Sunday church was awesome!  We are so excited for all that Jesus is doing in our church!  We are praying for the Holy Spirit to change hearts and lives and it has been fun to watch Him show up!  Make services a priority.

By the way, did you see the article going around Facebook that church attendance equates to a lesser divorce rate?  That’s a great reason to get to church!  Just sayin’.

Sunday was also HOT!  I love the summer weather, so I’m not complaining!

We got to have lunch with the Garners (our Hazel Dell worship leaders), which was a blessing to be with dear friends.  Andrea broke her ankle several weeks ago and is almost back to normal, so we are thankful that God helped them through that busy time.  Thank you to all of you who brought food and helped with Andrea’s Tiny Town responsibilities as well.

Mark has now announced at both campuses that we are praying and preparing to bring our two campuses into one centrally located campus.  We do not have all of the details and how this will look in the end, but we are asking you to pray and let us know your thoughts.  We welcome any questions as well at mark@coffeechurch.com.  To give you the broad strokes, we would sell or rent our current facilities and set up at Prairie High School until the right facility worked out.  It is our heart’s desire that we come together in unity and see how God can use North Creek to reach more people faster.

Summer camps are quickly approaching and we could not be more thrilled for our teens and students at both our hearing and deaf churches.  We have 44 people already signed up for youth camp, which is a record for us.  Kid’s camp forms are coming in over the next two weeks and we are anticipating a phenomenal turnout for that as well.  Deaf church is gearing up for their camp at the latter part of July.  I have to say a big THANK YOU for those of you who have hired teenagers, given scholarships, and made it possible for these kids to get to camp.  We are humbled and honored to serve a church that loves young people.

We had a work day at each campus to get our facilities ready for summer.  We got a lot done and everything looks amazing!  Thank you to everybody who pitched in.

We announced our plan for our Summer at North Creek.  For 6 weeks in July/August we’ll be using Wednesday nights for various events, such as BBQ, ice cream party, potlucks, and game nights.  We are keeping it simple, but wanted to give our churches the opportunities to meet some new people and enjoy some good food!  All of the dates and details will be up on the web soon so that you can plan ahead!

We love this church, we love hanging out with you, and we love the journey that God is taking each one of us on to better reflect Him!

Be blessed this week!

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the ladies at North Creek!  I am so humbled to mother alongside so many incredible women who help me grow and learn everyday.

We had a guest speaker over at Hazel Dell.  Don and Melba Exley, missionaries from Argentina, came to share with us.  Mark and I got to hear amazing stories over dinner about the revivals that began in the 80’s in Argentina and still continue to this day.  The Holy Spirit poured out on that nation in unbelievable ways and rebirthed a love for Jesus in the people.  And that is my prayer for America.  Our country needs to turn back to our Savior!  I hope you are praying for God to move in the hearts and lives of people!

Over at Battle Ground we finished up I Will Fight, which I will miss!  Such a good reminder that God can do a deep work on your behalf in the midst of your challenges.

We also got the privilege of baptizing four people on Sunday!  First we baptized the Cox Family.  Jeff, Kerri and Rylan all got baptized together and shared about how Jesus has changed their whole family.  It’s been fun to watch them this last year as God has been molding and shaping their lives!  I can’t wait to watch the story continue to unfold.

Then when second service was about to start, my friend Nicole came in.  Jesus had been telling her all week to get baptized, but she had no idea we were baptizing last Sunday.  When she walked in and saw the tank, she decided to be immediately obedient, which is AWESOME!  We scrambled through the lost and found to get clothes to wear in the tank and then did the job!  Her testimony was incredible of how faithful Jesus has always been to her.

Alex Gutierrez lead worship the last two weeks (once at BG and once at HD)!  He did a great job, especially in light of the fact that we threw a lot of extras at him with the baptisms!

All of our ladies got chocolate on Sunday.  Church and chocolate…not a bad combo for Mother’s Day morning!  Our kids also got to learn about strong women in the Bible.  There’s a lot of them!

Matt Garner (our Hazel Dell worship pastor) headed over to Battle Ground to debut a new song that he and Rachel Schmidt wrote.  It’s amazing!!!  Matt also jumped in to Tiny Town to help out, which clearly indicates that Battle Ground needs kid’s workers.  You can sign up today at www.coffeechurch.com. 🙂

Well, on that note, life is good!  God is speaking to our hearts, changing lives, and raising our dead souls to renewed life.  Come to church!  Meet Him!  Obey Him!  Watch your life change!

Be blessed this week!

SO many things happening this week:

Three years ago this week we began the process of merging with Maple Grove Church to create North Creek’s second campus in Battle Ground.  It has been such a learning experience as we were thrown into turning around a struggling church, adding a deaf church, creating a new leadership infrastructure, starting a youth ministry, starting a worship team, etc.  What a wild ride!  And along the way we have been blessed with many stories of changed lives!

One year ago this week we started our Battle Ground Youth Ministry!  Mat and Janel Marbrey are two of the best blessings that have come out of the last three years!  And we are so very grateful for the influx of teenagers that now roam our hallways.  There’s nothing better than a church full of teenagers!!!!

Our Hazel Dell Youth Pastor took a small team of people to a youth leader’s conference last week.  It happened to be the same conference where God called us to plant a church…good news is that Kris didn’t get asked to do that again! 😉  I guess that’s good news…maybe more Coffee Churches would be AWESOME!

We also had an incredible Simply Worship on Friday night.  God really did some deep work in the hearts and lives of people from our church.  God is CHANGING people in our midst!  I could not be more excited for how I see Him molding people’s hearts and circumstances.  If you are stuck, frustrated, addicted, and struggling…don’t give up!  He’s got a plan!

Our Annual Business Meeting is next week to go over the state of the church (Sunday, March 15, 5pm).  We had a challenging year financially in 2014, so we have to solve that for 2015.  On the flip side, we had a plethora of truly incredible ministry going on, so there’s a juxtaposition of emotions.  One thing I know:  God is good, He will guide us, and I trust Him. We have a bright future and I can’t wait to see it unfold!

Who are you inviting to Easter?  I’m inviting everyone who breathes.

Well, I hope you LOVE your church, because I do.  I love the people that I get to meet, I love the hearts to grow in my Growth group, I love the struggles that we have the honor of walking alongside, I love the celebrations, and I love the dreams.  I love that we get to serve a God together in unity and make each other more like Him.  I love singing worship songs, and I love watching our kids grow up together.  I love His Word and I love how it changes the core of who we are.  I love when my youth pastor calls weeping over a broken teenager because it means she LOVES them.  I love when I see laughter in the foyer, and I love the coffee flowing into so many cups every Sunday.  I love that my kids are a part of something greater than themselves and I love when our team fights for what they believe in.  I love when we all forgive each other and I love when we mess up.  I love your stories and I love those of you who serve faithfully.  I love that my heart’s desire is to be at this church a really long time and I love the fact that so many of you feel the same way.  I love the idea that I will grow old with you and tell stories about “Once upon a time at North Creek”… and I really love that God lets me do this with my life.  WE ARE SO BLESSED to be a part of this crazy, broken thing called “Church”.  Isn’t it a beautiful mess?

Be blessed this week.  I know I am!