Wanted to give everyone an update on the possibility of signing a building lease and the iBuild Campaign.

Your generosity is amazing and we are extremely proud of everyone’s incredible gifts towards Journey’s future facilities. Your heart to reach others by putting God First in every area of your life is unlike any group of people I have ever been associated with.

This past weekend the people of Journey donated just under $25,000 over and above our normal tithes and offerings. Additionally we received $106,000 in commitments to the building campaign.

That being said, we met the high end of our upfront financial goal but are about $14,000 shy of where we would like to be on the one year commitments. Since this past weekend was time change weekend which results in a slightly lower attendance we are going to extend the iBuild commitment opportunity 1 more week to give anyone who might have missed church an opportunity to participate in the campaign.

Note: This is not necessarily a deal breaker. No matter what we will have to take a short term construction loan. The heart of the leadership was that we might be able to pay off any loan 100% through commitments prior to rent kicking in. If we can cut back on a few things, use one month of our free rent, and/or every dollar of those commitments is realized we can still move forward with the lease.

Additionally, please keep praying for the following:

1) That additional commitments and or 1 time gifts of over $14,000 will come in this week.

2) Pray that a few final lease details we are still haggling over can be worked out and that no deal breakers arise.

If you didn’t make a commitment this past weekend and would like to do so now visit: http://www.t90x.org/rotater/ibuild-campaign/

If you would like to make a one time donation now visit the home page of http://www.journeychurch.org and click “Donate Online”

Thank you all..

Eric

OK, enough about that property, lets talk about what it will take generally for us to get into the next bigger space using some rough estimates so that during the course of this fast we can all be praying to God for the resources and also consider if God would have our families play a role through our time, talents, and finances in seeing it come to pass.

Our goal as a church is to keep building finances at roughly 20-25% of the churches gross income. Today we are a at about 21.5% of our income, but we continue to grow as a church and earnestly believe that the building is becoming a lid on our growth. We have explored options for parking, expanding the sanctuary, etc. and have really come to the conclusion that we need to get into a new facility to continue to grow at the rate we have to date.

So, new building – close to 3x the size probably a little more than 2x the rent. Which means that we would need to get the landowner to give us rent concessions to allow us room to grow which they seem more than willing to do so we don’t see this as a big obstacle.

OK – here is the bigger challenge – as a young church that attracts young people we don’t have a great deal of $ in the bank yet. We would probably need to raise about $150,000-$250,000 or so over our current tithes and offerings to build out any space that is of the next size of where we need to be.

So church, would you begin to pray that we could raise a minimum of $150,000 between now and August? That is 150 families donating $1000 this year over their normal tithes and offerings. These numbers are not huge, they are actually managable and God willing we will be able to accomplish this.

Please post your thoughts, comments, prayers and heck if you are ready to donate to get this ball rolling visit http://www.journeychurch.org and use that DONATE button to get us started.

Lets turn what was the counties largest bar into one of the counties premier churches!

Journey Church is excited to announce 1st Wednesday services. Starts @ 7:00pm

It will be an intense time of connecting with God through focused praise and worship and prayer.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Intentional, persistent, 25 days to change the world. We can do it if each of us touches 3-5 people.

Church go for it, a gift and a card. A gift and a card.

You can change the world.

Free way to to it. Write a note of encouragement to someone this week.

Place a $1 and a card somewhere to bless a life.

I couldn't be more proud of them. Great job Pastor Matt and team. The service was incredible. The energy was awesome – the message was great. What an incredible, incredible youth launch.

I couldn't be more honored to serve with you guys.

Check out www.journeynext.org

What's The Purpose from Eric Jaffe on Vimeo.

1st service is pretty much totally packed and 2nd service is at least 80% full. It is awesome and slightly overwhelming. Who would have guessed we would move in and be pressed to add a 3rd service almost right off the bat.? Not me.. I guess it is good that God is in charge and not me.

Yesterdays open arms message seemed to resonate with many and I am praying that God continues to use this Don’t Stop Believing series to touch hearts and change minds. Drawing people to into a relationship with Christ.

A couple of prayer requests: Pray that God would give us wisdom regarding adding back Saturday night services, and if we are to do it that he would raise up the volunteers to make it happen. Pray that God lays it on the hearts of those who have been guests in recent weeks to continue to come back and become a part of Journey. Pray for the launch of our small groups this coming Sunday and for our small group leaders. Pray for this weekends Journey Women’s event …

Serving Opportunity for this week: Wednesday night we are having one more work night. Show up any time after 5 pm…

Wow.. something I would have never, ever imagined. If you would have told me 400 or 500 people would have showed up I would have thought you were crazy. But God showed up in huge way. The volunteers stepped up to the plate in every area welcoming people, caring for their children, giving them popcorn, leading them in worship. You name it, everyone came through in amazing ways to make it what I felt was a great experience for all.

The range of emotions flows from elation over witnessing what God did as we had 4 decisions for Christ. Exhaustion over many long days and nights leading into the new facility, excitement over what lies ahead.

Yes, what exciting days lie ahead as the people of Journey Church have an opportunity to live out the vision of Loving God, Loving Others, and serving the world with everything that we have in us.

Thank you God for blowing us away, thank you God for the precious gift of all the visitors who walked through the doors. Thank you God for all the wonderful people who we are privelaged to serve with. Thank You God for the love that you have for us. Thank you for reconciling old friends. Wow. There is so much to thank God for..

To everyone who offered support the people of Journey Church extend a huge thank you, thank you, thank you.. We love you!

I hesitate to publish any picks, because I am hoping that people will really be excited when they walk in for the first time and see what the volunteers were able to do with the building. I am blown away and can’t believe it is the place that God has given us.

This weekend we are transitioning to 2 services – 9:30am and 11:15am – I want to invite everyone to come and encourage you to bring a friend, if you are out of the area but know anyone in the Orange Park or Jacksonville region – call them up, tell them they need to be there. It should be an awesome weekend.!

Pray for us this week- and I hope to see you there.

We are working with the owners of the former Cypress Club Ballroom to begin leasing their space in Orange Park off of Blanding Blvd. Everything is looking extremely positive.

Right now we are asking for everyone to join us in praying for God’s wisdom and direction for the next steps for Journey.

More details will be coming out rapidly and we will be holding an open house at the facility this Wednesday Night @ 7:00pm. Details and directions will follow.

We are extremely excited and believe this is a real God moment for the church!

You will want to be there!