Journey is going on the road next Sunday. We will be meeting at the Grand Theatre in Slidell on Sunday February 4. 2007. One service at 10am.  We are renting 2 theaters and the party room. Ministry for nursery through the sixth grade will be in full swing. Their parking lot is still under construction, so come a few minutes early. We are starting a new series on family and marriage. This is going to be a good one. We are getting ready for Gary Chapman. He is coming to Journey in March. Get your tickets soon, before they are all gone. We will be back at the Harbor Center on February 11th and resume our two service format.  On the road again…

    Yesterday was an amazing day at The Journey. Gary Sapp was our guest speaker . He is with Mission of Mercy, an international ministry that cares for children in 23 countries. Our congregation made pledges to support our missionaries in 2007. And we also adopted children with Mission of Mercy. We sponsored over 200 kids yesterday. For $30 a month each child will recieve food, medical care,and an education. I’m really happy that we are connected to this ministry. They reach more than 40,000 children each month. The founding father of Mission of Mercy was Mark Buntain. He was a missionary to India for 35 years. He and his wife Hulda served the poor of India with great distinction.  He spoke at a chapel service in 1985 when I was attending Bible College. Remarkable man. The world lost him in1989. His wife still serves in ministry 6 months out of the year. She is well into her eighties. I am still amazed by these people. www.missionofmercy.org . Our missionary to the Republic of Nauru was with us yesterday too. Norred and Doris Chassion will begin serving in their new assignment in a few months. They served many years in the Solomon Islands before this latest appointment.
 

    Also congratulations to all of you who were baptized in the 9am service.  I am so proud of each of you. We took some great pictures of the baptism for the archives.  I love this church !

   On Sunday January 28  at both services we will renew our passion for the Great Commission. The fourth and final part of our Mission Statement at JFC is “Reach Out To The World”. Missionaries willl be in worship with us. There’s a guest speaker. We will be  promoting the short-term trips available as well as raising our missions budget. BIG day tomorrow. I hope it is a defining moment in the life of our church. The day my Pastor preached a message on the Great Commission way back in 1988 was such a day for me. That day I was captured by Jesus’ vision for the world.( Read Matthew 28:18-20 ). That wasn’t the first time that I heard a message like that. I sat under professors and teachers who poured that into me over the years. But that was the day that I understood it. A Defining Moment.
    Life brings those moments from time to time. I heard a BJ Thomas song today and it brought me back to my childhood. My Pop took me camping when I was about twelve years old. One night we were sitting around the campfire listening to the portable radio (the ipod of my childhood) and a BJ Thomas song came on the radio. At that moment the specialness of being so close to my dad was forever seared in my memory and oddly linked
to BJ Thomas’ music. Everytime I hear that song I go back. A Defining Moment.
    My first foriegn outreach happened in 1989.  Inspired by my Pastor, I went on a trip to Mexico with a busload of passionate believers. It changed my life. Rachel and I have since gone on dozens of other such trips. Each one special. That’s why we offer short-term trips here at Journey. You’ve got to taste it to understand it.
    Tomorrow is going to be a special day for us. A Defining Moment.

     A persons entire life is summed up on their tombstone. The date of birth and the date of death with A DASH sandwiched in between. Is it possible that a persons life could be summed up with a dash mark ? Life must be more than that. It must be. What am I going to do with my dash mark ? What are you doing with yours ? I hope you live the abundant life. Everyday. Somebody said that ‘the point of life is NOT to arrive safely at death.’ I want to take some calculated risk. A life in the comfort zone is a self-imposed prison. No thanks. Life is too short to play it safe. I don’t want a dash on my tombstone. I hope my life is so full that it will take several punctuation marks to tell the story. :>
      I have been listening to Genesis on my GoBible. Those characters in Genesis were amazing. None of them played it safe. No way their life could have been summed up with a dash mark. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the professor and MaryAnn here on Gilligan’s Island. Wait. I just broke out into the theme song from Gilligans Island. I’ve seen every episode. Did you ever notice that F Troop had the exact same premise as Gilligan ? One takes place on an island the other in the old west. Other than that thay have very similiar plots. Too Predictable. Speaking of the old west, I love “Back to the Future” . One part of the trilogy takes place in a frontier version of Hill Valley. And Michael J has a time machine. A Time Machine. Way cool.
     It would be nice to have one of those Delorean Time Machines. Wouldn’t it be fun to hop in your machine and see how it all turns out ? Of course that would remove all uncertainity from life. It appears to me that uncertainty is a necessary component to faith. For where faith is needed uncertainity is close behind. Too many people play it safe. They never know the joy of climbing a mountain. For the sheer joy of it. Or running the 100 meter dash as fast as humanly possible. Or… well you get it huh ? There’s that DASH  again. My dash is going to be a good one. And I have the uncertainty to prove it.
     Uncertainty – Getcha some.

    Big decisions usually rest on the cause we believe in or the circumstance that surrounds us. It is easy to get distracted by the details of life and allow them to dictate our focus. I find so much clarity in my life when I acknowledge the circumstances but make decisions based on the CAUSE.
     Keep it simple. What is my purpose ? Is this my mission ? What can I do to advance the cause ? The things of this life will scream for your attention, just don’t give it away that easily. The big picture tends to keep me on track. I ask myself what would please the Lord ? The answer is apparent. Faith. Faith pleases God. If you are unsure of the next step then find out which one takes faith. Faith.
     Abraham was called to go on a journey in Genesis 12. God said leave your father and your home and GO to a place that I will show you. Go and I will show. That kind of revolutionary obedience to the call releases a tremendous amount of faith. It also creates an intimacy that is special. It is that divine connection we all seek. It’s there we are captured by that which we pursued.
     You have a big decision to make today. Cause or circumstance ?

     I drove out to a see a friend of mine yesterday in Livingston, LA. My buddy is building an amazing church in a rural community. He is the only leader that I know who is building a Mega-Church in the country-side. The Freedom Church has undertaken a massive expansion. They are doubling the worship space, adding a large building for nursery and preschool as well as erecting an office. This church is reaching their community. What I find so amazing about Freedom is their cultural relevance. It is ministries like this one that inspire me. These people know how to dream big, plan for the future and take calculated risk. My hats off today to Bud, Carl, Jeremy and the the whole Freedom team. Thanks for the inspiration !
   check out the church at www.thefreedomchurch.info   …… 

     The new campus will be a beautiful sight. We are building a 26,000 square foot Student Ministries facility as Phase one. Construction will commence in the near future. The Architect has been redesigning the area where the video projection system meets the HVAC. It appears we have solved that puzzle. Once the final set of plans are released we will annouce the construction schedule. Now we need a spell of dry weather. As soon as the Contractor starts building we will post pics on this BLOG. I’m so excited about our new campus. Once we are into the process a little deeper we will project a dedication date. I have already invited several special guest for our dedication services. It looks like we may have several weekends for dedication instead of just one. Whatever it takes. I am really excited about our new audio and video systems that we have designed for Phase 1. State of the art man.
     I know it is tough setting up and tearing down each week. My Lead Team: Ken, Ryan, Tanya and our Senior staff as well as the Support staff lead the way each weekend. They are joined by a host of volunteers and together they unload FOUR- Forty foot containers for church. Then after Wednesday night they put it all away again. Amazing. Thank you all so much team. 
      Phase One will eventually be dedicated to Student Ministries. Initially though it will double as the Worship Center for weekends and Wednesday night. Phase Two will follow and that will be our new Worship Center.  More updates to follow…

   Jesus had twelve disciples. Twelve men left everything to follow Him. Churches offer discipleship programs but they are an open door to a lifestyle more than anything else. Discipleship is about reversing the effects of the fall of mankind. Our salvation comes by faith through grace. Then we spend the rest of our days becoming disciplined learners of Jesus. Twelve steps, twelve weeks, twelve months or twelve years, discipleship is a process. A very slow, methodical process that reveals itself as you go.
    The fall of man left us all in the same position. Disconnected from God. Since the moment that the Creator sent Adam and Eve OUT of the Garden of Eden, we have been trying to get back in it. All have sinned and come short of the mark. Humanity has a broken system. Our nature is corrupt. Our imagination is evil in its unsaved condition. Then Christ saves us from our sin. Then Christ. That is the beginning of our new life.
    New life. Second chances. A Fresh start. Old things pass away and ALL things become new. Then that seems to suggest that discipleship is a decision of the human will to voluntarily surrender control to the Spirit. Followers of Jesus are spiritual people because they are led by the spirit. Spiritual in the sense that we choose to follow a life above this earthly plane. We are on a Journey to fellowship with our Maker as Adam did in the garden.
     A disciple is one who has intimate knowledge of his Master and who spends a lifetime reconnecting to God. A Disciplined Learner. Count me in. You ?

     Can this be real ? Our Saints are ONE game away from a Super Bowl berth. Oh my ! I’m sure it’s just a coincidence but have you noticed that the Saints have been around forty years now. Forty years of futility and wandering around in circles just like the children of Israel . Then Joshua led them into the Promised Land. It took forty years for Israel to cross the wilderness. This could be the year the Saints go into theirs. Ours ! Sweet.

   How is your Reading Plan going ? I am a little ahead of schedule as of now. That feels good. Reading Genesis is like visiting old friends. Abraham’s sons cause a lot of trouble don’t you think ? When you want to post , you may do so on my current entry, you don’t have to wait for a Route 66 title. I love hearing from you. Hey this Sunday we are doing Communion during worship. We are excited about that. See you there. Study the word….If you are new to this blog, Route 66 is JFC’s plan to read through the Bible this year. IT IS NOT TOO LATE TOO JOIN. Email me today at pastordoug@jfcemail.com and I will send you a reading plan. Start on the day you recieve it and read through next year. Get your kicks on Route 66……