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March 8 Coffee Church Highlights

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March 10, 2015
Inspiration, Ministry
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SO many things happening this week:

Three years ago this week we began the process of merging with Maple Grove Church to create North Creek’s second campus in Battle Ground.  It has been such a learning experience as we were thrown into turning around a struggling church, adding a deaf church, creating a new leadership infrastructure, starting a youth ministry, starting a worship team, etc.  What a wild ride!  And along the way we have been blessed with many stories of changed lives!

One year ago this week we started our Battle Ground Youth Ministry!  Mat and Janel Marbrey are two of the best blessings that have come out of the last three years!  And we are so very grateful for the influx of teenagers that now roam our hallways.  There’s nothing better than a church full of teenagers!!!!

Our Hazel Dell Youth Pastor took a small team of people to a youth leader’s conference last week.  It happened to be the same conference where God called us to plant a church…good news is that Kris didn’t get asked to do that again! 😉  I guess that’s good news…maybe more Coffee Churches would be AWESOME!

We also had an incredible Simply Worship on Friday night.  God really did some deep work in the hearts and lives of people from our church.  God is CHANGING people in our midst!  I could not be more excited for how I see Him molding people’s hearts and circumstances.  If you are stuck, frustrated, addicted, and struggling…don’t give up!  He’s got a plan!

Our Annual Business Meeting is next week to go over the state of the church (Sunday, March 15, 5pm).  We had a challenging year financially in 2014, so we have to solve that for 2015.  On the flip side, we had a plethora of truly incredible ministry going on, so there’s a juxtaposition of emotions.  One thing I know:  God is good, He will guide us, and I trust Him. We have a bright future and I can’t wait to see it unfold!

Who are you inviting to Easter?  I’m inviting everyone who breathes.

Well, I hope you LOVE your church, because I do.  I love the people that I get to meet, I love the hearts to grow in my Growth group, I love the struggles that we have the honor of walking alongside, I love the celebrations, and I love the dreams.  I love that we get to serve a God together in unity and make each other more like Him.  I love singing worship songs, and I love watching our kids grow up together.  I love His Word and I love how it changes the core of who we are.  I love when my youth pastor calls weeping over a broken teenager because it means she LOVES them.  I love when I see laughter in the foyer, and I love the coffee flowing into so many cups every Sunday.  I love that my kids are a part of something greater than themselves and I love when our team fights for what they believe in.  I love when we all forgive each other and I love when we mess up.  I love your stories and I love those of you who serve faithfully.  I love that my heart’s desire is to be at this church a really long time and I love the fact that so many of you feel the same way.  I love the idea that I will grow old with you and tell stories about “Once upon a time at North Creek”… and I really love that God lets me do this with my life.  WE ARE SO BLESSED to be a part of this crazy, broken thing called “Church”.  Isn’t it a beautiful mess?

Be blessed this week.  I know I am!

 

 

March 1 Coffee Church Highlights

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March 4, 2015
Ministry
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God is so good!  We had a good week at the Coffee Church and we hope you did too!  Here’s a few highlights to note:

Our first service at Hazel Dell is getting pretty full!  If it works for your family to move to the 11 am service, that would be awesome.  We are also tossing around a minor schedule adjustment to help with our “problem”.  We like problems like that…

Our El Salvador missions trip team is preparing to leave next month.  If you would like to help them, just write El Salvador team on your offering and we will add it to their account.  We have four adults and six teenagers who are going to do LOTS of ministry over 9 days!  They could use a last minute push in their finances after working so hard to raise money over the last six months.  Also, add that team to your prayer list!

We have a lot going on this month at North Creek!  I wanted to make you aware of some important calendar items:

Simply Worship – March 6 @6:30 pm at Hazel Dell Campus

Join us for an evening of worship and prayer on Friday, March 6.  This is an incredible opportunity to worship, be prayed over and pray for others, take communion, and allow God to work in your heart!  Childcare is provided. 

Annual Business Meeting – March 15 @ 5pm at Hazel Dell Campus

Once a year we have an annual business meeting for our members to let you know about the state of the church.  While our ministries seemed to thrive all year and we ended up with record baptisms, 2014 was not an easy year financially for our church.  We would like you to come to our annual business meeting so you can better understand the big picture.  Your investment into North Creek is vital to our mission to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus!  Childcare is provided.  If you’d like to bring a plate of cookies to share, that would be great! 

Volunteer Training – March 21 @ 10 am – BOTH Campuses

If you are currently a volunteer or would like to be one, we are having an All Volunteer meeting to go over pertinent details to ministry.  Childcare is provided. This is happening at BOTH campuses, so attend your campus’ location.

Kid’s NITRO Conference – March 27-28 – $120 for 2nd-5th graders

Our kids will be heading to NITRO again this year!  This is an incredible overnight trip for our kids to worship, learn about Jesus, and get to know friends!  Registration is due March 15, so email kim@coffeechurch.com and she will send you a registration form.   

Easter Service at Prairie High School – April 5 @ 10 am

We will be taking our church to Prairie High School for ONE CHURCH on Easter Sunday!  More information and invite cards are coming soon.
Whew!  On that note, I hope you jump into some of these events in order to develop relationships and deepen your walk with Jesus.  We appreciate your involvement, your giving, and your support!  We trust God with this church and look forward to whatever may come!
Be blessed!
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February 22 Coffee Church Highlights

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February 25, 2015
Ministry
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I’m a little slow getting our weekly highlights out!  Need some extra coffee this week!!! 😉

I LOVE what God is doing in the hearts and lives of the people at North Creek.  We get to hear so many of you sharing with us how God is challenging you to step out in faith.  It is fun to see how God is using your obedience in some really touching ways!  Any time you want to send a testimony to us, please do!  We love to hear from you.  Email me at stacy@coffeechurch.com

We got another North Creek baby last week!  Beautiful Kensley was born to Marc and Amy and big brother Kingston.  They are all doing well and we look forward to another baby in the nursery!  I get asked all of the time how many babies North Creek has…we average 12 a year, which is CRAZY for our size of church.  We have several more due this month, so the announcements will just keep coming!

I am asking that you would commit to pray for our leadership team.  Ministry is hard work.  While full of a mountain of blessings, there are deep sorrows and frustrations along the way.  Diving into people’s lives comes with a heavy emotional load.  And some people in this world respond badly to others while they are hurt.  I watch our staff team give and give and give for little in return and they need your prayers desperately.  I appreciate your love for each of them!  Let them know it regularly!

Mark attended the funeral of a dearly loved pastor (and friend) on Friday.  We will miss Jim Swanson and are eternally appreciative for all of the wisdom he poured into our lives while we were on staff with him.  What a gift he was to so many of us!

We were at a gymnastics meet again last weekend.  My daughter has a double wrist injury and couldn’t compete on bars and vault, so that’s always a hard thing to walk through with a kid who just wants to do their thing.  She got 1st place on beam and 4th on floor, so it was a good meet for what she could do!  She’s got another meet on Friday, so we are hoping she’ll be strong enough to do what she needs to do.  Everyday is getting better!

We also stopped by the American Girl Doll store for my other daughter, Delaney.  Oh. My. Word.  I have nothing left to say after wandering around the store for two hours looking at every conceivable item in miniature.  I am glad she enjoyed herself!

I spent yesterday getting all of our Easter supplies ordered…we’ve got everything from candy filled eggs to communion cups coming our way and I can’t wait!!!!  We are meeting as ONE CHURCH at Prairie High School for one big service at 10:00 am.  It’s April 5, so start talking to your friends now.  Gonna be amazing!!!!!

Growth Groups are doing very well this semester as we are navigating the rest of the book of Mark.  I have to tell you that I love getting to know the people who come through our group.  It always surprises me how much I end up appreciating their personalities and perspectives.

Well, my hope for you this week is that you love unconditionally, forgive freely, and give generously.  Life is just too short to do anything but that!

Be blessed!

 

 

February 15 Coffee Church Highlights

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February 17, 2015
History, Inspiration
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I hope this blog finds you in the middle of this gorgeous sunshine!  In the Pacific Northwest we always get this one glorious burst of spring WAY too early.  It deceives us into digging out our flip flops and mowing the lawn, but beware because the rain will come back with a vengeance!  Enjoy it while you can!

Sunday was really, really good.  I am thoroughly enjoying our series on Treasure.  It’s about money, but it’s also about our hearts.  We’ve got to surrender what we are to Jesus if we want to enjoy this thing called Christianity.  Our own disobedience robs us from the adventure of faith!

I also watched a very humbling moment as a single mom came up to talk to me about tithing.  God had impressed on her heart over the last several months to tithe, but the number on the check seemed overwhelming.  I looked at the check and felt her angst.  That money could repair the car, feed the children, and give her “comfort”.  But then she said, “God has brought me back from some really hard times.  He’ll take care of me now.”   She put her check in the offering with a smile.  And you know what?  There is NO doubt in my mind that God will honor her obedience with a deep blessing.  He is faithful.

Our small groups are all rocking and rolling again.  We are studying the book of Mark, so if you aren’t in a small book, let me encourage you to pick up your Bible and jump in with us anyway.  We’re right around the corner from a teaching series on the book of Mark called Encounters, so it will tie together nicely for your spiritual walk.

Remember we have a Financial Seminar for you THIS Saturday.  You can sign up online and get all the info you need at www.coffeechurch.com.  It’s all at the bottom of the main page!

We have a few volunteer needs right now, if you’re interested.  We need Sunday morning help in Tiny Town and Nursery at both campuses, as well as media computer at Battle Ground.  We also need childcare workers for our youth staff kids on Thursday nights.  AND we need some outside maintenance help at Hazel Dell during the week.  If you can do any of that, can you email me at stacy@coffeechurch.com.  We’d appreciate your help in making our ministries run smoothly!

Our budget is $32,000 a month to run our two hearing churches and our deaf church.  That also enables us to support a dozen missionaries and Be Present giving to our community.  We know how important your giving is, so if you’d ever like a financial breakdown of how we function, we’d love to share that with you.  We do a lot with our resources and want you to feel great about supporting our church!

EASTER is going to ROCK!!!  We are taking both of our campuses to Prairie High School for ONE big service!  More info is coming quickly, but it’s going to be amazing and so much fun.  Invite your friends and family now.  We have plenty of seating in the auditorium!

Well, the world needs you.  Desperately.  There’s too much hate and there’s too much evil.  The GOOD news is that all of the power that Jesus contains has been given to YOU.  Be bold, be strong, and do not fear.

 

February 8 Coffee Church Highlights

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February 11, 2015
Inspiration, Ministry
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Such beautiful people in our church!  Every Sunday I am humbled and amazed at the people around me!

It was a great weekend at North Creek as all of our campuses are in our current series, Treasure.  It’s a lot about how our money and possessions are tied to our hearts.  Here is our desire for you:  that you will monthly give money to Jesus and watch your heart begin to change.  People who give actually have less debt…why?  Because when you are obedient, God begins to change your heart and priorities and you make better decisions.  Do one thing for me….think about how many people could be impacted by the gospel if you gave just 10% away every month.  It’s WORLD changing!  Let’s set aside ourselves and be generous!

On another note, Mark started American Sign Language class on Monday.  As you probably know, we have the GREATEST Deaf Church on the planet at North Creek.  It is full of the most generous, kind-hearted, and amazing people, and we can’t wait to be able to better communicate without an interpreter.  We’ve wanted to learn sign language for three years now, so when the timing worked out, we made it happen for one of us!  Watch out to our deaf congregation because I am sure Mark will say a few things very wrong in the upcoming months!  Our campus lead over at Battle Ground, Rachael, is well on her way to learning sign language as well.  Maybe you will be inspired to learn a new language along with them!

We have some exciting news for Easter!  Our hearing campuses will be joining together at Prairie High School for ONE BIG service together.  It’s going to be AMAZING as we double our worship team, triple our service size, and have an incredible time celebrating our risen Savior!  We will be announcing a thousand ways to help in the next couple of weeks, but here is the first one:  It will cost about $1600 for the rental, the advertisements, and supplies we need (like communion for 500 people!), so if you’d like to help, mark your check Easter. You can give online at www.coffeechurch.com as well.

On a brief soapbox, but one thing I have to say:  I would love it if no one from North Creek Church went to see the movie Fifty Shades of Grey this week (or ever).  We believe better than that about sex, about God’s plan for our sexuality, about women, and about what a real man is.  We just do.  Pornography doesn’t get to own our hearts, sexual violence is not a part of our story, and our money has a million better uses for the kingdom of God than purchasing a ticket to watch sin.

We also have a Financial Seminar coming up to help you with financial planning, debt reduction, and investing.  It’s happening on Saturday, February 21, 2015 at Hazel Dell Campus from 9:00am – 12:00pm.  The cost is FREE with childcare provided (registration is required).  It’s lead by Rick Donovan, Financial Advisor for Edward Jones and member of North Creek Church.  If you feel like you are drowning, take advantage of this opportunity!  Rick has a heart to help you get your finances right and relieve the stress on your family! To sign up and secure your spot please register at www.coffeechurch.com.

OK, that’s a lot for one day!  I hope your week is full of surprises!  Be blessed!