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, we have seen well over 1000 people give their lives to Christ and the number continues to grow, hundreds of 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 in the spring of 2013 we moved into our new facility on this land. As we continue to move forward we believe God will provide for us to launch multiple campuses in our region as well as continue to serve our community by expanding our outreach opportunities. We believe we have a responsibility to provide a place for the next generation to grow and worship. If you would like to know more about how you can become a part of this Go God story, visit one of our weekend worship experiences or email questions@thejourneyfamily.com for more information.
