About a month ago, I posted a survey on our facebook page looking for some insight about our journey sheet that we have each month at church. I would like to say a big thanks to everyone who filled it out. You're responses were very helpful. Here's a few write-in responses that I thought I would respond to because multiple people asked these similiar questions: 

Do handouts with Journey teens instead of listing on Journey Sheet.

We have very basic info in the Journey Sheet but there is a handout at the Next Steps Center. There's also all the details on the website and the JT Facebook page. 

Very repetitive.

There are a few important things in there for guests. We have a big number of guest each month and we want to make sure the feel welcome and have some key information so we keep some of the same info in there each month.

Maybe a section where the bible verses used in the message can get wrote in....also...a place to take notes....also...include the discussion questions.

We really want to encourage you to check out the Bible App on your smart device or use the link on your site page. Each week there are questions posted to follow up for personal reflection, to discuss with your spouse or family, or in a running partner mini-group. It also has a list of the Bible passages and a place to take notes and email them to yourself. When you're at church, you can open it up and search for our group event based on your location. It's easy to use if you just give is a try and I think you'll find that it will enhance your experience at church!

A section for prayers needed for the congregation would help us to feel more connected to one another.

I think that is a great idea but it would take up the whole journey sheet. We made an announcement about this and it's in the journey sheet this month. You can use the connect card to give a prayer request, but also to sign up to get the prayer list each week. 

Also, maybe a list of the songs played that day. Often i hear a song that moves me to tears and i end up distracted trying to remember what it was called and who sang it.

That is awesome that you are connecting with God through the music. There are two ways you can find the song information. The songs are listed on a slide in the loop that plays before and after church on Sundays. It has all the info about the songs and they are listed in order. Also Aaron posts a list of songs each week on the website. Check out the song page here.

Emailed version, MOST people have their phones or tablets on them at all times. Eliminating the colored paper version would I imagine, save MANY dollars that could be allocated elsewhere.

A few people mentioned the cost of the Journey Sheets. It's actually not very expensive because we do it all "in house". It does cost a lot of time especially for all the layout that Aaron puts into it.  But we want to make sure we do what we can to help people take their next step. It is posted every month on the blog. 

Information on how the Church is formally organized. What is the structure? What are the Pastors roles in the church? Who makes the decisions in the Church? Are there Elders and Deacons? I\'ve been looking for this information but cannot seem to find it. Also, is there formal membership in the Church? What denomination is Journey? What are the core values and beliefs?

This was the only comment about this topic, but I thought I'd address it because it seemed important to this person.

Our church is a leadership lead church. We have what we call a lead team made up of our Senior Staff (Paul, Mark & Matt) who function like elders and 3-4 people from church (currently Josh Troast, Jeff Barnes, Mike Swatz, Dan Crouse had to recently step down...we had one from each network) who are kind of like a deacon. These guys shared some of the message on video last month if you want to be familiar with them. This board makes all the major decisions for the vision and direction of our church. We always hear some thoughts from these guys each year at the Journey Annual Award Celebration as we look back over the past year and ahead to the coming year. 

We are connected with a national group called Converge. It's more of an association than a denomination. You might have heard about Converge with our Hope Christmas Project. They helped us launch our church 12 years ago and we work with them to help launch more churches in our area. Paul actually works with the Mid-America section of Converge and has done a lot of coaching, leading and training through Converge.

We talk about our Core Values and beliefs (our Core Essentials) almost every Sunday...we believe our best life is found in a relationship with Jesus as our Savior. We take steps in the relationship when we focus on who we are becoming while making Jesus the Center of our life, living generously, own & live out the mission, invest & invite, doing life together and looking beyond ourselves. You can find all this information on the Steps pages. We do have a formal constitution and statement of faith, if you want to see it, just ask. We obvisiously don't do things like many organizations. One thing we value is trying to keep the focus on people & next steps with Jesus.

Membership...We have something we call partnership. We are currently revamping it and will be talking about it in the next months ahead.