So the news is: We have signed a lease to rent the former FGM Church building on 2814 Colby Ave right in the heart of downtown Everett, the county seat of Snohomish County! This is has been a process for sure, but we are glad to be done and now ready to see how God wants to use us! Hopefully, used in even greater ways to get the name of Jesus out.  So that is done and now this is where we all come in to prepare this place to be a gathering place. If you thought being portable was consuming you will be surprised to know it is even more consuming when you lease or own a building. I believe this 2 year lease will be a great training ground for us in practicing our worship skills in being stewards of a gathering/training/launching pad.

Now what I would like to do in this informal time is give you a breakdown of what needs to take place now and how we see this thing working out as far as when we begin to worship at this new location.

1. We are planning for THIS Sunday July 25^th to be the last at Heatherwood Middle School.
   This will allow us to stop paying Everett School District and put that money towards our lease starting in August. Then August 1^st we will have an informal worship time at the new location. On August 1^st our schedule that day will be:

10am arrive and take in the facility (Donuts, Coffee, Juice)

10:30am worship
(everyone: kids and all with strollers, no chairs except for those who physically need it)

11:05am dismiss all of us into the streets
(each family unit will be given a map to follow and walk those particular blocks and pray, then when that is complete pick a place to eat there in the vicinity and if you get the opportunity spread the word that we are coming to the area for worship.)

*Some of us will return after lunch to worship through more service of painting, cleaning, planning, etc.

Frequently Asked Questions!  (You Know ALL The Things Everyone Wants to Know!)

When will we start worshipping there regularly? August 1^st we will begin as regular gathering place for Journey so you can invite now virally and on Sept. 12^th we will invite the world (also when re:Plant is to launch). August 1^st will be informal and August 8^th will be as normal as possible with some spots still in process and hopefully August 15^th we will be up and running completely.

How can I help get this facility ready for Journey worship? First, be available. We know summer is a great time to be away and please get some Sabbath for sure, but God has chosen this time as we have seen Him work through this process. (Our needs list and flexible order is at the bottom of this document.)

What are the biggest needs at this time? Right now I would say first consistency. In a young church with many young believers and people who are trying to mature, consistency is important. Experts say the longer you are a church the more people get lax in the summer because they know the church will be there when they get back. We want to practice changing that trend in the American church and build consistency.  We want to build a community of faith where we all hate to miss when we are gone (Hebrews 10:24-25).

One trend we see when I asked our financial team to run a recent data report was that when people are out of town they tend not to tithe. This is important to change as when you are out of town you still pay the light bill and so do we!  So we need to be more consistent in this as we have a witness to our places we pay bills just as much as to the people who come and hear our message on Sunday. Another reason this consistency is important is our bills now will increase at least $5,000 a month to have a permanent place to gather/train in each month.

Next need is again having as many people possible working on this facility over the next two weeks for sure (more to follow at the end).

Next need is to begin to interview and find people for existing and new points of leadership (such as a lead maintenance person over building, church hosts [people who run big events on campus & have the gift of hospitality], true parking coordinator {fun person who knows where all city signs are for our parking and forms a parking team to make it a VERY fun experience arriving at Journey Church, and etc.}

Are we leaving Mill Creek area? No. This new location is our gathering place where we choose to come together and worship Christ corporately. The other 6 days a week our ministry is where we live, work, and do social life, so that is wherever you are whether it be Mill Creek, Bothell, Snohomish, Lynnwood, Mount Lake Terrace, Marysville, Lake Stevens, Woodinville, and the list goes on.  We do think it is a very strategic place to be since it is the county seat of Snohomish County.

What about parking? The city parking garage is directly behind the church and the walk way into downtown is a new park they built that is right beside the church. This garage is free after 4pm weekdays and free Saturday and Sunday. Also there is plenty of 90 minute parking completely surrounding the facility if you have an appt. or morning class at our new location.

It will be much easier now that we have a building, right? Not necessarily. Now we are on the hook for the building. We get the building ready not only for worship on Sunday but for every class we offer and every event we host.  We fix it if it is broken. This building has to say to the world we want you here, this is a safe haven. So there is the physical plant that has to say we are here for you and then there are the trained people who are ready to serve those who come seeking. So we really will have to crank it up a few notches in our spiritual lives to be ready.  We are now in front of people 24 hours a day 7 days a week whereas before you may or may not have known we existed as we were portable. Now we are saying by having this location we are here and ready to serve you daily.

When can I start inviting people to new location? Now.  Again the first service is Aug. 8^th when Journey will start gathering and September 12^th is when we are inviting world. We want to watch attendance from Aug 8^th to Aug 29^th to help determine when and if we go to 2 services. We will eventually, but want to make that decision when it is necessary and useful in growing the Kingdom.

I want to help but I don’t know where to get involved and nobody has called me?  This is actually a two parter:

1^st if you want to get involved in weekly ministry at Journey you can contact us at or go to Divine Design on our website and go through the process of understanding how you are gifted and where those gifts could be displayed. In that you get to work with someone who shows you where in our current church you could exercise those gifts.

2^nd part is you pursuing, try to listen for needs and contact people in that area and ask to help.  Trust me, they will share the load.

As far as the building help, contact and share with them what you would like to do to help and they will let you know if that is done, in process and they need help or that task has been completed.

Current Needs/Task List for New Location:

Painting: Kids rooms, Worship area (once we have chosen colors it will be time to get after it)

Construction: Small hallway into stairwell leading to kids, Lowering part of main stage down two feet

Preparing Kid’s Floor: Moving in furniture & toys, Hanging shelves, Putting together cribs

Tech: Installing sound, lighting & cameras for main worship area, Nursing moms, and Journeykids (great time to jump on the tech team and learn with existing team this all new set up.)

Cleaning: Immediately we will need a point person to walk the facility on Fri/Sat to make sure it is clean and ready for worship each week.

Signage: Picking and installing proper signage on campus and off campus (street/parking/directional signs)

Storage transition: Need a lead person and team to transition our current storage facility over to a downtown facility (plus get rid of what we don’t need!)

*We will have a visible printed poster of all needs at the facility that you can check and as soon as some of our tech people can get that up it will be online as well. Again if you have a skill, tools, or time that you want to give to any and everything we need please email and we will build a database and contact you asap.