You read that right - the Journey Metro East, a video venue of The Journey in St. Louis, MO, is hiving off into a church plant.
Last night at our Campus Meeting, Darrin Patrick, Bob Bickford, and I cast vision for what is coming for the Journey Metro East: we are going to become an autonomous church plant. The executive elders and I have been working toward this actively behind the scenes for the last year - and our campus leadership team and I have been at it hyper-actively for the last two months. So it was great to be able to make it public to our people.
Last night was an incredible flood of emotions for me. Several people told me that I looked "giddy." And, I think, that is an accurate description of how I felt. God has made his will clear to me and the other elders and I am incredibly excited as I look forward to the continued unleashing of blessing as we make much of Jesus.
But there were other emotions in there too. I am a little sad and a little scared and a little tired... but the excitement of what God is doing is like a gust of wind filling the sails - it seems to carry me along and make the hard stuff less hard. As I stood up there with Darrin and Bob and scanned the faces of our people, I think the biggest thing I felt was gratitude.
So, if you missed the meeting last night, here are some of the highlights:
1. Yup, it's happening. The Journey Metro East is hiving off into an autonomous church plant. This is a hive - not a split. The executive elders and I are in agreement - this is where God is leading us to go, and we are simply trying to follow in obedience. The Journey is fully endorsing us and is helping to financially support this move to a church plant.
2. Because we are leaving a church we love, we acknowledge that there will be some sadness in the process. We aren't being driven away by dissatisfaction - we are choosing to go because we believe it to be God's direction for us. Like a young adult who leaves home for the first time, it is completely appropriate to have feelings of both sadness and excitement. Since we are leaving in a healthy way, though, we are maintaining a strong and healthy relationship that will allow for collaboration and resourcing in the future (we'll still get to go home occasionally and raid the fridge!).
3. We have two months to make the transition - so we will be asking our people to join our transition team. This will be explained more in-depth at our next campus meeting.
4. We are starting to transition out of using video. For the months of November and December, I will preach half the time and will continue to use video half the time. Starting in January, I will be preaching full time.
5. The Journey has given us permission to take a special offering to collect money to enable us to furnish our space. The foyer needs furniture to enable gospel conversations. The offices need furniture for both work space and counseling space as we look forward to partnering with Karis House to bring in professional counselors and equip lay counselors. The cost of moving into our new space, doing the build out, doing the cleaning, buying the chairs, and buying the furniture will run around $12,000. So, on November 14, in addition to our regular offering, we will be taking a special offering - and 100% of this offering will go to our campus needs.
6. As a church plant we will have a new identity. That means our own leadership. Our own name. Our own core values. We are in process on much of this stuff - but we do have a name.
So, what is the name?
Well, stay tuned. We have it - but I want to share the story of how we came up with it. New blog post coming soon!
If you have read this far, you are obviously interested. Would you please pray for us? The last year - and especially the last couple months - have been intense and challenging. And there is much more to come... so I would really appreciate your prayers for me, my family, our church, the finances, the advancement of the gospel through us - and whatever else God leads you to pray for.
Last night at our Campus Meeting, Darrin Patrick, Bob Bickford, and I cast vision for what is coming for the Journey Metro East: we are going to become an autonomous church plant. The executive elders and I have been working toward this actively behind the scenes for the last year - and our campus leadership team and I have been at it hyper-actively for the last two months. So it was great to be able to make it public to our people.
Last night was an incredible flood of emotions for me. Several people told me that I looked "giddy." And, I think, that is an accurate description of how I felt. God has made his will clear to me and the other elders and I am incredibly excited as I look forward to the continued unleashing of blessing as we make much of Jesus.
But there were other emotions in there too. I am a little sad and a little scared and a little tired... but the excitement of what God is doing is like a gust of wind filling the sails - it seems to carry me along and make the hard stuff less hard. As I stood up there with Darrin and Bob and scanned the faces of our people, I think the biggest thing I felt was gratitude.
So, if you missed the meeting last night, here are some of the highlights:
1. Yup, it's happening. The Journey Metro East is hiving off into an autonomous church plant. This is a hive - not a split. The executive elders and I are in agreement - this is where God is leading us to go, and we are simply trying to follow in obedience. The Journey is fully endorsing us and is helping to financially support this move to a church plant.
2. Because we are leaving a church we love, we acknowledge that there will be some sadness in the process. We aren't being driven away by dissatisfaction - we are choosing to go because we believe it to be God's direction for us. Like a young adult who leaves home for the first time, it is completely appropriate to have feelings of both sadness and excitement. Since we are leaving in a healthy way, though, we are maintaining a strong and healthy relationship that will allow for collaboration and resourcing in the future (we'll still get to go home occasionally and raid the fridge!).
3. We have two months to make the transition - so we will be asking our people to join our transition team. This will be explained more in-depth at our next campus meeting.
4. We are starting to transition out of using video. For the months of November and December, I will preach half the time and will continue to use video half the time. Starting in January, I will be preaching full time.
5. The Journey has given us permission to take a special offering to collect money to enable us to furnish our space. The foyer needs furniture to enable gospel conversations. The offices need furniture for both work space and counseling space as we look forward to partnering with Karis House to bring in professional counselors and equip lay counselors. The cost of moving into our new space, doing the build out, doing the cleaning, buying the chairs, and buying the furniture will run around $12,000. So, on November 14, in addition to our regular offering, we will be taking a special offering - and 100% of this offering will go to our campus needs.
6. As a church plant we will have a new identity. That means our own leadership. Our own name. Our own core values. We are in process on much of this stuff - but we do have a name.
So, what is the name?
Well, stay tuned. We have it - but I want to share the story of how we came up with it. New blog post coming soon!
If you have read this far, you are obviously interested. Would you please pray for us? The last year - and especially the last couple months - have been intense and challenging. And there is much more to come... so I would really appreciate your prayers for me, my family, our church, the finances, the advancement of the gospel through us - and whatever else God leads you to pray for.
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