From the time God called me to plant this church in Marietta until now, He has drawn me to the book of Nehemiah.  Having studied Nehemiah for the past year it now makes a lot of sense as to why God would use this book of His word to teach and inspire me in this phase of my life.

     Nehemiah is so much more than a story of the reconstruction of Jerusalem and it's walls.  It teaches us about God's unfailing never-giving-up type of love that God has for his people, which ultimately foreshadows God's plan of redemption for us through Christ on the cross.

     What's really compelling about this story is the way in which God's people connect the dots and begin to grasp the depths of His love.  Ultimately this is done through the teaching of Scripture. 

• Ezra teaches scripture to God's people (Neh 8:1-8)
• People realize they are sinful and God is faithful (Neh 8:9-12)
• Men insist on teaching their families about God's love (Neh 8:13-18)
• Having learned God's word everyone REPENTS (Nehemiah 9)
• In response to God's love, people make a commitment to live for God (Nehemiah 10)

     Doesn't this sound familiar? Isn't this how it went down when you fell in love with Christ?  You learned about God's love through His word.  When God's word is proclaimed people realize they are wicked and in need of a savior.  We learn all throughout His word that we are sinful and keep messing up, yet God's love is faithful and never-ending.  That's worthy of praise isn't it!?  It's in light of this that we are driven to repentance!  It's in light of this AMAZING love that we are driven to commit our lives to God.

     Proclaiming God's word is ultimately at the heart of what we want to do at The Journey.  We want to tell people about the story of God's redemptive love through Christ on the cross. 

     If you stopped reading right here and left this post understanding the heart and motives behind The Journey, then this post was totally worth my time.  With that said, I've had several people ask me how they can help us get The Journey Church off the ground and ready for September's launch. 

     "How can I help get The Journey Church ready for September?"

     I'm so thankful for brothers and sisters in Christ who continue to respond to God's love with a commitment to aiding ministry.  Just as in the days of Nehemiah, people still say "... we will not neglect the house of our God" (Nehemiah 10:39).

     Start-up costs for a church plant in 2012 can be pricey.  We realize we can't have everything at this stage in the game and certainly the sky is the limit when looking at potential resources.  However, below is a list of some start-up needs that we do have.  If you or your church would like to help us get off the ground with the purchase of any of these items below, we would be incredibly grateful. 

Signage:

Our church will be almost completely portable so good signage is a must.  We figure an outdoor flag banner along with an indoor sign for our logo would suffice to let people know where and who we are.

Outdoor 11ft banner flag and hardware: $249
Indoor 5ft retractable banner: $225

Kids Check-in: 

Children's ministry will be a huge part of what we do at The Journey.  We have a wonderful Kids check-in software and are evaluating our computer needs at this point.  In addition to this we'll need both of the items below to help keep track of the kiddos.

Label printer, adapter, and power cable: $343
4'000 labels: $85

Treasury needs: 

We are in need of this check scanner to compliment and allow our contribution software to work to it's full potential.

Check scanner, adapter, power cable: $430

These are just a few of our start-up needs.  If God lays it on your heart to help us out in this way you can contact me:
email  -  codyparman@gmail.com
cell  -  304-483-6214

If you'd like to mail us a check for one of these items, then make it payable to:
The Journey Church of Marietta
P.O. Box 1137
Marietta, OH 45750

Eager and excited to plant this church in September!

Cody Parman