This was a big week at Journey. This was the week that our newly formed small groups launched all over the San Diego area! It’s also the week that our existing groups dove into the Community Bible Experience. Believe me when I say it makes a difference in the “sermon” part of the service when you are preaching into that in our community life. In one week we basically doubled the number of people in home groups and every one of our campus groups has seen an influx of people there for this season. Plus of course people come to church having read at least some of the Scripture through the week.

Now, to be clear this is a short term, 8-week thing. But I think it’s giving us a taste of “New Testament, Vintage Us, Ekklesia, New Normal.” The idea of the Jesus movement was highly communal, and centered around the person of Jesus and His Lordship in each life as revealed in the Teaching of the Apostles (a.k.a. the New Testament).

Worship was amazing as usual.

The message had a really clear aim: “DELIGHT”. It’s not enough to choke down, a dutifully plow through the Words from God’s mouth, but we keep pressing in to God till they are a “delight to them”.

SELAH – The weekend ended with the 1^st SELAH of 2012. It seems that in the life of a church there needs to be some space in which we gather without much of an agenda or plan and just receive from the Holy Spirit. It was a pretty amazing night of God moving in a deep place. After a run of worship songs we went to “intercessory prayer” (i.e. pray for others) praying for our founding pastor Mike Burns who’s health has hit a new low. God met us in some pretty amazing ways. It’s always fun to see how God answers the simple prayer, “COME, HOLY SPIRIT!”

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We weren’t smart enough to plan this out, but I guess you’d have to say we were sharp enough to recognize it when we fell into it! A couple times a year, we hone our focus as a church around something we sense is a spiritual direction God has for us as a church and then we take all the main or regular stuff we do and turn our attention to that initiative.

So this year, all of our on campus groups, all of our home groups, our weekend services and then we as individuals are diving into the COMMUNITY BIBLE EXPERIENCE!

We had almost 400 NEW PEOPLE JOIN a small group last Wednesday all of which will be Experiencing the scripture together. We’ve sold out of “The Books of the Bible” New Testaments (I think we’ve sold almost 2k).

Last weekend we launched the teaching series EAT THIS BOOK. So as we read the New Testament together, as we wrestle with it in our small groups, we’ll be teaching on it in a series called that helps us to “experience the God OF the Bible, IN the Bible!” So think of it like a 3-legged stool – we’re reading personally, we’re meeting in our small groups around that reading and then we’ll be teaching on all this every weekend for the next few weeks!

Sarah Merk-Benitez cast some vision for what our reading is all about and what it’s not about.

Worship was great but different! Our friend Lindsay Love and her team led us in worship. She is amazingly anointed to bring people into God’s presence in Worship!

Our team thought that it was important as we launched into this season to address the question: Why THIS book?  A lot of people at Journey are fairly new to the whole church thing. So it’s a legit question to ask. Is this a reliable document and how does this ancient text relate to my spiritual life or my life life in 2012. Frankly, lots of us have questions like these regardless of how long we’ve been around church.

According the people that put together the New Testament we are using for this series [click here for their website], 4 of 5 people surveyed have NEVER heard God speak to them in the pages of Scripture. We are taking direct aim at that! You really can’t follow Jesus without being immersed in His words and You won’t get very far in your journey with God if you don’t know how to hear Him speak to You in the pages of Scripture.

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Well, this was it, that last weekend we could really work the whole “NEW YEAR” angle. But if I could leverage that natural desire, that call of our best selves to me the person we’ve always known we can be, I would want to leverage that desire for us at Journey by challenging, cajoling, nagging, exhorting US to put the U in COMMUNITY!

In fact I would say that it is impossible to live out the values of the Kingdom, the better reality Jesus calls us to enter, unless we are meaningfully connected to His community, to (as we learned in acts) this thing called “eklesia” (the New Testament word that gets translated “church”).

Of course it’s no accident that the act that Jesus left us to do is sometimes called “COMMUNION”. This COMMON life is what is shared in Jesus-Centered “COMM-U-NITY!

As we looked at in Acts 2:41ff this COMMUNITY that Jesus invites us into is a community of “WORD, AUTHENTICITY, SHARED LIFE and PRESENCE! (See Acts 2:42 esp).

So this week we launch the COMMUNITY BIBLE EXPERIENCE! It is a church-wide initiative. We’ll read scripture together individually, in our small groups, and begin a series called “EAT THIS BOOK” on how to love, enjoy and delight in the “Words of God”. We are also doing everything we can to get you in a small group for the next 8 weeks. I’m starting one personally! Come to our SMALL GROUP CONNECTION NIGHT on Wednesday, Feb 1 and you’ll be in an 8-Week Group that you will pick by the end of the evening. Show up, we’ll take it from there. Click here for info.

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I know that the “INCARNATE” Series is in our rear view mirror, but I think it permanently altered our thinking, vocabulary and approach to embodied spirituality at Journey.

In that spirit I felt like I had to comment on a few books that have been absolutely MONEY for us on this series. I’m indebted to each of these authors for helping me think through this series in general and to help us to formulate language to speak to the area of sexuality.

Creation and Fall, Temptation

By Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Basically this is a series of lectures he delivered at the University of Berlin in 1932 and 1933. This is not Cost of Discipleship or Life Together (his two most popular and spectacular books). This is a “LECUTURE SERIES”. Though it’s not “technical” it is academic. But, it is the most insightful thinking on the MEANING of Genesis 1-3 that you are likely to run across. You must read slowly and you will probably underline a lot. Almost every line is quotable. This book points to another tragic aspect to his martyrdom: we were robbed of a great mind who may have had Karl Barth like impact.

Washed and Waiting – Reflection of Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality

By Wesley Hill

To borrow a line from Scrooge, “if I could work my will…” I would have everyone who wants to enter the discussion on homosexuality read this book. It is deeply personal, theologically insightful, beautifully written and Biblically sound. You have to read this book.

Earthen Vessels — Why Our Bodies Matter to our Faith

By Matthew Anderson

This has been our featured book for the series. It is both profound and readable. It’s accessible and yet deeply theological. But that doesn’t mean it’s not eminently practical. In fact you may not agree with the way he works out some of the theology of our bodies that he has developed. You need to read this book! I can hardly think of a more better way to construct of foundation from which to discuss the array of issues related to the body, sexuality and spirituality that we must wade through to speak intelligently to our culture.

Theology of the Body for Beginners – A Basic Introduction to Pope John Paul II’s Sexual Revolution

By Christopher West

I believe that Christopher West’s (and Pope John Paul II’s dense tome on which it is based) is perhaps the key that will lead us forward in answering the difficult challenges that Christ-followers face in explaining the good news to a skeptical culture.

Here’s a couple of cautions: First of all, C West is an unapologetic Roman Catholic. His language and thinking clearly reflect this. His chapter on contraception is thoroughly and traditionally Roman Catholic. Secondly, don’t let the “for beginners” line fool you. The concepts are profound and may take a pass or two to feel like you are really getting it.

This book is not for everyone, but if you are up for it, it’s worth the work.

Slaves, Women and Homosexuals – Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis

William J. Webb
This is a seminary-level class reading book. It’s not really technical, but it reads like a series of papers to be read at the Evangelical Theological Society. That being said, if you really want to get into the issues of Biblical interpretation (hermeneutics) that will be decisive in the arguments in the Church at large over sexual issues, this book and the Richard Hays’ book are pretty critical.

The Moral Vision of the New Testament – A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics

By Richard B Hays

The chapter that works out a New Testament response to homosexuality is simply the best thing I’ve seen written on this subject. Buy the book just for that chapter if you need to.

Honorable Mention

The Challenge of the Disciplined Life – Christian Reflections on Money, Sex and Power.

Richard Foster

Real Sex – the Naked Truth about Chastity

Lauren F. Winner

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Some weekends mark us for a long time! Check my Facebook page for comments. Lots of people are basically saying, “WOW!”

I love that John is a friend. I love what God’s done in and with him. I love that John has become a friend of Journey. He totally fits us and God works through him and his books to speak God’s message of living out of who God says we are, what Jesus says rather than the insane message of shame that plays over and over in our heads.

Worship was powerful this weekend.

Lots of people bought John’s new book “The Cure!” I can’t recommend it highly enough!

We also have sold over ONE THOUSAND copies of “The Books of the Bible” the New Testament that is specifically laid out and arranged for the COMMUNITY BIBLE EXPERIENCE that we are launching January 30 and will be one of those whole-church-focus seasons. It’s not too late for YOU to dive in. Click here for details and how to get jump in.

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It’s always a little tricky getting anywhere near the subject of money. But brave church that we are, we charged it this weekend with THRIVING IN TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES. As you regular Journey peeps know, I don’t love talking about giving, money, tithing, but I FREELY acknowledge that as a weakness of mine.

The idea of the series is that we’ll have a ‘BETTER YEAR’ as we live out the values of GOD, LOVE, GRACE in our lives, the world will be rocked again as it was in the first century as we “embody the values of a better kingdom, a better reality.” Jesus laid this out in his signature sermon called the “Sermon on the Mount”. I was struck again that a HUGE CHUNK of this sermon is on money, giving, greed, investing in eternity. It’s like the arc of the stories of our lives will either following KINGDOM VALUES or the dark values of MAMMON.

I had my good friend Andy Andreas in town and he shared the story of selling his company and the ability that gave him to invest in eternity. His get it factor is super high in this area!

Interestingly enough, at the 11:00 service the lights went out. We still had sound and screen but no lights!

I love that we were able to send a young friend who’s heading to the Middle East to spread the good news of Jesus. We covered all his outgoing expenses on the way out the door, just dropping by on the way out!

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I’m still reeling from our Christmas Eve services at Journey. It’s crazy how much work goes into them, how much prayer how much enthusiasm and preparation! Then to see them blow up in wonderful way is so gratifying and encouraging.

Here are a few thoughts and bunch of great pics by the great Dan Matticks

• You Journey-ites were INVITING ANIMALS! You all went beast-mode on the invite. I LOVED meeting so many friends, family members, work mates, neighbors, class-mates, people from the gym etc etc etc! Wow!

• All the services were pretty full – Friday at 7:00 and Saturday at 4:00 were packed! I love the energy and challenge of speaking at these services with so many visitors!

• Our music is so good! Making Christmas music feel like Journey is a challenge! Balancing the set with some of standard worship music to give people a taste of a regular service is crucial. And we always seem to find a great connection / performance song.

• I never get weary of reflecting on, speaking about and highlighting the incomprehensible mystery of the INCARNATION. Even the Apostle Paul never stopped marveling. Toward the end of his life he wrote

1Tim. 1:15 It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.

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Our college pastor Sarah Merk-Benitez wrapped up our INCARNATE series with a message the INCARNATION of the Son of God.

I love how Sarah brought out the communication or revelation of the God in the Flesh. She had one of our artists sculpting faces the whole message. The point of course is that Jesus reveals God’s face and facial expressions. It’s always great for me to hear messages and be taught by our team. It was a powerful message and I loved hearing it three times.

The worship was powerful and very timely for the moment.

I hosted the services. Of course it was mostly a pep talk to get us ready to get our invite on for our four Christmas Eve services –click here for info.

We also “wept with those who weep.” I know that Christmas for many people is actually as sad and difficult time. This was especially poignant for us this weekend. On Thursday night we had 2 different young men die unexpectedly. I love seeing how our community rallied and continues to rally around these families.

I hope you are getting stoked for Christmas at Journey! Inviting is the essence of the spirit of Christmas.

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