This week we were handed keys to Hazel Dell’s first building.  On one hand, it’s just a building….it’s just a tool.  I am keenly aware that walls and an address do little to make a church.  That being said, this moment signifies something so much bigger than a building purchase.  It signifies another step in creating a church that will be around 100 years from now.

When we started North Creek, we had no guarantee that it would even last a month, but our hope was that we were a part of creating something that would see many decades of leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus.  Some of that is done divinely with a move of God.  Some is done relationally by creating a community that people want to be a part of and that their children want to be a part of as adults.

But another part of creating a church that survives through the decades appears far more practical.  As we use our resources wisely both in investing in people and tools, we can do our part to see that North Creek Church exists for years to come.  This building is a precious piece of that puzzle…it’s nothing fancy and it’s nothing ostentatious, but it is a slice of the future.  We watched this principle poetically play out with the gift of our Battle Ground campus.  Hundreds of people over dozens of years had sowed into a church, including a building, that has allowed us to continue valuable ministry to that community through a merge.  Now that same gift lives on again in the Hazel Dell facility as well.  We also know that the equity we are building will play out in multiple other campuses in the future.  Campuses that will be full of people whose lives are being changed by God.

And while the practical stuff is all important, it is never the most important.  As I strolled from room to room in the building this week, I dreamed of the full kids classes, teenagers pouring out through every crack, and people meeting Jesus on Sundays and in small groups.  I saw a lot of you there in my mind…the smiling faces I look so forward to seeing and the percolating coffee steaming away on the bar.  It’s a new place with a new address, but not much else will change about the church I love.

Here’s to another new season in the story of North Creek!  I can’t wait to see where God leads us next…

If you’d like to help with painting, yardwork, and construction, we will be there on Saturday from 10:00-5:00 pm.  We are also there most every day of the week until Christmas.  Stop on by to work, drink a cup of coffee, or pray!

Such a full week of emotional moments!  There’s always something going on at the Coffee Church!  We are blessed with a lot of life and big decisions going on around us all of the time.

First of all, congrats to Bo and Whitney who got engaged at the Battle Ground Campus where they met!  Pastor Jim and Pastor Chris got the privilege of helping to set up their special moment and capture it on camera.  We wish you the very best in your marriage!

We had our business meeting on Sunday night to discuss our potential building.  We took a poll and got a resounding YES to purchase from our congregation!  That being said, there is still time for your questions and input!  Email us at mark@coffeechurch.com if you didn’t get a question answered or have a thought.  We have through this weekend to make our final decision and we will use every moment for prayer and processing.

We really have an amazing congregation!  Every time we make a monumental change, our church is so supportive and helpful.  We don’t take it lightly that you not only trust our leadership, but engage in the conversation and process.  It really means that the building we choose is irrelevant because our church is strong and unified.  Wherever we go, God will bless us and give us favor because we have our eyes on the mission of God!  Let’s go change the world!

I went into the Kid’s class on Sunday morning and got dragged up on stage to help lead worship.  I am apparently out of shape because I’ve got some SORE muscles this week…  Such incredible kids in our church who CLEARLY give their all in worship to Jesus!  Thank you to Kim and Vanessa for leading our kids!

We also got the privilege of meeting baby Lilliahna this week!  Her parents, Mike and Alecia, welcomed her into the world on November 15.  This was a special birth for us as we have been praying for this family for over 10 years.  I can remember standing at an altar a decade ago with them praying that God would prove Himself faithful.  Little Lilliahna is a reminder that God’s timing is perfect!

We also had another couple tell us they are expecting a baby!   I’m sure you’ll find out who it is eventually… We are so blessed with about a dozen births a year in our congregation.  Anybody want to work in the nursery? 😉

If you haven’t given to Charity Water, yet, you can still give online at www.coffeechurch.com.  It is our current Be Present initiative and we are so excited to partner with such a great organization to give water to people who desperately need it!

As we enter into the Thanksgiving Holiday, I reminisce how truly thankful I am for North Creek Church.  The lives changed, the friends made, the faith-filled stories told….those are some of the highlights of my life.  When I see Jesus face-to-face in Heaven someday, I will spend several years of eternity thanking Him for allowing this to be our story.  We love being your pastors!

In Exodus 10, you’ll find the story of Pharoah, Moses, and the Locusts.  To sum up the story in a couple of sentences, Moses wanted to leave Egypt with the Israelites, who were in slavery, but Pharaoh (top dog in Egypt) had a hard heart towards God and wouldn’t let His people go.  God sent a series of plagues, one of which was a thick coat of Locusts (bugs) over the entire land to compel Pharaoh to release the people.

This is the incredibly horrific description of that day in verse 13: ¹³ So Moses stretched out his staff over Egypt, and the Lord made an east wind blow across the land all that day and all that night. By morning the wind had brought the locusts; ¹⁴ they invaded all Egypt and settled down in every area of the country in great numbers. Never before had there been such a plague of locusts, nor will there ever be again. ¹⁵ They covered all the ground until it was black. They devoured all that was left after the hail—everything growing in the fields and the fruit on the trees. Nothing green remained on tree or plant in all the land of Egypt.

Can you imagine the moment that Pharaoh had with God when he looked out the window and EVERYTHING was covered in bugs?  If you’re like me, the thought, “I surrender!” crosses your mind quite quickly.  And that is precisely the realization that Pharaoh had as well.  In verse 16 the Bible says, “¹⁶ Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. ¹⁷ Now forgive my sin once more and pray to the Lord your God to take this deadly plague away from me.”

No kidding…the best word in this chapter is QUICKLY.

And then God does His work.  In verse 19 it reads, “¹⁹ And the Lord changed the wind to a very strong west wind, which caught up the locusts and carried them into the Red Sea. Not a locust was left anywhere in Egypt.”

I love the fact that God’s response to Pharaoh’s repentance was immediate.  (Too bad Pharaoh didn’t have a permanent change in his life, but that’s for another story…) I also love that God simply changed the winds from allowing locusts into his life to whisking them far into the sea.  It wasn’t God’s desire to make Pharaoh suffer for sufferings sake, rather it was God’s desire to do ANYTHING to get Pharaoh’s attention.

Perhaps today you look around your life and it seems to be covered in problems.  Although not every hardship is a direct result of sin, maybe you know deep down that those problems are there because of your own disobedience and hard heart towards the things of God.  Maybe you know that our loving God is trying desperately to get your attention.  And you probably also know that your response should not be slow, but that you would turn quickly.

Maybe today is the day to ask for repentance and watch God change the wind in your life.