It was so good to kind of be back in the post holiday rhythm, especially to reconnect w/ my Friday night homies.
As we WORSHIPPED, I could sense that God wanted to do something in us and with us, that He really was inviting us to a new kind of year as well as a new year.
The whole point of the WEEKEND was LAUNCHING INTO A YEAR IN WHICH WE LIVE OUT OUR ULTIMATE VALUES. Every year at Journey we challenge ourselves to dive into some core spiritual practices. Let me be clear, I believe in that. But I feel like that sometimes leaves us missing the point. Only by a little, but it’s significant.
So in talking with several people in various contexts, we concluded that really we are talking about values. Valuing the right things (the Ultimate things, ultimately God Himself) and then living INTO those values – a.k.a. Spiritual practices. For example when we WORSHIP (practice) we are expressing that we treasure and long for and are drawing near to GOD HIMSELF (value – in fact our highest value). In worship we sense God drawing near, stirring up our passion for Him and experiencing INTENSITY & INTIMACY with God (lived out value). 
NOTE: if you didn’t get to fill out a card (we ran out at the 11:00 service b/c lots of you went to church – that’s a good thing) you can pick one up this week. We WANT TO PRAY FOR YOU!
JESUS CREED SMALL GROUP RALLY: It was great to see the room packed the following Wednesday. So many people were “jumping off the cliff” diving into a small group. Many entering whole new group, bunches of people crashing existing home groups, dozens checking out womens or mens ministry small groups. It was an amazing night. Seeing people take concrete steps to live out their values is the BEST.
BTW – if you still aren’t in a small group for the next 6 weeks for the Jesus Creed series, you still can get in. There will even be SUNDAY MORNING GROUPS AT 8:45. So just show up early, check in the kid, stay till noon, DVR the games. Que todo bueno!
