We are a church who gathers to worship together, but also who is sent through all the world. Our leadership isn’t the church: they exist to serve and equip the church, to help our members and regular attenders proclaim Jesus throughout their daily lives.
Jesus is the head of our church, which means he has authority over it and he governs it. He is the one who guides and directs us, and he is the one who we strive to obey. This means that all of us, including our leadership, submit to the authority of Scripture, which testifies to who Jesus is and how he wants us to live.
The members of our church are the backbone: they serve, they worship, they love their neighbors. We rely on them to learn diligently, to pursue Jesus passionately, and to cheerfully work for his kingdom.
Because The Journey values its members and their leadership and service, we strive to keep a small staff so that we are stewarding resources well. If there are ministries that we currently do not have, we want to equip and help our members to start them.
Our goal as a church is to serve St. Louis and to proclaim Jesus, and our members are devoted to doing that. If you are interested in entering into a deeper commitment with The Journey, we encourage you to move into membership.
Deacons are those who are called to lead the church through practical service, organizing ministries, and caring for the members of the church. In the Bible, they were originally selected to ensure that widows and the needy were not overlooked.
Our deacons help with all the administrative functions of the church. All our staff members are deacons, but we also have many unpaid deacons who oversee ministries and support the church’s work.
The Bible sets up “elders” who serve the church by overseeing it, by managing it, and by directing it. They are responsible for discerning God’s vision and heart for the church and ensuring that we are obedient to it.
Elders are men who live according to the qualities that the Bible lays out. Among other things, they are husbands of one wife, gentle, above reproach, and have a good reputation with other people. (See 1 Timothy 3:1-7, 5:17; Titus 1:7-9; Hebrews 13:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13; Acts 20:17-38).
The elders at The Journey are responsible to seek God’s direction in all things, to instruct the members of the church in the truth, to protect the church against false teachings and doctrine, and to model and imitate the sacrificial love of Jesus.
The Journey has an executive team of elders called the Board of Directors that oversees and gives leadership to the entire church. Each church also has local elders that oversees and gives leadership to that local church.
