The Browning's - Blog

This Week Will Make Us or Break Us

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:32:20 -0800

This week will be one of those weeks that either makes or breaks this project. I don't mean to make overstatements and I am confident that I am not. This week's teams will be working every night at our church and many people are even taking time off their day-time jobs to make this week a success. This week we need to put the final coat of paint on the walls, build our main stage, lay 1400 square feet of tile, install cabinetary, and paint the ceiling & air conditioning system. Sound like a lot? Well, the list keeps growing. We also need to finish running our data cabling, install our auditorium lighting system, and load in all of the chairs into the auditorium. I getting a little queezy just writing all this out. If we are able to get all that accomplished by the end of this weekend, we will have made a ton of strides.

So I am calling all hands on deck! If you can help this week, on a weekday or over the weekend, please come. I am looking for some Freds! Some volunteers who will serve and sacrifice for the glory of God with excellence and perseverance. Are you out there? Then come on down because your the next contestant on "The Time is Right Now!"

Will

The Plan

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:39:04 -0800

Wow! That has been the word on my lips lately. I have been in awe of how God has been moving in the life of our church over the last month. I have been encouraged by the response of people in our worship services. I'm so excited by the new people that have gotten connected to our church over the last few weeks. I have also been in awe of the volunteers who have sacrificed so greatly over the last month. Our team has accomplished so much. Painting walls, building a complicated riser system, installing lighting systems, building cabinets & info desks, and running data cabling have been all the workings of our people over the last few weeks. It has been awesome to see the overwhelming willingness to serve. The truth is that we have a long way to go, but with this dedication we are well on our way to being in our new location by Easter.

This Sunday we announced our plans which I would like to share with our family at large. We are planning on having our first public worship service on Easter Sunday, April 4th. Currently, we are hoping to have an "Easter Only," 10:30am worship service along with our typical 5pm service on April 4th. We are working towards trying to have a weekend or two in the building before Easter, but there are multiple elements that must fall in place to make that a reality. That means we have no more than 5 weeks to get everything accomplished. We need your help more than ever. If we can be productive each weekend, we can make this happen.

Our biggest goals are not to get people to just volunteer to work at the building. Our greatest goal is for you to invest in the people in your circle of responsibility and to invite them into a relationship with God and our church family. This goal far exceeds our attempts to have a beautiful building. Let's keep our eyes on the real prize: to see people transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Vision Coming Alive

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:54:26 -0800

It was early Summer of last year and we walked into our. soon to be, new location. A dream was being birthed inside our church that centered on the idea, "How do we take responsibility for seeing the people in our community hear the good news of Jesus Christ in a greater way?" That challenge has propelled us to our current position, now in the late winter of 2010, where we are planning, preparing, and praying that God will allow us to see a great movement happen in our beloved city. We see our new location as a tool inside our tool belt that will allow our people to have a greater impact on our community.

Over the last few weeks we have watched a tremendous amount of progress take place inside the building. Our ceiling has been installed, electrical has been run allowing for our lighting system to be positioned, and we have constructed a riser system that will make the worship experience more engaging for every seat in the worship center. For the next several weeks we will be focusing on painting, laying tile, and installing cabinets. We need big teams to accomplish these tasks. If you would like to help in these areas. Please send Clay an email at claysjourney@gmail.com and we will get you involved on one of our volunteer days.

While we have spent a great deal of time on our building project we have expended a greater amount of energy on developing our people, who represent the church not a building. Our small groups are doing great ministry this month and are growing by leaps and bounds. Our worship services have been powerful as we have dedicated ourselves to take responsibility for our circles of influence. I am so proud in the Lord for what God is doing inside our church. Please join our teams as we prepare for the next great vision of the Journey Church.

The Big 'Mo'

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:19:12 -0800

If you watch very much football or basketball you will hear commentators talk about, "The Big Mo." "Mo," is a shortened name for momentum which every sports team tries to seize at critical moments in a contest. I feel like our church is gaining a little "Mo" - mentum with our building project which is spreading throughout our church. Excitement seems to be high on all the lips of our people.

This past weekend was a great success for our church on so many levels. Thursday evening we had a team of a dozen volunteers meet at the new building to run Data Cabling. This cabling is CAT 6 cable that will allow us to have internet, tv, & phone lines throughout our building. This project was critical to several of our future plans for the church's functionality. On Saturday afternoon, a team of ten volunteers helped finish this project with great success.

On Saturday, we also took on another big project laying the black ceiling insulation. A team of 8 volunteers worked diligently from 9 a.m. until well into the night to accomplish this task. This was a critical project and with its completion our contractor can put in the HVAC and our electrician can now install our lighting package. Once these items are installed we can start building our stage and riser system. I am so grateful for these volunteers and proud of our team's commitment to this project.

NEXT - 1/24/10

In turn, this excitement has spilled over to our church. We had our first NEXT session where 29 people gathered to get answers to the question, "What's my next step into the Journey process?" It was a great evening of conversation and getting new faces plugged in.

This week our small groups start back, which we have all been looking forward. On top of all this, we had 152 people come and worship Jesus and talk about our city vision this Sunday evening at our worship gathering. Maybe God is allowing us to see the Big-Mo come our way!

Progress...Yes, It Feels Good!

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 07:00:52 -0800

Ah Progress, oh it feels so good. I have been dreaming of these days for so long. Like most men, I need something to work on. I think we all experience this in one way or another. Some men want to work with their hands, some want to work on their computer, and some waste their time working on a new high score on their video games. But this desire is inside all men, we want to accomplish something. Working in the building this week brought that emotion out for me. Most of you know, I am not a very handy person. The common joke is that I only know how to work a hammer and a piece of rope.

Even with my lack of ability, I could feel the excitement welling up in my soul to experience accomplishment. It is thrilling to know that we have many more days to experience this comradery together. Over the last two days a team of about 15 volunteers painted the beams inside our church. (Make sure to check out pictures of our work weekend and the building's progress at re-built.org). To some, this may seem like a slightly insignificant task. On the contrary, this action item will allow for our installer to run our insulation and it also allows for the HVAC company to install our air condition system. This weekend really helped us continue to move the ball down the field.

As we worked, our contractor had a team laying our plumbing followed by the pouring of concrete. Now that these two items have been completed, the remainder of our wall studs can now be raised. Once the walls are up we can run our data cabling, which is next weekend's task. John Mills will be leading this team who will be working Thursday-Saturday. We are also now gathering materials for our stage and riser system; our next big projects. So get your hammers out, your work gloves on, and let's get ready to do this job. We need all of you to help. Painting walls is coming soon and we are going to have some very tall walls. So excited and I hope you are too!

The Good & The Bad

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 08:18:58 -0800

I am learning that in every building project there are ups and downs. They can never be foreseen, but these emotional highs and lows are to be expected.

For the last four weeks we have been waiting for several small issues to be resolved. First, we dealt with a parking issue, which was resolved but then our excitement was halted by a mechanical engineering issue. This issue was corrected just before Christmas week and then we began waiting for Berkeley County to release our permitting. I am happy to announce that our builder has our permits in hand and our project is now moving forward!

Now everyone knows that in America not a lot gets accomplished over the last two weeks of the year with Christmas and New Year's, but I am happy to report that construction crews are in our building and working diligently this week to get our framing walls up. Below are some pictures of their progress. We also expect that our frontage sign will be installed in the next seven days. This has all been such good news to my ears and I am looking forward to our church getting our hands dirty together as we get to work on our part of the project.

Now as to our timeline, we had always hoped that we would be in our building and holding worship services at the beginning of 2010. Our original timeline suggested that we would have access to the building in January and we would probably have our first service in the building in early February. Now that we have waded through all these delays, we are recognizing that our initial timeline has been shot. We expect that we will have more planning hickups along the way, so giving another possible move-in date may be premature. Our contractor has told us that he needs at least 90 days from permitting to get this job done. We also have some work that we are responsible for as well. All I can tell you is this: God is in full control and He knows the exact date that He wants us to be in the building. We will work diligently to make it come as early as possible, but God is ultimately in control. Please join me in praying that everything will go smoothly and that God will work mightly through us over the next several months.

A Christmas Letter to Our Journey Church Family

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:55:12 -0800

Dear Journey Church Family,

Merry Christmas, Journey Church family, I am so proud to be your pastor. While another year has come and gone, it is obvious that I have much to be grateful for as I reminisce about 2009. The love that Tarah and I feel for you is deep and long-lasting. Most evenings our family debriefs on the personal reasons we have to celebrate while sitting at our dinner table. This year, many of my stories of celebration have come after moments that you all exemplified Jesus to our world.

This year I watched our church forge a new vision to reach our community with the gospel. I witnessed many of you make painful sacrifices to ensure that this vision will come to fruition. When tragedy struck, I was so proud of our church family and the love that was extended to our hurting friends. I am overjoyed at the new, wonderful people that God has brought to our family who embody the bright future of our church.

I wanted to take a moment to wish you a Merry Christmas and thank you for being an encouragement to our family. I hope that this year you have been challenged to give your reigns over to Jesus, whose birth we celebrate this week. I pray that you will look back at this year as one in which you drew closer to our Savior Jesus. Finally, I request that you continue committing yourself to leaving an eternal legacy which points back to King Jesus in your life. We love each of you more than you will ever know.

Merry Christmas,

Will <><

Some Momentum Regained

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:36:18 -0800

After a couple of weeks in a waiting pattern - due to a stoppage by the Berkeley County Permitting Office that put our project on 'pause' - we are finally moving again. All of the issues seemed to be clearing up, but our builder has a few new items he must comply with - all of which will improve our building. Once the builder has gotten the permit in hand, our sign company should be able to start fabricating our signage for the front of the building and, with a little luck, we should have our sign up in the coming weeks (for an idea of what this will look like - see below). The Christmas holidays are a time for many workers to take some time off with their families, which we validate, but that means things may not move at the predictable pace that they would if it were a different time of year.

What is in our hands now is preparing for the projects we are responsible for. Clay has been working diligently to identify a lighting system that is inside our budget and has the capabilities we desire for the auditorium. This week we have ordered some test lights to hang in the building to see if we approve of their functionality and design. One of the projects that we will take on as a church will be painting the ceiling in the building. Secondly, we have ordered all our data cabling for our technology. Once the walls have been constructed by the builder we will be able to come behind them and run our cabling. John Mills will be leading our team in this task. We are so proud of those of you who have volunteered to help in these areas amongst many others. If you have not told us where you would like to volunteer, please email Clay at clay@journeychurchsc.org or fill out a volunteer form at the information desk this Sunday at church. We will be in touch with everyone who has filled out this information in the coming weeks. These are exciting times and having each of you alongside both in body and in prayer - makes the progress that much sweeter.

'Mock up' of how the signage should appear when it goes up.

Developments

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:42:22 -0800

Over the last several months we have been raising money for our Rebuilt campaign. At this point we are around 82% from where we need to be to take care of our needs for the next two years; leaving us in need of donations around $40,000. One of the unexpected new developments has been how God has provided in other means outside of such generous financial giving. Lately, God has been providing through specified donations. We've received wood donations for the stage and riser system that will go in the worship center and most recently, a good friend in Kentucky, Jim Powell, has agreed to help us with all our cabinetry, our coffee bar, and check-in stations. The awesome part of this partnership is the quality of the pieces being donated. Below are a few mock up drawings for some of the work that is being donated to us. These small touches will make our facility feel state-of-the-art, while allowing us to stay under-budget in each of these areas.

The Interior Design Team is working diligently at this time to develop a scheme that will work throughout the building. God has been so great to us and I am confident that He is going to provide for us in ways we never expected. Right now we are looking for QUALITY donations in the children's area. We need cribs, toys, baby swings, bouncy seats, books and puzzles. If you have any, and I stress, QUALITY items that you would like to donate please contact Katherine Williams at katsjourney@gmail.com.

We are humbled and so grateful for all of the various ways that everyone is supporting and giving to Journey. This is an incredible walk of faith - trusting in God's continuous provision - thank you for being a part of His great plan.

Top Left: Reception Desk; Top Right: Coffee Area - Overhead View.
Bottom Left: Sound Booth - Side View; Bottom Right: Children's Check-In Counter
(Designs subject to change.)

After the State of the Church

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:05:15 -0800

After the Presidential State of the Union, there are all kinds of pundits that weigh in on what the President has said. Newscasters and analysts all give their opinions, trying to make sense of all the minutia found in the words of the address. While no newscasters will be wading through our State of the Church address from this past Sunday night, and no pundits will ever weigh in on that same church service, I truly believe that God was listening in and I pray that He was pleased. (If you missed it, download it here).

We spoke honestly about our failures and our successes. We addressed areas where we need to improve and directions we are preparing to take. No strategy is more important than our call to define our 'circle of responsibility'. We have been challenged with finding six people who we will take responsibility over. Six, out of the more than .5 million people, who live in the Charleston Metro area. Once these 6 people have been identified, we will love them, serve them, invest in them, and invite them into a relationship with God and a relationship with us as a church family. It is a simple plan, but it is the plan that we feel will allow us to make the greatest impact on our community.

As we move into our new location, I dream about seeing new faces walk through these new doors. New people who walk in the door with you - that have been truly affected by your ministry. People that you have invested in by having them over for dinner, buying them the occasional lunch, or serving their needs over the course of the next few months. We are going to need everyone to take on this responsibility amongst other responsibilities.

The next 3 months we will be accomplishing a great amount of work in the new building and we need you to volunteer. We will need painters, wood workers, lunch providers, builders, electricians, and technicians. We have a lot of work ahead of us. It is going to require hours and hours of volunteered work. If you can help, please contact Clay at clay@journeychurchsc.org and tell us about your skill and expertise in any of these areas. God is going to do some great things over the next few months. Please join us as we change the landscape of this community with the gospel of Jesus Christ.