The Ten After: One Year at Journey Campus

“So we built the wall.  And all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.”

 - Nehemiah 4:6

Could there be a better description for this season at Journey Campus? 

So we did it.  We moved to ASU.  We launched Journey Groups for couples, college students, preschoolers, young professionals, junior and high schoolers, elementary schoolers and middle schoolers.

We created environments in the Student Center of a state university that over 800 people – two year-olds, twenty year-olds, and sixty year-olds – now call “my church.”  All portable, of course. (;

We saw God move in the lives of people who would have never stepped foot in a so-called “normal” church.  We saw friends baptized, addicts freed, families restored, and a new generation of leaders rise.

“. . . for the people had a mind to work.”

As Dan & I were driving along on Saturday, the message the Lord would have him deliver swimming around in his head, he asked me: “What would you say to them on our first anniversary?”  No thought required – no deliberation – no shadow of doubt – just two words came out of my heart and my mouth before he had hardly gotten the question out of his –

“Thank you.”

Lots of people have been sharing their favorite things about this phenomenal year at Journey Campus.  Now that question, I’ve been sitting on.  How could I ever boil it down to one or two things?  But at our Journey Group last night, as everyone shared story after story like a ping pong ball bouncing from wall to wall in the Polks’ living room, my answer began to shine clear.

Here is my favorite thing. 

Although God’s vision for Journey Campus was birthed within my husband and me over a decade ago, this has not been a year of selling the vision for us.  Let me try to explain.  We’ve cast the vision, sure.  Cast it out in coffee shops, restaurants, living rooms, offices, emails and texts.  But time after time after time after time, people have responded to the vision something like this:  “That is exactly what the Lord has been telling me, too.”

It was – and is – God’s vision, not ours.  And every time I hear a person talking about how He spoke it to them, drew them to Journey Campus, and moved in their life through it… I’m speechless.  And reminded, this has absolutely nothing to do with us.

God’s vision doesn’t have to be sold.  People don’t have to be persuaded, convinced, or manipulated.  Shown the next step, yes.  We’re simply flashlights for the staircase.

I love my husband’s heart.  As he was working on his message from Proverbs, God inserted a word from Nehemiah 4.   And he obeyed the Holy Spirit and brought it to us.

We are not finished yet.  We are confident that God has greater things in store for 2012 than we have seen or imagined in 2011.  The Word clarifies what it will require: 

“The strength of those who bear the burdens is failing…

Station people in the open places…

Do not be afraid of them (the opposition)…

Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome…

and FIGHT for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes…

Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other.  And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side as he built…

Rally together when we hear the sound of the trumpet…

Our God will fight for us.”

If you are one who bears the burdens at Journey Campus – you know who you are – do not let down your sword.  As I read Nehemiah 4:10 – “The strength of those who bear the burdens is failing” – my heart said, “That’s me!”  Last year was the hardest year of my life.  If you’re one who said “I’M IN,” a year ago, you probably agree!  From the Road Crew who bear the physical weight of Journey Campus each week, to the tiny staff who bear the leadership weight each day…. From the Journey Group leaders who bear the weight of shepherding a small community of believers, to the family ministry volunteers who bear the weight of preparation, organization, and time…  The people who make up the Journey Campus church family are the hardest working people I’ve ever known.

Do not let down your sword.  Know that in 2012, you are being fought for.  Our family is making a fresh commitment to pray passionately over the people, marriages, and families who carry the weight of Journey Campus.  It is God’s vision.  It is God’s work. 

“For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

- Hebrews 4:12