Ridiculous Generosity!

When you decide to start a church, the Assemblies of God in Washington sends you to three training weekends where you hash out what you are doing and why.  As we sat there dreaming about who we wanted to be, we talked often about being a church that gives and gives and gives.

In one of our conversations we laughed so hard because somebody was helping us out and Jeff said, “We’re going to buy you a Starbucks…not just a cup, a franchise.”  And that became the mantra for who we are. 

We want to be “that” church who rebuilds somebody’s house when it’s falling down or pays off a hospital bill for someone who is in need.  We want to be ridiculously generous and break the old adage that the church just takes your money.

So, needless to say, we’re not at the place as a young church where we can rebuild a house, but that’s not stopping us from our core value.  Our small groups have repainted an apartment, taken food to the homeless, blessed a teenager whose mother died of cancer, given money, time, and resources in so many ways that we cannot begin to list them all…

I’m really proud of the giving spirit that is embraced by North Creek.  We have no problem getting volunteers to help out in church and in ministries outside of our four walls.  We are no where near the dreams that I have for the future of our church, but I know that we’ll get there. 

So, thank you to those of you who do give so much, both financially and with your other resources.  We hope that you are proud of how we distribute your giving to bless this community!

Who made up these rules?

What I love most about North Creek is that we filter everything through the Bible.  If it’s in there, we better figure out why and what we’re supposed to do with it.  For example, we chose the model of baptism because it is just like the Bible baptized people.  You make a decision to follow Jesus, you go under the water.  Simple as that.

So, where did other religions come up with baptizing infants?  For example, I was just having a conversation with my Catholic friend about why they baptize infants and then have teenagers go through a confirmation.  It all sounded good.  They dedicate the babies to the Lord by baptizing them, then they train their children through confirmation as young adults so that they can make the educated decision to serve God as adults.  Sounds logical.  And for a moment I was even satisfied with her answer. 

But it just kept eating at me. 

That’s not what Jesus asked us to do. 

Through the process of North Creek, we’ve really tried to ask ourselves as a team, “What are we doing out of tradition and what are we doing because it’s Biblically mandated?”  If it’s tradition, then it’s flexible.  If it’s Biblically mandated, then we need to fight to incorporate it somewhere in our big picture.  If our traditions are contrary to the purpose of the Biblical mandates, then they need to be cast out all together. 

It’s a challenge for me personally and one that I pass on to you.  What are you doing just to do it and what did Jesus ask you to do?

Coffee Church? Seriously?

Over the last two years I’ve been asked several dozen times how we got the name Coffee Church – www.coffeechurch.com.  It’s a pretty simple story really, but one that is worth writing down for the history books! 

North Creek Church is really a compilation of things we liked about various churches all over America.  We researched, studied, travelled, and talked to as many people as we could to see what works for them.  Then we picked through all of that to decide who we wanted to be.  In the pile of tidbits we liked was a story that came out of Lee McFarland’s church in Surprise, AZ.  Someone in the media had dubbed them the “Blue Jean Church”, so they picked up the website www.bluejeanchurch.com so that people could find them based off of what they heard on the news.

We actually have a “real” website – www.northcreeklife.com, but even as I typed it I couldn’t remember what it was.  I had to stop and think.  And therein lies the beauty of advertising…if you can remember it, that sure helps.

So, again as our team sat around discussing things, we stumbled upon what I consider is genius.  What represents who we are?  Coffee.  Warm, relaxing, casual, and we’ll give you a boost.  Let’s see if coffeechurch.com is available…and it rolled into something much larger from there.  Themes, advertisements, t-shirts.

Initially I think we were all concerned that we weren’t being “spiritual” enough.  Here’s the irony…the people we want to remember our website probably aren’t “spiritual” at all.  So, it works to tell people who might not consider themselves fans of church that we aren’t taking ourselves too seriously.  God deserves our reverance, but our website sure doesn’t deserve any.  It’s a tool.  How do you best use the tool?  Make it a memorable deal. 

So, North Creek is a name that few remember.  However, try saying Coffee Church and many more people will say, “Yeah, I’ve heard of you.”  And isn’t that half the battle?

Patience

Waiting has got to be some kind of torture.  When you know something exciting is going to happen and the only thing standing in your way is time, there is just no words to explain the agony!

I was sitting with my youngest daughter, Kennedy, on the sidewalk watching bees land on the flowers.  I called my older daughter over and said, “Come here and look at the bumblebees.” She ran over, plopped down, looked once and replied, “I can’t wait this long, Mom.”  It had been 5 seconds!  But she’s the product of an instant generation that can communicate across the world in real time.  Waiting is not her specialty. 

When I was a kid, I can remember sitting for a long time on the dock with my dad waiting for the muskrats to come.  He would say, “If you’re real quiet and real still, you’ll see them.  They will swim right by with a mouthful of grass to take back to their dens.  Just wait.”  And I would.  Alone in the cool, Montana night, mosquitoes biting at me, I would wait.  And sure enough, I got just what I expected.  His little brown head would come swimming by just out of the water and then jerk quickly down into the creek’s edge to disappear into his home.

Starting North Creek Church has been this odd combination of intense, never ending, all consuming work, and this other odd side called “waiting”.  Waiting for people to hear about how great it is and come.  Waiting for the right people to plug into the right ministries so that everyone can flourish.  Waiting for the finances to be there to go to the next level.  Waiting…waiting…waiting.  What do you do when you’ve done everything you know how to do?  You wait.

The only reason I’m okay with the torture of it all is because of the very principle I learned back when I was a kid…if you’ll wait, you’ll get just what you expected.  Mark and I expect tens of thousands of people being changed by Jesus.  For that, I will wait.

The Way I See It

As a staff we sit down and think through the year and what we feel our people would most learn from.  Right now we are in the middle of a really great series called The Way I See It.  It’s about some of the things in the Bible that the world doesn’t understand, such as “Jesus is the Only Way”, baptism, and the Holy Spirit. 

It’s seems that there is a trend in the culture of Christianity to pick and choose what we believe, most of the time based on our experiences rather than the Bible.  Partnered with that picking and choosing is a lack of Bible reading, which is a combination that can literally spin off into an entirely different religion. 

My prayer for the church is that as we read the Bible we would accept it all – the parts that are easy and the parts that are downright uncomfortable.   The hardest parts of the Bible to comprehend are what make God, well, God.  If we could wrap our brains around a concept such as the Holy Spirit, then we would be equal to God, not His students.

And yet, rather than embracing the vastness of the Bible, we chop it into “understandable” parts in order to find some measure of comfort in our belief system.  But faith is a key component of our belief system and comfort never comes with faith.

I’m impressed by the openness of the people at North Creek to learn.  They are humble and moldable, which are characteristics that God honors greatly.  I know that as we as a congregation dive into the text of the Bible, God is going to pour out wisdom and understanding that we have never had before.  And with wisdom, comes great things!

The Velvet Hammer

I love the people that God has brought to my life.  I realize that I am abundantly blessed with amazing, talented, creative people all around me.  I especially appreciate the people in my life that are different than myself.  One of those people is our youth pastor’s wife, Angela.  In the future, I’ll tell you the story of how she and Jeff ended up in Vancouver, but for today, I’ll just tell you about her.

When you first meet Angela, I’m pretty sure that the heavens open up and rays of sunshine burst forth.  Small, woodsy animals scurry from the darkness to rest beside her and you can almost hear the sounds of Julie Andrews singing, “The hills are alive with the sound of music…” somewhere in the distant background.

She’s got a gift of enveloping people with kindness and love.  I watch her in absolute amazement because she is just dripping with graciousness.  She disarms the toughest of souls and you feel the need to confide your deepest transgressions into her loving care.  That’s the velvet part of who she is.  Soft, warm, and just downright beautiful.

But that’s not the part I love most about her.  What I love most is that the “creamy center” of Angela is opinionated, strong, secure, and determined.  She may smile while she’s saying it, but it won’t deter her from telling you the truth.  She wants people to live right, do right, and fulfill what God has in store for them.  She gets downright frustrated when people can’t figure out how to do just that.  And the look of outrage on her face that you might live to be anything short of God’s best is worth a thousand pictures.  She’ll straighten you out with a bluntness that will leave you reeling, but all wrapped up in this warm and reassuring package. 

She’s what I call a “Velvet Hammer”.  You’ll never know what hit you.  But, believe me, you’ll be glad that she loves you enough to dive headfirst into your life and tell you what God sees in you.

Coincidence

I love random coincidences, like when two twins separated at birth just happen to work in the same building and reunite after years and years…

When we first moved up to the north end of Vancouver (Salmon Creek) a friend of mine (Jeannie) told me about a friend she had that lived right by my new house.  “You’ve just got to meet, you have little girls the exact same age, you’d love her!”  Sounded nice, especially since we had no friends up in the area, but the reality of calling a complete stranger was a bit odd.  So, needless to say, it never happened.

Thankfully we started preschool and dance class, which helped to create relationships for my daughter.  We met lots of great girls in school and I got to chat with several moms while we watched dance class together.  I mostly talked with one mom in particular, so when dance class was over we put our girls in the same swim lessons.  They ended up being the only two girls in the class and bonded even more than in ballet class.  My daughter, Delaney, is shy and reserved, but her friend, Emily, is the total opposite.  She talks to anybody as much as they will let her!  They are in the same school district, so their friendship will last through the years.

After nearly a year of lessons together, Emily’s mom and I discovered that we had a mutual friend…Jeannie.  She had been telling both of us we should meet for over two years, but neither of us had put together the fact that the very person Jeannie was talking about was the friend we already had.

Those are the very strange coincidences in life that I love.  Vancouver is not a small town, so the chances of randomly becoming friends with the person that Jeannie suggested is pretty remarkable.  I think it’s God’s opportunity in life to remind us that He’s got a plan and a purpose for everything.

It’s a game of chess

Sometimes I think that God sees the world as a giant game of chess.  As He moves us where we need to be, He’s got the big picture in mind.  Meanwhile we may wonder what in the world He’s doing.  I wondered that eight years ago when God brought us to Vancouver.  In September of 2000 we found ourselves without a job, living in Seattle, and no plan of what we were going to do.  As I lay in bed one night with Mark, I said, “If you could take a youth pastor job anywhere in the world, where would you go?”  He quickly said, “Vancouver, Washington.”  That was markedly odd at the time since we had only even been to Vancouver once in our lives and it was not a special place for us.  I told Mark that was a nice dream, but the church he wanted to go to had recently hired a new youth pastor and so he’d have to go with his second choice.  He didn’t have a second choice.  The conversation ended for the night with God up in Heaven still moving His chess pieces while we slept. 

It was a few weeks later that the very church he spoke of called us for an interview.  They had a change of situation and when they asked around for hiring candidates, they were told one name…and one name only.  Mark Newell.  When they called that day for an interview, I said, “No need to interview, this is meant to be.”

We moved immediately and spent the next 5 1/2 years at Glad Tidings Church.  That became some of the most influential times in ministry that we could ever imagine.  I now see that time as the building block for everything we would later become.  Checkmate.

Baptism

So, probably the best part of the story came last Sunday when my husband, Mark,  (the lead pastor), our youth pastor, Jeff, and our children’s pastor, Kim, baptized seven people in the lake from our new church.  For those of you who are not familiar with baptisms, the Bible directs us to get baptized (dunked in water) when we decide to serve Jesus for the rest of our lives.  Pretty cool.  Watching those seven get baptized, I couldn’t help but think how badly Christians screw up what the Bible meant to be pretty clear.  I’ve watched so many people wait to get baptized until they feel they are “ready”.  That usually means that they have issues in their lives that they want to rectify before they feel “clean enough” to be accepted by Jesus.  The irony is that God wants people to get baptized immediately after deciding to follow Jesus because HE wants to clean them up.  If we can clean up ourselves, what do we need God for in the first place?

So, as I watched those seven, I thought, “Man, I think we got it right this time.”  None of those people were anywhere near perfect, just madly in love with this Jesus guy and wanting Him to mold and shape them.  It was awesome.  I think it was at that moment that I knew that all of the work was worth it.  To just have a church that wants to grow together…leave your pedestal at the door, because nobody is on one here.  It’s refreshing and I’m pretty sure it reflects alot of who Jesus really was.  Didn’t He go after the prostitutes and the tax collectors?  Certainly not the ones you would think that the King of Kings would be concerned with.  But that’s who He was.  And that’s who I want to be.

Sweet Beginnings

It’s about time that I started a diary of the amazing journey that we started two years ago.  I’ve thought about writing the story down a million times, but honestly, I think I was afraid to write it down and make it a part of history.  What if we failed?  What if the story ended badly?  Who wants to read a story with a sad, bitter ending?

But now I think it’s real.  All of the thoughts, the dreams, the planning, the praying, the work…it has all paid off, and so now, I can breathe a little…and I want it in writing so these precious memories can never be forgotten. 

That being said, the story is a long one, but hopefully through this outlet you will hear all of the stories and be a part of the journey that we went on when we started North Creek Church.  It’s only just the beginning!