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Monthly Archives: April 2013

While that title won’t fit on Twitter feeds, it sums up the journey that we have been on as a church in the last six years.  Last Sunday marked our one year anniversary of the day our church plant merged with a turnaround church to become a multisite church.  The amount of risk in any one of those words is enormous, yet we are thrilled with the outcome at this pivotal point in our story!

I thought I would share some of the harder lessons we learned on an adventure that we would never have scripted.

1.  Our Vancouver campus (original site) unexpectedly bore extreme weight in the merge.  We went in thinking that Battle Ground would take the most energy to assimilate into the North Creek structure.  What we didn’t take into accurate account is that pulling 35+ strong leaders out of a church of 200 would cause all systems to be reevaluated and restructured.  Now, a year later, we have grown back to our original numbers and filled in the gaps with new amazing leaders.  It is multiplying at it’s best, but the process was daunting at times because we were faced with rebuilding two churches at the same time.  Battle Ground, on the other hand, had 35+ new leaders dropped into about 40 people that we merged with.  Together they hit the ground running with new help and new direction.

2.  The word “Merge” is not an accurate word for two churches creating two campuses of one church.  In hindsight I think a better word would have assisted the process, but we still haven’t come up with a word that sums it all up!  The dictionary defines “Merge” as: to combine, blend, or unite gradually so as to blur the individuality or individual identity of: They voted to merge the two branch offices into a single unit.  It was never intended by either party to gradually blur the individuality of our churches.  Battle Ground had been in a turnaround for a few years and was looking to redefine it’s DNA.  Vancouver was looking to expand it’s DNA.  The word “merge” gave off the impression that we were taking bits and pieces of DNA to create a new baby.  Our terminology had to be defined at every turn, which created a lot of extra weight.

3.  We ripped the Band-aid off so fast I’m not sure people even had time to gasp in pain (myself included!).  At the request of the leadership and board of the church we merged with, we moved fast…really fast.  Within 35 days of meeting the people of Maple Grove, the church was painted and decorated end to end, the leadership team was nearly completely different, every system was different, and together we launched the first public service with thousands of advertisements.  That wasn’t our original intention.  In our initial thoughts, we planned a much slower approach.  Although there were some difficult parts of this strategy, in hindsight, I think doing things so fast actually helped give clarity.  There was no question about how we were going to do things in the future…the future was staring everybody in the face…at both campuses simultaneously!  That being said, it felt like a whirlwind for the first six months and took a great deal of adjusting to for our leadership team and congregation.

Those are just some of the little bumps along the way, but I do want to reiterate that we LOVED this journey and still do.  It has been fun watching all of the chess pieces move as God directs and guides His people.  I think the bottom line lesson is that in anything that God asks you to do, you’ll find difficult parts or you’ll look back and think about how you might have done it differently.  However, it should never stop you from walking forward in what He has asked you to do!

 

Hope you enjoyed Spring Break!  It is officially over and we are off and running for the rest of the school year.  It was fun having my girls home for a week, but I enjoyed the solitude of my coffee this morning as well!

Welcome Home to our Deaf Church Missions team who had a great trip to Mexico. I’m pretty sure they had a remarkable time ministering to deaf kids, although I stopped listening to Pastor Jim after he said, “It was 80 degrees and sunny the whole time…”  Sigh.  Glad to have you and your tan home anyway!

We had several new volunteers learning the ropes with us yesterday!  It was SO amazing to have you and we are grateful that you are jumping in to help us lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus.

We dedicated Landon yesterday at Hazel Dell’s 11:00 am service.  He showed off nicely for the audience, but then got distracted by the shiny guitars.  His daddy is one of our bass players, so I guess it runs in his blood.  Congrats Marcus and Tasha!  We know you will be amazing parents to Linus and Landon!

Mark and Chris preached the same sermon yesterday on sin equating to death.  Super important perspective, so if you missed it, catch it online.  We had several people yesterday have some really deep moments with God as they shifted their thoughts about needing to be perfect before God will love you.

Hey…read your Bible.  It’s way better than any blog.

Simply Worship is tomorrow at Battle Ground and Wednesday in Vancouver.  If you’ve never been, I’m inviting you!  It’s a great opportunity to connect with Jesus and focus on His grace and mercy for an hour!  An hour with Jesus will change your life…guaranteed or your money back.  It’s a free event, so you can have your money back either way.  All the info is on the website at www.coffeechurch.com.

On another note, we are broken-hearted for Pastor Rick and Kay Warren at the passing of their son last Friday.  I grew up in a home with mental illness and there are few words to describe how it affects everyone in the family.  I think the Warren’s have been an amazing example of living in faith and perseverance for many decades.  This is not only a horrific loss, but also one that the Warren’s must face in front of the world.  I am grateful for a God who is big enough to give them all that they need to not only get through this, but use it for His glory.  Our hope is found in Christ alone.

And so begins another week filled with adventure and the providence of God.  Let’s all live as if we serve the King of all Kings.

 

 

 

Picture 5Next week we have our Simply Worship event at both campuses.  Jot it down on your calendar so you don’t miss it!

One mistake we all make is not scheduling time in our busy lives to stop and listen to God.  It is truly a discipline that requires effort.

The job, the kids, the house, the yard, the sports events…it all gets in the way of taking time to pray, listen, worship, and breathe!  I know in my own life, I am a better mom, wife, and friend when I have spent time with Jesus in prayer, worship, and Bible reading.  It take the crazy out of my world and replaces it with the peace of God.

At our Simply Worship nights we do very little programming in an effort to allow you to just BE in the presence of God.  So, sing if you want to, sit down and pray if you want to, read your Bible if you want to.  But let’s all, as a church, come together and allow God to fill us up with who He is!  We never leave His presence disappointed!

We’ll see you Tuesday at the Battle Ground Campus or Wednesday in Vancouver!  Looking forward to it!

What a great day!  Could the weather have been more incredible?  I love Easter for obvious reasons, but when the sun shines and ends a long, rainy winter, it just makes the whole holiday perfect!

Church was fun all around!  We preached the value of the resurrection and were thrilled to have all of our services well attended to hear the good news.  We love guests at the Coffee Church and are always ready to welcome anybody in for the message of Jesus.  We had 450 people into our churches for this amazing weekend and look forward to the Stories of Changed Lives we will hear for months and years to come.

Our worship teams knocked it out of the park!  Thank you to Matt and Alissa for leading us well.  We appreciate your faithful teams who serve week in and week out with amazing talent!

I also want to thank all of our volunteers who served yesterday.  We had plenty of hands of deck and it was just a smooth morning all around.  We appreciate all that you do to help lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus.

We gave all of the kids candy-filled eggs on the way out the door.  ‘Cause that’s what my kids needed on Easter….more candy.  At 4:30 am my oldest daughter called me in to her room with a stomach ache and proclaimed, “I think I ate too much candy!”  No kidding.

We served free lattes at Battle Ground, which just meant that everybody at Hazel Dell came in the door saying they considered swinging by Battle Ground on the way to Hazel Dell…I reminded them that there at THOUSANDS of places to get a latte in the Vancouver area and they will be just fine.

Eddie apparently did something cool on his guitar at Hazel Dell.  I miss these things as I have an amazing inability to understand music.  I did however enjoy worship, so they are doing something right!

I came home to a house filled with 30 people…the more the merrier!  We had a massive egg hunt in my back yard, which means that we’ll be finding eggs until winter.  I am surrounded by the best people in my life!  Then we invited my in-laws to a smoked turkey dinner, compliments of our friends John and Kari!  We loved it and were excited to have Grandma and Grandpa with us to end our Easter celebrations.

Pastors – whatever we thought was so important to do for Easter Sunday, we should probably do every week.  That’s how we try to go about church at North Creek, but even I found myself doing things that probably should have been done months before.  Our job is a matter of life and death all 52 weeks a year.  No pressure…

We have some good things to tell you coming soon.  We always have good things to tell you.  The favor of God is with us and we know He is moving us where He wants us to be!

Next week will mark our one year anniversary of the launch of North Creek Battle Ground via a merge with Maple Grove Church.  Best. Adventure. Ever.  And so much of our gratitude goes to the Hazel Dell folks who put the mission of God in front of their own desires and needs.  We are humbled by your hearts!

Let’s make Easter a year-round point in our lives.  He’s alive, which means you are too!  What better news could I possibly put in my blog?  On that note, live free today!  Free of addiction, anger, pain, doubt, fear…all of it!  Be blessed!