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Monthly Archives: December 2010

Greetings to fleet of you home sick! I got plenty of emails, texts, and messages letting me know that our people are down and OUT! May you be well in the name of Jesus. We miss you at church and we want you healthy ASAP!

For the rest of us, we got a wonderful message about King Herod…what kind of pastor preaches on the villian just two weeks before Christmas??? Well, it was an awesome reminder to be on the same side as God’s plan and that He does things very differently than our fleshly wills.

Amazing offering this weekend! Every Christmas we randomly send out cards from North Creek to families that could use a little extra and we are pleased to be able to use our Benevolence fund to keep the tradition alive. We also are helping a single mom with a new mattress for her child and some food to load up her cupboards. Several small groups took on projects as well…ours collected about 100 pairs of socks for the Homeless Shelter where I work. It is a privilege to look at needs and to meet them as people who love Jesus!

Only one more official service left for North Creek in 2010…wow…where did the year go? We are also looking forward to our first Christmas Eve services ever at 6:30 and 8:00 pm on the 24th. How fun!!!

My inlaws rock.

We have some changes coming in 2011…we are seriously tossing around the idea of bumping our service times to 9:30 am and 11:00 am on Sunday mornings. For some of you that means you’ll get to church on time! 🙂 HAAAA! Just kidding…actually we feel it will make a stronger early service and the 10:30 am people aren’t our “morning people” anyway, so they’ll just sleep longer and send us thank you notes. It will also be a blessing to our staff and worship team who collectively get about 20 children up and out of bed to be at church early. Thoughts?

Our friends, Jim and Sarah, visited us this weekend. Their church launches in 6 weeks! We are very excited for them and remember fondly the anticipation of startup. It’s a roller coaster ride of emotion for sure.

We had a family last week accept Jesus! That’s the reason we do what we do and we rejoice with them!

I have a big announcement coming this week. Stay tuned to my blog! It’s a good one!

I heard a great quote a while ago: “Unless our loyalty to the future is greater than our loyalty to the past, we will never go where God wants us to be.”

It is so easy to fall in love with the past…at least the good memories! We remember when “we were in youth group” or “back when we started this church” and we hold tight to those positive memories and momentos that are so near and dear to our heart both spiritually and emotionally.

I get it. I am just as sappy as the next person. I look at the baby booties and tear up a bit, but I also need to remember to guard the balance of those great memories with my excitement for what’s ahead. I want my kids to be free to change, grow, and try new things without holding them to what was. After all, they would look ridiculous in baby booties when they start junior high!

It’s the same in our church. I love our building, but when the time comes, we’ll move on. I love our strategies and systems, but when the time comes, we’ll move on. I love the way we do things because it’s working right now, but I’m holding on loosely because I know it won’t necessarily work this way forever.

There’s an old saying in more mature churches that there are alot of “sacred cows” to slaughter. In other words…Sister Thelma hand stitched that banner 60 years ago, so we’re not taking it down…We’ve sang that song for 25 years and we’ll just continue singing it no matter what… The problem with sentimentality is that it can undercut the mission of God. If that banner is out-of-date, dusty, and not projecting the current society, it is one step towards being irrelevant to our culture. It’s the past, but it’s stomping all over the future.

I love heritage and I give great honor to our history in the Christian church. However, we serve a God whose mercy (and methods) are new every morning. We need to make sure that our honor is for the past, but our loyalty is for the future!

What a weekend! I can’t remember a busier weekend for the Newell family! We had two birthday parties, a wedding rehearsal, a Christmas party, out of town guests, a wedding, and a guest worship leader at church…not to mention three services and a staff meeting. I also would have had Kara’s funeral if I had been able to attend on Sunday.

Congrats to Jack and Amber Kemper on their marriage!

Mark and I went to a Sectional Pastor’s Christmas party on Friday night. We met the cutest couple, Vanessa and Josiah. We invited them to church on Sunday and they had a great time! I love meeting quality young couples who are excited about Jesus and ministry!

Corey and Julie Sublett came to lead worship this weekend. He did an amazing job! I can’t imagine meeting a team of people at 4:30 pm and knocking out a fabulous worship set by 7:00 pm. Kuddos to Corey, Tiffany, Christi, Scott, Scott, and Carl. You all jumped in with great attitudes and brought glory to God at every service. We appreciate your ministry!

I was telling the Subletts about our team. It occurred to me how blessed we are to have longevity on our staff. We’ve been working with Kris for 10 years, Rachael for 9 years, Chris and Kim for 4+ years…we have some newer faces as well around our table which I love. It’s nice to have both long-term relationships and the ability to let new voices have a say in the matter. It keeps us solid and fresh all at the same time.

Attendance is still over 200…very much looking forward to a new year and new growth!

I walked into the nursery Saturday night to help watch babies after I greeted. I walked in to see four teenagers with four sleeping babies. Needless to say, I was impressed with those four ladies…and I felt pretty useless! 🙂

The Christmas trees were sparkling this weekend and it was beautiful! I love the holiday season.

I lit the stage on fire on Wednesday and I lit a rug on fire on Sunday. So, when I say that North Creek is on FIRE, I mean it. Don’t worry, no one was hurt by my incidences…except a fake poinsetta and a rug…

We had a great offering this weekend. It will help us catch up from our November shortfall, so thank you! We are extremely frugal as a church while doing quality ministry at the same time. I appreciate that balance and am grateful for a church that tries hard not to waste resources. We use our money wisely, so when you give, we see a direct correlation to changed lives. Every check that you toss into our Giving Box is a piece of someone’s eternity!!!

It’s our last small group meeting tonight before the winter break. I have LOVED getting to know the people in our group and it’s been awesome seeing them connect to ministries within our church. I’ll miss them in my home on Monday nights!

See you soon!

Appreciate the idea of this article. Hope you like it and learn something, too!

Why Leaders Exist by Michael Hyatt

Why do leaders exist? This is perhaps one of the most simple yet profound questions we can ask about leadership. Oddly, I am not sure I have ever heard anyone address it.

But until we answer this foundational question, leadership tips and techniques won’t make much sense.

My answer to the question is this: Leaders exist to create a shift in reality.

Without leaders, things drift along. They go where they want to go, following the path of least resistance. However, when this is not desirable—or acceptable—you hire, elect, appoint or become a leader. The leader’s job is to overcome resistance and make things flow in a different direction. His or her job is to create a different reality.

So how do you create a shift in the status quo?

1. Identify what needs to change. This is commonly called the situation analysis. What is unacceptable about your current environment? What frustrates you? What disappoints you? What needs to change?

2. Determine the outcome you are after. This is what is commonly called vision. Getting clear on the what is more important than understanding how you are going to get there. What do you want to create in the place of the status quo?

3. Decide how you will achieve your outcome. This is what is commonly called strategy. There are numerous ways to get to the same destination. Good leaders pick the one that will produce the results they are after in the most economical way.

4. Create an action plan. It is not enough to determine your vision and decide on a strategy, you must carefully craft an action plan with specific milestones and due dates. You have to be able to chart your progress.

As you go through this process, you must enroll your team. This is the mark of great leaders. If you don’t do this, you can expect resistance. And, it’s not because your people are rebellious, lazy, or stupid. It’s because you didn’t do your job as a leader.

With a clear plan, and an aligned team, you can move mountains.