Just a note to let you all know that the roads are looking good and the concert tonight will go on as planned at our Tower Grove sanctuary at 7pm. Get excited cause this show's going to be hot! Reminder: Tickets are $5 at the door. J.R. will also have CDs for sale. See you there

Well Journey folks, now's your chance to see us in action at the Tower Grove Campus. J.R. will be performing another show Friday February 22 at 7pm in the Tower Grove sanctuary. Tickets will be $5 at the door to support J.R.'s ministry and future concerts at the Journey. This is a perfect opportunity to support one of our artists and promote diversity at the Journey. You won't be disappointed. The show's going to be hot! J.R.'s latest CD, Life By Stereo will be on sale after the show.

Josh Dix

Worship Director

Opening the door I found a fragile woman standing there, uncomfortable, and caught off-guard (mostly because, she was expecting a nun, not me). She explained her situation, and how she was basically choosing between eating and gas money, and wanted to know if there were any way we could help out. Honestly, I didn't feel like I had time to help her, but I had just gotten word a local kitchen had some extra food. So, we talked about where she lived (2 blocks away), and I agreed to bring a box of food to her house.

I left the convent, and headed to the kitchen. Still feeling hassled by this request, I followed the kitchen staff around as they filled up my cardboard box. Preparing to leave, one of the women from the kitchen placed an assortment of flowers on top, and explained that they didn't have a vase for them, but I should give them to this woman. While I was driving to her house I thought about this situation, and the ladies demeanor standing at the front door of the convent. She was beaten down, working up enough confidence to reach out and ask for help.

I pulled up to the house, and grabbed the flowers from on top of the box. As I knocked on the door, I held the flowers behind my back. She opened the door and let me know where I could place the food, surprised to see no food in my hands. I handed her the flowers, and gave her a hug. As I brought the box of food into her house, tears began flowing from her face, as she explained that these were the first flowers she had received since her husband had died.

When we look at this city and the problems that come to mind, we think of the images of the inner city we see on the news. But we have to see the people, their need for respect, dignity, and maybe even an assortment of flowers. We have to get past the urge to look the other way, past the charity-based programs that produce a "take-only" attitude, and actually work to enter into authentic relationships with people. The city is not in need of more programs or activities, but friends who will love them like Christ would.

So, that is what we are working to do. We want to help restore this city by building relationships, and being friends in a way that empowers people to get back on their feet. Take a look around this website (missionstl.org), read our mission and vision statements, listen to the podcast, read the weekly blogs, and then come join us while we play in the streets of St. Louis.

Josh Wilson,

Executive Director of Mission: St. Louis.

We all know about how Christms can soften year-round Scrooges into jovial gift-givers, and how Christmas can bring about cease-fires in family conflicts for at least a day. But the real evidence of Christmas's power may be in this rarely acknowledged fact.

Christmas even has the power to get dudes interested in home decorating. Last year I saw one of my neighbors nearly break his neck on what had to be a 95-year-old ladder as he was hanging up lights on his house--lights he then tied into some sort of magical box of wires and capacitors in order to sync the flashing lights on his house with holiday music from these guys. The result, according to my neighbor, was a Christmas light and music spectacular the likes of which the Southampton Neighborhood had never seen!

Speaking of decorating, if you've been to a service at the Tower Grove campus in the last few weeks, you may have found yourself asking this question: Is it Easter or Christmas in here? And based on some of the new decorations in the sanctuary, it's a pretty fair question to ask, since we don't have a whole lot of the standard red and green decor going on. Here's the scoop.

Few people know it, but the familiar reds and greens we see this time of year are not actually traditional Christmas colors, at least not according to church history. For the last 1600 years or so, the Christian church's primary color for Christmas time is actually purple. Other colors historically used during Christmas are pink and white. So, this begs the question...WHY??

Well, the answer is actually more theological than aesthetic. It's no mistake that the traditional colors for Easter and Christmas are the same. It's very intentional. The reason is that Christmas and Easter are inextricably linked, bound together not just in ornamental colors, but in a person. Jesus came into the world in humble circumstances and left it in humiliating circumstances. And all the while, he was the King of heaven and earth. The humble circumstances of His incarnation can never be separated from the humiliation of his crucifixion. Historically, purple has been used to symbolize both penitence and power, humility and royalty. Who else do we celebrate at Christmas and Easter, but our Humble King Jesus?

So, while we do have some live evergreen trees and wreaths symbolizing that life in Christ is full and never ending, most of the colors decorating the Tower Grove sanctuary are reminiscent of Easter. We have deep blues and purples reminding us of both Jesus' humility and His status as King of all. We have several colors that remind us of Easter because when we think of Jesus, even as a baby, we ought to think of His crucifixion and His resurrection. And we should celebrate His victory over sin and death every time we gather together as His church.

Sunday, December 9, 2007, was an exciting day for our Tower Grove campus. After a year's worth of demolition, planning, and rebuilding, the old rectory building was finally ready for a new life as the home base for an exciting and growing children's ministry. Around 110 kids came and played with us on our first day in our new home!

With the launch of this new facility, we have made a number of improvements to our program. The facility itself will provide us a permanent, clean, dedicated space in which to work. Numerous Journey artists and workers have come together to give us a unique and exciting environment. We are developing a city theme throughout the building. There is more to come, but the St. Louis cityscape mural in the entry way and the brick streets running throughout the building (including a Journey Kids City manhole cover) help give it a hip and warm urban feel.

In addition to making the place look great, we are improving its functionality too. Parents were greeted on Sunday with brand new touch-screen sign in stations and a bar coded tag system. This system will provide for quick and efficient check in as well as increased security. Off the foyer, our new nursing mother's room was available (sound from the sermons will be piped in soon!) and in the basement we are outfitting our new multimedia room.

As we continue to improve our facility, we will add an art room, outfit a large activity room, add city themed murals throughout the classrooms, and buy new furniture for the classrooms.

As exciting as all this change is, the best part is that we get to pursue God's call on our ministry in a more focused way with fewer distractions: to engage our kids every week with an authentic, life-changing encounter with the gospel.

Want to see some cool pictures of the launch day?  Click here.

In a recent blog http://jdgreear.typepad.com/ he insightfully answers the question, "Why one church in multiple locations?"
I thought Greear's/Piper's insights are very helpful in understanding the reasoning behind a church going multi-site. Enjoy!

Is the Multi-campus church concept biblical?
John Piper shared some interesting perspective on this question I thought was worth passing on to you (mixed in with this are some of my own thoughts... so, the parts that don't make sense you can blame on me...). I found this very refreshing since many of those promoting multi-site don't seem to have wrestled with the biblical implications of the approach... they only have a "this works so it's got to be right and don't criticize me or slow me down with the Bible" kind of attitude.

Let me say right up front: you can't mandate from Scripture that all churches should be multi-campus. But.. with that said... Consider the church in Jerusalem. Here's a few salient points to let marinate in ye olde hopper:

1. The Jerusalem church had a massive growth problem: The first few chapters of Acts tell us that within a few weeks well over 10,000 people had come to Christ and that more people were being added "every day." Acts 2 records the crowd's response to Peter's sermon as, "What should we do?," and after Peter's explanation 3000 respond... in Acts 3 it says that 5000 MEN responded to Peter's second sermon... That created a "Holy cow, what should we do?" question for previously small Jerusalem congregation. They went from 120 to over 10,000 in one week! What did they do? They tried to accomodate the growth! (No conscientious Christian ever says "we're growing too fast" any more than a cancer patient says "I'm healing too fast." The Jerusalem church scrambled to do what it could to accommodate that growth.)

2. The Jerusalem church remained as ONE church: Three times in Acts a reference is made to the church in Jerusalem, and each time it is referred to in the SINGULAR. Acts 8:1: "There arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem." Acts 11:22: "The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch." Acts 15:4, Luke describes Paul and Barnabas' return to Jerusalem: "When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders." Each time, it does not refer to churches, but church. Not once, that I can find, is it referred to as MULTIPLE, independent congregations. Putting that together with #1, that means that the Jerusalem church was one church with at least 10,000 members.

3. That church devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching: Acts 2 says that the new church (singular) gathered around the teaching of the Apostolic team. This is actually important for the multi-site concept, when you consider #4.

4. There is no way the one church could have been gathered as one large group: There was simply no facility that could hold them in Jerusalem! Acts 2 tells us they were meeting to hear the Apostles' teaching daily "in the temple." There was no place in the temple that could daily accomodate 10,000 people... plus, this was before microphones and video projection. Thus, for 10,000 to devote themselves to the Apostles' teaching would take multiple, smaller gatherings. That's probably why it says they met "daily." (You see, it never says that all 10,000 met every day, just that every day some portion of them were meeting to hear the Apostles' teach.) Do you get what that means? A "teaching team" of Apostles were holding multiple services in the temple. And it's reasonable to assume that each Apostle was teaching the same sermon multiple times each week. You can't tell me that each one rushed home and prepared a new message every day. And you can't tell me that if they had blogs, video and T-1 internet connections they wouldn't have been using them.

5. In addition to smaller temple gatherings, the one church met in multiple houses every day to devote themselves to the Apostles' teaching. This seals the deal for me. One church, meeting in multiple houses. A traveling group of Apostles' teaching every day in different houses and different locations in the temple or wherever else they could find space.

6. The Jerusalem megachurch had massive organization problems and members who felt "left out." In Acts 6, people were complaining that in the Jerusalem megachurch member-care was not happening. Notice the Apostles' response. They didn't start reading Brian McLaren books and declare themselves "post-megachurch" and poopoo the whole idea of a big church. Nor did they read George Barna books, declare the end of the local church and start meeting on the golf course with their Ipods and Jesus golf-club bags. Nor did they complain that as trained ministers they weren't able themselves to do the member care Jesus had ordained them to do. What DID they do? They appointed another organizational structure within the church to minister to the needs of the growing body. You see, big church is messy. But it's better than letting people go to hell.

What does it look like for this church, in this community, to serve the poor? As I began to think about this a year ago, I was having a hard time moving away from my traditional experiences of how I had seen the church serve the poor. Growing up, I had always thought of mercy ministry/outreach, as a checklist on my Christianity "To Do List"

Did I serve the poor this year? "Check!"

As I began to wrestle with this issue, and look at how we serve the city of St. Louis, it was obvious we were called to so much more. Over the past year, we have been praying and seeking ways to serve this city. We started Mission: St. Louis, which is our social justice/mercy ministry arm, committed to serving this city based on three main values--Empowerment, Education, and Development. We have been fortunate enough to come across an organization like the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA), which has taught us how to be more effective at restoring our city and community.

I was also given a book by Shane Claiborne, called The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical. This book challenged me personally in how I thought about serving the poor, in fact so much that we asked Shane to come and speak at The Journey in December of 2006. He is returning to St. Louis this week for the CCDA conference, and will be speaking again at The Journey on Saturday October 13th at 7:00pm, in the Tower Grove Sanctuary. We are excited to have him back, and would like to invite all to this free and public event.

This short, but pregnant mission statement is what the Lord gave my wife and I before we even moved to St Louis to plant The Journey. We do a series every fall on the loving God, community and mission. I would guess that most people in the church could recite the action part of our mission: love, connect, transform. The first part is usually forgotten and for years the idea that we are called to be a "diverse community" was a punch line in a church. More than one person said, "yeah, we are a diverse community of 20 something, angry, white yuppies." Honestly, these jokes were funny on one hand, and deeply troubling to me on the other. Had not God promised us that we would be diverse? Did I hear wrongly? Are we doing something wrong as a church which is hindering us from becoming more diverse? Are we just going to be another white church which talks a good game but fails to reflect the reality of heaven which will include people from every tongue, tribe and nation?

Questions like these kept me up at night. As elders we talked, prayed and struggled with how to fulfill this elusive aspect of our mission. I preached about diversity, the church complained about and prayed for diversity. Then, God in his Sovereignty gave us the Tower Grove campus through the sacrificial giving of our church. And after a year of meeting in the former Holy Innocents church, we are seeing some signs of diversity. The 11:15 service in particular is much more ethnically diverse. We are bringing on interns that reflect the diversity of the city we are trying to reach. We are developing worship leaders with more diverse styles. We are building relationships with other churches who can teach us how to be more multi-ethnic in our outreach. Our prayers are being answered. God is bringing the vision to pass. We ARE becoming a more diverse community so that we can reach our diverse city with the truth and grace of Jesus.

Parking

Along both sides of Reber Pl
Along both sides of Odell St
Family parking is available in the school parking lot on Reber Pl