Today was a great day at the Coffee Church. Here’s my weekly highlights:

Starting Point began with 5 participants, 1 leader, and 2 apprentices…LOVE it! What a fabulous opportunity to grow in your walk with Christ!

I worked 2nd hour in the nursery and got to hold Amita and Eli. I also got to hang out with Karlie, who is a beautiful teenager in our church. Talk about a great hour…babies and a teenager…all of whom go home with their parents later!

Mark spoke on Regrets this morning. YIKES! What a topic! It was a great sermon and you can catch it online early this week. I’m so glad that we serve a God who doesn’t abandon us when we are stupid…’cause sometimes we are…just saying…

I have had a very strange week. God is definitely up to something because I feel like the theme song from the Twilight Zone is playing all around me right now. Everywhere I go, providential things seem to be happening. I’m pretty sure that God is up to something.

Rachael Yonko is my hero of the day! She is an AWESOME leader with a fleet of dedicated people working along side of her. She has a tender, loving, and merciful heart, and also knows what she believes.

My blog is offically linked to my Twitter account that will post it on my Facebook. Chris Harold told me to do it.

We have some big dreams for 2010…Some of them are to grow to 300 people, continue our trend of baptizing over 20% of our congregation every year, launch a second campus, double our operating budget to allow for funds to pay our staff this year, and launch 7 new small groups this year. We are also wading through the process of becoming a sovereign church and no longer a church plant. We are praying and believing God for the right timing of a service that reaches 18-25 year olds… WOW! It’s going to be a year of growth and blessing! What part gets you excited? Find out how you can be involved in making that dream a reality.

We have great people in our church! Want to be a part of it? You are always welcome!

A couple of nights ago we came home to 4 balloons and a note on our front porch from Donna. Each balloon had the church address on a tag attached to it. There was also a tin with four $10 gift cards to Starbucks. The instructions were to send up a prayer for our dreams of launching a second campus on 10/10/2010. The finder of the balloons can bring them back to the church and get a Starbucks card. There was also a note about how much Donna believes in North Creek’s future.

Not only is it a cool idea, but to have a church that jumps on board with insane ideas means everything to Mark and I. We feel like no matter what we do, it will succeed, because dozens of people are surrounding us with unstoppable faith. It really is the most humbling thing one can imagine.

Last night our family took 3 balloons out to launch. The white balloon had lost a bit of it’s “get up and go” and was sagging to my floor, so I decided to leave it behind as a momento. Our family stood and watched as the balloons soared into the night sky. The girls giggled and bent their necks until they couldn’t see them anymore. On the way in, Delaney said, “Mom, the white one has to go, too!” I decided to humor her and take it out front. Much to my surprise, it actually took off! Unfortunately, it floated just across the street and lodged itself in my neighbor’s tree. We laughed a bit and went inside.

This morning, when I peeked outside, the white balloon was gone. It was too high up for the neighbor to get it, so I wondered where it went, but didn’t give it another thought until later this afternoon. I was sitting in my living room looking out the window. Just then, about 12 feet high, floated that white balloon past my house. It bopped down my street and with all the gusto of determination it could muster, it sailed above a house and off into the distance.

It was as if it was looking for just the person that needed it and wasn’t planning to give up until it found the rightful owner. The love of God is very similar. It doesn’t give up until it finds a place in your heart.

If you receive that little white balloon, know this…God had a good reason for that. Even when I had given up on it, the belief of a child sent it flying your way. It contains the faith of a church that has no other goal in life than for other’s to know the love of Jesus and experience the life He has for you. May you be blessed.

This week we had our first missions meeting with Ten Talents International. They meet in a stunningly beautiful building with the finest offices, coffee bar, conference rooms, and amenities. Mike went on to tell me that the building provides a top notch quality workout room, refrigerators stocked with food, all of the utilities, high tech plasmas and office equipement, and to top it off…it’s all free for Christian non-profits. Of course I asked for the story and I was stunned at the generosity of a local businessman. Here’s the scoop for the US Digital website:

In 2006, this building was purchased and renovated to become the new home of US Digital, the maker of motion control products. For one year, an extra 17,000 square foot section of the 110,000 square foot building sat empty waiting for a useful purpose.

US Digital was inspired by a simple question in the Bible, “What is that in your hand?” (Exodus 4:2). The simple staff in Moses’ hand became the instrument that God used to part the Red Sea. What was in our hand? We had extra office space and a heart for God to use it as a blessing. That inspiration, coupled with God’s providence and hard work created a blessing that we trust reflects God’s heart for this community.

The idea was simple: Develop that space and provide the infrastructure for a variety of small Christ centered ministries that complement each other. We provide their home and allow them the freedom to operate independently to fulfill their purposes.

God prospers and blesses our business as we seek to honor Him and follow our owner’s manual, the Bible. We hope that the good ship US Digital will inspire other businesses to partner with Christ and be His providence to their communities.

This is our story. What is in your hand?

WAY TO GO, US Digital! As a church plant that sought long and hard for our current building and is now looking for additional space for a second campus, I am inspired by your heart for ministry. I often look at unused space with a sick feeling in my stomach, knowing how valuable SPACE is for the kingdom of God. Thank you for opening your hand to see the work of God extend into a community that we love deeply. You are our heroes!

This was a chant that the cheerleaders did in Junior High. I still remember it nearly 20 years later. (I didn’t make the cheerleading squad, but that’s another blog…) Even as pre-teens, we were convinced that the only place that the Wolverines were worthy of being is FIRST.

Although it’s an appropriate perspective for a junior high basketball game, when I see it in the daily lives of Christians or in ministry, I want to kick the “whoopee” out of someone.

Somewhere inside of us there is a wrong mentality that we must be the “most important”. We must have the title and the prestige. We must sit at the right hand of Jesus. It’s a centuries old issue that remains in all of our hearts to a degree.

And yet, the Scripture so clearly outlines that the last shall be first and the first shall be last. That those who just diligently serve with a pure heart, not caring about the accolades, will be given what is due them. That those who assume they are unworthy to sit at the table will be given the seat of honor.

We have the greatest team surrounding us at North Creek. They are talented, funny, creative, intelligent, and capable of balancing mountains on top of a toothpick. But honestly, as Mark and I talk about them behind their backs, we really don’t hang our pride on those attributes. What we talk about all of the time is their servant’s hearts, their loyalty, their self-sacrificing drive to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ, and their love for people. That is what sets them apart. We can hire talent. That’s an easy commodity. What is far more rare is humility.

We fight to have a church that is serving and accepting. We fight to be humble and grateful for our salvation. We grow people in their gifts, even if that means we struggle along the way because people fail when they grow. We want a whole bunch of #2’s running around our community. In the end, they will have a much greater impact on the world because they look so different that “normal”.

And here’s the irony…the very thing that we care the least about will be given to us anyway. We serve such a backwards God, but I think He knows that when you are given glory after having served long enough, you treat it with the appropriate amount of attention. It is in servanthood that you understand the irrelevance of what the world values.

Today I filled out the statistics form for our denominational partner. I filled in all of the numbers for church attendance and small groups. I added up the little kids and punched all of my numbers to send them off to Springfiel, Missouri, so that they can be proud of a church plant thousands of miles away. However, when all was said and done, I realized that they missed a box…Online Attenders!

We recently got an email that we wouldn’t have gotten ten years ago:

I am not a member of your church but I watch all the sermons on the internet. I love what you and your church represents and would like to tithe using your church. Do I address it to the Coffee Church or North Creek Church on the money order or Check? Thanks for Being the Wonderful Church you are.

We live in a day and age where people are being fed, growing, and giving to a church that, for whatever reason, they are unable to attend on a Sunday morning. It’s just another reminder that there are ways of doing church that we haven’t even thought of, yet. There are new methods, new perspectives and new ideas that are yet to be had.

I look forward to the ever-expanding creativity that God has blessed us with that will change the world through His Word. And here’s to the online campus! We’re so glad to have you as a part of North Creek Church.