Advent

Deanna Taylor —  December 4, 2012 — Leave a comment
advent wreath

This wreath, currently in use at Journey, was created during our response time during the 2011 Advent season. Written on the bows are words representing prayers offered.

What are you doing for Advent at your church?

At Journey, our virtue of the month is Compassion: Caring enough to do something about someone else’s need.  

Everyone is encouraged to extend compassion in the ways in which God leads.  However we also offer opportunities for participation as a church family:

  • Purchasing gifts to help a local family celebrate Christmas.
  • Donating to Haiti Water Project, perhaps in lieu of spending money on family gifts.
  • Donating mittens, gloves, scarfs and hats for a local charity.
  • Baking cookies to take to public servants that have to work at Christmas at local hospitals, fire, and police departments.
The sermon series, for adults and teens, is called “Christmas Revolution.”

Nowhere does the Christian community succumb to “a different Jesus” more than during the Christmas season. Sure, we tell the manger narrative and defend our rights to say “Merry Christmas,” but on the whole, the story we tell is pretty toned down.  It is so familiar that it has lost its power. We have heard it so much that the idea of God in a manger no longer inspires awe and humility. We don’t talk about Jesus being such a threat to King Herod that he slaughtered innocent children. We don’t talk much about the scandal surrounding Jesus’s birth because Mary and Joseph weren’t married. We don’t talk about the threat the birth of Jesus posed to the political order of things. These are not part of the eggnog, mistletoe, Frosty-the Snowman story we have come to know. Jesus’ birth was a revolution of love!

The monthly virtue will be emphasized in the children’s department through the Christmas story. The Christmas story shows that one aspect of God’s character is compassion. as God lovingly saw our greatest need and met it in the most remarkable way.

May your Advent be blessed as you experience God’s compassion anew!

Deanna

 

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Getting Started #2

Deanna Taylor —  November 15, 2012 — Leave a comment

Did you know that registered users have a profile they can fill out?  You should find it on your Dashboard.  You can change your screen name to your first, last, full, or nick name rather than your user name here.  You can also add a bit of biographical info, church/personal website links, Facebook, Google+, or Twitter. URLs.  This information will be displayed when you author an article to anyone who clicks to the see the full post and comments.  If you do not wish to have the information displayed, it does not need to be entered here.  Click on this post to see the type of information that is displayed.

In About Us
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Leap Seminar

trax5660 —  November 15, 2012 — 1 Comment

I’d love to hear from others who went to the Alan Hirsch seminar at MVNU. One thing I heard that will change how I plan is that we need to help the church become a learning community rather than a teaching community. I want to put more effort into helping people become learners, independent and successful in their search.

In Our Discussions
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“Gifts” series at Journey Church

pauldazet —  November 15, 2012 — Leave a comment

Gifts.001

In October at Journey Church we did a Spiritual Gifts sermon series titled “Gifts: Open Yours”.

Series Description:

The New Testament makes it absolutely clear that the church of Jesus Christ—the body of Jesus Christ—is to function in the world the same way Jesus functioned. We are to be the Jesus they won‘t see any other way.

The New Testament also tells us that within the body of Christ, there are five gifts, five roles, five parts to his DNA, five facets to the ministry that Jesus conducted in the world and that he continues to conduct through us. These five gifts—apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd, and teacher. Jesus is our example in each role.

You have been gifted, and through you God will change the world. Will you open your gift?

The Schedule:

  • 10/7 – Overview of Spiritual Gifts (Family Worship Experience – Virtue: Individuality)
  • 10/14 – The DNA of Jesus (The church is to function in the world the same way Jesus functioned.)
  • 10/21 – STronger (The church is stronger because of the ministries of the Shepherd & Teacher.)
  • 10/28 – The APEs are Missing (The church needs pioneers: Apostles, Prophets, and Evangelists to blaze a trail forward in God’s New Creation.)

Here is the Sermon Intro Video:

Gifts: Open Yours from Paul Dazet on Vimeo.

Books that I read on the APEST from Ephesians 4 

Spiritual Gift Survey:  We encouraged each person at Journey to discover their spiritual gifts by doing the profile at www.fivefoldsurvey.com.  We also distributed a paper copy of the survey.

Missional Project:  We raised funds for the Haiti Water Project (www.SWOWaterproject.com) during the month through a crockpot fundraiser and participating in the 5K Walk for Water)

Resources on Nomadesk:

Reflection:
  • There is more than enough content to do in a 3-4 week sermon series.  In fact, I found that it was too much for everyone to grasp, so I decided to do more of an overview of the gifts during this series.  I plan to revisit the APEST again in a future series and will utilize the APEST language in everything we do.
  • This month (November) our series is “Get in the Game” – which is about encouraging people to sign up for a ministry team based on their gifts, talents, experiences, and passions.
  • One thing I would have done differently would be to record the gifts of each person in a spreadsheet so there was some accountability to the survey.  I believe over 50% people at Journey completed the survey.
  • Overall, I thought it was a good start to developing the APEST voices at Journey.

 

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Getting Started

Deanna Taylor —  November 3, 2012 — Leave a comment

The purpose of this collaborative blog is to provide a place to share creative ideas, sermon series topics, discipleship strategies, missional projects, and ministries we are doing in our churches and communities.

As your host/moderator, I am just learning what is available to us here.  I will do my best to facilitate a good blogging experience for everyone, but please be patient with me.  Although I am a long-time host/moderator, my experience with WordPress is very limited.  For now, I suggest you do the following things:

  1. Register.  In order to limit spam, only registered users can comment on posts.  Everyone’s first post will go into moderation, but once it has been approved, your comments should show up immediately.  Everyone will be enrolled as a Subscriber, but I will assign more permissions to those who are an active part of the Network or upon request so you can create your own posts.
  2. Subscribe.  Enter your email address in the box in the right sidebar to receive notifications of new posts in your email.  As this is intended to become our main communication tool, take this step to ensure you don’t miss out on important communications.
  3. Post.  This blog will only be successful if the members take time to contribute to the discussion.  If you need more permissions to share as you would like, comment on this post and I will work with you to get you what you need.

Thanks everyone!

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About Synergy

admin —  November 3, 2012 — Leave a comment

The Synergy Network is a group of churches that are sharing together in ministry and partnering together in God’s mission.

Our Mission:

  • To change the world through a network of churches that partner and collaborate together in personal, local, and global missional projects that build the Kingdom of God.
  • To change the world through supporting, mentoring, and encouraging churches that desire to restart as missional churches.
Our Values:

  • Reproducing: The Synergy Network is all about reproducing leaders, artists, small groups, teams and churches in order to fuel a movement of reproducing ministry.
  • Relationships: Churches in the Synergy Network are all about relationships. People connecting together to move beyond the walls of our church buildings to be the church in our communities.
  • Resources: One of the benefits of being a part of the Synergy Network is the opportunity to share in the collective knowledge and experience of all the pastors in our networks. From creative media to training and leadership our resources help our churches communicate the gospel in new relevant ways.
  • Resolutions: Churches that are a part of the Synergy Network share the four core values of being REAL, TRANSFORMED, CONNECTED, AND POURED OUT.
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H2O1

SWO Water Project

admin —  November 3, 2012 — 2 Comments

 Changing the world one drop at a time.

Clean water.  We take it for granted. If what runs out of the faucet does not meet your standards, you can buy it sealed in a bottle.

What if you had no source of safe drinking water for your children? This is the situation in which many people in Haiti find themselves.

It only takes $1 U.S. to provide clean water for one person in Haiti for an entire year. $20, the cost of a fast food meal for a family of four, has the potential to provide clean water for a family of four in Haiti for FIVE years.

Will you love your Haitian neighbors?  

Share how your church is raising money for wells and filters for Haiti.

H2O1

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