Blood, Sweat, and Tears

As new church planters we needed a few things right off of the bat.  One of those things was a trailer to haul all of our mobile stuff around in.  We started with an affordable trailer that was only about 5 feet tall.  It was the first piece of equipment that really made it all seem like a reality!  Although it was too small, it was our beginning and we were excited!

As we were preparing for the launch, we set up a time to assemble advertising tins at another church since we needed lots of room!  We excitedly loaded up the masses of boxes and paraphenalia into the trailer and went down the street.

We worked painstakingly for hours.  The exhaustion and the realization of the large task in front of us began to set in.  As the evening drew to a close we were crushed under the weight of what lie before us.  We began to load up our trailer with the tins and clean up the massive mess we had created.  It was mildly depressing.

As I rounded the corner with another armful of things, one of the kids said, “Mark’s hurt.  He’s in the kitchen.”  I set down my load and headed to the kitchen where I found Mark laying on the floor with blood surrounding him.  Kim, our children’s pastor, was mopping up the blood that was pouring out of his head.

Mark had scalped his head on our 5 foot tall trailer and taken a chunk right off of the top.  I handed off my newborn and my two year old to my inlaws and we headed off to the emergency room.  As we drove, I began to get dizzy from the emotional and physical workload.  By the time we drove up to the emergency room, I was sick.

We sat down to wait and I put my head between my legs to keep from passing out.  The nurse came around the corner and said, “Which one of you is it that has the head wound?”  OK, when a nurse can’t tell which one of us is hurt, that’s when you know it’s been a long month!  Mark raised his hand and she took us back to get him stapled back together.

Long story short, he healed just fine, but the trailer was sold and replaced with a taller version.  The extra money was well worth it!  We had officially invest blood, sweat, and tears into this crazy dream.  I am glad to say that we have not made another investment of blood since that day!  The sweat is still pouring and the tears come all too often.  However, they are tears of great joy as we hear story after story of changed lives.

Happy Anniversary

Today is North Creek’s two year anniversary!  I feel like we’ve made it through some very critical twists and turns!  A church plant is very similar to a baby.  That first year is key to a person thriving for the rest of their lives, but the second year is all about development.  At our one year anniversary I felt like we were still very dependent on other outside sources for our very life.  We were still receiving gifts and grant money from other churches and our leadership team was spread thin.  We were cautious and change was not an option.  We just needed to stick with the original plan and do our best to survive.

However, at year two, North Creek feels much more like a toddler.  Quite capable of the basics, like feeding ourselves, talking fairly well, and beginning to master some other skills, like dressing!  That translates into church world by paying our own bills, relieving some hard working volunteers with a broader base, and beginning to look at how to best navigate the future for the best growth opportunities.

Much like my own two year old, Kennedy, I see that the most scary work has passed.  A two year old is much more interactive and independent.  The constant supervision and fear subsides and is replaced by laughter, joy, and continued excitement for their development and growth.

We are growing into something pretty exceptional!  I am proud of the direction that we are headed and have full confidence that God will lead, guide, and bless us along the way.  It has been a beautiful experience that I would not change anything about!

I want to say a special thank you to the 39 people who started this journey.  You may never know the depth of love that Mark and I feel towards you and your families.  We know the sacrifice and the loyalty that this has taken!  We can only hope that you have the great joy in your hearts that we have as we hear the stories of changed lives.  Words fall short to describe the adventure that we have shared!  No matter where our paths may lead, you will always hold a special place in the history of North Creek.  We love you!

Thank you!

Jeff and Angela Welk

Joe, Kris, Adam, Kylie, and Drew Gray

Nick, Rachael, Jessica, Ben, and Gabe Yonko

Mike and Alecia Krause

Greg, Michelle and Jake Fitting

Jeremy Macias

Hans, Meghan, Andrew and Isaiah Scheels (and now baby Emma!)

Steve and Debbie Valenta

Greg, Sharon, Gregory, Robbie, and Erin Christie

Kim, Devin, and Kyra Goodrich

Ivan and Alvina Newell

Ryan Rouse

Mark, Stacy, Delaney and Kennedy Newell

 

God’s Mercies

Sometimes in the ministry life, there are literally so many decisions and directions to go in at one time it is overwhelming.  As we began the journey from youth pastor to church planter, we faced the most changes that we had ever experienced.  On April 28, 2006 we moved into our house in Salmon Creek while I was nine months pregnant.  We had our baby on May 29, 2006. And then we began the preparation work for the launch of this church on June 20, 2006, just days after our last goodbye as youth pastors at Glad Tidings Church.

The workload was a mountain ahead with a neverending “to do” list.  I can remember being up at my computer in the middle of the night working on the bulletin while holding my newborn baby to get her back to sleep.  The nights got longer, the days got shorter, and the house got dirtier. 

In hindsight, I look back at those few months preceeding launch and have no idea how I coped.  And yet, I never cried, I never broke down, and I never doubted that our team would make this thing happen…and I take no credit for the amazing perseverance that I had.  It was God’s sweet mercies that were new every morning in my life. 

What I learned during that time of my life is not to be afraid of a challenge…and the work that comes with it.  God will give you the strength that you need for your dream and an endurance that will not end.  It’s what I take with me as we look at the future.  Ahead of us lies more work than we’ve done behind us.  And I am confident to say that in the midst of that, God’s mercies will continue to be new every morning.

Outrageous Stages

Here’s some funny memories from Kris that will make you laugh today:

 

North Creek is a church of purpose.  Everything we do is for a particular and well thought out reason.  Even our stage decorations have a purpose.  In fact, the win for the Stage Creativity Ministry is to create an auditorium environment that people will tell others about when they leave.  Have you heard about coffeechurch’s crazy stage decorations yet?  If you live anywhere near Vancouver, Washington you just might!  Until then, here’s a list of some of the odd things we’ve heard said in the midst of North Creek’s preparations for our stage decorations:

 

1.     Joe, could you go rub Kylie’s back, I need to make 43 more cups of mashed potatoes.

2.     Doctor, can you get tetanus from chicken wire.

3.     How much paint do you need to cover six eight foot men?

4.     Where can I get 1,000 pounds of flour?

5.     Do they carry that at Target?

6.     Can you push that while you breastfeed?

7.     Mom, you drivin’ me crazy…you walking me too long!

8.     We’ll only have to have a fridge on the stage for one week.

9.     We’d only have to unplug one cable….

10.   Is somebody writing this down?

11.   I can’t take the baby chicks home, I have cats.

12.   Exactly how many rolls of sod does it take to cover the stage?

13.  If you think Mary will let you have open flame in the lobby, you’re crazy.

 

Called to Chaos

North Creek Church has an abundance of 2-5 year olds!  It’s been this crazy area that consistently pulls in kid after kid after kid….We structured ourselves from the very beginning to cater to families with toddlers.  Our youngest learners get worship, Bible stories, they memorize scripture, do crafts, coloring, and games – all in one hour!  We have an excellent program that I am very proud to put my own kids into with quality teachers that love them.

My dear friend, Rachael Yonko, took over this area of ministry when we launched.  At first I think it was out of necessity in her mind, but once again, as God moved the chess pieces, Rachael became an integral part of the heart behind this ministry.

A good leader hires people around them that think in a similar way to themselves.  A great leader hires people who think quite differently.  Rachael would be that piece of the puzzle that thinks differently.  Where our grace would end, Rachael’s love and compassion is just getting started.  She doesn’t give up on people easily and still has the innocence in her heart to be completely shocked by betrayal.  She is a constant reminder on our staff that we always need to error on the side of grace.

She is kind, generous, and filled with a sensitivity that I often see well up in her eyes.  Tell her a story of a changed life and she will melt into tears.  Then she will throw her arms up and say in a chirping voice, “I just LOVE the way God works!”

Rachael’s future will be a busy one in ministry.  I know that the preschool ministry, under her caring leadership, will grow beyond imagination.  She will grow into the role of faciliator and director of many, many leaders.  And through the example of her love, they will better understand how to love the children that God has brought to North Creek.

Surprise Inventions

One of the most important resources needed for World War II war production was rubber. The government decided to ask companies to invent a synthetic rubber that could be made with non-restricted ingredients. In 1943, engineer James Wright was attempting that when he discovered something unusual.  Wright had combined boric acid and silicone oil, producing an interesting gob of goo.

Wright conducted a multitude of tests on the substance and discovered it could bounce when dropped, stretch farther than regular rubber, didn’t collect mold, and had a very high melting temperature.

Though perhaps not practical as rubber, the substance continued to be entertaining.  In 1949, the goo found its way to Ruth Fallgatter, an owner of a toy store.  Her company put globs of the goo in plastic cases and added it to her catalog. Selling for $2 each, the “bouncing putty” outsold everything else in the catalog except for a set Crayola crayons. After a year of strong sales, Fallgatter decided to drop the bouncing putty from her catalog.

Advertising consultant Peter Hodgson saw an opportunity. Hodgson borrowed $147 and bought a large quantity of the putty in 1950. He separated the putty into one-ounce balls and place them inside red plastic eggs.  He decided to name the goo “Silly Putty” and to sell each egg for $1.

Hodgson got the Silly Putty stocked at both Nieman-Marcus and Doubleday bookstores.  Orders for Silly Putty started pouring in. From there, there was no end to the popularity of Silly Putty. (http://history1900s.about.com/cs/inventdiscover/a/aa122103a_2.htm)

If you’re wondering why I am telling you the story of silly putty, it’s because it relates perfectly to how we arrived at hiring Kim Goodrich as our children’s pastor.

After our first attempt at hiring a children’s pastor failed, we looked around and said, “Now what?”  Well, sometimes diamonds are hiding in plain sight.  While our first children’s pastor was at school, we had some volunteers doing the leg work to establish a foundation for what would become our children’s department.  Kim had been instrumental in the development of the theme, the name, the decorations, the curriculum…you get the picture.  She was already doing the work of a children’s pastor, but didn’t have the title.

We didn’t know Kim at all when she jumped on our church planting team.  She had been attending Glad Tidings and working in their kids department when she heard about a church starting in her neighborhood.  Looking to cut down the commute time, she introduced herself.  It would take several months for us to discover what we had just gotten. 

Mark, myself, and Kris Gray sat in the office after receiving the phone call from our “former children’s pastor”.  We talked about our options and one thing was very clear…Titles are easy to give, but ownership of a ministry comes much differently.  It was clear that God was giving Kim a mantle of leadership in our church…ready or not, here it comes.

We called her that day and asked her to jump on board officially. 

Kim is out of the park when it comes to her artistic talent and imagination.  She is a chameleon in ministry, able to adjust to whatever the situation calls for.  Kim is probably the most moldable and teachable person I have ever met.  I would probably say that when she began this journey, she knew that she had to learn a lot of leadership lessons very quickly.  She spent time listening, thinking, and applying principles that she needed to be the best leader possible.

Just like silly putty, Kim can bounce when dropped, stretch farther than regular people, doesn’t collect mold, and has a very high melting temperature.  In other words, she is strong, flexible, energetic, and resilient.  She will be amazing in ministry.

I’m still in awe at Kim’s arrival on the scene of North Creek.  We didn’t know the magnitude of what was in our “test tube”.  However, when God took ahold of the situation, Kim became the bestseller we were looking for.  We got an unexpected and brilliant surprise when we were in the midst of mixing up our team.  I’m thankful that God gave us the opportunity and the wisdom to see the gold mine in front of us.

Sometimes the Wrong Path Leads to the Right One

As youth pastors, Mark and I had a wealth of connections in our world of youth ministry.  Those all proved useless in the quest for a children’s pastor.  We didn’t know where to start, who to talk to, and why would anybody come and work for us when they didn’t even know our names?  To top it off, we wanted quality leadership for our children, not just a warm body.  It was overwhelming!

So, we started knocking on every door possible to get a grasp of who was out there and who would fit into our ever expanding picture of a church.  Finally it seemed as if we had our solution.  A young woman at Northwest University was graduating in December 2006 and felt like she could commute for those first few months of the launch. 

Over the next few months we talked on the phone, kept her in the loop of our emails, and finally put on the calendar a day in July for her to come down and meet our entire team.  We were excited!  This was the woman that would invest into the masses of children that we had as a part of our launch team.  She was our hope for an amazing children’s ministry. 

So, being the type of church we are, we went all out!  We hired a giant bouncy house, got gifts that represented all of her favorite things, developed games for our kids centered around her name, and made banners to display for when she arrived.  We were ready for the carnival!!!

Our kids spent the morning playing with their new pastor, getting to know who she was, and intergrating her into our team.  We laughed together, told stories of our journey, and began the process of developing a lifelong relationship.

And the next day she quit.

So, as we sat there in July, ready to launch a church devoted to young families with kids in September, we had no children’s pastor.  And we laughed.  We laughed because the one thing we know is that God moves the chess pieces where he wants them for a reason.  We had a strong faith that God was doing His work.  And He was…

Your Past Can Come Back to Bless You

When Mark and I were first married, we were junior high youth pastors at New Life Church in Renton, WA.  As with all youth pastors, there are always certain kids who take a special place in your life.  One of those young men was Jeremy Macias.  As a seventh grader, he was awkward and insecure (like all seventh grade boys!), but also kind, eager to learn, and very much dedicated to Jesus.  He struck a cord in us of someone who would use the investment of our time in his life wisely.  And so we poured in all we could. 

We were only his youth pastors for a couple of years, but we continued to stay in touch with him throughout his high school and college years.  Jeremy had some incredible youth pastors mold and shape his life along the way, so it was no shock to us that Jeremy ended up an amazing young man with a heart for ministry.

We asked Jeremy to lead worship for our students over the course of several years at Winter Camp.  So in January 2006, as he was finishing up the music for the evening, Mark asked if he would join the journey we were about to go on.

Jeremy brought something to the table that we needed and appreciated.  He is the type of person who doesn’t talk until he has something valuable to say.  In the midst of the flood of Type A leaders around us, Jeremy brought a calm to the storm.

He lead worship for the first essential year at North Creek, before he left to finish up his degree at Northwest University.  We continue to love and adore the man who became like a son to myself and Mark. 

Sometimes you give everything you are to someone and not expect to get anything back in return.  We went into our relationship with Jeremy with that intention.  However, in the end he gave us back more than we could have ever given him.

Don’t Hire a Youth Pastor

We were given a lot of advice about church planting and we are grateful for all of it!  However, one of those tidbits was the knowledge that we didn’t really need to pursue a youth pastor because many church plants don’t attract teenagers…

But then there’s the God factor.

As Mark and I started to pray about the staff situation, a couple came to my mind repeatedly.  I did not even know their names…they were just faces that would later on become priceless to this journey. 

I went to Mark one day and said, “There was a couple at camp last year.  You spoke with the guy’s wife.  I think his name is Matt?  He was on the drama team at Northwest…you know?  I can’t remember his wife’s name either…is it Angel?  I think we’re supposed to call them to join our church planting team.” 

First of all, that’s not the brillant networking skills that I would like to take pride in.  But when you just know something is from God, you don’t question it, you just do it.  So, Mark went on a manhunt for Matt and Angel’s phone number, figured out their names were Jeff and Angela, and called them on Dec. 26, 2005.  We wanted to wait until after Christmas to mess up their lives.

We met with the Welks in January of 2006 and by May they had gotten new jobs, moved here, and decided to fulfill the role of youth pastor (among a million other things!).

I’ve already mentioned Angela in The Velvet Hammer post, so I’ll tell you about Jeff.  He is eloquent, charismatic, funny, and talented in too many areas to list.  He’s from a family with a heritage of incredible men.  His family is the type of people who puts together puzzles without looking at the box, and that is exactly how Jeff navigates ministry.  He’s already got the big picture in his mind and he is a master at manipulating the pieces to achieve what the picture needs to look like.

He is very different than my husband in the way they think, which provides a teamwork that is near perfection.  They often remind me of the verse about iron sharpening iron.  They are both strong leaders, but there strengths and weaknesses are polar opposites.  Together they cover the other’s blind spots.

Jeff chose youth ministry, but I struggle putting him in a box.  He is much more than just any one position could define.  He is a partner in ministry, a selfless martyr of comfort for the cause, a shining example of a Godly man, and a man whose instincts for leadership are keen.

My gut tells me that God has an agenda for Jeff’s life that is vital to the church…not just our church, but the bigger picture of the kingdom of God.  So, remember the name Matt..I mean, Jeff Welk.  He’s going to be one of those guys in Heaven with a lot of crowns to cast at the feet of Jesus.

The Dream Team

Perhaps the most difficult and daunting process in the beginning was assembling a staff around us.  Imagine the task of defining what “positions” you wanted to fill, finding a qualified, talented, amazing person who would work for free, and differentiating between the church planting leadership team and who would become ”staff”.

At our previous church, our Junior High pastor, Kris Gray, had become invaluable to our hearts.  God was stirring in her a change in the future and together we walked down the path of what this change would be. We mourned the loss of our youth ministry days and lost sleep over the possibilities that lie ahead of us. 

It was unclear what Kris’ role would become at the beginning.  The only thing that we knew is that if Kris weren’t there, we were pretty sure we didn’t want to be, either.  It was her anchor in our lives that guided us to stay in Vancouver. 

Kris is currently our Small Groups Pastor, our sermon augmentor, and a general sounding board for the latest crazy ideas that we throw on the table.  She is the imagination behind most of our sermon stage sets and a look out for anyone who would dare cut a corner on creativity.  She is a counselor for the frustrated and will laugh at any joke you’d like to throw at her.

As a pastor’s wife, she fills a role in my life that is almost undefinable.  She knows me inside and out and thinks about ministry so similarily that communication is easy.  It is hard to escape the leadership mantel as a lead pastor’s family, and Kris gives me the opportunity to do just that.   She says it like it is, but somehow you don’t realize it because she is so invested into your wellbeing that you tend to forget that she is correcting you.  She has made a full time job of getting into people’s business to make sure that they are living according to God’s plan.

Kris is an example to our young mom’s about how to raise your kids with unbending consistency, which is her “secret” ministry.  You aren’t even sure you have been impacted by her mothering until your kids are misbehaving and you find yourself thinking, “What would Kris do?”  And that’s when you know that she’s wormed her way into your very DNA.  And that’s why we all love her.