Are you new to following Jesus? Maybe you’ve been following Jesus for a while, but haven’t been water baptized? Either way, here’s your opportunity! If you are ready to go under water, please fill out the registration form HERE. If you’ve got some questions about why people get baptized, please take some time and watch this sermon HERE to help you know what the Bible has to say for your life.

We schedule certain dates to fill up our portable hot tub, but if February 12 doesn’t work for you, don’t hesitate to pick ANY date that you want to get baptized. It’s never an inconvenience to set up the tank to celebrate!

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! I’m not a football fan, so this is not a National Holiday for me. I did make the effort to find out who was playing, so I’m pretty excited to see if the Packers win. Just kidding…

We are sure on a roller coaster of fun at North Creek! Lots of great conversations about the future and how excited people are to reach our community and the world for Jesus. Literally it seems as if everyone is on the edge of their seats in anticipation for the future. I’m not really sure I’ve experienced this type of momentum before. It’s fun!

Congrats to Marc and Amy Roy on the birth of their awesome little son, Kingston Joseph. Marc and Amy lead our young adults small groups and have a profound impact on the 19-25ish group in their everyday lives. We wish them the best and pray a blessing on them! Marc also owns Expressive Dance Hip Hop Studio. I’m thinking that little Kingston will have quite the swag going on as soon as he can walk. Someone please let me know if I just used the word “swag” correctly in that sentence…

We had a couple of visitors from Maple Grove this morning! Come on down anytime! You are more than welcome!

We are having our baptism Sunday next week! We have a portable hot tub, which is one of our most asked questions. If you have decided to follow Jesus for the rest of your life and haven’t been immersed and water…it’s T.I.M.E. Don’t wait another minute because your declaration of who Christ is in you is vital to your Christian walk. I’ll blog about that this week, but in the meantime, you can sign up at www.coffeechurch.com.

Our teenagers just got back from an amazing Generation Unleashed Conference. They are bursting with excitement! Did you know our youth group is averaging about 90 teenagers right now? One of their small groups meets in the church van in the parking lot because there’s no room left. That is the kind of church problems I live for. By the way, we have a solution for some more space for them, so we’ll have that problem temporarily solved in a week! My prayer is that so many more teenagers meet Jesus that we have the same problem very soon.

We went to Tiffany and Scott Wisecarver’s going away party last night. It was fun, except for the whole “going away” part. What’s up with moving to Tennessee??? Seriously, though, we BLESS them on the way out the door and know that God has great plans for their family!

Would you pray for Mark and I even more over the next few months? Everything we are dealing with is such a blessing, but it’s also exponentially more work and forces us to be better leaders. We are asking God for supernatural strength, wisdom, leadership ability, and a humble heart. We covet your prayers right now!

And we are praying for you as well! We know God is moving and changing hearts all over the place! Remember that you’ve only got ONE LIFE. Use it for His glory.

With the upcoming move to a multi-site situation for North Creek with what is now Maple Grove, I thought it might be fun to give you a background on Maple Grove and tell you a little bit about their church history. Hope you enjoy!

Maple Grove Church began in 1984 in a tavern in Brush Prairie. (Since we are currently in an old nightclub, I feel a sense of comradery!) It was originally called the Prairie Assembly of God. By the end of the first year it was averaging about 35 people on Sundays. It continued to grow over the next several years until 1989 when it averaged about 106 in the morning service. During those years it moved from the tavern in Brush Prairie to Battle Ground. Property was purchased and a building program began that ended with the occupation of the current building. The current building is just about the same size as the building the Hazel Dell Campus is currently in (although we don’t own our property) and it sits on 5 acres. It is nearly paid off as well, which is awesome!

Pastor Wayne and Jenny Sommers came in February of 1993. (You may not know this but our worship leader, Matt Garner, is their son-in-law). Average attendance grew every year for 11 years and had a peak of 280 in 2006. In December of 2003, they began a Deaf Church that is currently averaging around 45-55 in attendance and is pastored by Jim and Dawn Smith. This is a separate service that is completely geared toward the hearing impaired. It is not just a translator in a hearing-oriented service, which makes it very unique! We are excited about the possibility of taking this ministry under North Creek’s portfolio and using our resources of media to reach even more of the deaf population for Jesus. Start learning some sign language, North Creek!

Maple Grove has similar strategies as our church in supporting missionaries, having small groups, and reaching out to the community in tangible ways. We do a few things differently, but the values behind those things are very much the same.

During the last few years, they have had a decline in attendance through a series of events. Although they have not experienced division and pain, I would definitely say they are looking for “new life”, as Pastor Wayne has felt God say to him for many months. North Creek can definitely add some new life, energy, and caffeinated people into any situation!

We believe that this transition is going to come with peace, unity, and excitement on both sides! After all, we are all ultimately working for the same Guy anyway! 😉 Hope that gives you a better picture of the big picture!