FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What exactly is Journey Australia?
Journey Australia is a faith-based, charitable organization whose mission is to help individuals experience Jesus in their relational and sexual struggles, and to equip them for a life-long journey of healing. We do this by creating safe places for individuals to receive spiritual support and prayer, offering intensive discipleship courses, training and equipping church leaders, and by partnering with churches and denominations.

What denomination are we?
Journey Australia is unaffiliated with any particular Christian denomination. Journey partners with various denominations and local churches, from Pentecostal to Roman Catholic, Baptist, to Anglican.

Who comes to Journey?
Women and men participate in a Journey program to address a range of personal experiences—from sexual abuse to addiction, from anger problems to low self-esteem, from sexual identity to divorce. The vast majority of people who enroll in Journey want freedom from addiction and healing from abuse.

Are Journey programs a form of counselling?
While drawing on the insights of psychology and therapeutic practice, the Journey program is primarily a religious ministry addressing spirituality as it relates to relationships and sexuality. Journey is a grass-roots ministry facilitated by local churches and led by trained volunteers. Journey Australia does not offer public or private mental health services, nor does it offer individual counselling, psychotherapy, group therapy, etc.

What kind of prayer does Journey Australia practice?
Journey Australia emphasizes listening prayer and the belief that God is presently speaking to and transforming His people. Journey programs create a safe, structured space for participants to experience listening prayer in small groups. It is our experience that God regularly uses prayer to speak words of emotional healing and spiritual renewal into the hearts of people.

What kind of “healing” does Journey promote?
Journey Australia aims to facilitate spiritual healing in the lives of participants. We define spiritual healing as, “coming to know God as Father, Jesus as our brother, and the Holy Spirit as our comforter—as the Triune God transforms us by ministering to our areas of need, wounding, and pain.” Spiritual healing involves replacing distorted images of oneself and of God with truthful images, cultivating emotional and voluntary openness towards God, and regaining personal empowerment through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Spiritual healing is foremost about our restored capacity to know and live in relationship with God. This does not guarantee total restoration or freedom from all the effects of wounding or sin in our lives. It does, however, mean we can face our struggles and life challenges from a new place of strength, assurance and hope.

Does Journey Australia serve individuals who identify as LGBTQ?
Since being founded in the USA  25+ years ago, Journey Australia has been a ministry for Christians of all backgrounds facing various relational and sexual experiences, including unwanted self-identified same-sex attraction. On average, the percentage of Journey Australia program participants who say they have unwanted self-identified same-sex attraction is approximately 5%. The majority of participants acknowledge their experiences to be with pornography addiction, marital problems or abuse in their past.

What is Journey’s view on sexuality?
Journey Australia’s perspectives on sexuality and relationships are rooted in the Christian tradition and turns first to the Christian Scriptures for beliefs, values and ethics. Journey Australia follows an orthodox Christian understanding of sexuality, including God’s plan for sexual relations between a man and a woman within marriage.

As a charity, does Journey receive public money or government funding?
Journey Australia does not receive any public money or government funding. Journey Australia is funded solely through program fees and the contributions of like-minded individuals and churches that share our mission.