paulurban.blogs.com

Missionaries to our city

Last week I wrote a blog post about how at The Journey we are increasingly seeing ourselves as missionaries to our city vs. pastors to our church congregation.

In May I wrote about this topic when I discussed what Vince Antonucci had to say about being a Pastor or a Missionary.

Today I want to give you a small glimpse of what that is looking like for us as a church and the unique challenges that creates.

1.  Being a missionary to our city means there is a LOT of people to reach.  And that won't happen by simply creating a "come to us" church experience.  We have to engage the culture and go to where people are at.  That's challenging, time consuming, and can be costly.

2.  Being a missionary to our city means that we need to step into our city and make it a better place as we earn the right to be heard.  Our Journey Networks help to accomplish that, plus they help us engage point #1 as well.

3.  Being a missionary to our city means that "established" Christians will often feel uncomfortable in our environments.  65% of our people weren't going to church before they came to The Journey.  Many might not know King James Version language, James Dobson, Veggie Tales, Pastor Appreciation Month, or Contemporary Christian Music.  They may however smoke, smell like alcohol, be struggling in their marriage, or living together w/no intention of marrying, etc.

4.  Because of #3, there is often a lack of leaders to move the mission forward.  It takes time for those new to faith to mature, and those who supposedly are "mature" and long-time Christians don't stay around long enough to really be effective in ministry.  This also means that as missionaries we have to take a staff team approach and carry a lot of weight.  It also means we have to spend huge chunks of relational time discipling new followers.

5.  As a missionary outpost to our city vs. a typical church congregation, finances will always be extremely tight and might always need some kind of outside support.  We've been fully-funded for a while now, but the reality is that it is always very difficult and to fund the vision that has been placed in our hearts and the vision that can reach the city it probably won't be fully-funded by the 35% of longer term church goers and the 65% of new-to-faith people that our church reaches.  We need each of them to do their part, but a missionary outpost will need the support of those passionate about that missionary endeavor or passionate about that city.

There's more, but that's enough for now.  There are huge challenges if we're going to truly be a missionary to our city, but it is absolutely worth it!  I was reminded of that this past weekend when we baptized 13 adults - most who were not attending church anywhere before they came to The Journey.

P.S.  There is no denying that we are missionaries to our increasingly post-Christian culture - the only question is if we'll acknowledge it and begin acting like it.

 

It's Coming . . .

You'll be hearing about it soon . . . it's coming to The Journey . . . registration is opening in the near future.  What am I talking about?

I'll let Mark explain or just tease you a little more.

Baptisms at the Beach

On Sunday, we're baptizing around 14 people at the beach at Maranatha Conference grounds on beautiful Lake Michigan at 1 pm.  That will bring the total amount of Journeyers baptized in the last several months to 26!  

The stories represented by those being baptized are inspiring.  

One of the unique things about The Journey is that about 90% of our baptisms are adults.  They are people who haven't been in church in years or who have never been in church and are encountering relationship with Jesus.  

All month long we'll be sharing their video stories in our Sunday services.  Don't miss them!!  Their stories will inspire you and help you take steps in your journey!

Can't wait for Sunday!!

Which of these isn't like the other?

 I'm not sure what your church experience was growing up.  Maybe you went to a church that looked like this picture.  Maybe you went a couple times a week, or you rarely went.

For many people who come to The Journey, they will share that they haven't experienced church like this before.  Many of those people haven't been in church in years (65% of people who come to The Journey weren't going to church before they came here).  

Through the years we've had our detractors.  We did a series once on "sex and intimacy" and we had someone from the community call the cops on us.  We've been accused of dumbing down the Gospel message.  We've been called heretics.  We've had other churches preach "against" us.  We've heard many times that we were growing because we were doing rock music and showing videos and had stage lights.  

Through the years (especially when we were younger) we probably did some things that pushed the envelope.  There were probably moments where used technology or creative elements more than we should have or in ways that didn't really help accomplish more than being "cool".

But I think the real rub & why we look different than a lot of churches is fundamentally about how we see ourselves and the outpost that meets on Sunday's at Pontaluna exit (and our M120 site).  We see ourselves as missionaries to our community.  Not as an enclave of Christians.  We see our mission and our core Journeyers as missionaries to our city, and our Sunday gatherings as an opportunity to encourage & inspire those missionaries & engage and challenge those who are seeking (you may agree or not agree fundamentally with whether that idea is right or wrong - but lets put that aside for a moment).

In our ten years, I've come to discover that many people who grew up in the church and have been Christians for a long time have a really difficult time with that concept.  That's really no surprise.  Imagine being a missionary to Zimbabwe.  There's some culture shock.  There's a new language.  There's hanging with people who aren't always like you.  There's a focus on serving others rather than them serving you.  There are less people who believe the same things or live the same way as you.

It might not be to that extreme, but doing church as missionaries to a city, rather than simply a pastor to "his people" isn't that much different.

I'll explain some of that on Monday!  Tomorrow, I'll have a quick post about one of the ways that being missionaries to the city will be expressed this weekend at The Journey!

Wanna quit? Welcome to leadership

Leadership is hard.  Leadership in a church (in my opinion) is really hard.  The tough decisions you make are not just about the bottom line.  They are decisions that affect your family, your friends, your spiritual family.  They can affect people's eternity.  That's heavy.  It can be emotionally draining.  It can become spiritually exhausting.

I know very few pastors who don't daydream about working a "regular" job where they don't have to take things home with them, they don't have to be "on call", they don't have to work every weekend.  

Now the reality is that every job has their unique issues, and I'm not suggesting that being a pastor is harder or more complicated than someone else's job.  But in it's uniqueness it brings different challenges and those challenges can bring stress and pain and hurt.

Added on top of what I've already said, the pastor who truly loves the people they are called to serve - hurt with those who are hurting.  When my friend's marriage is struggling, I ache for them.  I feel a responsibility to be their friend and pastor, bringing some spiritual direction or wisdom.  When the marriage doesn't work out, it's easy to feel like a failure.  Maybe I wasn't spiritual enough, maybe I wasn't biblical enough, maybe I didn't pray enough.  If you're a pastor you know the drill.

Now, if you're a pastor you need to realize that if you try to be a pastor in your own power and strength it's only a matter of time before you wanna quit.  It's only a matter of time before you're exhausted and beaten down and your family is tired and you feel defeated.  

This task of pastoring is dealing with the day to day realities of this world coupled with the spiritual realities of a universe and an eternity that still holds lots of secrets.  It's complex and other-worldly and beyond our own abilities.  If we aren't relying on Jesus' power in our own lives and in our words, our ministry will not only bear much less fruit than is possible, but our ministry will be shorter than it should be as well.  What are you doing to stay close to Jesus?  What are you doing to stay connected to God?  How are you living dependent on Him?  

Leading a church is really, really hard.  It's leadership.  But the key to leadership is followership.  As we follow Jesus (and only if we follow Jesus), can we be the leaders He wants us to be.

P.S.  If you're not a pastor - I hope this will spur you on to pray for your pastors.  Coming from one . . . they need it (just like I do)!

It Takes two, but do your part no matter what

Over the last couple of weeks, I've posted a few different blog posts about marriage.  One of them talked about dealing with your own issues for the sake of everyone.  Another one talked about investing in your marriage now rather than later.  

In the last 6 months I have talked with more couples about marriages in trouble than ever before.  In every instance, there are mistakes and bad decisions made by both partners.  And in almost every case there is one person who is trying to take steps to correct things and walk in God's ways and one person who is choosing to go their own way.

It takes two in any relationship, but that also means that both people have choices, decisions, and free will.  You can't control what your spouse is going to do or how they are going to respond.  As much as you want to see things change, you can only do what you can do and then pray up the situation. 

So, in the meantime, become the woman or man that God wants you to become.  Be the father or mother that God made you to be.  Be the follower of Jesus that He is calling you to be.  Do everything you can to be the person that God designed you to be, because in that growing, vibrant relationship you are becoming who God made you to be for relationship with Him.

And a by-product of that is that you will become the kind of father or mother that your kids need, and the kind of husband or wife that your spouse needs if they choose to return, or the kind of husband or wife (not that you want to hear this now) someone else will need if you were to get married again some day.  

Do what you can do.   Keep taking steps with Jesus.  Pursue God with all you have.  Trust Him for you and your families future.

P.S.  Looking for some resources on creating healthy marriages?  We can help.  Check out our resources link on The Journey's website:  http://www.thejourneycc.com/next-steps/marriage

It Takes two, but do your part no matter what

Over the last couple of weeks, I've posted a few different blog posts about marriage.  One of them talked about dealing with your own issues for the sake of everyone.  Another one talked about investing in your marriage now rather than later.  

In the last 6 months I have talked with more couples about marriages in trouble than ever before.  In every instance, there are mistakes and bad decisions made by both partners.  And in almost every case there is one person who is trying to take steps to correct things and walk in God's ways and one person who is choosing to go their own way.

It takes two in any relationship, but that also means that both people have choices, decisions, and free will.  You can't control what your spouse is going to do or how they are going to respond.  As much as you want to see things change, you can only do what you can do and then pray up the situation. 

So, in the meantime, become the woman or man that God wants you to become.  Be the father or mother that God made you to be.  Be the follower of Jesus that He is calling you to be.  Do everything you can to be the person that God designed you to be, because in that growing, vibrant relationship you are becoming who God made you to be for relationship with Him.

And a by-product of that is that you will become the kind of father or mother that your kids need, and the kind of husband or wife that your spouse needs if they choose to return, or the kind of husband or wife (not that you want to hear this now) someone else will need if you were to get married again some day.  

Do what you can do.   Keep taking steps with Jesus.  Pursue God with all you have.  Trust Him for you and your families future.

Recap from last couple weeks

Over the last couple of weeks, I highlighted our staff at The Journey and the roles that they play and a few little clues as to who they are.

In case you missed some of them, here they are:

Mark Rhodes - Connections Pastor

Matt Lewis - Co-Lead Pastor

Shanna Retzlaff - Office Administrator

Aaron Eikenberry - Worship Pastor

Selena Radosa - Co-Director Journey Kids

Julie Weber - Co-Director Journey Kids

Paul Urban - Co-Lead Pastor

Who are you becoming?

At The Journey we believe that our best life is found in relationships, not religion.  When we talk relationships we talk about three key relationships - a relationships with others who are striving to walk with God, relationships with people who are disconnected from Jesus, and most importantly  - our personal relationship with Jesus.

Experiencing our best life doesn't come from following a bunch of rules or "punching the clock" in our spirituality.  It comes when we're changing and becoming the people God wants us to become.  To simplify matters a bit, we've spent a lot of time narrowing down who we're becoming into 6 Core Essentials.  Here they are:

So, who are you becoming in each of these areas?  What's your trajectory in each of the areas listed?  To find out more info. or to take steps in these areas, we've set up a section of our website to resource and aid you in becoming the person God has designed you to be.  You can check it out here!!

What will happen to your kids?

Read a great blog post from 20 year old Heather Stevens.  Good words from someone who grew up in church and a relationship with Jesus and has stayed.  She is in the minority.  Maybe this is why.  It's worth the read!

http://heatherstevens1.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/the-80/

 

P.S.  We want to do whatever we can do to help your kids be part of the 20%.