Baptism Bash Time

It will be hard to compare subsequent baptisms to our first but I pray that baptisms can become a monthly occurrence around Journey Church.  Sunday, March 29, 2009, we baptized 11 people in water as an example of their faith in Jesus Christ. You can read about some of their stories on the church website and even get the video!

It has been said that Texans sleep with their boots on.  Well, they get baptized with their boots on too!

Sunday @ Journey (March 29th)

Sunday was a day that will go down in the books as won of the most exciting days in the history of Journey Church. You could feel the expectation of the day as it started at 5 am as Joe and I drove to the theater to drop off the baptismal tank a.k.a. cattle trough. We started filling it with water as we prayed the our heater would be sufficient to heat the tank in the 34 degree weather. I knew that it was going to warm up but putting people into a tank of 50 degree water was not what I wanted to be known for. But thanks to Shane Hall, we turned our cattle trough into a redneck hot tub that was perfect for baptism. All total, we baptized 11 people on Sunday from ages 7 to 70. You can catch some of their stories on the website (www.churchonajourney.com) and our facebook page. Baptism was their demonstration of their new found journey. May they always pursue the HIM with an uncompromising commitment. My prayer is that today will serve as a CRUX in the life of those eleven who confessed Jesus as their Savior. May their commitment never fade. As Maxwell said, "Until I am committed, there is a hesitancy, a chance to draw back. But the moment I definitely commit myself, then God moves also, and a whole stream of events erupts. All manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings, persons, and material assistance, which I could never have dreamed would come my way, begin to flow toward me - the moment I make a commitment."

Not only was Sunday the first day of baptisms at Journey Church but it was the first time we decided to do our worship time, acoustic. Sometimes new churches are forced to do an acoustic set because a drummer doesn't show but that wasn't our case. We found that Pablo, our drummer, has incredible ninja skills and can actually play the shaker and text at the same time (or so I am told from the guys at rehearsal). The most exception part of the worship besides Blair showing his ability on the djembe was Aaron bringing it with his standup, "doghouse" bass. I honestly wanted to cry for joy when I saw and heard Aaron pull out the bow and start sawing on that huge fiddle! Awesome time of worship!



As I continued our series, Crux, that highlights the cross of Jesus being the dividing line in history and our life, I felt the passion of God as I communicated what it was like to find true conversion. True transformation. True life-change. In our closing prayer, I ask for hands to be raised by those who were wanting to put their faith in Jesus. Several hands went up and I was able to pray with one man in particular who described to me how over the past few weeks while attending Journey, God has been drawing him closer and closer and today he wanted to affirm his faith in Jesus. What a great day!

God is blessing our new church beyond our expectations. It's not about being hip and cool. It is not about being impressive and catchy. It is about the life changing power of the Gospel. I realize that more every day. For that Gospel, I can and have given my life. And why shouldn't I, HE gave his!

Serving Denton through Convoy of Hope

What a great honor for our young church to be a part of serving our community on such a large scale event such as Convoy of Hope.  Even through the figid temperatures, churches joined together to show love to our city and those who were facing difficult times.  Here are the details: 

27 churches participated

16 community/social/business organizations

572 volunteers

1,516 guests

60 people prayed prayers of salvation

1,015 people were prayed for

In the words of songwriter Chris Tomlin - "greater things are yet to come, greater things are still to be done in this city"

Sunday @ Journey

What an incredible day we had this weekend. We got a late start but that didn't seem to matter to the TEAM. Everyone including those who have recently come on board to serve at Journey, jumped in and transformed our theater into a place of worship for adults and kids alike all in record time.

It was a busy day for our nursery/preschool team because we had almost 20 little guys and girls celebrating Jesus in their own way. Shannon, Melissa and Brandi will receive a crown in heaven that they won't be able to carry for all their work with those little ones.

Michael spoke on Sunday and became the second person to speak in front of a Journey Church audience in our short 5 week history. He didn't disappoint as he challenged us to follow Christ because he knows more of what we need that we do ourselves.

Overall, it was an incredible day. Growth. Relationships built. The Gospel preached. A win!

God, Family, Church - In that order!

It is hard to describe how proud I am of Sydney after her team won the 10U City Basketball Championship. I watched the games in amazement as our girls played with incredible heart and beat a very tough Laker team back to back.

It was worst case scenerio as it all played out. The championship game ended up being played at 5pm Saturday. The exact same time the our planned BIGteam meeting was scheduled. I was forced to make a split second decision at 4pm: Am I going to go to Sydney's game or am I going to skip the game and do the meeting? Family or Church?

It wasn't my daughter's fault that the game was scheduled at that time. We actually thought it might be played on Sunday afternoon. But no such luck. It also wasn't the team's problem that my daughter was playing basketball. How could I win in this situation?

Well, I know that it has been said - God, Family, Church, but many times that really isn't lived out. I can honestly say that my parents never missed one of my ballgames but there were times when I did feel like our family took a back seat to the church calendar. It isn't an easy thing to balance because the choices usually effect lots of people.

I chose to go to my daughters ball game because I wanted her to know that she was more important than it. It is one thing to know what you are getting into when you sign up for kid sports that you know will take you away from church. That is a different story! But when it falls that way without your knowledge, it is another thing entirely.

i chose to set the culture early for Journey Church. The order is not just talked about so it makes us feel good. The order is lived out - God, Family, Church. Why this order? Because I believe strong families have a focus upon God and strong churches have a focus on family. In God's plan, the family came a long time before the church did and that is they way it still should be today!

How do you grow a great TEAM?

One of the most amazing things that I have been able to experience since we began this journey of starting JOURNEY, has been the development of our TEAM. One of the first questions I started getting from people who were either asking from curiosity or asking for accountability was, "so how many people do you have on your team?" I would always do my best to give them the information that they were looking for and then try to give them the backstory of how we got connected. That is the real story!

For sake of time and space, I am going to skip the backstory and just give some thoughts about how God puts together championship teams.

In the early planning stages, we began to think through all the things that we felt had to be in place before we actually started having church services. At every corner we were faced with this question, "how in the world are we gonna do all these things when we don't have people to help us?" Now I know that this is a planting 101 question but let me tell you - when you are in the middle of it, it is a test of faith. Thankfully, the Lord spoke to me and encouraged me to get concerned about what HE was concerned about and HE would give us the help we need. That has certainly been the case.

On Saturday night, we had our first BIGteam meeting with all of our volunteer team. As I looked around I realized that 6 months ago, I didn't know 95% of all these people. Now they have become some of our closest friends. We followed the pattern of Acts 2:32 and we have seen God build an incredible team. I have found that Championship teams do several things: 1. They eat together often 2. They pray together regularly 3. They work together for the common good 4. They play together.

I have found that our recruitment process is at times flawed, but HIS process is always perfect and he knows the type of team it takes to win!

Sunday @ Journey

>> I was told that Daylight Savings Time weekend could possibly be a downer. But it didn't play out that way. We had a great weekend at Journey. Our attendance didn't bottom out and there was a lot of excitement in the air. I did see quit a few more blood shot eyes than usual.

>> Awesome job by Dustin and the set up team of making the best of a late start. You guys have the system down and it is great to see that you do what you do each week with an incredible attitude of service and love.

>> We welcome Aaron and Danielle as a part of TEAMJourney. We are so glad that we have gotten to know them and see their excitement for being a part of the team. They bring unique skills like knowing the molecular structure of an avocado and being able to arrange symphonies. Welcome to the team!

>> Each week we see new faces. It was great to get to meet several whose faces are becoming more and more familiar. I love to meet new people. Always have and always hope to have that opportunity!

Sunday @ Journey