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Facebook timelineI can’t wait for Easter Sunday!  It’s one of my favorite weekends of the year as we take time to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.  It’s the moment in history that separates every other religion from Christianity.

Without Easter, we serve a dead Christ whose promises were buried in a grave with Him.  With Easter, we serve a living Savior who has defeated death itself and bridged the gap for our sins.  Now that’s a reason to celebrate!

Our theme for the morning is “This Changes Everything.”  So many people in our world just need something to change in their lives.  What if Jesus is the change people are looking for?  What if He’s the change YOU’RE looking for?  We want to invite EVERYBODY to join us!  We don’t care if you love church, hate church, are scared of church…we just want you to come and experience what Jesus is all about in an environment where you’ll be love and accepted.

We’ll also have special stuff for all of the kids and a gift to send home with them as well, so your children will be well taken care of!

So, wear whatever you want, grab a cup of coffee on the way in the door, and enjoy Easter morning with us at the Coffee Church.  See you soon!

 

Wow, what a Sunday!!!  We closed a chapter in our story with the departure of Wayne and Jenny after 20 years of serving Battle Ground.  We know they will bless so many people in their new venture at Lifepoint Church in Vancouver, WA.

We dedicated Baby Nayelli last week at Battle Ground and Baby Hanaye at Hazel Dell this week.  Love our North Creek babies and the life that they represent.

Speaking of babies, we had a toddler in Tiny Town wearing a “Big Brother” shirt to announce his parent’s pregnancy.  Congrats to Eli and Amber!  We are very excited for your family!

We are breaking our attendance records…it’s such a blessing to be a part of a growing church!

Preschool registrations are coming in for the Learning Center!  We have so many amazing changes lined up for the fall and we can’t wait for all of those precious little lives to experience great education in a Jesus centered environment.

If we don’t keep the main thing the main thing, we will be lost.  The mission of God should be the most unifying of all causes on the planet.

Our deaf church is awesome.  Pastor Jim makes me laugh.  And some of his jokes are funny, too.

THANK YOU to Peggy and Ken for helping serve at Wayne and Jenny’s goodbye party on Sunday night.  You are an amazing blessing and I’m so glad that you are a part of this church!

As I type this I am drinking a latte made by our pastors, Mark and Chris.  They preach well, but if that doesn’t work out for them, I’m pretty sure they can open a coffee shop together!

The 3rd-5th grade girls had a little party on Sunday afternoon.  Sugar and nerf guns make for an amazing time!  My daughter loves the friends she has made at church.  The key to helping your kids make friends: come often and give them the opportunities to get to know people!

Meet someone new every Sunday.

We want you to volunteer on Sundays.  It is one of the easiest ways to feel involved and a part of what God is doing in the lives of our people.  You can fill out a volunteer application at www.coffeechurch.com under the Resources tab.  Do it now.  No really.  You won’t be sorry!

We are at such an amazing time as a church!  We are growing, seeing families begin to jump in and serve, and feeling like our footing is back after a very tricky season of ministry with the merge one year ago.  We have so many opportunities and so much excitement!  We just can’t wait for God to unfold the next part of His plan for North Creek.

One thing is for sure: Battle Ground needs a youth pastor.

We have spent the last year getting the Battle Ground teens plugged into our Hazel Dell youth group under the leadership of Kris Gray.  It has been a great win for all of the students and we have been amazed at the cohesiveness between the various groups of youth.  We have also loved marrying two sets of youth staff who are thriving together.  Kris and her team took an interesting circumstance and made it incredible.  That being said, the community of Battle Ground is starving for a local solution to helping teens navigate their lives from a Godly perspective surrounded by Jesus-filled adults.

Here’s what KILLS us…we really feel within our heart of hearts that our church is part of the answer.  We know that the steel rod that runs through the back of North Creek Church is our ability to invest in teenagers and connect them to our church as young adults.  We birthed a church set on pouring resources and attention into teenagers.  It has run through Mark and I’s blood for 20 years and becoming Lead Pastors never changed that.

So, here’s the deal.  We need you to pray for a miracle for Battle Ground and North Creek.  We have several things that you can pray specifically about:

1.  We need $50,000 for the various salaries and startup costs to run both youth ministries for a year.  We believe that a year from now we’ll be solid enough to carry the weight from that point forward.

2.  We also need a youth pastor.  We believe that there is a very specific person for this role.  We believe that God is appointing this person to fit perfectly into this task and we believe He is birthing a passion for Battle Ground in their hearts.  If you know of a youth pastor that fits into the DNA of North Creek, can work in tandem with Kris Gray, and is ready to take on the massive task of pastoring Battle Ground teens, send them the link to my blog or have them email me at stacy@coffeechurch.com

3.  We need you to continue to pray for Vancouver teenagers.  This is nothing new.  They are bursting at the seams and desperately need a bigger facility!  The financial ramifications of solving their ever-expanding issues is massive, but we’ll take those type of problems any day.  Let’s reach people for Jesus!

THANK YOU for your prayers!  We know that God is up to something and the miracle is just around the corner.  Hold on to your seats!  It’s going to be a good year!

Love, love, love Jesus’ Church!  It just never gets old.

What does get old is Daylight Savings Time…ugh…Sunday felt like I got hit with a 2 x 4.  And let’s just say that the kid’s classes were a joy all around!  Thanks to all of you parents who navigated getting the kids ready with less sleep than normal!!!

We had a teenager quoting a chapter in the Bible at Battle Ground and an 8 year old quoting at Hazel Dell.  It is awesome to see our young people filling their brains with the Word of God!

Remember that next Sunday night, March 17 at 6:00 pm is our goodbye dessert for Wayne and Jenny.  It will be an informal setting where you can express your appreciation to them for their 20 years of ministry here.  We look forward to blessing them!  If you have a moment, email me a letter of appreciation for them at stacy@coffeechurch.com that we will print out and present them in a book.  You can also email me if you are interested in providing a dessert for our event.  Thanks so much!

We have been growing a lot lately and would love your help in volunteering on Sunday mornings.  You can sign up at www.coffeechurch.com under the Resources tab.  Our volunteers only work one service a month and have a great time!

Our Kid’s Checkin computer was down at Battle Ground on Sunday…yikes!  Sorry about the wait for you parents, but I’ve got some great news for you – not only will the computer be up and running on Sunday, but you now officially have two computers!  Twice the excitement for our bursting kid’s classes at Battle Ground.  Hazel Dell, you’re next!!!!

I love change…no really…I love it.  I know that’s strange, but I am an early adopter and look forward to new adventures.  Here we go!

Worship was amazing at both campuses this weekend.  We sure love our worship teams and appreciate the extraordinary amount of effort that they put into that ministry.  Thank you!

Sometimes I wonder if kids and teenagers run our church.  Everywhere I turn there are young people doing ministry in our midst.  It might be my favorite thing about North Creek and I never want it to change.  Our kids feel like they can give and serve in our midst, which is the foundational point of the church.  It’s not about “attending the show” but about being a part of the body!

Think about inviting a friend for Easter…actually, just invite them now!  We have guests all the time and love it.  There’s never a bad Sunday to visit North Creek.

I hope your week is exciting!  Give the glory to God.

Packed the weekend with fun things!

Friday night I had a bunch of ladies over for a game night.  So much fun to just hang out, play games, eat lots of yummy food with women I love and appreciate!  If you want on that invite list, sign up on our small groups link at www.coffeechurch.com under Rebecca’s group.  You’ll get an email once a month about an upcoming activity that you can attend if you are available!

Sunday went well!  I jumped over to Battle Ground for service and always love being on that campus.  I hung out with Jessica and taught 14 Tiny Town preschoolers.  It was a full class, but they did SO well.  God so evidently works in the hearts of children and it is a joy to watch!

We had our Annual Business Meeting on Sunday.  True to our nature, we don’t do the typical business meeting, but rather use it as an opportunity to hear from some of our staff about how their ministry is succeeding.  We do some of the “normal” stuff of talking about statistics and money, but our bottom line is always the same: how are we leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus?  That’s the question we strive to answer each year at our annual meeting.

Yesterday we had one of our staff member preaching in Ridgefield to fill in, we had one at a church in Hoquiam watching her daughter speak, we had one training sound techs in Oregon, and we had our own two campuses running as well.  We were spread out all over the place!!!

I’m memorizing James 5…it was hard to start, but I’m making great progress.  Everything in life worth doing takes work, so don’t get discouraged!  Keep trying!

I’m enjoying our small group and getting to know some new people in our lives.  It is always a blessing to open our home and dive into friendships.  It’s also a blessing to eat cake and banana bread!

One of the main focuses of our church is to spread out the work amongst the many!  Do you know that we have over 150 volunteers just in the hearing church?  That’s over half of our people who serve once a month, or in the youth group, or in help during the week.  What’s crazy about that is that we still don’t have enough help!  We have multiple people serving twice to cover the gaps.  Wouldn’t it be awesome to get all of the bases covered?  If you want to begin to volunteer, you can sign up at www.coffeechurch.com.

Here’s my challenge for you this week: Do the RIGHT thing.  Even if it’s hard.  That’s what we are challenging ourselves to do in our small group.  It’s quite the challenge, but if you consistently do the right thing, you really do open yourself up to a life of blessing and peace.  WORTH IT!