the lines of "that can be discussed or reviewed" or it can turn into an upset "yeah why not, let's do it that way". I hope as leaders and volunteers hear complaints and comments, that we will not join into negativity but respond looking for the truth, weighing it against the vision and realizing the purpose is more important than preference. You know the heart of The Journey and what God is accomplishing here. The Bible talks often about how much God loves unity. So let's stay positive and open to comments and evaluation. We can care for the person without starting a "blame-storming" event.

Comments/Complaints: Who

Here is a series of posts about how we handle things when people have problems and/or ideas with how we do things at The Journey. We hope this will be helpful for you as you serve at The Journey, but also as you work in the marketplace or even deal with your kids/family...

We don't get many comments/complaints, but when we do we want to handle them properly. As we look at comments, they are weighed by who gives the comment. If there is no name with the comment, it is discarded. It's too easy to let negative comments effect us, so if we can't follow up it's isn't even worth looking at. We won't let negativity deter us. If someone who is totally invested make a comment verse someone who rarely comes, is not invested, not in a group, etc. - well the invested person comments weighs a little more. For instance, if two people make comments about Journey Kids - one person has no kids and isn't volunteer with kids, the other has kids and is helping in the nursery - well the one person comments weigh a little more (not that the other is discarded). We have to weigh who makes the comments in any evaluation.

Comments/Complaints: Communication

Here is a post in a series about how we handle comments at The Journey:

We don't get many comments/complaints, but when we do we want to handle them properly. Most of the time all it take is some communication to resolve the issue. In many cases, the complaint is really just more of a question. Most of the things we do at The Journey have been over evaluated and are done or said for a very specific reason. I know how much time our team thinks through things and plans ahead, so almost everything is vision-driven. When someone makes a comment about something, their heart is usually in the right place. If we communicate why we do things the way we do or why we do this but not that, most of the time communication leads to understanding and the issue is resolved.

Comments/Complaints: Vision

Here is a series of posts about how we handle things when people have problems and/or ideas with how we do things at The Journey. We hope this will be helpful for you as you serve at The Journey, but also as you work in the marketplace or even deal with your kids/family...

We don't get many comments/complaints, but when we do we want to handle them properly. The bottom line for handling issues is that the vision drives our church, not people. The Journey is a vision driven, leadership led church. Many people from church experience are use to a congregational rule so this can cause some tension (there are many reasons for this, but that is for another post). As someone makes a comment, it's always weighed against if it's in line with the vision. If we let every individuals personal preferences drive our church, there is no clear direction. Everyone has different preferences - everyone. So, this is why we communicate purpose over preference. Sometimes we get comments that say..."I like everything, but this one thing...". Well, there is no such thing as a perfect church...and perfect for you is not perfect for me. So as we handle complaints that are opposed to the vision, we have to ask the individual to put purpose over preference.

Comments/Complaints: Truth

Here is a series of posts about how we handle things when people have problems and/or ideas with how we do things at The Journey. We hope this will be helpful for you as you serve at The Journey, but also as you work in the marketplace or even deal with your kids/family...

We don't get many comments/complaints, but when we do we want to handle them properly. Many times outside circumstances or a bad experience drive comments and they can get a little carried away. So, when we receive a comment we want to do some evaluation and look for the truth. What is the real issue they are commenting about? What is the truth about this situation? We try not to be defensive or pushy (sometimes it happens...we aren't perfect) and we try to look at the situation with an open mind to figure out the truth of the situation. Can you handle the truth finding the truth?

Series', catch phrases, and memorials

One of the things we do at The Journey is that almost all our messages come in the context of series that we do (i.e. a series called "Back From The Dead", or the series we just wrapped up called "I Became a Christian, and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt").  So, why do we do series?

Series serve as markers, as memorials in the lives of Journeyers.  When we ask people when they started coming to The Journey, most say something like "oh, we started coming during the EPIC series", or "we came during Desperate Households".

In the book of Joshua, the people were moving into the Promised Land, and Joshua was leading them.  God did a miracle and they crossed over the Jordan River on dry ground.  Joshua commanded the people to take up some large stones from the river and to set them up on the river bank as a reminder, a memorial, a marker of what God had done.  Series are like that for individuals, but they also remind us as a church as to where we've been and what God has done.

That's also why we try to tie "catch phrases" to our series, and why we use certain phrases over and over again.  They serve as markers in people's lives of what God is doing.  Like "your heritage might not be what you wished it was, but your legacy can be more than you dreamed", or like "God is the blessor, we're the blessed, to be a blessing", or like in our "I Doubt It" series - "don't let a bout with doubt knock you out", or in our "Tattooed" series, where we asked "Who's tattooing you?"

We all have certain phrases, certain markers that we look back on and see as significant moments in our spiritual journey.  So, we try to help people with those and then create memorials of those moments (which is why we have the banners from those series' on our walls, and why we give them away when they come down off the walls).