Change

So, first of all.... (and I know I say this all the time, but God is good and it's always true).... we had an amazing day at the Journey yesterday. We taught a new song (possibly my new favorite song) and Erik's talk on "Joy" was unbelievably eye opening. I'm editing the video as I'm writing and it'll be posted later today on the website. Just click here to go watch it, or you can go to itunes and search "Pastor Erik Reed, The Journey Church, Lebanon Tn." and subscribe to our podcast now.

So... change. Always happening, can't avoid it, and most of the time, it isn't the most convenient timing in our lives. BUT.... more often than not, it's always for the better. Yesterday we dove a little deeper into some change that is taking place within my worship team. For awhile now, I've known that as the Journey grows, more is going to be required of me and my team. Right now, we can manage doing two services in two different locations. But what happens when God decides to blow the doors off the place and, suddenly, we need to expand our service times? Or add locations? That's the big dream that we all have.... to be allowed to minister to more and more people. Well, Erik and I have talked about it at length. The fact of the matter is... we can't be in two places at one time. Duh! So what do you do? The answer: you raise up leaders who can do it for you. You work as hard as you can to try and replace yourself. Notice I didn't say duplicate. I said replace! BIG difference. That's another blog for another time!

So, with that in mind... the Journey Creative Arts dept. is having a BIG meeting tonight to discuss some changes that are going to be implemented in order to allow us to begin to move into a place where, not only are we ready to expand into other places, but where we are growing together as a team spiritually. We've been rather busy lately, planting a new campus, moving one campus into another location, and preparing to possibly launch a third campus. And I'm concerned we may be getting a little bit of center with tracking our spiritual growth. We are going to implement some rather big ideas to help us keep that side of things in order. And so, I would ask all of you to pray for us, as we step into a time of some "Change".

Love you all

-robbie

P.S. I know it's been awhile since I've given you all the set lists for our worship time. We have been teaching a lot of new songs. So, rather than list everything we've done over the last few weeks, here are the songs that we've been teaching. Most of them aren't "new". But they are new to the Journey. They may be new to you as well. So check them out. Great stuff!

"Rain Down" Delirious, "The Love Of God" Jeff Deyo, "With Everything" Hillsong, "Not To Us" Todd Fields, "Help Me To Find You" Todd Fields, "Revelation Song" Gateway Worship, "Reign In Us" & "Filled With Your Glory" Starfield.

first times

Hey everyone.

This weekend was kinda special for the Cheuvront family. First of all, it was an amazing week at The Journey. God was moving in some incredible ways. I'm still amazed every week when I come in this place and see the people that God has brought into our folds. All Praise be to Him.

So...... Tiffany and I took our son, Cason to do some things, and it was his first time to do them.

As most of you know, I played on the road with "Lonestar" for many years. It was fun, and Richie MacDonald, the lead singer, and I became great friends. He's kind of like the brother I never had. Love him to death! Anyway, Richie now has a solo career. He doesn't do many shows because he likes to spend time with his family, after being gone on the road for 15 years. But when he does, he calls me to see if I want to go out with him and do a quick performance. So, this weekend was faith and family night at the Nashville Sounds game and we did a show there to promote his Christian Album. Because it was faith and family night, we took our families and watched the game. I got some extra tickets, so we took Erik and Katrina, along with their son, Kaleb (Cason's best friend). It was Cason's first B-Ball game and he loved it. They gave him a couple balls and a bat (which he and Kaleb proceeded to try and throw and hit everywhere they could during the game! (that's a whole other blog!!!) We had a great time, but it was pretty much what was expected..... Hot dogs, baseball, friends and lots of fun.

Second, we took Cason to the movies for the first time. We saw Disney's "UP". It was a really good movie, and just like I suspected, it was completely different than what I thought it would be. They are really good at that. Unlike a lot of other movies, where you see a thousand trailers for them and by the time you actually go, you pretty much know the movie before even watching it, Disney movies have a knack for getting you intrigued just enough to go see them, without really even knowing what they're about.

I think that's a really cool thing b/c you don't know what to expect. And then you're typically pleased with the result. Unlike the baseball game, where we knew what was pretty much going to take place, we walked into a dark theater, with a 3 yr. old, hoping that it would be a good experience.

That got me thinking. What do people expect when they go to church? Is there a pre-conceived idea of what they are going to see? I think so. And most of the time, if they're unchurched or haven't been to church in a long time, that pre-conceived notion could be drastically wrong. For so long the church has had this stigma about it, that when you go.... people are going to make you feel uncomfortable, make you do something that embarrasses you, or even the other extreme. They won't even acknowledge you are even there. Why is that? I'm afraid that the church has become that which Jesus spoke against: A religious institution. It was never intended to be that. It was intended to be a gathering of people who love God, worship only Him, and through the grace and mercy that has been shown to them, they in turn share that hope and love... bringing the only message of hope that there is to a hurting and broken world.

Too many people call themselves Christians and don't have any idea what that means. There's a piece of scripture that I think they need to listen to. Jesus said, on that day people would say, "Master, didn't we prophesy in your name....etc. and He will say, "Depart from me, for I never knew you." Maybe we shouldn't call ourselves Christians anymore. Perhaps it's time to redefine ourselves. "Christian" has become a table-top discussion word. If we are going to be the church.... the church that Jesus instructed us to be, loving those around us, worshiping Him, following His teachings, being obedient to His will (not ours), taking the gospel message to the world and making disciples of ALL the nations.... then perhaps "Christian" is the wrong term. Maybe we should call ourselves exactly what that description says we are..... Christ Followers. And if we did that, and stopped acting like the church that the world has defined us to be, and instead acted like the church we are SUPPOSED to be, maybe people wouldn't feel so put off by all of us "Christians".

Love you all,

Robbie

cool video to open our church services

Hey everyone. This is a cool video that we use to start our church service with. It's really awesome, cause, it's exactly what we wanted to say, and do for a video.... and someone else did it for us. Thanks to whoever you are!!!!!