Great day! Here’s my highlights:

I didn’t write highlights last week, but my top one was that 5 people decided to follow Jesus in Starting Point last week! How very exciting!

On that note, we have several people who want to get baptized. We are thinking about doing the next baptism on Sept. 27 for our 3 year anniversary. Are you interested? The portable hot tub has a heater now!

We are going on a missions trip in 2010. We have about 20 people interested in being a part of that!

Rachael Yonko is now the Children’s Assimilation Pastor. She’s still overseeing Little Adventurer’s, but her main goal is to develop, staff, maintain, and lead the Children’s Check in area. We want people to get in and out in a smooth, informed way each week. We had 14 new families with kids last month who were acclimating to a new system along with their multiple children. That totals about 45 people who needed one on one attention, not to mention all of the regular families that check in children every week. She is currently in the process of pulling in new leaders and providing structure there. In the next few weeks, you’ll notice even more streamlining and new leaders.

The worship team did a great job. Chris redid some of the sound and lighting, which made things in the music department better than ever!

The stage got another projector so that we can better use our building for multi-purpose venues. We can now change out themes with the click of a button. I know some of you will miss some of the decorations, but don’t worry…we’re not planning on being less creative! We’re just going to put that creativity through new avenues.

We have a lot of people signing up for small groups. If you need to do that, go to www.coffeechurch.com and fill out a registration form. Grouplink is on Sept. 27. If you are interested in leading a group, either now or in the future, let me know! Small Groups is where we pray for people, love them in tangible ways, and discuss the issues in life.

All in all, life at North Creek is great! I’m loving the journey, our team, our congregation, and our hopeful future. So much has changed in the last 365 days and I am sure I will say the same thing 365 days from now!

Hi Mackenzie! 🙂

So…I’ve been haunted by something for the last six months and I just felt prompted to write it on paper…ok, paper sucks. How about digital accountability?

We are going to have 300 people at our church for our three year anniversary on Sept. 27.

It’s been in my spirit and honestly, I think it’s nuts. I think it’s improbable. I think 300 people can’t fit into our building with only two services. I think my statistical mind says that’s not gonna happen. But maybe it will. Crazier things have jumped from my blog to reality…

So, if you are reading this and plan on being part of that insanity, you might want to come to the 9:00 am service. Apparently the 10:30 am will be standing room only.

Pastor Mark Batterson is one of my mentors…he might not know it, but that’s not the point! I love how he thinks and I want to be more like him. So, every once in a while I share something from his blog that makes me a better person.

When I was a sophomore in High School I took a speech class. I decided to seize the opportunity to share my faith. Looking back, that speech was my first sermon. But here’s the thing: the idea of ministry had never crossed my mind. Not even on my radar screen.

Without me knowing it, my mom sent that speech to my grandma. And my grandma showed it to her Bible Study leader. And her Bible study leader, whose name I don’t even know, said: “Has Mark ever thought about ministry?” And the answer was “no”! I hadn’t thought about it. But that question planted a seed.

That man, whose name I don’t even know, saw something in me. He spoke into my life and called something out of me. Honestly, that question was left unanswered for years. It lay dormant. But when you speak into someone’s life and call something out of them, you never how or when or where God is going to use it.

We need to speak prophetically into each other’s lives. We need to call things out–gifts, passions, goals, dreams, desires. Isn’t that what Jesus was so good at? He saw the martyr in a denier named Peter. He called it out by calling him “the Rock.”

Prophets call things out of the people. It’s also called leadership. I’m thinking of this today because I read a manuscript an aspiring author sent to me and he definitely has the gift. I emailed him back and called it out. I want to call the best out of others the way Jesus did. That’s leadership. That’s discipleship.

What happened to my universe???? I put my 5 year old on a bus and sent her off into the world to make a difference. Gotta tell you – I officially have a whole new lens of the public school system. My daughter is one of many kids with differing histories, views, and behaviors.

Now more than ever, I feel the pressure to be a great mom who is invested in her life as well as involved in the school. I also feel the weight of making sure that Delaney LOVES Jesus and His church. I am not afraid of what Delaney will see and hear, after all, she’ll be in this world for the rest of her life. What I am concerned about is giving her the right lens with which to make decisions that will make her successful in God’s eyes. There will be more conversations going on in my house than ever before about the difference between what Jesus thinks and what “the world” thinks.

I also want Delaney to develop a deep love for people who think differently than she does. I want her heart to be invested in people who are hurting, alone, afraid, and in need of a friend…and the love of Jesus. I want her to be an influencer in her world. I want her to be a leader in her own giftings and abilities. All of that just became more than a concept…it became an object lesson.

Here’s to Kindergarten! I have some great moms in our church who entered this world with me this week and I’m so thankful that you are on the journey with me. May your children change the world right alongside Delaney. You’re kids are constantly in my prayers.

I thought it would be fun to look up the blog that I wrote one year ago today. Here is what I had to say 365 days ago:

Mark and I love change! When everything is going so smoothly that you can do it with your eyes closed and you’re so comfortable with the system that you can relax, something begins to bubble up inside of us. How can we do this better? How can we involve more people in the system? How can we make the dream bigger and harder to reach?

We feel that need to stir things up again now that we are two years into this church plant. Honestly, I’m relieved. I thought that starting a church would be so hard that it would take a decade to settle down again. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to make this whole thing seem easy, but God gave North Creek so many amazingly competent people that we have it down pretty well.

I’m excited in my spirit. I’m a big fan of faith. If I can do it in my own strength, it’s not very fun for me. If God has to show up to make it work, that’s where I like to live.

So, let’s all get ready for the next ride. It’s always a ton of work, but the stories that come out of it are worth the expense!

It is SO interesting to me that I feel a very similar way now that I did a year ago. That feeling however comes with having followed our gut from a year ago and stepping out in faith to pursue a new building opportunity that resulted in nearly tripling in size as a church. In that number represents many people who have come to church for the first time, some wounded by church who needed healing, some who moved here and needed a new home. Those numbers also represent the launch of a youth ministry, the launch of a second service, multiple staff changes (no one leaving, just reassigning jobs!), and new small groups. Our culture changed, our way of doing ministry changed, but our mission remains the same.

And here we go again. My gut however says that the next challenge/opportunity that God has before us will not be so much faith as it will be managing. I feel that we are on the edge of a new season of growth. Growth comes with growing pains and although it is a fun season, it also means the birth of new services, new campuses, new small groups, new leaders, new pastoral staff, new systems, new teams…new dreams. Hmmm…God, bring it on!