JourneyWorship

Time to Grow Up -Week 2 Recap

Today we continued throuh the "Time to Grow Up" series and Pastor Jimmy taught on the common elements of spiritual growth. Not that spiritual growth is a formula. It's not. It's a relationship. But there are certain common elements to spiritual growth.

1. Surrender - Luke 9:23-25 - "let him deny himself and come after me.."
You cannot grow without surrender. And it's not a one time deal.

The difference b/t commitment and surrender: Commitment is dependent on your ability and motivation. But you'll fail if it's up to your effort. But surrender is Him living his life through you. My commitment is born out of my surrender. 

2. Spending time in the Word - It's true that you could theoretically meet God without the Bible. (i.e. someone accepting Christ through the witness of a missionary in a country where the Bible has not been printed in their language). BUT you can't fully know him apart from His Word. 

His Word is Inspired (God-breathed), inerrant (without error), infallible (uncapable of having error), and authoritative (our instruction book for life and practice).

But be careful: Knowledge puffs up. Knowledge of the Bible does not necessarily mean spiritual maturity. Spiritual growth is not intellectual, it's relational. The goal is God, not knowledge of God. 

3. Prayer - prayer connects us to God. conversation with God. speaking and listening. silence and solitude.

4. Community - we grow best in the context of community.

----------------

Worship Set:
1. Awakening (Hillsong United version)
2. With Us (Hillsong)
3. How Great Thou Art (Page CXVI version)
4. Rhythms of Grace (Hillsong United)

Time to Grow Up -Week 2 Recap

Today we continued throuh the "Time to Grow Up" series and Pastor Jimmy taught on the common elements of spiritual growth. Not that spiritual growth is a formula. It's not. It's a relationship. But there are certain common elements to spiritual growth. 1. Surrender - Luke 9:23-25 - "let him deny himself and come after me.." You cannot grow without surrender. And it's not a one time deal. The difference b/t commitment and surrender: Commitment is dependent on your ability and motivation. But you'll fail if it's up to your effort. But surrender is Him living his life through you. My commitment is born out of my surrender.  2. Spending time in the Word - It's true that you could theoretically meet God without the Bible. (i.e. someone accepting Christ through the witness of a missionary in a country where the Bible has not been printed in their language). BUT you can't fully know him apart from His Word.  His Word is Inspired (God-breathed), inerrant (without error), infallible (uncapable of having error), and authoritative (our instruction book for life and practice). But be careful: Knowledge puffs up. Knowledge of the Bible does not necessarily mean spiritual maturity. Spiritual growth is not intellectual, it's relational. The goal is God, not knowledge of God.  3. Prayer - prayer connects us to God. conversation with God. speaking and listening. silence and solitude. 4. Community - we grow best in the context of community. ---------------- Worship Set: 1. Awakening (Hillsong United version) 2. With Us (Hillsong) 3. How Great Thou Art (Page CXVI version) 4. Rhythms of Grace (Hillsong United)

Time to Grow Up

Week 1 of "Time to Grow Up" was off the chain. Adam and the worship team brought it strong. The Spirit was moving and at work. It's obvious that the Lord is up to something in our midst. Pastor Jimmy reminded us that it is the Lord that is at work. It's not us. The 150+ people that have been baptized in the past 5 weeks is all the Lord's doing. He's pouring out a special anointing among us; an anointing that He has offered to churches in the past. Some chose to get on mission. Others chose to quench the Spirit. Journey is a church that is choosing the mission of God. We're not about to turn inward. We're not about to isolate ourselves and become a museum. We're staying on mision, by the help and grace of God. 

Jimmy said that knowing where we want to be and seeing a clear vision of who we want to become is only the first step. We have to want it. 

For most Christians the breakdown happens not at the vision stage, but at the desire stage. Do we really want it? I can see where I want to be but do I want it? That's where most christians throw their hands up and say, "No, I'm not willing to pay the price. I'm not willing to pay the cost of surrender."

Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3. 

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?

Paul also said in Philippians 3:7-10,

"But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith-that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

The bottom line is this: You will never grow to a level that your desire doesn't take you.

You don't accidentally drift into maturity. It's intentional. You won't accientally wake up in shape. There is a cost involved.

Growth requires observation. So, the question is where is your red dot? Where is your "You are Here"?

The call for us, Journey, is to grow up. To ask God for the desire to grow, to know where our starting point is, and then get after it! Let's do it, by the grace of God.

---------------------

We worshiped to:

1. Go (Hillsong United)

2. Holding Nothing Back (Tim Hughes, Martin Smith - Jesus Culture version)

3. Rhythms of Grace (Hillsong United)

4. How Great Thou Art (Page CXVI version)

The band was: Adam Neal (keys, worship leader), Patience Leino (worship leader), Jordan Leino (drums), Christian Mikkan (bass), Heather Neese (vox, worship leader), Jamie Joyce (electric guitar), Will Miller (electric guitar), and Jeremy Morin (acoustic guitar).

#Follower - Week 3

Well, it's time to resurrect the Journey Worship blog. After a few months of Josh being away in Uganda, this thing fell by the wayside. So, let's get back at it, shall we?

Today was week three of the series "Follower." Pastor Jimmy's main idea today was very simply that followers help others follow. He stated that the American version of the Gospel, for the most part, distorts the truth Gospel. In our version, WE are the end of the Gospel. We say things like "when He was on the cross, I was on his mind." But that's not the whole Gospel. It's true that you are the beneficiary of God's grace, but you are not the END of his grace. He saves you so that you can make him known. Sanctification is the process of Him shining his light in everything that doesn't look like Jesus. So that he who started the good work wil be faithful to complete it. The light of the world becomes light in us so that he can be the light through us. He extends his grace to you so he can be grace through you.

Matt 4:18-20 - "While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

Disciples help make disciples.

You are either on mission or you are the mission.

1 Cor 3:6-8 - "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.

You have to know your role and your limits in helping People follow Jesus.

Your condemnation and judgment will never bring someone to Jesus!

PRACTICAL THINGS

1. Partner with a local church

• Sacrificing - with the same dollar you can worship God and fund the mission! 
• Serving 

2. Share your story 

3. Invest and invite - leverage your relationships for the Gospel

----------------------

Worship Set

1. You Deserve (Hillsong)

2. Holding Nothing Back (Jesus Culture vers.)

3. With Us (Hillsong)

4. Unending Love (Hillsong)

9.25.11 Worship Recap

Today at Journey we concluded our series Square Ped Round Hole. Pastor Jimmy brought an encouraging word about genuine faith. Here are a few highlights:

Jesus doesn't point you to some data or facts. He points you to a revelation of Himself.

If He is who He says He is, then why should we not build our lives on Him.

1 Corinthians 15:13-20

If this isn't true, than we are wasting our time, and our faith is in vain. We are nothing more than a bunch of idiots to be pitied.

If Christ has not been raised, than we are lost in our sins.

v.20 - "but in fact Christ has been raised from the dead."

Hebrews 11:6 - "and without faith it is impossible to please God."

We have a longing to trust, and He has a longing to be trusted.

We have a longing to believe, and He has a longing for us to believe in Him.

When God issued the call to Moses from the burning bush, He used the title "Yahwah" meaning "I am that I am."

When you seek Him you find everything you've been looking for.

----------
It was a fantastic day today. At the end of the service, Paul Crouthamel sent off Josh and Tasha Via and their family with some encouraging words and a word of prayer. The Vias leave tomorrow for six weeks in Uganda as they finish up their adoption of a little girl from the orphanage at Bukaleba, a ministry of Arise Africa International. The Vias would appreciate your prayers during their stay.
----------

It was a blast worshiping today with our team. Their hearts for Jesus is always so contagious. The band consisted of Kody Masteller (drums), David Patterson (bass), Jamie Joyce (electric/worship leader), Daniel Milers (electric), Steven Sharpe (keys), Tasha Via (violin), Whitney Bauer (BGVs/worship leader), Hannah Roughgarden (BGVs/worship leader), Josh Via (acoustic/worship leader).

We worshiped to:
1. You Are Wonderful (Journey Worship - look for it on the album coming Nov. 20th)
2. All Our Love (Journey Worship - look for it on the new album)
3. Yahweh w/ King on His Way tag (Hillsong, Via)
4. Wonderful, Beautiful (New Life Worship)
5. This is My Story/Blessed Assurance (New Life version)

Recording Update #2

Tracking for the new Journey Worship album has been going pretty well. We hit a minor snag through the month of August as many of us were going different directions, but we're back on track now. We're all excited about the progress and how things are turning out. Obviously, the single "Your Love" has been out on iTunes for a few weeks. If you haven't downloaded it yet, go get it here. 

If everything continues on track, we are planning to release it November 20th at a day of worship at Journey. Let's keep our fingers crossed! 

The attitudes of everyone on the worship team has been sensational--those that we've used in the studio and those we haven't. It's been awesome to see everyone's support on this project. I think everyone understands that we wish that we could use everyone, but because of the size of our team, it's just not feasible. Special thanks to everyone for your incredible hearts.

Here are a few clips from some of the fun at Kurt's studio.

 

9.4.11 Recap

Today at Journey, Smooth Via brought a strong word on the difference between commitment and a genuine heart for Jesus. 

• Commitment without the heart is just a contract.
• Surrender is a commitment of the heart.
• There is a thing called functional following. Functional following is bending the knee without bowing the heart.
• God doesn't want your empty commitments; He wants your heart.

We worshiped to:

1. Go (Hillsong United)

2. Our God Is Love (Hillsong)

3. Where We Belong (Hillsong)

4. Awakening (Passion/Tomlin)

7.24.11 Worship Breakdown

This past weekend, we had the privilege of being led in worship by Jordan and Patience Leino and Tawny Masteller. The Leino's have become such an amazing part of our church family here at Journey. If you don't know any their story, you should check out Patience's blog to catch up on them at leinolife.com. Tawny has also really developed into a dynamic worship leader not only in our adult worship service, but also among our student ministry here at Journey. In fact, she led some at student camp two weeks ago, and then she and Wes Matlock led for Uprising on Sunday night. 

Joining the team this weekend, we also had Micah Brown (good to have him back on drums), Matt Thomas (bass), Paul Callaghan (electric guitar - sprained foot and all), Daniel Miles (electric guitar), Christian Mikkan (keys - and the tallest Argentinian I've ever met), and Tasha Via (violin).

Worship Set:

1. For Your Name (Hillsong)

2. The Wonder of Your Love (Hillsong)

3. You Are Good (Gateway Worship)

4. Symphony (Chris Tomlin)

 

Journey Worship Recording Video Update 1

 

Tracking Has Begun For New Worship Album

It was recently brought to our attention that some of you on our worship team have been a little left in the dark about our upcoming worship album that is currently underway. And that's because you missed our last Worship/Tech quarterly vision-casting meeting a few weeks ago. (but don't feel condemned! there's forgiveness at the cross, my friends!) Anyway, so we thought it only made sense to go ahead and do some catching up to speed on the old blog. 

A few weeks ago, we began tracking the first song of what will turn into our second Journey Worship album. Although we've been tossing around the idea of another album for a while, it didn't come to fruition until a few weeks ago when we realized that we had a new commercial airing on TV soon, and we needed a song for it. So, that got the wheels turning and the excitement brewing.  After talking with Kurt Masteller for some time about the idea of working with him as the engineer and mixer, the timing seemed perfect.  So, "Your Love" was completed about two weeks ago, and is now on the commercial. In addition to that, the plan is to release it as a single on iTunes very soon so that it will help us raise both finances and buzz for the rest of the project.

Now, if you're on the worship team, you may be wondering about your own involvement in the project. Great question. Here's the deal, in a nutshell. We want to be sensitive here, because we all feel a sense of ownership on the team.  Simply by nature, though, not every instrumentalist or vocalist will appear on this album IN THEIR NORMALLY ASSIGNED ROLE! BUT, .. and I stress BUT ... everyone WILL have an OPPORTUNITY to be on the record in some form. It might involve gang/choir vocals. It may involve your creative input outside of the actual tracking process. But the bottom line is, on a project of this nature with a team as large as we have, it becomes difficult to include every single person (much like the live recording was). That being said, we will have days during the process where we invite as many of you as can be there to come and sing gang vocals. Or to come and just hang out and have fun with us during the process.  The Masteller's have graciously opened up their home to us since Kurt's studio is, well, ... in his upstairs.  That being the case, though, it creates an additional challenge of how many people can participate in the recording process AT THE SAME TIME. So, we must work in shifts. And we must schedule out people in advance.  And we must be patient with each other as we do this. (And, not to mention the fact that the Masteller's live in Fuquay-freakin'-Istanbul ... it's quite a drive for many of us!)

That being said, though, we desperately want you all to feel a part of this project--to stake claim in this project. Because if it's only the baby of a select few, than it really doesn't contain the heartbeat of our church as a whole. And yet, we believe in each of the songs on this project so much that for us, they are an echo and an expression of what God is doing at Journey and in RDU.  And so our desire as a worship leadership team is that each of you feels that way as well.  Each of you are vitally important to this team and to our church, so please understand the enormous task it is to have to choose who plays and who doesn't play. Each of us needs to put our own feelings behind us and ask what's best for the project as a whole and what will best honor the name of Jesus with the resources and talent He's put at our disposal. I know that I'm preaching to the choir here, because each of you guys are team players and have that kind of servant's heart already, or you wouldn't be on this team. So thank you. Thank you for understanding. And thank you for your patience. 

Please help us by snuffing out any negativity you might hear from team members. The way that you guys handled the live recording was phenomenal. There was little to no negative comments from those who didn't play or sing on it. And that honored Jesus.  We are sincerely asking the Lord for the same response from this project. We want this project to be God-honoring in every way possible. There are no rock stars here. There are no elites. We are all on the same team and we all want the same end goal, and that is to magnify the name of Jesus. 

You can also help us by spreading the word. The goal is to have it in hand a few weeks before Christmas much like the live recording from 2 years ago. Once the single is released, we'll need each of you to tweet it, Like it on FB, and tell all of your friends (and enemies) to go download it (even your computer-illiterate mom!) 

That's the scoop. If you have hate mail to send, please direct it to adam@takeajourney.org. :)