A Vision For Journey Community

Tonight we had our first launch meeting with several friends in which we laid the foundation of the vision for Journey Community Church (JCC). It felt so awesome sharing with some of my closest and best friends.

God is up to something great and I personally want to be a small part of the big something He is doing. JCC is a church that is about:

• GATHERING weekly to connect people far from God to the life of Christ
• GROWING them to be disciples through small groups
• Teaching them to GIVE their time, talents, and treasure to make an impact in this world.

Feel free to read what I talked about in a document called A Vision For Journey Community.

Our desire is just to be used by God to make a difference in our world. Stay tuned for more updates. Our next launch gathering will be Friday, December 14th. For details send me an email.

Launch Gathering

Tonight is the night of our first launch gathering. What is that?

It is a gathering of people who want to hear about the vision and mission we are laying out for Journey Community Church. I really believe that Jesus has already laid out the vision for our church. It really is one every church should be following. You can read it in Matthew 28 and

I am also going to be looking at the first few chapters of the Book of Acts. Basically, I'll be asking the question What If?

What if what happened in the book of Acts...happened here in the Coastal Bend.

If you live in or near Corpus and want to come, leave me a comment with your email address and I'll get you directions.

Journey Community Myspace

I made an overhaul of our Journey Community Myspace site. New look as it was finally reloaded. It is not completely finished though.

I have been thinking of doing some side work for churches who would like to develop social networking sites. If you are interested in me doing totally personalized to your church myspace/facebook sites, please give me a holler at pastorjcurl@gmail.com.

Coming soon to myspace will be a Making Difference Makers site. Can't wait for that one.

21 Day Journal Challenge Wrap Up

I finished up my 21 day challenge where I read through the book of John one chapter per day.

You can read about why I started it in my post Journaling As A Spiritual Discipline.

I also posted my top take-aways from the challenge in a post called Lessons Learned From The 21 Day Challenge.

I'm starting a new challenge in December. I would encourage you possible take up this as a discipline in your life. Make sure you read the posts.

Unforgiveness

Can't say this was a biblical thought but it popped out anyway. My wife and I were walking though Wal-mart talking about forgiveness and unforgiveness when all of the sudden I said.

"You aren't worth my unforgiveness."

Course I didn't tell her that...we were talking about a situation we went through and that was what my response would have been to them. It just kind of popped out. We laughed hard at that one.

How do you deal with unforgiveness?

Purpose

I love this quote from Agent Smith in The Matrix Reloaded. It is one of my top movie quotes of all time.

Church Mentoring

Got some great advice from Tadd today that is going to be a huge help. As a church planter or pastor it is important to look for mentors.

I hear all the time from guys..."I'm must gonna pray and only listen to God." Although I think that is the most important thing we should do, it is not the only thing we should do. I would have to say that it is not using the wisdom or even sound biblical principles God has laid out for us.

Paul had a mentor and mentored someone. Proverbs lays it out clear that plans are established in a multitude of counselors. There is some wisdom to be learned in partnering with others and gleeming from their experience.

You can cut your learning curve tremendously. I'm not saying you need to copy cat. I'm saying that people who have been where you are going can help you get where you want to go.

The Journal Journey Continues

One of the reasons I created this blog is so I could continue journaling. I wrote a great post on it at Making Difference Makers called Journaling As A Spiritual Discipline.

With that said...this Friday I'm going to continue the journey with the Book of Acts. One chapter a day...one verse to reflect on...a prayer to go with it.

I can actually say that this has made me slow down a bit and reflect more on what I'm reading. It has caused me to look for that thing that God is trying to say to me.

I used to be on a plan that read through the bible in a year. But I'm finding that this, for me, is working better.

I encourage you to keep the challenge going with me. Dive deeper.

Help With Your Prayers

Well since this is my new world I thought I would post up some prayer requests for you guys and gals out there.

Specific, targeted prayers are the best prayers I know of.

John 5:16 Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. (The Message)

With that here are some for you to add to your prayer list:

1. My wife has been sick for a few days. Today she checked her blood pressure and it was sky high. Her pulse is also racing. Pray for healing.
2. There has been a cough going around with the kids. Our middle one got a check up today and they told her she had a mild case of bronchitis. Again pray for healing over our children.
3. This week we have our first launch meeting for those interested in partnering with us. Pray for favor and connections as we set out to reach those far from God and connect them to the life flow of Christ.
4. Financially we have been struggling since July. We were not prepared for what happened then and have not recovered. We need a financial miracle and supply as we set out to do what God has called us to. Pray for finances for our home.

Thinking

Now that I have my own blog for randomness it seems like there is only one problem. I can't think of anything to write.

The First Tweaks

I have officially updated and tweaked my new personal blog home as well as tweaked Making Difference Makers a little.

I really enjoy the blogging journey that I have been home and am looking forward to the two web homes I have now built.

Make sure you add this new site to your blog reader.

The First

The first post of my new personal blog. Why??? Because I can.