Over the last two years I’ve been asked several dozen times how we got the name Coffee Church – www.coffeechurch.com.  It’s a pretty simple story really, but one that is worth writing down for the history books! 

North Creek Church is really a compilation of things we liked about various churches all over America.  We researched, studied, travelled, and talked to as many people as we could to see what works for them.  Then we picked through all of that to decide who we wanted to be.  In the pile of tidbits we liked was a story that came out of Lee McFarland’s church in Surprise, AZ.  Someone in the media had dubbed them the “Blue Jean Church”, so they picked up the website www.bluejeanchurch.com so that people could find them based off of what they heard on the news.

We actually have a “real” website – www.northcreeklife.com, but even as I typed it I couldn’t remember what it was.  I had to stop and think.  And therein lies the beauty of advertising…if you can remember it, that sure helps.

So, again as our team sat around discussing things, we stumbled upon what I consider is genius.  What represents who we are?  Coffee.  Warm, relaxing, casual, and we’ll give you a boost.  Let’s see if coffeechurch.com is available…and it rolled into something much larger from there.  Themes, advertisements, t-shirts.

Initially I think we were all concerned that we weren’t being “spiritual” enough.  Here’s the irony…the people we want to remember our website probably aren’t “spiritual” at all.  So, it works to tell people who might not consider themselves fans of church that we aren’t taking ourselves too seriously.  God deserves our reverance, but our website sure doesn’t deserve any.  It’s a tool.  How do you best use the tool?  Make it a memorable deal. 

So, North Creek is a name that few remember.  However, try saying Coffee Church and many more people will say, “Yeah, I’ve heard of you.”  And isn’t that half the battle?

Sometimes I think that God sees the world as a giant game of chess.  As He moves us where we need to be, He’s got the big picture in mind.  Meanwhile we may wonder what in the world He’s doing.  I wondered that eight years ago when God brought us to Vancouver.  In September of 2000 we found ourselves without a job, living in Seattle, and no plan of what we were going to do.  As I lay in bed one night with Mark, I said, “If you could take a youth pastor job anywhere in the world, where would you go?”  He quickly said, “Vancouver, Washington.”  That was markedly odd at the time since we had only even been to Vancouver once in our lives and it was not a special place for us.  I told Mark that was a nice dream, but the church he wanted to go to had recently hired a new youth pastor and so he’d have to go with his second choice.  He didn’t have a second choice.  The conversation ended for the night with God up in Heaven still moving His chess pieces while we slept. 

It was a few weeks later that the very church he spoke of called us for an interview.  They had a change of situation and when they asked around for hiring candidates, they were told one name…and one name only.  Mark Newell.  When they called that day for an interview, I said, “No need to interview, this is meant to be.”

We moved immediately and spent the next 5 1/2 years at Glad Tidings Church.  That became some of the most influential times in ministry that we could ever imagine.  I now see that time as the building block for everything we would later become.  Checkmate.