In June of 2006, Darryl Bellar surrendered his life to full time ministry after serving as part time Student Pastor at The Gathering Church in Sevierville, TN for 3 ½ years. Along with this realization God also gave him a vision to launch a church in Nassau County Florida. He and his wife, Kara, began to pray that God would be very clear about this dream and through scripture and circumstances, God confirmed in their hearts they were to move back “home” and begin this work. On December 31, 2006 they began their own personal journey toward seeing God begin and build a church that would reach those far from God.
On January 28, 2007, a small group of 13 people met in their home to begin dreaming and planning the launch of The Journey. On Easter Sunday, April 8, 2007, The Journey celebrated it's first public worship service with 160 people in attendance. From that point through the summer of 2007 God continued to grow the church. Now, almost 5 years later, we have seen over 1000 people give their lives to Christ, over 600 people have been baptized, and an average of 1300+ people come through our doors every week.
Our mission is to reach people in our area and around the world with the irresistible love of Christ. As we relentlessly pursue this mission we will teach God's Word, serve our community, and reach out around the world in order to accomplish the Great Commission. From humble and sacrificial beginnings, God has shown favor to The Journey, and we truly believe the best is yet to come!
God has blessed The Journey with 40 acres of property off of Amelia Concourse and we are planning to break ground early in 2012. We believe The Future is Now and we have a responsibility to provide a place for the next generation to grow and worship. To find out how to be a part of this next step check out this exciting message from our lead pastor: The Future is Now
