I’m WAY late on this, but I never posted pictures from the remodel we did in August. Enjoy!

Our new downsized bar to make room for people. The bricks behind the bar are all paint and not real…it’s SUPER cool!

Looking back towards the Kid’s Checkin and across the room full of my favorite people!

Nobody gets lost finding our Kid’s area.

We may or may not have chosen the absolutely most obnoxious color in the universe. We didn’t want a church that fought over paint color, so we just picked something everyone would hate…just kidding. OK, maybe not.

I had to include a picture of the Kid’s Checkin system. We love our electronic wonder!!!!

For the rest of the room, you’ll have to come and see it in person! Thanks to everybody who helped along the way. It was alot of fun and totally worth the work!

What a beautiful time of the year! As we stop and reflect on the birth of Jesus, I pray that you will take the time to worship him with a fresh sense of awe. He was born in humility, died completely humbled, rose again with full authority, and He was the greatest King that ever lived. He is worthy!

We enjoyed our Christmas season very much at North Creek! Our Christmas Eve services were wonderful and we are so glad that our world stops just for a little while to embrace Jesus. It is an awesome opportunity to tell the story once again!

We want to thank you for allowing us to be your pastors and your friends. We are blessed beyond measure with great relationships, strong ministries, and a group of people who continue to keep Jesus the main thing! We know that 2012 will bring just as many adventures as previous years and we look forward to watching how God uses our church to do His will in Clark County (and beyond!).

We hope that today you are blessed! Our prayer is that God would complete the work He began in you and that your life would be full of His glory. We love you!

Merry Christmas! You are invited to our celebrate Christmas with the Coffee Church! Our schedule this week is unique with Christmas Eve Services at 6:30 and 8:00 pm on Saturday. They are family style services with childcare for nursery only. We have a special activity packet for all of the kids to enjoy during our service. We will be singing carols, enjoying the Christmas story, and some special music. Also, there will be no services on Sunday, December 25. Enjoy the morning with family and friends!

When we started North Creek Church five years ago we had NO idea how to start a church. And true to our nature, we were going to do it with as much speed as we could muster. We ended up being done as youth pastors on June 19, 2006 and having our first full blown service on Sept. 24, 2006…that included a couple of weeks of vacation and a new born baby! We don’t mess around.

ALthough it seemed like a lot of ground to cover in a short amount of time, in hindsight the entire church was scratched on paper on March 9, 2006. Mark and I decided to just randomly jot down who we were and what we felt a strong foundation would look like. I found that paper and I decided that I would blog some of those prophetic words to keep them as a part of our history. God truly whispered so much of our destiny to us that day, but we had no way of knowing just how much clarity we had in the midst of the confusion.

Here is what we pictured so many years ago:

Research possible locations
• bar that closed on highway 99
• School district
• New office building right off of freeway
• Washington state university

Mission is leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ

Core Values
Family
Authentic Relationships
Honoring God & People
Creativity- Relevant
Empowerment- destiny

Other values we have discussed:
• Partnership
• Technology
• Environment

Optimism
We believe…
God will give you better
Will grow this ministry
Foundation… building

Multiplication
Affirmation
Encouragement
Student involvement
Dream big
See yourself as god sees you
Invest and Invite

Everyone’s a 10 somewhere
1. You must believe that the leaders are there
They are in your church

2. Become a dream releaser
Bird in the cage let free at edge of ravine
Greatest joy is to set something free

When people’s dream is being released..
Maximum effectiveness minimum weariness
When not… max weariness, min. effectiveness

Extreme joy
Accelerated growth
People
Kid’s ministry
Motivated, passionate believers
Find people’s gifts
Excellence
Sane people in leadership…THIS ONE MAKES ME LAUGH!!!
Amazing worship

Model
Foyer
Living room
Kitchen
Small groups- we are small groups
Top notch kids on Sundays
Spiritual virtues
5th & 6th grade Sundays- top notch & small groups
Jr. & sr. high Sunday afternoon
Sunday- involved in service and ministry
No choir, contemporary worship
Worship & prayer monthly
Series, creative, illustrated
Rotating preachers
Website resources, DVD resources
Honoring team, people

No plan b

Pretty shocking how many of these words I would have written down today if you asked me to describe North Creek. It’s amazing! Maybe you should take some time today and make a list of what your life will look like in 5 years…you might just get what you ask for!

Merry Christmas! Our sermon yesterday was a reminder to tie all things back to the amazing birth of Jesus Christ! Slow down, enjoy family, forget the pressure to DO and just BE with Jesus. Good stuff!

The kid’s checkin system is rolling smoothly at this point! As more and more families get into the system, it is really going well. SUPER nice to have all of the kids appropriately labeled!

Worship team did a phenomenal job yesterday. LOVE their voices lifting up praise to Jesus!

A five year old came bounding up to me at church asking if she could have a Bible. YES! There is a wealth of amazing wisdom in the pages of the Bible and I know that if you get ahold of that while you are young, the trajectory of your life will be changed. Our choices determine our future and you make the right choices by knowing what the right choice to make.

Ministry requires getting THICK skin. So many issues and conversations throughout the week that can be daunting to deal with! You can’t let the hard stuff overshadow the great stuff.

Speaking of great stuff, two people told us that God healed them at Simply Worship a couple of weeks ago. They had physical issues and God touched them!

I am looking forward to 2012. What are you dreaming for from God???? I’ve got a list!

Love my church, love my family, love my God! Have a VERY blessed week and we’ll see you soon!