Our Story
In 2008, we opened our doors at 1601 4th St. in Santa Rosa, CA. We were there for 16 years before we moved to our current location.
The vision for the Journey Center first came in early 2003 and since then we have been on a wonderful “journey” towards becoming all that God has invited us to be, both personally and as a Center for spirituality, healing and wholeness.
Along the way, we have discovered that there are thousands of people here in Sonoma County, California… and many more throughout the world… who are longing for a genuine and transformative experience of God.
We have also discovered that God is longing for the same thing… for us to be transformed through the Spirit’s power as we encounter and experience (and share) the love that is poured out for us!
The Journey Center is a safe, welcoming and helpful place for all who are spiritually thirsty, no matter what path they have chosen at this point in their journey. We offer resources (online and local), events, gatherings and opportunities that are both Christ-centered and respectful of all spiritual paths.
We are also the birthplace and member of the Journey Center Association.
We are safe…we are here to listen to your story and to be an encouragement, not to impose our own version of what your spiritual journey should look like.
We are welcoming… you are invited to come as you are, where you are, who you are… and to know that you will be loved, prayed for and supported.
We are helpful…offering many resources for your unique spiritual journey.
Videos of Celebration
Journey Center Santa Rosa the the Years
10th Birthday Celebration Slideshow
15th Birthday Celebration Slideshow
A 2 minute video about who we are and what we do
Stories of Transformation
Shawn Gutshall
“Without contraries there is no progression.” William Blake
Being asked to write a short piece on my ‘encounter with the Holy’ at the Journey Center had me initially both intrigued and stumped. What have I encountered and what does encountering the Holy mean? Upon reflection I can speak of an experience characterized by a slow undoing over time, an undoing of assumptions, conclusions, attitudes and beliefs established on insufficient grounds long ago and by a gentle cracking open of the heart.
My curiosity was first piqued in early ’08 by notices appearing about the Center in a local paper. With a yearning to be part of a community of depth and shared values trailing me for years, a new spiritual center was inviting. Hesitancy held me at bay, it being Christ-centered, and I not a Christian, until a workshop on journal writing as a spiritual practice reeled me in. And that, I am grateful to say, was the beginning of an on-going relationship of transformation with self, others and God.
The tone and tenor of the dialog encountered that first visit, primarily of hospitality and inclusion, encouraged my engagement and return, again and again. In time, I began to truly feel welcomed. By that I mean, the arising of who I am didn’t feel squelched energetically by judgment or exclusion. I liken this to the analogy Parker Palmer makes in A Hidden Wholeness of the soul being like a wild animal; it remains hidden until it feels safe to emerge. With an insatiable curiosity and a mind full of questions, this welcome feeling was momentous. I could see my probing and prodding, rather than threatening others, invited sincere interest in dialog and an intent to answer.
This relationship developed not without contradiction though; as a participating non-Christian I struggled internally. Mental walls established decades ago out of fear of the proselytizing fundamentalist and ignorance of the vast canon of contemplative Christianity limited my perspective, scope, and lens and held my heart and ears in a fortress of my own making. As I began to learn about alternative orthodoxy and to understand the source of the hospitality around me the drawbridge beckoned.
To piggyback on Merton quoted by Palmer in On the Brink of Everything, I found myself “in contradiction: to realize this is mercy, to accept it is love, and to help others do the same is compassion. Contradictions are engines of creativity. There’d be no divine discontent or the sense of possibility that animates our growth if we got everything right or everything wrong. What we get wrong makes us reach for something better. What we get right reassures us that the ‘better’ is sometimes within our reach.”
Mindy Braun
I was first introduced to the Journey Center in Santa Rosa, CA in 2008 when I was seeking a way to serve my community. I was growing in my awareness of social justice issues and had a heart for prayer. I grew up in the Christian church and even felt called to become a missionary at an early age. I see now that I have always been wired for “being on a mission”. I am passionate, but I was also very legalistic. I was harshest towards myself, but it spilled over to others I’m afraid. My inner critic was loud and I could hardly imagine a God of grace and love. I wanted to do things right and to be good and help those around me. Yet, I would not describe this place of being with words like freedom, peace, or joy.
I was drawn to the Journey Center because I experienced the Spirit in a new way. I was able to serve others through prayer, but I was finding something for myself there also. I was hearing stories of a God that gently broke through into people’s lives and met them right where they were at. I experienced a different way of being and I loved being there. At this stage in my life I was a mom of young children and was not able to be there as much as I wanted. I remained on the prayer team and God continued to work more of His grace into my life.
As I write this, I am now 10 years further along in my journey and I have grown in my understanding of my inherent worthiness and value for just being made in the image of the Divine. It is not based on how well I do, but that I am worthy, I am enough, right this moment, as is. I was invited to be on the Journey Center Santa Rosa board and it was like coming home. I am still wired for “being on mission” and I am still passionate, but there is a deeper understanding of grace and acceptance….and yes, peace and freedom.
At the Journey Center, I have found deep community with people who are seeking to experience the Holy and to allow the Spirit to transform their lives. Through the contemplative practices, the Spirit has room to speak to my heart, and through community discernment, I have an outlet to respond. I am finding ways to express radical love and hospitality through racial unity groups, facilitating art journaling spiritual practices, and serving as bookkeeper/admin. The most precious part for me is to have experienced the welcome and sanctuary of true acceptance and belonging so that I am now a part of being that sanctuary for others.
Jan Richardson’s poem The Blessing Called Sanctuary describes this beautifully for me:
You hardly knew
how hungry you were
to be gathered in,
to receive the welcome
that invited you to enter
entirely—
nothing of you
found foreign or strange,
nothing of your life
that you were asked
to leave behind
or to carry in silence
or in shame.Tentative steps
became settling in,
leaning into the blessing
that enfolded you,
taking your place
in the circle
that stunned you
with its unimagined grace.You began to breathe again,
to move without fear,
to speak with abandon
the words you carried
in your bones,
that echoed in your being.You learned to sing.
But the deal with this blessing
is that it will not leave you alone,
will not let you linger
in safety,
in stasis.The time will come
when this blessing
will ask you to leave,
not because it has tired of you
but because it desires for you
to become the sanctuary
that you have found—
to speak your word
into the world,
to tell what you have heard
with your own ears,
seen with your own eyes,
known in your own heart:that you are beloved,
precious child of God,
beautiful to behold,
and you are welcome
and more than welcome
here.—Jan Richardson from Circle of Grace