Questions

Is The Journey a church?
What are the beliefs of The Journey?
How did The Journey start?
What does The Journey look like?
How do you structure a life-changing Journey experience?

Is The Journey a church?

Yes. We are a church ministry within the Evangelical Free Church of Canada. We like to think of ourselves as a network of intentionally small churches with a vision to start new churches. The advantage of being one larger church is that we can share resources and expertise across groups. The advantage of being small churches is that the small group forum makes it possible to really come alongside people in the journey of life.

What are the beliefs of The Journey?

We hold to the statement of faith of the Evangelical Free Church of Canada as articulated below:

1. SCRIPTURES - We believe the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, to be the inspired Word of God, without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of His will for the salvation of men, and the Divine and final authority for all Christian faith and life.

2. GOD - We believe in one God, Creator of all things, infinitely perfect and eternally existing in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

3. JESUS CHRIST - We believe that Jesus Christ is the true God and true man, having been conceived of the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary. He died on the cross a sacrifice for our sins according to the Scriptures. Further, He arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven, where at the right hand of the Majesty on High, He is now our High Priest and Advocate.

4. HOLY SPIRIT - We believe that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, and during this age to convict men, regenerate the believing sinner, indwell, guide, instruct and empower the believer for godly living and service.

5. SIN - We believe that man was created in the image of God but fell into sin and is therefore lost and only through regeneration by the Holy Spirit can salvation and spiritual life be obtained.

6. SALVATION - We believe that the shed blood of Jesus Christ and His resurrection provide the only ground for justification and salvation for all who believe, and only such as receive Jesus Christ are born of the Holy Spirit, and thus become children of God.

7. BAPTISM AND LORD'S SUPPER - We believe that water baptism and the Lord's Supper are ordinances to be observed by the Church during the present age. They are, however, not to be regarded as means of salvation.

8. CHURCH - We believe that the true Church is composed of all such persons who through saving faith in Jesus Christ have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and are united together in the body of Christ of which He is the Head.

9. MEMBERSHIP- We believe that only those who are thus members of the true Church shall be eligible for membership in the local church.

10. HEAD OF THE CHURCH - We believe that Jesus Christ is the Lord and Head of the Church, and that every local church has the right under Christ to decide and govern its own affairs.

11. RETURN OF CHRIST - We believe in the personal, premillennial and imminent coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and that this Blessed Hope has a vital bearing on the personal life and service of the believer.

12. RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD - We believe in the bodily resurrection of the dead; of the believer to everlasting blessedness and joy with the Lord; of the unbeliever to judgment and everlasting conscious punishment.

We also hold to the distinctives of the Evangelical Free Church of Canada:

"In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, charity. In all things, Jesus Christ." - Chrysostom

The Evangelical Free Church is inclusive not exclusive - Today's culture consists of people with sad histories of dysfunction, failed relationships, emotional trauma and scarring due to a variety of sins of the past. It is the conviction of Evangelical Free Church people that a person in Christ is a new creation of God. If such persons qualify to be members of the body of Christ, then surely they must be made welcome as members and participants in the Evangelical Free Church family. We seek to be inclusive!

The Evangelical Free Church is evangelical but not separatistic - The Evangelical Free Church is born out of a heritage of commitment to the authority and inerrancy of Scripture. We have our convictions and we state them positively and with biblical persuasion, but we are not ready to draw battle lines over minor points. We do not make minor issues of doctrine a test of fellowship in the local church. We are evangelical, we believe in separated living, we promote personal holiness, but we are not separatistic in our mindset.

The Evangelical Free Church is ecumenical in spirit though not in structure - The Evangelical Free Church of Canada cooperates with the Evangelical Free Church of America in a partnership relationship in overseas missions. It is also a member of The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and its auxiliary relief agency, World Relief Canada. In addition, local Evangelical Free Churches, district organizations, and the national office of the EFCC are quick to join with other movements, causes, and organizations that seek to advance the cause of Christ. We want to be first Kingdom-minded and only secondarily denominationally-minded.

The Evangelical Free Church believes in liberty with responsibility - We believe in Christian liberty, but freedom always has its limitations. Responsible people never abuse freedom. The Apostle Paul speaks forcibly on Christian liberty in the book of Galatians. He shatters the legalist with the doctrine of grace. But in the books of First and Second Corinthians and Romans, the apostle also rebukes believers when liberty is abused. He declares boldly the principles of Christian liberty but speaks with equal forcefulness about Christian accountability. The Evangelical Free Church desires to preserve our freedom in Christ, but wishes its people to be responsible, godly men, women and young people who want to live in obedience to the principles and precepts of God's Word and live in harmony with God's will for life as revealed in the Scriptures.

The Evangelical Free Church believes in both the rational and relational dimensions of Christianity - We believe the Scriptures must be applied to our individual lives with warmth of heart, warmth of message, and warmth of concern. We believe it is essential to have solid biblical content in our doctrinal understanding of faith, but it is equally important to have a dynamic, vital relationship to God the Father through Jesus Christ the Son and live in the power of the Holy Spirit. Sound Christian doctrine must be coupled with dynamic Christian experience.

The Evangelical Free Church is congregational in government - The Evangelical Free Church is committed to a congregational form of government, as stated in Article 10 of our Statement of Faith: "We believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and Head of the Church, and that every local church has the right, under Christ, to decide and govern its own affairs." Strong pastoral leadership coupled with Spirit-controlled Christian lay people can produce efficient and effective church growth. The New Testament emphasizes the importance of the "body" of Christ ministering through the spiritual gifts that have been given to each believer. The congregational form of church government gives the fullest opportunity to harness and utilize the gifts to be used within the local church.

How did The Journey start?

After months of prayer, searching the Scriptures, preaching through Acts in the Bible, seeing God work powerfully through the Alpha Course, engaging in discussions about living as the church in ways that engage our increasingly postmodern culture (and reading related books), and attending a Church Planting Assessment Centre, I (Randy) felt that God was leading me to start The Journey.

On May 15, 2005, Langley Evangelical Free Church (LEFC) in Langley, British Columbia, Canada, where I had been on the pastoral staff for 16 years, and the Lower Pacific District of the Evangelical Free Church of Canada commissioned Lore (my wife) and I as church planting missionaries to plant intentionally small churches, collectively called The Journey.

Throughout the summer months, God put it on the hearts of 14 adults from LEFC to join us in The Journey. We met for prayer and on September 11, 2005 launched the first small Journey church. Since then, The Journey has launched additional churches. Today, The Journey is a network of small churches in the Lower Mainland area of British Columbia, Canada.

What does The Journey look like?

Our desire is that the small Journey churches would function as loving, Christ-centred communities on a mission to be and make disciples of Jesus. Is that happening? I asked some fellow journeyers how they would describe their experience in The Journey. Here’s what they said:

The Journey is “supportive, empowering, caring, praying, personable. I have found it to be very much a family which I needed. I like the closeness and that there is a wide age variety from kids to older adults.”

“As for adjectives to describe house church, I would use – liberating, fulfilling, personal, interactive, connective, out reaching, mission minded, participatory, stimulating, biblical and meaningful.”

“authentic: because its the opposite of harried, distant and forced church interactions
involvement: because its the opposite of indifference
It's all about authentic relationships for me right now”

“It’s freeing.”

The Journey is “inclusive, intimate, refreshing, essential, strategic, eclectic, reverent, thought-provoking, ‘clique-less,’ God-honouring, and fun.”

The Journey communities are not perfect, but as these descriptions show, we appear to be moving in the right direction.

How do you structure a life-changing Journey experience?

You don’t. It’s God’s Spirit working in peoples’ lives. One of my fears in writing this description of The Journey is that someone will read it and try to replicate it in their context. Don’t do it! J What you are reading in this document is a point-in-time description of where God has led The Journey to date. Hopefully, this description will change in the future as God continues His work in us.

With that said, we do have flexible structures currently in place to help facilitate what we believe God wants to do in us. A description of these may or may not be useful to others who are thinking about starting an intentionally small church, or who are already part of one. Each Journey community has a weekly main gathering where we typically enjoy a meal or snack together, fellowship, praise God, study the Bible, pray for each other, and share about people that we are trying to serve outside The Journey community (see Appendix A for a description of these gathering elements). Depending on the group dynamics, children are usually included in some of the main gathering elements (e.g. meal/fellowship, praise, part of the Bible study time) and then let loose to work on child-specific activities and/or play. We typically have a special kid’s story built into the gathering with groups that have younger children. We have found the intergenerational dynamic to be a very powerful forum for discipleship.