Journey to The Journey

It’s an absolute privilege, a gift of God’s grace that I get to minister to the people in our church.

Shouldn’t we be using the teachings of Jesus to understand where there’s truth in the blogosphere rather than using the teachings found on the blogosphere to understand where there’s truth in what Jesus said? I feel like Christians (people who claim to follow the way of Christ) should be in agreement on this.

Being such a popular book of the Bible there is no shortage of resources to supplement your study. That being said, anytime I preach through a book of the Bible I share any and all resources that I'm using in the hopes that those who wish to take their study a little further will read along with me. Below is a list of some great resources that I'm currently reading as I preach through Matthew.

This Sunday we’re moving our worship services to Marietta High School’s auditorium!

Despite man’s wicked schemes, opposing views and the endless debates that surround this synopsis of Christ’s life and ministry I believe that time spent in Matthew will inevitably continue to change people, all to the glory of God. My simple prayer is that by the end of this study there are more Christians in the world. I pray that there would be more people who truly understand the message of the gospel. I pray that people will be given ears to hear the significance of who Jesus is, what He came to do, what He is doing and what He will do.

In an effort to better introduce John and I put together a little interview via blog that you can check out below. John and Lindsay have already been a tremendous blessing to us at The Journey and I'm really grateful for the opportunity to have them doing ministry here in the MOV! - Cody Parman

We have a just-tell-me-what-the-Bible-says philosophy at The Journey. This philosophy is one of the most important components of how we are attempting to honor God with our ministry. Below are 3 reasons why we strive to stick with this simple yet incredibly challenging approach.

On November 23rd we're starting a new teaching series through the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes! This peculiar book will have you experiencing the complete gamut of human emotion. The feelings expressed in Ecclesiastes are raw, real and at times will leave you scratching your head in despair. In fact, due to the perplexity of its content many over the years have wondered why this book is even in the bible.

I consistently rack my brain as to how I can better reach this element of the MOV, my heart truly breaks for them. Should I sit and listen to every one-sided story that grabs my ear? Should I show them some tough love and tell them to man-up and get over it? Perhaps there’s a balance there somewhere. I deeply want The Journey to be a place of healing to the unchurched. I know for that to happen we need to listen well and push these individuals to spiritually walk without a crutch again.

When I’m really wanting to be honest with myself, when I want to be productive towards actually helping people who have been hurt by the church, I need to openly admit that I contribute to what makes church unappealing, again I’m sinful. Seriously, I could tell stories for days about the atrocities committed by “believers” all while conveniently neglecting to follow those stories up with my equally sinful responses (the way I gossiped, slandered and bad mouthed them, or reacted foolishly). I wish I could claim my anger was always righteous but it’s usually just an outpouring of pride just like a high horse antichurch blog rant, I am what I dislike. To put it in the always clear words of Dr. Paul Tripp, “Sinners tend to respond sinfully to being sinned against.”