A Merry Northlake Christmas

Merry Christmas my dear friends and all loved by the Lord Jesus. This issue of the Northlake Compass focuses on what’s happening this Christmas Season.

Sunday Morning Christmas Series
When we think of Christmas many different images and messages come to mind: the landing of heaven here on earth, angels worshipping the new born king, the promise of peace, God becoming one of us, etc. This year in our Sunday messages we’ll focus on a different theme, “When Playing it Safe Is Risky”. Each week we’ll focus on a different Christmas character to see how Christmas calls us to take risks. Here’s how the series unfolds:

Dec 16 Part 1 When shepherds leave their flocks
Dec 23 Part 2 When Joseph says yes to Mary’s proposal
Dec 24 Part 3 When Mary receives Jesus

Christmas Schedule
- Dec 7th: Women’s Christmas Dinner, 6:30 PM
- Dec 8th: Friends and Food Christmas Lunch, Noon
- Dec 9th: A Night of Caroling (all-church), THIS SUNDAY! 6 PM

- Dec 16th: "Away in a Manger" Children's Musical in both morning services

- Dec 23rd: Special Christmas Service, 8:45 & 10:30 AM

- Dec 24th: Christmas Eve Candlelight Services, 5:30 and 7:00 PM

- Dec 30-Jan2: HS Winter Camp

New Ministry Lead
Gail Dart has volunteered to serve as our new Visitation Coordinator. This is a huge answer to prayer. As the volunteer Visitation Coordinator Gail will oversee all our visitation ministries from newcomers to hospital to homebound., etc. Many of you have expressed interest in sharing Christ’s care for folks who need some TLC and visitation. For those who have or who would like to be involved please give Gail a call at the church 671-9500 or email her at gaild@northlakeonline.org.

May the King of glory fill your hearts, lift your hopes and use us to spread the terrific news of the King’s arrival everywhere we go!

Pastor Bill

November '07 Northlake Compass

God’s doing great things at Northlake and through our people. Here’s some of the scoop.

2 New Things to Help Accomplish the Vision

Pumpkin Bash
Over 100 Northlaker’s helped out with our very first Pumpkin Bash- an event planned to reach out with Christ-like love into our immediate neighborhood. Over 475 people attended and 24 families indicated that they would like to have more information about the church. This was such a fun outreach. While so many new people came, the Pumpkin Bash had the side effect of pulling the church together as so many did so much to reach out. Each child received a warm welcome, a gospel tract, and had fun playing games. Dads are still talking about the games. The Fireside room was packed with folks enjoying delicious homemade chili and yummy cornbread. Thanks Dianna Stilts and kitchen crew! Kids and adults were getting faces painted, their pictures taken in costume and doing the cake walk. Way to go Melissa Young and everyone on the Pumpkin Bash team. Oh and by the way, it was fun seeing two of our elders, Dick Gardner and Bill Schwartz really going all out. Dick came as clown and greeted kids at the door. Bill Schwartz AKA Elvis, strolled up and down the building doing “Hound Dog”. Thank you. Thank you very much.

New Prayer Meeting
We’ve started a new all-church prayer meeting. Each Sunday from 8-8:30 a.m. folks are gathering to pray before church in the Fireside room. While the focus of our Wednesday prayer meeting is to pray through the individual requests outlined on the weekly prayer sheet, this group is praying that God would speak to everyone during the worship services and that God’s Spirit would energize the overall outreach of the church. Everyone is welcome to join both prayer meetings. The Wednesday night prayer meeting is at 7.

Upcoming Events:
Our annual Christmas Missionary offering is this Sunday and replaces our regular Koinonia offering just for this month. As you know we have 50 full-time missionaries. This offering is intended to help them have something special at Christmas. We’ll have that offering at the end of the service.

The Thanksgiving Service of Praise is just two weeks away, Lord willing on Sunday Nov. 18th. All our NU, Youth and older children’s classes are cancelled so we can praise and thank the Lord together as family. Once again we’ll have an open microphone where you can briefly tell the Lord, thanks. That Sunday our new 34 voice Northlake Choir sings. People have been telling me about reaching out with the gospel, seeing families put back together. I can’t wait to hear more.

The details of this year’s annual Holiday Food and Gift Drive are being worked out as we speak. We’ll see details in the bulletin soon.

Staff updates
Lisa Hall (virtually fulltime and totally unpaid volunteer) who helped start the Northlake Resource Center is now taking on key new role as our Volunteer Ministry Coordinator. If you want to find a new place to serve in the body of Christ or in the community, give her a call at the office at 671-9500. Lisa knows the church and its ministries very well and having been involved in many local service agencies, she can help you find a spot where you can put your gifts to work serving in the community as well. Welcome Lisa!
Ryan Lancaster is our new head custodian. Greg Rice’s shoes are pretty big to fill in more ways than one but if anyone can fill them, Ryan can. Welcome Ryan!

Building Use
New Cry Room for Mom’s
Misty Delgado and team are in the process of turning Pastor Dave’s office into our new cry room exclusively dedicated for moms who need some privacy with their little ones and want to hear the message during the worship services. We’ve run a speaker into the room so moms can hear the message.
Score: Babies 1, Pastor Dave 0.

New Members Class
Interested in learning how to join the church and why that may be a good idea? We’d love for you to come to the Northlake Membership Class offered during the Second Service Time- 10:30 – 11:50 a.m. on Sunday Dec. 2 and 9. John Young, one of our elders will be leading the class.

Thought for the Day: Sometimes we think our best years of serving the Savior are either way ahead of today, or they happened a long time ago. They are nothing more than undefined dreams not yet realized or at best memories lying well folded in a trunk collecting dust up in the attack. And sometimes we think we’ve failed God so badly that we’re now on His “B” team. He only uses us when the good players aren’t available. I would have you know that God isn’t finished with you. As David tells us in Psalm 1,

Blessed is the man who… delights in the law of the LORD,
And on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water
Which yields its fruit in season
And whose leaf does not wither.

The Newest Northlaker and Gilfillan

Jason Robert Gilfillan was graciously sent by our Heavenly Father to Rob and Bre Ann Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2007 at 6:23 p.m. at St. Joseph's Hospital in Bellingham, WA. We're calling him Jase. When we came into see them Rob handed Marv, Natalie, Louise and me each a different colored tee-shirt with our new and official names on the front. Marv is Cappy. Nat is Ya Ya. Louise is Grandma and yours truly is Pops. Does Bre Ann knows how to lead a party or what??? They are already great at parenting: both attentive and not letting things overwhelm them.

As far as the church is concerned it's true, the Nursery is exploding with growth. May the Lord let all these kids become good friends and serve Him well as a group and individually.

When I was a kid God blessed me with a great family and church. So many of my pals were from the church we attended. I pray that God builds a whole new momentum from the youngest up where we see groups of kids, under the word of God, grow up and serve Him in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Of my four best friends from childhood, two are worship pastors, one has been a seminary president, and one is a senior pastor. We went through the same children's ministry and heard outstanding preaching when we were growing up. We went to the same youth camps. While we left many children's workers in shock with our behavior and in disbelief about how we turned out, God was speaking to us all through our young lives. That's what I pray will happen here, all over again: not that one or two will love the Lord with all their hearts but that a whole group will be called to serve the purposes of God in their generation as well.

Although I'm already the happiest man on earth, thankful to our Father for this little boy, I'm also still expectant about what He has in mind and how He will use Jase and all his friends.

Pastor Bill

Guatemala Work Crew Update

Two weeks ago Northlake sent out a work crew to Guatemala City. They've just returned and Myrna Harmon writes about the trip. Note: SETECA stands for the Central American Theological Seminary. SETECA is the world's largest Hispanic Biblical Seminary and draws students from all over the world proparing them for kingdom ministries. Northlake has had a long standing relationship with the school dating back to when Pastor Doug Anderson led teams from our church down to help with various projects. That's where Bruce and Barb VanderMuelen first met! Here are Myrna's notes:

I'll try and tell you what we did!
That was the closest we could come to a group picture, most of them were just a few of us doing work. The one I sent was taken after Molly Greenleaf left, and includes the Glicks.

We worked at SETECA most of the time, the men painting, laying formica on tables, carpentry and finishing woodwork. The ladies made sixty tablecloths for SETECA graduation dinner, packaged candy and treats for Pioneer Girls and Moms parties, shrunk wrapped books for the book store, bulk mailing, and we all visited Kairos house.

Two days were spent at the church Mike and Sandi Glick attend, painting, doing yard work, installing lighting, cleaning and repairing existing lights, and cleaning the kitchen. We also attended Sunday morning worship at that church.

We were able to meet with most of the Northlake supported missionaries and also had a few days of shopping and sightseeing in Antigua and Guatemala City.

Vision 2010

Friends,

I've been on vacation and wanted you to know what's on my heart for Northlake's future. So I'm including the message I gave yesterday on line. Some of the points I have pic's for and some I don't. Enjoy!

It’s good to be back from vacation . In two weeks Lord willing we’ll begin a new fall series from the Book of Acts. Next Sunday I’m going to give a really challenging message about how to live more simply so we can give more generously to the work of the kingdom. This morning we won’t be doing a typical exposition of a Scripture. Instead as we kick off our fall ministries I want to talk about what we sense God has called us to do over the next three years: about what we call Vision 2010. The message is sort of a huddle up as the new ministry season starts today. We want to make sure everyone has a clear and picture of where Lord helping, we’re going. I want to tell you what’s on the heart of our ministry leaders and what’s on my heart. I’d like to start with a story.

In the 1850’s near the height of the gold rush, San Francisco was awash not only in gold but in maritime prosperity from her new port. With her ocean going clipper ships, brawny steamers, and her speedy inexpensive ferries no one envisioned the need for any kind of bridge across the Golden Gate. There was no felt need. Even if someone had envisioned it, it surely couldn’t happen.

Ironically the idea of a bridge across the sea gate that led to the gold came from a crazy miner. In 1859 Joshua Norton, who had lost not only a fortune but his sanity prospecting, was the first person to suggest that San Francisco needed a great bridge.

Joshua Norton was not just a little off, he was certifiable. As one newspaper writer penned, “In San Francisco’s galaxy of eccentrics, he was the shining star.”

Once a respected business man, Norton had gone mad with his financial losses. In 1859 after years of living in seclusion, he emerged with an announcement, printed in the San Francisco Bulletin, which read that “at the request and desire of a large majority of citizenry of these United States” he claimed the office of Emperor of California and Protector of Mexico. In mock submission the citizens of San Francisco acclaimed him Emperor of California. He was given free meals, wore a military uniform and was routinely offered opening night tickets to the theater. As Emperor, Joshua Norton made numerous proclamations including abolishing the US Congress, firing President Lincoln, issuing Imperial Bonds, and even called for a unified world religion. While those didn’t happen there was one thing he insisted had to happen. On three separate occasions Norton ordered the construction of a suspension bridge to cross the Golden Gate. It took a while for the idea to catch on and it wasn’t until 1937 that the Golden Gate Bridge finally opened.

As you hear this morning’s proclamation and see how huge our vision is for the next three years you may think I’m certifiable but to be honest… I couldn’t be more excited about our God-given future. The leaders here are seeing things. We’re seeing bridges. We feel that God’s calling us into the bridge building ministry. That he’s asking us to build friendship, start connecting our lives and build bridges with our immediate neighborhoods, build bridges with our city and county and between Northlake and the world.



That picture as a bridge-building church came into clear focus last Spring when we prayerfully developed our new mission and vision we saw our future. Let’s take a moment and look at what we think God wants us to do.


NORTHLAKE COMMUNITY CHURCH


Our Mission: We are here to reach out with Christ’s love and gospel to the people who live in Whatcom County and to send missionaries and Christian workers around the world for the glory of God. That’s our calling. Here’s the vision of what that looks like.

Vision: Our immediate vision is to carry out the work of Jesus by creating meaningful connections and ministries that meet the practical, social and spiritual needs of people living in our neighborhoods near the lake. We will passionately live out our calling as Northlake Community Church.

That was based on good Bible and good missional thinking. The idea of bridge building and influencing our world comes right from the lips and heart of Jesus Himself.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells his followers how they can seek first the kingdom by telling them-

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do men light a lamp and put it under the peck-measure, but on the lampstand; and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16 That is to say do good works. When people around you notice that you care by the way you serve your community they’ll want to know why you’re helping them. Good works lead to good will. Good will provides us a platform for telling people the good news. We show the change the gospel makes in our lives by serving others and then we tell them about the narrow life-giving way, about Jesus.

That mission and vision isn’t simply good Bible but that’s good missional thinking. Missional is a word we need to learn use in our vocabulary. Missional means we do church here in America with the same kind of thinking as if we were missionaries. We just happen to be sent by God to win Whatcom County and the world. Everything we do is missional. Everything is focused not just on winning the world but on winning our county, our city and our neighborhoods. From now on we ask two questions of every potential ministry. Will this help us become internally strong and or will this help us help us be externally focused.


Today there are essentially three kinds of evangelical churches. The truth is God uses all three believe me. But over the last year and a half as we’ve prayerfully hammered out preferred picture of tomorrow we’ve concluded that one fits the Bible and our culture better than the other two. If you’re wanting to board this ship you need to know what you’re signing on for and where we’re heading. So here goes. What kind of church do we think God wants us to be? There are about 350,00 churches in the United States and hundreds of denominations and varieties but if you boiled it all down, there are essentially three kinds of churches you could be a part of these days. There is the traditional church, the seeker church and the bridge building church. I want you to see what we’re not going to be as well as what we are wanting to become. Let’s look at each one. Each one has its own focus. For example:


The Traditional, The Seeker & The Bridge Building
Let me highlight what each is about…

The Traditional Church The Seeker Church The Bridge Building Church

Primary Focus:
Comfort church people Draw unchurched people Equip people to go into the

with the presence of Jesus to Jesus world for Jesus
Primary Goal:
Maintain programming Grow numerically Influence the community
Primary Direction:
In here Get them in here Get them out there
Primary Values:
Member care, tradition Life change in members Life change in members

predictability, sameness numbers, size, innovation, spiritual impact on community Outreach:
Little or none Evangelistic events Evangelism is by going out

(community is invited to come) serving and connecting with

the community
Long Range Outcome:
Low impact island living; High impact island living High impact connectedness

stranger in the community well known stranger well known by the community

(Proverbs 11:11)


We are becoming with Christ’s help a bridge building congregation.

I want you to picture, I want you to imagine what with God’s help will happen in the next 3 years.


Imagine.

A Grateful City

As we become an externally focused church we will be a greater blessing to our neighborhood, city and county. We want to build bridges from our world into theirs, offering Christ-like love with no strings attached. What if 5 other churches were to join us? Imagine doing this with other churches. Matthew 5:16, Gal. 6:9-10, Eph. 2:10,1 Tim. 6:17-19, Titus 3:8, 1 Peter 3:13, Acts 10:38

Elmer Towns and Warren Bird wrote a good book about what they see coming called, Into the Future. They write… “People today show interest in the truth of the gospel only after they’ve seen the relevance of the church and the credibility of Christians.”
And Robert Lewis in his book, The Church of Irresistible Influence describes how 100 churches in Little Rock Arkansas became bridge building churches. He writes,

“Our research demonstrated that the community was actually looking to churches for more involvement and wondering why they weren’t there.”
Imagine a city like Little Rock where the Mayor and Governor come to a Saturday gathering where 100 churches have spent the week working together to make the city better and each of them saying, we can’t afford to lose the churches of NW Arkansas.
Imagine a thankful city because a handful of churches let their light shine.

Imagine.

Making a Global Difference

What if we all prayed fervently and frequently for our missionaries? What if families and friends went on short term trips to the same place year after year so that some of your best friends were of a different race and lived on a different continent? What if focused our work? What if we adopted an Unreached People Group – that is some people who’ve never heard of Jesus and did what we could to get the gospel there, to them? What if Northlake were to live out her calling even more:-“Missions-It’s Who We Are?” And now let’s think internally as well.

Imagine.

Developing a Culture of Peace

What if the people in this room learned to manage conflict instead of running away from it? What if we cared enough to tell the truth in ways that didn’t slam or judge others, or silently ended long-standing relationships? What if instead of peace-faking we were known as the peace-makers?

Imagine.

Being more family-friendly

The single most effective way to make fully devoted followers of Christ is to give kids the chance to grow up in strong Jesus-loving families. What if we did even more to partner with parents helping them develop their kids into Christ followers?

Imagine.

Unleashing God-given potential

We’re finding out that the average church loses 10% of it’s population a year and we’re not talking about people dying. We’re talking about people leaving. Believe it or not the number one reason people leave a church of any size is that they don’t feel they’ve been challenged enough. The Christian life is intended to crescendo around each person finding his or her place in kingdom work. So what if Northlake were to help people discover what they’re really good at doing and coach them as they head from one chapter of their lives into the next?

Imagine.

Really understanding the Bible

In many congregations learning the Scripture is almost an add-on. For us it’s a priority. We want to teach people the Bible. We live in a day and time when people think Noah’s wife was Joan of Arc. People need Bible, period. Receive the implanted word, James told us so it will save your soul. We study the Bible though not to make us scholars but to make us all NT ministers. We’re not afraid to go in depth.

Imagine.

Devoting ourselves to prayer and worship

We know when we work we work and when we pray…God works. What if we believed that there’s more fruit out there for the asking? What if our prayers brought more of God’s power back into the ministry? What would happen then?



Imagine.

Having the Resources Question

What would happen if everyone at Northlake were managing God’s finances wisely, determining to live more simply and give more generously? Answer: We’d have all the resources we need to carry out the vision and build some amazing bridges. What if the financial glass were full?

Imagine.

Transformed Lives

What if--- what if we were to pray that God would transform the lives of 100 people whether they be our families, friends, neighbors and associates by 2010? And what if we were to pray that God would use us to reach out to disillusioned Christians who’ve stalled spiritually or fallen away?


Conclusion
Jesus begins his ministry by telling us the world will see Him by our good works. He only promises to let us in on a cause that’s worth everything we have.

I’d love for you to follow Him with all you have. I hope you’ll join us as we get into the business of building bridges.

Silent Night in August

A couple of times a year I decide it's just too good a night to sleep indoors. Last night was one of those times.Why? I had heard that late Sunday night, Aug. 12, 2007 and early Monday a.m. the 13th, shooting stars were coming in droves, and they did.

Once every year our little planet plows through the dusty trail left behind by a comet called, Swift-Tuttle. Named for the constellation Perseus, the Perseid "showers" typically produce between 50 and 100 meteors per hour at their peak. And last night was clear.

So I went outside, dragged the lounge chair over to a better spot, unrolled my trusty Lost Ranger sleeping bag and settled in. It wasn't cold. While with the trees so close on one side, the roof of the house on the other, my field of vision, though limited, was good enough. Before I saw my first shooting star I watched a satellite slowly go over head from the SW to the NE. Then finally the first shooting star came. I about jumped out of my sack. Like a small camara flash this star struck the clear night sky with a pop of light. It only went about 2 or 3 inches against the black sky and lasted about 1 1/2 seconds. I was too sleepy to stay awake until 1 a.m. when the real show was about to start. I ended up seeing about 10 before my peepers finally closed their doors for the night.

Isaiah the prophet (chpt. 40) once went out at night. He too was in awe of the expanse above him. God spoke to him as he lifted his eyes up, way up. Isaiah writes that God leads the stars out everynight, like a heavenly shepherd leading a flock of sheep. In the wilderness above God calls each star by name. They come every night. He's intimately involved with their courses. Isaiah tells us to look up as well. When we see these heavenly sheep he reminds us, not one of them is missing. The same stars that spoke to Isaiah 2,700 year ago spoke to me last night. Even though they have no voice their inaudible message was still loud and clear,"Your life is on track". Just as your HEAVENLY Father shepherds these mighty lights across the vast spaces of the night skies, he keeps track of what you and I will plow into this week as well.

That helps me sleep at night. It helps me get up on a Monday morning and go into a new week with confidence. I hope it does you too. In the hands of the great shepherd and under his staff you and I are in a very good place.

Have a great new week.

Pastor Bill

PS that great picture came from Fred Buenjes.

Lone Ranch Camp

Sherry Vario writes this about our Middle School Youth Camp in Montana.


Every once in a while it’s good for us to step out of our comfortable lives and in to intentional hardship. Last week, six adults from NCC accompanied 19 junior high school students on a mission to the Loan Ram Ranch, a Christian Horse Camp in Plains, Montana. Our road trip to the Big Sky State was predictably loud with up-beat music streaming from CD players; and it served as a good time of fellowship for 25 virtual strangers to get to know each other. Adults feigned horror as we watched pockets of spending money dwindle at every rest stop for one sugar fix after another. Teenagers learned the art of conversation as they were forced to answer questions that rubbed past the surface and into the core of who they are.

Ultimately the Loan Ram Ranch was much more than just a place to fellowship. During four nights and three days our group worked and served. The kids were given jobs ranging from cleaning horse tack to building fences. We endured significant obstacles such as 100+ degree heat, swarms of bees throughout the camp, Port-a-Potties too full to describe, the disappearance of camp-provided sleeping tents after the second night, no showers . . . Sounds like a script from a horror movie . . . but like most trials we face as believers, this one sharpened us and drew us closer to God and each other. Without the comforts of home, we were more thankful for what we had. Our kids were remarkably caring and selfless as they helped friends overcome fears. They managed to stay strong and cheer each other on through the most difficult assignments. And perhaps most importantly, they learned what a blessing it is to serve someone other than themselves without expecting anything in return.

Montana was hard, it was fun, and it produced significant growth in character and life long relationships. What a welcome diversion from the daily conveniences we take for granted!

Be Ready

We were the third car in line for the 6:55 p.m. ferry. We were heading home from Friday Harbor after a fun day of sightseeing with my brother Bob and his wife Jacki. When we drove on board the attendant motioned me to take the third row, the far right lane, in the center section. We had never been at the extreme front of the ferry before. An attendant put the chocks under our wheels and before us lay open water.

After we parked we decided that this was a great place to see everything on the way back to Anacortes. So my brother Bob and I got out and stood in front of the car. As we pulled away the wind blew against our faces and we had unbelievable view.

Before long the guy in the car next to us got out. His wife went up stairs and he came over and we had a great time getting to know him. His name was Larry. Larry looked about my age, just as handsome and youthful for a guy in his mid-fifties. We talked motorcycles, hiking in the Cascades and what it was like to be a new grandfather. Larry owns a manufacturing company in Ohio. His company employs 144 people and they produce acoustical products for theaters, home theater systems, and multistory buildings etc. No one in the penthouse wants to hear clanging machines running or feel vibrations they naturally create. He knows what it’s like to have a dad with Alzheimer’s. After a while Bob was getting cold so he went back to the car. Larry grabbed a windbreaker and we kept comparing notes there on the lower deck of the ferry. This was a great place to observe creation, swap stories and compare notes.

Larry asked me what I did and I told him I was a pastor. This led to him telling me about his spiritual pilgrimage from being a Mormon to a Methodist. He had never felt as a child that Mormonism was “right” and he left the church when he left home. Three times the elders came to correct him and tried to convince him of the error of his ways. He was polite but told them he wanted out.

He married a woman who had grown up Methodist. As a business man he felt he could help the Methodist church and so he began attending. They loved their pastor and got involved but when he was called to a new parish a year later things changed and they just didn’t connect once the pastor left. After a while he felt church was nothing more than business with a religious feel and they haven’t been back.

I asked him what he thought it took to make it to heaven. “If there is to be a judgment, then I think God will look at my life and say that he tried, and that the good outweighed the bad,” he told me. I told him that if we were both 10’x’s as good as Mother Teresa we still wouldn’t make it because to arrive at heaven you had to be as good as Jesus. Larry didn’t have anything against Jesus; I don’t think it had ever dawned on him that He needed God’s help to get to heaven. He just didn’t know he needed to trust God’s Son who made the view that lay before us. “He paid the debt we owed God, a debt no one else could pay. Believing in his work on the cross is what makes us right with God. And once we believe in Jesus that begins a new relationship that goes beyond this life into the next,” I explained. Larry nodded. Larry is a nice guy. He seemed interested. I got to plant a seed. While leaning on the front of the car and looking across the waters of the San Juan Islands was a treat, so was telling a nice guy about the one way God’s provided for us all to make to the most beautiful spot of all, home with Him.

This summer the God who created the beauty that’s all around us will give us opportunities to tell others about his latest creation: how he takes broken and incomplete people and restores them to Himself through His son’s redeeming death and saving life. Be ready. As Peter reminds us:

“But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to explain the hope you have to everyone who asks you with gentleness and reverence”. 1 Peter 3:15

Northlake Block Party and Montana Middle School Service Trip

The Lord really blessed our socks off last night at the Neighborhood Block Party. As the rain let up people showed up and the party began. Crowds chowed on great BBQ, bounced on gigantic animal shaped inflatables, petted miniature ponies, got their faces painted as dogs, cats and who knows what and watched kids dunk the pastors. The water was cold. Kids climbed on fire engines and explored an ambulance. The Kitchen crew was phenomenal serving pink cotton candy, blueberry and cherry snow cones, popcorn, burgers and hot dogs to an estimated 750 people. The Voetberg family from Centralia spun their blue grass gospel tunes on fiddles, guitars, piano and bass to a packed house.

Our hope in having the party was to let the neighborhood know we exist and that we’re for them. Judging from the fact that most of the people there were people we had never seen before and were smiling, then maybe God helped us do that.

I’m so proud of and want to thank John Roy and Lisa Hall who led the 110 Northlake volunteers who planned, prayed for good weather, and served. You should thank them too! As things were winding down one new family who have recently started coming to church stayed around to clean up. Way to go church family!

This event like Vacation Bible Camp last week and the upcoming Harvest Festival, etc are simply effort to show Christ’s love in ways that meet the practical, social and spiritual needs of people in our neighborhoods.

Let’s see: last week we had a horse in the sanctuary during Vacation Bible Camp. Last night we had a Harley Hog in the Lobby. What's going to happen next week?


Montana Middle School Trip
Saturday July 21-27th 2007

Saturday morning Northlake’s Middle School Director Caleb Visser with 6 adults leaders are taking 19 MS’ers to Plains, Montana to serve at Lone Ram Ranch for one week. Their service activities include fence building, mowing and weed eating, staining fences, tables, mucking out barns and any other chores that need to be done. The trip’s purpose is to honor God by doing maintenance work in a two-year-old camp to help get the camp up and running. Lone Ram is related to Big Horn Camp. This is their second year to go. Sunday mornings have been packed and we haven’t mentioned the trip but we need to remember them in prayer. Here are some specifics:

PRAYER
safety
heat issues
each kid will be challenged to grow closer to grow the Lord
this is group that needs to bond together
learn how to serve the camp and
get a lot of work and be a blessing.

Avalanche Ranch VBC = Yahoo!!!!

If you need a shot of cowboy meets Jesus then partner come to the Avalanche Ranch this week at Northlake. Over 150 young buckaroos and buckarettes are whoopin' it up praising the Lord, feeding on the Word, line-dancing and making fun stuff.

Steve Mason and his ranch hands are showing kids the ropes about knowing God through Jesus. Keep these cowhands in your prayers and watch your toes on Sunday. Someone may still be wearing boots.

First Steps in Becoming Externally Focused

There are a number of things we’re planning Lord willing, to carry out the vision Christ has given us to meet the practical, the social and the spiritual needs of our neighbors. Again the idea behind an externally focused church is simple. We do good deeds simply because we love our neighbors. Good deeds often lead to good will. And when people receive meaningful service with no strings attached they naturally ask, “Why?”. This gives us a natural opening to share the good news of Jesus. We have no ulterior motive BUT we do have an ultimate one, helping people connect with God.

Summertime
Northern Heights Block Party
We’ve got the Block Party July 18th to simply let the neighborhood know we exist, that we care, and that we’re not a cult. We need over 100 people to help. John Roy is heading this up.

All Church Prayer Walk
We have an all church prayer walk this Wednesday, June 27, from 6- 7. No prep just good shoes required. It’s a lot like caroling only we pray while we walk.

Daytime and Evening VBC
We’re planning Next Summer’s VBC now with the idea of having a free week evening Camp so more of you could serve and more of them can come.

Red Cross Shelter and Training
Dick Stoorgard is leading the charge so we can serve our neighbors as a fully functioning Red Cross Shelter in time of need. We had 30 people take Red Cross Training a month ago. There are more training times coming.

Northlake Garden
Blake Kent and Joy Westermann are the green thumbs behind the new Northlake garden. Whatever harvest God gives us will go towards the 25 families the church has adopted and helps feed on a monthly basis.

Mini-church Service Projects
The Lamont’s mini-church has Homeless care packs which include a water bottle, a gospel of John, and individually wrapped food items like granola bars. They give these to homeless people asking for money. In addition they’re cleaning roofs, gutters, for single moms and others. As you can imagine this is creating some interesting conversations.

The Guthrie’s mini-church is scheduling times at Bloedel-Donovan Park to provide free hotdog dinners for folks who are enjoying the sunshine several times this July.

Fall
Connecting with Northern Heights Elementary
Lisa Hall and team are establishing contacts with Northern Heights Elementary School to determine what we could do to serve there.

Free Babysitting for Northern Heights Neighbors
We want to provide free qualified babysitting for young couples and single moms three times a year to give parents and couples the chance to catch their breath. We do need some funds for that.

Northern Heights Harvest Festival
We’re cooking up a neighborhood Halloween time party where kids can dress up, have fun, enjoy munchies in a safe dry place near home.

MOP’s Outreach
Mother’s of Preschoolers (MOP’S) wants all our neighborhood moms to know they have a refuge here and a group of moms to encircle and let them they’re doing a good job. Jennifer Koivisto and team are leading the charge.

Winter
New Years Eve Party
We’d love to host the best non-alcoholic New Year’s Eve Party in Whatcom County: a time where kids and adults could laugh, play music, we’d provide food and entertainment.

Master and Instructor

Friday night Louise, Kristen, and I celebrated Brett's graduation from Portland State University where he was hooded with his Master's in Education. Afterwards two of his prof's told us how they picture him succeeding as a teacher which was pretty cool for us as family to hear.

Brett is an awesome teacher. I constantly pick up perspective. I have learned more about how Catholicism and Protestantism link and don't link from him than from anyone else. He's got the "Right Stuff".

The cutie pie with him is his wife Stephanie, whom we adore and thank the Lord for every day!

The Northlake Garden

We are transitioning from being a church in the neighborhood to a church for the neighborhood. One of the latest ways we’re trying to love on our neighbors is through the Northlake Garden. A number of you brought starts and a pack of us planted the starts last Wednesday. Blake helped administer this and Joy Westerman will be overseeing this in part for her senior project in HS. We had a blast digging and preparing the soil and popping in the starts. The harvest will go towards the 25 families the church has adopted and helps feed on a monthly basis. Whatever if any extra there may be, we’re giving away to the food bank. Again the thinking of an externally focused church is this. We do good deeds with no strings attached. Good deeds often leads to good will. "Why are you guys helping us?" "We love you and Jesus is behind our love." Good will leads to people asking us for the good news. We get to show the gospel even if we're shy and then tell it in very simple terms from our heart to theirs.

The Conference and the Bear

One week ago Louise and I attended the Externally Focused Church Conference in Longmont, Colorado. Here are a few tidbits we picked up. For one thing the Holy Spirit is moving. God’s speaking to traditional and seeker churches calling them to get involved in their communities. We’ve lost our voice in the world because we’ve turned in and spend so much of our time taking care of the already saved. What we saw was church after church after church beginning to love on their neighbors. As they do good deeds, good will comes and from good will they inevitably ask, why, why are you helping us? Then we can give the good news of Jesus. It’s good deeds first, then good will, then good news.

For the first 400 years the church reached out to meet needs no one else would. As the miraculous gifts seemed to subside this new way of establishing credibility took hold. Our earlier brothers and sisters were like Jesus in that they went around doing good, Acts 10:38.

One seeker church pastor told me that using the externally focused model almost 600 have trusted Christ. What’s more the people who had already known the Lord are more excited about Him than they have been in some time. The conference was hosted by Leadership Network. Check out the website at http://www.leadnet.org/.


Last Sunday Louise shared about this mammoth grisly bear we saw face to face in Yellowstone on the way home. As we entered the Park Ranger told us that a man had been badly mauled. The next day we came within 100 yards of his golden highness. We enjoyed driving believe it or not to Colorado and back and celebrated some amazing times and our 33rd anniversary on the way home.

Externally Focused Church Conference

Louise and I are heading to beautiful Colorado to the Externally Focused Church Conference which starts Monday, May 21. This past week the ministry leaders and staff met to listen to each other’s dreams about how we might reach out to our neighbors right around the church with Christ’s love and gospel. Wow, how inspiring was that! Please pray for these leaders as we now try to collaborate and work together and to reach those closest to us.


FAQs about Pastor Bill’s Premium Blog Membership

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Way to Go Northlake!!!!

Thanks dear church family for rising to the occasion. Last Sunday you gave $34,000 to the Lord as a special offering to further the ministry of the church.

Happy Mother's Day!

Here’s a picture of the woman I think is the world’s best mom. If I have a heart for God, a love for His word, and a love for people it came from Patsy Gilfillan, the most positive person I’ve ever known. My mom is losing her long struggle with Alzheimer’s but underneath it all there is something that no disease can rob her of, her joy in knowing Jesus Christ and loving others. You’re the best Mom!

I can see!

Yesterday I did it. I finally got lasiked. It wasnt' that bad either; in fact it was a piece of cake. The physician who did the proceedure recently did Pastor Steve's and knows his stuff. Consider these credentials. He's performed 38,000 laser eye surgeries, 200 on fellow physicians AND most remarkable of all, he's done members of his own family. You'd really want to do well there! Almost all of you will think wow, Bill looks different while maybe a few will think you have a movie star for a pastor. I hope you'll rejoice with me that I can see better than I ever have. Even after one day I can tell the difference. The strangest part is that I keep looking for my glasses even though I don't need them. That habit may be hard to break.

Special offering this Sunday

So many of you love the church and want to see her thrive. As you know THIS SUNDAY we're encouraging everyone to bring a special offering to help us meet our budgeted goals. As Dave Pauley our treasuer noted, this could be anywhere from $5 to $50,000 but if everyone were to give towards this we could finish this fiscal year with a kick.

Blake Kent's Speaking Sunday

Many Northlaker's have known Blake for years. He's creative, thought-full and shoves familiar categories. His heart for Jesus and the world is engaging and God I'm sure will give us a challenging and insightful word through him. Shoot some prayers up and come with eager faces and hungry hearts all prayed up.

Welcome to Bill's Blog

One of my goals is to communicate well with our great church and to do that, I’m starting my own blog. I remember Pastor Robert once telling me, “Bill, when it comes to technology there are two kinds of people in this world. There are natives and immigrants. Natives intuitively know how to use every new gizmo that comes along. Immigrants have to learn everything the hard way. Bill… you’re an immigrant.” Well Robert was right but thankfully God has surrounded me with natives. So for you who are natives you can check out my blog online at www.pastorbillsblog.blogspot.com and for my fellow immigrants, try blogging or you can pick up your copy of Bill’s blog, at the welcome desk. For our friends who can’t make to church we’ll mail you a copy. How’s that?

The Scoop

I’m pumped about the new vision. Here it is again.

NORTHLAKE COMMUNITY CHURCH
“Connecting People to God”

Mission: We are here to reach out with Christ’s love and gospel to the people who live in Whatcom County and to send missionaries and Christian workers around the world for the glory of God.

Vision: Our immediate vision is to carry out the work of Jesus by creating meaningful connections and ministries that meet the practical, social and spiritual needs of people living in our neighborhoods near the lake. We will passionately live out our calling as Northlake Community Church.

Here’s the latest on the vision. We’re establishing a strategic team whose task it is to help begin to implement the new vision. Please pray that the Lord shows us some short-term objectives the whole church can take together to start reaching out to our neighbors. AND remember, just because we’re focusing on our immediate neighbors, that doesn’t mean we’re forgetting about Whatcom County or sending missionaries etc. It simply means that our first focus is to create meaningful connections and ministries with our near neighbors. So for instance, those of you who love our Resource Center can go full speed ahead in caring for the poor in Whatcom County and maybe recruit our neighbors here to help do that. Of course those of us who don’t live in these neighborhoods can still reach out right where we live to others as well. Go for it!

Blake Kent is coming! The Board and staff are officially behind Blake Kent as our next Pastor of Student Ministries. Sunday May 6 Blake will be preaching and then you’ll have a chance to meet him with some Q & A at a Congregational Meeting scheduled for May 20th. It isn’t just that Blake grew up in the church, and has worked in student ministry for almost 10 years, the facts are he surpassed all the other applicants in the search process. Be thinking of what questions you might have for him at that congregational meeting.

Steve and Stephanie Allen are going! As you know the Lord’s calling the Allen’s to Zambia with Action International. Steve’s main work will be training pastors. What a transition from here to there! They plan to leave in early September! Yes, we’ll have an all church reception but you better start loving on em now.

What I’m hearing from God: Some of us have a great Bible Reading plan that involves reading 5 psalms a day. This was supposedly Martin Luther’s way of teaching his congregants to pray. To learn to pray all you do is read the Psalms back to God. The problem is if you were to read the Psalms in order as written, wow, you could get pretty depressed! So the idea is to read 5 a day x 30 days and you’ll cover the book in a month. On May 1 you read Psalm 1, 31, 61, 91, and 121. Today is April 23, 2007 so the plan is to read Psalm 23, 53, 83, 113, and 143. Psalm 23 spoke to me this morning. Because the Lord is my shepherd I won’t lack for anything. I’ll have wisdom, poise, and strength for whatever road I travel today or throughout this week. Jesus will go before us and our enemies will marvel at how God comes through for us. Our cups will overflow and God will find a way to Fed-Ex his goodness and His love wherever we now live. His grace will get through and arrive when we need His help.

Bloggin’ out now,