My weekly church highlights:

Three teenagers accepted Christ this week at youth group! That makes 8 people in our church this month who made a solid decision to begin the journey of living for Jesus. That’s the point.

We have seven people currently signed up to get baptized on Sept. 27. Man, what a morning it’s going to be! There are some really incredible stories behind the baptisms this Sunday and each one symbolizes something totally different for me. It’ll be emotional to say the least. And the baptismal tank has a heater now, so it won’t be near as painful to watch…

The kids were so loud during the second service that I had to go in and quiet them down. I love that! I want our kids to have a BLAST on Sunday mornings and to a kid that probably means being loud. The good news is that they are learning about Jesus and having a great time. What more can you ask for?

We have a great advisory board. They met last night for their monthly meeting. I love each one of them! Quality people that I am proud to work along side with.

There were a ton of teenagers in the 9:00 am service. What kind of teenager gets up early on a weekend to be at church??? Well, I asked them what they were doing here so early and they looked at me with that “You’re a dumb adult” look and said, “Uh, ’cause we like it here.” Duh. I should have guessed that. They stayed for both services, too.

I am praying for a miracle Sunday next week. I’ve been praying about Sept. 27 for six months. It is on my heart to see God’s house full. Really full. Mark has a message on his heart for this church and it’s going to be one of those monumental Sundays that mold and shape the face of our church. The deal with miracles in the Bible is this…it is usually God taking people’s efforts and using His authority to create the unimaginable. WE have to make the effort. WE have to DO something in order for God to use it for His glory. It might be something small and insignificant like a couple of fishes and loaves, but it’s got to be SOMETHING! So, invite someone to church next week. Get yourself out of bed. Bring that neighbor kid who lives at your house all of the time. Send emails, Facebooks, texts. Get your entire high school motivated to come. But come. Why? I don’t know. I just feel in my spirit like it’s important. I’m out on a limb here and I might be wrong. But I might be right.

I love going to church….LOVE it! I get to see all of the people I care about and enjoy the morning. It is truly my highlight of every week. I love the men, women and kids who call North Creek home. I love seeing their smiles as they walk in the door each Sunday. It is as if everyone in our church collectively decided to set aside the crud of life and just take some time to relax with each other and forget the worries of life.

Yes, we all know each other’s difficult stuff. I know the family who is crushed by the letter that the husband will soon go back to Iraq. I know the family that lost a loved one this week and is broken. I know about the diagnosis of MS and I know about the teenager that is driving their parents to the edge. I know about the surgery that a mom is due to have soon. Nobody is pretending here. Christians have struggles to and we pray constantly for those people. But Sundays we want people to breathe and enjoy the presence of Jesus in spite of their circumstances. We want to give people a break from all of that and the opportunity to laugh, get a hug, hear from the Bible, drink a cup of coffee, and set aside the enormity of what lies ahead. It’s a lot like family…you deal with what you need to, but you’ve still got to have dinner and enjoy each other’s company and not let the issues rob you from life.

So, come tomorrow. We know you walk through the door with a load of emotional baggage, but we’ll allow you to put it down for a while. And you’ll probably be just like me…you’ll LOVE Sundays.

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm – SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL

I gain wisdom and insight from anywhere and everywhere I can get it. Recently I read an article about traders in the stock market and the amazing amount of risk that they take every day. It resonated with me because starting a church involved risk that was out of my comfort level by far. I was pregnant, we moved to a new area, we asked friends/family to give up their church/jobs/homes and follow us, we had about $20,000 in grants (which is chump change compared to most church start ups), and we had no background in starting a non-profit. And, oh yeah, we decided to launch in a mere three months. Risk and stupidity looked a lot alike at that moment.

And what did we learn? Risk and fear cannot go hand in hand. You must let go of all fear and charge ahead without being caught up in the distractions of the momentary things. If it’s only a short term problem, then it doesn’t deserve to be given the luxury of worry. Have a clear vision, use wisdom, keep learning, and don’t EVER give in to fear.

Here is a copy of part of that article. Enjoy!

A while back I was having a conversation with my partner Martin Bedick about the markets and in particular taking losses. I thought some of his comments were worth sharing with our readers.

I asked him, “Martin, what is it about this business that keeps us coming back for more? It’s absolute torture at times.”

Martin answered, “Well, you’re not going to believe this, but I went into this business because I actually thought trading was going to be an easy way to make money. It was only after I drove myself crazy for years that I realized I had a problem. I wasn’t making any progress so I decided to re-think my whole approach to trading. I realized that I just wasn’t thinking straight. I began to learn how important one’s mindset is to being a successful trader. Part of the game is dealing with constant challenge. I think that’s why I like the Mark Douglas quote from “The Disciplined Trader”:

Most people like to think of themselves as risk takers, but what they really want is a guaranteed outcome with a little bit of suspense.

“That was me”, he continued saying.

“So, you’re saying you think people are unaware of the risk?” I asked.

“No”, Martin said, “I’m saying that they have not accepted the risk. When you have really accepted the risk you’re no longer afraid of what may happen. The only thing that is certain in trading is nothing is certain. Once you understand that anything can happen, you’ll always act in your best interest and protect yourself. I had to learn how not to be afraid so to speak. Losing traders are always fearful……They’re afraid of losing money. They’re afraid of being wrong. They’re afraid of either missing a big move or leaving money on the table.”

“It’s always astonished me how much time people spend trying to eliminate risk. It’s irrational. We all know this is impossible. Instead, one needs to quantify the risk and then change their mindset so that they truly learn to accept the risk. This may be the risk of losing money, the risk of being wrong which can lead to criticism from colleagues or clients, or the risk of missing moves by either entering late or exiting early which could lead to a different type of angst all together. Only when we can truly accept all the risks involved in trading, we will become better traders.”

I read a great article (copied below) and thought I would share it with you. It refers to volunteers, but what I gleened from it was just how blessed I am to be on God’s team. I’m not doing Him any favors by giving my time and energy to His mission. Rather, I am blessed that I GET to do ANYTHING for Him at all. He’s the creator of the universe! He is all-powerful, mighty, and holy. I should be jumping up and down when I get to serve!

I am proud to say that we’ve gotten several “complaints” lately that we have too many volunteers in our church and that people would really like to serve more than once a month. I think that might indicate that we have that heart of gratefulness at our church towards getting to play on God’s team. I never want to lose that spirit at North Creek! Too many volunteers just means that we are ready at any moment to live out God’s destiny…new campuses, more church plants, more people in the kingdom of God!!!! Bring it on, God! North Creek has “too many volunteers” that want to be used by YOU!

Enjoy the article!

The Opportunity of a Lifetime
May 13th, 2008

Each week I have the pleasure of speaking with churches all around the country. One of the consistent questions I am asked is “how do you get volunteers to show up on time”. If you’ve ever worked with people, you realize that question translates across all spectrums.

When I ask, “what are you doing to address the issue” I hear a wide array of answers. Answers like “the volunteers that show up on time get donuts and the late ones have to watch” or “the ones that are on time have their names put in a raffle to win a prize.”

There’s a fundamental flaw in that perspective. Churches are notorious for communicating a need based message: “We need volunteers so will you help me fill the need?” Many times it’s almost a desperate plea of “please help me because if you don’t people will go to Hell and this thing will fall apart.” It’s a scarcity mentality that is coming from the wrong perspective.

Jesus Christ died on the cross for His church. It was his redemptive plan for the earth and there isn’t a plan “B” or a plan “C”. He did not die for a business, industry or para-church organization. He died for His church, His righteous bride and He made a few promises along the way.

Jesus told us that the “gates of Hell would not prevail against His church” and that “He would build His church”. If the reality of scripture shaped our perspectives we’d realize the opportunity we are giving people. When leaders realize that participating in the local church isn’t a burden for people, but rather it’s an opportunity to be a part of God’s redemptive plan the whole thing changes. When you understand this truth you have a drastically different approach. You now see volunteering as an amazing opportunity to be a part of what Jesus died for, not something that comes after the tee-ball games or something you can fit in around kick-off times.

When we as leaders view what we have as the most important thing on earth, when we see it like we’re allowing someone to get in on the IPO of Microsoft, it’s then that we have the right perspective. When a person uses their gifts to advance the gospel and become a part of the transformation process there’s nothing like…it’s a supernatural partnership.

If people sign up to help with a need, it will wear out over time…when people commit to an opportunity it can last a life-time. It’s a beautiful thing to watch lives transformed because they had an opportunity to be used by God to touch another person.

As leaders, let us never be guilty of not giving our people an opportunity to partner with the Creator of the Universe through the local church.

Larry Brey

I have a reoccuring conversation in my life with lots of people. They all say something like this, “I don’t want to attend a “big” church. It’s so much nicer to be at a church where I don’t get lost.” I never correct people when they say this because I know that what they are really saying is just that they want to feel loved, valued, and a part of a community. Their personal experience is probably from a large church that failed to make them feel those things.

However, that statement also makes me nervous. It makes me nervous because it walks a fine line of forgetfulness of our mandate from God. We need to be growing and God’s churches need to be full. We need to continuously be praying for God to bring increase in our church and the other churches in our community. We need to hope and pray that our building is to capacity and our parking lot is a mess. Those are great problems to have! We need to grab a hold of the growth mentality and participate in making that happen.

Partnered with that, we need to make our small groups the foundation for making people feel loved, valued, and a part of a community. That’s the heart of the church! And it can’t be one or the other. We shouldn’t be growing and miss out on the aspect of community within the body of Christ.

So, here’s to a very large church! I’ll be satisfied when everyone in our community knows Jesus and is plugged in to a great church. How’s that for a goal?