Leaving and entering the building

I haven't blogged much this past week due to the huge events at Journey Fellowship.

Sunday morning began with a special event called "The Church Has Left the Building." Hundreds of Journeyers participated in service projects and servant evangelism projects throughout the Northeast corner of San Antonio. Armed with squeegees, trash bags, toilet brushes and some pretty sweet t-shirts, we were able to show God's love in a practical way throughout our community. Two huge parks were cleaned up, a local non-profit was given a facelift, dozens of cars got cheap gas and clean windshields, cars were washed, toilets were cleaned, and thirsty people were given water.

On Sunday evening, about 800 people arrived at Journey Fellowship to celebrate. First, we celebrated a new facility God has given us. The Blue Bonnet Dance Hall, after 3 decades country music stars, rodeos and beer, has now been transformed into Journey's new worship space. Soft earth tones, couches, rustic crosses and dozens of candles, create a comfortable yet worshipful environment for long time Christians and people who don't like church.

After celebrating our new facility, we also comissioned our new Senior Minister Randy Frazee. Randy, who wrote a book called "The Connecting Church," has been a teacher at Willow Creek for the past few years. He'll take the helm for all of the Oak Hills Church while Max Lucado will continue to write and preach for many months out of the year. The evening ended with Randy leading us through the story of Gideon, and encouraging us to take on great challenges. "When they say no way, we say Yahweh!"

Preparing for all of this over the past few weeks has been quite a task. I am rellishing a much needed day off today. Then tomorrow, it's back to the hard work. Being in people's lives, helping them follow Jesus, and calling out to those who don't him.