Our views on...
God: We believe that God exists, and that He is a personal, involved Being that is almighty, omnipotent and omnipresent. We believe He is the Creator of everything that exist, and the Life-source of everything that lives. God can be known - we could know God personally through His Son, Jesus Christ, and we could be guided by God personally through His Spirit, which, other than our spirit, is Holy. (We believe in the Trinity - but that is kind of complicated...) We believe in God’s ongoing involvement in His creation, and in His redemptive plan for all humanity. We believe that God is love.
Here's the bottom line about God: We believe that God is God, and that we are not.
Jesus Christ: Jesus, to us, is a Person. Jesus Christ is the Lord of all, and the Son of the living God. He is the way, the truth and the life. He is God’s living Word, and was sent by God the Father to earth to be God incarnated in human flesh. (Sounds complicated, but actually is not). God’s redemptive plan is through the death and resurrection of Jesus (He was murdered by religious folks, but came back to life.) The acceptance of Jesus brings salvation – now and eternal. Sounds too simple? Good. Thats called "grace". And that is what makes it all worth while. We believe that Jesus came to end religion, but that humans has a very hard time to live without it. Maybe it's a control issue. Maybe religion comforts us. Anyhow, knowing Jesus means not needing religion.
Bottom line about Jesus: He's personal, and alive in spirit. We follow Him as our leader.
The Bible: We see the Bible as a very special book, and also as a very ancient one - which makes it somewhat tricky to understand at times. That's why we study it and discuss it regularly. That's also why we get the advice and interpretation of Bible scholars and teachers to explain stuff to us. We do not worship the Bible - it's not God. We do honour what is written in it as God's ideas, His story, His commands, His wisdom and His revelation to us on how we should be living, thinking and acting in life. So our value of the Bible comes from our value and relation to its Author - God. If you don't know and serve God, the Bible is kind of meaningless to you, other than it's historical events and wise council.
Bottom line about the Bible: people wrote it about God. And God used them to write about Himself.
Church: We view the institutional, hierarchical and denominational church that exists formally since the 4th century as unbiblical - which means it's not part of God's plan, and wasn't His idea. We believe in community of believers, and see the "church" as existing there “where two or more gathers in the name of Jesus” - which, in simple terms, means there where any two people get together and acknowledges Jesus as their leader, and the primary reason for them being together, "church" happens!
Therefore you cannot “join” a church like you join an organization – you are baptised into it when you become a follower of Christ. (Baptism is like an "initiation ceremony" for Christ followers. But it's more than symbolic to us.... it's very special in other ways also.)
Church forms where relationships between believers in Christ forms. The church of Jesus Christ on earth is a movement, not an institution. It is relations between believers, not presentations of word and song. The church is the living Body of Christ on earth, and every member of it is part of it by function, not by enrolment. The church community is formed by, and held together by relationships and not by attendance, contribution or participation – these are secondary elements fostered by community.
Bottom line about church: Church (should you choose to call it that), is a journey you do with other people in a relationship with each other, and in a relationship with God.
Membership: At most churches, visitors are welcome... mostly because they are viewed as potential members. Anyone is welcome at Journey, but not to become members - just because you are human like the rest of us. Membership is for clubs and institutional churches– Journey is neither. And, because we don’t have members, we also don’t have "visitors". When you show up, you're part of the Journey. We might have “regulars” – but so does bars and restaurants.
This could be your primary community of faith, and the place where you choose to grow, or it could be a place that you attend from time to time for any reason whatsoever. One of our biggest differences from the institutional church is that we don’t measure commitment in attendance, and we don’t measure growth in numbers. And we find if you're used to traditional church, that comes as kind of a shock to you, and you may need some "spiritual detox" to get used to it.
Bottom line about membership: we don't have any - but you're part if you choose to be. It's an "acceptance thing", not a "paper thing".
Ordained pastors: We believe that institutionalized and formal ordainment is unbiblical (not part of God's plan or His idea), and like anaesthesia to any community of faith. We don't believe in "professional Christians". No single person has spiritual hierarchy above another. We value each persons uniqueness, talents and gifts, and we serve, challenge and help each other accordingly. At Journey we serve each other with our experience, resources and gifts – and we sustain no office or titles. We do appreciate function, but not position. (This is another serious "spiritual-detox-issue")
Bottom line about ordained pastors: Again - we don't have that. At Journey we're all "seekers", we're all "ministers", and we're all "priests".
Not on Sundays?: We think it makes more sense in a practical way not to gather on a Sunday. Sundays is supposed to be a “rest day” (according to God's plan) – but traditionally we so filled it up with church events that it quickly becomes a day you need to take a break from! We encourage people and families to "reclaim" Sundays as a day to really rest and spend quality time together. Sleep late, go picnic, stay home… whatever. We don't do "sabbath" any more - Jesus cancelled it. But He never cancelled the 7th day as a day of rest. The moment the veil sepperating the most holy from the holy in the temple tore in two (the moment Christ died) the dispensation of sacred and secular was ended. We therefor do not sustain a dualistic spirituality of holy versus secular. Everything is holy. (If you've been brought up in the institutional church, this "detox" might be the most difficult for you.... and the most spiritually liberating if you go through it!)
Bottom line about Sundays: Just like a church building is not "God's house", Sunday is not "God's day" - the holiness of it comes in with the "rest and restoration" that should fill it. Everyday is God's day.
