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Two weeks into 2012 and I am ecstatic about the next 50! Come and bring your friends this Sunday, we will be ordering more chairs to accommodate more people. We look forward to opening up Saturday night Services at 5:00 PM in February and we are already receiving emails of people that plan to visit or that can come on Saturdays but have to work on Sundays. Yesterday we worshipped with over 650 between our 2 Services and the excitement and energy was unreal! We continued our series, Journey Engaged, to cast the Vision of our very young church of where God is leading us in the days, months and years to come. Yesterday we explained why we value Relevance and Excellence.I explained that when I look at John 3:16 I see two things:

I see how God was so relevant to us that He sent His Son to be human and to live among us. Jesus Christ was relevant in every shape and form. (Hebrews 13:8–Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever.)  While our methodology may change from time to time to reach the culture around us, we must never compromise Jesus or the Scriptures. Isaiah 40:8 says “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” We must not conform Jesus to our lives, but we must conform to His image! Jesus is relevant to us!

“A church that marries the spirit of an age, becomes the widow of the next generation.”
Dean William Inge

I also see another important point, He sent His very best! He gave us His perfect Son, His best…we also should offer our best…we should give excellence each Sunday during our Worship Services and throughout the week. Give the Best of our finances, our time, our talents…everything. 1 Cornithians 10:31 says “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

We are passionate about reaching the lost, the disconnected, the hurt to a relevant God that loves them and desires the Best for them. This year is going to be a year of reaching out, beyond the walls of our building and being relevant in our community and the lives of others to connect this community to a Holy God. Who will you invite for Sunday Services? 

Happy 2nd Birthday Journey Church! We celebrated our 2nd Year as a Church and I’m humbled to be a part of God’s work and yet at the same time, I’m so excited about 2012 for Journey Church and what’s in store for Tifton, GA. We’ve kicked off the New Year with our January Series, Journey Engaged as we challenge you for the coming year and cast the vision of Journey Church and what God has called us to be as Christ followers. I look forward to our annual Celebration Banquet on Sunday, January 29th at 6:00 PM to celebrate the previous year and to prepare and pray for 2012. You don’t want to miss this! We’ve already had hundreds sign up so be sure you make plans to attend. The past two weeks have been phenomenal and I truly believe that this year is going to be an epic year for not only Journey Church but for Tifton, Georgia and the surrounding areas. So far for 2012, we’ve seen over 10 people come and give their hearts and lives to Christ and we will be ordering more chairs this week to seat more people as we have run out of room in the Worship Center. Today was monumental as we announced our new campaign for Tifton, GA that will launch in February…Tifton, I Love You! Our staff and leaders have been praying, fasting and preparing for the launch of this Series to Reach out to the 35,000 unchurched in Tifton, Georgia. We are not merely content with ministering to 600 on a weekly basis…God has called us to a God-sized Vision and that is to reach the lost and disconnected and build His Kingdom with as many people that will come, surrender their life and embrace the journey to Live for God, Love People and Serve the World. I am stoked about Tifton I Love You! My family and I love riding around this city to pray for our city, to pray for the people that are in this community that we’ve never met and we find ourselves constantly say, ‘I Love Tifton!’ We fell in love with this town 2 years ago when we moved here and didn’t know anyone and we find ourselves falling more in love and more passionate about making Tifton the Best Place Possible. What does Tifton need? Better Doctors? Better Politicians? Better Teachers? Better Business Owners? It needs Jesus! When people encounter a real, authentic relationship with Jesus Christ they will be better Doctors and better politicians, better teachers, better business owners. We look forward to invading this city with the Love of God and making a Big Difference in this city we love! This February we will be adding Saturday Night Services at 5:00 PM for the many employees in Tifton that work on Sundays so they can attend a Worship Service with their family identical to our Sunday Services. Plan on attending Iron Men Ministries and Sojourners Women’s Ministry to find out how you can be a part of reaching Tifton with us. We Love You Tifton and we will do everything we can  (short of sin) to make you the Best Place Possible!

Live ~ Love ~ Serve

Sunday was an amazing day at Journey! In our 11:00 service we baptized 4 children from our Journeytown ministry and 1 from our student ministry! What a way to start the worship service! We launched our new series called ROAD TRIP. We were challenged with two points as we started this new series together.

1. We have to get out of the driver’s seat.

Most of us really do desire to go where God wants to take us, but it’s often hard to get there because we are not willing to get out of the driver’s seat. As we take this road trip together, I pray we will each stay out of the driver’s seat and allow God to take us where He desires for us to go. Remember as you begin the 40 days of purpose, it’s NOT about you!

2. We have to look at the right map.

A few weeks ago my wife was using the GPS in our car to give me directions in an unfamiliar city. At one point she was confused with our location and she took the GPS and turned around in the seat to face the other way and said “Benji, it’s not changing directions.” Not kidding. LOL

If we are going to go where God wants to take us, we have to look at the right map. This starts with taking time to read God’s word. Remember, He knows what is best for us and desires for us to live to our full potential for Him! You may sometimes feel lost and you can’t see through your situation, but always remember this…..There is always two stories. There is the story that you see and there is the story that God sees! His view is much bigger than ours and while we can’t see the whole picture, God is in control! Trust His directions.

If you missed Sunday, you can pick up with us this coming week as we continue our ROAD TRIP together. If you can, grab the book by Rick Warren called “The Purpose Driven Life” and start reading along with us for the next 40 days. We started day 1 on Sept. 11th. Catch up with us and let’s travel together!

By the way, you will want to get to Journey early this week! We came very close to 600 in attendance. In the 11:00 service we had to pull out extra chairs and put people in the metal stands in the back of the worship center. If you are able, consider trying our 9:30 service! We will begin our Journeytown experience for ages birth to 5th grade in our 9:30 service the first Sunday in October.

The next few weeks are going to be crazy! Don’t miss it!

Live Love Serve

This past Sunday our Student Pastor brought a great message as he shared from the story of Job. He challenged us to trust God with everything! “We bless God when He gives, but do we bless Him when He takes away.” Good stuff!

I am so excited about Chad being added to our team and can’t wait to see what God does through him. If you have a child that’s in middle or high school, you need to bring them to our student ministry on Wednesday nights from 6:30 to 8:00!

This past weekend my family had our first yard sale and it was a lot of hard work! My hard-working beautiful wife put hours of time into preparing for last Saturday. As the morning started we had tons of people showing up and looking through the items we had for sale. After about an hour, my 3-year-old son came outside and realized we were selling some of his toys. Brayden looked at his mom and said, I want to buy my toys back. He tried to get his own money to buy his toys back because he loved them so much. Unfortunately, we did not allow him to buy the toys back.

This reminds me of the Good News of the Gospel! While sin separated us, God made a way by sending His only Son to die for us!

Have you ever wondered about your life? Questioned where you were headed? Thought about the meaning of your life? Your purpose? God loves you so much and He has a plan designed just for you!

We are starting a new series this week and it’s called “ROAD TRIP”. The next several weeks we will be discovering where God wants to take us as Christ followers. As we do this, our Life Groups will be reading through “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren. If you haven’t picked up your book, you need to get it by Sunday as we will start reading it this Sunday.

Don’t miss out this weekend! Oh yeah, get there early to make sure you get a seat!

See you Sunday and I hope to see you there with your guest family that you will be bringing!

Reaching Tifton and Beyond for Christ!

Live Love Serve
Benji

This past Sunday we concluded our series in “Momentum.”  It was a great day to be gathered with God’s people as we witnessed life change take place in many lives! One gentlemen grabbed me  after the service “literally”  as he shared what had just taken place and pointed at the baptismal pool up front and said “I need to get in there soon!”   Good stuff!!! We must never forget the mission that God has called everyone to. (Matthew 28:16-20) He also promises us that as we do this we will not be alone. (Acts 1:8)  We each have unique gifts, talents, and abilities and we each have different occupations in which we work. It doesn’t matter if you are a pastor, doctor, business owner, teacher, store clerk, waiter, etc…..this list could go on forever. While we are different in many ways, we are called to one mission!

We ended our series in Ephesians 2:1-10 as we talked about gaining spiritual momentum in our lives. Our three take home points were the following:

1. Realize Who You Are  (1-4)
   If we desire to see God move in our lives and through our lives, we have to understand who we are in Christ. It is also important to understand who we were before receiving Christ. This should remind us of the need for others to hear the good news that you have heard!
2. Realize You Are Not Alone (5-9)
   We must realize that as a Christ follower we are never alone! Whether it’s financial stress, depression, addictions, rebellious children, etc……You are NOT alone! (Galatians 2:20) Even in our times of success we should be careful to know that it’s Christ that is in us and that it is not of our own power or ability. The Lord gives and takes away! Our help comes from the Lord! You are not alone.
3. Realize Your Potential (9)
   “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” I believe that sums this up! If you want spiritual momentum in your life, realize how valuable you are to God and get busy. God has ordained plans for everyone of us and we must get busy serving. Are you waiting on God to take the initiative with your life? He already has!! He sent His son Jesus!

So much has changed since my last reflex that I don’t even know where to begin. The summer has gone by so fast, but we have seen so much take place. I thought I would highlight a few things from this summer to remind us of what God has been doing in our church.

Children’s Ministry

• We had our first VBS this summer and averaged over 200 each night.
• We now have over 80 volunteers in our children’s ministry rotation.
• We  bumped 100 in attendance a few times in our Journeytown experience on Sunday mornings. (IN THE SUMMER!)
• We have now separated our Midtown and Uptown and we welcome Gidget Shurling as the Midtown Coordinator.
• We have had 4 kids give their lives to Christ in recent days and we will be having a party to celebrate their new birth in Christ along with their parents and then we will baptize them on September 11th.
• Britni, thank you for all you do in our Children’s ministry!!! You are such a blessing to our church, but more importantly, you are a blessing to me as my wife.