Journey

Last weekend Kris and I were at Journey Community Church. Because Journey is committed to the Jesus Creed, the event felt like a homecoming rather than a speaking event. For the past four weeks they have been teaching the Jesus Creed, reading 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed together, and more importantly actively practicing the Jesus Creed.

Before I spoke on this platform, a video was played on the screens, a video that contained four stories — ordinary and all the more important because ordinary — of how folks there are learning to live out the simple discipline of loving God and loving others. I told Kris several times that once those stories had been told, with the backdrop of the Jesus Creed being recited, there was little for me to add.

Journey is the only church I’ve spoken to that has a Friday evening service, so the three talks were Friday night and two Sunday morning. But a special event was planned for Saturday morning — two teaching sessions on the implications of The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible. The first session was on “that was then, but this is now” and I chose to examine how we live out what the Bible says about divorce and remarriage. (Tough enough topic.) The second session was on women in ministry, and I worked out a few themes in the Blue Parakeet book about women. The major question is not “Should women be ordained?” or “Should women be called ‘pastor’?” but “What gifts is God giving to women?” and “Do we permit women to do in our churches what they did in the Bible?” Here we looked at Miriam, Deborah, Huldah, Mary, Priscilla, Phoebe, and Junia.

No more until I mention a few names: Marko put Journey in contact with us, Ed Noble is the lead pastor whose honesty and humility made the event so rewarding, Kathie was our host, and Rod Kaya, and the worship team and those who prayed for us … and we got to stay at Marko and Jeannie’s new home … and so many more. Journey is a place of grace and its leaders are setting the tone. Thanks Marko and Ed.

Following services there was a time for me to interact with some of the folks at Journey and I cannot even begin to tell you of the number of folks who are learning the power of the Jesus Creed — of simply learning to love our neighbor as ourselves. One woman told me of her husband abandoning her for another woman and how she fought to get through it … and then to move to forgiveness … and how she vowed never to forgive the other woman … and how somehow God gave her the grace to forgive both her former husband and the woman. She struggled to tell me the story but it was surely a moment of God’s grace.

And another couple is beginning a ministry to those who are considering divorce to give marriage another try because, as he put it to me, “marriage is worth fighting for.” She told me this story with her husband, and their own story was full of crooked lines.

We had Saturday afternoon off, were given a car to use, and we headed for Coronado … and spent a good half hour on the bridge because of the air show (and a B52 flew over us as we were on top of the bridge) … but we had an absolutely glorious day on the island topped off with a wonderful (Valentine’s) dinner at The Del. Kris thinks the best people watching place in the world is The Del. As the sun was going down I was watching a hummingbird fill itself for the night … and the little guy was about a foot from me at times. (Not sure if it was a guy or gal.)