When we decided to start a church we had lots of ideas tumbling around in our brains and to this day we haven’t figured out how all of the pieces fit together. What I have learned is that if you take the first step, you’re more likely to be able to see the second step.

Once again I see that as we are giving our building a mini-makeover. All of us sudden it went from a run down dump to a trendy, artsy, funky coffeeshop…I honestly couldn’t see it two weeks ago, but when we were prompted to paint the building, we just took THAT step. There was no agenda for another step, but as the saying goes, “One thing always leads to another.” I can’t wait to take the next step as God leads.

This plays out as well as we embark on a second campus. People that want to be involved inevitably ask the same question, “So, what’s this all going to look like?” Hmmmm…I can tell you Step One. Is that good enough? It’s not that we don’t have some sort of an idea, since we’ve done this before, but it’s definitely not a clear picture. It’s a process. And sometimes our greatest fault as Christians is not taking the first step because we can’t see the second step.

It’s the essence of faith. Don’t wait for the whole picture to present itself. Just take one step and see where it takes you.

Here’s my thoughts from yesterday:

Daylight savings time is a cruel joke. I was exhausted! Most of that had to do with the building project we are in the middle of, but an hour less sleep for me and the kids was not welcome. Can we all just commit to leaving it the way it is???

Our walkway is red. Gotta say…I love it. It’s bold and crazy, but I love it.

On a lighter note, it was another wonderful day as a part of our church family. We are continuing on with the topic of scars and God is doing a DEEP work in people’s hearts. One factor of North Creek that I appreciate is that God seems to do a lot of His work outside of our four walls. I love that people are discovering that they can read their Bibles, pray, and cry out to God anywhere. He meets them where ever they are at and works in their hearts without the background of a worship team and a pastor.

The youth lead worship yesterday. They did a great job, but the funny thing to me is that I don’t even notice the teenagers as a separate entity anymore. They are everywhere and serving in every ministry right along side of the adults. There is literally not a service that goes by without a teenager in with the preschoolers, kids, nursery, coffee bar, media, and worship team. They are a part of the fabric of our church. They are one our leader’s email list and invited to our leader’s meetings. They are treated with a combination of respect and apprenticeship. We know they are still “kids”, but they are also in the process of putting one foot into the adult world. What a better place to do that than a church? We are the best place for them to succeed and to fail.

We have a coffee cup mural on the side of our building. It’s so cool! Thanks to Alecia for doing that for all of us. I think that if Jesus walked the earth in this day and age, He would hang out at coffee shops. It’s the modern day well. It’s where our society goes to talk, to develop relationships, and to plan. He would be there, rubbing shoulders with all types, and trying to get into their business…and ultimately their hearts.

Someone handed me something that they had been holding on to as a symbol of a past wound. They gave it to me as a new symbol of how God is healing them. It was a pretty emotional moment for both of us. I am humbled to be in the story at all because God deserves the glory. He’s the only one who can change hearts! That being said, I’m gonna keep that thing as a momento of how God is using our church. I want to be a place where people finally lay down their guard and allow themselves to be all that they were meant to be.

Thanks to all of you who have come and worked at the building. It’s remarkable how much better it looks already and we still have a few hurdles to jump. Here we go!

At the conference we went to last week, Mark Batterson talked alot about the favor of God. So, that prompted me to ask, “Does my life have the favor of God? Does our church have the favor of God? And if those statements have a YES on the end of them, what is holding me back from doing ANYTHING for His glory?”

Go to www.BibleGateway.com and type in “favor of God”. Read some of the chapters that talk about the favor of God. The reality is that, while God does not show favoritism in His love, He does “hand out” favor in our endeavors. It’s really a very deep and profound thought.

Below are some verses I pulled out. Basically from these particular verses, favor is something you can grow in, it is bestowed on those whose walk is blameless, and Nehemiah wanted God’s favor based on his service to others for God. All interesting points to ponder…

Nehemiah 5:19
Remember me with favor, O my God, for all I have done for these people.

Psalm 84:11
For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.

Luke 2:52
And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

Although I don’t quite have this topic all figured out, I am committing it to prayer. My prayer is that my life would be filled with God’s favor. That His favor would be on my children, on my marriage, and in my church. I am partnering that prayer with helping me to live a BLAMELESS life. I not only want God to give me favor, but I want to represent Him well as I live out my Christian life. Sounds like a dynamite combination!

We got this incredible email this week. Thought that I would share it:

I was doing a lot of head nodding during Mark’s sermon. While I have forgiven those who scarred me years ago, it hit me that some of the anger and resentment is still there, like scar tissue from a scoping, or surgery so to speak. Until that is FULLY cleaned out, whatever was operated on, cannot function correctly.

I believe, and have been praying that during our challenge, and even more so, during this series, while going through our daily reading, the Holy Spirit will work in us, helping to vanish the scars in our lives.

Mark hit on a point when he said we think we’ve grown, or reached a point where we have it all under control. Learned all we think we need to learn. Through this series and this challenge, God is showing me that He can take away those things that have been circling the drain, but won’t go down in my life for sometime. The fact is, until one is really ready in their heart to let something go and be done with it for good, it will continue swirling around like a plugged drain.

God, keep doing Your work in our hearts…

I’m going to share for a few days about some of what we picked up at the two Conferences we attended last week. Such great stuff!

Mark Batterson said, “Don’t think big, think long.”

That totally struck me! I am very good at thinking big and then getting frustrated when growth is slow. Don’t get me wrong…I love the growth that God has given our church over the last three and a half years. I am humbled that He has entrusted our ministry with what He has. The problem is that I know deep in my heart that God has an enormous agenda for our little church and I want it…NOW.

The funny anomoly is that I know that North Creek is a long term commitment for the Newell family. It’s not a pit stop in ministry or a stepping stone to something greater. It’s the beginning and the end in our mind. You would think that would give me patience to build the foundation that God wants for us and to take it one day at a time, knowing that we do have time. God willing, we’ll still be here 25 years from now when it’s time to pass the torch to some young punk who has big dreams and more energy than we’ll have then.

However, my flesh gets in the way all of the time. I want His Kingdom built on my timeline and often forget that God’s timeline is always perfect. I want the end of the story in beginning of the book.

The other anomoly is that more than anything else, I want our church to have a strong foundation. Quick and catastrophic growth can often undermine that foundation and ultimately crumble what was built. Knowing that, you’d think that I would be glad that we are growing by 5 people a month. That adds up and yet it’s manageable. We can disciple, train, minister to, and accomodate that much growth into our system easily. We never are at a breaking point in our structure and we continue to have momentum.

And yet…having a church of 10,000 people overnight is always in the back of my mind. It’s people’s LIVES. It’s their growth, their marriages, their children who are at stake. It’s a desperate tension. God, give us your people, but please do it in a way where we do more good than harm.

Hmmmm….so much to think about. So many ways to grow and such a better person to become. Lord, make us more like you with goals and dreams that align with your timeline.