When you do church like we do at Journey where you invite people to “come as they are” and the services are consciously planned with the awareness that there are people there at all different places in their journeys with God, it’s kind of hard to talk to the “US”. You know what I mean by the “US”, right? I’m referring to those who say, “I’ve given my life to Jesus; I’m part of this community. This is MY church, and OUR mission is MY mission, OUR values are MY values… LETS DO THIS THING!!!” You know who you are.
Occasionally we need to huddle up the “US” and NOTICE and CELEBRATE what God has been doing and also cast vision for what’s ahead. Plus it’s fun to just hang out together. That’s the point of these Vision Rally dealies.
This year we had so much to give thanks for and we needed to make known the great deeds of God.
√ We wrote on the wall
√ A long line of people shared big highlights (this was planned for 10 minutes, it took a half an hour and it should have went longer!
√ We sung His praises
√ We celebrated His provision – going from looking at an $80k deficit about 2 months ago to finishing the year $90k over budget!
Then we needed to share what we feel like God is saying to us for ’13.
I told the story of how God kept leading us to this passage:
Hag. 2:6 “For thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘Once more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land. 7 ‘I will shake all the nations; and they will come with the wealth of all nations, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the LORD of hosts.
So what’s that look like for us? Not exactly sure, but here are 4 phrases or words that we should live into…
INVITATION – wherever you are, invite someone to go there with you.
GOSPELING – speaking the Good News we are embodying
FORMING / ASSIMILATING – becoming people positioned for bigger waves!
BIG SWINGS a.k.a. some faith risks
I won’t go into detail, but if somehow you missed the Rally (bummer for you) get the podcast and listen to the whole thing.
Over all this was a word that I’ve been led to pray over us, over Journey for about a year. I haven’t felt the freedom to share it publically. We’ve prayed about it as pastors and to some of my prayer peeps, but I haven’t felt like God has given me the o.k. to share it till that night.
It’s the word INCREASE! I feel like in a bunch of areas this is a word for us to pray. I’m not exactly sure what this translates into but I’m pretty sure we are supposed to be praying it.
I walked away more in love with Jesus and more than ever loving this community called Journey. God is moving. He’s good so good is on the way!
