Life is fragile...

I am in the middle of treatments for three accidents that I was in last year. It was a long year and my recovery, from accident related injuries, has been slow. The hours I have spent working with insurance, getting my car repaired, going in for back and neck treatments, x-rays, an MRI...it has been a bit ridiculous. My first two accidents were pretty bad, in the split of an eye, I was stopped. My busy day had been redirected towards a new goal...getting myself back in a car that functioned and making sure I got my body back to "normal". In that one flash, all of my previous plans were side lined.

Last week, an individual, who attends Silver Creek Family, was in a serious accident immediately after church. Both cars were totaled and both parties had aid units who took them to Steven's Emergency. A Sunday afternoon, with the intent to do yard work, ended up in the ER. My friend is doing ok, she is recovering and hopes to be back up and running soon but in that moment, our frailty and vulnerability is very real. Life is short and we are so very fragile.

Last week, Michael and I took the boys to the San Juan Islands. We had days of sitting on the boat, cruising the beautiful waters and inlets, watching for wildlife, reading books, enjoying the beautiful weather...it was wonderful, restful and necessary. Our busy life, yet again, was put aside for just a week and we had the chance to connect as a family. Our trip into the San Juans is one of the highlights of our year! We love it up there and we look forward to the break that we get to enjoy.

All of our lives are crazy! We have so much to do, so much to accomplish, so many dreams and aspirations. All of these things are important and worthy of our effort but through car accidents and vacations and the ups and downs of life I am constantly reminded that we are fragile, we need to take deep breaths every day, we need to take time to tell our kids that we love them, we need to force ourselves to stop and admire God's beautiful creations and realize that our time here is short and He wants us to enjoy all that life brings.

I hope you are taking time for your family and friends and that you are finding time to slow down the pace and take advantage of our short but amazing summer. Plan to make time for your church family as well. Summers create a lot of inconsistency in attendance and we still have a full crew of volunteers to spend time with you and your kids.

Live every day to the fullest and don't ever forget that our lives are a gift from God and shouldn't be wasted!

God Bless You! I hope to see you at Family Camp!
Elizabeth Volz

Fatal Traditions

Someone said that churches that celebrate their past more than dream about their future are doomed to fail. I believe that. It's not that we shouldn't be proud of our past achievements and successes. It just that the successes of the past must be built on and not just celebrated. Organizations that live in the past don't spend sufficient time dreaming and planning for a productive future. If we look across the American church scene I think we see the majority of churches bogged down with trying to maintain traditions that at one time were very productive but have become out of date and disconnected with the culture the church is meant to transform. There are ministries that really hit the mark in by gone days that just don't get the job done today.

Without listing all of the ministries and strategies that I think have failed here let me just say what I believe about a thriving growing, effective organization. Every organization or group, whether a church, a business, or a family is made up of a series of systems. A family produces in it's members what the family systems are designed to produce. A family consisting of dysfunctional relationships will produce people who are dysfunctional. The way to change what the family produces is to change the systems and expectation. In the same way, a church produces what the organizational systems are designed to produce. If the ministries are designed to only take care of the attenders then that church will not be a welcoming place for new people let alone effectively reaching out to people who are not there yet.

One of the things I love about Silver Creek Family Church is the dedication of the leadership team to always evaluate the effectiveness and productivity of our ministries. We ask the question, are we reaching our goal? We critique and then adjust almost everything we do. We ask the question, where can we improve even if only by 1%.

This year in our soccer camp we took a giant leap forward. The last three years we continued to lay a good foundation to build upon. This year we reaped some of the rewards of all that hard work.

This fall you are going to see some major changes in the way we present the FUSiON production. I don't want to let the cat out of the bag but this next year is going to be our best so far. Elizabeth and her team of volunteers have some great ideas for set design as well reworking the feel of the room. You are going to love it! Why do we do that? Because we ask the question, can we do it better? We are applying that attitude in every area of our church. It may be a little uncomfortable at times because change is almost never comfortable. The reality is God has called us to make a difference in the neighborhood where He has placed us and to do that we have to keep learning and responding to the needs we encounter.

I just got the year end report for our food bank. Wow! Over 71,000 people served this year! Over 23,000 infants! Over 7,000 seniors. Each of the past few years the food bank has grown in terms of numbers of people served. Lynnwood is a better place because of the 60 plus volunteers that work the food bank each week.

I hope you can sense my enthusiasm for our future. I would encourage you to find a place to serve if you are not already. If your serving, ask yourself, can I do better?

Last of all I want to thank everyone who is working so hard to make SCFC such a special place.

See you in Church!

Great Days Ahead!

Math Explains It All

We are all aware that life moves by very fast, so fast that at times we lose track of what month it is or which things we need to get done. This was brought home to me this morning by the police officer that pulled me over to remind me my tabs expired last month.

I will never be accused of being a math guru or resolve any world crisis' with my ability to figure out complicated equations. However, I think I've figured out mathematically why our lives seem to go by faster the older we get.

Consider this: A family in our church just had a baby last week. Over the next year, that year will equal 100% of the babies entire life to that point. That's a very high percentage of that babies life, essentially it will take his entire life to complete that one year. That one year is all he knows. My youngest son, Colby is 7 years old. This next year will equal 1/7 of his life. 1/7th of your life is still a pretty high percentage of life. For me I'll turn 37 in September, so this next year will equal 1/37th of my life. That one year is getting pretty small in comparison to the rest of my life, no wonder it's going to move quickly. This morning on the Today Show, a lady was honored by Smuckers for turning 114. This next year will be 1/114th of her life, she'll barely blink and find herself again on the Smuckers label, but this time for being 115 years old.

I know what most of you are thinking. Why hasn't Brent pursued a doctorate in mind blowing mathematical concepts? Just wait until I explain how to discover your own "funny ratio." Maybe next time.

This summer, as with each summer around Silver Creek, we want to focus on our Core Value of Connect. When you think about how much faster your life is going each year, as I clearly explained, your time is becoming very precious. If you and I don't become very intentional with how we spend our time, we will miss out on connecting with people.

As I write this, I'm challenged to consider practical ways that I can free up time to connect more with my family, friends and neighbors. One thought is to do the dishes less but I'm not sure Julie is going to buy that. But I'll bet if Julie and I did the dishes together, it would be a great time to connect, the dishes would get done quicker, and I'd get husband points for helping around the house.

For each of us, consider what are some things that aren't really all that important that we can set aside for the summer and invest in spending time with others?

Silver Creek is providing ways for you to Connect, and I hope you're planning to take advantage of them. We've got two more Family Camps coming up, a movie night, a swimming party, several motorcycle rides and two Park It's in August. You can visit our website's event page to get more details on any of those events.

Enjoy the rest of your week,

Brent

Win some - lose some

In professional baseball there are 162 games in the regular season. Every professional club will win at least 50 games and lose 50 games. Champions are made by what they do with the other 62. My observations in watching people over the course of my career is that everyone loses in some area of their life and everyone wins in other areas. The tale of a successful life well lived is in how they treat people. There are some people who are well loved, who have had terrible misfortunes on their journey here on earth. Misfortunes that could make then negative and bitter. The redeeming aspect of their life is that they have stayed sweet in their relationships with people.

I was at the wedding of a friend in Salem a few years ago. The young girl getting married had a mother with a serious case of MS. When she was first diagnosed about 20 years previous to the wedding, her husband of 7 years left her stating that he "hadn't signed up to be a care taker for the rest of his life." This lady, I'll call her "Helen", could have turned very bitter. She would tell you there were moments when she was bitter and angry. Helen told me she made a decision that this was the life she had been given and she was going to live it to the fullest and not let her attitude turn sour. Sitting with Helen and listening to this remarkable lady, I couldn't help but remember the time that Ruthie and I came to the same cross road. Were we going to let Ruthie's illness turn us into people we never wanted to be? Or were we going to attack life and live it the best we could. God has watched over us and blessed us in ways that are beyond what I would have ever expected. Perhaps the greatest blessing is that God gave us two wonderful daughters and two great son-in-laws that love God and each other. When the preacher said, "Who gives this woman to be married to this man?" and I said, "Her mother and I do". I meant it and stated it with pride that Ruthie and I had done a good job raising a couple of girls and preparing them for life. It is a blessing and a gift to finally have some boys in the house!

The rest of Helen's story... A man walked up who I recognized as the man who walked out on Helen 20 years earlier. He was a broken, bitter man living with his demons. He started crying as his daughter addressed him. She chose to have someone else walk her down the isle and give her away. Helen's grace in dealing with her ex that day displayed a life well lived in the midst of difficult circumstances. I don't know that I have ever seen a better portrait of God than I saw in Helen.

You win some and you lose some, but you chose how you are going to respond. Someone has said, "You can't change your past but you can change your ending." How are you going to finish?

See you in church.

Great Days Ahead!
Steve

ISA - an incredible week

119 campers, 30 coaches, 6 support staff, more soccer balls than anyone can count, lots of laughs, friendships growing, just a bit of rain and several days of sunshine; it’s been a great week here at ISA – International Soccer Academy. God has been so good to us this week, as our coaches have had many opportunities, generated by soccer, to tell kids about God’s love for them. There have been a few minor bumps, bruises, and sprained ankles but to this point no major injuries.

Steve, Elizabeth and I have greatly appreciated your support leading up to these weeks. We know that many of you desire to be at camp and see for yourself what happens at camp but are unable to drop by. In the next couple of days a highlight video and photo slide show will be uploaded to our web site, to give you a glimpse of what we’ve been up to this week.

Tonight (Thursday) is a critical part of the ISA week, as we’ve invited campers and their families to join us at Silver Creek for a celebration dinner. There are over 250 people that RSVP’d for the dinner. In planning ISA this dinner is a key to why we spend so much time and resources for this program. Getting families on our campus, to hear about Christ, to see up close who we are at Silver Creek and what we offer is one of the reasons we believe so much in ISA.

Please be praying for this evening. If you don’t have plans tonight and want to drop by a see all the excitement or would like to help serve meals, greet families or clean up, send me an email and we’ll find you a place.

Look forward to seeing you this weekend at church,

Brent