Journey to The Journey

John & Lindsay


It's a dream of ours for the Journey to be the type of church that plants other churches.  For that dream to become a reality we also need to be a church that intentionally cultivates strong church leaders and teachers (what the Bible describes as Elders).  It is with these ministry goals in mind that we desired to develop a church planting internship program to grow this aspect of our ministry.  With that said we have a phenomenal guinea pig to help us trailblaze this program and his name (as many of you already know) is John Downs. 

In an effort to better introduce him, 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

How did you become a believer?
I became a believer on July 7, 2006--through the ministry of Young Life--right after I graduated from high school.  I grew up going to church but the gospel was never very real to me--church and youth group were both just things to do with my friends.  So I quit going to church in high school and was fairly anti-Christian during that time.  But through the ministry of Young Life, several adult believers invested tons of time in loving and praying for me.  I saw the love of Christ through those patient and loving relationships and in that Jesus revealed himself to me and captured my heart.

What is your church background?
I grew up and was confirmed in the United Methodist Church, but after I became a believer post high school I started attending a Presbyterian Church of America church plant in Granville, OH where I went to college.  After graduating, I went on staff at a PCA church in Columbus for four years.  I also currently take classes at Covenant Theological Seminary which is the flagship seminary of the PCA. 

How did you find your way to the Journey?
Google.  When my wife Lindsay and I decided to move to the area, we wanted to go to a church that taught reformed theology, so I googled “reformed church Marietta, OH" and the Journey Church popped up first.  We were very familiar with the Acts 29 network and their theology so we decided the Journey would be the best option for our family.  Lindsay and I had lunch with Cody prior to moving and got even more excited to check it out.  When we did, we fell in love.

When did you know you were going to pursue ministry as a career?
Immediately, when I became a believer through Young Life I knew that I wanted to volunteer as a YL leader while in college.  It was through my experience volunteering all four years of college in which I discerned that I was being called into some kind of ministry capacity for a career.  There was literally nothing else I could envision myself doing, and that remains the case.  During my stint attending a local PCA congregation the pastor who mentored me also encouraged me to pursue ministry as a career.

Where would you like to see yourself in ten years?
I see myself pastoring a local church in this area, being a husband to Lindsay, and father to Piper and her subsequent siblings.  I’ll probably be coaching their sports teams, unless they play golf.  I’m terrible at golf.  I also want to mentor other young pastors and train up future ministry leaders.

If you could take three books to a desert island (excluding the bible) what would they be?
Lord of the Rings (technically it’s one story, so I put it as one), Different Seasons (short story collection containing Shawshank Redemption and other stories) by Stephen King, and the complete boxed set of Calvin and Hobbes.

What are your hobbies?
Besides ministry my biggest passion is fitness.  I love working out in our garage gym, going on hikes with my family—anything we can do to be active together is a super win.  And I’ve recently gotten really into cooking, both as something to help my wife while she takes care of our daughter and as something that I like doing.  I love reading.

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