Journey Community Church believes that it is through faith in Jesus that God gives every person the opportunity to be saved FROM past sin and future death as well as saved FOR the purpose of joining Jesus in his present mission to redeem and restore this world and people around us.

Joining Jesus in his mission is not just the role of pastors and Christian leaders but the main purpose of every follower of Jesus – no matter how old we are or how long we have been following Jesus.

Even when Christians understand this, it’s easy too listen to messages and talk about being everyday missionaries in our neighborhoods, workplaces, schools, and social circles, but fall short when it comes to taking ACTION and LIVING out our mission. Often this is because we don’t know how or lack confidence because we have never done it.

B.L.E.S.S Training

BLESS is an acrostic that represents actions involved in living on mission with Jesus:

• Begin with prayer: Ask God to show you people who don’t know God and pray for them
• Listen with care: Pay attention to people’s dreams and pain, and listen for evidence of God’s work in their lives
• Eat together: Share meals with others
• Serve in love: Be attentive to opportunities to care for people and meet their needs
• Share the story: Once you’ve built trust with someone, share how Jesus is transforming your life and the world

For the first 5 months of 2025, during our Sunday morning gatherings we will be going beyond just teaching and discussing the BLESS actions but actually put them into practice and reflect on them. Each month we will focus on a different aspect of BLESS, and will have a rhythm where we:

• Learn (teaching)
• Practice (training)
• Do
• Reflect (debrief)
• Share stories (4th Sunday in the park)

Most weeks there will be action steps to do during the week to help us implement these practices in our lives.

Stretching, Committing, and Abiding

Some Sunday gatherings are going to look different than we are used to. In particular, we know “training” and “doing” will push us outside our comfort zone. We embrace this because if we want to grow, we have to be stretched.

To help with this, we challenge each other to fully embrace this season of “training” and “doing” through an optional covenant, which you can complete online or print and put in one of the buckets Sunday morning. Those who commit will receive the additional benefit of a special text/email group in which we will encourage each other and lovingly hold each other accountable.

And most importantly, we know we cannot do any of this with our own human plans or effort. We rely on the Holy Spirit to help us do our part. And we trust that the Spirit is at work in the people around us, drawing them to Jesus, so they can experience life to the fullest, as it was intended, with Jesus.