Plan ahead. Thats a great idea and a really tough assignment. This week (after  Christmas )our team has been planning next years weekend services. Wayne Gretzky said, “the great ones are always skating to where the puck is going to be “. We have been skating. Hard.
     I really love thinking about what we will be speaking on next September. To begin I ask myself “Where should our church be at the end of next year ?”. Start from the end and work to the beginning. With so many people involved now in programming the services I must allow them some lead time for their work. There’s music , graphics , videos , Media Shout , skits , props , research , sound , lighting and so on. However I do reserve the right to make changes in the service up to the last minute. We even make changes between services if needed.
     We have worked on programming two Sunday services, Wednesday night service and Jr. high and High school services. On Sunday morning and Big MO , we went mostly topical with life application messages. While on Wednesday night we are teaching  through the Bible. One book at a time and line by line.
      My first series in 2007 is called The Values of My Journey. It is about defining who we are and where we are going as a church. While each person can use it as a guide to stay on track in the new year. I will be teaching our new mission statement and setting church goals.
      I’m really enjoying our new post- Katrina location. The storm blew away our shopping center. But we landed safely at the Harbor Center. Sort of like Dorthy in The Wizard of Oz.
 www.northshoreharborcenter.com  We hope to open our new campus in the next 12 months. 2007. 52 weekends. Lets go.

     Its the day after Christmas 2006 . We are anxious to share the pictures from the JFC Production. There were so many good ones to choose from, but I selected some of my favorites. Almost 2000 people attended the 4 shows . We are already working on next years production; more about that later. 364 days til…….

    Mission accomplished. Our fourth service ended at 1:00 PM. It was just amazing. I”m sorting through the hundreds of photos. I will post the gallery tomorrow. Well thats Christmas , so maybe you should give me a day or two. Our total attendance for Christmas weekend was 1852. I need a nap. Santa is coming in a few hours so  Merry Christmas from Journey Fellowship Church….

     Saturday night is done. The first two services are in the can and they were better than we could have hoped. Opening night jitters were rampant but we overcame . Both shows were nearly flawless. After a big event like that , I can’t sleep. Especially one that went so well. I loved the dance numbers. During the pre-show Jaimee  sang “Tennessee Christmas”. (my favorite Christmas song).Thanks team.  Great job to all the cast and crew ! I’m so proud of you all. I took hundreds of pictures . I’ll post a few now , and save the rest for tomorrow evening. 6AM will come too soon. Enjoy. 2 down 2 to go.

     Christmas is almost here. I’ve been listening to holiday music since Halloween . Can’t get enough. (Burl Ives is still king ).In just a few more hours our Christmas production begins . We are hosting 4 weekend services this year for Christmas . The next 24 hours will be a blur. I feel like a kid in a candy store . After we are done with the weekend i will post a photo gallery of the Big Event. I hope your Christmas is bright. Merry Christmas from all of us at Journey Fellowship Church. ( to Ron, I love the sign.)

    The crew who creates the technical magic here at JFC is a talented bunch. Nick, Jason, Ryan and Cecelia always amaze me. The original graphic art, video creation ,
3D Animation , all the web site stuff , and the building and support of this Blog ,among other things is because of these talented people. And they do so much more. Each team member brings other unique ministry to the table. They sing, play instruments , teach , lead , love and pray. Each of them is a fully devoted follower of Christ . I’m proud of the Visioneers.( Visioneer is a Disney inspired word that combines Vision and Engineer ). You can see their work in action this weekend at THE WONDER OF CHRISTMAS production. Here are a few pictures of them creating….

    I thought I would post some pictures of the Northshore Harbor Center as we are setting up for ‘The Wonder of Christmas’. The teams are zooming around here. The pictures tell the story.

Our team was brainstorming about a year ago concerning Christmas 2006. They wanted to stage our biggest production to date. So in the middle of our recovery and relief efforts post-Katrina “THE WONDER OF CHRISTMAS ” was conceived. And this weekend the birth happens. When I tell you this is our most aggressive production ever; we have the blood and sweat to back it up. Nothing but our best for the KING OF KINGS.
Our dilemma was,” how can you tell an Ancient Story to a modern world and capture their heart? ” So we decided to tell the story from the perspective of an unchurched person, who discovers the wonder of Christmas in a dark world. This is an original play that was created, written and produced by people in the JFC family. I am so proud of this effort. And we took the extra step of inviting our community to see it FREE of charge.
Thirty cast members,dozens of crew members, swarms of technical gurus, lighting, sound, graphic artist and video geniuses, a host of average people like me, a generous congregation, and a few thousand angels have come together to retell THE STORY. God became a man. Wow !
We have also added some intresting touches; like an outdoor train ride, old fashioned carollers strolling about, pictures with Santa, a giant room filled with SNOW! We will have a white Christmas this year. The music in the main auditorium will be a winter wonderland with Giant video screens. And it just goes on and on… Thursday wil be load in day. We will begin bringing all the thousands of details together. Friday will be technical nirvana as our teams connect the dots and the miles of cable needed to pull this off. Then dress rehersal after rehersal after rehersal. Til we get it perfect.
4 shows . Thousands of people. One story . The Birth .
www.slidellsnow.com

     We just attended the Slidell Area Chamber luncheon. It was held at the NorthShore Harbor Center. That’s our church home on Sunday and now Wednesday  too. I was invited to pray the Invocation. And our creative team performed Act 1 of the Christmas production , “The Wonder of Christmas” . For more about that click www.journeyfellowshipchurch.com The picture below is of the Chamber luncheon , it was held in our Worship Center. Man I love this church.

     Our youth group celebrated Christmas in a unique fashion last night. We gathered at our first ever Masquerade Ball . Loads of fun. Too much food. ( But I did love the chocolate fountain). Beth and Danny Illg did a fantastic job planning and leading the entire event. I’ve posted some of the pictures below. Also you’ll see some photos of the Fusion leaders party , which was next door. Fusion is our elementary ministry , led by Pastor Sidney and Tonya Hidalgo and some of the best parents in the world.