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Monthly Archives: July 2016

July 17 Coffee Church Highlights

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July 19, 2016
Inspiration
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2016-07-15 18.56.35Congrats to Nate and Jessica on getting MARRIED!!!!!!  We started the weekend watching these incredible people commit to spending the rest of their lives together.  It has been such an awesome summer to watch two couples in our church choose to have God-honoring relationships as they walked in purity and respect for each other and their families.  That’s the way to do it, young people!  When the world tells you that living together outside of marriage is OK, it’s not!  Honor Him and He will honor your marriage!

Our kids arrived home on Friday from Summer Camp.  They had a GREAT week full of fun and Jesus moments.  Thank you to Mark and Andrea for spending a week with our kids.  Your investment will have lifelong benefits to these young lives.  I met Jesus at Kid’s Camp, so I know firsthand the impact one week can have!  There is no better investment into the lives of our children than a consistent attendance at church and summer camp.  It creates amazing friendships and a strong foundation of how to follow Christ.

We still have Deaf Family Camp just around the corner, so continue to pray for that as well!

We had our second week of our Throwback series where we are revisiting core principles of Christianity.  To add in a touch of fun our band is playing some songs from the 90’s (yeah, that’s Throwback..weren’t the 90’s like YESTERDAY!?!?!).  This week was a song mashup of lots of oldies.  Did you enjoy watching Chris Harold rap to DC Talk???  Definitely something I’ll remember until my death!

Mark your calendars for Latin Night on August 14.  We’ll be having a Latin inspired potluck with a ton of great food and conversation!  More info coming soon!

We would love for you to volunteer on Sundays with us.  It is the best way to meet other people and be a part of North Creek.  You can find the form at www.coffeechurch.com.

2016-07-17 09.41.07On an exciting note I turned 40 on Sunday!  It was so much fun to celebrate with my church family.  Thank you to everybody for the wishes, the cards, and the hugs!  When I was born, my mother’s best friend gave birth to my first best friend just nine days later and right next door.  She moved to Vancouver from Phoenix about six weeks ago, so on Sunday morning we took a picture together as we have celebrated every birthday together for the last 40 years.  Happy ALMOST Birthday, Robin!  

I love doing life with people.  Sign up for a Growth Group this fall when it comes around.  Or invite some “strangers” to lunch after church.  Or set up a coffee date with someone and ask them what their story is.  You’ll never be fulfilled in life playing it safe in relationships.  Dive in and love people with abandon!  It’s messy, it’s challenging on the schedule, and it’s SO worth it!

Well, Church, I love you!  I love the ups, the downs, the lessons, and the leaps that we all take together.  God is faithful in all of it and I wouldn’t choose another life for anything.  Thank you for showing me God’s love as we walk down this path side by side.  Here’s to another 40 years of seeing what He has in store for me!  I can’t wait!

July 10 Coffee Church Highlights

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July 12, 2016
Inspiration
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What a week in our nation…it seems all too often that I start my blog with grief for our current events.  I am more convinced than ever before that America needs a complete transformation of our beliefs and morals.  We have abandoned the sacred for our own agendas.  We must get back to the foundation that we are the ONLY ones responsible for our sins, we are to be held accountable, and we cannot blame others or institutions for our failures.  Simply put:  If you do wrong, you need to be held accountable.  We also need to get back to a measure of respect.  Respect for our police, respect for people regardless of color, respect for basic humanity.

How can you do your part?  I think the absolute greatest thing that we can all do is to raise our kids with the expectation that they need to be responsible and respectful.  Too often we blame teachers, pastors, coaches, etc. for our kid’s struggles rather than asking ourselves how to help our kids be respectful.  If your coach asks you to be at practice on time…show up early.  Don’t complain about your children’s authority figures, but rather help them learn communication skills.  Force them to confront appropriately when they are offended and help them understand conflict resolution.  If your kids are disrespectful to you, don’t let them carry around the cell phone you’re paying for and drive the car that you bought for them.  Let’s shrug off the entitlement that has seeped into our nation and go return back to the humility that should surround Christ followers.  I’ll save more on that topic for another day…

Sunday was FUN!  We kicked off our new series “Throwback”.  We’re looking back to the simple facts of Christianity.  To highlight our series, the band are playing key songs from the 80’s and 90’s.  You won’t want to miss this Sunday as Matt is doing one of his famous mashups!!

On another note, our Battle Ground building has CLOSED!  We are officially done selling our property and can now move forward on our quest for one central location.  Thank you for going on this journey with us.  It has been long, but so blessed by Jesus along the way!  He has taught us a book full of wisdom!

Our kids left for summer camp on Monday morning.  They were all RIDICULOUSLY excited for an exceptional week.  Please pray that Jesus touches their hearts this week in profound ways.  They are not too young to be changed in the presence of our God!

We are gearing up for Nate and Jessica’s wedding on Friday.  Jessica was one of our “church plant kids” who sacrificed a lot to do what God has asked of her.  I find it more than ironic that she is marrying a man that she met in the church that she helped start!  Congrats to both of you!!!!

Mark your calendars for August 14.  We are opening our home to a giant Latin night.  We’ll cram as many people in our house and yard as possible!  The Brizuela’s will be making homemade papusas, and the rest of us can bring our favorite Latin inspired dish!

In the fall we’ll be kicking off our Growth Groups again.  I have missed our group and look forward to connecting with them again…and some new faces as well!!!  If you are interested in hosting or leading a group, would you email chris@coffeechurch.com?  He would love to hear from you soon as he’s already planning some amazing things!

Good things are ahead!  I feel a great sense of excitement as we turn the next corner.  Here we go!!!!!

 

July 3 Coffee Church Highlights

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July 5, 2016
Ministry
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Happy Independence Day!  I am so thankful to live in a country where we can openly hold our beliefs and express our opinions.  What a gift!  I hope you had a safe and memorable holiday weekend with family or friends.

We had CRAZY fun Sunday!

We started the morning with a nice drizzle to set up our OUTDOOR baptism service!  Everything was wet, but it dried off in time to set up…and then it started drizzling just in time for our brunch.  We scrambled to move the food inside, but then we started service in the rain anyway.  ‘Cause we are a church in Washington and that’s what we do!  We worshipped a couple of songs with the rain spitting on our heads, but then the clouds parted just in time for baptisms.

!cid_5241F6C1-76AF-45F5-B8AF-72F834510B9B@hsd1_wa_comcast_netAs usual, baptisms at the Coffee Church means an entire audience full of people crying.  We love to hear the stories of changed lives and God NEVER ceases to amaze me!  Congrats to Izzy, Addy, Adam, Alex, Savannah, and Sarah on your declaration of serving Jesus with your whole hearts.  We look forward to seeing all that God does through each of you!  Thank you so much for sharing your commitment with us.  It is by your words that we are all encouraged to stay on mission for Jesus.  Baptism is a public declaration of the fact that God is STILL CHANGING LIVES.

We have pictures up on our Facebook page – North Creek  – The Coffee Church.  Thank you to Rick Donovan and Meghan Hoss for capturing these important moments!

Right after service, we loaded up an entire church full of stuff in preparation for the building closing and moved it to storage.  It is always INCREDIBLE to watch how fast things happen with 100+ hands working.  It was a mixed bag of emotions seeing that building empty.  Another chapter closing always brings both sadness and anticipation of what God has for us.

I did find it interesting that out of our six baptism candidates, one girl was with us from the bar we renovated on Hwy 99, one was from our Battle Ground campus, one was from our Hazel Dell campus, and three were from our services at Prairie High School/Youth Group at the Link Church building.  As we have moved, we have taken pieces of Clark County with us.  There is a purpose to it all!  That being said, I’m pretty excited to find a permanent home and stay put!  My back is too old for this!!! 😉

Our teenagers made it back from camp with truly deep stories of God working on areas in their hearts and lives.  He broke them free from grief, anger, bitterness, jealousy…and on and on.  He taught them how to worship, how to seek Him, and how to surrender.  Thank you to all of you who helped our teenagers get there with work opportunities, scholarships, and prayer!

A little side note to those of you who bounce around from church to church….You will never be all that God wants you to be until you commit to a group of Christian people and decide to walk alongside of them through thick and thin.  Even I have wanted to leave in the midst of conflict or challenge, but since that option is complicated for us, we stay and work through what God wants us to learn.  It is with that mentality that I have found myself flocked with people who love me inspite of my shortcomings.  People will only really be real with you when they trust that you’re in it for the long haul.  That right there is the greatest gift in the world.  Stay put and fight for relationships.  It’s a beautiful war that you need to fight with yourself.

See you Sunday!