In a few weeks you will have the opportunity to sign up for small groups! Our summer session is the BEST time to jump in as a leader or to offer to open your home as a host. This particular session is only seven weeks (instead of our regular 10), we put a heavier emphasis on relationship, although we never lose sight of discipleship, and we happen to need a BUNCH of groups all over the county to accomodate two campuses.

Here’s a snapshot of our small group structure: In a few weeks you’ll get a brochure of all of our group options. They will range from a bowling group to a Bible study and everything in between. You’ll pick a group that sounds like a good fit, you’ll sign up via a Connection Card at church or the website. You’ll show up seven times and enjoy getting to know people from your group. Then you might choose to go to lunch now and again with new friends. You may even have them over for a game night because you like them…maybe, just maybe! Then in the fall, you’ll sign up for a new group or maybe you and your new friends will choose to do the same group again because they are “your people”. It’s that simple.

We hope that, as you walk through your spiritual journey at North Creek Church, you will think through your spiritual growth and choose a group based on what you need in your life at that moment. Maybe you just need a cup of coffee with some ladies right now, but later you feel like studying a book in the Bible is what you need to do. Maybe you are new to church and you’ll take our Jesus Story option to learn about the framework of Christianity. Overall, we want you to have a variety of experiences that give you friends and spiritual growth on a wholistic basis.

As far as leading goes, it’s easy! We have tons of curriculum or we will help you navigate that! Maybe you want to be that lady that meets a few other gals at a coffee shop every week to read a chapter in your Bibles and encourage one another. Maybe you have a heart for a particular topic that you feel other people would gravitate towards as well. Maybe a video curriculum that requires no teaching on your part is the best fit…whatever it is, we can design the perfect scenario for you.

Also, some people love to lead, but not host in their home. If that’s your gift, let us know and we can partner you with the right leaders. We offer childcare for most of our groups, so homes that can accomodate children are always needed!

If you are thinking about the possibility of leading, would you take a moment to email our Small Groups Director, Amy, at amy@coffeechurch.com? She will be glad to sit down with you and talk through the details, but now is the time! We need leaders who simply have the heart to walk alongside old and new friends as we try to be more like Jesus together. No perfection required!

This morning marked our new “normal” for North Creek Church! Two campuses, fully operational, on the regularly scheduled service times. Even my own family got to go to church together at the same location for the first time in a month. I have to say that was the best highlight of my day! My husband and I work very well together as a team, so “catching without my pitcher” for the last month was not my cup of tea.

Battle Ground Week 2 was a great success! Our systems are rolling, we are feverishly training new leaders, people are coming from the community…we are in full swing! For those of you who are about to start a church: The launch number is always irrelevant because it’s not reality. Reality hits on Week 2. We were happy to fill up the 10:00 am service with 122 people in it. The deaf service also had great attendance at 76. That’s a great reality and each of those people are valuable to our church!

Another benefit is that we emptied out 30+ people from our once-too-packed 11:00 am Hazel Dell service who moved to Battle Ground. Now our focus is to fill those seats back up with new guests who become family! Invite friends – we’ve got room again! WHEW!

I worked in Tiny Town yesterday and had a great time with our smallest members. A little guy named Darren is about one years old and doesn’t mess around during worship! He’s got all of the songs and moves down pat and is all about it. Goes to show you that Christ can start very early impacting our hearts!

We are doing pretty well on the volunteer front, although we would love some additional volunteers on our schedule. We need at least one more leader in every area right now at every service, so if you’ve been waiting to jump in, we only need you for one Sunday service a month. You can find our application at coffeechurch.com under the Resources link.

Our softball team had their first game yesterday! Let’s just say that did a great job…of not winning. We love you anyway!

Yesterday Kennedy (my 5 yr. old) helped me out in Tiny Town. They were learning about how God made us all special and unique. She looked up at me, hugged my neck, and said, “I’m unique because I have you in my heart.” Kid’s class is where it’s at!

Did you know that there were 45 kids in KidCity yesterday between the two campuses. Would you take time this week and pray for those 45 elementary school kids? If God captures their heart at this age, they will make wiser decisions as teenagers.

Speaking of teenagers, our youth ministry merged the two campuses on Thursday. It was a great success! The Battle Ground teens said they had a great time and the Hazel Dell kids said that they loved meeting new friends! We need van drivers who will make the trip from Battle Ground to Hazel Dell every Thursday night. If you are free once a month, email Kris at kris@coffeechurch.com.

Encourage one of our staff this week! You can find all of their emails on our website. They’ve been working doubletime to make this a smooth transition and we want them to know their effort is making a difference!

And I hope you are encouraged this week as well!!!!

So, if you haven’t heard yet, we have the most supportive, incredible team on the planet. They show up, they work hard, and they constantly cheer us on. That being said, I’m about to throw Josiah under the bus because this story is PRICELESS! On Sunday, Vanessa began her new role as the Battle Ground Children’s Pastor for North Creek. She has been happily married to Josiah for a couple of years and they have their first son on the way. They are an absolutely awesome family that you will fall madly in love with!

So, Josiah pulls into the Battle Ground parking lot on Sunday at about 8:45, assuming that service will begin in about 15 minutes (if you don’t know, our service started at 9:30, but he got the time wrong!). Immediately disappointment sets in as he surveys the nearly empty lot…in his mind, our launch is about to fail miserably and he is about to walk into the biggest disappointment of our lives.

By some strange chance, just as he walks in to the nearly empty foyer, we begin to test the countdown video. He sees the countdown going and it solidifies in his mind that service is about to start and NOBODY has showed up. He decided at that moment that he was going to be in the front row, cheering on his pastor, even if he is the ONLY one there. He walks quickly down the hall, up to the front of the empty room and sits down, ready to stare disappointment in the face and worship his guts out.

Just as always, following the countdown video, our worship opening video starts to play. This is it. Any given moment, the worship team will pop up and begin their first song. He is ready to carry the weight of an entire congregation on his shoulders! Just then the worship video stops and Josiah senses that something is wrong. The team isn’t in place and the video has been halted. It was at that moment that Josiah decided that maybe he missed the schedule, so he went to find someone to ask what time service started…sure enough, he was WAY early and the crowd had not arrived.

I would give just about anything to have a picture of Josiah sitting, ready to be the armor bearer to his failing pastor, in the front row of an empty church on Easter Sunday! Truly amazing image of dedication! So, thank you Josiah, for a good laugh, but also for not even hesitating to stand next to us whether we succeed or fail. Many pastors in the world would give all that they have for just one team member with your fierce loyalty to a dream. And by the way, the service at Battle Ground begins at 10:00 am next week.

I love Easter! Churches all over the world are full of people hearing about a risen Savior! And we got SUNSHINE to celebrate with! That is a rare occurence for Pacific Northwesterners!

My big highlight is standing after first service at Hazel Dell with a 20 year old, through his sobs, saying, “I can’t do this by myself. I thought I could, but I can’t. I need Jesus.” What else matters? Jesus makes every aspect of our lives richer AND surrendering to Him gives us eternal life. That’s why we do what we do.

The launch at Battle Ground was a great success! At both campuses we rounded out at 460 people total (not counting many families who were at multiple services serving!). You know it’s Easter at the Coffee Church when both of the early services were full. That doesn’t tend to happen normally…most of us think the morning starts much later than the early service…

I happen to know that there were 174 chairs at Battle Ground. When I got the text that there were 175 people at the first service, I audibly laughed. Some people were in the Kid’s classes, so I knew we were OK, but I also knew it was tight! Thank you to Abacus Event Rentals who lent us 40 chairs for free, just in case we needed them…WE DID! Here’s a shot of first service:

On a much different note: kids everywhere looked ADORABLE in their Easter best. We normally have a much more random, jeans-are-great dress code, but on Easter we sure cranked out some cuteness! And all of the kids left with a goody bag of stuffed eggs to have a hunt at home!

Chris and Mark preached the same sermon at two separate locations and both knocked it out of the park! I sat through all three of Chris’ sermons and enjoyed them all! I could probably get up and preach that message without notes after hearing it multiple times. Good thing that the story of Jesus’ resurrection just never gets old!

We have offically sent about 35 people from Hazel Dell to Battle Ground on a permanent basis. I’m excited because that opened up much needed room to grow at Hazel Dell. You just watch – in the next few weeks, God will fill those seats with new faces. He does it every time!

Our worship team and kid’s leaders need a BIG shout out! You are heroes and give deeply of yourselves week in and week out! Thank you for working hard on Easter and blessing people with your passion. Awesome job!

Mark and I are enjoying today off. We are completely wiped out, but also feel like we just watched a miracle happen. We estimate that in the last two weeks, between the building, the ad campaign, and the website upgrade, about 2000 man hours poured into North Creek Church. That is a lot of volunteer hours that made a lot of difference! Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, to all of you who did something from praying to painting. You may not even feel like it was enough, but it helped and we are so grateful! And a big thank you to Ron Steinmann and JB Hamilton who nearly lived in Battle Ground all week in order to get the details done.

And that’s how you launch a second campus in 35 days!

I didn’t grow up in the church, but rather started going as a young teenager. I remember the fear of walking into church alone, I remember not understanding how to find a book in the Bible, and I remember feeling very small in this big world of church. I also vividly remember feeling like everyone in my church was related to someone else and they all had stories about their grandparents building the building or their aunt becoming the church’s first missionary…and I had no connection. I was the first Christian in my family and therefore I came with no Godly heritage forged before me. I was the beginning of what I hope to be a long line of Christ followers.

That is probably why I am excited about merging a church plant with a church with some heritage behind it. I have loved hearing the stories of years past and meeting the people that have been in Battle Ground since the beginning. I love feeling like we are not just the start of a story, but now intertwined into a longer history of impacting a community. I look forward to building on a foundation that has been long-since laid for us, rather than pouring our own fresh cement.

We are changing a lot of esthetics and some of the systems, but it doesn’t change the story. The story is rich with many prayers said, offerings given, work done, and tears shed. I am appreciative of all of that because I am keenly aware that God destined a partnership of two different churches to do what He wants to do in His community. As we “launch” this Easter Sunday and look forward to a new start, I wanted to take a moment to look back and say thank you to all of you who have sacrificed in the past with eyes always on the future. Our method is different, but our mission remains the same. When the doors open on Sunday morning and new faces look into your own, I hope you know that they are here because of you.

And I hope if you see a young teenage girl who feels very much alone in this big church world, that you will tell her she will someday feel like a part of a family that is rooted in the love of Christ. See you Sunday!