School is starting and summer is closing out!  I hope that your kids have a great year and make a difference in their schools with the love of Jesus!

We expected a lot of people to be gone over the Labor Day weekend, but that wasn’t the case at all.  We continue to be growing and look forward to a strong fall!  Invite someone to enjoy our community at the Coffee Church!

We are having a Vision and Volunteer night for all of our Volunteers coming in 10 days.  It’s going to be the hot place to be on September 13.  Want an invite?  Sign up to volunteer at www.coffeechurch.com because we want you on our list!  Some of us are even dressing up to prove that we own something other than jeans.  I love my jeans…

Our series, Platform, is nearing the end of it’s run.  It’s been a great look at the fact that our lives are the platform Jesus uses to bless people day in and day out.  Nothing is too little or too insignificant to be used by God in amazing ways.

Baby Savannah came to visit on Sunday!  She is our newest member and daughter of Matt and Andrea Garner.  She’s a beauty!

I was in the nursery for a service this weekend at Hazel Dell.  It is the best place to serve!  I watched the service while I rocked a baby in my comfy chair.  I love ministry that seems a lot like relaxing!  We need nursery workers at Battle Ground, so if you’re looking for a place to serve, that’s a pretty sweet deal!

The Deaf Church had a great youth event on Friday night in Portland!  Would you take some time and pray for those teenagers who have a heart to reach people for Jesus?

It was Chris Harold’s birthday yesterday!  Happy Birthday, Chris!  We love partnering with you at North Creek Church!

We are just a few weeks away from celebrating seven years as a church.  I seriously can’t believe it!  It seems like just yesterday we were loading up a van for the first time as a mobile church.  It has been the best adventure of our lives and we wouldn’t trade it for anything!

Have you liked us on Facebook, yet?  Click this LINK to like our page and stay updated!

I hope you enjoy your week – especially those of you mothers who will put your babies on a bus and enjoy a few minutes of quiet!

I’m late this week with my highlights, but I have a great reason…I’m in GORGEOUS Montana having a family vacation.  For those of you who don’t know it, I am a born-and-raised Montana girl.  Yesterday we went to Glacier National Park, which is about 30 minutes from where I grew up.  Mark snapped this shot from the top of Going to the Sun Road.  Not bad, huh?

Back to my Sunday highlights!  It was a REALLY amazing Sunday!

I ended up visiting the Battle Ground campus.  I haven’t been there in a little while, and it was so incredible to see the change and growth in that campus.  There is a lot of momentum and excitement for community there.  I walked down the hall and multiple people asked me how they can sign up to volunteer.  There were new people and families everywhere. It was an out-of-body experience!

Meanwhile, I got texts from Mark throughout the morning updating me on Hazel Dell.  The 11:00 am was packed, lots of new guests, worship was awesome… Equal momentum coming from Hazel Dell!

Then I got the update from the Deaf Church…high attendance, new family connected, quality ministry for the morning…All three campuses firing on all cylinders and seeing God work in people’s lives!  It has been a process over the last year and a half since we merged with another church in Battle Ground, but we are seeing the fruit of persistence paying off.  Can’t wait for the fall!

I forgot to give a shot out to Kari and Terrance last week!  They come early to help babysit and set up a couple of times a month and it’s such a blessing!  Terrance has taken the title of Chair Jedi-Master, as my husband is pretty particular about the chair set up.  Terrance is a star!  I love our volunteers.

Both of our kid’s pastors, Vanessa and Kim, were giddy about their ministry on Sunday, too.  We are raising up some GREAT kids who love Jesus and His House!

The youth arrived home on Sunday night after their Rural Community Missions Trip.  They were exhausted from giving it there all, but God did incredible things in and through them as they served their guts out.  Tired teenagers who poured their lives out for others are blessed teenagers!  Way to go!!!

Speaking of teenagers, we are on our way towards an incredible team of youth leaders for the Battle Ground campus.  I know we have not made any announcement formally yet, but we are in the process of conversations, watching God’s story unfold, and planning.  We’ll be rolling out that plan…in God’s perfect timing…soon!  I’m pretty excited!

Financially it’s been a tight summer…that’s pretty typical, but we don’t want to go into fall trying to catch up.  If you are able to help us, we could use an extra $10,000 to start us off of the right foot for September.  You can give online HERE.  We appreciate your financial support of our ministry and do our best to use those funds to minister to as many people as possible!

If you’d like to get baptized, we’ll fill the hot tub any Sunday.  You can sign up online at www.coffeechurch.com.  We LOVE to celebrate with those of you who are experiencing Jesus’ life change in your heart!

Here’s some dates to put on your calendar.  More info will be coming!

September 13 – Vision and Volunteers Night…it’s a night to honor our new and previous volunteers.  We want you there!

September 15 – Small Group Signup Opens

September 17 – Simply Worship Hazel Dell

September 24 – Simply Worship Battle Ground

September 29 – Small Groups begin this week!

So many things going on and so many blessings from Jesus!  Take that blessing and spread it around!  See you when we get back from relaxing all week!!

It was graduate Sunday!  What a great group of 13 grads we have this year!  This is the graduating class that includes the very first sixth graders in our church.  I am so proud of each one of them and their confidence in their relationship with Jesus.

Get your kids in church.  As parents, it’s our job to lead our kids and establish a framework for being a part of the body of Christ.  Thank you to Vanessa and Kim who pour their lives into growing our kids.

I am loving the sermons in the Protect and Serve series.  Bottom line: our lives are to be an example of Jesus – both in leading and serving.  It is a monumental challenge for all of us, but exactly what we should be striving for.  Do you want to be well known or worth knowing?

The other part of this series that I think is profound is to be aware and careful WHO you follow.  People put spiritual and emotional trust in others who are not healthy.  We are responsible to find people to follow who are following Christ.

Do you need to be baptized?  If you have decided to follow Christ and haven’t done that yet, it’s time.  The Bible doesn’t reserve baptism for people who are perfect, but rather it is one of the INITIAL symbols of change.  Messy people need to get baptized, so don’t wait until you have it all together.  (P.S.  You’ll never have it all together…)  Sign up HERE for our next baptism on June 30.

How’s your Bible reading going?  Here’s my challenge for you:  Read a chapter a day for the next month.  You can find some great reading plans at www.youversion.com if you don’t know where to start reading.  And don’t worry about it if you don’t understand what you are reading.  You might not at first, but if you keep reading, it will get clearer and clearer.  That is the beauty of the Bible…God reveals Himself to you at the time and rate that He needs to grow your life.  Give Him the opportunity to do just that.

Jesus changes lives.  Invite someone to church so they can learn about Him and have their lives changed as well.

Congrats to the Ericson Family on the birth of Aubree!  We love all of the new life at North Creek!  We also got to have baby Emilia in church for the first time this weekend as well.  So beautiful!

I love God’s Church.  It’s not timid.  It’s not lazy.  It’s not irrelevant.  It’s a force to be reckoned with and it changes the landscape of both our country and the world.  Be weary of allowing yourself to believe anything but that.  God’s Word says His Church cannot be stopped.  Period.

On that note…YOU can’t be stopped either if you are in line with God’s plan.  Be obedient.  Be humble.  Be unstoppable.