M@

INVEST INDIVIDUALLY

Yesterday at church, Mark asked for your ideas on how you can invest in people. He will be posted some of the ideas on his blog this week. We had quit a few responses. I would say that a majority of them were things an organization could do...a program for teens, an event for kids, starting this ministry or that ministry. None of them were bad ideas - all good thoughts and intentions. I understand why many people respond this way -for the past 20+ years, the church has always just added program after program trying to meet needs.
From day one of The Journey, we wanted to make a shift - away from programs and towards mission. A program is limited. But if we all live out the mission in our circles, we can invest more, reach more, and our impact is greater. We don't want to fill up your already busy schedule with programs. We want people at The Journey to live out the mission in their everyday lives. You have people at your work, in your neighborhood, in your family and in your circle of friends that I could never connect with or that a program would never reach. God has given each of us unique opportunities to GO. So, don't wait for programs - as you go through this week - there will be opportunities to serve, to share, to invest and to GO. As God to give you His eyes to see and boldness to GO.

SUNDAY RECAP FOR AUGUST 30

GO - INVEST & INVITE 
WEEK 2

RECAP
We kicked things off with "We Shine" by Fee as we talked about being investing and sharing God's light. Mark concluded his mini-series "GO" by giving some practical ideas about investing in relationships to share God's love, hope and His message. Mark talked about investing by serving (1 Peter 4:11). Everyone likes to be served. Serving not only brings the opportunity to share Jesus with the people being served about also people all around us. Mark shared how helping Alice in Kenya not only impacted her but he whole community. Also by helping a woman in his neighborhood after the storm brought on many opportunities with other neighbors who ask questions or made comments about our church helping her. Mark also talked about investing by listening. Proverbs talks about how a wise man listens and learns more. Just listening to people can make a world a difference and can lead to many opportunities to share Jesus' love and hope. Mark so talked about how we need to be intentional. If we really want to share Jesus, we need to be intentional or we will miss opportunities in the busyness of life. So, what is your next steps to invest and GO? Who will you invest in? How can you serve someone this week? How can you be more aware and intentional? 

THOUGHTS
- We had some tech problems again today with the sound system, my mic, the center speaker and some other little issues. We have had problems every week since the big storm. Ugh.
- We need some 11:00 am people to come to 9:30 am - anyone willing to come?
- We ended with "Jesus Freak" I think half the people had no idea what was going on. It's a classic - aka - old.

SONGS
We Shine - Fee
In Wonder - Newsboys
Beautiful One - Tim Hughes
Oh The Glory of it All - David Crowder Band
God of Justice - Tim Hughes
Life Light Up - Christy Nockels
Jesus Freak (chorus) - DC Talk

GO: THIS SUNDAY

Don't miss week 2 of GO this Sunday. There is going to be bad weather so come we experience something to challenge you and brighten your weekend. Don't forget last week...Give Me Your Eyes...

OTHER THOUGHTS FOR SUNDAYS

Here are some other things we consider when we set up our Sunday Series:

We don't want to talk over people's heads. We try to use language everyone can understand.
We try to speak to people no matter where they are at in their spiritual journey.
We try to make the complex simple and practical.
We try to be relevant. We try share mostly from experiences to keep it real.
We touch on some major topics at least one Sunday every year (relationships, vision, money, invest/invite, impact community/world, salvation in Jesus, character of God).

NEW ALBUMS

I have mentioned this before - I am addicted to music and buying albums. Here are a few albums I have bought lately:

Daughtry: Leave this Town - it's pretty good and pretty similar to first album but the back end is more mellow and even a country sounding song.

Aaron Shust: Take Over - Aaron is a friend of mine from college (name drop). This album is pretty solid and comparable to his last album.

Mute Math: Armistice - AWESOME. Not like the last album. It is very different overall. I really like it.

Needtobreathe: Outsiders - a good shift for them. More acoustic feel and earthy. I like it.

Hillsong: Faith Love Hope and Hillsong United: Across the Earth - same story as all other albums from them...very solid but similiar except Hill U was more low key

Leeland: Love Is On the Move - another good recording from Leeland. I really like their sound. Songs are kinda churchy but good.

Tenth Ave. North: Over and Underneath - very good more on the pop side than I usually like but really good. You can still get it at Hages for $5. Very worth it. We might do some of their songs at Journey in the future.

I bought a few random songs from Tim Hughes, Creed (the new song just released), Danyew, mewithoutyou, Thrice, Owl City, Black Eyed Peas, and O.A.R - all good - but still best albums this summer were the new Mat Kearney and Jars of Clay - but Mute Math might overtake that position.

PREP FOR SUNDAYS

Paul speaks around 30 of the 52 weeks out of the year. Mainly because he is awesome, but also because he can't sing. The rest are split between Mark and I and a video a few times a year. I know Paul and I approach speaking in a totally different way.

When we started The Journey, everyone said that having a co-lead doesn't work. Well, Paul and I work well as a team. We seemed to always be on the same page because we check our pride at the door and we hold true to the vision. The funny thing is while we work well as a team and while we have a lot of the same interests, we go about things totally different. Speaking is no different.

I know Paul does prep well in advance for the big picture. Then on Tues & Wed he writes his message. I don't know if he still does this but he use to write it out word for word. I know he uses the mind maps thing and he approaches the message more linear. 

I have ADD and my brain doesn't work that way. I think in chunks. I have my topic. I start by finding a story for the Bible where someone experienced the issue. I find some other verses that connect to share along with the story. I have personal experiences to share. Then I try to come up with some funny stuff. So I take all the chunks and I start verbally talking through things to form the outline. I don't write things out - it all just outline. I don't see myself as a preacher, more of a storyteller or motivator. I want to take God's story and connect it with our story to motivate us to take next steps.

SPEAKING FOR NEXT STEPS

Our goal on Sunday mornings is for people to experience life change by following Jesus. I remember watching Saturday morning cartoons and I think it was School House Rock would say knowledge is power. Well, knowledge might be the beginning, but I believe until we act on the knowledge, it is powerless. Action is really power. On Sundays at the Journey, we don't teach for knowledge - our series are action-oriented. We don't want to just dump knowledge, we want you to take next steps. 

So far this year, we talked about parenting (80's child), putting hope in Jesus (unCERTAINty), experiencing Jesus in our lives through pain or trials (My Story), we took a look at God and what it means to experience life following Him (Lousy T-shirt & One Prayer), we heard stories from baptisms and kenya, we looked into how to have direction and reach our destination in life, and now how to share our faith (Go). 

So, what next steps have you taken this year? I would love to hear from you.

SPEAKING SHIFT

I think back to how people spoke at church from my experience and we have shifted to something different.

I think preaching use to be presented with a formula something like...
Here is what the Bible says
So it's important
Here are some other reasons why from Bible and other things in life
Here is a little application

We present with more of a formula like...
Here is a issue in life and here is why it's important
Here are some ideas from life  
And here is what the Bible has to say
Here is a lot of application

Because we have so main people just checking God out. We can't assume people believe the Bible and take it as God's Word. The other way is God's word is truth so here it is truth, here is the issue, and do it. We present as here is the issue, here is the "so what", here is some truth and here is God's truth and surprise God's ways make the most sense so here are many ways to take next steps.

So while we PREPARE from God's Word first, we PRESENT it more on the back end.

WHAT YOU TALKING ABOUT?

Last week I shared what we are going to be talking about on Sundays this fall at The Journey. Every summer we lay out the year ahead. This week, I thought I would share our approach to picking series and how we approach Sunday mornings. 

The most important thing is that we want to be led by God. Each summer, Paul and I spend time praying about what to share. We ask God where we should take The Journey and we begin to put together the series. We make sure we have space to change things up throughout the year as God leads as well. For example, the unCERTAINty series this past year was an add in series. As we set up each series, we want The Bible to guide us and not series. I know Paul is now taking special days beyond his regular prep to seek God, to listen, then to plan for series. We want to share things that we are experiencing in our relationship with God. We also know that as pastors we need to take people where then need to go, not necessarily where they want to go. So, we don't shy away form hard topics or big issues. It is fun to see something go from a concept of parenting to finding what the Bible has to say about parenting like in Eph. 6 & Deut. 6  all way to the creative side of 80's child. 

This kinda goes back to the Direction/Destination series -  do we trust that God - that he knows what is best? Will we set our lives, our thoughts, our schedules in a way to follow God, His direction? We want to be led by God, how about you?

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?

I'm pumped for this year's NFL season - We have HD now so that will bring the viewing to 'hole 'notha level. I was watching MNF tonight and I had two drafts for fantasy football. 

Here is my team for our Journey League:
QB - The Tom Brady
WR - T.O. 
WR - D. Hixon
WR - Chris Chambers
RB - Marion Barber
RB - Larry Johnson
TE - Antonio Gates
K - Nick Folk
DEF - NY Giants
BN (it's good) - Jonathan Stewart, Willie Parker, Joey Galloway, Chris Henry, Joey Flacco

My predictions:
1) My fantasy team will all be injuried by mid-season and I will bomb out.
2) Lions will have only 2 wins this season, but St Louis will only will 1 game

What's your NFL predictions?