fix on

church for dudes

Sorry ladies...but maybe you already figured this out. We lean towards dudes at The Journey. We don’t target a certain age group or social-economic segment, but we do try to keep things more male than female. Why? Because there is a problem. You can see it all over the world, read about it in books, or google it online - men don’t like church. Many churches have a male pastor, but are run by women on most levels. Women fill the positions, serve, and attend regularly. Thank God for women. So, while we don’t necessarily target men, we try to stay more masculine. MENTAL BREAK - Masculine is not a manly word - Anyways, the thing is, if you hook the husband/father, you get the whole family. I can’t tell you how many times a women has come to The Journey and says that she can’t get her husband to come to church. Then he comes one time and he’s hooked. If you go to the Journey, think about it...what guys stuff do you see? Here are a few things...

-Less songs about love and emotions, more songs about purpose or God (ie Solid Rock)

-lots of dumb guy humor

-illustrations about sports and stuff

-paint the church in guy friendly colors

-put lots of tv’s up to get the sport bar feel

-logos that are not fufu (even like at the coffee bar)

-show clips from guy movies, not chick flicks

-throw cantaloupes off a roof

-be practical, keep things simple, and give vision

This doesn’t mean that we ignore women or don’t address or respect their needs, thoughts, and ideas. It just means that there are a lot of things that already attached women to church and we want them to participate at The Journey with the husbands, fathers, and other dudes.

change is a comin'

You can't do things the same things and expect different results.

One thing I have been thinking about lately is the future of The Journey. The new building is a great transition for us and has brought a few changes with it. We have some new volunteer positions. The new kids computerized check-in is a great new feature. But what else will need to change AS we take next steps? What else needs to change SO we can take next steps? Do we need to focus staff in a new way? How do we need to tweak Sundays...the music, the videos, the corny humor? What needs to change? How can we further invest in volunteers? How can we hand off leadership? As things get more complex, how do we keep things focused and simple?

We built on to our building in order for us to reach more people. So we have more space. Now what do we need to do to reach more? We have some things to think about as a staff. But there are a few things that won't change. Our vision to help people connect with God and take next steps in relationships. Our philosophy that we are all a team and each of us has a role to play. If we are going to reach more people, we ALL have responsibility to invest and invite. The building isn't going to reach people - it's about God working and working through us. So, let's keep things focused. Who will you invite this season? 

FYI - we will have a new feature on our new website - an invite page. It will be a special way for you to invest and invite on the world wide web. 

Purpose vs. Preference

Even if I don't know or even don't care about any issue - I usually still have an opinion about it. When it comes to church, there are a lot of opinions out there about what a church should do. Many churches cater to needs or opinions. At The Journey, we want our vision (our purpose) to drive who we are and what we do. The problem is everyone has opinions and there are so many needs to be met - if we try to cater to all we end up accomplishing nothing and most often - peoples needs and opinions drive the church instead of God and his vision for the church. So, we talk about purpose over preference. Are you willing to put your own desires aside in order to look to interest of others? This is really a very spiritually mature thing to do.

Here is an example of what we are talking about...We were talking in our journey group the other week. One person said, "I never thought I would be able to sing songs from John Mayer, Barenaked Ladies, or O Brother Where Art Thou in church". Someone else said, "I don't mind singing like part of the Daughtry song Home with the other Home song, but I don't really like doing the other songs". Then some else in our group said they don't like singing them with other "worship" songs, but they like them as special songs by the band. Three people. Three different opinions. Who's needs or opinions do we cater too? Well that answer is purpose over preference. Our vision in this situation is to use songs that people know or hear on the radio. We do this to break down walls. We also want to re-purpose songs - we use familiar songs to open conversations about God on Sunday mornings or we take these songs and re-purpose the meaning towards God. Then when they hear them during the week, hopefully their thoughts go back to what they heard about God at The Journey.

So, that is one aspect of purpose over preference at The Journey. We all have opinions and preferences about most everything. Are we willing to look beyond our own likes/dislikes to help people take first steps or next steps in a relationship with God and others?

user friendly 2

In this series of posts, we are looking at simplifying things to become more user friendly. One of the changes we are making is with our interior branding and names. Right now we have a variety of names and terms for things around The Journey...Explorers, Quest, Route One, Journey Series, Community Groups (sometimes called small groups), Reach, Connect, Develop, Serve, Devote, 3 Relationships, motto, mission, vision relationships not religion...and more. As time goes on in church, or any organization, it is easy to get use to names, systems, and communication. They can be clear to regulars or they can even become vague. It is easy to not see things from a new persons perspective and we want The Journey to be user friendly if you are a regular or a newbie.

So, we are making some name changes. Instead of saying Route One for students in 6th - 12th grade, it will now become Journey Teens. Instead of saying we have Journey Kids Stuff - there is Quest, Explorers and nursery. Okay, what ages in which...I don't know, let me check. We will now just call it Journey Kids and each room will be marked with the age so it is easy and clearly defined. There will be some other changes like the Journey Series will now be called Intro Group and Groups as a whole will be Journey Groups instead of Community or Small Groups. It basically comes down to calling things as they are to make it user friendly instead of just having a cool name for it. A name doesn't make it cool or more effective so we are making some name changes to simplify things in order to be more user friendly.

user friendly 1

We are currently working through all of our systems, communication, and steps - really all areas of The Journey. It is kind of a 5 year clean up. Our goal is to make The Journey more user friendly. We are going to give you some insights into how we are making The Journey simpler over the next series of posts.

Environment - part four

COME AS YOU ARE

We believe that God calls us to come to Him as we are, but that He loves us enough to not let us stay as we are.  We've tried to create a culture at The Journey where people can come as they are.

Physically, that means whether you like to dress up or you like to wear jeans, or flip flops, you can come as you are (no Chicago sport team clothes please...ha ha). Every week I see people in shorts, slacks but also warm up pants with the snaps down the side. We want people to be able to relax, be comfortable and break down barriers to open their heart to God. Things like coffee bar, big chairs, the way we dress, attitudes, hosts and more play into the come as you are physically approach.

Spiritually, this means accepting people for where they are, if they have it all together or if their life is a mess. We have a wide range of people, from homosexuals to bounty hunters to CEO's to college students. Jesus was known as the friend of sinners. We are all sinners and we shouldn't forget it. So, we want to accept people for where they are spiritual and part of the "come as you are" environment is about allowing people to be in process, to ask questions, and stress the effects of sin and the life in Christ without negative pressure, guilt, or judgement.

Leadership on stage, in groups, and really in every aspect needs to uphold the "come as you are" environment. This means we use language that everyone can understand, we don't assume people understand Christian culture or concept, we take time to explain things (like who people are, where things are in the Bible, etc.), we are real and relevant. We try to keep these concepts in mind when we do mailers, build our website and choose our series. Most importantly, we just love and accept people for who they are.

Relationships, not Religion - our motto really communicates this environment. Many people have connected with that right away. It isn't about rules, the way your dress, or what you know. It is about living...finding life in relationships with God and others.

We want people to come as they are physically, and more importantly, spiritually. While we want to accept people for where they are at - we are inviting them to The Journey and on a journey into to a relationship with God and others.

Environment - Part 3

WELCOMING
We try to create a welcoming environment with our building and vision, but it is up to everyone to help create this aspect of our environment.

For the building, this means warm colors, a neutral warehouse-type building, a coffee bar, fun kids rooms, and an info center. Hopefully, having these things, like a beverage in your hand in a non-stuffy room, helps break down barriers.

For everyone at The Journey, this means having hosts at the doors to help people. However, having everyone feel like a host (welcoming people, helping people find their way to kids stuff, bathrooms or whatever) is what is needed.  It's like making people feel like they're a guest in our house. It is extending more than just a smile and a handshake - it's really connecting with people. It is remembering that this might be the only chance they give God. We try to model this from the top down.

For our leadership, it is about avoiding insider type comments/jokes; having roamers in place to connect with guests; it is about recruiting the right people to host and keeping the team on track. It is about making everyone feel at home from up front during the service - using humor, language everyone can understand and topics that relate to everyone.

Environment - part 2

Here are a couple blogs that I follow and some of their thoughts on environment...

Scott Hodge - Boston Market

Anthony Coppedge - Starbucks

Anthony Coppedge - Service with a Smile

Environment

As we are thinking about some next steps at The Journey, we are beginning a new series of posts about environment. There is a very specific environment we are trying to create at The Journey. It is developed in a couple ways.

1) The Building - layout, location, colors, lighting, chairs, tables, stage, screen...the whole thing plays into environment.

2) People - attitudes, friendliness, facial expressions, clothes...you play a part in creating the environment at The Journey.

Over the next posted, we will be discussing environment - the what, how, why of environment - remember you play a part in creating and maintaining the vision and environment of The Journey.

Video Blog: Facilities