History

We are in the midst of writing our story right now. Our story begins back in 2003 in Houston, Texas when God began to give a few people a dream of creating a church driven by its passion to love the gosepl, transform the culture, and engage the local church. In October of 2004 God began to put that dream in motion through the Mayfield family. In January 2005 God brought Chris and Cheramy to Seattle, Washington to introduce them and the team to their new home. For years we had asked God to take us to the hill country in Austin, TX and allow our team to live there forever. Upon arriving in Seattle, God showed us a different kind of hill country and made it very clear this is where we were to live and raise our kids and do ministry.

On August 1st we pulled out of Houston, TX on our way to one of the most beautiful parts of the world called the Pacific Northwest. For the first two months we adapted to Seattle, getting our kids in place at school, unpacking our home, building relationships, and preparing to launch The Journey.

On September 25th we began a bible study in our home that grew to a point that we could no longer host it in our home. From there we began to worship in Cedar Wood Elementary where we built a core group who connected to the vision quickly. From there we prepared ourselves for a public Launch on April 16th, 2006 (Easter Sunday) at Gateway Middle School. We had a great launch of people that day and we are continuing to worship now at Jackson High School and continue to gain momentum week in and week out.

The original Journey team who began things consisted of 10 individuals; 7 adults and 3 children, but now that team has quickly grown to a small army of adults who help build things week to week. We desire to be a church that grows bigger and smaller at the exact same time. We want to reach and build relationships with hundreds, but we also have a desire to see many small groups of individuals develop, keeping the church as intimate as possible through; friendships, affinities, ministries, backgrounds.

Why Seattle?

After much prayer and research God began to make it clear why the Seattle area was a perfict fit for us. Statistics show that Washington is one of the most lost states in America and Seattle is one of the most lost cities. Close to 90% of Seattle and its surrounding area has no religious affiliation whatsoever. Of the 4.2 million people that live in this region, only 4% attend an evangelical church. One church expert says that there are more evangelical christians per capita in communist China than there are in the Pacific Northwest. If there were a 1,000 churches with a 1,000 people in each gathering, we would have reached a quarter of the city.

Why The Journey?

jour·ney (jûrn)
n. pl. jour·ney-A process or course; a passage
Jesus said, "Come, follow me," and that is what we are doing at The Journey. In the life of a follower of Christ you never truly "arrive." There are ups and downs, there are sharp turns and bumps, and God is constantly taking you through a pathway to teach and shape who you are becoming all through life. The beauty of God's journey is He does not want you to walk alone. God's journey is based on relationships; first with Him and second with others who are traveling with Christ. We want to help create a community within the North Seattle region of people who want to journey together. The beauty of this journey is that no one has all the right answers, and we are all working it out together, by following the compass of Jesus Christ.