Today, when you hear the word church, you might think of a specific church with a building and ministry programs; one where you attend worship services, bible studies or youth and children’s ministries.

However, that’s not how Jesus talked about the Church. It wasn’t that Jesus didn’t think worship or bible studies were important. I’m fact Jewish children would have already memorized the first 5 books of the Old Testament, called the Torah, by the time they were 10 years old. He also demonstrated that worship was something you did every day, not just 1 day a week at a certain time and on a certain day.

Jesus talked about BEING the church instead of going TO church. He emphasized character, self-denial, maturing spiritually, and serving others. He said we would do what the apostles witnessed him doing, including caring for the sick, giving to the poor and rescuing the captive.

The activities of the church would mimic the truths of being the church. This, he would say, was The Way.

As we begin 2023, it’s time for us to have a new conversation about church. But really what we need is to remember an ancient conversation; one that took place 2000 years ago with the one who would define the church and make it a reality in this world.

Jesus is still inviting us to follow this Way and lead others to it. Will you join us? Will you see what God might want to say to you about your Way? About our Way, together?

So where does that leave you? In my experience, it often leads to self doubt of a role I may not consider myself to be strong in. It leads to an easy out when it’s something I just don’t want to do. It also, more often than not, makes me wonder what is expected and then I either forget to ask the person in charge of the area, or just don’t know who they are and don’t seek the answer out. All of which are pretty easy excuses, and has in the past worked for me….or looking back definitely worked against me. I love in the Bible where Job is basically questioning his existence(Job 3-4:21) and he’s put in check by Eliphaz, with Eliphaz making points such as “Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands.” “Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?” I wish I had more Bible knowledge back then to give me more courage, and strength, however, I am thankful for this road I have walked and learned on.

In my youth, as a preteen and teenager, none of this was an issue for me. I loved serving in the children’s ministry (mostly the baby room) for yrs. This one class of kids came in, and though it was 20yrs ago now, I can still name every last one of those kids. You see, we started with them in the baby room, and graduated up all the way til they were 5 and I started going to another church. Those 5 yrs I watched these kids grow every Sunday and helped with potty training (which lucky today people don’t have to do) I helped teach them words, and most importantly we taught them to love God and because I was a preteen I loved doing the lesson in fun ways, usually tying in some sort of snack. One time we made a funnel cake and honestly it’s been so long I can’t remember all the details but I remember it tied into the covenant Abraham made with God. It was so cool, and fun and the kids loved it. For me at that time, I just wanted to do something fun that might stick with them just a little. I got so close to these kids, and then one day it happened. The church started to fall apart in different areas, for different reasons, and I felt pulled away. I had no clue until many years later what was going on, I was a kid and it wasn’t my business; but even I felt pulled away.

I started at a new church with new friends as a teenager. It was different. It was a much smaller church, and the friends I had made were at the beginning of that church. I tried to get involved, however because they didn’t know me, and judged the way I looked (surprise I’ve had purple, pink, and blue hair since I was 16!) it was uncommon and I was the unknown person who could spread bad things through the church. I often got angry with the youth leaders because they wouldn’t answer my questions that weren’t surface questions about God and after this world ends, I felt they were unorganized especially at events, and they were constantly trying to “reach” me. They put such a sour taste in my mouth for serving. They only accepted who they thought was good enough, and who they didn’t they let know. It hurt, and it gave me a sense of lacking in church community. I had gone from one extreme to the other.

Fast forward many years later and we land at Journey. My husband, Josh, and his band did the very first service, while my baby brother and I were in the seats. We had a lot of life happen, and then decided we needed to get plugged into a church and commit to our church. At this time, Journey had moved to the warehouse. My husband remembered Scott and Mark and thought highly of them, so we went to check out how their church was doing. The first sermon (for me, for my husband it was the music and sermon) gripped us. We wanted to come back and learn more. My husband’s heart has always been high in servitude, so he was very quick to jump into the worship ministry. I however, was pregnant with our first child, was still not confident in plugging in. I still was rooted in not being good enough, or what if they judge me, or do I even care to get to know these people I won’t see outside of church? I know, not so nice thoughts right? So I focused on the kids (and we have many) and fell into the roll of Mom and Wife of, instead of sharing myself with my church family. In no other place was I just a mom of, or wife of, I have always made my own mark in this world. It took me about 7 years of being at church before I truly became apart of our church community. Long time, I know. I wanted to serve, but I didn’t know where. I wanted to be seen, but I talked myself out of it. I wanted to be me, but instead I self deprecated. Its a struggle when you feel disconnected, unworthy, and unseen to find a place…your place.

During the time I was managing my kids, I watched, learned and talked to the community that is our Journey family. I saw areas of opportunity, but still hesitated, and I talked to the people and found many I had things in common, and many that I did not. I have watched growth amongst our family, and church family. Then, finally, I stepped up. I made the commitment to serve. One thing to know about me, is I NEVER make a commitment UNLESS I truly mean it. Once I commit I am all in 100 percent and nothing can detour that.

In the areas I saw opportunity for growth and change that I could assist I jumped in. I assisted my husband with Worship and tech because I am strong in my gifting of administration. From there we had some changes in the children’s ministry, and I again saw some opportunities of growth and came along side with Deidre and helped in the areas I have strength, and learned more in the areas I am lacking. One thing about coming alongside Deidra was, I was not leading and didn’t have to in order to share my gifts and learn areas I can grow.

So with all of this said, the final thing I should bring up is that ministry, serving, and church community are all interconnected. We need to be apart of our church and our community because our church and our community need us, our gifting, our messes, and grow together. If we do not know ourselves, how can we share ourselves? It takes all types of put together & all types of messes to help one another. I make an impact on those that I might not realize I have, just by being around and sharing my gifts and weaknesses, my triumph and my failures. You make an impact, you just might not know it yet. You might not know or see where you fit in, but I PROMISE you, you fit in right where is needed when you listen to God, and look for a place. It’s easier to wait to be invited, but if you haven’t shared yourself, or just not shared with the right person, how will someone know to invite you? You and your story are necessary to the church and its congregants. Its like Mark has said in many different sermons in many different ways, and most recently in the chiasmas..God is asking us “Where are you?“ “I remember.” “Where are you going?” God works in those who are willing to sacrifice for the good of others. Learn from our mistakes, let go of the reins and trust God to create your story.

My children have literally grown up here at Journey, and look at each and every one of you as family. They know your face, most of the time your name, and you mean something to them. I rely on you, our church family to help guide, grow, and teach my kids along side myself. I often say jokingly, “it takes a village,” but I could not be more serious when I say that phrase. For instance, a prime example of you all helping me, is at the kickball games. I was able to participate in varying ways because our members were there to help watch over my little Lilly and Henry. You embraced them with love, and watched over them so that they might not fall off the bleachers run into harms way, and you did that with a smile of enjoyment. As a parent, I could not be more touched and my kids have so much to share about how you showed love and shared things with them. Everything we do, big or small, front line or behind the scenes makes an impact and difference. Cleaning the church, serving in a ministry, listening to someone’s needs and helping them are all important areas of serving, ministering to, and being apart of our church/community. Ephesians 2:22 says it best, “In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” God created everything, because not even He is meant to be alone, Jesus gathered disciples because he was not meant to do life alone; and with God Adam and Eve were not perfect but they gave themselves their messes/mistakes and their glory; and with Jesus the disciples did the same, Peter is the one that jumps out at me for his messes/mistakes and love of serving God and following Jesus with all of himself.

I don’t serve because I have to. I don’t serve because I just want to. I serve because we are called to work together in this life and I know my strengths and weaknesses well enough to know where I can take the lead in something and where I can grow myself in something. Growing in something is obviously less appealing at times, gets you out of your comfort zone, and is never necessarily the first choice right?

Those are the kind of relationships that we get up in the morning for, that we long for and that many no longer believe are really possible.

We live in an age of superficiality where a “like” on a post counts as engagement and a carefully constructed selfie is supposed to represent our every day moments that actually took a lot of tries to get right.

It’s easy to blame social media, main stream media, conservative or liberal media or any other type of media that is easily digestible, today. Richard J. Foster said this in 1978:

“Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.”

Let that sink in…in 1978, he claimed that our biggest struggle as a people was the tendency to be superficial. Wow. If only he know what 2022 looked like.

The truth is, you were not made to be superficial. You are a deeply spiritual being made in the image of God and you were meant to have deep and meaningful relationships with men and women who were made in the same.

We don’t do masks well. In fact, the more masks we put on, the more unhappy we become because it’s not us. Our great fear is that we can’t be loved for who we really are. Instead, we have to place images that we think are more palatable out in the world so we can find some level of acceptance.

And sometimes masks are really the problem. Some people genuinely like being their true selves even if no one likes them. It’s a characteristic that I somewhat envy to be honest. Instead of masks, distractions become our kryptonite. Netflix, Starbucks, Hulu, TicTok, Facebook, Youtube…they are all within a button’s push to take us to another world where we can forget the challenges of this one while our eyes gloss over and dopamine flows freely.

It’s in the world and the church where we love quick messages of affirmation that don’t require us to look TOO deep because if we did that, the whole charade may fall apart.

This is not the life you were created to live.

I find it fascinating that Richard Foster saw the answer to our superficiality not in being more intelligent or gifted, but in becoming deeper.

You are a deep and meaningful being that was made for deep and meaningful relationships with God and each other. That takes time. That takes courage. That takes introspection and reflection.

It also takes a willingness to look deeper into God, His creation and His Word as well as the lives of the people around you.

If you find yourself living in this curse of superficiality, can I encourage you with this…

• You are fearfully and wonderfully made in all of your oddities, eccentricities and imperfections.
• You are fully known by God and you are fully loved.
• When you begin to live more authentically, you will find others who are choosing to do the same.
• Superficiality is a prison but authenticity is freedom. Choose freedom.

Becoming deep will take courage but you don’t have to do it alone. Let other followers of Jesus who have also chosen to reject superficiality walk with you and show you that you are loved just as you are.

We often read these types of passages with eyes focused on moralistic prohibitions that can be quantified and then enforced. It’s the way many Christians read all kinds of passages of scripture, not just the teachings of Jesus but there’s a huge problem with this.

In 2005, Melinda Lundquist Denton and sociologist Christian Smith wrote a book called “The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. In it, they coined the term “moralistic therapeutic deism” that has gone on to gain a wider audience among Christian leaders trying to understand why church goers sometimes act the way they do.

They determined a set of core religious beliefs that many American teenagers held that don’t really apply to just one particular religion. They are:

1. A God exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.
2. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
4. God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
5. Good people go to heaven when they die.

This distant God has a list of expectations that should be followed that will lead to some kind of happy life if you follow them and an unhappy life if you don’t. In the end, if you do enough of the right things, you are good and if you are good, you will go to heaven when you die.

Their work was so ground breaking because it touched on some of the core beliefs of many christian church goers, not just teenagers, and it focused on moral expectations of a distant God, not a God that created you to be in community with Him and each other.

This very self-focused set of religious beliefs was most interested in knowing what you should or shouldn’t do to be happy and go to heaven.

Enter Jesus…

Jesus didn’t teach like the other teachers of His day. Instead, he said things like, “You have heard it said, but I tell you…” and “those who have ears to hear, let them hear”.

When he begins to preach his most extensive sermon at the beginning of his public ministry, it is easy to jot down a list of do’s and don’ts. Don’t get mad (good luck with that), don’t lust (really?) and don’t get divorced unless your spouse commits adultery (if you already are for any other reason, you’re toast).

It’s easy to read scripture this way. It’s absolute. It’s concrete. You have a quantifiable list of things you should (and shouldn’t) do. But in truth, this was not Jesus’s purpose or how he talked about these issues in other places in the Bible.

When talking about sexual desire or divorce, Jesus was more focused on pursuing health, not handing out judgements. Don’t lust, because that’s someone else’s spouse or future spouse and you don’t want to diminish their marriage. Don’t shortcut the sexual intimacy in your marriage to your covenant partner by giving it away to someone else, either. Love your husband or wife in a way that only someone absolutely committed to them for the long haul would do and be free from the temptation to view your neighbor as an object for your own consumption rather than someone who is made with infinite value and dignity in the image of God.

You will unlock the true beauty of the teachings of the Bible when you ready the why’s as often (or moreso) than the what’s. God has given us a path to return to His original design and it is not only good, it is very good.

The history of fasting at lent comes from the 40 days of fasting that Jesus participated in the desert before beginning His public ministry. It can be fasting from food, activity or any practice that would cost you something to do without it for 40 days.

We will celebrate Lent as a church beginning Wednesday, March 2nd with a special Ash Wednesday Service. It will be marked by a quiet reverence, communion, worship and the historic practicing of placing ashes on all those that would like to participate, either through a cross on your forehead or the top of your hand.

You will decide what you would like to give up for 40 days (46 including Sundays) and will practice that restraint until Maundy Thursday, the Thursday before Easter.

This can be a special time for reflection and worship if you so choose. It is also a good time to invite someone to experience the deeper meaning of our faith. It will start at 6:30pm and will end no later than 7:30pm.

I hope you will join me in preparing your heart and mind for this Easter season.

Pastor Mark

22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. -Luke 6:22–23 (ESV)

What stood out to me in a palpable way was the inclusion of exclusion. Blessed are you when people exclude you…

We all know how that feels. I don’t think any child can escape the moment when they are excluded from a group they thought were their friends. We’ve also likely all been picked last as teams were made for the kickball game at recess or some other event which was both embarrassing and hurtful.

As a parent, there is a hurtful rage when our child finds out everyone was invited to a friend’s birthday party but our child and we watch the hurt wash over them as they realize that life sometimes hurts really bad.

As we get older, we probably have worked with a group that liked to go out together after work but somehow we were never invited to join them.

In recent times it seems that if we don’t check off all of the political boxes, some friends start backing away and if we have a difference of opinion on how to navigate a pandemic, we all of the sudden find ourselves excluded again.

Exclusion is such a harsh punishment because it denies us the very thing that is hardwired into humanity…the desire to be part of a community with others.

Of course, Jesus knew that exclusion was a regular weapon of broken humanity and he wasn’t just saying that being excluded is a blessing, in general.

Jesus was talking about being excluded because of Him. When we see the world differently and our former friends walk away from us, we are still blessed because the Kingdom is here and it is available to us. When we pursue a different way of life than just living “our own truth”, we are blessed because that different way of life is powerful and life giving even if that means people you love walk away from you.

This idea of exclusion, though, messes with me in other ways, too. Who have I excluded? For whom have I fundamentally removed the invitation for community?

I think it’s important not to ignore the blessings of being excluded because we have found something better that the world rejects. I also think it’s important to ask ourselves who we need to include, ourselves.

As we seek to become more like Christ, may we include others in this beautiful journey that He has called us to.

Our cultural mindsets are very geared for a transactional lens in which to view the scriptures. If we do ____________, God will give us ____________.

It’s so easy to read through the Beattitudes with just this filter but what if Jesus wasn’t offering conditions for a blessing and instead was proclaiming who was already blessed?

If you have been following us through Jesus’s longest and most famous sermon, you’ve already noticed that the Beattitudes seem to be directed at 2 different audience…us before God and us before others.

Being poor in spirit, meek, in mourning and hungering and thirsting for righteousness all seem to indicate a posture before God, though they also can demonstrate our posture towards others. Being merciful, a peacemaker and the object of persecution seem to point to our relationship with others.

What if Jesus wasn’t saying that we have to be meek if we want to inherit the earth but instead was saying that those who are meek are already inheriting it? In other words, what if Jesus is announcing the fulfillment of the blessing instead of the thing you have to do if you want to get the blessing. Would that change how we read this passage?

Transactional thinking almost always messes up the way we read the Bible because we approach with the expectation of what we want rather than what God wants. No doubt our wants are sometimes aligned with God’s but what if they aren’t?

Jesus seemed to be moving in this direction later in His sermon when he said:

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. -Matthew 6:33 (ESV)

If there was a transaction, it may more correctly look like seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and then all the good stuff happens.

In other words, doing good is it’s own blessing.

Does this make you more frustrated or less? Are you disappointed at the possibility that the Kingdom doesn’t work in the way we like to work? I’ll do ___________ in order to get ____________?

I imagine for the poor in spirit, the meek, the pure in heart; this gives much hope and perhaps this was the point Jesus was trying to make.

Perhaps our greatest opportunity for the blessing is not to think of the blessing at all and instead we just focus on the things that really matter. Loving God and loving people, or as Jesus put it, seeking His Kingdom and His righteousness and everything else will fall into place.

Of course there are always qualifiers to that kind of blanket statement. I may want a Dodge Durango Hellcat but I can tell you right now, I won’t be getting one. That’s not really the point of this blog.

In most things, if we want it bad enough, we will structure our lives around obtaining it. That’s why I end up getting pizza for lunch on the days that I’m craving pizza. I’ll work it in, somehow; because that’s how hunger works.

You see, hunger is an incredibly focusing activity. When our stomachs rumble and we get that twinge that says…I’m hungry…we start thinking about ways to stop being hungry. In fact, our minds can become consumed with whatever need we are feeling. Once our minds are focused on filling that need, it can be incredibly difficult to think about literally anything else.

We’re focused. We may even become single-minded. We begin trouble shooting, analyzing our true hunger and then start looking for solutions that give us our desired outcome…to be filled.

And it works with everything we hunger for, not just food. If you need that new shoe that just came out or the latest phone, you may find it difficult to think about anything else.

For others it may be an approaching vacation that you have been looking forward to and the closer it gets, the harder it becomes to think about anything else.

I believe this reality about the human condition is on Jesus’s mind we had said that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied…or filled.

In fact, I would go even further to say unless you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you probably won’t ever find it because being righteous isn’t on most of our “most wanted” lists. People don’t stand up and clap for you. In some industries, righteousness can actually cost you your job and in some communities, it can cost you your friendships.

That’s why we MUST hunger because that is what focuses us. That is what gives us the singular motivation to pursue it.

Righteousness is never found by accident. It has to always be sought and our lives must be transformed to fully embrace it. That is why, I believe, Jesus says that we will be satisfied if we do. So, what does it look like for you to hunger and thirst for it?

If you do, you will not stop until you understand it and transform your life around it.
It will be on your thoughts.
When you fail, you will feel it.
When others ignore it, you will not be able to.
And as we read the words of Jesus, they will ignite something glorious within us as we begin to mimic the righteousness that was apparent in every part of his life.

What do you hunger for most often?

“Well there’s this guy who’s in a kind of virtual world, and he finds out that there’s a real world, and he’s really questioning what’s real and what’s not real. And he really wants to know what’s real.”

The youngest daughter, surprisingly asks “Why?”

Reeves: “And I was like, ‘What, you don’t care if it’s real?’”

Her answer was a simple “No.” To which Reeves goes on to say he thinks that’s awesome.

So, is it awesome?

I shared on Sunday that one of my favorite shows and characters is Adam Savage from Mythbusters. They used to open the show with a quote from Adam…

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!”

Every time, I would chuckle. I felt it. Sometimes it’s just easier to pretend that nothing is really true or real. We can just make it up as we go along!

With the growth of the Metaverse, this whole idea is growing rapidly that there really is no truth except for your truth. You decide what is true and what isn’t.

It really sounds great. I get to live the life I want in the world I want however I want and no one can tell me to do anything else.

So why even worry about truth? Does truth even matter if it is entirely subjective anyway?

The problem, of course, is that truth isn’t subjective. If you don’t show up for work and you tell your boss that “your truth” is that you deserved to be paid even if you don’t come to work; guess what? You’re not getting paid.

If you get married and your truth is that you can hook up with whoever you want but your spouse’s truth is that you should be committed to each other and each other, only; your marriage probably isn’t going to last very long.

If you’ve ever worked in a workgroup or had a group project in school that some members felt their truth was that they should get a good grade no matter how much time they DIDN’T put in and others in the group held to the truth that you should go above and beyond to do your best…there’s going to be problems.

If truth doesn’t matter, really everything in life will eventually fall apart because we can’t live, work or play in a community where we all have our own rules that no one else is aware of.

Richard Rohr is an American Franciscan Priest that talks alot about the true self and false self. He’s inspired pastors, counselors and scholars of all different streams of faith to contemplate the difference between who we REALLY are versus who we pretend to be.

The true self is your true identity. It’s who you really are deep inside. When you develop friendships with others who know who you truly are, you are fully accepted and can truly be and feel loved.

In our faith, it is our true self as the image bearers of God that yearns to surface and be our true identity in the world with God and with others but the false self is perplexed with layers of survival mechanisms, escapes and false truths that we tell ourselves to fit in and make sense of the world.

As Christians, we know there is absolute truth that when fully lived out leads to joy, peace and happiness even in the midst of great sadness or suffering.

To be sure, the idea of choosing your own truth is the oldest temptation in history. It goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve chose to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. By succumbing to that temptation, they were choosing to decide what is good or evil; true or false; real or unreal for themselves.

Every person does get to make this decision for themselves to purse what is true or to make it up for themselves but why would you want to live in a world where no one sees you for who you really are? No one agrees that what you find of utmost value is actually valuable? That you are living a life that is real and foundational instead of completely made up in your head?

The first choice we have to struggle with is this…

Does truth matter?