A Brilliant Question!

I'm sitting at Aroma's, and over heard some advertising folks talking. Their conversation turned to churches. I listened intently (is that wrong?). Anyway, I had an opportunity to introduce myself and The Journey to these three folks. One asked, "Why do people need The Journey?" That's the first time I've been asked that. What a great question. I wrestled with it for a moment, and came to the following conclusion: people don't need The Journey. People need Jesus the Messiah. That said, The Journey exists to introduce our community and the world to Him. As you look at the demographic of Lubbock, you find that there is no explosive faith-growth, no great awakenings, no great revivals. The closest thing to an explosive faith-community is The Heights Fellowship, who has grown from 32 people in Fall of 2002 to having 800 on Easter of this year. But still, Lubbock County has 250,000+ people. Statistics show that around 200,000+ are not connected to a faith community, being either non-Christ followers, or disconnected Christ-followers. So, The Journey exists to love and connect them without expecting them to "come to us." We're going to the community in an effort to just love and value people reguardless of their world-view. The Journey exists to live among our community as Jesus would, embracing people and cherishing God. I believe that this kind of faith-living will spawn a movement bigger than Lubbock. I believe that this kind of faith living will change the culture of Lubbock and the world. I believe this kind of faith living is what the early church did. And ultimately, I believe that this kind of faith living brings honor, glory, and fame to our Master. If The Journey stays 10 people in size, but is used to change the world, to lower the divorce rate, to lower crime rates, to raise people's awareness to social injustice, and to introduce everyone they meet to The Creator of life, I'll be well pleased. It's not about raking in a huge number of church hoppers, it's about introducing everyone to Christ, and letting Him draw all people to Himself. So, in short (I know, you wish at this point that I'd started with "in short" and saved you all this time of reading...) In short, people don't need The Journey. They need Jesus, and that's why we exist.