Facebook timelineI can’t wait for Easter Sunday!  It’s one of my favorite weekends of the year as we take time to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.  It’s the moment in history that separates every other religion from Christianity.

Without Easter, we serve a dead Christ whose promises were buried in a grave with Him.  With Easter, we serve a living Savior who has defeated death itself and bridged the gap for our sins.  Now that’s a reason to celebrate!

Our theme for the morning is “This Changes Everything.”  So many people in our world just need something to change in their lives.  What if Jesus is the change people are looking for?  What if He’s the change YOU’RE looking for?  We want to invite EVERYBODY to join us!  We don’t care if you love church, hate church, are scared of church…we just want you to come and experience what Jesus is all about in an environment where you’ll be love and accepted.

We’ll also have special stuff for all of the kids and a gift to send home with them as well, so your children will be well taken care of!

So, wear whatever you want, grab a cup of coffee on the way in the door, and enjoy Easter morning with us at the Coffee Church.  See you soon!

 

Wow, what a Sunday!!!  We closed a chapter in our story with the departure of Wayne and Jenny after 20 years of serving Battle Ground.  We know they will bless so many people in their new venture at Lifepoint Church in Vancouver, WA.

We dedicated Baby Nayelli last week at Battle Ground and Baby Hanaye at Hazel Dell this week.  Love our North Creek babies and the life that they represent.

Speaking of babies, we had a toddler in Tiny Town wearing a “Big Brother” shirt to announce his parent’s pregnancy.  Congrats to Eli and Amber!  We are very excited for your family!

We are breaking our attendance records…it’s such a blessing to be a part of a growing church!

Preschool registrations are coming in for the Learning Center!  We have so many amazing changes lined up for the fall and we can’t wait for all of those precious little lives to experience great education in a Jesus centered environment.

If we don’t keep the main thing the main thing, we will be lost.  The mission of God should be the most unifying of all causes on the planet.

Our deaf church is awesome.  Pastor Jim makes me laugh.  And some of his jokes are funny, too.

THANK YOU to Peggy and Ken for helping serve at Wayne and Jenny’s goodbye party on Sunday night.  You are an amazing blessing and I’m so glad that you are a part of this church!

As I type this I am drinking a latte made by our pastors, Mark and Chris.  They preach well, but if that doesn’t work out for them, I’m pretty sure they can open a coffee shop together!

The 3rd-5th grade girls had a little party on Sunday afternoon.  Sugar and nerf guns make for an amazing time!  My daughter loves the friends she has made at church.  The key to helping your kids make friends: come often and give them the opportunities to get to know people!

Meet someone new every Sunday.

We want you to volunteer on Sundays.  It is one of the easiest ways to feel involved and a part of what God is doing in the lives of our people.  You can fill out a volunteer application at www.coffeechurch.com under the Resources tab.  Do it now.  No really.  You won’t be sorry!

We are at such an amazing time as a church!  We are growing, seeing families begin to jump in and serve, and feeling like our footing is back after a very tricky season of ministry with the merge one year ago.  We have so many opportunities and so much excitement!  We just can’t wait for God to unfold the next part of His plan for North Creek.

One thing is for sure: Battle Ground needs a youth pastor.

We have spent the last year getting the Battle Ground teens plugged into our Hazel Dell youth group under the leadership of Kris Gray.  It has been a great win for all of the students and we have been amazed at the cohesiveness between the various groups of youth.  We have also loved marrying two sets of youth staff who are thriving together.  Kris and her team took an interesting circumstance and made it incredible.  That being said, the community of Battle Ground is starving for a local solution to helping teens navigate their lives from a Godly perspective surrounded by Jesus-filled adults.

Here’s what KILLS us…we really feel within our heart of hearts that our church is part of the answer.  We know that the steel rod that runs through the back of North Creek Church is our ability to invest in teenagers and connect them to our church as young adults.  We birthed a church set on pouring resources and attention into teenagers.  It has run through Mark and I’s blood for 20 years and becoming Lead Pastors never changed that.

So, here’s the deal.  We need you to pray for a miracle for Battle Ground and North Creek.  We have several things that you can pray specifically about:

1.  We need $50,000 for the various salaries and startup costs to run both youth ministries for a year.  We believe that a year from now we’ll be solid enough to carry the weight from that point forward.

2.  We also need a youth pastor.  We believe that there is a very specific person for this role.  We believe that God is appointing this person to fit perfectly into this task and we believe He is birthing a passion for Battle Ground in their hearts.  If you know of a youth pastor that fits into the DNA of North Creek, can work in tandem with Kris Gray, and is ready to take on the massive task of pastoring Battle Ground teens, send them the link to my blog or have them email me at stacy@coffeechurch.com

3.  We need you to continue to pray for Vancouver teenagers.  This is nothing new.  They are bursting at the seams and desperately need a bigger facility!  The financial ramifications of solving their ever-expanding issues is massive, but we’ll take those type of problems any day.  Let’s reach people for Jesus!

THANK YOU for your prayers!  We know that God is up to something and the miracle is just around the corner.  Hold on to your seats!  It’s going to be a good year!

Love, love, love Jesus’ Church!  It just never gets old.

What does get old is Daylight Savings Time…ugh…Sunday felt like I got hit with a 2 x 4.  And let’s just say that the kid’s classes were a joy all around!  Thanks to all of you parents who navigated getting the kids ready with less sleep than normal!!!

We had a teenager quoting a chapter in the Bible at Battle Ground and an 8 year old quoting at Hazel Dell.  It is awesome to see our young people filling their brains with the Word of God!

Remember that next Sunday night, March 17 at 6:00 pm is our goodbye dessert for Wayne and Jenny.  It will be an informal setting where you can express your appreciation to them for their 20 years of ministry here.  We look forward to blessing them!  If you have a moment, email me a letter of appreciation for them at stacy@coffeechurch.com that we will print out and present them in a book.  You can also email me if you are interested in providing a dessert for our event.  Thanks so much!

We have been growing a lot lately and would love your help in volunteering on Sunday mornings.  You can sign up at www.coffeechurch.com under the Resources tab.  Our volunteers only work one service a month and have a great time!

Our Kid’s Checkin computer was down at Battle Ground on Sunday…yikes!  Sorry about the wait for you parents, but I’ve got some great news for you – not only will the computer be up and running on Sunday, but you now officially have two computers!  Twice the excitement for our bursting kid’s classes at Battle Ground.  Hazel Dell, you’re next!!!!

I love change…no really…I love it.  I know that’s strange, but I am an early adopter and look forward to new adventures.  Here we go!

Worship was amazing at both campuses this weekend.  We sure love our worship teams and appreciate the extraordinary amount of effort that they put into that ministry.  Thank you!

Sometimes I wonder if kids and teenagers run our church.  Everywhere I turn there are young people doing ministry in our midst.  It might be my favorite thing about North Creek and I never want it to change.  Our kids feel like they can give and serve in our midst, which is the foundational point of the church.  It’s not about “attending the show” but about being a part of the body!

Think about inviting a friend for Easter…actually, just invite them now!  We have guests all the time and love it.  There’s never a bad Sunday to visit North Creek.

I hope your week is exciting!  Give the glory to God.

claraAlways something exciting going on at North Creek!

As you probably read in my blog yesterday, Wayne and Jenny announced their resignation.  They are excited about their new season of ministry and we bless them!

At Battle Ground, we had an 8 year old quote James 4.  Nailed it!!!  She will be at Hazel Dell next week, so don’t miss it.  We are never to young or too old to memorize God’s Word.

At Hazel Dell, Kris quoted James 3 and nearly burnt the house down with her live illustration.  Side note:  If the match is lit, don’t hold it next to the box of matches.  Her husband is a fireman, so if things had gone terribly wrong, we’d still be OK!

We also officially opened the preschool registration for the Learning Center in Battle Ground.  We inherited a great legacy of Maple Grove Preschool and we are excited to build on their foundation.  We are getting lots of calls and inquiries already, which is very exciting!  You can find all the information and registrations forms at www.northcreekkids.com.  Get your registration in for the fall soon!

We got the best gift on Sunday…smoked pork chops!  Yes, I’m a Montana girl and can easily be won over with meat.  Yummy!

We need Kid’s Checkin Volunteers at both campuses.  It’s an easy job and the more we have, the smoother our process gets.  Sign up at www.coffeechurch.com to work one Sunday a month.  We appreciate our volunteers!!!  Also, here’s some great news for all of you parents…we are adding an additional checkin computer at both campuses to alleviate the line.  It will all be done by Easter!  Thank you for being patient in our growing church!

One of our goals is not to solve all of our problems at once, but to be solving SOME problem all of the time.  It’s a very balanced way of making sure we are getting the ball down the field in a measureable way.

One thing that will never change is that everything changes!  That’s why we trust God when the changes unfold and know that everything will be just fine in the end.  God is faithful!

As I also mentioned in yesterday’s blog, Sunday marked one year of multisite and merging.  I may just have to write an entire blog about that!  It has been one of the most amazing years of our lives, but it did not come without some tough lessons and leadership ability stretching.  I give a lot of the credit of North Creek’s success to two very flexible campuses full of people.  I feel that an immeasureable amount of grace was poured out on our lives as we attempted to forge new paths to our future as a church.  We are humbled and blessed by those of you who did not say, “Well, we’ll see….”, but rather said, “Well, let’s do it!”  That support has made all the difference…we are grateful pastors!

What a God!  What a Church!  What an adventure!  What could possibly be next???