It's Almost Story Time!

This past Sunday was our first official week as "Storytellers" rather than "Journeyers." We had what's called a practice service where the core team gets together to informally run through a service.



Aaron gave the message he will be giving next week...



...and Jen & I made sure there were no technical glitches.



This coming Sunday, we'll hold two preview services (9:30 & 11:15) where we actually invite people to start getting a taste of what The Story: a Community Church will be like. It was lots of fun worshiping with new people and getting to know them. Can't wait till Sunday!

-Mark- +

Fun with the Journey staff

Two Monday nights ago (December 1) we went out for a night of food & fun with Jon & Erica and Ben & Sharon and Ben's mom to celebrate the last 15 months we've spent at Journey Church. The 7 of us went to Johnny Carino's for dinner and enjoyed their "Two can dine for $14.99" deal times three. We had a good time, shared lots of laughs, and a few sentimental stories. Ben's mom tried to get us all to cry but I don't think she succeeded :-)

After dinner, we went back to Jon & Erica's house and played cards like the good-ol'-days. We avoided playing Pit this time, since I (Mark) ended up 240 points in the hole last time. Instead, we played a dice game called Fill Or Bust. Jen seemed to be the lucky roller that night, and we were pretty sure it was because of the red fleece blanket. Towards the end of the game, when he had a chance to knock out the leader, Jon borrowed the lucky blanket and rolled a perfect roll!



There was a pic of him bowing down to the lucky blanket after his roll, but I didn't want that one falling into the wrong hands ;-P

All in all it was a GREAT night. We will definitely miss being so close to two awesome couples.

-Mark- +

We got Punked!

Last night, and the end of our trek up 3 flights of stairs, we were greeted by 18 paper plates covering the door to our apartment!



Is this the apartment version of getting TP'ed?

The colorful decorations were a surprise pastor-appreciation gift from FUEL, the youth group here at Journey Church. The students had written brief notes and drawn pictures on paper plates and staked-out our apartment complex until someone let them in to "punk" us.

Statistic count:
Most popular word: "rock" !!!!!!! (haha! is there a 'rock-on' smiley?)
Second most popular word: "Mark"

And seriously guys, HOW LONG did you have to wait until someone let you in to the building??? (I think you just need a gmail account to leave comments - please do!)

Thanks, FUEL! You guys are the best!

Worship Conference

Today, tomorrow, and Friday I'm at Integrity Music's "Seminars4Worship" hosted @ ResLife Church in Grand Rapids. Should be loads of fun & very refreshing. Great speakers like Paul Baloche, Mia Fieldes, and Jon Egan.

Today I'm in the "worship lab" called "Worship Leading and Songwriting." I'll let you know if I learn anything groundbreaking by adding comments to this post!

-Mark- +

A Life Of Worship

We had a really cool Gathering at church today. We've been in a series called "What If" during which Jon (our lead pastor) has taken one of our six core values each week and broken it down, saying "Jesus lived like this - what if we did?"

This week Jon talked about worship and used some neat illustrations. He talked about how God dares us: "Taste and see that the Lord is good." (Psalm 34:8) And that we worship out of a hunger for God - the more we taste, the more we want. And inevitably, when we hunger and actually take a taste of something, that leads to an intense thirst - in this case, a thirst for righteousness and connection with God.

We entered the Gathering room this week to the smell (and sound) of popcorn! It was 10 minutes into theGathering before Jon had the ushers pass out bags of popcorn to everyone. They loved it! Then, as he began to talk some more, you could tell another sensation was filling the room - thirst. Intense thirst. Look-around-the-room-and-wish-you-hadn't-eaten-that-popcorn thirst. And then it came - Journey Church First Impressions Team to the rescue! The ushers passed out a bottle of water to each of us. WHAT A VIVID PICTURE of how important a lifestyle of worshiping God is.

Later in theGathering, Jon had us each take a piece of clay and form either what it is that compels us to worship or what it is that inhibits our worship of God (in which case we were invited to resolutely smash it up). I could tell that it was a really meaningful experience for some people.

So next time you have thoroughly enjoyed a salty snack and find yourself parched and desperate for water, remember that when you give God a chance (NOT church or religion or ritual, but GOD) to do something new in your life, that small taste will not disappoint you.

Fuel 4 ur Journey

The youth group @ Journey Church is sweet.

These kids are so much fun, and so creative. There's got to be some kind of award for how awesome they are at whatever it is they are doing. Last night, Journey invaded the Caledonia High School Homecoming game and worked the concession stand, gave out the first 1000 hot dogs for free, and the youth group (Fuel) picked up trash - ALL the trash! Afterwards (to celebrate) they decided they had done such a great job they deserved cheerleaders just as much as the football team!




Fuel's got spirit, yes they do! Fuel's got spirit, how 'bout YOU!!!!

A day off...

I was so excited all week because I had today off completely from everything. Mark is gone all day, I got most of the cleaning done and I was hoping to just lay out at the pool all day. But I awoke this morning to no sun. I am pretty sad. Although I have to admit I am enjoying the quiet and peacefulness of being all alone with nothing to do. Life has been so crazy and busy lately that I feel somewhat out of place not having anything going on.

Tomorrow we have our first lifegoup meeting that I am leading. I am really excited about it. There are some great girls in the group and I hope that we become even close through the summer.

Mark and I are leaving to go camping next week. We are going to camp in Coldwater for 5 days and then go to Cinncinatti and see his family and go to a wedding. I am really excited!! Im so excited to go away just me and my husband and enjoy a relaxing break outside! Yay! There is a lot of work to do though before we go!

life...

So, Im pretty sure that I earn an F when it comes to updating my blog. I seriously stink at it. I think about it a lot, in fact I often think of amazing things to write and then when I actually get to the internet I have a blank mind. Mind you I only get to the internet maybe once a week. BUT GOOD NEWS...I can get internet at Starbucks now! This may not be half as exciting to all of you as it is to me but since I am here ALOT I will have more chances to say hi to all of you:)

So my life lately: I am now working as a waitress at Pizza Hut Wing Street. And it's ok. I am really working on the Philippians 2:14 Do EVERYTHING without COMPLAINING or arguing. For those of you who don't know me that well I complain a lot. So I am trying to have a positive attitude about my new job (it has been hard). And overall trying not to complain about life. You would be amazed at how much easier and happier it makes things:)

I am preparing to lead a LifeGroup next month. I am really excited about it. It will be 20's Women and we are going to a bible study called "Getting past the Chitchat". Its about relationships. I think it will be really good although I have to admit this definitly wasn't my idea. It was one of those times that has happened maybe twice in my life where God very obviously was like "Hey Jen, you are going to do this and you are not even going to try and get out of it". And so here I am. God has given be a strong desire and excitement for it. So please be praying for this group as it forms.

Other than work, and church I have been pushing myself really hard to work out and eat well. I have been wanting to become a runner and I am up to 2 miles which is really exciting for me. But the eating well part well it like one day on one day off. I need a buddy who will keep me in line. Accountability works best for me.

I still have a lot of pictures I want to post. The problem is I never have my camera. When i do go to use the internet I take basically everything I own and camp out for hours paying bills, sending emails, catching up on life so I always forget the camera. Well thats our life. love you all.