I love the Christmas season! What a fantastic time for the whole world to stop and remember our Savior’s birth! We are changing up our Christmas services this year and doing something totally different. I wanted to put it out there now so that you can invite family and friends to church.

We will be doing two Christmas Eve services on Friday, December 24 at 6:30 and 8:00 pm. They will be candlelight services with carols, coffee, and a message about the significance of Jesus’ birth. There will be nursery and a special service for those aged 5 and under. Our older kids will be joining us in the service with special treats just for them!

On Dec. 25 and 26, we will NOT be having our regular services. We hope that you enjoy the remainder of the weekend celebrating with your family and friends!

We’ll join you on January 1/2 to begin another great year at North Creek Church!

What a FUN weekend! Mark and I co-preached, which is always an adventure. Our topic of the day was marriage and we dove right into the deep end with issues like sex, finances, communication…nothing was off-limits. If you weren’t able to be there this weekend, catch it online in a couple of days.

We had 226 people…yikes…It’s this funny balance between excitement and anxiety over the next step. I sure love our old bar, but we will let it go if that means impacting more people with the love of Jesus. Our next step is a monumental financial jump to either get another facility or a new facility. If you’d like to give to that, just mark your offering envelope “Facility Fund”. Here we grow!!!

I had about a dozen men tell me how great the service was today…I think it might have something to do with the fact that I told their wives to have sex with them and support them as the head of the household. That will win a man’s heart every time…

We had our first “interruption” from an inebriated person walking off the street, into our auditorium, up to the stage, and saying “I’ve got a question about Jesus.” Gotta say, in the middle of a sermon, that will throw me off! Thanks to Chris Harold for running security and taking care of the situation with grace and love. Everyone’s welcome, questions are welcome, but being inappropriate is not an option!

Thanks to Tammie for covering the Little A’s on Saturday so that I could preach with Mark!

As I mentioned in my sermon, I threw my back out and medicated myself all weekend. We had a chiropractor in the final service and he literally adjusted me in the office after service. I am in HEAVEN now. My back feels AWESOME and the pain is gone!!! If you need a great chiropractor, call Yoder Chiropractic. Thanks, Dr. Tim! I should have called him on Friday, but then the sermons might not have been so funny…

Congrats to Lifepoint Church on getting a new pastor today! We pray a blessing on your ministry!

If you have any connections to open buildings, email us at mark@coffeechurch.com. We need over 10,000 square feet and within a budget that is near miraculous…

On that same note, the youth ministry is exploding and had 85 students/staff last Thursday!

I have four little girls at my house right now. My girls and another set of sisters the same age as my kids. CUTE!!

Chris Harold is preaching next week, which is always a treat! See you then!

This weekend Mark and I are co-preaching on marriage! It’s been a pretty funny week around our house as we have discussed, reminisced, and laughed about our own journey as a married couple. It’s definitely had it’s ups and downs over the last 13 years. The one thing that I am sure of though is that I LOVE being married to that man. We look forward to giving you the tips and tricks we’ve learned as well as to hear from some of you about how you make your marriage great.

We’ll also be sharing some of the reality of marriage, too. No matter how good it is, there are still struggles! The awesome thing is that God gave us the boundaries, help, and a structure for us to succeed as husband and wife. It’s going to be a fun weekend.

If you are single…this is probably even more pertinent for you. A lot of what we consider our successes came before we even met and when we were dating. For married people, some of what we have to say is already irrelevant, but for those of you who are single, come ready to take notes!!!!

On a funny note – I sneezed this morning and threw my back out. Not only are Mark and I sharing the microphone, but I’m on painkillers. Dangerous!

I wanted to share a good blog with you that I enjoyed. It’s the condensed version since my posts are usually about 500 words. I hope you are having a great week of learning more about God AND obeying based on what you are learning.

Reflection from www.hisnamenotmine.com
November 10th, 2010

I love to study Theology. I am always reading and keeping my eye on upcoming books. I love to read so much that my wife has to restrain me when I go into a Christian bookstore or go onto Amazon. Luckily I have found a way to curb my addiction to reading books by listening to some sermons on Podcast. Nothing delights me more than hearing an amazing sermon that moves me and challenges me. But in the midst of all this mass knowledge that I am devouring I am discovering something very troubling.

Discipleship isn’t about increasing your knowledge…it’s putting your knowledge into action. Somewhere along the way we have substituted obedience with mere knowledge. It has become enough to know the right stuff but never actually apply it.

But Jesus said, “You are truly my disciples if you keep obeying my teachings” (John 8:31). Not only that but he actually says obedience=love. “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (John 14:15).

So the question begs to be asked: are you obeying? If not then do you really love Jesus?

But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.- James 1:22-25

Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. -James 4:17

Do you realize the implications of these verses? They are a strong warning that it is not good to learn more unless you truly are going to apply what you discover. Our greatest need in the church today isn’t more knowledge. No the greatest need in the church today is Biblical discipleship- putting into action our knowledge.

So is your knowledge about Christ making you more like Christ?
•Do you love all people, especially your enemies, unconditionally like Jesus?
•Do you forgive like Jesus?
•Do you speak the Truth and correct like Jesus?
•Do you care for people like Jesus?
•Do you put others first like Jesus?
•Do you find joy in all circumstances like Jesus?
•Do you love God like Jesus?
•Do you rely on the Holy Spirit to bring glory to God like Jesus?
•Do you live a worry free life because you believe your Heavenly Father is in control like Jesus?

In 7th and 8th grade I played basketball on my junior high team. Well, I sort of played. I mostly sat on the bench. I was literally the shortest and the smallest person in my grade, which was quickly perceived as a disadvantage in this particular sport. So, I spent two years with everything stacked against me and a coach who thought that junior high basketball was just shy of the NBA. He wanted to win and he didn’t agree with the “all-play” philosophy that was a general rule for preteen sports. That combination of issues meant that I was never given a chance to see if I was good or not.

Sometimes in the church world, I think that we forget that God intended the church to be an “all-play” model. We buy into the idea that the band has to be the best and most talented, only the Bible-college trained people can teach, and the rest of us just show up for some entertainment as if church was an event and not a lifestyle. Not so! The church is supposed to be an entity where everybody does their part within their gifts and where the more experienced train and raise up others to be just as talented. It’s the picture of a family as I include everybody in everything because that’s how we roll.

I agree with excellence and presenting a quality experience at our weekend gatherings, but not at the sake of benching some of the people who haven’t “arrived” at perfection just yet. We are in a constant process of training people and believing in them, but sometimes it comes with a little imperfection along the way…which we should celebrate, not criticize. Honestly…the humanity is refreshing to me. I want to see people being used by God who are still learning and growing. It takes the fear out of me to try new things myself.

I ended up walking out in the middle of a game towards the end of my 8th grade year and never played basketball again. I had sat too long and didn’t think I was important to the workings of the team. Just showing up wasn’t fulfilling me at all, so I gave up on trying to find out if I was good at basketball or not. Soon, I would go on to play fast-pitch softball instead. I ended up with a great coach who sent me to clinics to help me be a better catcher. He worked with me, trained me, gave me substantial game time, and poured into me. I ended up being a great player, leader, and motivator on that team for many years.

My basketball coach might have been right about my ability…who knows? But I would rather have been given a shot and then been told that I was outside of my gift mix than just to be on the bench for two years. I would have understood that some things are just not for some people, but at this point…I’ll just never know. It was my coach’s job to teach, sharpen, work with me, and ultimately help me discover where I excelled and where I didn’t. We want to be that kind of a church…jump in, try, and if you do stink…we’ll try something else! 🙂