We filmed our 1st one to honor those products that don’t really get the attention of a 30 second commercial spot during the Super Bowl.  I’m talking about those products that are considered generic brands!  We’ve all (well maybe not all, but I’m sure many have) had the generic brand experience in our lives – from our cereal & snacks (Fruit Rounds & Swiss Rolls) we eat to the off brand tennis shoes we may have worn (Voit & Spalding)!  They may not have been the mainstream choice, but the when the budget belt tightens at home…we find ourselves deep in the generic brand pool!  I have grown to love them personally and we wanted to honor them with this lame comedic attempt at filming a commercial. LOL.

I am so STOKED about the series that we are opening up this Sunday to kick off November here at Journey Church called ‘RELEVANT’!  I was looking at a calendar recently planning out some of the remaining events we have lined up for this year and it hit me…the year is almost over!  It’s hard to fathom that in about 8 weeks, 2011 will be known as  ’last year’…DANG, TIME FLIES!  For me  personally, I am very excited about what 2012 holds for our church…I believe God is going to take our church to (as Ed Young says so often) a ‘HOLE-NUTHA-LEVEL’!  I believe that we are going to experience some INCREDIBLE’NESS in this next year!  I believe by next year’s end…we will be virtually unrecognizable from where we are now!

But, God has been really nudging me in prayer recently that as we move forward in the experiences that 2012 has for us…that we should  ’not forget’ where we have come FROM since 2009…that we should ‘not forget’ our roots, our purpose, that we should not lose thought of the very reason He planted this church in this area.  God has been showing me that throughout our 28 month history, there have been some staple moments, staple messages, staple experiences that we have shared as a church that I believe God does not want us to lose sight of…or ever forget.

So, this series has been created out of that prayer time…and I really look forward to beginning it with our church!

Jesse (Pastor – Journey Church)

I don’t know about you…but I (a lifelong Cards fan) did NOT expect to be rooting for our beloved Birds in the 2011 World Series!  I mean, they weren’t even supposed to be in the playoffs…we all know by now the uphill battle that they have had to face to get into the postseason…but what an inspirational comeback!  I just wanted to take this post and say to the GREATEST team in baseball – GO GET #11 guys!  We’re rooting for you!

GO CARDS!

The boys and I at Game 4 of the NLCS...we love our Cardinals baseball!

(left to right) Myself, Carah P, Sarah C, Rachel H, Aaron M

It was a very special moment for me personally this past Sunday when I saw a couple ppl in the 2nd row (Rachel & Sarah) visiting Journey at the 2nd service…ppl that I used to go to youth group with when I was a teenager.  I first started following Jesus back in 1993 (Sept 15 to be exact) with a youth group that was as close as some families are.  We did a ton of ministry together, and shared some incredible experiences together under a great youth pastor (shout out to Duncan & Beth Ahrens) and it was amazing to catch up with some of them this past Sunday.  It was great to sit down for a few minutes and hang out while all of our kids were running around playing together, pretty surreal actually.  It was great to catch up and see that the investment of youth ministry really does go a long way.  I wouldn’t be a pastor today if it weren’t for those days, Aaron & Carah FAITHFULLY serve with me here at Journey and I’m sure they would say the same thing about their lives.  Rachel and her husband are leaders in a church outside of Kansas City and Sarah faithfully serves at a church in St. Charles.  Good times!  Great God!

Jesse

I don’t think it’s really possible to put into words ALL that happened this past Sunday, but for me as a church planting pastor…let’s just say it was one of the greatest days of my life.

Here’s my best attempt to explain: We (my family and I) have been back into the St. Louis area for about 2 1/2 years now and our AMAZING church is right at 27 months old.  The growth that we are experiencing at this church is beyond me…I mean, WAY BEYOND ME…God is the only cause for explanation to see a church grow from 27 to 400+ in that kind of time frame.  He is doing an incredible work in the lives of a ton of ppl that we get the honor to know in pastoring Journey Church.  The growth factor is always exciting as we get to meet new ppl every week, always challenging as we work overtime all the time in creating opportunity for all of our ppl to find a place in our church where they can fit and feel at home, and always happening…for instance, we received a report on Sunday that we have again, broken our regular services attendance record.

Now, you must understand my heart (those of you who may perceive that I’m pushing a ‘it’s all about the numbers’ feel in this blog at this given point), at Journey, we’re not about the crowd…but rather, we’re all about the individuals that are in the crowd.  EACH person we have the PRIVILEGE to see walk on our campus has a name that we strive to know, a family that we want to invest in, a hobby that we want to connect with, a struggle that we want to help overcome, a need that we want to meet, and a purpose inside of them to do great things for their God that we want to see happen…in other words, every person has a story that we want to read, and help write…and we got to read and write some INCREDIBLE stories this past Sunday!

At the close of our services, we gave an invitation to those with us to choose Jesus with their life, whether it was for the very first time or the first time, in a long time.  The response was indescribable as nearly 50 ppl made decisions to start walking after God with their life.  There was a moment in those services where as I was watching tears fall out of puffy eyes, rolling down the cheeks of people who were experiencing the power of true forgiveness, embracing literal strangers around them as if they had been family for years…that something stopped me dead in my tracks as a pastor…as I heard God speak directly to my heart saying these words; ’Don’t ever let anything or anyone take you from THIS being the focus of what you do…seeing a life, changed’.  Those words impacted me deeply…and I took those words to heart.  The reason that moment was so powerful for me, was b/c it was the moment where I truly realized that Journey Church is not my church…but God’s church.  He has His hands on the steering wheel and His foot on the gas – meaning He not only controls the direction we are headed, but the pace in which we are also going.  I’m just glad to be a passenger in the car!

Later that night, we headed out to El Shaddai Ranch to celebrate the end of a great summer at Journey by having a Beach, Baptism, BBQ.  We rocked some awesome sand volleyball action, ate some incredible food, and had the HONOR in baptizing people who have made decisions for Christ this past summer.  The experience was phenomenal…as we witnessed person after person make one of the greatest statments they could ever make of their faith in being baptized…the echo of God’s words to me that morning kept repeating themselves in my heart…’Don’t ever let anything or anyone take you from THIS…’  Here’s some pics of those moments:

We then closed the night out with a Night of Worship over at the amphitheatre at the Ranch where under an open sky, we worshipped God for who He is, all that He has done in our lives, and all He is yet to do in our community.  It was powerful to be a part of, and I’m so thankful to our music teams for making this happen.  Mis, the boys, and I got to sit out on a blanket with our church out in the amphitheatre and just worship together…it was a special time as ppl worshipped God in their own ways…prayed for one another, and sang our hearts out!

Morio RAPPING during one of the worship songs...priceless.so thankful for our music teams...