I say this alot for my weekly highlights, but it never gets old…it was our highest attendance ever this weekend aside from Easter and our anniversary celebrations…and the best part…every service has room in it, which means we have a great window of growth for a little bit to strategize the bigger picture of our future.

We are working on the future everyday. I think that’s important for you to know…we are not waiting for a crisis of growth. We are dreaming, preparing, and positioning ourselves for whatever God may bring our way. It is challenging, gut-wrenching, and leadership shaking, but it’s what we’ve gonna do for the rest of our lives.

There were three people named Stacy in the 9:00 am service. Thought that was fun.

Our next series is Out of Order. Our staff has WRESTLED with this series for over a month. I think it’s going to be GREAT!

This weekend Mark preached on the Sabbath. I bet it’s the most broken commandment…pretty close anyway. A lot of people asked when we take time off. Our goal is from Friday at 5:00ish until Saturday at 4:00ish. We’ve got to be at Saturday service just before 5:00 pm, so we gear up for that. This is by far the biggest struggle in our marriage to stop ministry and our giant “to do” list and breathe for a day. But it’s worth fighting for.

Two people wrote down that they wanted to accept Jesus yesterday. AWESOME!

Nichole Lundervold brought a box of black aprons for the espresso bar! We’re official now!

I jumped in with the Great Adventurer’s during the 9:00 am. They were doing science experiments and relating it to the story of Christ. It was totally cool and something I’ll remember for a long time. Thanks, Pastor Kim, for dreaming for our kids and giving them a foundation to understand who Jesus is in a creative way!

So, six days until we do it all again…plenty of time to invite a friend! Have a great week!

Kennedy was praying before bed the other night and said, “Dear Jesus, Thank you for letting me do whatever I want.” Now there’s some backwards theology! Christ came to give us freedom, but doing whatever we want in the name of that freedom is missing the entire point of the Bible. However, as I got to thinking about it, I am afraid that is the attitude behind a lot of people when it comes to the things that they do wrong in their lives. I’m forgiven by Jesus, so I can do anything I want and chalk it up to being human and making a mistake.

In America, it seems that we have a lot of “mistake makers”, but ironically, not a lot of people who are “sinners”. I hear all of the time, “Oh, we accidently slept together outside of marriage…it was a mistake.” Accidentally? Mistake? Let’s call it what it is…sin. Ugly, regrettable, horrible sin that requires a Savior, not a cliche about how humans make mistakes and it’s just OK.

Look back over all of the “mistakes” in your life. Now, change the catergory of every mistake that required a choice on your part. Move that mistake to the sin column. You see, mistakes are things that happen because we are clumsy, ill-equipped, or prone to accidents as humans. Sin is when we decide to go against the mandates of the Bible and end up in a bad place. We need to stop justifying that sin away and just call upon Jesus to save us. We need to FEEL the weight of that conviction in our lives and strive to stop doing what WE want in order to do what HE wants.

I don’t want my daughter living a doctrine where she feels like she can do whatever she wants because she’s a mistake-maker and that’s just how it is. I want my daughter to know that Jesus put up incredible, life-saving boundaries and if she chooses to walk outside of that, she needs help…not excuses.

Bottom line…I’m a sinner who was bought at a price by a Savior. To downplay my role, is to downplay His role.

Here’s a great article about a concept that I had NEVER thought of before, but is really true. By the way, this is not a hint to stop telling us your problems…I think North Creek is very well-balanced in this area. It’s just a great reminder that if we get behind a vision and do what it takes to support it, that is the arena for miracles!

Protecting Your Pastor’s Faith by Steven Furtick

Leaders need to know the facts. We can’t hide from reality, nor should we. But I’m also convinced that too many leaders are confronted with too much bad news without solutions.

This is especially true of pastors. It seems like sometimes we can become the clearinghouse for all that is wrong in our church. And since solutions are rarely proposed, we spend the next few hours or the rest of the day trying to fix problems. Problems that usually dozens of other people could have generated solutions for without our help.

This isn’t just about increased stress and decreased mental energy on our part. Most people don’t realize it, but every problem they bring their pastor makes a demand on their faith to believe God. It’s the pastor’s responsibility to cast the vision God has given them for their church. But they have to be able to believe that the God-sized vision they are receiving is actually capable of being implemented.

If their people keep bringing them problems all the time, it weakens their faith and orients their mind towards wondering what is going to go wrong next. The pastor eventually doesn’t have the faith to believe God for big things because it doesn’t even seem like the small things are being taken care of.

One of the greatest things you can do for your pastor is protect their faith. You want to keep your leader in a place where he’s optimistic. Where he’s dreaming about where God is taking your church. Not on everything that is keeping it from getting there. And the best way you can do this is by limiting his awareness of problems that do not have viable solutions.

This doesn’t mean keeping your pastor completely in the dark. Yes, he should know there are problems. But more than that he should know that his team has them covered.

Commit yourself today to begin bringing solutions, not problems. It will protect your pastor’s faith. And make you irreplaceably valuable in your church.

Another weekend has come and gone…here are my highlights!

Check out the pictures below of our 2010 Summer Baby Boom. Such an incredible group of families represented in those pictures. Great moms, great dads, and now entire families dedicated to Christ. Awesome! Now, some more of you young couples get busy and let’s do it again in 2011!

We’ve gotten some great new families at our church recently. I have REALLY liked getting to know each one of them. It’s so fun to begin to watch connections that are being formed and friendships that are being made!

I worked in the nursery yesterday morning…cute babies! We got two sleeping and then one chewed up a book I was reading to him. That’s life in the nursery! We have more nursery workers than any church I’ve ever heard of, but ironically we need some more due to the influx of new arrivals. You can signup at www.coffeechurch.com by filling out a Volunteer Application.

My girls had a birthday party right after church. We went RUNNING out to make it in time and then celebrated for a couple of hours! We were officially wiped out, which is too bad because then we attended another service at Crossway Church. They launched yesterday in the same school we began in four years ago! Congrats and we wish you the best, Crossway!

I really love our team that we get to lead alongside. We laugh together all of the time, but we also argue, discuss, and debate. It’s healthy to watch everybody have a voice and negotiate their reasoning. Sometimes we agree and sometimes we disagree, but above all else, we love each other and highly respect each other’s giftings. I wouldn’t want a team that couldn’t share their thoughts and ideas. And I really wouldn’t want a team that wasn’t hilarious. It’s a room full of secure leaders who are committed to the same vision…GOLDMINE.

It’s going to be a very busy week for us. Please pray for our strength and wisdom. We are having the time of our lives, but we are also balancing a great deal and we covet your prayers. Thank you for being a very supportive and faith-filled church. WE LOVE YOU!

Below are two great videos from Craig Groeschel that I highly recommend taking the time to look at and learn from about money! He’s the pastor that has the second largest church in America – www.lifechurch.tv. We recently went to the Catalyst Conference where he spoke with Andy Stanley. One of the things that he mentioned was that he has such a generous church that they have too much money and are continously looking for ways to be more generous with their community and the world. As a church, they financially make a dent in helping the world on a regular basis in significant ways. Man! When I heard that, I thought, “I want that said about North Creek Church.”

We live in a world where some churches abuse giving and pastors drip with expensive jewelry and drive $100,000 cars. I understand the anger against that hypocrisy. I understand why people look at those examples and close their checkbooks. The problem is, when you close your checkbook to God’s work, you also close your heart to God.

My heart breaks for those of you who live with a tight grip on your money. I know it’s a part of your life that grieves you and my prayer is two-fold…that you will choose to live a generous life, and that we, as a church, will continue to parade before you changed lives that were impacted with the tools bought by your generosity.

I also apologize for all of the stupid pastors out there who malign the Word of God and forget their callings, but don’t let that make you forget yours. Rise up, Generation! Throw off every hinderance that is keeping you from changing the world!