Further and Faster.

Mark and I spend the majority of our time discussing how we can take the message of God further and faster than we are currently.

Those two words keep us up at night. They make our hearts beat and motivate us to get out of bed and keep going. They make us dream. They make us work. They drive every sermon that we ever write. They create a passion in us that is beyond the human realm and is directly connected to the heartbeat of God. They break the selfishness inside of us. They make us want to give more, do more, and have a bigger vision than we currently have.

Further and faster.

My goal in life is that those two words go far beyond our pastoral staff and deep into the heart of everyone who calls North Creek home. It’s never about us…it’s about the mission of God and how YOU fit into that mission.

My prayer lately is this, “Lord, make North Creek Church a big church.” Really big. Not because we need our name on a list somewhere, but because we believe that the alternative of a life with Christ is a life without Him…and that is the most tragic thing imaginable. “Lord, open up our doors and create a flood of people pouring in who want to know true love in their lives.”

This mental shift can be very uncomfortable…But, a comfortable life is only awesome if you have a temporary perspective. As soon as you have an eternal perspective of an enormous God, comfort takes a sideline. It shifts our perspective from “how safe can I play it” to “how much can I risk for Jesus”. It shifts from “I will be faithful to give 10% of my money” to “I wonder if I can live off of 10% and give the rest to God”. It shifts from “I hope my kids are happy in life” to “I hope my kids are living in the center of God’s wild will at all times”.

Further and faster.

Each of our lives is a part of this puzzle. Mark and I may have the vision, but you may have the money. We may have the preaching ability, but you are a star at Children’s Ministry. We may have the platform to motivate people, but you have the ability to run a sound board. We may have created a church, but you ARE the church.

My prayer is that you would begin to lose some sleep at night regarding what you have to leverage for the cause of Christ. Let’s change the world.

Sunday highlights!

I LOVE NORTH CREEK! What a cool place to attend church! We actually only attended one service at our own church yesterday and then we went and visited People’s Church. I highly recommend visiting other churches once in a while. It reminds you how it feels to be new and gives you a fresh perspective. Gotta say…it was tough leaving after the 9:00 am service! I wanted to stay SO bad, but it’s good for pastor’s to step back and look around every once in a while.

I had tons of people tell me that they read their Bible every day all week. Awesome. Just awesome.

I found out that we have another couple expecting in our church. Now we have one due in May, June and July…any one for August???? That’s what happens when you have a young church…

We had a board meeting yesterday afternoon. Mark and I presented our 2010 vision. Let me say this: I am so glad that we have balance between faith, caution, and wisdom at that table. We have a combo on our board, which brings balance. Mark and I bring to the table grandious ideas and our board helps us to keep it focused. We stretch them and they stretch us. I love and appreciate those people deeply in my life. They keep us accountable. If I was looking for a church I would ask alot of questions about how the leadership works together. I would look for what we have. We are a team working toward a common goal and we keep God and the health of this church as our main agenda. I don’t take this for granted!

We did our end of the year statistics…here’s my favorite – we baptized 20.3% of our congregation last year. COOL! That represents a lot of changed lives and many faces that I’m glad to see around North Creek all of the time. We also nearly doubled in size, which is also our goal to do again this year. We’ll stop when everyone knows the love of Jesus…

We’ve got some BIG dreams ahead of us and I look forward to seeing them become reality. Please pray as we decide which steps to take. If you happen to have a million dollars sitting around we could use that, too! 🙂

Several people asked us on Sunday what the next step for North Creek is in the year 2010. That’s a tricky one to answer. As Mark and I pray, discuss, dream, and decide, we are at the most interesting place that we’ve probably ever been in ministry. It seems like we have lots of pieces to a puzzle and we don’t have the box to know how it’s all supposed to go together. Everywhere we turn there are options and directions that could be successful.

I feel like our job now is to sit down, look at all of the pieces, and decide how it all works as one functioning unit. It’s an interesting phenomenon that you can be paralyzed by a lack of options, but also by too many options. Sometimes you need to just knock on a bunch of doors and see if any of them open rather than to just keep wondering which ones “might” open.

The one thing I know is this: God is in control and He knows just what to do. I’m excited to be along for the ride.

On Sunday Mark presented a challenge to our church to read through the New Testament in 90 days. I knew he was planning this, but I wasn’t sure what the reaction of our church would be. After all, we have a large base of people who consider North Creek their “first church”. In other words, many of us haven’t been to another church before, let alone read most of the Bible in a matter of months. I knew there would be a core of people who took the challenge and ran with it, but I am really shocked at the massive amount of people who jumped onboard without hesitation. And many of them would have considered themselves Bible “virgins” before this week. (I think I just coined a new term!)

We’ve been flooded with comments, conversations, questions, and encouragement from dozens of people. Facebook constantly has someone posting a verse or comment, either on their own page or North Creek’s. My blog stats doubled this week. Our staff kept referring to our reading schedule in our planning meeting. Our inbox buzzes with thank you notes from people who are so glad to have direction for their lives…from the pages of God’s Word.

Gotta tell you…God is up to something. Not something exterior, but something deep within the hearts of our people. I can’t wait to see what we look like as a church on April 2. God’s Word never returns void. If we are all filling ourselves up with the Bible, He will give us an outlet to pour it all out. Brace yourselves. Some of you have a pretty exciting year ahead of you.

And thank you for trusting your pastors and taking the challenge. It’s humbling to know that you will follow us. It brings us to our knees in prayer as we seek the direction for our church. Our first prayer is that God will allow us to make your dreams and desires come true. Many blessings as you continue to read.

For a copy of our Bible reading guide, visit www.coffeechurch.com.

Yesterday Delaney got mad, stormed upstairs, slammed her door, and acted much more like a teenager than a five year old. I watched as Mark silently got up, went to the garage, got a screw driver, walked upstairs, took her door off of the hinges, carried it downstairs and into the garage.

Yes. Yesterday he became a REAL father.

Delaney’s reaction was one of disbelief. It definitely got her attention and stopped her in her tracks. The rest of the night she kept asking, “Am I EVER going to get my door back?” When she went to bed last night she put her laundry basket and a chair in her doorway to simulate her missing door. It was pretty pathetic, but she got the point…don’t slam doors shut in daddy’s house.

Isn’t that just how God works with us? We “slam” doors shut in our own minds all of the time…”I’ll never plant a church.” “I’ll never forgive that person.” “I’ll never give that amount of money.” Aren’t we just as pathetic as Delaney was last night? Why don’t we understand that we serve an all-powerful God who has a big screw driver tucked away to remove the doors we are loud and obnoxious about shutting?

As North Creek goes through our current sermon series on obedience, I hope you keep this picture in mind. Don’t fight God. He wants us to be AMAZING! We are fighting against His best interests as if our own agendas can ever measure up to His perfect will.

In case you are wondering, Delaney will get her door back as soon as she understands to use it for it’s rightful purpose and not to prove a point. I have a feeling she’ll get that lesson quickly!