Worship Journey meets Sundays at 9:30 AM at the Campo YMCA at the corner of Bloomingdale and Culbreath. We start with some eye opening coffee and fresh donuts, then right into our contemporary, upbeat praise & worship! Pastor Dan's opening prayer and inspiring message follow. See our CALENDAR for the current message summary. You can also listen to our past messages in our Podcast!
Women's Bible Study The ladies of Journey just finished Beth Moore's study of Esther. A new study will be starting in a few weeks. Check back for more information or email Sandy at sandralee59@tampabay.rr.com.
BUCs Brothers Under Christ meet the third Saturday of each month at Starbucks on Lithia Pinecrest in Valrico, FL from 8-9 AM. We are currently working through a study called SHINE. Come grab a cup of coffee and join us for this practical Bible Study.
STUDENT MINISTRY(grades 6-12) Do you have questions about the Bible that you didn't find in Church? This is a weekly youth group that meets to discuss the Bible in a fresh and contemporary way to help our students stay strong in the environments. Meets every Sunday from 6:00 to 8:30 PM at 4929 Bell Shoals in Brandon, FL. We have games and practical Bible teaching each week. Come join us this week!
For more info on any of our small groups, please call Pastor Dan at 597-6426 or email him at dan@journey7.com.
Welcome to the news section of the site. Here you will find our recent news items.
Feel free to click on the news title to view more information.
If you live in the Brandon area, we have a free gift for you. It is simply our way of saying thanks for visiting one of our services. Please join us whenever you are able and we will give you a free copy of "How Good is Good Enough" by bestselling author Andy Stanley.
New Church Has "Fresh" Approach
Casual Worship Offers Relevant Answers By Yvette C. Hammett, The Tampa Tribune
VALRICO - Sunday is th only day Kelley Klein doesn't mind getting up early. By 7 a.m., she and her husband, Tim, are at the Campo Family YMCA socializing, working and preparing for worship.
"If I couldn't wear flip-flops and jeans, I probably wouldn't be there," said Klein, 26, who recently had her feet tattooed with the verse, "Walk in Faith, Not by Sight."
At The Journey Church, Klein said, "everybody just seems like they care. Everyone is very accepting of everyone else.
Dan Reid, lead pastor for the new church, which meets weekly in the YMCA gym, calls it a ministry reaching out in a fresh way.
He is officially kicking off the new church on Easter with a series of sermons called GPS, designed to help people find direction in their lives. Retired NBA star Jim Price also will be there to share God's influence on his life and sign a few autographs.
Reid started a ministry here about two years ago and had a following of about 60 people. His group recently merged with Connection Church, a congregation of about 50, to form The Journey.
"We are under the Southern Baptist Convention, but we don't look like typical Baptists," Reid said over a strawberry lemonade at the Bloomingdale Starbucks, sunglasses perched atop his spiked hair.
He has done the coat-and-tie ministry in a 1,200-member church in Texas, he said. From there, he moved to the Pacific Northwest and started a church based on small-groups ministry, where he stayed for four years. Then, the Tampa native said, he got a calling from God to come home and start a new church.
Reid still uses small-groups ministry, where members of the congregation meet to discuss their lives and their beliefs, rather than holding traditional Sunday school.
"Our goal is to be authentic and fresh," he said. "We want to fashion something fresh and relevant that answers questions facing people in their lives. We are more than institutional church."
Bill Kagey, who headed the Connection Church and is handling The Journey's youth ministry, said the congregation is made up of people who "have a heart in the community, mature believers. But there are others still seeking answers."
The Kleins, who started out with Kagey, fall into the latter category. The two were baptized last year in the YMCA pool.
"We moved here last March and looked at a bunch of different churches," Kelley Klein siad. "We looked for a smaller church. We didn't want to have to swim through people.
"We're young and didn't grow up with hymn books," she said. "We didn't grow up Christian.
Now, Tim Klein takes on the responsibility each Sunday of transforming the YMCA gym into a house of worship. Kelley Klein sings with the praise and worship team.
Someday, Reid said, there will be a building fund, perhaps a land donation.
For now, though, it's all about the community.
"We want people to come just as they are, without having to fit into a mold," Reid said.
So far, The Journey's membership has done two outreaches, passing out water bottles near the YMCA and planning a project with Habitat for Humanity.
"We just want to be Jesus in our community," Reid said. "We hope to plan one outreach at least once a month."
For now, the congregation will continue meeting at the Campo YMCA, he said. "The YMCA's been great to work with, and we don't need to make any fast moves."
The Journey Church meets each Sunday at 10 a.m. at the YMCA, 3414 Culbreath Road, near Bloomingdale Avenue. For more information, go to www.journey7.com.
