VISITOR INFORMATION PACKET
Welcome to
Journey of Life Lutheran Church A SIMPLE Church Simple stands for Steady Improvement Making Possible Love for Everyone... well no, actually, it doesn't. Simple doesn't stand for anything. That would be complicated. Your life is busy and complicated. Your church shouldn't be. Our simple church philosophy is this: one thing per week. One Bible passage or idea will be the focus of all the weekly activities at Journey of Life. The sermon. The children's ministry. LifeGroups. Take-home family teachings. Dig Deeper resources. Most weeks we give you a Bible verse tag with a key verse to think about for the week. You can put it on your key chain, tape it to your mirror, whatever. There is a weekly rhythm at Journey of Life and it's simple. Some ministries at Journey of Life, such as the parenting group, don't meet weekly and don't follow the simple pattern. But most everything that is part of the weekly rhythm is integrated into the one thing. All the resources that can be are sent out by email so that those who do not attend the worship service can stay in sync. It’s simple.
Dig Deeper The Dig Deeper material is a weekly Bible study published by Journey of Life to equip and encourage people to dig deeper into the topic/Bible verse of the week. The material is published as an audio teaching file (on CD and via the web) as well as a Bible study suitable for small groups. You can get it on Sunday mornings, subscribe to a podcast, or download it via our web site: www.journeyoflife.org.
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Children’s Ministry Children’s ministry takes place in three primary ways at Journey of Life. First, SUNDAY MORNING CHILDREN’S MINISTRY for elementary school age children follows our SIMPLE ministry philosophy of concentrating one main thing per week. We believe both that families should worship together and that children (and their parents!) need to be ministered to at an age-appropriate level. Our solution to this dilemma is to have elementary school age children in the worship service during the opening singing and then dismiss them for children’s church just before the sermon (infants and toddlers may go directly to infant/toddler care before the service starts. Here are the details about how Sunday morning children’s ministry runs: Children’s Ministry Procedures
Child check-in is open from 9:45am to 10:10am. Children will receive a nametag with a unique (to the family) code. Parents will receive a ticket with a matching code. All children that will be involved in children’s ministry are required to check in every Sunday Infants and toddlers go directly to infant/toddler care Elementary school age children go to the worship service. After the opening songs and the Bible reading, there will be a children’s message by Pastor John during which the children will be invited to the front of the worship area. Following the children’s message, the children will be escorted to children’s church by Ms. Sandie. Following the conclusion of the service, parents with children in children’s ministry may proceed to the Media Center to pick up their children.
Second, PARENTS ARE ENCOURAGED TO USE THE FAMILY CONVERSATIONS section of the Take It with You bulletin insert. The topic will follow the same topic addressed in the sermon, children’s ministry and the Dig Deeper material, so you, as a parent, should feel equipped for this faith conversation. As with all of parenting, more is caught than taught. Your children will grow from your willingness to discuss faith with them. Third, children at Journey of Life are invited to celebrate several FAITH MILESTONES. Faith milestones are faith experiences schedule to occur every two years in a child’s life. Each milestone will equip a child to be have an active faith life at a level appropriate to their development. The following is the standard schedule, but may be adjusted based on conversation with Pastor John:
Kindergarten – Bible stories o In this milestone, children are introduced to some major Bible stories and will be able to retell one or more. o Parental participation is expected. Second Grade – First Bible o In this milestone, children are presented with a “first Bible” and are given a short course on the history of the Bible and how to read it. o Parental participation is expected. Fourth Grade – Christian Service
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In this milestone, children will learn about the Christian life of serving others. They will participate in a service project. o Parental participation is expected. Sixth Grade – Christian Relationships & First Communion o In this milestone, children will learn about God’s design for relationships including friendship, congregational life, and conflict resolution. As part of this process, children will be taught about Holy Communion and, upon completing this milestone, may participate in the Lord’s Supper. o Parental participation is encouraged. Eighth Grade – Confirmation o In this milestone, students undergo a deeper study of the Christian faith and, at the end of two years of regular classes, confirm the Christian faith as their own. o Parental participation is permitted.
LifeGroups Are groups of 4-10 people who meet regularly for Bible study, prayer and just generally sharing their lives. Lifegroups typically use the Dig Deeper material but they are free to move into any topic that interests members. Some groups meet more sporadically, such as the parenting group or the men’s group.
Our Next Big Step Our next big step is to get a church home built. We envision our building functioning not only as a church, but as a community center with community arts, music lessons, dance, meeting rooms… whatever you would find in a community center.
Sunday Worship Sunday Rhythm There is a simple monthly rhythm to our Sundays. It’s not strictly adhered to in every circumstance, but generally in each month you will find:
Second Sunday — We enjoy a potluck brunch following the service Third Sunday — We bring in donations to support two local ministries. Thrift store items can be brought to support the Central Florida Children’s Home. Food pantry items can be brought to support the food pantry ministry at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church. Fourth Sunday — We celebrate our children’s ministry in some way
What Do I Do With The “Welcome Card”? You would help us greatly by filling out the WELCOME CARD. We will collect the WELCOME CARD before the prayer time. We encourage you to use the space on the back of the card to ask for prayer.
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Should I Give An Offering? If you are visiting with us today, please do not feel any pressure to give an offering. We are glad for your presence and consider you our guests. Followers of Jesus Christ give offerings joyfully, motivated by thanksgiving for all God has done for them. The Bible says, “Each one should give as you have decided in your heart to give. You should not be sad when you give, and you should not give because you feel forced to give. God loves the person who gives happily.” So, give an offering if you’d like to, not because you feel obligated to.
Do You Celebrate The Lord’s Supper/Holy Communion And Can I Participate? We celebrate the Lord’s Supper every Sunday. Can you participate? We will not make that decision for you. Nobody is going to judge you based on whether or not you participate in the Lord’s Supper. From our perspective, you should know what we believe about the Lord’s Supper, then participate based on the Bible and your own conscience. You will find that we simply take Jesus at his word. We believe that in a mysterious way the body and blood of Christ are truly present in the bread and wine of this meal. We believe this because Jesus said, “This is my body… this is my blood.” We also believe that the Lord’s Supper is one means by which God brings his forgiveness and new life into our lives. We believe this because Jesus said, “This is my body given for you for the remission of sins.” The primary need of every person is to be re-connected to God. Jesus makes this possible through his death on the cross for our forgiveness. Therefore, as we take the Lord’s Supper, we are strengthened in our faith and empowered for a life of service in Jesus’ name.
Things you will find in our worship service on most Sundays... The Invocation In Matthew 18:20, Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” Further, we wish to be clear that this is a Christian worship service. So we begin every service with the phrase Jesus instructed us to use as we baptize people into the faith: Leader: We begin in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. People: Amen. (The word “Amen” comes from Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament, and means “certainly” or “truly”.)
Confession and Forgiveness Our natural human tendency is to try to be good enough. The Bible says that we are all “sinners” and as such we fall short of God’s standard. If we try to measure up, we never will. The path to peace with God is confession because God has promised to forgive and renew those who confess their sins to him (1 John 1:8-9). We don’t confess every week so we can feel bad again, we confess so we can feel clean again. Confession in its fullest sense is an ongoing recognition that we are acceptable to God because he is loving and merciful rather than an effort to become worthy in and of ourselves.
The Lord’s Prayer We pray the Lord’s Prayer every Sunday because these words were Jesus’ response to his disciples’ request that he teach them how to pray. (See Luke 11:1-4)
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The Apostles’ Creed The word “creed” comes from the latin word “credere,” which means “believe.” This creed traces its roots to the second century A.D. Creeds have been developed to clarify our faith and help Christians to identify false teaching. The Apostles’ Creed is usually included in our service in one form or another.
Why Repeat Repeat Repeat The Same Thing Every Week? Repeating burns things into our brains so that the information is available. The Creed and the Prayer function as theological touchstones that can be used to evaluate our own reflection and teaching we here from others. They unite the church together as one body across space and time. And if your brain function is reduced either temporarily by stress and crisis or permanently by old age, the things you have repeated every week are most likely to be still available to you.
Our Mission As the perfect church for imperfect people, we are connecting people to abundant life in Christ.
Our Vision Our Community sees us as a Christian hub of activity because of our welcoming presence, dynamic connection, and caring involvement. Our Guests are "joining the journey" because they are inspired by God's Word, and intentionally welcomed, engaged, and served. Our Members are equipping disciples because they are being loved, encouraged, empowered, and educated through the Gospel. Our outreach is local and global to a diverse group of people.
The Journey of Life Big Book We do have a big book of much more detailed information about Journey of Life, including staff bios, missionaries supported, local ministry involvement, etc. Just ask for it. We’ll be glad to get a copy to you either as a printed booklet or an eBook.
Your Next Step Want more information? Want to join Journey of Life? Just want to talk to someone? Your next step is to contact Pastor John. He is readily available by just about any communication method you might use, but we’ll start with email (
[email protected]) or cell phone (407.923.7251). Call us: 407.858.1151 Visit our web site: www.journeyoflife.org Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/JOLOrlando Follow us on Twitter: @JOLOrlando
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