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Back Against the Wall

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June 13, 2013
Inspiration, Ministry
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Over the last seven years on this amazing journey of starting a church, there has been some pretty hairy moments where we weren’t sure if we were going to make it.  These seasons all have felt the same…a messy mixture of hope, fear, panic, faith, despair, and fight.  It has been in those seasons where we have found ourselves feeling like our backs were against a wall.  Have you ever felt that way in your own life?

These crisis’ have come in many forms for our church – finances, facilities, strategy decisions, etc.  The circumstances vary, but the feeling is the same: we feel like we have been pushed to the point where we just can’t be pushed any further…we feel trapped by reality.  I am sure you have been there as well!  Options seem limited and the wall seems solid.

I find the next step is also familiar…my head drops, sometimes for moments, sometimes for weeks, the prayers float through my mind, and then suddenly my eyes open as my head raises.  The still, small voice of God ALWAYS says the same thing when we feel trapped… “If your back is against the wall, move the wall.”  It’s said as a mandate with a firmness that can only be from Heaven itself.  There’s no wavering, there’s no shaking in the voice.  “Move the wall.”

What “walls” are in your life?  If you are like the rest of us, you probably consider that wall a boundary that you cannot get past.  It is your limitation and it’s not going anywhere….or is it?  Maybe you find yourself fighting what is in front of you, rather than turning around and taking the sledge hammer to the fortress behind you.  We often find that when our back is against those walls, God really never intended for us to fight what was pushing us to the wall; He wanted to get us to tear down the wall.

Here’s the reality:  That wall may look solid and it may not be easy to chip away at it, but that should not stop you from taking it on with a vengeance.  Whatever is on the other side of the wall is worth getting to.

The best thing I can do is to stop running from what’s pushing me and start swinging at what is stopping me.  Move the wall.

 

June 9 Coffee Church Highlights

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June 11, 2013
Inspiration, Ministry
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It was graduate Sunday!  What a great group of 13 grads we have this year!  This is the graduating class that includes the very first sixth graders in our church.  I am so proud of each one of them and their confidence in their relationship with Jesus.

Get your kids in church.  As parents, it’s our job to lead our kids and establish a framework for being a part of the body of Christ.  Thank you to Vanessa and Kim who pour their lives into growing our kids.

I am loving the sermons in the Protect and Serve series.  Bottom line: our lives are to be an example of Jesus – both in leading and serving.  It is a monumental challenge for all of us, but exactly what we should be striving for.  Do you want to be well known or worth knowing?

The other part of this series that I think is profound is to be aware and careful WHO you follow.  People put spiritual and emotional trust in others who are not healthy.  We are responsible to find people to follow who are following Christ.

Do you need to be baptized?  If you have decided to follow Christ and haven’t done that yet, it’s time.  The Bible doesn’t reserve baptism for people who are perfect, but rather it is one of the INITIAL symbols of change.  Messy people need to get baptized, so don’t wait until you have it all together.  (P.S.  You’ll never have it all together…)  Sign up HERE for our next baptism on June 30.

How’s your Bible reading going?  Here’s my challenge for you:  Read a chapter a day for the next month.  You can find some great reading plans at www.youversion.com if you don’t know where to start reading.  And don’t worry about it if you don’t understand what you are reading.  You might not at first, but if you keep reading, it will get clearer and clearer.  That is the beauty of the Bible…God reveals Himself to you at the time and rate that He needs to grow your life.  Give Him the opportunity to do just that.

Jesus changes lives.  Invite someone to church so they can learn about Him and have their lives changed as well.

Congrats to the Ericson Family on the birth of Aubree!  We love all of the new life at North Creek!  We also got to have baby Emilia in church for the first time this weekend as well.  So beautiful!

I love God’s Church.  It’s not timid.  It’s not lazy.  It’s not irrelevant.  It’s a force to be reckoned with and it changes the landscape of both our country and the world.  Be weary of allowing yourself to believe anything but that.  God’s Word says His Church cannot be stopped.  Period.

On that note…YOU can’t be stopped either if you are in line with God’s plan.  Be obedient.  Be humble.  Be unstoppable.

 

 

 

 

Learning Generosity

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June 7, 2013
Ministry
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Lately I’ve been praying to God to help me understand money and generosity better.  We tithe, we give, but I never want to assume that what I am doing is all that God wants for my life.  I always want to be asking God if He wants something else from my talents and resources.  Not in a pathetic, “I’m not good enough” kind of way, but in a “As long as I’m alive, I want to be growing” kind of way.  What do I believe about generosity that is limiting me and therefore limiting God?  Limiting God…that was an interesting perspective to dive into.  Can I really limit God?  I’ve been reflecting back on various teachings I’ve heard about generosity and trying to match it up with my own ministry experience.  It’s pretty interesting!

I’ve heard countless sermons about giving and how it’s about our own hearts, not because God needs our money.  I’ve even bought into the idea that God will find a way despite our personal generosity.

“He owns the cattle on a thousand hills…”

“It’s all His anyway…”

“Money doesn’t limit God!  We give to unlock our own issues with greed!”

But what if it doesn’t work that way?  What if our inability to obey in this one area DOES limit God?  What if people don’t know Jesus, simply because the vast majority of His people don’t understand that generosity really does further ministry?

As I was praying about generosity, I got a mental picture of the cattle on a thousand hills.  What if God gave them to me and I put up a fence with a padlock on them to keep them for myself?  They may be God’s, but His ability to bless others with them has been limited by me.  As long as I hold the key to that padlock, those cows are mine and mine alone.  Now I understand that I serve a God who could tear down my fences or take back the key to the padlock, but I also see in scripture that isn’t the way it works most of the time.  God loves ME so much that He gives me free will to do what I want with what I’ve been given.

Being on the backside of a church I see this all of the time.  There are very few other limiting factors in ministry other than the generosity of others.  If God’s people were truly generous…if I was truly as generous as I could be…the world would simply be different.

So, here’s my challenge of the day…how can we all be more generous?  Where can we start or where can we grow from?  One of the ways that Mark and I try to work on this area in our spiritual growth is just to give more this year than last year.  Tithing 10% has always been the foundation of our marriage.  We just write the check every month like clockwork, but that’s not where I want to be in the end of our story.  Where I want to be is at the place where I understand the heart of God for people, not possessions.  I’m not there yet, so the solution is to keep giving until I am.

 

 

June 2 Coffee Church Highlights

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June 4, 2013
Inspiration, Ministry
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We kicked off a new sermon series on authority called Protect and Serve!  It was awesome and gave people A LOT to think about.  You can catch it online at www.coffeechurch.com.  I can’t wait to hear more!

We have CUTE kids at the Coffee Church!  Make sure you say hi to a few of them every Sunday.  They are the most valuable resource we have in our midst!

Missionaries Mike and Kari Ness came to visit the Battle Ground campus on Sunday and even stopped in to tell missionary stories to our kid’s classes.  They attended that campus prior to leaving for the mission field, so it was great to have them “home” again to see us!

I lost the diamond out of my wedding ring on Sunday…bummer.  I’m praying it happens to turn up somewhere, but unfortunately I have no idea when or where it came out.  I think there’s a few parables about valuable lost things…

We are beginning to interview potential youth pastors for Battle Ground.  How exciting!  If you know of a youth pastor looking for a job, have them email their resume to mark@coffeechurch.com.

Thank you for your faithful giving to North Creek!  We know that your money is important and we are grateful and humbled when you choose to invest your giving into our church.  We get the privilege of knowing every story of changed lives and how valuable your giving really is.  Thank you for your faithfulness!

Next Sunday we will be honoring our high school graduates at Hazel Dell and then on the 16th we’ll honor our grads at Battle Ground.  It’s one of my favorite mornings as we celebrate our teenagers!

We are also in full swing for getting our youth and kid’s to summer camp.  If you need a registration form, you can email office@coffeechurch.com.  If you don’t have kids going to summer camp, but want to be a part, you can give to camp scholarships.  We have a genius strategy where we have our scholarship kids actually work for the church so that they understand that our spiritual growth takes effort and attention.  It’s a win-win and it’s awesome!

Father’s Day is coming in two weeks!  Yay for Dads!  We love the men of North Creek and are appreciative of their leadership in our church.

On that note, enjoy this amazing sunshine!  I LOVE SUMMER!  Bring it on!

 

North Creek Grads

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May 31, 2013
Inspiration, Ministry
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Last night we began to film our high school graduates in preparation to honor them at church in the upcoming weeks.  We are excited to graduate 10 very sharp individuals that represent six high schools.  It was a surreal moment for me as I looked into each of their eyes and played back their history with North Creek Church.

Seven years ago, just as they were entering junior high, we opened our doors.  At that moment, all but one of them were strangers to us.  We had said a thousand prayers for them, but their faces were invisible at the time…and there they sat before me.  As I listened to one after the other thank their parents, church, leaders, and peers, I felt like God whispered, “Here is the fruit of faith.”  They are quite literally the reason behind every work day, every offering, every drop of sweat.  We did it all so that children and teenagers would flood through our doors, learn to live for Jesus, and go change the world.  And this is the first graduating class that we have had from junior high through graduation.

Some highlights for me:

Jessica Yonko was about to enter Mark and I’s youth ministry when we stopped being youth pastors to be church planters.  Her parents looked into her 11 year old eyes and told her they would be planting a church with us and she would be one of three teenagers.  She looked into the camera last night and proclaimed that this journey has been a highlight of her life.  Faith never fails.

Five of our graduates were from Battle Ground.  Who would have ever thought that our Vancouver campus would have the opportunity to go multisite and impact an entirely different community?  While we are in the process of hiring a youth pastor just for the Battle Ground campus, these five graduates have thrived at the Hazel Dell campus on Thursdays with a deep youth ministry that welcomed them in with open arms.  We are grateful to have gotten to know them!

Several of our graduates are on my miracle list.  That’s the list of people in my heart that have succeeded under circumstances that could have destroyed them.  They are the testimonies where Jesus stepped in and they grabbed ahold of His promises for their lives.

All of our graduates have dreams and goals for their lives.  Students who come through our youth ministry know Jesus.  They are confident, strong, and secure in their faith.  I am encouraged to send out a fleet of people into adulthood who want to make a difference with what they have been given.  We are all proud of them!

 

So, graduates, keep going!  Don’t lose your love for Jesus and His House.  Stay tied into a strong community of people who believe in the best for your life!  We love you and support you!  Way to go!  Let’s go change the world…