“As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them” (Luke 24:15).
This passage has been a guiding principle for the aptly named Journey Church, a Charis Fellowship church located in eastern Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia. Pastor Adam Johnson, along with his wife Megan and their four kids, have spent the past decade walking alongside their community as they helped shape Journey into the church it is today.
In this Luke 24 passage, two apostles were walking along the road to the village of Emmaus discussing the death and resurrection of Jesus. As they were talking, Jesus appeared next to them, but they didn’t recognize Him. Megan said, “What’s so moving about this passage is that Jesus drew near to them — He walked at their pace, asked them questions, let them express their grief and doubt.” Verse 27 says, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” Shortly after this, their eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus, and they ran to tell others of their encounter with their risen Lord.
Megan said, “We try to follow this example as we reach out to those around us. We have to go to them where they are and walk along with them along the way. And in that process, we pray that their eyes are opened and they recognize Him (Luke 24:31). We beg the Holy Spirit to keep doing that! Then we pray that they run back to tell others about the Jesus that they have discovered (Luke 24:32,33).”
Journey Church desires to help people discover, be discipled in, and deliver the good news of the Gospel to their communities and the rest of the world. They do this not just by inviting people to attend service or hosting big events, but by doing life alongside their neighbors.
“It’s been a long process of tilling the soil,” Adam said. “But it’s been neat to see God — in His timing — produce the fruit.”
The church, which averages about 120 on a Sunday, recently had to knock down a wall to make their sanctuary big enough to accommodate their growing congregation, and soon will need to undergo another expansion. Adam and Megan said, “Most of our growth has come primarily through relationships. By knowing our neighbors, and living life with them, we are able to help them discover Jesus. Everything we do directs people to the Word and seeing Jesus in it. Once people discover Jesus, they invite others to ‘come and see’ the Jesus they met.”
In September Journey held a special baptism service where 13 people were baptized, most of whom put their faith and trust in Christ within the past year. Among those baptized that day was a family of three, who hosted the service in their backyard. Three years ago, before the family was connected to the church, their home was damaged in a tornado. They had friends who attended Journey, and a group of people from the church helped clean up and repair their home and yard. Two years later the wife attended a women’s event, and later a Sunday service. She invited her husband, who agreed to come only to see his friend’s reaction upon seeing him in church. But God drew them in, and they trusted in Him and began to pray for their teenage daughter, who later also found hope in Jesus. All three were baptized in the very backyard that strangers — now family — helped to repair three years prior. Another young girl who was baptized led the congregation in singing “Who You Say I Am,” a song that was meaningful to her in coming to faith in Jesus.
Adam said, “We really got to see how people discovered, were discipled in, and delivered the good news on that day. It was a special day for our church, it felt like a page turn in the best way possible.”
