An Inside Look At Faithmapping, A Gospel Atlas For Our Journey

A little over a year ago, my pastor Daniel Montgomery and I had lunch in Louisville with Justin Taylor, the Acquisitions Editor for Crossway Books. During that meal (Justin’s first sushi experience, I believe) we talked about the growth of Sojourn Church and the fruits of this ministry — baptisms, urban renewal initiatives, church plants and international missions, original worship songs serving the universal church, and more.

Justin asked Daniel if he’d consider writing a book — a “what Sojourn believes about the gospel, and how Sojourn does ministry” book. Daniel immediately began to talk about the need for the whole church to embrace the whole gospel and reach the whole world. He also told Justin that he should have Mike Cosper, our Worship and Arts Pastor, write a book.

If you know Daniel, this is not surprising — Sojourn is a strong community because our founding pastor is so big on community, collaboration, and recognizing the gifts of others. And if you know Mike, it’s not surprising that he’d participate — like Daniel, he’s an incredibly gifted pastor, driven with a desire to to see the earth filled with the glory of God as men and women become more like Jesus.

So in the end, Daniel and Mike wrote this book together. It’s called Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas For Your Spiritual Journey, and it releases today in paperback and on Kindle. Like sermons at Sojourn, this book is both

• Theologically deep
• Easy to understand

Given that Daniel is the founder of Sojourn Church and Mike is the founder of Sojourn Music, Faithmapping is an inside look at our history. But it’s much more than that. The first section, The Whole Gospel, shows that three common perspectives on the gospel (Kingdom, Cross, Grace) are all true, all amazing, and all necessary for forming and fueling a new people called the Church.

Part two, The Whole Church, walks through five basic “identities” of Christ’s Church, showing that we are worshipers, family, servants, disciples and witnesses.

In part three Daniel and Mike put it all together and show how the whole church takes the whole gospel to the whole world.

This is an ideal book to give to a new believer or someone who is struggling to understand what biblical Christianity is all about. But it’s a great book for mature Christians as well, because so many of us have tendencies to emphasize one aspect or another of the gospel to the exclusion of the others, or one aspect of church membership to the exclusion of the others.

At 216 pages, it’s thorough enough to make its case but concise and simple enough to maintain the interest of those who don’t normally do books on theology. Get it here. AND … you can also register to win a free copy, on Twitter. Your first step is to read the Faithmapping excerpt from Crossway Books at this link, or below (RSS and Email subscribers may have to click through to the website to see it).

Now, share a quote or idea that impacted you from the excerpt, along with the #Faithmapping hashtag. We’ll choose ten winners at random, using the random number generator at Random.org. Remember, you must use the #Faithmapping hashtag, so we’ll know you’ve registered.

Incidentally, the Faithmapping cover design is the work of Sojourner Tyler Deeb, a fantastic graphic designer. See his portfolio here.

New Sojourn Record + $5 Sale On All Previous Worship Records

Most of you know that Kristen is a worship leader at Sojourn Community Church, and I write songs for Sojourn (where I’m also Director of Communications). We thought we’d let you know that Sojourn has released a new live worship record called Come Ye Sinners: Sojourn Music Live At Memorial Auditorium.

In addition, Sojourn is selling all previous albums for just $5 each until Christmas 2012. Albums that Kristen and I worked on include:

Before The Throne (2007) This is the Sojourn record that earned a 5 Star review in Christianity Today and brought an international audience to Sojourn’s worship ministry. I co-wrote “All I Have Is Yours” and “Lead Us Back” for Before The Throne.

Over The Grave. This is volume one in our Isaac Watts project. Over The Grave (2009) is a high-octane indie rock worship re-imagining of Isaac Watts hymns. I co-wrote “Warrior,” “Living Faith” and “We Are Changed” for this record.

The Water And The Blood. This is volume two of the Isaac Watts project — a folky, more acoustic project than Over The Grave. The Water And The Blood (2011) is also the first record Sojourn released after Kristen moved to the Louisville area and joined Sojourn Church. She sings lead on “From Deep Distress” and contributes harmony vocals on a few more songs here. I co-wrote “Let Your Blood Plead For Me.”

Other Sojourn records on sale for $5 include Advent and Christmas-themed albums. And the new Sojourn Live features Sojourn originals alongside Sojourn version of songs like John Mark McMillan’s “Death In His Grave,” the Getty/Townend anthem “O Church Arise,” and Brian Eichelberger’s “Satisfied In You.”

Kristen and I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

Be A Sojourn Church Communications Intern!

Band of Bloggers seminar photo from 2012 Together for the Gospel Conference, taken by Sojourn Communications Intern Chelsey Scott

My church Sojourn has a robust internship ministry, headed by Pastor Jeremy Lineman. Interns learn through our theology/discipleship classes. They also serve the church through the specific ministry areas they choose. If this sounds good to you and if you have a background or interest in church communications, then apply by October 31 for the internships beginning February 1, 2013.

You’ll work with me (the Director of Communications) as well as Director of Media Chris Bennett, other interns, and the Sojourn communications team led by Lead/Founding Pastor Daniel Montgomery. Current interns include Chelsey Scott (photography, print layout/design) and Shepherd Ahlers (video/filmmaking). We’d be happy to have more interns in these areas. We’re also looking for interns in Web Maintenance (may include light web design work) and Social Media. Other possibilities include:

• Writing & editing
• Graphic design
• Administration/clerical

Pastor Jeremy advises interns on how to raise the necessary financial support, and he and works to see that we holistically develop leaders for the church and the world through shepherding and practical ministry experience.

• For more details on the internship program and application information, please download the intern packet here.
• Apply Online Here
• Recommendation Form

If you have any questions related to internships at Sojourn Church, please email us at internships@sojournchurch.com.

The Communication Secret Your Church Needs

From the final Sojourn worship service at 930 Mary Street

Too often, church communications is all about event promotion, whether that event is a new class, sermon series, vision campaign, retreat, seminar or outreach festival. Then when the event is over, we’re onto the next thing.

If you consistently promote events as “a huge opportunity” or “can’t miss,” but you say nothing about the event when it’s finished, then you are unintentionally communicating that the event wasn’t a big deal after all. Over time, people will be less likely to believe that future events are “can’t miss” because nothing in the past turned out to be as special as what the event promotion led them to believe.

This is why we’ve posted recaps, photo blog posts, and testimonies following Sojourn Church events like our recurring Redeem Marriage seminars, baptism services, Fall Festival, campus launches, medical clinics and other events. And it’s why we took time to look back, even in the midst of looking forward, when our Midtown Campus left its original building for a bigger one down the street.

The first building Sojourn owned was originally a school building, built in 1906. We bought it nearly 100 years later, launching services at “The 930” in 2006. In the years since then we’ve outgrown the Sunday worship space, so we bought a former Catholic cathedral named St. Vincent’s, just two blocks from The 930. We’ve spent the last year on a massive renovation project. The new St. Vincent’s looks amazing, and the seating capacity is double the capacity at The 930 (which will remain our central staff office building and our meeting place for student ministry).

We’ve spent much energy promoting the launch of services at this new building, but we knew something would be missing if we

Church Communications: When Your Church Relocates, pt. 1

Churches relocate more than you think. In fact, your church may relocate someday. If so, you’ve got two primary communication challenges:

• Communicating the church move to your church members and regular attendees (the congregation)
• Communicating the church move to your neighbors (the community)

Let’s get to the basics of how to communicate “Our church is moving to a new location” to each of those audiences, in a two part series. We’ll use my church (Sojourn Community Church, in Louisville, KY) for examples. Since we’re a multi-site church, with four campuses around the Louisville region, we can provide multiple case studies. Today, we’ll talk about communications with the outside community in your new (or soon-to-be) neighborhood:

“Our Church Is Moving!” How To Communicate Effectively To The Outside Community

Residents of southern Indiana have always been a part of Sojourn’s membership. New Albany is the largest of several Indiana towns in the Louisville area, separated from the city by the Ohio River (we locals call this region “Kentuckiana”).

Within the past year, our Indiana community groups reached “critical mass” and we began looking for a facility in or near downtown New Albany. We scouted several buildings and came close to buying one, but then the perfect opportunity arose: a former school building that had just shut down the previous year. The 36,0000 square foot building looked great, and the asking price was right, so we closed the deal (press release here).

Problem: Many New Albany residents are still upset at the closing of Silver Street Elementary School in 2010.
Just last week I spoke with a man whose family had attended the school for five generations. Emotional ties run deep, and this man represents many residents who don’t feel the school district should have closed the school and sold the property.