By Bill MacLeod

Vickie was working for The Walt Disney Studios when she was prompted to take the 15-week, Perspectives course at a church near her home outside LA. She had spent over 30 years in positions focused on leadership and business development, strategic planning, technology, research and development, innovation, and creativity. Feeling a hunger to know and do more for Jesus, she registered for a weekend retreat that promised to help her identify next steps in her journey. After The Journey Deepens (TJD) weekend retreat, her life changed.

Today, Vickie Warren is the ceo of MissionNext, formerly The Finishers Project, which offers “Pathways to connect God’s people with options to serve”.  It is also the parent organization of The Journey Deepens.  For over 11 years now, The Journey Deepens has been helping guide hundreds of people just like Vickie into their next assignment.

Mission ConneXion has been privileged to partner with TJD every year since 2012 because with 60% of its participants finding their place in missions within 3 years of going through a TJD weekend, they’re the best group we know to help people discover their own unique onramp to missions. Here’s what others have said of their experience.

Here’s how a TJD weekend works:

•  Attendees are divided into small groups of 6-8 people each and each group has two cross-cultural experienced missionaries as coaches.
• There are 4 plenary sessions, each one dealing with a particular topic, followed by a 1/2 hour time for each person to be alone with the Lord to process what they have just heard.
• Then they come together in the small groups for an hour to talk through what they have heard, ask their questions and learn from the coaches. These groups are the ‘heart and soul’ of the weekend.
• The four themes covered have to do with:  1) Spiritual preparation for missions service, 2) Your next role in missions (Goer, Sender, Mobilizer), 3) Prayer (a Concert of Prayer is used to model and engage in prayer for the nations), 4) Spiritual warfare.

Like Vickie, you may be in a career that is completely satisfying to you, “being Jesus” in your work environment. You may also wonder, like Vickie, if the Lord could use your career skills and experiences in an environment that is completely dedicated to the furtherance of the Gospel, and the Great Commission…and not known quite how to proceed. The Journey Deepens Portland 2019 weekend is April 12-13!  If you would like to register, click here.

What can you lose?