Smooth Via

EIKON Part 3: Matt's Mistake

The third in a four-part miniseries chronicling the events that surrounded Matt, Wes, and Austin as they prepare for Eikon summer camp.

In an effort to rid himself of a shadowy tag along, Matt makes a serious mistake.

EIKON Part 2: Wes' Dream

The second in a four-part miniseries chronicling the events that surrounded Matt, Wes, and Austin as they prepared for Eikon summer camp. 

Wes gets caught up in playing his guitar, but is snapped out of it by an old enemy.

EIKON Part 1: Austin's Chips

Over the next couple of days I will post the series videos that chronicle the events that surrounded Matt, Wes, and Austin as they prepared for Eikon summer camp. 

In this episode, Wes takes a bag of Austin's beloved Baked Ruffles without asking, "How will Austin respond?"

EIKON

This week at camp, our theme is EIKON, which is the New Testament Greek for image or likeness.

Romans 8:29 says: For those God foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

When reading this verse, most people get caught up on the words "foreknew" and "predestined" and become sidetracked with the issues of God's sovereignty and man's free will. But to do so is to do a injustice to this verse. The point of this verse is not to explain how God's absolute sovereignty works with man's apparent free will. Rather, Paul is trying to convey the sense of honor and privilege that comes with being a child of God. In essence he is saying, "you were hand-picked for a purpose."

Wow. God has hand-picked me, and he has hand-picked me for a specific purpose. What is that purpose? To be conformed to the image of his Son. This begins to make more sense when you consider Genesis 1:26-27 which says: Then God said,"Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

In the beginning God created man and woman in his image. But we rebelled and the image of God was shattered. If being made in the image of God means that we reflect him in some way as a mirror reflects an image, then The Fall has shattered that mirror. 

It's in this context that Romans 8:29 begins to make sense. God created us in his image, but we rebelled and shattered that image. Now in Christ, God has begun rebuilding that image. He has hand-picked us to be conformed to the image of his Son. If you are a follower of Jesus, God is working in you to restore what was lost in The Fall. He is rebuilding his image in you. That's what the Christian life is all about.

Share Our Shoes

Our church recently helped S.O.S. (Share Our Shoes) collect and box a TON of shoes to take to Haiti. S.O.S. collects asks for people to take their shoes that are not being used and just taking up space in their closet, and donate to the people of Haiti. Jennifer Pierce, Founder and Director of S.O.S. personally delivered these shoes which numbered over 300,000.

Here is a video of just one of her experiences. Notice the shoe that she holds up to the camera. This is the shoe that she just removed from that little girl's feet. 

Guest Blogger: Uprising: Remix

My wife and resident hottie, Kelly Via, has a blog that she keeps private. So when I saw her most recent post, I asked her to share it here as well so that everyone else could read it, because she makes me sound pretty awesome. Here is her write up on a recent endeavor that Journey Students just started working on.

My husband has a gift for working with students. I love to watch him as he creates relationships and figures out how to best minister to his students. He is definitely not your typical "Youth Pastor," and I think that is one of the most refreshing things about him. He's real. He's genuine. And he seeks out what the students need - and finds relevant ways to minister to those needs. Did I mention that I am his biggest fan?

On Sunday evenings he leads/directs "Uprising," which is a worship service for middle and high school students. Jonathan and his student leaders have been seeking to 'remix' Uprising for a while now, at the students request. They have been praying and seeking out what changes need to be made for months. This past Sunday was the first of several services that will be called "Uprising:Remix." These will be a series of trial services to see what tools, music, topics, atmospheres, etc. will be the best fit to lead our students in worship.

For this first Uprising:Remix we had worship leader (and my bro-in-law) Josh Via come to speak to our students. The atmosphere was simple, coffee shop style. There were no gimmicks. No games. Just Josh, intermixing his {incredible} songs with their explanations and some great words from scripture. And the students...well...to say they loved it would be an understatement. 



Once again, our God has given my husband the wisdom and clarity to start tweaking things to better reach our students in this ministry that He has given him. I am grateful that Jonathan doesn't just do what "every other" church does to reach students. He goes out on a limb, he dares to do what others do not. He is creative and wise. And in it all, seeks Christ in each decision he dares to make.

Did I mention I am his biggest fan??

Keep Remixing it, Babe!!

-Kelly Via

Holy Hangover

I've never had a hangover, but I can imagine what it feels like because of how I feel every Monday morning. I call it the "holy hangover." I don't know exactly what causes it, but every Monday after weekend services, I feel completely wasted, spent, and well... hungover: headache, body aches, fatigue, irritability, dizziness, loss of appetite. 

If I had to guess at what caused this, I would say it's a combination of physical, spiritual, and emotional exhaustion. I have a lot of responsibilities at Journey, some technical, some directorial, and some pastoral. These three responsibilities keep me constantly switching gears all day long. Yesterday during the second and third service alone, I probably had 15 - 20 people stop me for some of my time regarding one of those three areas. I'm not asking you to stop doing that. I love what I do, and I love it that people feel that I am approachable enough to ask for some of my time on the weekend. I'm just trying to analyze what wears me out so much and leaves me with this holy hangover. 

On a typical weekend,  I go from 6:30am to 10:00pm on Sunday (I'm not even including my entire Saturday). I show up early and oversee worship and tech rehearsal, double check the building to make sure everything is in order and looks nice for the weekend, check in with my host team and greeter team, back to the tech booth to ensure cues are being met, meeting, talking and praying with people between services, checking in with the next set of host team and greeter teams, back to the tech booth, meet, talk, and pray with people in between the next two services, stop in and visit my middle school students in M.S.O and hang out them for a little while, try to sit with my wife during the third service, meet, talk and pray with people after the service, lead a some kind of team meeting, head home for a an hour or two, head to the student center for 3:12 or Uprising, hang with students, pray with students, counsel students, teach students, then finally head home and crash like the train wreck that I am.

Again, I'm not complaining. I love what I do. But if you've ever wondered why I unplug on Monday's and you can't seem to get a hold of me, now maybe you understand. Now on top of all that, three days ago I gave up coffee for Lent. If you're a coffee addict like me and you've ever stopped drinking coffee, then you know that day three is always the worst day! So today, my usual "holy hangover" is magnified by the fact that I am on day three with no coffee!

You're either on mission, or you are the mission.

Lately, I've noticed that I've gotten a lot of similar comments from different people. Some of these comments have been leveled at me, while others have been leveled at other staff members at Journey. These comments (by the way, "comment" is just a polite way to say complaint in this context), vary in a lot of ways, but the gist of all of them is this: either myself, or another staff member, or all the staff have distanced ourselves, act differently toward, keep at arms length, or are just generally less available to the person who is making the comment.

When these comments have been leveled at me, here is how I have responded. "What do you mean? Don't you have my cell phone number?" (yes) "Have I avoided your phone calls or failed to call you back?" (no) "When you have asked for some of my time, have I ever told you I didn't have time? (no) "Have I ever failed to make time for you?" (no) "Do I avoid you when I see you at church?" (no) "So, I don't get it. What's the problem?" The answers at this point vary widely, but no one ever really has a solid answer to that question. So I shrug it off and move on, until the same scenario happens all over again with someone else.

I haven't been able to figure out what this was all about until this past weekend. I met a guy who came to Journey for the first time. I introduced myself, let him know who I was and chatted with him a little before the service. After the service was over, I connected with him again, wanting to know how he enjoyed the service, etc. We talked for a bit, and then I gave him my cell phone number and told him to call me sometime and we would go get coffee and hang out. He seemed genuinely appreciative and maybe even a little impressed that I gave out my number so readily and offered to hang out some time. It was after that conversation, that it dawned on me why I have been receiving these strange comments.

All of you who have made these comments to me were at one time in the shoes of the guy that I met this weekend. You were new to Journey, and I (or another staff member) was pursuing you offering to meet with, get coffee and hear your story. You see, we did this (and continue to do this) because we care about you and genuinely want to connect you with Jesus. When you first come through those doors of The Warehouse, we don't know who you are. We don't know what your story is. We don't know where you stand with Jesus, and our hearts desire, our mission, is to help you follow Jesus. So we pursue you and seek to help in any way that we can. You were the mission.

But here's the deal: at Journey, we fully expect that you are going to join in on the mission with us. We will NEVER turn inward. It's not about us. As a church, we exist only to further the mission, to reach more people and help them follow Jesus. Once you've been coming to Journey for awhile and begin to call Journey home and we know that you are following Jesus, you are no longer the mission. Yes, we still care about you. Yes, we still have time for you. Yes, we still want to walk alongside of you and continue to help you follow Jesus. But no, we are not pursuing you anymore. I will challenge you to try this: if you pursue me, I will always find time for you. I'm not too busy for you. But you are not the mission. You should be ON MISSION with us. You should be pursuing people who are new, giving them your number, offering to hang out with them, finding out their story, and seeking to help connect them with Jesus! You are either on mission or you are the mission. If you are no longer the mission, but you don't want to be on mission, then quite frankly, you probably need to find another church.

Recently, I heard a statement that might be the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Someone said, "I get you're all about the mission, but I feel like you're too much about the mission. I feel like you focus too much on reaching people for Jesus and not enough on those of us who are already here at Journey."

I honestly, didn't even know now to respond to that. All I could think was, "Did you seriously just say that out loud? I mean, even if I ever felt that way, I would be too ashamed to actually say that out loud." 

Listen, if you're not the mission, then be on mission. Let's keep doing what God has called us to do. Let's help people follow Jesus. Let's make Jesus famous in Raleigh.

Bungee Jump Over The Nile River

In case you didn't know, one of the things I do here at Journey is oversee the production of our creative elements which mostly involves videos, graphics, etc. We attempt to stay three sermon series ahead so that we can plan and prepare appropriately. Everyone once in a while we get even further ahead than that.

We've known for about 4 months that we were going to do this series called "Jump" in January, which allowed me to get some pretty unique footage for a video. When I was in Uganda back in October, we captured footage of me bungee jumping over the Nile River. In case you missed this weekend, here it is again.

Arise Africa - Bukaleba Orphanage - Phase 1 Complete!

I just received word that Phase 1 of the Arise Africa orphanage at Bukaleba is finally finished! Praise God! Thank you to all and any of you who helped this happen. God has huge things in store for Arise Africa, as they continue to make Jesus famous in their country. The Bukaleba project has only just begun. There is still much work to be done.

Below you will find a picture slide show that follows Phase 1 from groundbreaking to completion.