About 2 months ago, Phill Larsen came before our church and laid out a vision that God had placed on his heart to reach people in an overlooked and marginalized group of people, who have a largely negative view of Christians: restaurant industry workers.  This group of people who we see weekly, who wait on us, clean up our messes, and largely take abuse are also largely disconnected from Jesus- and it is to some extent our fault.

Phill's vision struck a cord at Journey Fellowship, but it did not stop there.  Phill has added several partner churches in the ensuing weeks, as well as individuals who are committed to seeing this ministry get off the ground.  And opening night is almost upon us.  In less than one week, Restaurant Row will hold its inaugural service at Real Church on N. Penn Avenue at 11pm. 

So this week, I'm asking you to pray for this ministry.  And so is Phill.  Here's the email I recieved from him yesterday:

We are officially one week away from our first service. I am very excited to see what God has in store. Please commit to pray for the next seven days. If you would commit to pray for these things individually each day, I believe that God will lay the foundation for this ministry.

Day One (Tuesday 11/4): Me (Phillip Larsen). Pray for guidance and pray that I will be His voice in the weeks and months to follow.
Day Two (Wednesday 11/5): Stephen Gray and Scott Garnand. These are our leaders in terms of worship. Pray that they will lead people into the throne room and that true worship can take place.
Day Three (Thursday 11/6): Pray for our current and future partner churches. We are blessed to have the support of so many local churches. Pray that they will continue to assist us in reaching this industry
Day Four (Friday 11/7): Pray for our current and future individual partners. We have a great group of individuals and families that are providing us with support as well
Day Five (Saturday 11/8): Pray for our current and future partner restaurants. We have been given the opportunity to minister to the staff at restaurants. Pray that we will be given similar opportunities in the future.
Day Six (Sunday 11/9): Pray for the people that we are reaching out to. Pray that hearts will soften and that the gospel will find fertile ground
Day Seven (Monday 11/10): Pray for success. Not just success for our first service but success in our subsequent services as well. Pray that the response that we receive can only be categorized as overwhelming.

We also have added a partner church to our ranks. We are grateful for Pastor John Miller and his congregation at CCY is supporting us.

Thank you for your prayers and your support. God is truly good, and He is working!

Grace and Peace,

Phillip Larsen
Founder
Restaurant Row Ministries

As your pastor, I am asking you to pray.  Sunday morning we will be having a time of prayer for Phill and his family.  See you then!

Ryan

It's been a while since I've had time to slow down and blog.  There have been so many things that have pulled me away sitting down to write and focus.  It started on the tail end of Amanda's pregnancy.  We welcomed Ella Claire into the world on August 12th- and in frightening fashion.  We had some scary complications that resulted in Amanda losing a lot of blood and a very slow recovery from an emergency C-section.  I am happy to report that two months later we are doing well and Amanda has recovered and the new kid is cute!

In spite of all the personal excitement and distraction, Journey Fellowship has grown this fall.  I am so excited to see many new faces and to see the Set Up team having to get extra chairs on most Sundays.  It is good to see us growing and vital again.  I credit the grace of God with this growth and YOUR willingness to listen to and obey Him as we pray with One Focus- to have our hearts broken for people who do not know Jesus and for people who are disconnected from the church.

There are some cool opportunities coming up in November and December that will bring One Focus even closer to home.  First, we will be adopting a family for the holidays. Beginning the first Sunday in November we will be challenged as a church to give over and above our regular giving to bless a needy family in our community.  We want to do the works: food, holiday dinner, and gifts.  We will collect the money for six weeks and then the week before Christmas we will deliver all the goodies to the family.  Then in December we will be delivering the socks and goodies to the NICU's at Mercy and Baptist to bless the families who have kids there for the holidays and the doctors and nurses who care for them.  We will also have our fourth annual Christmas banquet in December- details for that event will be coming soon!

Continue to pray and ask God to break your heart.  Continue to obey His promptings to invite and share with others what God is doing in your life. 

I am so glad to be your pastor! 

Amanda and I are big fans of the Olympics.  I like the basketball.  She likes the swimming.  We both like the gymnastics.  I think it's cool to watch people compete for pride and not just for money.  I'll be watching this year as well, but I'll be looking for something else in addition to athletic achievement and pride.  I'll be looking for protest.

As many of you are aware, China is one of the top violators of human rights in the world.  They have systematically suppressed Christians, political dissidents, and advocates for free speech since the Communist takeover.  China has supported genocide in Darfur with weapons and has protected the interests of its allies in Darfur by seeking to water down UN sanctions that attempt to stop the killing in Darfur.  Further, China continues its oppression of the people of Tibet, a country it invaded and has bullied and persecuted since the 1950's.  In short, China dies not practice justice as defined by Scripture.

I know that we should not, and cannot, expect someone who does not know Jesus to behave as if they do, it does not excuse us as people who know Jesus for calling for Biblical principles to be practiced- and that includes the biblical admonition to "Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God"- (Micah 6:8- Ryan paraphrase)  I am asking you, as you watch the Olympics, to pray for the people of Darfur, and Tibet, and China.  I'm asking you to pray for the followers of Jesus who are persecuted in China.  I'm asking you to ask God to work on men's hearts for the sake of their souls and for the innocent victims of oppression.  Do some research.  Support an organization that helps victims of religious and political oppression.  And cheer when you seen an athlete on the medal platform who protests in a call for human rights in China.  One Focus is not just local, it's global.  Ask God to break your heart for a nation.

Enjoy the Games.

Two years ago God laid a challenge out for Journey Fellowship.  Engage the community.  One of the ways we embraced that challenge was to get involved in an area where no church we knew of was involved- youth football.  Chris Perrine took on this challenge and today he is one of the two head coaches of a nine year old team called the PCO Bears. 

 

Why is this so important?  It’s important because it is an investment in people who do not go to Journey Fellowship, but who may not know Jesus.  See Journey Fellowship is not just made up of people who are already here, but the people who will one day be here.  To meet those people, we have to go where they are.  That’s the heartbeat of One Focus.  God breaking our hearts for people who are not here yet. 

 

So what needs to happen in your life?  Where do you need to go to engage people who do not know Jesus?  Do you need to volunteer to teach a class at a community center, or help a co-worker with a physical need, or welcome a new neighbor with a fresh baked plate of cookies?  Where is God calling you to go as you pray with One Focus?

 

BTW, the Bears are practicing and you can go watch!  Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 6p-8p at Lutheran Church of Our Savior at 6501 NW 23^rd Street in Bethany.  Their round robin tournament is the end of August and games start in September.  Pray for them.  Pray for Big Chris.  And ask God, you gave this to Chris, what am I to do?  One Focus.  Is your heart breaking?

This past Sunday The Journey Fellowship entered into a six month season of prayer called One Focus.  For the next six months, our One Focus will be this prayer “Lord break our hearts for those who do not know Jesus and for those separated from the church.”  Why are we doing this?  Lots of reasons.  Here are a few:

 

-  Unchurched adults interested in finding a congregation aren’t nearly as likely to visit one in person as a church member who is shopping for a new congregation. That means effective evangelism must begin outside the sanctuary in relationships between Christians and unbelievers (edstetzer.com)

 

- Should we invite our friends to church? Sure. But should we be, do, and tell the Gospel to people in culture? You bet. It is not only biblical, but it is even more essential today as our culture grows increasingly resistant to the church. While unchurched people are open to relationships, few church members are intentionally investing time developing relationships with non-Christians. A soon-to-be published 2007 survey of more than 2,500 adult church members found only 25 percent agreed they spend time building friendships with non-Christians for the purpose of sharing Christ with them. (edstetzer.com)

 

- Despite their negative opinions about the institutional church, most unchurched people are open to discussing spiritual matters with a friend. The research showed that:

 

--78 percent of those surveyed said they would be willing to listen to someone who wanted to talk about their Christian beliefs. The number rose to 89 percent among adults 18-29 years of age.

--Only 28 percent of adults 30 years and older said they think Christians they know talk to them too much about their beliefs.

--78 percent of adults 30 years and older said they would enjoy an honest conversation with a friend about religious and spiritual beliefs, even if they disagreed with the friend.

(from USA Today- 1/9/2008)

- "Eighty-nine percent of these unchurched people say they have close friends who are Christians," he said. "We don’t have to search for the unchurched folks around us; we actually know them. It’s really a matter of starting conversations about spiritual matters with the unchurched people we know.”- (from Scott McConnell- Assoc. Director of Research- Lifeway)

These are just a few of the reasons.  Here’s the further truth.  We need to turn our eyes outward.  We need to see people the way Jesus saw people.  Further, you need to experience the power of God in your life as you talk to people about Jesus.  Join me for 6 months of prayer and action.  One Focus.  It will change your life…