There are many leaders that have invested into my life over the last 20 years of Christianity. Some have spent years with me, challenging me, growing me, shaping me. Others have moments with me that last forever. I still remember a speaker named Johnny Jernigan speaking prophetically about my future. We were years away from starting a church. I had never even had the thought of it yet, but he said something along the lines about how I was busy doing ministry right now, but in the future, I would have a ministry of creativity and it wouldn’t be just about busy work. I think he was speaking of North Creek, but maybe that prophecy still has a foot in my future…who knows? Nonetheless, I have held on to his words for many years.

Another speaker who graced my path every once in a while was Roosevelt Hunter. He lived life to the fullest. I think the most important thing that Roosevelt taught me was to let your passion for Christ pour out of you at every minute. His voice is flowing from my computer right now as I listen to one of the messages he spoke in June. You can feel the desperation in his voice to communicate the gospel. It challenges me to stir up that passion every day!

On Aug. 10, Roosevelt lost his life to colon cancer at the age of 46. Although his impact on my life was via a stage, I still feel a loss in my heart. A great man of God is no longer out there working towards the same goal that I have. He leaves behind a wife and two beautiful kids. He also leaves behind an incredible legacy.

I don’t understand why some people live long lives and some seem to be cut short. I find it very difficult to navigate in my own heart some days. However, what I learn from death is this: LIVE. Live without fear and with great ambition. Spend your time wisely and tell people how much you love them…a lot. Thank you, Roosevelt, for living with purpose. Your life was a blessing to many and we are grateful for your influence.

“There are some people, who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other.”
— Douglas Everett

Well, I survived a night in the Montana wilderness with a portapotty and an old fashioned well water pump. I decided to honor my husband’s love for camping and stay in the woods for a night. The hiking and fun along the banks of the river were great, but cooking over a fire, fighting away the bees, and sleeping on the ground with two little girls were not what I call a vacation.

Nonetheless, in marriage, you not only need to do what your spouse’s like every once in a while, but you also need to have a good attitude. So, I smiled, ate steak cooked over a fire, and made the best of the situation.

That being said, I’m home. My laundry is swishing away in the background, a warm cup of coffee is in my hand, and the kids are running in the backyard. I’m back in “my world” with the people and surroundings that make me most comfortable. And I’m so glad to be here. I love the life that God has given me and I’m glad to be back in the thick of it.

Almost every Sunday I write about my highlights from North Creek. It’s the day that we all get to be together and I love it. Problem is…I’m in Montana and North Creek didn’t come to visit me this morning! Instead, Mark and I went to listen to our friend preach at Glacier Church. He is filling in while they search for a pastor. That means that my highlights today will be a little different. Some of my experience and some of what I heard from our team back home:

Being in Glacier Church was a flashback experience for me. The youth ministry that I grew up in had rented their building when I was in high school, so all of my youth group moments happened in the building that I was in today. I hadn’t been in that building in 15 years. I could remember all of the emotions of discovering Jesus as a young woman.

Worship was great. Why? Because God shows up when we praise Him. It was a completely different style and environment, but it was still my God.

Pastor Jamie did a great job preaching on the bride of Christ. My favorite point was when he told a story about a wedding that they went to where the bride never smiled. She looked horrified to be there! Can you imagine being miserable on your wedding day? We, as the bride of Christ, should express joy because it’s our “special day”. We are the bride of a King and we shouldn’t sulk around with gloom and doom. We’re about to “marry” our Lord!!!!

I heard that we had several guest this morning back home…can’t wait to meet them!

We have the most capable team in the world. I trust everyone back home to make sure the job gets done right and I’m never disappointed. We are blessed with the best.

I read Pastor Chris’ message. I can’t wait to watch it online. What a gifted man! I love how he thinks and processes scripture. I’m confident that God has a great plan for him and I sure hope that North Creek always gets to play a role in watching his dreams become a reality.

Tithing is important. You need to give 10% of your income to His storehouse and not manipulate your money. Sometimes it’s tempting to believe that you get to give 10% to whomever you decide that needs it most, but that’s not the model in the Bible. The purpose in tithing is to give up control to God. It’s good for us. That’s just a sidenote from my heart. If it hurts your feelings, go read the Bible until you feel better. Hmmm…that might be the title of my first book…

I love visiting other churches. It gives me a new perspective. Although, I will admit that I closed my eyes at one point of the service today and pictured myself back home in my cobalt blue church. I imagined Mackenzie running up to me and giving me a big hug…she’s one of the best parts of Sunday for me.

I hope you had a great Sunday! As I said on Facebook…Dorothy had it right: There is no place like home!

Mark Batterson wrote recently “Writing is like letting someone into your brain. For better or for worse, welcome to my brain.” That is exactly how I feel about my blog. I recently said to my friend, Katie, that you can see into my heart if you read my blog. You can tell how I’m feeling, when I am struggling, what is birthing in our hearts, and if you look really closely, you can see the future of North Creek. God seems to tell the future through my keystrokes.

I felt this way a year ago. I felt the winds of change begin to blow. I felt the spirit of God prepare us for a major shift in North Creek. I couldn’t see exactly where we were going, but I was confident that the fall would bring something that looked totally different. And that’s precisely what happened. We moved in to a new building, doubled in size, God brought in new people in leadership positions, we added a second service, and we birthed an official youth ministry. We are so different from a year ago, that we are hardly recognizable.

And now here we are again. God’s breath seems to be blowing again in my heart. I sense it. I look at people and God seems to tell me that their futures are about to intersect with the destiny of our church. Something is blowing in our future.

So, that’s where Mark and I begin to pray more about what God would have us to do. We research, we think, we talk, we believe, we lose sleep, we wait, we dream, we watch out for opportunities and we navigate through the possibilities. We wade through the sense that God has put in our hearts to try and determine what it actually looks like.

This is the part of ministry that is both irritating and exhilarating at the same time. How do navigate a ship by just the whisper of the captain in your heart? If you aren’t listening, you’ll end up in the rocks. If you are listening, you’ll live an adventure that can never be matched.

Get ready for the next ride of adventure. The winds of change are blowing again.

I heard a great quote from Keith Craft today. He said, “Leaders refuse to be offended.” This is a life altering perspective for me and I think it’s a valuable one. The reality of leadership is that you have a lot of tough decisions to make and not everybody is going to #1: Like those decisions and #2: Get all that they “need” as a result of your decisions and #3: Respond correctly to not liking the decisions.

I’ve watched in my life as leaders have taken things so personally and become so offended that they become irrelevant to ministry. One of two things happen…either they become unable to make decisions or they make decisions based on not wanting to offend someone. Either way leads to an unhealthy organization.

Thankfully Mark and I have had rare times to be offended in the last three years, but we have held to this value of not getting offended tightly. We try to choose to believe the best in people and believe that we are all on the same team. We choose to let offenses go as quickly as possible and apologize for offenses that we are aware that we may have created. We also know that we might not be able to please everyone. We will sure work on it, but the reality is that the church was never intended to be everything to anyone. It was intended to be a community of believers who grew each other by being together, not by developing all of the right programs with which to exist in or by saying the right things all of the time.

Offenses kill relationship and spiritual growth. It is my goal to fight against being offended in my own heart for the rest of my life. So, who are you offended by right now? What do you have to do to let that go? I challenge you to begin to speak correctly over that situation. Allow God to heal that area of your heart and keep you from building up new walls against people. You are a leader! It’s imperative that you don’t hold onto offenses!