6/2/2025
Journey is committed to serving our community and sharing the love of Jesus. A terrific team of volunteers from our church recently had a blast serving at Cloverdale Elementary School, creating a day full of fun and celebration for preschool through 5th grade students as they wrapped up the school year.
Our incredible team of volunteers showed up with energy, joy, and servant hearts. They made smiles happen, gave high-fives, led in games, and made memories the kids won’t forget!
Here are parts of some of the thank you notes the children wrote (with spelling corrected on some of them!):
Dear Journey Church, you are awesome!
Journey Church, thank you for all the fun you let us have.
Thank you for all that you did.
Journey Church, I love how you have fun and laugh. I appreciate you all of my life.
I am so thankful we have Jesus.
Dear Journey Church, thank you for the volleyball net.
Thank you for the snow cones. The snow cones were the best.
Thank you for giving us stuff. I loved the popcorn.
Thank you, Journey Church, for the bouncy houses. I loved them.
Dear Journey Church, thank you for the games and the fun day!
Thank you. You are so kind.
Thank you, Journey Church, for everything you did for the whole school.
Thank you, Journey Church, for the water balloons.
I had fun. Thank you.
Thank you, Journey Church, for basically planning the whole Field Day!
This is what happens when the church is the hands and feet of Jesus! Let’s keep serving and loving our community well!
-Michael
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6/9/2025
A Heartfelt Thank You to Journey Church
At Cloverdale Elementary, we are continually reminded of the incredible impact our community partners have on our school—and Journey Church is one of the shining examples of that support. We are so thankful for the time, energy, and heart they pour into making our school events joyful and memorable for our students and families.
This year, Journey Church played a key role in the success of both Back to School Night and Field Day. Their amazing team brought volunteers, games, and sweet treats that added excitement and laughter to both events. The photos from these days say it all—smiling faces, active play, and students having the time of their lives.
On Field Day, the reusable water balloons were a huge hit—especially when students got the chance to toss them at teachers and even the principal! The inflatables brought endless fun and are always a student favorite. After all that activity, popcorn and snow cones were the perfect treats to cool down and refuel.
Journey Church also brought interactive games that encouraged teamwork and friendly fun—like the giant Jenga game pictured here, which had kids strategizing and laughing with their friends.
It’s clear that when our school and community come together, incredible things happen. Thank you, Journey Church, for being such a generous and joyful part of our Cloverdale family. We appreciate all you do to support our students and create moments they'll never forget.
With heartfelt thanks,
Kelly Rooney
Principal, Cloverdale Elementary School
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6/16/2025
Thom Rainer writes that for Generation Z and Gen Alpha, the smartphone isn’t just a tool—it’s a lifestyle. And that lifestyle is quietly rewiring their brains, stealing their sleep, shrinking their confidence, and fueling a mental health crisis that cannot be ignored.
In his book The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt lays out disturbing trends with clarity and compassion.
From 2010 to 2020, major depression among boys rose by 161%. Among girls, it increased by 145%. Suicide attempts among girls surged 188%.
Social media platforms, turbocharged by smartphone access, have created a culture where worth is measured in likes, followers, and filtered images. For many teens, especially girls, their phone becomes a mirror that always whispers, “You’re not enough.”
The pressure to curate a perfect online persona leads to exhaustion, low self-esteem, and a fear of missing out. When their worth is tethered to digital affirmation, every missed like can feel like a rejection.
The damage isn’t just emotional. It’s physical too. Smartphones are robbing young people of sleep. The blue light from screens disrupts melatonin production, the hormone that regulates sleep. And since teens are already prone to irregular sleep patterns, the effect is amplified. Chronic sleep deprivation impairs memory, concentration, and decision-making. It also fuels mood disorders and increases the risk of depression.
Then there’s cyberbullying. The smartphone has made bullying a 24/7 reality. The mean words and cruel taunts follow kids into their bedrooms and through the night. Unlike schoolyard bullying, which ends with the final bell, cyberbullying is relentless—and often anonymous.
The never-ending stream of notifications, the dopamine hit from a new message or like, the endless scroll of content—these features aren’t accidental. They’re engineered for addiction. As a result, physical activity among young people has declined. Face-to-face conversations have been traded for emojis and memes.
Young people are growing up in a world where everything is shared—and nothing is truly forgotten. What they post today could resurface years later, shaping job opportunities, relationships, and reputations. They’re building a digital footprint they don’t yet understand, but one they will live with for the rest of their lives.
Churches need to become part of the solution. What if the local church became a refuge of real conversation, real connection, and real hope?
What have smartphones done to our young people? The answer may be painful. But the church must address the problem—and it must begin now.
-Michael
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6/23/2025
There’s a bar in Boston whose official name is The Bull & Finch Pub. It was an inspiration for the hit TV series Cheers that’s popular on Netflix. The actor and comedian George Wendt who played Norm Peterson on Cheers recently passed away. Whenever his character would enter the bar, the folks there would yell “Norm!” It was a place where he was known and cared about.
This popular TV series had memorable characters, funny stories, and great one-liners, but what connected many people to the show was the sense of community that was experienced there. At Cheers, everybody seemed to support each other and accept one another’s weaknesses. It was the kind of place people could go to, be themselves, and hang out. The theme song, which was almost as popular as the show itself, would hook you with the refrain: “You want to be where everybody knows your name.”
There’s something about community—the relationships, the sense of belonging, the support, the encouragement and understanding—that enriches our lives and strengthens our souls. That’s why community is an essential purpose of God’s church.
The new community that Christ came to establish is to be life-transforming. It’s where love, intimacy, compassion, service and honor are to be found. In God’s church you can love and be loved, know and be known, serve and be served, celebrate and be celebrated. These aspects of community are all indispensable to a life in Christ.
When you love and are loved, you are never to assume the worst about or give in to suspicion toward others. The novelist Dostoevsky wrote: “To love a person means to see him as God intended him to be.”
When you know and are known, you can acknowledge that we all have weaknesses. Genuine community allows people to say: “My name is John, and I’m struggling with porn; my name is Betty, and I have breast cancer; my name is Steve, and my marriage is falling apart; my name is Carol, and I lost my job; my name is Alice, and I’m lonely.” Knowledge of one another in the true community is not to be the basis for wounding, but rather for healing through the giving and receiving of grace, love and support.
When you serve and are served, you commit to care for the needs of others as you are cared for. A spirit of giving is evident and is necessary for genuine spiritual growth and development.
When you celebrate and are celebrated, you enjoy being together. You talk, laugh, and share the goodness of life together.
Anne Lamott wrote: “No matter how bad I am feeling, how lost or lonely or frightened, when I see faces of the people at my church, and hear their tawny voices, I can always find my way home.”
Will you do your part for Journey Church to be that kind of spiritual home?
-Michael