Jesus said all the important things we need to know are summed up in this statement:

Love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.
And love your neighbor as you love yourself.

That makes a lot of sense to us. It’s practical. It’s comprehensive. And it ties us and our neighbors together with God. So Journey is organized along those lines. We have five main ministries/teams/whatever you want to call them: Heart, Soul, Strength, Mind, and Bones. Plus a Shepherds team that keeps us from tripping over each other.

We all bring different gifts to the table, and we each seem to migrate to the ministry where we think we can bring the most of ourselves. And sometimes we join the ministry we sense will stretch us beyond our comfort zone.

Which one beckons to you?

Heart

Everyone needs to belong and to matter. Our community provides love, acceptance, forgiveness and healing to one another and to those we encounter. But we can only do that if we know each other and have a chance to share what’s happening in our lives. Heart plans ways for us to spend time together—ice cream socials, potluck dinners, movie nights, craft nights, picnics, and retreats. We find fun, laid-back ways to get to know each other and to see God in each other. That way, it doesn’t take long to get to know everyone at Journey. Are you a connector or a comforter? Are you energized by social interaction? Hmmm.

Soul

We experience God through our Sunday gatherings—in prayer, laughter, contemplation, worship, music, activities, poems, and talks. The more creative our gatherings are, the better. We love the casual and the off-beat, the incredible and the imperfect. Soul brainstorms our topics and themes and then fleshes those out with ideas for the specific elements we might include on a given Sunday. It’s a free-wheeling, hilarious group. Is this creative space where you belong?

Strength

When Jesus said “strength” he was referring to an ancient Hebrew word meaning “muchness.” It means bringing all you’ve got, whatever that looks like—money, time, physical ability, mental agility, skill, or compassion, just to name a few. That’s how Journey wants to show up in the world. Strength receives folks’ requests for help and talks about how we can meet those needs. They also reach out to fill needs we see in our community and in the world. We have helped with childcare in an emergency situation, supported Mobile Loaves and Fishes, cared for the needs of women and children in Uganda, sponsored children in a hard-hit part of Haiti, and much more. We’ve always got something going on! 10% of all that we take in through our General Fund (see the “Give” button at the top of the page) goes for these purposes. Do you wish you could do more in the world? Maybe this is where you should be.

Mind

God gave us minds so we’ll use them—kinda like ears and eyes and feet and hands, right? We think God can handle any question we can think up. So we love to spend time thinking about big questions, things that have puzzled us, or things we’ve grown up with that don’t seem to make sense any more. We gather at 9:30 each Sunday to bounce our questions off of each other. Mind comes up with ideas for book studies, movie series, or topics to explore. And, of course, there’s classes for kids as well. Are you a teacher? A questioner? Both? We’ve got a place for you.

Bones

Wait…that wasn’t on Jesus’ list! Yup. You’ve got us there. But we need a way to honor and make space for the wonderful folks who help us keep the lights on. Bones, in fact, brings you the very webpage you are reading, as well as the weekly newsletter. And when someone in the community wants to use space in our building this is where they come. Are you an analytical thinker? Or handy with tools? Or great at math? Sit in on one of their meetings.

Oh, btw…
All ministry team meetings are open to anyone.
Check the newsletter for the date and time and just show up!
That’s all there is to it.

Shepherds

As you might imagine, with so much going on, we need to make sure we’re all in the know. Our Board of Directors that we call our Shepherds do that. Like Heart, Soul, Strength, Mind, and Bones, these meetings are also open to everyone. The most beautiful thing about them is that they are not top-down, majority-win, binary-choice sorts of meetings. At Journey, we offer our views, share our wisdom and experience, ask questions, speak honestly and kindly, and listen, listen, listen until it seems that a way forward has opened up. We don’t move forward until we are all in agreement. It may sound crazy, but it really works. When we can’t come to an agreement, we take that as a sign that we need to pray more, listen more, and explore options more. It’s a beautiful thing. Our Shepherds serve our community by overseeing all Journey functions. We have five Shepherds that represent each Ministry Team, and one At-Large Shepherd.