It didn’t take long…

Greg discovered his picture this afternoon (see the post below)…he told me to get a good laugh over it and that he’s going to get me back.  I think this is the first official war between a board member and the senior pastor’s wife at North Creek.  I’ve seen some church conflict in my day, but nothing quite like this.  Stay tuned…

Playing Catcher

Someone recently suggested that I include my own bio on the list of staff that I’ve been compiling for the last couple of weeks.  Where do I start?  

As a kid, I played fastpitch softball.  (Softball is for sissies, but fastpitch is the real thing!)  It was in those seven years that I believe God was preparing me for my role as a pastor’s wife.  Being a catcher is like playing all the positions at the same time, but staying in one place.  You get foul balls, pop flies, you’re a baseman, there are line drives, you make the pitcher better if you make the right calls, you keep the ump happy, and with the right padding, you can get hit pretty hard and still be OK.  A great catcher is very fast and can throw all the way to second base with a surprising speed and accuracy.  If something gets past you, it could very well cost you the game and there’s no one around to rescue you.  Although a catcher is part of the team, they are also very clearly playing their own game just outside the bounds of the field.

And that pretty much sums up my life in ministry.  I love my role, although it includes such a variety of jobs that it can leave me reeling.  I’m definitely on the team, but just slightly outside of the bounds.  I do my best to make the pitcher look good, I can take a hit better than most, and not too many things get by me. 

I try very hard to hide my fierce determination because when it comes out, it tends to scare small children.  I can easily accept someone elses failure, but I can’t tolerate my own.  I need people around me to do what they are great at because that is when I’m most comfortable.  Whiners and those who spend more time complaining than working absolutely drive me nuts. 

I am blessed to have a church that doesn’t make me feel like I have to be something I’m not.  I’m never going to be on the worship team, play the piano, bake cookies for the women’s bazaar, or wear a broach.  Nor am I good at saying all of the right things.  No comments necessary on that one…

The thing that gets me up in the morning is to watch people’s dreams come true.  I want you to be incredible and if I can help, I’ll pretty much bleed to make it happen.  I love people…a lot.  I spend my extra thought time trying to figure out how to get you involved in the bigger picture of doing something great for God.  I ask for updated church directories frequently so that I can go through each name and take inventory of where you are fitting in.  If you’re not, I want to know about it, but don’t tell me unless you want a new ministry.

Most importantly I love God.  I love His Bible.  I love the job that He’s given me.  I’m doing my best to please Him and “catch” as many people as I can for the kingdom of God.

Fearless Leader

And behind all of the amazing leaders that I’ve spent the last week telling you about stands an amazing man.  Our lead pastor is a phenomenal man.  I have the privilege of sharing my life with him, so I know him well. 

Mark was a youth pastor for over a dozen years, which took us on an incredibe journey that molded and shaped our lives into who we are now.  For at least ten of those years Mark never dreamed of starting a church.  In fact, I’m pretty sure that would have been the job that he wanted the least…ironically it has become his greatest joy in ministry.

Several years ago, Mark knew his days in youth ministry were coming to a close.  It was bittersweet because we both really loved that era of our lives.  However, when God begins to tug at your heart, you are never quite comfortable.  After much research, prayer, and counsel, his path was obvious.  He would join the ranks of those who have sacrificed and stepped out in faith to start a church from scratch.

Mark is dripping with optimism and faith.  I’m not sure the thought ever crossed his mind that this might not work.  I believe that is because God whispers to a pastor’s heart differently than the rest of us.  The mantle of ministry is a heavy one…one that I would not wish for on anybody.  I think God is gracious to those that have a pastor’s heart.  A common thread for those in ministry is a strong determination mixed with a sensitivity that can easily break a man. 

Mark is a leader that allows other people to be their best.  He is so deeply confident in who God made him that he has no problem letting others be better in the giftings that God has given to them.  He is an enabler in ministry.  He will use people far before they are “perfect” and “ready” because he so deeply believes in the using the gifts God has given us…at the level that they currently are.

He strives for excellence in everything he does and suffers deeply when he lets someone down.  He has an insane attention to detail, which is famous for being labeled as “intense”.  We are blessed to be following a man of integrity.  What you see is what you get.  He has no ability to be guarded or pretentious. 

Mark loves to laugh, which is probably his favorite part of being a dad.  He enjoys the small moments of life.  He lives for your stories of changed lives and bursts with excitement when you grow in your life.  His intentions are pure and his reason for being a leader has nothing to do with titles and egos.  He is called by God to preach the Word and that humbles him daily.  It’s what I admire about him the most.

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.

Awesome Leaders

This Sunday at church I had one of my favorite moments ever as a pastor.  I’ve been in situations in my past, not necessarily church related, but where great leaders did nothing in the event of a crisis.  Why?  Because of the unspoken rule that the leader at the top of the food chain needed to be the one to make the final decision.  I have even watched myself do nothing when I knew what to do to solve the problem in order to “stay out of it”.

Well, at 9:45 am on Sunday, we had no projector.  One is in the repair shop and the other went on the fritz.  Two of our amazing leaders got in their car, went to Best Buy (thank you for being open at 10:00 am!), bought a new projector, set it up, and had it running by 10:15 am.

Greg, one of those amazing leaders, saw it was working, through his hands up in the air, and said, “Twenty minutes!”  For those of you who have ever been part of a committee driven system, you can imagine that a similar crisis could take months or even years to solve…but not at North Creek.  Great leaders saw the opportunity to jump in and make that morning excellent for our guests.

And that is what it was all about.  Those two men believe in this church just as much as I do (and not to mention, the leader at the top of the food chain).  So much so that they would do whatever it took to make it the best possible morning for somebody who might walk in to our church for the first time.

Now that’s empowerment.  And the most honoring thing anybody could do for their leader…just be the incredible person that you are.