My inbox is a fun place to hang out (most of the time!). Thought I would share the wealth in case your inbox is a burden today!

Pastor Mark and Stacy,

I want to thank you so much for accepting [our family] into your church! We absolutly love it there! You make the service so much fun and want to learn more! I get out of the church and as I am pulling away I say, “I can’t wait ’til next Sunday!” We have a blast! And the Kids love their classes as well… The 4 year old askes us everyday if we are going to church. I don’t know what they do in their classes, but it is obviously working! This is the first church that I actually can’t wait until church again! You are awesome!

I was also wondering if you have any classes for adults or something that I can get involved in. As I told you on Sunday, growing up in church was not an option for me, so I don’t know that much about anything, and I am a little tired of being ignorant about this subject! I have this strong urge to go to church and learn. I would love to be baptized! Please write me back when you get a chance!

Oh and thank you for my Starbucks gift card!!! I received it in the mail yesterday and used it this morning.

Man! Could this email get any more encouraging?!? Love what we do!

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! It was a good morning! Here’s my highlights:

We were joking with Lee about how his son, Alex, is very pastoral, even as a fifth grader. Lee said, “I’m the prelude to the actual act.” What a profound thought! We lay out the preliminary work so that our children can carry it on to the next level. Can’t wait to see the church that Kennedy starts…

We had a set of grandparents come to our church and tell us how great it was! I love that! They were impressed by how relevant we are and grateful that their grandkids had a great church to come to as young adults.

We had several of our guests return, which I always love. It’s hard to find a church and it’s our goal to make that process as smooth as possible. Connecting with people is a very big job and it takes everybody making the effort.

Rachael, our children’s coordinator, is out of town visiting her mom in California. We miss her! She is a master at making sure that loving, qualified adults get your children from check in to class and back to you safely. I jumped in to some of her roles yesterday and felt like I was scrambling all morning. She always seems so calm…

Got this comment on my blog: I am so excited yet scared also for what our church has done and what it is going to do . With God all things are possible!!! Our church changes lives in Vancouver and will continue to change lives because God is in control like He is supposed to be. When you give it to God, He will make a way. We are seeing this in our own family as we are giving it to God. My husband has been unemployed since August yet ALL of our bills are being paid and we are trying to get on track financially. Our God is an awesome God! We love our North Creek Family.

We have lots of families in significant transitions right now. Many are buying houses, moving, getting pregnant, and getting new jobs. It’s a whirlwind to keep up with it all!

Our next baptism date is May 16. I got a couple of forms turned in yesterday and I’m sure there are more to come. Looking forward to it!

I ordered a bunch of new Bibles to give away. We have never had to order Bibles because we’ve inherited stacks of them from other churches, but it was sure fun to punch in the credit card numbers on that one. I can’t think of a better way to spend North Creek’s money than to put a Bible in the hand of someone who is seeking Jesus. It’s the gateway to understanding our Savior! There is no tool as powerful as the Word of God…accompanied by our litte booklet on how to read the Bible and where to start!

We are reading Proverbs as a church, which I have personally loved. So many tidbits of wisdom to think about and implement into my life.

Praying about our small groups. Thinking about some new strategies and systems for the fall. More to come as we figure it out.

Also, if you like my blog, check out Mark Batterson’s at www.evotional.com. It’s one of my favorites.

I think we have a miraculous week ahead of us. Hang on to your seats!

After I posted yesterday, I got a headache. Reading my own words made the room spin. “WHAT ARE WE DOING???” I thought. “This is beyond our ability. It’s too much to take on financially. We could cripple ourselves, but if we don’t do something, we won’t grow. You’ve got to stretch yourselves in faith at key times in order to get to the next place that God wants you. How is this all going to work out?”

I spent the rest of the evening quoting scripture to myself in an effort to calm my own flesh down…Unless the Lord builds the house, we labor in vain…Not by might, not by power, but by MY Spirit, says the Lord…on and on the Words of God rolled in my head.

I woke up several times last night and a flood of stress came back. Again, “Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord.” This morning I lay in bed listening to my own breathing. Weakness and worry was at the forefront of my mind. “God, I don’t want to get out of bed. It’s all too overwhelming today.” Nonetheless, my feet hit the floor and the day began.

Thirty minutes later the phone rang. It was early and unexpected, but I could tell from Mark’s voice that it was a good conversation. It was our good friend, Troy Jones, pastor of New Life in Renton. He’d been meaning to call for days, but life had set him back. He said he knew it was early, but he was going to make the call anyway. He told the story of how New Life, now a sprawling mega-church in the Seattle area, had started their building process dozens of years ago with a $20 deal and a handsake.

He then invited Mark to come to his church on April 25 so that his church could literally give $20 handshakes to a pastor who needs a financial boost to get to the next place as a church. There are thousands of people in his church, so $20 handshakes will add up to a much-needed investment into our future. All of what he was saying was made more ironic since he was completely unaware of the precise point we are at as a church and the ramifications of that offering.

And the words all came flooding back…”Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit.” says the Lord.

And there we stood. A few dreamers, in an old building, damaged by a fire, surrounded by black walls and the ominous smell of soot. The windows were clouded and the drywall was cut away where the firefighter’s water had soaked into it’s fibers. The air conditioner literally sagged off the wall from the heat it had once endured. The grass outside was overgrown and the weeds thrived from a year of neglect.

We looked around at the possibilities. “This room could be the auditorium, this one for the kids…” Suddenly a dark and dreary place became filled with people in the imagery of our minds. There was worship music and an espresso machine whistling away in the background. Kids were being checked in and others were pouring through the door in anticipation of seeing their friends and enjoying the morning.

“If we add a second campus, it means a lot of change for our people.” “Yes, but it also means MORE people…people who don’t have a church right now and need one.” We talked back and forth in low voices as if our words would cement the change in reality. “Definitely something to think about.”

And so began the journey. Decisions, pros, cons, money, sweat, and probably a few tears. Where will we end up? What will it look like? How many miracles will God have to do in order to get us to the next season of North Creek Church? So many unsettling options, but still the heartbeat behind it all. More people in eternity with Jesus.

We will always be afraid of our own flesh and our own failure, but my prayer is that it is never the driving force behind our decisions. So, Lord, whether an additional campus is the building we stood in today or an entirely different path, we submit all of our fear into your capable hands.

Moving forward…

It’s the week after Easter! That’s a notorious weekend in church life because you go from a packed house back to reality in the short span of 7 days. Thankfully we had more people than usual, particularily in the 9:00 am service, so it wasn’t a drastic difference for us. Onward and upward!

My parents came to visit for a few days this week from Montana. They left on Sunday morning, so my kids started off tired and emotional…it only got worse as the day went on! We had a good time with them and even enjoyed a sunny day at the park.

Kim, our children’s pastor, probably had the best morning. She got a full time job about a month ago to offset the financial changes with her husband being diagnosed with MS and unable to work from here on out. She got a card in the offering with 12 one hundred dollar bills in it. Don’t you love when God takes care of all of the details? She called her husband to tell him and said, “I won’t be coming home with all of it!” She paid tithe, gave a camp scholarship, paid for Devin to go to summer camp, and paid for her pastor’s lunch! She’s got her priorities in order!!!!

Josh and Keagan worked in Mike’s yard for him this weekend. He had high praise for two teenagers who worked hard and did a good job! That’s what I like to hear!

I heard that Alex, an elementary student and one of our staff kids, went and prayed over another adult in our church at Simply Worship. It’s crazy to me because we have never “taught” our kids to do that specifically. We just allow kids and teens to be a part of our journey with Jesus and they walk right along side us…leading in some cases!

The Christie family, one of our founding families, is moving to California. We are excited for their future and the opportunity, but it’s a significant loss for North Creek. They are a quality family that serves on our board, faithfully gives, faithfully serves, and are some of our dearest friends. We’ll have a big hole to fill!

Karissa, another teenager, got high praise for serving a mom with a young daughter at our church. She was all over making sure that her needs were taken care of all morning!

One of our preschoolers, Jace, told his teacher, “I want to sit in God’s lap.” So do I, Jace, so do I!

Our offerings have taken an interesting turn this month. Apparently a bunch of families in our church all decided that it was time to tithe and live in obedience in that area of their lives. At this point our monthly giving is up by over half and we are only on April 12. I’m not sure what happened, but it set off the dream meter with our staff! We need $30,000 extra by October to launch a second campus. If everybody jumps on board with the Biblical model of giving, we could be on course for an incredible journey of faith. Let’s change the world!

We moved our staff meeting to Sunday nights to accomodate the people that have full time jobs. It was fun last night to get together and download a great day! God is up to something in our hearts and I can’t wait to see it all come to play.

It’s going to be a good week!