JOURNEY GATHERING

Patsy and I are looking forward to hosting our Journey meeting this Thursday. Tree is in, decorations are going up...who knows, we may even have some snow for the weekend! You just got to love living in Portland.

Key Elements of our Evening

1. Connecting. We will focus on addressing the formation of small groups as we head in to the new year. We'll be giving you a new book, Sticky Church. This is the read that the staff and current small group leaders at PDX4 are doing to help us think through the development of an approach to small groups that will help people coming to the Journey, stay with the Journey.

• Who are people we might consider encouraging to lead a connection group?
• What format do we think would work best for the Journey?

2. Growing. Want to start working through the specifics of the spiritual formation retreat on March 13-15 which we have tenatively and playfully are calling, "Connecting with Your Inner Monk."

3. In addition we will hear an update on the Journey Alpha and the developments that are going on in that area of our ministry.

As Time Permits

1. JourneyKids. We are going to have take seriously how we are going to engage those who are coming and those who will be joining us with children.

2. Journey Membership. Starting conversations on what it looks like for people to "officially" belong and make commitments to be a part of the Journey community.

Personally

Don't forget your "1 Page Reflection" that talks about what God is working in your life through your spiritual disciplines, ministry expression and personal faith journey.

See you on Thursday!

Pastor Dennis

Sunday Night Meeting

Here are the basic notes from our last Sunday evening gathering time:

Missing Katy and Matthis, Adding Reina O'Beck to the group. Reina will be helping with our web presence, and communications.

Our next Thursday Meeting is December 11th 6:30pm at Dennis and Patsy's.

Upcoming topics of conversation:

* Journey as a community- what will our sense of community begin to look like as we move into the future. Understanding the different aspects of our demographics, and how to successfully move forward.

* Small Group aspect of the Journey: How do we want to move forward...groups, promotion, content?

* Retreat in March- Spiritual Formation. Looking into details to make this happen.

* Childcare for the Journey
* What do we see this needing to look like
* How do we find our way to supporting families in children's spiritual growth
and formation.
* How will this impact our current team and how might we leverage this for total
group growth.

Pastor Dennis will be posting a few things either today or tomorrow to help guide Thursday's meeting.

Thanks to you all.....Andrea