We are currently exploring a building option for our North on M120 site. Northside Bible Church on Whitehall Road is voting this coming Sunday to merge into The Journey and give us their debt free building with 10 acres of land. If the vote goes through, we will have a lot of information and changes in the next month. This possibility is very exciting because we've been praying for God to do something big for a while now.
This past Sunday we had a short time in the service with some Q & A. Here's a few questions that were submitted in the previous weeks:
If you have any questions about our transitions to the new building location, please post them here. We will handle some questions at church on Jan. 31 or on the FEED (journey blog) the first week of Feb.
Will we have a campus pastor again and will it be their pastor?
Will we do some of the activities or groups they do?
Will we continue to have 2 services, and will our music change?
I just started attending journey the first of this year and absolutely love it. After attending life change church for 10 years I finally feel like I found a home at journey!!!!! I actually have family that attend the church that you're talking about merging with, that's super exciting for me!
This past Sunday we talked through these questions and a few other things.
CAMPUS PASTOR
Recently Brent, our intern who was functioning as a campus pastor, finished his internship and took a job at a church in Illinios near his extended family. Brent was offered an option to stay and he knew all about this possibility. The other opportunity was a good option for them along with that Sue's dad has a lot of health issues and they can be there to help care for him.
Pastor Lowell is currently at Northside Bible Church. If the vote goes through, he will serve in a transitionary role. He is in his upper 70's and would like to retire. So his role will be temporary and focused on helping his people transition.
We are currently searching for a campus pastor. We've actually had some initial conversations with some people to fill this role. We feel it's really important to have dedicated staff focused on each specific site.
MERGE
If the vote goes through, they are voting to merge into our church. We will have a new location, but it will still be all Journey. We will not compromise our vision & mission. They have 25-35 people on a typical Sunday and they are excited about having kids at church and reaching the next generation. They are merging into us so will be doing our Sunday service and continue our next steps and activities. We know this transition won't be easy for them, so we want to be as sensitive as possible to help them transition into our church. They will continue some things like their Sunday morning class. Our hope is that we can provide a place for many of their kids and grandkids to come back to church and experience a relationship with Jesus.
SERVICE TIMES
Because we don't have a current campus pastor and because of all this possible transition, we are looking at the possibility of temporarily going to one service time. We should have enough space and this will help our staff handle any issues in the transition and provide more time focused on this site. It would be temporary and we would continue to have two times at the other site if those are the only times that work for you.
Just one more thought: I have been super impressed by all of you at the North on M120 site. So many have stepped up to fill any holes or have stated that you can help with anything that comes up with this transition. A bunch of you showed your big hearts on Sunday and talked about your sensitivity for the people at Northside Bible and had genuine concern for them. I love being part of our church. You guys are awesome!
DON'T MISS ALL THE DETAILS
I am sure there's a lot of other questions out there and we hope to address them once things are finalized. If you aren't currently on our mailing or email list, you might want to fill out this connect card to ensure you get all the details.