Burrito Madness

Thursday's burrito giveaway was unbelievable! In two hours, we gave away 627 FREE burritos. The line was either out the door or wrapped through the entire Tylersville Chipotle store. This brought our total served for the week up to 1,827 people. It is kind of fun to think about how this number gets multiplied as people share their experience with others.

I was once again surprised how often people asked, "Why are you doing this?" I was even more surprised by how many solid conversations were sparked in response to that question.

We did finally ended up back on Channel 9. They did a live report of the event during the 6 p.m. news. I'll link the story later today.

The Chipotle staff was awesome. The Journey team served BIG all evening.

The madness continues tonight at the Rave Movie Theaters. We'll have over 300 $5 gift certificates to give away.

Burrito BUZZ

A few minutes ago, we spoke with the manager at Chipotle. They are pumped about tonight. She also said people have been calling there all day to confirm the event and wondering if we are buying burritos yet. The place will be crazy busy tonight!

It's going to be BIG fun!

Bumped

Unfortunately, we were bumped from the follow up interview with channel 9. There is still potential for something as the week progresses. They even mentioned the potential of coming to our Sunday a.m. gathering. Pray!

More Media BUZZ

Channel 9 just called. They want to do a follow up story on March Madness. I am meeting them at Chipotle at 1 p.m.

Unreal...God is up to something!

Media Link

You can watch the Channel 9 news clip from the WCPO site. You will have to watch the commercial and then the clip will play.

If you are a member of Journey Church and would like to help us create buzz then show up at Chipotle (Tylersville Rd.) tonight at 6 p.m. Wear some Journey gear and plan to hang out as we share God's love with West Chester by giving out 450 FREE burritos.

Media Footage

This morning we were able to grab the footage from the Channel 9 site. We hope to have it up for viewing later today.

I'll post a link here when it is up on our site.

Journey Church In The Media

Both stations (9/5) did a great job with the story. I have a feeling we will not have a problem giving away 400+ burritos tomorrow evening or 300 gift certificates on Friday.

Gas Buy Down

The madness found another gear tonight...

The gas buy down was a huge hit! After we increased the buy down from 15 to 40 cents the placed filled up in less than fifteen minutes. All twenty pumps were two to three cars deep. It was incredible to see our team serving--pumping gas, washing windshields, and filling up washer fluid tanks.

By the end of the night, Channels 5 and 9 showed up for on the spot video shoots and interviews. If you read this before 11 p.m. (Wednesday) you might want to tune in. A reporter from the Pulse Journal also dropped by. All three news outlets appeared without any calls from the Journey team!

I love it when people ask, "Why are you doing this?" Answering that question never gets old.

What an evening! This is too much fun!!

Burrito ALERT!

The MADNESS continues...

God has provided BIG time. It isn't quite five loaves and two fish, but close! Okay, I am being a little dramatic on purpose.

We were able to work a sweet deal with the GM of the Tylersville Rd. Chipotle. We scored 450 burritos for $560.00. If you are counting at home that is $1.24 per burrito. They are normally $5.95.

If you are a Journey member then have your disconnected (from Christ and/or the Church) friends come to the Tylersville Rd. Chipotle Thursday (March 29th) between 6-8 p.m. The burritos are on Journey Church!

P.S. We were also asked if we wanted to do another FREE burrito Sunday at Chipolte (Tylersville location). Uh, YES! A Journey Church weekend program will be able to be traded for a FREE burrito. We'll likely do this on a Sunday in May.

Why We Don't Have More Margin

A couple months ago, I did a talk on money. It was a part of our "Stressed?" series. When I was prepping for the talk, I was really challenged personally. Andrea and I made some big changes at home with one goal in mind--create more margin. We are currently in our best stretch financially in over fifteen years of marriage.

Since then, I have worked hard to continue to challenge and educate myself more on managing money. I have a few blogs that I have been following. Today one of them posted some solid bullets on why we aren't rich. I would title it differently--"Why We Don't Have More Margin." Read more here.

Read each bullet slowly and apply them quickly!

Big Day

Sunday was a big day for Journey Church!

For the first time, we had over 300 (307) people at a morning gathering without it being a special day (ie. holiday, mailer, or personal invitation push). We are up in every category compared to the same 12 week period last year--numerically, financially, people serving, and people involved in small groups. We have also seen several more make commitments to Christ.

The student ministry is gaining traction. The transition to Sunday mornings has taken place and the students seem to really be digging it.

The new Kidmo (now known as The Upper Deck) venue is sweet!

I am very excited about where this momentum will take us...

March Madness (Continued)

The lanyard drop at LEHS was a huge hit! The students were digging them. Later that evening, I saw a random LEHS student walking into Frisch's wearing one of the Go East! Journey Church lanyards. Very cool!

We did the air freshener drop tonight at the Kroger Marketplace, Meijer, and Lowe's. I heard good reports.

Tomorrow evening we'll be buying down gas at the new Thorton's on Tylersville Rd. This is going to be a blast!

Thursday evening we'll be giving away FREE Chipotle burritos. Friday we will be passing out $5 gift cards at the Rave. We'll conclude the madness on Saturday morning by passing out blow up soccer balls at opening day of the WCSC.

So far we have touched at least 1300 people. By week's end, we'll have shared God's love with over 2,500 people!

Road Trip

I booked a last minute trip today. I was expecting to attend a preaching conference in Oklahoma City in May. The trip was planned because of the strong encouragement (err requirement) from one of our sponsoring organizations. The conference in Oklahoma City was canceled a few days after I purchased my airplane ticket. I was bummed.

A similar conference is being held in Mountain View, CA in April. I was informed Monday that said sponsoring organization would kick some extra cash to help me make the trip. I pulled the trigger.

Can you say upgrade? YES! Are the Giants in town? How cool would that be!

I have been to California, but not the northern part of the state. I am really looking forward to the conference and the trip!

March Madness

The madness kicked off yesterday! We gave everyone envelopes with a $5 bill and a card that explains what we are doing--sharing God's love in a practical way. The money was to be given away or used to bless someone. I look forward to hearing the stories of how people used their envelopes to touched someone on Sunday afternoon.

Today we'll be giving away 300 lanyards at the high school. We had "Go East!", the Journey logo, and website printed on them. I am looking forward to sharing God's love with 300 high school students in a couple hours.

BTW, we exceeded our $6,600 March Madness goal! The current total raised for the effort is $7,770. I continued to be encouraged by the generosity of the Journey peeps.

I continue to pray that our madness effort will deeply touch our community. I pray that it will lead to conversations and connections.

Tuesday's MM Event: Air Freshener giveaway.

Thinking...Dreaming

I am up late tonight. I can't sleep. My mind is racing. I have had fingers to keys for several minutes now and ideas are flowing. Some of them have been captured in emails. Others have been captured in my journal.

I am thinking future thoughts. I am dreaming about the kind of church community that God longs for Journey to be and become. I couldn't resist a copy/paste of some of that content. I suspect this will become a Journey teaching series, class, or document to be passed along.

I long for Journey to be defined by a few statements. I imagine a church where...

- It is normative for people to study the Bible and pray like their lives depend on it.
- It is normative that people learn to feed themselves.
- It is normative that people bring their disconnected friends to Journey.
- It is normative that people have friends and are friends.
- It is normative for people to serve others in big ways.
- It is normative for people to steward their resources well and turn them outward to bless others.
- It is normative for people to more faithfully follow each day.

These certainly are not new ideas. They are, however, extremely important ideas. They are defining. They are statements that shape a dream. They are more than a dream. They are a calling. They are Journey's reason for being.

They are also hills I will die on. I will give my life to see these things continue to find life in the people of Journey Church and those we will reach in the days and years ahead.

I'm all in!

How about you?

Weekend Wedding

One of my favorite parts of occupational ministry is doing weddings. I especially dig it when I have a connection with the couple. Friday evening I will have the privilege of marrying a couple of my friends.

The setting is going to be awesome. The moment will be magical! I am pumped about the next two evenings.

Larry and Melissa, I look forward to getting old together.

The journey is just beginning...

Mid-Week Update

If you are not in the email database then you missed the below update I sent out on Wednesday. If you would like to be added to the Journey Church database shoot me an email at tom[@]cincyjourney[.]com.

Dear Journey Church

I hope this email finds you in the middle of a good week. I wanted to offer a quick update from Sunday.

Our March Madness offering went very well! We have collected $4,690 to date which means we are only $1,910 from reaching our goal of $6,600. I am confident we'll get there! If you have a contribution you would like to make you can give that any time during the next couple weekends. Simply write March Madness on the envelope or in the memo section of your check. Also, there are plenty of spots to fill for next week as we serve West Chester each day of March Madness. Swing by the information table on Sunday and sign up to serve!

The launch of Big Student Ministry's Sunday a.m. gathering was a huge hit! They had 36 students present with several new faces. Sunday was a big win for Journey Church! I am pumped about the potential of touching students in the Sunday morning time slot. I cannot wait to see the story God authors in and through this ministry.

Finish strong this week. I look forward to seeing you Sunday as we continue our "Epic" teaching series!

~Tom~

Pete Comes "Clean"

I knew this all along.

This is certainly not news and it comes as a surprise to no one. As a lifelong Reds fan, it still hurts to read these words on the screen of my computer.

Pete, you let me down. You committed the cardinal sin of baseball.

As much as I would love to see you in the Hall of Fame and still coaching my beloved Reds, you do not belong there. You forfeited that right when you placed your first bet on baseball.


At least you bet they would always win...Geesh!

Burrito Buzz

Can the Church and Christ followers learn something from this?

I think the answer is a resounding yes!

I long for Journey Church to be the kind of place where it is normative that people invite their disconnected friends to experience what God is doing in and through our community.

When that kind of buzz begins to take full root there is no question what might happen at Journey Church.

Trust me on this, our best days are ahead!

Busy

The week started and has continued with a frantic pace. It is certainly moving faster than the speed of blog. My apologies.

We dropped a letter this afternoon about the launch of BSM's Sunday morning gathering and one more plug for March Madness. I am completely jazzed about the weekend. I hope you and a dozen of your friends plan to be around!

Through a very cool connection, Journey Church will be in the paper two more times in the next couple of weeks. I am certainly not going to turn down free advertising.

It will be interesting to see what the reporter does with the stories. One will be on how the Internet is shaping student ministry and the other will be a write up on March Madness.

Spring Forward

Don't forget to turn your clocks forward one hour this Saturday night!

Out Of My (Our) Hands

As the spring ministry season begins, the pace is picking up big time. Along with the pace, my stress level reached a climax this week.

I was processing that this afternoon with Andrea and my CMA coach when I realized the reason my stress level was climaxing. We have arrived at another juncture where we need God to show up more than ever. It feels real close to what those few weeks before launch felt like just over a year ago.

There is no question we are about to take another huge step out of the boat and the only hope we have of "walking on water" is God's presence and power. I am not nervous. I am not scared. I am curious to see what kind of story God will author.

I think stress arrives as I try to mentally (and emotionally) "control" the process and outcome. If there is one thing I have learned in fifteen years of ministry it is how completely out of my hands that is. All I (or the team) can do is build the rails. How fast and far the train moves is completely up to God.

We have been faithful, the best we know how, in laying down the tracks. What happens in the next twelve weeks is completely up to God. I plan to spend less time stressing and more time praying. I will invest less time worrying and more time trusting God is going to work.

I just heard the umpire say, "Play ball." If you are a part of the Journey team and reading this blog find your place on the field. We have a "game" to play!

Making My Money Behave

A few weeks ago I preached a message on money. The big idea of the talk was simple: margin in our finances we'll produce less financial stress and free us up to be more generous. As I prepared for the message, I worked through a ton of material on the subject. With each turn of the page or minutes spent listening to a podcast, I was both encouraged and challenged.

When I was finished preaching the message, I was very clear on the application points that needed to be set in place for my family. I immediately went to work. I am pumped to share those application points have been applied and faithfully followed for the past six weeks.

I can honestly attest to the fact that more margin brings less stress and frees one up to be more generous. I am glad my family listened, applied, and followed with discipline.

I look forward to the day when,
- We are servant to know one (Proverbs 22:7).
- We have more and more margin.
- We can give more and more of our money away!

We will get there...

Easter Personal Invitations

For our Christmas and Easter gatherings, we always provide personal invitations so the Journey peeps can extend an invite to their relational network.

The final proof of the Easter personal invitations are finished. You can pull down the full pdf here.

Cats Land Recruit

Our battle back to the top continues! Read more.

Fitness Update (Part 2)

In case you are wondering, I am still on the horse. I am hitting the gym several days a week and refueling with the right food. I am really beginning to see the fruit of the process. I am feeling better than I have in over two years.

Here are the highlights of my progress:

- I am approaching the 200 mile mark (I logged my first run on December 13th, 2006).
- The scale revealed a new low this morning.
- I am confident my body fat percentage is at a two year low.
- I can finally hit the weights and complete a full lifting session without fatiguing way too early.
- My mile time is way down from where I started (averaged 8:31 this morning for a 3.5 mile run).

I am excited about the warming temperatures in Ohio. I look forward to hitting the open road for my runs. The treadmill is getting old!

The part of this process I always forget is how it helps in other areas of my life. When I am doing the right things physically, it is so much easier to be right in the other areas of my life. I am glad I publicly hung myself out there. It was the push I needed.

Reading

I have accumulated an aggressive stack of books to read in the next few weeks. This stack has developed because of some commitments I made in several circles. I am walking away from each reading session with a great deal to think about. More importantly, I am working hard at making immediate application of what I am taking in as I read.

Here is what's in the stack:

The Bible (one year reading plan)
In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day (Mark Batterson)
Coaching 101 (Robert Logan and Sherilyn Carlton)
Mentoring (Bob Biehl)
It's Your Ship (Captain D. Michael Abrashoff)

This morning I was finishing chapter two of Batterson's book. I was struck by this statement, "God wants you to get where God wants you to go more than you want to get where God wants you to go" (you may have to read that twice).

I have recently given great attention to the daily direction of my life and how that impacts the big picture. I want to go where God wants me to go. I want that more today than I did yesterday. For me, this is becoming more and more of a whole life proposition. This morning the Holy Spirit reminded me how passionate God is about me living more faithfully as a follower.

Batterson immediately sets this idea in a context I could totally understand. He talked about his relationship with his kids. You know, how he longs for them to win at life. As I read I thought, I totally get that. I paused for just a moment to say thanks to my heavenly father for the reminder that He wants me to win and is preparing a road ahead of me for that to be the case.

God, give me the wisdom and strength to order my steps each day that will take me where you want me to go.

Easter Mailer

The final proof of the Easter mailer is at the printer. You can pull down the full pdf here. I am praying this mailer will further empower us to create buzz during our spring ministry season.

I hope to have the final proof of the personal invitations some time today. I'll post that when it arrives in my inbox.

One More Sports Take

My boys in Clifton ended a dreadful season today. Frankly, I am glad it is over. It hurt to watch the program struggle. This was the first season in years that I did not attend a game. I stayed away because I simply couldn't stand to watch the slide.

Trust me on this friends, they (we) will be back!

Reds 14, Twins 1

I know it is only March 3rd, but I cannot remember a spring when the Reds looked this solid. How fun would it be to have a Reds team playing for something in September?

I'm hoping...

New Easter Series and Mailer

We had a couple ideas brewing for our Easter series and they simply lost energy as the prayerful creative process continued. In a late night brainstorm early last week, we locked onto a powerful new direction! I am glad we remained open to that option.

The mailer is in the final editing stage. It looks fantastic! I think this series is really going to strike a nerve in the WC. I'll share the front design here when we get a final draft. I am hoping that will be during the day tomorrow.

The personal invitations for our Easter gathering are sweet too. The Journey peeps are going to love them [wink].

Off to small group...

New Weekend Series

Most of my morning has been spent with fingers to keys. I have been writing my talk for Sunday. I am beginning a new teaching series this weekend. We'll break away from the topic and return to it during the summer months. When it is all said and done, it will be a fifteen week journey. Those who work at it will be able to tell the story of the whole Bible. More importantly, I hope our community will grow in a deeper sense of how the story is intended to form and shape our lives.

I am jazzed about it!

If you want to prep for Sunday then take a few moments to read Genesis 1 & 2.