SUPER excited about Simply Worship at BOTH campuses next week!  Simply Worship happens about once every six weeks.  It’s an hour that we set aside for worship, prayer, and communion from 7:00-8:00 pm.  We only do minimal programming, in order to allow you to just be with Jesus.  It’s also a time when we provide communion for you.

We encourage your older kids to join us, but we also have childcare provided for you as well.  Everybody is welcome, so whether you come to North Creek or not, feel free to spend an hour giving praise to Jesus!  So, join us on Tuesday at our Battle Ground Campus or Wednesday at Hazel Dell.  You can find directions at www.coffeechurch.com.

Parenting has been an education, to say the least.  With both of my girls, reading has been a problem…or at least I thought reading was the problem.

When Delaney was in Kindergarten, she wound up in the lowest reading group…with the kids who were learning English…not a good sign.  Honestly, I thought she was just easily distracted.  When she was spoken to, it often seemed like she was off in some other universe.  I thought maybe I had a day dreamer on my hands, and because she wasn’t paying attention in school, reading was going by the wayside.  And then we got her hearing test.  My “distracted” daughter could barely hear and classroom settings were the worst learning environment for her.  Thankfully, a very easy surgery cleared the blockages and she went from no hearing to complete hearing in the space of 15 minutes.  Reading became her best subject and now she is way above grade level.

Then came Kennedy.  Kindergarten was a nightmare in the reading department.  She knew her letters, she knew the sounds, but when we sat down with those Read Well books, she was a mess and couldn’t stay focused.  One word would take her 5 minutes to get out.  So, I did what any good parent would do and I punished her for not taking her reading time seriously.  And then we got her eyes checked.  With short distances, she needs a very strong perscription.  What she was learning from the board at school was sticking, but up close, she was floundering.  Her glasses will arrive on Monday and I have no doubt that everything will change from that point forward.

Here’s the bottom line.  What I thought was the problem in both cases, was not the problem.  No matter how hard I pushed to solve the reading issue, it wasn’t going to be solved until I fixed the hearing and seeing issues.  Don’t we often go through life like that?

Perceived problem: “My job doesn’t pay me enough!”  Real problem: “My finances are a distaster because of overspending and debt.”

Perceived problem: “My parents don’t understand me!”  Real problem: “I’m communicating with an attitude and they can’t hear me over my inappropriate comments.”

Perceived problem: “My husband is just not as good as their husband.”  Real problem: “The grass isn’t greener on the other side, it’s greener where it’s watered.”

Perceived problem: “I deserve something I’m not getting from someone.”  Real problem: “I have entitlement issues and my source is not appropriately found in Christ.”

I can almost hear the “BUT…..” coming from your computer.  That’s fine, I know it’s not always easy to put a finger on the real problem and sometimes we go the wrong direction for a while in order to get to the right solution.  That being said, answer three questions for yourself today:

What is my biggest problem?

What might be the real reason behind my biggest problem?  (Not the one you have been trying to solve, but the REAL problem!)

What would I have to do to solve the real problem?

You might just find the success you have been searching for if you get to the bottom of the mystery and face the reality that you’ve been unable to see.  Good luck!

Jammed packed weekend!

Happy Birthday to Andrea!  She is our Kid’s Coordinator over at Hazel Dell and does a great job of keeping the younger kids staffed with amazing leaders.  We hope you had a wonderful birthday!

We also had another important birthday on Sunday morning.  Clara turned 8 and she decided to show her love for Jesus by being baptized on her special day!  Clara is a little girl that LOVES the Word of God.  She reads it, she knows it, and she lives it!  Let the Bible do a big chunk of parenting for you.  If it’s IN them, it will come OUT of them.  Way to go, Clara (and her amazing parents, Tim & Cheryl)!

Congrats to Nick (Battle Ground Coordinator) and Matt (Hazel Dell Worship) for running the Warrior Dash on Saturday.  Mud and running…I don’t get it.

Emily at HD and Jordan at BG lead worship and both did a great job.  Emily gets special props because her drummer (aka her husband) wounded his hand pretty bad in a dirt bike accident…we don’t have enough drummers as is, so if they could protect their hands, that would be awesome!

Happy Anniversary to Wayne and Jenny!  FORTY YEARS!  What an awesome example of loving your spouse!

Lots of new faces joined us over the summer.  Make sure you take a minute and meet some new friends.  I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know some of these people and look forward to having them as a part of our church!

Small groups open for registration in about a week.  Stay tuned to www.coffeechurch.com for the online version on Saturday night to get signed up.  We also send it all out via email, so if you want to be added to our list, just email office@coffeechurch.com and we’ll make that happen asap.

Simply Worship is coming to Battle Ground on Sept. 18 and Hazel Dell on Sept. 19.  It’s a night of worship, prayer, and communion from 7-8:00 pm.  Pretty simple, but in the presence of Jesus, your life can be pretty amazing.

We are looking for an administrative person for organizing the Kid’s Check in, Nursery, and Tiny Town over at Battle Ground.  The short job description: find and train any needed volunteers for all of those positions (we already have a long list of great volunteers to begin with), greet parents on Sundays, and send a reminder email about serving and the curriculum once a week to your leaders.  Email me at stacy@coffeechurch.com if you are interested in volunteering in this particular way.

God’s busy doing great work in people’s lives.  It you want to be encouraged, just ask someone what He’s up to in their life!  Be blessed!

Our baptism weekend at the park has remained one of our favorites for years!  This summer we had the privilege of also baptizing an entire family of four the week before our Park Day, and one more young man a week after this video was made.  Each one of the 26 people who proclaimed Jesus this summer is a miracle to us!

If you are interested in being baptized, the hot tub is being set up at Hazel Dell this weekend, or we’ll set it up ANYTIME!  Email me at stacy@coffeechurch.com if you have questions.

Yesterday we had the privilege of going up to the Peninsula to visit with the team of Newlife Church in Kitsap County.  They currently have 5 campuses, all with live speakers (no video at this point), and have a goal of 14 campuses in the future.  The ironic part of this story is that we heard their Lead Pastor, Wes Davis, speak at a church planter’s conference 7 years ago.  We decided his model was not “us” and didn’t think much about it again.  However, over the last seven years, we have become more and more similar in our structure and now I can completely see us mimicing a lot of their systems and strategies.  I guess it just goes to show you that you can never rule anything out because God might just surprise you as you get a little further down the journey and define yourself more clearly.

Here are some things we took away from the day:

• 4:30 am is way too early to get up.
• We have visited a lot of churches over the last seven years and talked to a lot of pastors about their systems.  If you are a church leader who doesn’t ask a lot of other church leaders thousands of questions, I’m not sure what you are thinking.
• We need to redefine our pipeline of communication and structure.  With one campus it worked to have every leader in every meeting and communicate on a broad basis.  As we move forward in our multisite system, we will need to redefine and move people to the right meetings to get the most out of people’s time and talents.
• Wes is a master at getting young leaders doing top level ministry in a way that creates boundaries.  Two things are true: young leaders need to be used in amazing ways and young leaders do not have the maturity and wisdom that comes with decades of ministry experience.  I think Wes may have found a way to have the best of both realities by creating leadership roles that are significant within a framework where he still provides spiritual leadership and training.
• Newlife Church is riding on the backs of a small team of staff that most people don’t ever see on stage.  That was particularily interesting to me.  Sarah, their “get crap done” person, literally runs that church behind the scenes.  She’s not a pastor, a pastor’s wife, or called to preach.  She is, however, a powerhouse of organization and a sharp thinker.  She is empowered to make ridiculously important decisions in conjunction with Dan, who is basically in charge of making sure the big picture is in alignment.  Together they carry the weight of the systems of running the church while Wes carries the spritual weight.
• Dan constantly asks questions.  You can get a lot of clarity when you have to explain your thinking out loud to someone.  If you sound like an idiot, you might want to work on your thinking in that area.  Thanks, Dan, kind of.

Many thanks to Newlife for just letting us be flies on the wall yesterday.  We learned a lot and plan to be better leaders tomorrow than yesterday!  That’s always the goal!