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February 1 Coffee Church Highlights

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February 3, 2015
Inspiration, Ministry
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I hope you enjoyed our National holiday known as the Super Bowl! 😉

We had great services across the board! Then we finished the day with full houses all over the Vancouver and Battle Ground area of people from North Creek suffering the Seahawk loss together…gosh, that was a rough one!

We are kicking off our next series, Treasure, this month.  I love when the church talks about money!  It’s an area that brings up a lot of emotions, but it’s also an area that we, as Americans, are in bondage over.  We worry about money, we spend money we don’t have on things to make us feel better, we fail to appropriately save money, and we struggle to give money.  No wonder the Bible has 800+ verses that relate to our passion for money and possessions.  There is freedom in obedience and I wish the whole world could know that freedom.  The “blessing” of being born in America is clouded with credit cards, materialism, and greed.  What if the blessing of how much we have was to unify together to change the world?

Growth Groups kick off next week again.  You still have time to sign up, but get there sooner than later as the spots are getting limited!  You can find the registration at www.coffeechurch.com.  We will be doing a Bible study on the second half of the book of Mark, which will be a moving moment leading up to Easter.  Join us!

Did you know North Creek is just 8.5 years old?  We have come a long ways and I’m excited to watch God continue to bring to fruition our hopes and dreams for our church!  We are glad to have you as a part.

Our youth ministry from Hazel Dell showed up to clean up a park yesterday.  Nothing more amazing than a bunch of teenagers walking about our community with trash bags just to do their part!  They also get to go to Generation Unleashed Conference this weekend.  Take a moment and pray that God would deeply impact their hearts.

Our family went to the OSU gymnastics meets at the Gill Coliseum last Friday.  We had a great time watching the college girls do some amazing gymnastics.  Seems almost impossible to do what they do!

Are you praying for your pastors?  We’d love to be on your prayer list as we lead this body.  We cannot do it alone!

We are praying for you!  We often go through our list and lift you up to God.  We are praying that God would help you be obedient, generous, and full of faith.  He wants you to live a crazy adventure of faith in Him.  I hope you do nothing less!

Be blessed!

January 25 Coffee Church Highlights

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January 27, 2015
Ministry
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Well Sunday was fun!  North Creek got the privilege of welcoming another baby to our midst…we seem to celebrate A LOT of babies…  Josiah and Vanessa (BG Kid’s pastor) had their second boy, Daylon Nicholas!  We couldn’t be more excited to celebrate with them!

Mike and Alecia over at Hazel Dell also announced their next pregnancy.  Their daughter was wearing a shirt letting us all know, but I missed it!  Not my fault that her little smile distracted me! 🙂  Congrats to them!!!

It was nice for Mark and I to be back at church after our vacation to Arizona.  We had a phenomenal time and really enjoyed getting to know a new state!  In just a few days we visited the Grand Canyon, went hiking at Cathedral Rock in Sedona, spent a couple days at the pools in Phoenix, went to Kennedy’s gymnastics meet, and drove through Tucson to the Kartchner Caverns.  Truly a wonderful experience!

Growth Groups opened for registration on Sunday.  You can sign up at www.coffeechurch.com.  We’ll be studying the second half of the book of Mark.  It’s going to be a very moving experience as the book of Mark will walk us through the crucifixion and resurrection right up to the week of Easter.  Jump in and be a part of this journey with us!

Mat Marbrey (BG youth pastor) preached over the last couple of weeks at our campuses.  Isn’t he cool?  Such a solid guy with a good head on his shoulders!  He talked about owning your story of redemption and using it for the glory of God.  If you missed it, you can catch it online!

When you make a change, keep the change.  So often in ministry we see people fight to overcome a struggle in their life and then the next week they turn back to their old ways.  Keep the change!  Make one change at a time and keep at it until it’s your habit and lifestyle.  One change made permanent is better than a life lived without principle.

We need some more volunteers at our Sunday services!  We need one person in every area at both campuses.  If you’ve been attending and just haven’t jumped in yet, would you go to www.coffeechurch.com and sign up for something that makes you excited?  We only use volunteers once a month, so it’s a great way to make a difference without a big commitment.

Would you also consider giving to North Creek this year?  Giving releases your heart.  If you want to love the Church and ministry, give!  It’s a crazy, backwards idea, but where your treasure is, there your heart is.

It’s all going to be incredible in the end.  If it’s not incredible, it’s not the end!  Go read Revelation and don’t quit, yet.  You got this!  Go change the world!

 

 

 

 

January 4 Coffee Church Highlights

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January 7, 2015
Inspiration, Ministry
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My week has gotten sidelined due to one of my girls having an ear infection, but I definitely wanted to get the first highlight of the year out!

I am SO excited for 2015 at North Creek!  It is an honor and a privilege to be a part of a local church and we have the BEST people in our midst.  I love our church!

Would you do ONE thing this year that I know will make a big difference in your world?  Attend church on Sundays and show up early.  (Yes, that’s two things crammed together really well!).  Church is supposed to be about meeting people, getting to know each other and then taking those relationships outside of the four walls of the building to do life together.  The first step is simply putting yourself in an environment to have that happen.  If you are there regularly, show up a little early and stay a little after, you’ll be surprised what will happen in a year.

On Sunday we kicked off our preaching schedule with great messages at all three churches: Battle Ground, Hazel Dell, and the Deaf Church.  The lineup of series this year is going to be amazing and life changing!

Also on Sunday, our family also kicked off the gymnastics competition schedule with Kennedy’s first meet.  I was completely exhausted by the time I got home that night and then the Great Earache of 2015 set in.  It was ugly!  Would you take a moment and pray for our family’s health?  We are headed to a meet in Arizona next week and we’d sure like to be healthy.

The kids classes all celebrated the new year with Pajamas and Cereal day at church.  It was so COOL!  All the kids were pumped to show up to church in jammies and then have a crazy cereal bar.  I enjoyed the moment with all of the moms and dads who didn’t have to get anybody dressed that morning.  It was a nice gift after all the holiday stuff!  I think we may just make that an annual event!

Just wanted to say hi to Wendell who gave me the nicest compliment about my blog this week.  I really appreciate the kind words and so appreciate knowing that you are cheering us on in ministry!  We love you! 😉

If you want to change your life this year, may I suggest reading your Bible every day?  Just pick a book, read a chapter every morning (or night), and watch the cumulative effect shape your thinking and actions.  You can do it!

Growth Groups are coming back in a few weeks, so get ready!  We will be finishing up the second half of the book of Mark and I am looking forward to it.  We will be reading about the crucifixion of Jesus leading up to Easter, which I anticipate being very powerful for all of us!

I hope that you find yourself encouraged as you head into this New Year.  Jesus can do miracles for you this year!

Be blessed!

Fourteen Years in Clark County

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January 2, 2015
Family, History, Inspiration, Ministry, Team
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Yesterday marked the 14th year of Mark and I being pastors in Vancouver, WA.  We came from the Seattle area after serving as youth pastors at two previous churches.  When we loaded up the moving van, I honestly thought it was a very temporary move for our little family.  Now, fourteen years later, both of my children were born here, we’ve grown roots, and beautiful Clark County is our home.

Along with it being the start of a new year, our “anniversary” brought many reflections to my heart about our tenure here:

1.  I love the Church.  Capital C.  The Bride of Christ is Jesus’ first love and I am so thankful for the variety of churches that our community offers to believers.  They all look slightly unique, but every week they gather to honor our Savior Jesus.  We are blessed to pastor alongside some amazing men and women who valiantly give their lives, do their best everyday, and fight the fight!  Thank you to all of you pastors who love our city.

2.  We’ve seen the best in ministry.  We’ve seen lives transformed, families rescued, addictions broken, healing happen, and hope set free in people’s hearts.  Every prayer, every baptism, and every life is valuable to my heart.  I am humbled and honored to be a part of it all.  Pastoring is a difficult and trying job, but the rewards are rich.  The Bible is clear that many will fall away, which is difficult to process, but those who hold tight to Biblical principles are a treasure.

3.  We’ve seen the worst in ministry.  Our first church experience in our city was racked with lawsuits, division, and horror.  I’ve never seen anything like it and I pray to God I never see anything like it again.  I realized that we, as Christians, have the ability to do far more damage to the Church of Jesus than any non-believer out there.  Guard your words, dear believer.  The Church is Jesus’ deepest treasure and we must treat it accordingly.  As a pastor, this would be the reason behind many sleepless nights as I pray for a unified church that gets behind the mission and vision.  If that happens…well, read the Bible.  We become an unstoppable force to be reckoned with.

4.  We have lifelong friends here.  The greatest jewel in our ministry experience has been the friends we have gained along the way.  We have been blessed, from day one, to be surrounded by people that we LOVE to work alongside.  We have pastored together, held each other’s brand new babies, scolded each other’s kids, and now are cheering on our teens.  We have started a church together, failed together, succeeded together, and worked out a thousand struggles along the way.  We’ve eaten too much pizza in youth ministry and drank countless cups of coffee in church planting.  It has been a joy!

So, we continue on in pastoring and in doing our best to reach this county with love.  We continue on in building His Church and in dreaming for a bright future.  We continue on in looking for new friends to add to our hearts and lives.  The best is yet to come!

Happy New Year!

 

December 14 Coffee Church Highlights

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December 15, 2014
Ministry
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Merry Christmas!  I am excited to nail out all of the Christmas shopping and get on to the business of enjoying being with family and friends over the holidays!

My last blog was about Keith Elder who passed on to Jesus last week.  I have to say that tears ran down my face yesterday during worship as I reflected on his life.  I looked around the room and couldn’t help but think about how big of a fingerprint he is on each one of your lives…and nearly none of you have ever met him.  When we give our lives away to Jesus, we become deep and wide in our influence.  His life was SO deep and SO wide….  Over 5000 people have read that blog.  That is about 100 times the number of people that usually read my blog…again, a testament to the love people had for that man.  The world is a much darker place this week, but I’m not sure ANYONE will enjoy Heaven more than Keith.

Keith’s memorial service will be at 10 am on Wednesday via a live feed.  I have a feeling your life will be changed if you watch his funeral.  His influence goes beyond the grave.  You can watch it HERE on Wednesday.

Church was wonderful yesterday with some Christmas music and a great message about the realities of having Jesus in our lives.  Jesus really does change everything!  So grateful for his love in my life!

We had our staff and board Christmas party last night.  I love that team of people!  Would you commit to pray for them?  They are SO talented and so amazing, but they are on the front lines of ministry.  It is a difficult road to walk and they need your love, your encouragement and your prayer.

Also, go to Twilight Pizza on 192nd.  Not only do they have incredible pizza, but their team took great care of our team last night for our party!  And I had a bite of crème brule that might be the best EVER.  Go get that.  No, really.  Right now.

We have one more service left for 2015 as we take December 28 off to give our staff and volunteers a much needed respite.  Invite a friend next Sunday as we share the Christmas story!

We lost a bunch of our roof at Hazel Dell during that wind storm…not awesome.  Just not awesome… Thankfully we are fixed and ready for the rainy Washington sky to bless us with liquid sunshine.  What a winter it has been!

Well, another week has come and gone.  This one was full of so many memories for me…so many beautiful memories.  I feel blessed and honored to get to do God’s work with my life.  Do me a favor…lean into the wisdom of Godly people.  I’m nothing special, but the one thing I did right was to allow people close to Jesus to help guide my steps.  And God just kept putting INCREDIBLE people in my path.  If you will listen, I am sure He will put incredible people in your path, too.

On that note, be blessed.  Be very, very blessed!