Pastor Patrick Garrett was raised in Hiawassee, GA and went to college at East Coast Bible College in Charlotte, NC where he met Diana Carroll. They were married in October of 1992, and came to Murphy to Pastor the Murphy Church of God in February of 1994.
When Pastor Garrett arrived, the church had an average attendance of around 12 to 15 people. Pastor Patrick stayed, prayed and fasted and over time the church grew. In 2007, the church moved into a beautiful new building and at that time the church had grown to a much larger congregation from 1994.
In January of 2008, Pastor Patrick & Diana suffered the loss of a baby and shortly after left Murphy and moved to Kannapolis to Pastor Highest Praise Family Worship Center, also a Church Of God congregation. During the 3 years Pastor Patrick & Diana spent in Kannapolis, their family grew to include a beautiful baby girl, named Patience Suzanne.
After 3 years of ministry in Kannapolis, Pastor Patrick, Diana & Patience returned to Murphy to once again pastor, what was then, Journey Church of God. In 2016, Pastor Patrick’s family grew again to include another beautiful baby girl, Lynli Grace. Over the past 6 years the church has grown and changed a lot. After much prayer, fasting and seeking the will of God, Pastor Patrick felt the leading of the Holy Spirit to leave the Church of God denomination and to follow God’s leading to become a true New Testament church. This came about after Pastor Patrick, along with many people today, found himself disenchanted with the “church as usual” church experience.
Pastor Patrick feels the leading of the Holy Spirit that the church should be so much more than just 4 walls and a steeple, but that the BODY OF CHRIST should be a group of believers coming together to encourage one another and going out into the world and offering HOPE! This HOPE can ONLY be found in GOD! From this movement, we stepped out of our traditional church building and Journey Fellowship was birthed.
Pastor Patrick’s motto is Love, Acceptance and Forgiveness. Pastor Patrick tries to live this in his everyday life and preaches this in the pulpit as well. Journey Fellowship is a place that strives to be the hands, feet and mostly the HEART of Jesus.
Journey Fellowship is a place where you will find a group of believers who love God and who come together to worship, pray and receive the Word, and then go out and share that word with the world. Journey Fellowship is a group of believers striving to be a body of New Testament believers who Love, Accept and Forgive everyone just as the Father has Loved, Accepted and Forgiven us. Journey is family, it’s where people belong.
Associate Pastors
Associate Pastor Lora & Charles Beeler
After being called to teach and then to preach the Word of God, Lora Beeler along with her husband Charlie spent several years ministering directly to those struggling with addiction issues through 4HISGlory Ministry.
Lora has been asked to bring the Word through teaching and preaching to other churches as a guest speaker as well, and God has now led them to Journey Church, where they have found that Pastor Pat Garrett has the same love and desire for the church to reach out to people and the community.
They live in Hayesville, NC and between them they have 3 beautiful daughters and 4 grandchildren!
